the juanita brooks lecture series
presents
St. George and the Dixieites:
George A. Smith as "Father of the
Southern Settlements"
by
Dean
L. May
St. George
Tabernacle
March 19th,
2003
7:00 P.M
Val Browning Library Dixie
State
St. George, Utah with support from
the Obert C. Tanner Foundation
Juanita Brooks was a professor at [then]
She is recognized,
by scholarly consent, to be one of
Copyright 2004,
All rights reserved
Dean L. May, Professor of History at the
His publications include
St. George and the Dixieites:
George A. Smith as "Father of the Southern Settlements"
by Dean L. May
A presentation of the Juanita Brooks Lecture
Series1,
|
|
In
1854, George A. Smith was appointed to replace Willard Richards as
historian of the Latter-day Saints. He seemed mightily relieved to report to
Franklin D. Richards that "The burden of presiding over the southern country in this territory
was rolled off my back at Conference. And I can assure you that I felt something like John Bunyan's
Christian is supposed to have done when he got rid of the burden of his
sins."2 But of course, the tall, portly apostle rejoiced too
soon. Sins are more easily shed than ties to southern
George A. Smith (as he is known to
distinguish him from his grandson, the church president George Albert Smith),was a first cousin and confidant of the founder of
Mormonism, Joseph Smith. He was converted to the faith in 1832 at sixteen and was aide-de-camp to Smith on
George A. and Bathsheba Bigler Smith, married in 1841, accepted plural marriage early and fully,
eventually taking five additional women into their household. The Smiths stayed in Winter Quarters
that miserable winter of 1846-47. There, noting symptoms of scurvy among family
members, George found that
they improved upon eating potatoes. He then began
to preach potatoes to the whole impoverished population; his advocacy of their
curative powers labeling him ever after
as the Potato Saint.3 He accompanied the 1847 pioneer company to the Salt Lake Valley, then returned to
the Mormon settlements in Iowa where
he assisted in the sustaining and
ordaining of Brigham Young as president of the church. He brought his families to
But there was more to him than piety and
loyalty. He often was irreverent and funny. He was legendary for his girth (and his compassion for the
horses that labored under him). He covered his early baldness with a variety of
wigs; on Sundays a red one; weekdays black or brown. On occasion, in the heat
of sermonizing,
he would wipe his brow with his hair piece and then slide it back onto his head
askew. His vision had been bad from youth, so he at times wore spectacles. He
had false teeth,
and southern Utah Indians, observing him at a morning washbasin, are
reported to have called him "man-who-takes-himself-apart."
This was St. George, the colorful,
contradictory man who in 1861 was honored in the naming of Brigham Young's
southern capital. My first acquaintance with George A. was in the 1970s, when, almost exactly
a century after he was released as church historian, I was working for his successor,
the Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington. While researching for Building
the City of
Brigham Young's
attentions were fixed on the south almost upon alighting in the
Mormon leaders were quick to follow up. On July 27th, 1850, barely a month after its founding, the Deseret News carried an announcement seeking volunteers to plant a colony in the Little Salt Lake Valley of southern Utah, "there to sow, build and fence; erect a saw and grist mill; establish an iron foundry as speedily as possible; and to do all other acts and things necessary for the preservation & safety of an infant settlement among the indians."7 Volunteers were to report to Willard Richards, General Church Recorder (the then church historian) or to Thomas Bullock, who worked in Richards' office.
