Show IN I N NT THE T H E BEG BEGINNING B E G I INN N N I I. I N G cil MISSISSIPPI SAINTS PRECEDE THE PIONEERS To bring the Utah scenes into satisfactory focus as of the autumn and winter of 1847 it will first be necessary to look in on the emigration emigration emigration emi emi- gration as well as the immigration out of and into the valley that fall falI For at no time since has there been such a kale kaleidoscopic change in the population as in the autumn of 1847 Besides the pioneers who were vere the first How many were here herc and what was their background background background back back- ground First of all in this category is the so-called so Mississippi company of Latter-day Latter Saints a dozen or so of whom were picked up by the Mormon pioneers at Fort Laramie and the rest some odd 80 arrived in the Salt Lake valley only five days behind the pioneers with the Pueblo detachment of the Mormon battalion These Mississippi saints had the singularly hard l luck ck to precede Brigham Young and the pioneers to the Rocky mountains by a full year to to have the pioneers two miles to one and all of them to h have ve enter entered d the Salt Lake valley practically in company with the pioneers only to have their names omitted r from the monument at the head of Main street and to be listed obscurely in the histories merely as also rans rans with about seven exceptions Captain Brown Accepts Challenge ha lenge This came about somewhat as did Sam Brannan's Brannan's Bran- Bran nans nan's Cal California ornia contingent of saints which be became became became be- be came so widely separated from the parent church j or or rather from th the church leaders during the early persecutions and dispersions as to have found it necessary to blaze trails and go forward on on their own initiative to a considerable extent trusting and nd hoping they were doing the right thing John Brown must have had stuff in him like that illustrious namesake of mie Kan and Harpers Harper's Ferry fame of the Civil war wart days whose body lies a in his grave but his soul goes marching on as a aM M Mormon rmon missionary to Mississippi from 1843 to 1846 had not only gained many converts and nd married one of them in the I Nauvoo temple but had gathered a goodly number of the type he liked best for making aking the pioneer journey from Mississippi to the great basin in the Rocky mountains This sh showed wed him with not only a vast deal of intestinal fortitude but with witha a pretty exact know knowledge edge of the plans of or the church Knowing the unprecedented misery the Saints were suffering between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs in that wretched year of 1846 Brown did what any other good soldier or officer would have done in charge of an isolated isolated isolated iso iso- or lost battalion He accepted the challenge challenge challenge chal chal- lenge of fate and proceeded westward Traveled Oregon Trail Leaving Nauvoo in January 1846 Brown proceeded to Mississippi and fitted out his company company company com com- com com- pany of fourteen families and set out for the far We West t on April 8 8 1946 Arriving at Independence Independence Inde Inde- Kansas City Missouri late in May h he was joined by three Illinois families also of the pioneering type including Robert Crow and William Kartchner and their families Indeed this man Brown was so good he annexed to his caravan 14 men and six wagons bound for Oregon not of the L. L D. D S. S faith They proceeded pro thence northwestward on the theold old ld Oregon trail to Fort Kearney Fort Childs where they confidently expected to meet up with the numerous parties of Mormons evidently not yet aware of oC the enforced delay of another full year at Winter Quarters But Butas as Brown and his party proceeded westward up the valley vaHey of the Platte toward the Rocky mountains the word finally filtered through the many Oregon trailers with express or pack train companies to the Mississippi company that the Saints were tarrying for the winter at the river Brown Meets 1 Kershaw Brown was all that has been said of him himas as a leader with an abundance of initiative and unbounded energy but he was not a dissenter dis senter nor a self discovered di and wished only to take proper care of himself and his hL party until t they ey could join or be joined by the church leaders As they neared Fort Laramie in Wyoming they fell in with John Kershaw an Indian trader or frontier merchant bound for a point pointon on the Arkansas river above Bents Bent's Fort now P Pueblo eblo Colorado Kershaw explained that the proposed site was in the Spanish country where supplies could be readily obtained and that corn and other crops were already being grown in the valley toward Bents Bent's Fort It was to his notion and now a known fact the only hospitable place for Browns Brown's party to spend the winter awaiting the Mormon pioneers the caming coming com cam ing spring Leaving the Oregon trail and his non Mor mon associates on July 10 1846 at Fort Laramie Laramie Laramie Lara Lara- mie Brown and Kershaw with their party in inta intact intact in- in ta tact t arrived at the site of Pueblo on August 7 1 1846 Did Brown have enough adventure Was Vas he dismayed or nonplused It was a mere episode in the life of a strong man a chance to really prove what was ir in him Consequently Consequent- Consequent ly after installing g the company co comfortably in winter quarters at Pueblo Brown took seven men on horseback down the Arkansas toward the old home in Mis Mississippi where he and they arrived safely October 29 1846 Joins Original Band While busying themselves with plans for emigrating a large body of Saints from Mis- Mis word came from Brigham Young to hold holdup holdup holdup up the principal emigration another season And on January 10 1847 John Brown headed a sele select t party which included four colored servants servants servants ser ser- or slaves set out for Council Bluffs Here Brown and four others who had left their families or friends at Pueblo as well as two of the colored servants joined the original band of Mormon pioneers the seven persons thus becoming part of the illustrious whose names are in bronze on the Pioneer Monument at the head of of Salt Lake City's Main street James Brown another pioneer pione r of an Unusual un unusual unusual un- un usual sort had arrived at Pueblo November 17 11 1846 at the head of the Mormon battalion de detachment detachment detachment de- de of sick men and laundry women not needed on the march to California Gladly joining the Mississippi company who were brothers and sisters in the faith they erected a fort consisting ot of 18 rooms each 14 feet square as a winter domicile In the spring two families got out ahead of the rest and were waiting at Fort Laramie when the pioneers came along the rest of the battalion and Mississippi contingents contingents contingents con con- tin gents came along a few days behind all the way into the Salt SaIt Lake valley One now begins to see how necessary was the background of Jf training ra ning these people had for they were destined to face In jn the Salt Lake Lak valley that winter of 1847 1841 precisely the same problems already faced by each one at Council Bluffs or at Pueblo or elsewhere on the fron fron- tier That Thatis is is why we find Brigham Young asking the Mormon battalion men to assist with building construction work and arid seeking their advice in other ways Within sev seven d days ys of their arrival on August 4 in fact 1847 twenty- twenty seven of th the battalion boys under James BrO Brown BrOn n moved av d. d on toward California to protect certain public interests there and receive their pay And believe it or not trotter globe-trotter John JohnBrown Eay Brown rown was to turn back to the Missouri river in ina a few days with Brigham Young again |