The Southern Indian Mission

The SOUTHERN INDIAN Mission

By JUANITA BROOKS

TYPICAL PIUTE HOME OF SOUTHERN UTAH

IN 1854, Great Salt Lake City was, as it had been since its founding and was to remain for many years, the most important center west of the Mississippi River. Less than seven years old at this time, it boasted a population of some 20,000 people, a boast no doubt slightly exaggerated. Yet the progress that had been made in those short seven years was little short of phenomenal. Where had been only desert gray, except for the streak of green made by the willows on the banks of City Creek, was now a thriving city, laid out with uniform square blocks and wide streets, and covering an area of twelve square miles. Though the homes of newcomers might consist of a dugout and a wagon box bedroom, or a small adobe house, there were many large, two-story homes with glass at the windows and picket fences in front. Streams of irrigation water ran at the edge of the sidewalks; the young trees which fringed them had grown thriftily.

The temple block was enclosed with a high rock wall, finished nearly two years before, within which were the Hall of Science and a new adobe tabernacle capable of seating between two and three thousand people, to take the place of the willow bowery. Across the street where the Hotel Utah now stands was the tithing office, and adjoining it the long, low building which housed The Deseret News, while across the street to the south the Council House raised its two stories and stood four-square to all the world. One block east, on State Street, the new Social Hall had been completed, the home of the town's best entertainment. Here theatricals were presented, all firearms were checked at the door, produce was accepted for tickets, and the price of a child in arms was listed as ten dollars. Four years earlier the University of Deseret had been founded, with $ 5,000 appropriated annually for its maintenance, and an elaborate course of study outlined.

Perhaps the most striking change had come about along Main Street, for the pole fences of a few years before had been torn down and stores and shops elbowed each other for room, competing loudly with fancy signs, and fitted out with many hitching posts in front and planks along the sidewalks to accommodate the customers.

ON Friday morning, April 14, 1854, six wagons gathered at the home of Parley P. Pratt in Salt Lake City, preparatory to leaving for the Southern Indian Mission. The missionaries had been called at conference the October before and had been given the winter in which to prepare for the mission. Some of them studied Spanish that they might be better interpreters with the traders of the South; all of them tried to arrange their family and business affairs for a long absence. On the Monday preceding, most of them had met and been set apart for this mission. They had also effected an organization with Rufus C. Allen as captain, and David Lewis and Samuel F. Atwood as first and second lieutenants, respectively. Though they had agreed upon this as the time and place for starting, all were not present, but as some lived in the settlements to the south, it was thought best to proceed and pick them up on the way.

The recorder, Thomas D. Brown, wrote that the counsel given was: "In the absence of Capt. Allen that we start under the first lieutenant, behave ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, keep a regular and vigilant guard, take care of our teams and other property, and procure our potato seed in the southern settlements and that he—P. P. Pratt—would follow us, and might overtake us, and give us further instructions, setting apart those who had not been with us on the 10th inst."

Garland Hurt, Indian agent for Utah, had written of this group, "They embrace a class of rude and lawless young men, such as might be regarded as a curse to any civilized community." Since from his correspondence it is clear that Agent Hurt found it hard to see anything good in any Mormon, the above comment is not to be wondered at. Certainly the group was composed largely of very young men; certainly they would not fit into his idea of the conventional missionary. But for the work to which they were called, they were well fitted. They were learned in the ways of the frontier; they were resourceful; they had an abiding faith in God and their leaders, and in the value of the work they were sent to do.

THE company pulled out of Salt Lake City in regular order. At Lehi they were joined by two missionaries; at Pleasant Grove by two more, and at Provo Captain Allen and Isaac Riddle came up with them, making the group complete. They now numbered twenty one men, with one boy of fourteen (Preston King) and one of six who were accompanying their fathers. The historian listed all the men, giving their ages, rank in the priesthood, and the quorum to which they belonged. They were, in the order in which he lists them: T. D. Brown, 46; Ira Hatch, 18; Rufus C. Allen, 26; Isaac Riddle, 24; Wm. Henefer, 30; Augustus P. Hardy, 23; Samuel F. Atwood, 29; Robert M. Dickson, 46; Hyrum Burgess, 17; Benjamin Knell, 19; David Lewis, 40; Lorenzo Roundy, 34; Jacob Hamblin, 35; Elnathan Eldridge, 42; Robert Ritchie, 47; Samuel Knights, 21; Thales H. Haskell, 20; Amos G. Thornton, 21; Richard Robison, 23; John Lott, 28; and John Murdock, 27. They included one priest, six elders, twelve seventies, and two high priests.