Parley P. Pratt would seem to have been the likely choice to head the mission. His exploring party had identified the site of the proposed colony, and the entire project was surely to a considerable degree shaped by his recommendations. He knew the terrain. He was senior to George A. in years and apostolic rank. It is not clear why he was not chosen. Perhaps Young saw the completion and management of the toll road in Parley's Canyon as Pratt's primary assignment. Built to serve California-bound gold-seekers, it would bring hard currency into the cash-poor economy. And perhaps Young already had Pratt in mind for a mission to the Pacific islands, to which he was called during the winter of 1850-51.8
In any case it is clear that by October, Young had chosen George A. to head up the mission. He was a
young man, in his 33rd year. He was married
to six wives, and had fathered eleven children, only four surviving
infancy. Four of his children died during
the trials of the exodus from Nauvoo in 1846 and 1847. He had brought
his wives and remaining four children to
When the Deseret News advertisement of July 27th
failed to
produce the desired number of volunteers, Young gave Smith the task of
identifying and calling men to take part. By November 16th, Deseret News notices
seemed to be using Smith's
popularity as a draw, making a point of the fact that he was to be
"president of the mission." The mission began formally on Sunday, December 15,1850, in
Though I cannot offer here an extended
treatment of the mission, there were several incidents that are revealing of George A. Smith's
character and conduct as leader. It is immediately obvious that he already felt
responsible not only for the settlement mission itself, but for all Mormon
settlements south of the Salt
The Iron Mission encountered no settlements after
Four days later, the day after Christmas, they awoke to find that some cattle had been stolen, among them two of George A.'s favorite oxen. In his private journal he explained that a search party was sent out, which found the beasts mortally wounded with arrows, and brought them back along with an "old Brave and a boy about 12." Smith wrote:
The oxen they had wounded were
favourites with our family and had been in our service ever since we left Nauvoo and
had traveled the road from their to the Gt Salt Lake valley three times over. They were at present
owned by my brother, who loaned them to me for the Trip. They moved his family across the Plains
and mine ever faithful in all bad place, perfectly
handy and gentle, and willing
to draw. I had formed an attachment for them,
that is hardly conceivable to exist between man
and beast. And when Old Bailey goaded with
eleven wounds came up to my waggon tongue and lay down, groaning with
pain and looking so wishfully to me for help
myself and wife could not refrain from shedding tears. After dressing his wounds offering him feed and giving
him water which we had warmed, covered him
with a Buffalo Robe. I felt that I could inflict almost any punishment on the head of his savage enemies, but when I come to see them two thirds naked (Thermometer below Zero,) half-starved and
more than a third scared to death first thing I did was to give them some bread to eat, and place them under Guard until morning.14
By Sunday the 29th, they were in the
Our Camp in this snowy Desert presents quite a lively appearance, a number of Camp fires made of dry ceadar surrounded by Companies, variously engaged, some listening to Violins, Accordians, Hymns, relateing anecdotes, Calling of Guard etc all serves to create a pleasant variety. The perfect good humour which prevails and good health in the Company, notwithstanding the severe cold and deep Snows which we have had to encounter whilst passing over high Mountains which would be no small obstacle even in summer, is really remarkable.
Lee wrote of the same meeting that Smith "expressed entire satisfaction with the course & conduct of the camp, better feelings he said he never saw in a camp under the same circumstances, the Spirit of God was with this mission." Smith observed that "he was the only one he believed that [had] need of a confession," as he had spoken harshly to some men abusing their teams and injured their feelings, and now "he asked their pardon but advised them to be kind to their teams."15
Smith again apologized on January 5, for offending some of the British-born by being too fervent in speaking of past American battle victories. He concluded, "I hope never again to excite that kind of National Feelings all governments on earth but one are corrupt & that is the government of God that is my National Interest." That same night a chorister was appointed, and Smith joined the camp in singing around the campfire for two hours.16
Smith's scientific interests were evident when on January 10, the day they entered the Little Salt Lake Valley, he confided to his journal that "My legs are sore tonight the result of my attempt at a geological survey on which I made myself weary, examining large masses of trap sinite horn blend, scattered rudely as if by some dreadful convulsion of nature, huge masses of rocks, bearing evident signs of ignious action had been torn from their primitave beds and standing edgeways in verdical stratter."17
Once on the site of the future Parowan, Smith appointed committees to take care of a plethora of public projects, some controversial. At Sunday services on January 19th, the leader chided those who tried "to build up themselves independent of the common interest of this Mission," reminding them that "this mission was not designed to build up the individual alone but the cause of Zion....I feel for the interest of this camp as much so as any other man can. I love every man in it, & my only object is to do for the general good & to fill the mission for which I was sent."18 Thus admonished, they collectively chose the farmland and the town site, made a road up the canyon where timber was available, identified a mill site, surveyed for canals, scouted the surrounding area for minerals and other resources and formed a county government. On the last day of January, he...
