Show GENERAL P E CONNOR Biographical Sketch by I H Bancroft the Pacific Coast Historian Continued From Yesterdays Second Edition The undersigned does not wish to indulge in useless threats but desires most fully and explicitly to apprise all of their rights explioiy and warn misguided men of the inevitable war misgided result should tney seek to obstruct citizens in their rights or throw obstacles in their way of the development of the public domain do-main While miners will be thus protected they must understand that no interference with the vested rights of the people of the Territory will be tolerated and they are expected ex-pected to conform in all things to the law of the land which recognize in their fullest extent the claims of the bona fide settlers on public lands While the troops have been sent to this district to protect from a savage foe the homes and premises of the settlers and the public interests of the Nation they are also here to preserve the public peace secure to all the inestimable blessings of liberty and preserve intact the honor dignity and rights of the citizens vested by a free constitution oitien stitution and which belongs to the hum whoh blest equally with the highest in the land This their mission it is the duty of the undersigned to see fulfilled by kindly and warning words if possible but if not still warng to be enforced at every hazard and at any cost He cannot permit the public peace and the welfare of all to be jeoparded by the foolish threats or wicked actions of a few P ED CONNOR lONO Brig Gen U S Vol Comdg Dist Four months later General Connor felt that the time was ripe for establishing a provost guard for Salt Lake City He accordingly ac-cordingly issued the following order HEADQABTEBS DISTBICT or UTAH CAMP DOUGLAS UTAH TEBBITOBY > NEAB GmT SAT LAKE CIT July 1804 Special Order No 53ist Capt Chas H Hempstead Comissary of subsistence U S Cmisar Vols is hereby appointed Provost Martial of Great Salt Lake City U T and will immediately mediately enter upon the duties of his office He will be obeyed and respected accordingly ac-cordingly 2d Company L 2d Cav C V Capt Albert Brown is hereby detailed as Provost Abert Guard and will immediately report to Capt Ohas H Hempstead Provost Martial Great Salt Lake City for duty 3d The Quartermasters Department will etc furnish By oomad the neoessar quarters offices BBIQGEN CONNOB Shortly after issuing these orders he out isuing lined his views and policy in a letter to the War Department HEADQUARTERS DISTBICT OF UTAH CAMP DOUGLAS UTAH TERRITORY NEAiiGJIEAT SALT LA CIT July 211864 COLONEL Having had occasion recently to communicate with you by telegraph on the subject of the difficulties which considerably con-siderably excited the Mormon community for the pasj ten days it is perhaps proper that I should report more fully by letter relative to the real causes which have rendered ren-dered collision possible ooliion pssible As set forth in former communications forh i my policy in this Territory has been to invite vite hither a larger Gentile and loyal population vte lation sufficient by peaceful means and through the ballot box to overwhelm the Mormons by mere force of numbers and thus wrest from the Church disloyal and traitorous to the core the absolute and tritras tyrannical control of temporal and civil noal optr Z v affairs or at least a population numerous enough to put a check on the Mormon authorities au-thorities t and give countenance to those thortes the bonds with who are striving to loosen which they have so long been oppressed With this view I have bent every energy and vew which I was possessed both personal and official towards the discovers and development of the mining resources oi the Territory using without stint the soldiers sol-diers of lily command whenever and wher der without detriment to ever it could be done detrent the public service These exertions have in a remarkably short period been productive of the happiest results and more than commensurate com-mensurate with my anticipations Mines of undoubted richness have been discovered their fame is spreading east and west voyagers voy-agers for other mining countries have been induced by the discoveries already made to tarry here and the number of miners of the Tertr i steadily and rapidly increasing in-creasing With them and to supply their oreasng merchants and traders are flocking into Great Salt Lake City which by its activity ac-tivity increased number of Gentile stores I tvty ad workshops and the appearance of its thronged and busy streets presents a most remarkable contrast to the Salt Lake of one yoar ago Despite the counsels threats and obstacles of th Church the movement is going on with giant strides stdes policy on my part if not at first understood is now fully appreciated i its startling effect by Brigham Young and his coterie His every efforts covert and open having proved ever unequal eor the task of check havg prove lug the transformation so rapidly going on i what he regards a his exclusive domain rga he and h apostles have grown desperate No stone i left unturned by tem t rose the people t resistance against the policy poy even if it should provoke hostility against a Government he hates ani daily reviles I Gverent i unquestionably his desire t provoke me into some act