Their course was to lead them south and west to the very edge of the Mormon settlements. As they pulled out of Provo, they knew that they were facing the frontier and leaving behind them the last town of any size, for Provo was at that time the second largest city in the state. It boasted a flour mill and two hotels, one having eight rooms and the other being forty feet long and two stories high. Here, too, were several select schools, one where French and German were taught, a night school for adults, an historical society, and a singing school. Young men facing at least two years among the Indians could not but reflect upon the advantages of society in the north.

The historian, Thomas D. Brown, kept a careful record of all the doings of the journey, and it is through his eyes that we see most of the details. His journal, written in black ink in a strong Spencerian hand with hair-fine lines up and heavy shadings down, especially on the titles, is a volume of two hundred forty-three pages, and shows his keen power of observation and his independence of thought. His Latin phrases and his quotations from Shakespeare and other English authors mark him as a man with some educational background. He gives details of each day's travel, discussing the roads, the feed and the weather, as well as the towns they passed on the way. He had listed their outfits as:

10 wagons, 23 horses and mules, 6 cattle, 7 cows, 4,420 pounds of flour, 20 wheat, 10 corn, 18 axes, 1 saw, 20 guns, 3 pistols, 2 swords, 5 ploughs, with full ammunition and many "fixings."

They passed through Springville, and paused at Spanish Fork, where the bishop gave them some pork, then progressed to Payson or Petetneti. At Nephi they stopped to have some wheat ground. At Fillmore, Porter Rockwell and other Indian interpreters passed the company on the way to Chief Walker's camp. Under date of April 25, T. D. Brown wrote:

A fine morning after leaving camp up to Corn Creek, very wet and heavy driving. About 20 Indians of Walker's band came and surrounded our wagons and finally crossed the road and stood ahead of them. After many strange gestures and much loud speaking by the eldest of them, a blanket was thrown down. We all understood this to be a demand for toll for passing over their land; we all contributed some bread and flour and tobacco. They sat down and seemed to enjoy the bread. We passed on and soon some more came down the creek; they, too, had to be satisfied.

The next day they passed a small train of goods and droves of horses owned by a Mr. Watters, a mountain trader, and the historian commented on the fact that they had sugar for sale at 75c a pound and tea for $ 2.00. Chief Walker was traveling with the train, and had given Watters an Indian boy in exchange for a horse and about three hundred dollars worth of goods. Porter Rockwell and his group were also returning with this company, trying to persuade Walker to go in to Salt Lake for an interview with President Young. "The Hawk of the Mountains," as Chief Walker called himself, was by far the most powerful chief of the southern part of the state, and felt his own importance, so the Mormons courted his friendship. It might be that the meeting with the train was responsible for this comment:

I shall here mention that this company have attended to prayers morning and evening all the way, to keeping good guards out by night, and have been united, and kept their powder dry.

AT Parowan the missionaries stayed over Saturday and Sunday. This town, often spoken of as "Little Salt Lake" was now only three years old, but if one were to judge by the reports that were sent to The Deseret News, it had made substantial improvements. Some adobe homes had been built, a tabernacle was being completed. Their waterwheel was used to grind flour by night and to run a sawmill by day. A new threshing machine had been freighted across the desert from California, while E. E. Elmer's cabinet shop, C. C. Pendleton's machine shop, and William H. Dame's tannery represented the sum of local industry, aside from farming. Many homes had spinning wheels and a few had looms, and the sound of industry could be heard when one walked about the town. At the conference held there on the September 11, preceding, there had been reported 455 people in the settlement at Parowan, and of the town T. D. Brown comments:

In Parowan I have witnessed the most peace, union, order, good feeling, cleanliness, &c., I have anywhere on the road.

