The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901

evidence decides that their journey from Zuni took them, in 1540, across the present Utah border line.* A more definite account has been preserve

the body itch when wet with them; but they turned to the southwest without visiting it. Lahontan's report of the discovery of a body of bad-tasting water on the western side of the continent in 1689 is not

's "History of

No. 213, 1st Sess

e camped on Bear River, about the course of that stream, and, to decide a bet, Bridger followed it southward until he came to Great Salt Lake. In the following spring four of the party explored the lake in boats made of skins, hoping to find beavers, and they, it is believed, were the first white men to float upon its waters. Fremont saw the lake from the summit of a butte on September 6, 1843. "It was," he says, "one of the

ortified camp on Green River, whence he for three years explored the country. One of his parties, under Joseph Walker, was sent to trap beavers on Great Salt Lake and to explore it thoroughly, making notes and maps. Bonneville, in his description of the lake to Irving, declared that lofty mountains rose from its bosom, and gr

's "Adventur

ng at the start his idea of his leadership and of the ownership of the land, which was then Mexican territory. "He said that no man should buy any land who came here," says Woodruff; "that

nts were made, person

g according to eligibi

m the spiritual powers,

rofit; if any sales we

rovements were all that

ade sub rosa. Exchanges

."-Gunnison, "The Mo

d bathed in Great Salt Lake, climbed and named Ensign Peak, and met a party of Utah Indians, who made signs that they wante

h shop, were begun. The members of the Battalion, about four hundred of whom had now arrived, constructed a "bowery." Camps of Utah Indians were visited, and th

, east and west."* The 40 acres were a few days later reduced to 10, but the site then chosen is that on which the big Temple now stands. It was also decided that the city should be laid out in lots measuring to by 20 r

ife of Brigham

welve present selected their "inheritances," each taking a block near the Temple. A week later the Twelve in council selected the blo

land portion of each

lot designated in the p

ers, who had a plurali

ger portions of the ci

General Epistle, was up

y lots. The farm of fiv

, nor the manufacturer,

rty, but for the good of

f the earth to feed the

cultivating his farm, th

and wrought his daily

ly understood how some d

is understanding can be

list of real estate lef

individual

1, the name was changed to Salt Lake City. In view of the approaching return of Young and his fellow officers to the Missouri River, the com

ised varied in size from that of a pea to half an inch in diameter, but they were saved and used successfully for seed the next year. A great deal of grain was sown during the autumn and winter, considerable wheat having been brought from California b

s that had not recovered from the effect of the overland trip. Many settlers therefore built huts of adobe bricks, some with cloth roofs. Lack of experience in handling adobe clay for building purposes led to some sad results, the rains and frosts causing the bricks to crumble or burst, and more

," which let in the rains in streams, he says they were better lodged than many of their neighbors. "Very many families," he explains, "were obliged still to lodge wholly or in part in their wagons, which, being covered, served, when taken off from the wheels

d be brought in the wagons. A chest or a barrel would do for a table, a bunk built against the side l

on their arrival, and could find very little winter pasturage. Many of the milk cows driven all the way from the Missouri had died by midsummer. By spring parched grain was substituted for coffee, a kind of molasses was made from beets, and what little flour could be obtained was home-ground and unbolted. Even so high an officer of the church as P. P. Pratt, thus describes the privations of his family: "In this labor [ploughing, cultiv

ance that justified the Mormons in comparing them to a cross of a spider and the buffalo." When this plague was at its worst, the Mormons saw flocks of gulls descend and devour the crickets so greedily that they would often disgorge the food undigested. Day after day did the gulls appear until the plague was removed. Utah guide-books of to-day refer to this as a divine interposition of Heaven in behalf of the Saints. But writers of that date, like P. P. Pratt, ignore the miraculous feature, and the white gulls dot the fields betw

."* Still, the outlook was so alarming that word was sent to Winter Quarters advising against increasing their population at that time, and Brigham Young's son urged that a message be sent to his father giving similar advice.** Nevertheless P. P. Pratt did not hesitate in a letter addressed to the S

Autobiograp

"History of