called the
camp together this morning and told them that their was no call for public work
today and that every man was at liberty to do what he pleased upon which their was a regular Stampede for the Kanyon, every man takeing his ax and leaving his gun....Every accessible tree that would make a house log within 4 miles stood a slim chance today.19
The group proceeded to plow, plant, and
build. On February 20th, Smith had a brush shelter built outside his wagon box to serve as a
classroom. The next day he wrote, "I commenced a grammer school in my Wickyup, my schollars were Thos Wheeler Josh Millet, Peter A
Smith R. Benson Benj. Hults and Wm Mitchell by the light of the Camp fire,
with only one Grammer book."20
The group had decided that houses were to be lined up to form a fort-like enclosure. However, the two
Johnson brothers, Sixtus and Nephi,
ancestors of my equally independent-minded
wife, Cheryll, had built their house off the line. On March 16th, a
self-appointed crew began to rectify the structure when the Johnson
brothers stormed out with guns in hand, threatening to shoot the first person
to touch their logs. Smith, resting in his wagon, heard the threats of shooting, ran out half dressed, grabbed one of
the boys by the collar, reprimanded him severely, and threw him to the ground,
"telling him and the others at the same time never to be heard threatening to shoot again." John D. Lee concluded,
"This circumstance though unpleasant taught the company to understand that caution & reflection were the parrents
of safety & some times a smawl matter kindleth a great fire. A few
nights after the same house was put on the line
by request of the Pres."21 Two days after the incident, Smith confided in a letter to his wife, Bathsheba,
"I am like a father of a Big family here for all Call on me for advice and
I give it. I am sometimes fractious and get irritated and then I repent."22 On June 27th, Smith
learned that his wife Sarah Ann, mother of his son, John Henry, had died of
consumption two weeks earlier.
By July 4th, the founding had been
accomplished. There was a settlement in place, surrounded by fields of
ripening wheat.
Smith noted with no apparent awareness of their remarkable accomplishment, that there
had been no rowdiness in celebrating the national holiday. "All was
silent, not a gun fired, or a drunken man seen in the Streets."23 He
remained to supervise the selection and survey of a site on Coal Creek for the Iron settlement
which became
George A. Smith led the Iron County Mission
in person, establishing
Parowan as the mother colony for the south and the prototype for subsequent
colonization in the
Historians take pride in telling the story of the past honestly, warts and all. Indeed, distortions of the historical record, whether to praise or condemn, vitiate what we might learn from history. And, I confess, I am a little embarrassed, in reviewing Smith's role as a colonizer in this mission, not to have found more warts. Perhaps this helps us understand better why Brigham Young valued him so much and made him henceforth steward of all the colonies southward. Given the cultural imperatives that were fundamental to the Mormon world of that time, a rather important qualification, as we shall see, he truly was a Saint.
His sanctification was not to be formalized, however, for another decade. Despite numerous church
and civic duties in
Smith continued to be involved in
nearly all aspects of southern
colonization. On December 8,1852, he reported to the Deseret News the building of
The
In March 1854,
shortly before the formal end of the W War, Willard Richards, who had served
both as second counselor to Brigham Young and church historian and recorder died. Young chose Jedediah M. Grant to be his new counselor, but asked Smith to be church
historian. At the time was no minor task. The church historian was also the chi
archivist, assembling records and
documentation not only the past but for present church activities. The
assignment not, as Smith hoped, clear him
of his southern
Smith was the perfect choice for the assignment. An avid reader, he was
proud of the breadth of his knowledge. He often gave sermons that contained sweeping
overviews of classical
His forte, however, was the history of the
Latter-day Saints. Nearly
every one of his sixty-one sermons for which we have the complete text
brought up some aspect of the Latter-day Saint past.