savoring of persecution or by the dexterous use of which he can induce his deluded followers into an outbreak which would deter miners and others from coming to the Territory Hence he and his chief men make their tabernacles and places of worship resound each Sabbath with the most outrageous abuse of all hat pertains to the Government and the Unionhence the do their prayers ascend loudly from housetops for a continuance of the war until oontiuance houetops the Union shall be sunk hence the persistent attempt depreciate the National peritent and institute a gold basis 1 currency preference to Lincoln skins as treasury notes are denominated in Sabbath day harangues har-angues Hence it was that the establishment of a provost guard i the city was made the pre gard text for rousing the Mormon people to excitement ex-citement and armed assembling by the most ridiculous stories of persecution and outage of their rights while the fanatical spirit of the people and inborn hatred of our institu u 4 JVJU government were appealed ap-pealed to to promote discord and provoke trouble I am fully satisfied that nothing but the fairness and determination with which their demonstrations were met at every point prevented a collision and the least appearance of vacillation on my part would surely have precipitated a conflict in me to I feel that it is not presumptuous say that in view of what has already been accomplished in Utah that the work marked out can and will be effectually and thoroughly thor-oughly consummated if the policy indicated I be pursued and I am sustained in my measures meas-ures at department headquarters I am fully impressed with the opinion that peace fuly is essential to the solving of the problem but at the same time conscious that peace can only be maintained by the presencp of force and a fixed determination to crush out fxed the rights of with n t once any interference r the Government by persons of low or high degree While the exercise of prudence in inaugurating measures is essential to success suc-cess it should not be forgotten that the display dis-play of power and the exhibition of reliance on ones self have the salutary restraining effect on men of weak minds and criminal efeot intent Deeply as Brigham Young hates ou Government malignant and traitorous as Goverment malgnant are his designs against it inimical as he is against the policy here progressing of open poloy agaist ing the mines to a Gentile populace and desperate as he is in his fast waning fortunes for-tunes he will pause ere he inaugurates a strife as long as the military forces in the Territory are sufficiently numerous to hold him and his deluded followers in check The situation of affairs in Utah is clear to my afair own mind and without presumption I J have no fear for the result if sustained by the department commander as indicated in this and former communications Des De-s rous as I am of conforming strictly to the wishes and the judgment of the MajorGen eral commanding the department and having fullly set forth my views and the facts bearing on the case I beg leave respectfully re-spectfully to ask from the department commander com-mander an expression of opinion as to the policy of the course pursued and such suggestions sug-gestions or instructions as he may deem proper as a guide in the future Very respectfully Your obedient servant P EDW C9NNOB Brig Gent U S Vol Commanding District LieuCol R 0 Drum Asst Adjt Genl U S A Sail Francisco Cal But in 18G5 the hostility between Camp Douglas and tll citv subsided This was brought about by mutual desire on the part of volunteers and Mormons celebrate the victories of the Union army in the South and the second inauguration of Abraham inaugration Lincoln The celebration was arranged and carried out with enthusiasm by troops and Mormons on the 4th of Mrrch A little < later when General Connor had been called to command the District of the Plains a ball was given in his honor by the city authorities On receiving a petition of the Legislatures Legisla-tures of Nebraska and Colorado President Lincoln appointed General Connor i 1865 to command the District of the Plains a district which had been created for distrct as at that time the Indians dians were very hostile there This district embraced the State of Nevada and the Territories of Utah Colorado Nebraska and parts of the Territories of Dakota and New Mexico As the Sioux and the Arapahoes had been molesting the Overland Mail route General Connor in the summer of 1865 organized an expedition of two thousand cavalry against them In August he met the Arapahoes and fought what is known as the battle of Tongue river He killed sixty three Indian warriors captured a number of women and children besides COO horses and destroyed their village A few days after this battle he received orders to return to Fort Laramie and send the volunteer troops under his command who numbered 16000 men back to their respective re-spective States that they might be mustered out of service He was himself ordered to return to the command of the District of Utah Soon after he was promoted to the rank of BrevetMajor General for gallant and meritorious services during the war Later he was offered a colonelcy in the regular army but on account of his mining interests he declined I 1866 by the final