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Show The Salt LakeTribune UTAH CENTENNIAL 1896-1996 L8 Sunday, January14,1996 Young Invites Worid’s Saints To Join the Pioneers in Utah ByHarold Schindler THE SALT LAKE TR President Millard G. Brandebury, a colorless man with no strong personal convic: tions. Then came Broughton D. Harris andhis wife He was a 27-year-old Easterner who took his appointment as territorial secretary seriously, so Fillmore s first appointees to the new Terri tory of Utah were, bluntly speaking, a disaster Despite his support and sympathy for the Mormons, the nation’s much so he developed a wilfulness that infuriated Brigham chief executive managedtoselect men remarkably unfit for importantterritorial positions; thesituation did not improve with time. It was said Fillmore had once Young Harris brought with him $24,000 thought of appointing Utahns to the posts, but the pressures of pa- in gold marble block for the Washington Monument, Brocchus discoursed on patriotism for two hours to a restless audience. He wasintoxicated by his own eloquence and, having noticed an unusually large number of women in attendance, turned to a mention of polygamyand the importanceof virtue. He expressed a hope that the “sweet ladies of the congregation would become virtuous.” Instead of applause, he found himself suddenly in imminentperil of an unpleasant death at the hands of an_ incensed throng. He later said he feared the people would “spring on me First to arrive in the territory wasits new Chief Justice Lemuel new census, a demand Young re- governor. The Territorial Legislature gratefully namedits capital city Fillmore, county of Millard in the president's honor Invited to speak to the citizenry on the subject of supplying a Utah earmarked as TheLegislature had completed a territorial census, but becauseit was not done with the proper bureaucratic paperwork in thepresenceof Harris (neither the forms nor Harris was available at the time), the secretary insisted on a Brigham Young as Utah’s first A third appointee, Associate Justice Perry S. Brocchus, was patronizing, pompous and windy. government operating funds, but he refused to heed the governor's instructions and withheld monies in a feud with Young over procedures. tronage shouldered that possibility aside. He did, however. appoint jected out of hand. LDS Museum of Church History and Art by exposure. Oil painting by Clark Kelley Price shows Martin handcart company coping with death While this turmoil was festering, like hyenas and destroy me.” Brigham Young stood to calm the tempest; and in doing so un- burdened himself of a fewrecent aggravations by scorching Brocchus. He accused Brocchus of excessivepolitical ambition, profligate debauchery and lechery, and measured him as “one of those corrupt fellows’ for sale by the handful (Young later would remark he could have loosed the women of the congregation on Brocchus by “erooking his little finger.”’) Ashen. Brocchus informed Brigham Young that he was tak- ing the $24,000 back with him leaving the governor free to argue the point with thesecretaryof the FULL QUILL OSTRICH Notural Full Quill Ostrich foot, Saddle Kidd top, 13” full scallop stich pattern Sizes: D 6-12,13 EE 7-12,13 treasury. The trio, joined by another appointee, Indian Agent HenryDay. departed Utah and for a time becamea causecelebrein the national press. In the years to come. however, the incidentof the “runawayofficials” would be pointed to as an exampleof Utah’s “rebellious” nature. Backin the territory, Brigham Younghadother problems; his efforts to suppress slave-trading amongthe tribes had precipitated an Indian war. Walker, or Walkara, war chief of the Utes, took to raiding outlying settlements in 1853 before peace was restored Then, late in the fall, a wagon train bound for California becameinvolvedin an incident with some Pahvant Utes near Fillmore. Several braves were wounded, and one, the father of their war chief, died. Some weeks later, a war party A. CALLISTER CO. SINCE 1953 \ 3615 SOUTH REDWOOD ROAD - 973-7058 1g vowing vengeance on whites movedtoward the Sevier River — where Capt. John W. Gunnison and his Pacific Railroad surveying expedition had camped Pahvants ambushed the government party, massacring Gunnison and seven others, among them time for Brigham neyacross the mountains in your T.B.H. Stenhouse Handcart settlers suffered tragic hardshipsin winter storms. Brandebury and Harris that hein- tended to vamoose and return to Washington as soon as possible. Good idea; they