Here, his remarkable command of names and dates was amplified by his nearly always being able to give a vivid first-person
account. He had been converted as a youth just two years after the church was
founded. He was Joseph Smith's first cousin
and an intimate of Brigham Young. He had witnessed and participated in all the crucial events of the early church since his conversion except for the march
of the Mormon Battalion. For the burgeoning body of youth who did not remember those events, and for the thousands who
had recently embraced the faith, he
was the living branch into which their new self-understanding was
grafted. The faith stories of
What was the content of these
sermons? Converts who never
knew the founding prophet must surely have warmed as the apostle told them of when Joseph "wrapped his arms around
me, and squeezed me to his bosom and said, 'George A., I love you as I do my own life.' I felt so
affected, I could hardly speak, but replied, 'I hope, Brother Joseph, that my
whole life and actions will ever
prove my feelings, and the depth of my affection
towards you."31 Smith spoke of seeking advice from
"Brother Joseph" before setting out on his first mission at age 17. "George A.," the Prophet told him,
"preach short sermons, make short prayers, deliver your sermons
with a prayerful heart, and you will be blessed and the truth will prosper in
your hands." Joseph Smith Sr.,
counseled him "to go in at the little end of the horn, then if you increase, though it be but a
very little, you are sure to come out at the big end; but if you go in at the
big end, you are certain to come out
at the small end”
He related a story of Sidney Rigdon, "our great preacher, a man that could bring to bear all the big, jaw-cracking words of the English language." Rigdon was preaching in Kirtland before Professor Seixas and other learned gentlemen wanting "to show himself to the best possible advantage. I discovered his error when he first began speaking; I saw that he was in his high heeled boots, and at the commencement he soared so far above his subject that he could not get down to it." Smith's conclusion from the story was "when a man uses ten or fifteen superfluous words to convey one simple idea, his real meaning is lost....It is like Massa Gratian's wit — two grains of wheat hid in three barrels of chaff."32
In the same sermon he gave an extended account of the thirteen strapping, red-headed sons of a Mr.
Willey who took it upon themselves to protect him from a threatened
tarring and feathering by a Mr. West, a
Methodist minister, when he was on a mission in
At General Conference in April 1856, shortly before leaving for Washington,
D. C. with a constitution and petition for statehood, he reinforced a sermon on
the importance of building
and maintaining fences to contain livestock by recounting in great detail a
confrontation between the wives of Thomas B. Marsh and Mrs. Harris over the
strippings from a cow they had agreed to share the milk from. When church
courts found against Mrs. Marsh, the then
president of the Twelve Apostles declared he would "sustain the
character of his wife, even if he had to go to hell for it." In his anger
he swore before a magistrate that the Mormons "were hostile to the state
of
Many other sermons related historical events
more directly. Yet, as is evident here, he skillfully used the early history of
the
church to teach object lessons relevant to present circumstances. He did so
in a manner calculated to evoke an emotional response that acquainted Saints with their history while
reinforcing group identity and distrust of those outside the faith. His sermons
recounting persecutions and the failure of the
He spoke in the Bowery on Temple Square on a sweltering August Sunday afternoon in 1857, shortly after it became clear that a significant contingent of the United States Army was on the way to Utah. Interestingly, in that time of crisis he began by recounting the history of his own family and their conversion, going back to Asael, the common grandfather of himself and Joseph Smith. He told how after his baptism, when his classmates started making fun of him because of his new faith "I pulled off my coat and flogged the whole school, and from that day I was respected." He continued recounting his personal experiences, emphasizing persecutions against the Mormons, such as occasions where "High Priests were arrested and put in prison, numbers of them were murdered, women were ravished, goods and property stolen, houses burnt, and every possible cruelty was invented to cure men of their religion."
While on his recent trip to
Brethren and sisters, I am a Latter-day Saint, and I know that this is the people of God; I know that this people have the Priesthood, and that Brigham Young is as much an inspired man as was Moses or any other man that ever lived upon the earth.
This is my testimony, and I believe that if I were cut in pieces.. .it would [not] alter my testimony.35
Apparently, the church historian felt there could be no better way to prepare the Saints for the crisis ahead than to ground them once again in the story of the origins of their faith. And in the course of doing so, he reminded them of what the early Mormons had endured, the futility of the government's trying to change their beliefs by force, and the necessity at times to fight to defend against persecutors. And even with tensions taut as bowstrings, he inserted a bit of humor here and there.