general mustering out order he was mustered I mus-tered out of service with the last of the generals gen-erals of volunteers But although General Connors military his impress career was a striking one he made press on Utah in other ways which were as important and as lasting Indeed the es tablishmet of Fort Douglas marked the beginning be-ginning of a new Era that saw the down fall of Mormon isolation and the growth of a true American civilization As he has been so intimately connected with Utah during a critical period of her development the following letter to him while in command of the District of the Plains with Headquarters at Denver Colorado Col-orado from Lieutenant General Grant is of special interest HDQBS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES t WASHINGTON May 4 1865 f j Gen P E Connor Denver C T SmA copy of your report of April Cth 1865 has been forwarded to the Lieutenant General commanding and he desires me to express his appreciation of your efforts I is not believed that an institution like Mormonism Mor-monism can exist permanently i free and close proximity to the civilized world Our efforts should therefore aim to make such eforts communication safe by thorough protection of Gentiles against Mormons whether as transient visitors or permanent settlers and trust mainly to the ordinary laws which govern civilization for the gradual removal of what is believed to be the opposition to those laws which can derive vitality only from persecution Very Respectfully C B COMSTOCK Lt Col Ado and Bvt B G How he is regarded by the community which was once under his control is shown by the following quotation from an editorial i Tullidgcs Quarterly Magazine for Janu arv 1881 General Connor is the first Gentile ir Utah in historical importance and rank We scarcely think this affirmation of bin Nearly twenty yean will be questioned Neary ago he was in effect the chief representative repre-sentative of the Federal Governmeni in Utah Thus he was looked upon up-on not only by the administratiou I at Washington but by the Commanderin Chief of the National forces He was sent there at a most critical time and to execute I for the Nation a most critical mission Nc matter how imperfect may have been the views of those earlier days or how inharmonious inhar-monious the relations which existed at first between the camp and the city the facts abide in history and are themselves the best witnesses that General Connor had a part to perform towards the Territory and its people peo-ple of an extraordinary nature His was apart a-part that required at once the honorable soldier and the magnanimous and humane man Had not Connor been all this Utah wogld certainly have had a second military difficulty with the Nation in plain words there would have been another Utah Rebellion Re-bellion and another Utah War What these events would have signified in their consequences we shall never fully know though we can well imagine We verily believe be-lieve that in those days view the case from leve any side we please General Connor held the fate of Utah in his own hands speaking aside from the intervention of Providence which overruled human affairs and designs and it is moreover a sound axiom of philosophy phil-osophy that i such cases Providence i best seen i that which was i the past or which now is in the present In such a view a providence t Utah was General Connor and the persevering spirit which he manifested mani-fested towards the people of this Territory at the most critical period of Utahs history for it was indeed more critical to us all in that day of the Nations fury with a army 1 of vigilance sent to Utah to watch and act as well as watch than it was in the days oft of-t I Albert Sidney Johnston and Camp Floyd Furthermore General Connors military service to Utah was active and direct as well as restraining and preservative Scarcely had he arrived with his command ere his arved coming and military service proved to be one of the greatest ad blessings which had hap to this Territory we refer to his pened famous battle with the Indians at Bear River famou service which cost General Connors That command so much suffering from cold and loss of life and wounds lathe fight substan lie this stantially ended the Indian rule over Idan country and the constantly recurring Indian ad oontanty recg difficulties with our people In Cache Val dfculies settlers speak of General Con ley spea nors service as a providence to their valley seroe battle of Bear River is thus recorded in specific words in the official specio word records of the settlements of that magnificenl and flourishing vale For instance in the records of the City of Logan is said We r believe General Connor coming to Cache Valley to be a providence of the Almighty Valey with his So also may it be said coming Camp Douglas was a providence to Sal Lake Camp Douglas gave to the city its supplies to its merchant business to its people money and to hundreds of Mormons employment In fine Salt Lake City mons owes much to Camp Douglas and Genera Connor and for this and his record as the of the Utah mines we give P Ed pioneer Gentile of ward Connor place as the first Utah Out of his own private means Genera Connor established and supported the firs daily paper in Utah It was also the firs secular paper in