would dolikewise. Harris informed a fuming it was Youngto push ahead with another “noble experiment,” one he had been mulling since the Saints took root in the Great Salt Lake Valley — he spoke of immigration by handcart Younghadalluded to the plan in 1851 in a general epistle on the subject of “Gathering to Zion.” He stated then, in part, “You have been expecting the time would come when youcould jour- their Mormon guide (Persistent rumors Kinney was an Iowan with ex- that Brigham Young was somehowim- plicated in Gunnison’s murder would prove groundless.) Chief accuser was Judge Wil- liam Wormer Drummond, appointed by President Franklin Pierce to replace Leonidas Shaver, who died in Great Salt Lake Cityin June 1855 of an inflammation of the inner ear (compounded by the jurist’s use of opium). Shaver had succeeded Brocchus, the “runaway,” as associate jus- tice of the Territorial Supreme Court of Utah Drummondwasone of a batch of Pierce appointees, as was Lt Col. Edward Jenner Steptoe, who was ordered to Utah to arrest and punish the murderers of Capt Gunnison. and also to be military governor replacing Young But Steptoe, a career army offi- cer, could see no advantageto being subjected to the whim of Washington politicians. He declined the honor and recommended Brigham Young’s reappointment It was an unexpected answer. but Steptoe’s endorsement with other powerful Utahns urging perience. Drummond, a hypo- crite, liar, adulterer, gambler, bully and horse-trader, was also ruthlessly ambitious. He would figure prominentlyin scandals to come. Stiles was a wavering Mor- mon from Nauvoo, The situation with the judiciary was especiallydelicate because of the LDS Church's decision in August 1852 to publicly acknowledgeits doctrine of‘a plurality of wives.” This thunderbolt from the pulpit was embarrassing to many of the church's missionaries who hadnot been forewarnedandstill were denying its existence. The shock wave of excommunications for apostasy because of the proclamation was swift in coming. Mormoncritics found renewed ammunition in their tirades, and the bitterness of the national press was typified by the New York Mirror's denouncement of Mormonism as “an immoral excrescence.” Its outrage was joined in print by the New York Herald, The New York Sun and The New York Tribune. Brigham Young countered with editorials in the church-owned Deseret News, the St. Lowis Lumi- Young be renamed gave Pierce reason to grant the petition. His choices for the Territorial Court. however, proved a mixed bag, indeed. Pierce appointed John F. Kinney as chief justice with Drummondand GeorgeP. Stiles nary in Missouri, The Mormonin as associate justices. the other being slavery. NewYork, and in San Francisco The Western Standard. That there was no constitutional law against polygamy only enraged critics who considered it one of the “twin relics of barbarism,” fine carriages, your good wagons, and haveall the comforts of life that heart could wish; but your expectations are vain, and if you wait for those things you will never come. ‘Someof the Saints nowin our midst, came hither with wagons or carts made of wood, without a particle of iron, hooping their wheels with hickory, or rawhide, or ropes, and had as good and safe a journeyas anyin the camps, and can you not do the same?” Young now wasasking for the gathering’ to begin in earnest; for converts in the East, in Europe and elsewhere to pack up and set out for Great Salt Lake Valley — their Zion in the mountains. On Oct. 31, 1855, he made his case for handcarts: ‘Weare sanguine that such a train will out-travel any ox train that can be started. They should have a few good cows to furnish milk, and a few beef cattle to drive and butcher as they may need. In this way the expense, risk, loss and perplexity of teams will be obviated, and the saints will more effectually escape the scenes of distress, anguish and death which have often laid so manyof our brethren and sisters in the dust.” The ‘‘expense” and “perplexity of teams” may have been nullified, but even Brigham Young's confident assurances couldn't mask the fact that distress, anguish and death were a reality handcart companies would face on thetrail. Iowa was to be the terminus, the jumping-off place where im@ See NEXT PAGE Norton.S ‘We'll provide you with superior Quality Service in Utah for 3 Generations Buy Direct From The Manufacturer SL \T~ "Listen buster, this chance only comesalong once every 100 years. Don't miss it!" 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