The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-25

EE W. realized In their trip across
y the plains that every days
travel found them that much further from
where they could procure "a thousand and
one'' necessities and conveniences of life,
to which they had been accustomed, is very
questionable, but when they located in
these valleys permanently, it was surely
soon apparent that they were absolutely
"a thousand miles from anywhere;" that
self-denial and forgetfulness of many
things would be more than virtue and
that all their powers of invention and
adaptability would have to evoke from
home resources and pretty crude material
that which was demanded by convenience
and required for comfort; nay. for life it
self.
The words ''home manufacture" then,
had vastly more significance than they
possess to-day, although the social econo-
mist may see in it wealth, and the chamber
of commerce may reiterate the teachings
of the leading men Of Utah for at least four
decades. These ideas are inseparably at
tached to the suggestive, but partly for
gotten, and to many the unknown pastl
LAND AND WATER.
Bread first, then shelter, were among
the indispensables. Ploughing, seeding,
planting and irrigation "a new thing, were
more than duties. Exploration for the dis
covery of an unknown country's elements
and supplies was also imperative. Winter
was none too far off, and how severe that
might be none could really tell.
"Fortingn was essential to safety and
the Spanish wall of adohes suggested itself,
as did cobbles, and rock was within haul
ing distance. Timber was in the cailons
but almost inaccessible, there being no
roads, and these had TO be made. When
done, the upright saw was rudely and hur-
riedly set up and lumber OF a rough quality
was turned out. Ere this had been created
the primitive fort, the mud wall, the dirt
floor and the dirt and willow roof were
the rule, but after much toll they were
superseded as numbers made safety posi-
bic outside.
AS time few, supplies began to come in
from the east, but how limited in quantity
and how high in pricel The budding mer-
chant had, however, to meet an unexpected
rivalry in the reckless impetuosity of the
overland gold-seekers, many Of whom,
fearing that the FL Dorado might close
down, were anxious to leave everything
which retarded their progress and almost
make the western trip afoot. Then it was
that merchandise of every kind, particu-
larly clothing, became lower in price than
in the markets Of the distant east.
MERCHANDISING.
Mormon immigration, however, soon
restored the equilibrium, and instead of
merchandise, gold became drug in Salt
Lake City. Men would furnish labor or
repairs, women would sell a pound of
butter or wash a Pilgrims clothes, but it
must be for domestic, calico, soap, soda,
coffee, tea, sugar, shoes, nails, tools, etc.,
anything but money. E. d. Woolley,
who had been trading in a small
way, was succeeded by Holiday s.
Warner, they being represented by VIM. H.
Hooper; then came Livingstone & Kinkaid,
who were really the first with what might
be called "a stock" They gathered gold by
thing they had.
But the very uncertainty of supply and
consequent price favored the efforts OF
every man who had mechanical skill Or
who had learned a trade. Thought
full as the leaders and the
pioneers generally were, their
prosecutions had brought poverty
and meagre facilities for transportation
prevented the bringing of much across the
plains Here and there one had a few
nails, pair or two of hinges, and lights
enough for a small window. Anticipating
harvest, pair of rude mill burrs might
have been in some wagon, but as the peo-
pie f1oeked this way, what was this among
somany!
MILLING.
BY and by more burrs and mill-irons
were needed. The blacksmith essayed to
make the latter, and some genius whose
name is lost to memory (probably b. II.
MitchelD made a pair or more of burrs
from our local granite. These millstones
were looked upon as the very acme of pro-
fessional skill. But the product thereof
was gritty, not very good in color, nor fine
in quality yet it was big step in advance
of the little WORKOUT coffee-mill that had
done duty in many home To show how
slowly progress ran, fifteen years after
that, when buying goods east on com
mission, the writer remembers the mani
festations of surprised inquiry when asked
by President Young who il was that was
buying boiling cloth for his mill higher
than No. j, for President Young, John
Neff and the GARDENERS, were among the
early millers.
Prior to the coming in Of Buchanan's
army in 1858, considerable strides had been
taken in the direction of cloth
making, though it was mainly
a home operation. The wool cards.
the spinning-wheel and the loom were in
many home, with the consequent dye
rettle, and all the etceteras, such as log
wood, alum, indigo, copperas and fustic
which were staples in the stores,-that is