By November, 1857, he was somewhat more conciliatory, but still spoke of federal officials as "corrupt demagogues," and couldn't help punning that, "The idea of forcing these corrupt dogs on a community rule it is what I call dog-matism." Yet his Jeremiad was more against the Saints than the army, chiding them for materialism and selfishness and concluding that "If we, as a people were of one heart and mind, and would place ourselves in the right position before the Lord, .. .that we never would have any serious annoyance from our enemies.'36
Smith's recorded sermons of the period were given mostly in
He took such a speaking tour to the south during the most intense days of the crisis, a time when "the
Spirit seemed to burn in my bones to visit all these settlements in that southern
region." Upon reaching Parowan, he found the
There was only one thing that I dreaded, and that was a spirit in the breasts of some to wish that their enemies might come and give them a chance to fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States ....Now, I never felt so...for I would a great deal rather the Lord would fight the battles than me; and I feel to pray that he will punish them with that hell which is to want to and can't; and it is my prayer and wish all the time that this may be their doom....I know, if we are humble and united, and moved upon by the right Spirit, God will fight our battles.37
Smith's sermon was given on September 13, two days after the thing he dreaded most, as yet unbeknownst to him, had happened at Mountain Meadows.
But my point here is that Smith's role in
teaching the incoming Mormon converts of their peoples' past, his role as church historian,
was by no means trivial. In 1860, four years after Smith became church historian,
55 percent of the whole adult population of
All these elements were consistently part of his story, but the crucial years of
1857-58 elevated the persecution theme and gave it immediacy for the 40,000 who had come
to
I was recently asked by a reporter for the
Salt Lake Tribune, doing a story on the
The Utah War occurred just as southern settlement below the rim of
the
Smith's role in the early settlement of Dixie is well-known in southern
Utah.39 As I noted above, he and Erastus Snow were looking to open settlements
over the rim of the Great Basin as early as 1853 when some fifteen families
already were
located at John D. Lee's
Smith continued to be deeply involved in
colonizing below the rim of the
With the election of
The word of the Presidency is brethren, it is necessary to strengthen the southern border of our thriving Territory and this is for the general good of all.
Now you go down south and raise cotton and you will be blessed
more than you ever have been heretofore, and know that in doing this you are
doing your part to build up
It has
been my lot to take part in the starting of
settlements in the southern portion of this Territory; I have assisted in settling the country from the cotton
district in
Now, I do not want a solitary man to go down there to perform this service that can not go with his whole heart....[This mission] is to build a city; it calls for wives, children, for machinery, for mechanics, for every thing that is calculated to add to the comfort and happiness of a city...We should manifest our joy that we have had the high privilege of helping to enlarge the borders of Zion.42
Smith was with Young when they were drawing up a petition asking for a post office for the city-to-be. When he suggested that the president name the town, Young said "he would name it if [Smith] would be satisfied." A no doubt puzzled George A. said he would be and "the president then named it. 'St. George.” 43
Many have wondered why a Mormon town would be named for a saint, indeed for the patron saint of
Of all these, the only namesakes we know for
certain were Joseph Smith, for whom St. Joseph, Arizona, was named; George A. Smith;
David Patten Kimball, who earned his sainthood by heroically helping to rescue
handcart pioneers in 1856; Charles C. Rich, for whom St. Charles, Idaho was named; and Bishop
John Rowberry, after whom St. John, in Tooele, County, Utah, was named. Of course,
the two Smiths, Charles C. Rich, and even David Kimball were heroic figures to whom most
Mormons would concede special status. Bishop Rowberry would seem the only rank and
file saint for whom a town
was named, though perhaps there is a story there
yet to be told. The Mormon practice of naming towns in this way lasted only
nineteen years between the founding of
St. George and
After the founding of St. George, we see a new theme added to George A.