the Territory and was called the Daily Union Vidette Its pur as outlined by its editor Captain pose Charles H Hempstead was to educate the Mormon people to American viewsto break the absolute rules of Brigham Young over the poopleto convince them by moral suasion tnat they owed their loyalty to the United States and that it was disloyal dis-loyal to attempt to establish a theocracy in Utah The publishing of the Vidette caused the birth of the Daily Telegraph now merged into the Salt Lake Herald The Telegraph was established to fight Camp Douglas At Camp Douglas also the Peep CfDay was started It was the firs magazine published west of the Missouri river Although this magazine was short lived it was however the parent of the Utah Magazine and the Salt Lake Tribune General Connor also owned the firs steamer on Salt Lake the Kate Connor and also the schooner Pioneer Soon after reaching Utah Colonel Connor saw many indications of mineral wealth there and he encouraged prospecting by every available means as the surest and quickest way to introduce in-troduce a healthy outside element into Mormon Mor-mon territory In 1863 he was directly interested in recording re-cording the Jordan mine which was the first mine recorded in Utah and was entered in favor of a man named Ogilvie and others Ogilvie found a piece of ore while logging in a canyon and sent it for inspection to the Colonel who finding after assay that it was good good ore organized a party of officers and ladies in the camp to visit the place The mine was located and a day or two after General Conner having written some mining laws held the first miners meeting at Gardners mill on the Jordan river The meeting adopted Connors laws and elected Bishop Gardner recorder Colonel Connor at once published the dis discoveries coveries so that the outside world might know that there were minerals on the public domain in Utah and that the prospectors might flock in with the assurance of protection pro-tection by his troops He also as his men had little to do issued an order that a certain cer-tain number of his troops would be furloughed fur-loughed and given every opportunity to travel within cejtain boundaries and push their prospecting To these men acting under the Colonels direction is due the firs mineral discoveries in Utah In the summer of 1864 General Connor incorporated the Jordan Mining Company under the laws of California Th open the mine a tunnel was dug at the cost of 60 afoot a-foot This high price which is six times what the work could be done for now was caused by the comparative scarcity of labor and high price of blasting powder which then was worth 25 a keg In 1864 General Connor erected the Pioneer Smelting Works in Utah at Stockton the first Gentile town of the Territory In this smelting enterprise he enlisted a large nnm her of his California friends Not long after the General built a second furnace which having an inclined flue 150 feet long was of the reverberatory type Californians however how-ever who were accustomed to the methods of milling gold in their own State found the process of smelting the Utah ores a new and difficult task that received little aid from their previous experience Charcoal too was high priced and difficult to obtain The very high rates of transportation were a heavy tax on the enterprise and the materials mate-rials used in constructing the furnaces and also those used in operating them could be obtained only at great cost At length however when the right methods are discovered dis-covered it was found that the ores were easily treated but it was learned too by dear experience that the business was fatally handicapped by the high rates ol freightage and that the development of the mining industry would have to wait the coming of the railroad In the summer of 1864 one of General Connors men made the discovery of silver bearing lead ore in Little Cottonwood Canyon Can-yon Mountain Lake mining district in the Wasatoh range of mountains But these discoveries were not developed until four years later when mines of remarkable richness rich-ness were opened up there including among others the famous Emma mine Though often away from California General Gen-eral Connor considers this place his home His first child a son was born at Stockton in 1856 and died atBenicia Barracks before his march for Utah A second boy was born in 1859 but he died the same year in Sacramento where Connor was attending the State Encampment with his company of Stockton Blues A third son Maurice Joseph who is now living in Montana was born in 1861 His daughter Catherine Frances was born at Salt Lake in 1863 while he was in command of the Utah District Dis-trict She was married January 19 1884 to B P Oliver who was a nephew of D J Oliver She is the mother of two daughters In 1866 Patrick Edward was born at Salt Lake In 1869 Eugene Titus was born in San Francisco and in 1873 Hillary Grant at Redwood City where Mrs Connor with the two younger boys is living now None of the sons have married General Connor also has a sister living in San Francisco who is married to William J Douglas and is the mother of five children At the present pres-ent time General Connor is the only officer of that rank who served from this coast during the rebellion that is now a resident of the Pacific Slope |