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Show 89 of the people. The day following Benson's speech, Brigham Young wrote to Joseph Home giving him instructions to proceed to southern Utah with a company of men to "find a location for a cotton farm at the junction of the Santa Clara and Rio Virgin Rivers." ° When he got to Harmony, Home was to consult with John D. Lee who was to point out the location selected by Young. The cotton farm, like the Ives expedition, had started out innocently enough. Young had spoken to Wilford Woodruff about getting up a company for the cotton country on December 31 with no apparent purpose in mind other than to grow cotton.30 No other significance to t h i s mission i s apparent from Home's diary or the l e t t e r of instructions, with the possible exception that Young did "not want any others to settle where you do, unless they are sent from t h i s place for that purpose.1^1 It appears, however, that John D. Lee may have been privy to some hidden motive Young had in founding the cotton farm at t h i s time. After Home arrived at Harmony, Lee recorded in his diary under the date of February 8: "I started south according to my appointment to locate or Point out the location intended to be made by Pres. B. Young for a resting place for his famely & that of the 1st Presidency."32 ( I t a l i c s mine.) Apparently there was more to the "cotton farm" than meets the eye. Lee had obviously been counselled by Young about a place where the church presidency could find a refuge. The term "resting place" had frequently been used, and by Brigham Young, to describe a settlement place. Utah was often called a resting place at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo.33 i t was probably during the January session of the legislature, while Lee was in Selt lake, that Young spoke to him about the possibility of the First Presidency going underground. It was an unlikely coincidence that Lee was in conference with with President Young on the night of January 4, the day after the California mail, with i t s distressing news, had reached Salt Lake. 34 |