Smith's telling of the Mormon story. He increasingly
referred to
In April General Conference of 1867, he assured the congregation that:
We are, as it were, in a new world, a desert, a country that is only made fertile by actual labor, and its fertility is only retained by the main strength of its inhabitants. Cease to irrigate our fields, repair our dams, clean out our ditches, and our country becomes a desert again in a quarter of the time that it has taken us to make it. In some respects it is peculiarly fitted to us, for...we are compelled to cultivate a spirit of union and oneness, or the result is we go hungry, and that same spirit of oneness is actually necessary to enable us to fulfill our mission here and for our exaltation hereafter.46
That October he expressed his gratitude at how unenviable "these
mountain deserts" are for no one will covet them. "When we lived on
the rich fat lands of the
George A. Smith was never, of course, a
year-round resident of St. George. Dixieites did not see him digging potatoes, hauling
wood, or building and rebuilding recalcitrant dams and ditches. Perhaps that fact alone explains why Apostle Erastus Snow became much more
legendary in
After 1868, when he became second counselor
in the First Presidency, his frequent participation in St. George events seems as
much a function of his office in the presidency as of his special calling as
apostle to the south. Brigham Young began winter retreats to St. George in 1870. During these visits the President tried to protect his voice
and strength by avoiding meetings and occasions when he would be asked to
speak. George A. nearly always accompanied him on these visits and was
his spokesman. It was perhaps for that reason that
Young, though present, asked his counselor to offer the prayer for the ground breaking of the St. George
Temple. On that solemn occasion Smith prayed that God would:
Overrule
the discovery of minerals in this land for the good of thy people; control the
President of the
We thank thee, O God, for these barren hills, and for the shelter of these rugged rocks and
deserts as peaceful dwelling places for thy
Saints....Grant that the walls of
that
Smith spoke on Saturday, February 14,1874, at the first public meeting held in the fully completed St. George Tabernacle. It was a gathering of priesthood leaders from all the settlements for the purpose of announcing the beginning of the United Order movement. George A. assured the brethren that "so far, the settlements of this Southern country had been a success. It was desirable that still better results should be secured; and this might be done by entering into a United Order in the concentration of our labor and means." He warned that "none could go to build up the central stake of Zion at that place [in Jackson County, Missouri] unless they belonged to a United Order in temporal things, according to the Gospel plan . . . [and] concluded by referring to the great benefits socially, morally, and educationally, resulting from combination in a United Order."51
The United Order, home industries, and completion of the temples in
Smith and Young visited the temple works to
watch the progress nearly
every day that winter. They left on February 10
for
On Wednesday, Sept. 1st St. George and Southern Utah Settlement
received telegraphic words that our beloved George Albert Smith departed this life at 8:40, this
morning at
To his missionary son Brigham Young wrote that "the death of Pres. Geo. A. Smith has cast a gloom over the entire community. . . . Heartfelt, indeed, have been the prayers that he might be restored to health, and earnest have been the hopes for a continuance of his long and devoted sojourn upon the earth; but it has pleased the Lord to take him from us."54
It was a numbing loss. Yet Smith's legacy endures. As with its namesake, the girth of present St.
George seems uncontainable, extending across the deserts and up over
rimrocks in ways that might startle, perhaps dismay, the man who loved this
country so much. There is perpetuated among Saints around the world, among
millions who may never visit
ENDNOTES
1 This essay was
written for the Juanita Brooks Lecture given at
2 George A. Smith to Franklin D. Richards, Letter printed in Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Sept 16,1854.
3 Charles
4 Though there are many original sources relating to the life of George A. Smith, including diaries he kept, and memoirs published by himself and his wife Bathsheba in church periodicals, the secondary literature is surprisingly sparse. It includes principally, Merlo J. Pusey's Builders of the Kingdom (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1981), a biographical overview of the life of George A. Smith, his son John Henry Smith, and John Henry's son, the church president George Albert Smith. There is in addition Ray Haun Gleave, "An Effect of the Speaking of George A. Smith on the People of the Iron Mission of Southern Utah," MA thesis, Brigham Young University, 1957; Reid L. Merrell, "Utah Colonization Period Supervised by George A. Smith," MA thesis, Brigham Young University (1966); and the Charles Kent Dunford dissertation previously cited.
