Show Aaron DaUUitt write home Aaron DeWitt was the first member of the original St John's Church The building still stands although it is now a private home at 253 West Center Street USU Special Collactioni photo by A J Simmonds characters in Cache Valley history is Aaron DeWitt one of Logan's first settlers I first One of my favorite discovered his role in a note in the diary of Bishop Henry Ballard of the Logan Second Ward The two had come together to Logan in 1159 and on Ballard’s 67th birthday in UM DeWitt composed a poem in his honor In recording it in his diary Ballard noted “The following lines was composed by a friend Aaron DeWitt which had left the ehurch years ago” Now that note in itself is pretty intriguing as an ecclesiastical history of any Cache Valley pioneer Especially a pioneer like DeWitt who was prominent in the city's growth and has left his name on the DeWitt Campground and DeWitt Springs in Logan Canyon I ran across DeWitt again in doing the research for my book The Gentile Comes To Cache Valley In UTS DeWitt was the most prominent of the Valley's population It was he who welcomed the Rt Rev Daniel S Tuttle and the Rev William H Stoy to Logan on the cold night of January SI U73 and DeWitt who helped them found St John's Episcopal Church on those parish registers DeWitt’s is the first name But even in the research for Gentile I didn’t discover just why Aaron DeWitt left the Mormon Church for the Episcopalian Even now I’m not sure but at least I know something more about Aaron DeWitt' feelings In early April a friend of mine Father Ed Howlett Vicar of St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Clearfield sent me a note It seems that in the late 1950s when he was Rector of St Andrew's Church in Pocatello one of his been written parishioners brought him a letter which had the to U75 parishioner’s aunt back from Logan in March no other than Aaron was And letter the by in England DeWitt Father Howlett copied the letter and in April sent a typescript on to me It’s a fascinating letter It's also a bitter letter: but parts of it make clear just how total DeWitt's alienation from the dominant culture was Another thing that made it interesting to me was that this letter to his sister in Elisabeth DeWitt Durrant back in England was written March 1175 the same month that Aaron DeWitt appeared as one of the key prosecution witnesses in the trial for murder of Sheriff Thomas E Ricks who stood accused of the murder of David Skeen in Logan in July I860 At any rate DeWitt wrote back to England: “My Dear Sister “How to commence this letter I have promised you so long I hardly know but will say in the first place I have been deceived led into error imposed upon deluded into a false religion in my youth spent the best part of my life in a wilderness a desert a land of sage and salt away from all enlightenment and civilisation among the most degraded tribes of Indians on the Western hemisphere” And that was just the start For five pages Aaron DeWitt recounted every deed real and imagined from Mountain Meadows to the murder of Dr King Robinson and dumped the blame directly on Brigham Young And interspersing his paragraphs he wrote short poems snappy little items like' the following: “While there are facts they are not half toldi “For hundreds have been killed for gold “Both men and women have been slain “And robbed to add to Brigham's gain After recounting the murderous attack on Morrisites at Kingston Fort just south of Ogden in DeWitt wrote these lines: the 1862 “What bloody deeds what sin and strife “What sacrifice of human life “What deeds of plunder have been dime - “To raise a gory throne for Young” Most of the letter is of the type that would hardly find a welcome response among the majority of Valley’s readership: and indeed most of the accusations hurled are those that trained historians cannot verify But they do reveal the temper of the times and the hard and fast lines which both the Mormon and the Apostate-Gentil- e community drew between one another DeWitt ends his letter with a couple of paragraphs which should warm the heart of anyone whose ever heard the phrase “If you don’t like it here why don’t you leave?”: “I will now tell you the reason why we could not leave this blood stained land I mean ten or twelve years ago In the first place we were a Thousand Miles from the nearest town East eight hundred miles to the nearest settlement West and God only knows how far to any place north and south No civilisation was known none but the red men roamed the dreary solitudes To travel such a space required considerable food a good wagon and team in fact everything necessary for a three month's pilgrimage Nor was it safe for a few men to go together unless they were well armed Again every Bishop knew you business and was always on the lookout If you started they would send men to drive off your stock and thus you would be compelled to return Then if you did not behave and act the hypocrite the Bishop would send the Danites to use you up and send you across lots to that bright brimstone home we read about Thus you see it was almost impossible to get away But now we have a railroad across the Plains and settlements every little way and civilisation is coming to Zion If the Lord won't come the law will and if Jesus is not approaching Justice is Then all who want can leave But now the priests want us to go and we wish to stay! "Burst off every fetter remove this Priestly Yoke “And never rest contented till every link is broke “For every man in Utah and woman shall be free “And shouts shall echo through the land for God ana liberty" Aaron DeWitt wrote a fascinating letter back to England At the remove of over a century it is difficult to understand the emotions which triggered the responses of the two religious sides in the battle for Utah Territory But the antagonism was real And for every word critical of the Mormons which Aaron DeWitt wrote in his letter Bishop Henry Ballard wrote others critical of the Gentiles in his diary Yet these two men who came into Logan in the same pioneer company continued to be friends That fact is as fascinating as DeWitt's letter T he Herald Journal Valley Moidav June 16 1930 — 3 |