Certainly the Saints of this little town were most liberal in their donations to the missionaries, giving butter, eggs, corn, wheat, potatoes, and fresh vegetables, all of which were carefully listed by the historian.

Beyond Parowan, a day's travel, was Cedar City, the center of the coal and iron industry, where the "Deseret Iron Company" was then working to produce iron. At this town was gathered one of the most heterogeneous groups of the state, for the 795 people reported at their conference the fall before, there were many from England, Wales, Scotland, and the coal mining districts of Pennsylvania. So confident were they that it would be only a matter of months before they would be producing large quantities of pig iron, that some of the Saints had taken the tires from their wagons to be melted down and used to build the machinery. Now they were without the use of their wagons, and were beginning to realize that they must not depend entirely upon the mines for a living, but must produce their own food.

THE missionaries did not stop here long, but went on to their destination, Harmony, the last settlement toward the south, where they arrived on May 2. Their first business was to assure themselves food for the next season, so they selected a site, surveyed it, and divided it into two-acre plots, one for each missionary. These were assigned by drawing lots, each plot being numbered and corresponding numbers being placed in a hat.

The group set to work clearing the land and digging a ditch. After two weeks of work, the historian reported that they had cleared sixty-four acres and, with the help of fifteen friendly Indians, had begun to work on a canal "eight miles long, six feet wide, and three feet deep." Such entries as the following give some idea of what this labor meant, especially to a man unaccustomed to it.

Many engaged this day ploughing and sowing. I and Ira Hatch engaged grubbing land for our wheat, much grease wood upon it. I wrought with my axe until my hands were blistered, broke and bled....

On May 17 a horseman came to tell them that President Young was on his way to visit them, and asked them to gather with the people at Harmony. That meant a buzz of preparation, baths to be taken, beards trimmed, clothes washed and mended. Fort Harmony had only fifteen men old enough to bear arms, besides the twenty-one missionaries, while the president's party consisted of "82 men, 14 women, and 5 children, traveling in 34 carriages and with 95 horses." Truly the visit was an occasion for the people on the frontier.

At early candlelight they all gathered for a meeting in the center of the fort, where a bonfire of cedar was lighted. The people sat in a circle on logs or planks, the visitors, the settlers, the missionaries, and the friendly Indians, self-conscious in their unaccustomed shirts. The visiting brethren spoke of the importance of this mission, exhorting the people to do their duty and promising them that the day would come when the southern part of the state would be the head and not the tail. Parley P. Pratt was explicit in his counsel:

Give them shirts, pants, and petticoats. Say not only "be ye fed and clothed." Language neither feeds their stomachs nor covers their nakedness, nor can words convince them of your friendship. Feed, clothe, and instruct them, and in a year they will more than repay you for your outlay.... Teach them habits of cleanliness and industry "and many generations shall not pass away until they shall become a white and delightsome people." Win their hearts, their affections; teach them, baptize them, wash, cleanse, and clothe them. I should always have clean garments ready and clothe every one I should baptize. ... This wrestling, jumping and gamboling in their presence sets them a bad example, of idleness. Get their good will by manifesting yours....

President Young followed the same theme in his talk, reported in some detail in the Journal. A brief excerpt will serve to show its general tone.

You are sent not to farm, to build nice houses and fence fine fields, not to help white men, but to save red ones. Learn their language, and this you can do more effectively by living among them as well as by writing out a list of words. Go with them where they go. Live with them, and when they rest, let them live with you; feed them, clothe them, and teach them as you can, and being thus with them all the time, you will soon be able to teach them in their own language. They are our brethren; we must seek after them, commit their language, get their understanding and when they go off in parties you go with them.

The president helped the group to lay out a new fort, and gave full instructions for its erection. After he had gone, the missionaries set about preparing to visit the Indian tribes to the south. They must first complete their ditch and get their crops planted, both of which were difficult, for the new ditch had sandy banks that washed away, too steep a grade in some places, and a gravelly, porous bed that lost all the water in others. They appointed a watermaster to keep constant vigilance on the ditch and finally made arrangements to go on what they considered their real mission—a visit to the tribes who had never seen missionaries before.

(The Southern Indian Mission by Juanita Brooks, Improvement Era, 1945, Vol. Xlviii. April, 1945. No. 4. .)