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Show 1 Mormon Pioneers Started West 91 Years Ag-o On January 14, 1846 91 years ago Thursday the Mormons, seeK-ing seeK-ing a sanctuary from a world unfriendly un-friendly to their faith, prepared for a final exodus to the Rocky Moun-i Moun-i tains. There was something cf both compulsion and volition in this movement. For several years this people had projected a move westward, where, as the original settlers in an isolated section, they might be free to work cut their own salvaion in both temporal anet spiritual affairs. Disturbances and anti-Mormon demonstrations recurring with increasing in-creasing frequency and intensity in Illinois l.d Governor Fo:d to urge uiwieuiace action in their plan to tjL-L en to tneursexves. Tins to-.-: xce siwi-tly a-Ltr th3 Mormon uaa-r, Jepo. onmh, had been a-..atsaiuceu a-..atsaiuceu oy a vioient meb. In tne sp.ing w-ey moved across In. a and wei; preparing to send an uuvance expedition to the: inuumams when their plans were nuenupud by a lecieral r.que-t Uv a vciunuer miantry battanon to me.rch overland to Santa Fe aud California lcr itrvice with the A--my cf the West in tni war with Aiexu 0. 'I he Mormons remained that winter, win-ter, und.r mtense hardship ana exposure, in the vicinit, of O.un-uU O.un-uU Bluffs, from where the pUneer c.mp.my headed by Brigham You.ig, a former resident cf Western New York, went on their way in April. It was the aimi cf the lead.r of the-e colonists to settle in a valley 10 the R.cky Mountains, "which he had seen in a vision," to lbund a community in which thiey might live ai.d wcrship as they pleased. So, with united effort and joyful hearts the trek continued toward the goal. As these courageous people reached reach-ed the sumimit cf the last rugged mountain ever which they crossed and beheld, for the first time, the broadi expansive valley of the Great Salt eLake, they stocd in awe as their pioneer leader, burning with fever, raised on his elbow from an improvised wagon-bed and exclaimed ex-claimed "This is the place." Tire empire of re-claimed desert staxJds today in emxnulaticn of the enduring endur-ing faith cf its pioneer launders. |