5 Brigham Young to Orson Pratt, March 9,1849 in Journal History, Church Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Journal History is essentially a day-by-day scrapbook of a variety of documents from many sources compiled over decades by clerks in what was then called the historian's office of the church.
6 In William B. Smart and Donna T. Smart, editors, Over the Rim: The Parley P. Pratt Exploring Expedition to Southern Utah, 1849-1850 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999), p. 179.
7
8 Parley P. Pratt, Jr. ed., Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 6th Edition (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1964), p. 370.
9 Brigham Young to Alfales Young, September 2, 1875 in Dean C. Jessee, ed., Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1974), p. 219-20.
10 The official record (
published as Gustive O.
Larsen, ed. Utah Historical Quarterly 20 (1952), pp. 109-34; 253-82; 353-83.
The quote is from pp. 116-17, the
count from p. 122. Smith's private journal, kept for him by Henry Lunt, is in
the LDS Church Archives, and is presently being prepared for publication by
Michael Cotter and Dean May. It will here
be referred to as the George A. Smith Mission Journal (GAS Journal), the
"mean man" quote above being from the entry of December 15,1850. In quoting from the two journals I left spelling and
grammar as in the original. The mission is described in detail in Morris and Kathryn Shirts' A Trial Furnace:
Southern Utah's Iron Mission (
11 GAS Journal, December 16-18, 1850.
12 Journal History, May 19,1852. Pusey, pp. 86,127.
13
14 GAS Journal, December 26,1850.
15 GAS Journal, December 29,1850.
16 Camp Journal, p. 260.
17 GAS Journal, January 10,1851.
18 Camp Journal, pp. 353-55.
19 GAS Journal, January 31,1851.
20 GAS Journal, February 20-21,1851.
21 Camp Journal, pp. 379-80.
22 GAS to Bathsheba Smith, March 18,1851, George A. Smith Papers, LDS Church Historical Department.
23 GAS Journal, July 4,1851.
24 GAS Journal, November 5,1851.
25 Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1855-1886), I: 79-81.
26
27 Dunford, p. 102.
28 James G. Bleak, Annals of the Southern Utah
29 Journal of Discourses, I: 191-97, esp. 196.
30 Journal of Discourses, III: 28-37.
31 B. H. Roberts, ed., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1932), V: 391, known commonly as the Documentary History of the Church or DHC.
32 Apparently referring to the 12th century Italian jurist, Franciscus
Gratianus, known as Magister Gratianus, or Gratian, founder of the science of canon law.
33 Journal of Discourses, III: 23-28.
34 Journal of Discourses, III: 280-91.
35 Journal of Discourses, V: 101-11.
36 Journal of Discourses, V: 359-67.
37 Journal of Discourses, V: 221-25.
38 Data collected by
the author from the manuscript US Census for 1860; from John Unruh, Jr.
The Plains Across: The
39 The history of Washington County settlement is well covered in Douglas D. Alder and Karl F. Brooks, A History of Washington County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Washington County Commission, 1996. See also Andrew Karl Larson, I Was Called to Dixie: The Virgin River Basin; Unique Experiences in Mormon Pioneering (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1961).
40 Bleak, Book A, pp. 31-44.
41 Bleak, Book A, p. 52.
42 Journal of Discourses IX: 200-03.
43 B. H. Roberts, A Compehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), V: 123, quoting from the "History of Brigham Young, Ms., entry of 28th Oct., 1861."
441 derived the data for town naming from the appropriate entries in Andrew Jensen, Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941).
45 Journal of Discourses XI: 157.
46 Journal of Discourses XI: 360.
47 Journal of Discourses XII: 6-10 (mistakenly paginated in printing as pp. 381-85).
48 Geographer Richard
H.
49 Bleak, Book A, p. 310.
50 Bleak, Book B, p. 126.
51 See Leonard J.
Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of
52 Bleak, Book B, p. 374.
53 Bleak, Book B, p. 425.
54 Brigham Young to Alfales Young, September 2,1875 in Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons, pp. 219-20.