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Show 176 John Tanner and His Family than three or four days away and San Diego five or six. That the sale of these products would be rewarding is suggested by the price of flour which brought $16.00 per hundred weight. The California area was growing and of the time, Los Angeles San Bernardino was in was on scarcely the more ground floor and destined to grow with it.25 rosy as that at San Bernardino was bound to have some flaws. Its very success was one of its principal handicaps, and it is likely that a less meteoric growth would have served it better. One of the reasons Brigham Young approved the venture in the first place was to have a staging outpost where Saints coming from Europe, But a picture as and the Pacific Isles could be outfitted for the trip across the desert into Utah. But many of those who saw the "California Outpost" did not want to leave and travel to cold, arid Utah. The Australia, author's maternal grandparents, Thomas and Mary Ann Parkinson, are a case in point. They arrived from Australia with William Hyde on the ship Julia Ann and reached San Bernardino in mid-June 1854. The party included about seventy Saints who were to be outfitted in San Bernardino and made ready for the overland trip to one of Utah's Mormon settlements. But Thomas and Mary Ann Parkinson did not assemble an outfit and move to Utah. There are no particulars available about their decision to remain in San Bernardino, nor is it known how many of the other Saints remained. Probably many of them did. Thus San Bernardino instead of fulfilling its intended role of assisting the Saints on to Zion was actually hindering the movement. The place was just too attractive. Brigham Young and the church leaders were also having trouble holding those who were already in Utah. In 1849 and 1850 the lure of gold in northern California had drawn a number away, and now it was the balmy climate and fertile soil of southern California. Had Brigham taken no measures to stop the flow of Utah Saints to Cali fornia, it would be interesting to know what the ultimate results would have been. But he had no intention of allowing a California take-over. February 19, 1853, the First Presidency, composed of Brig ham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, published an article in the Deseret News under the bold heading HA WORD TO THE SAINTS." It was to answer repeated questions from Utah Saints who had heard of the exceptional opportunities in California On |
