The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-22
TRIBUTE TO THE MORMONs
But For the Mormon Battalion Gold
Would Not Have Been Discovered
at Suffers Mill.

San Francisco Chronicle: Two of the
most important events that led up to
the discovery of gold in California were
the arrival, on July 81, 1916, at San
Francisco, then Yerba Buena, of the
ship Brooklyn from New York, bring
ing over 200 Mormon colonists, and the
organization at about the same time Of
the Mormon battalion for service dur
ing the Mexican war.
r. Driven by popular persecution from
New York and Ohio, thence to Nlissou-
ri and finally to Illinois, where the hos
tility to them eliminated in the Vlo-
lent death of their prophet, the Nor
mons realized that their only hope OF
building UP Zion lay in removal to
unoccupied lands in some remote region
west OF the Rocky mountains. In 1915
word was sent by the heads of the
church to the Saints throughout the
country to prepare for an immediate
migration Their place of destination
was kept secret as far as possible,
many of the MormOns themselves not
knowing the plans of the leaders,
or where the colony was to be
planted.
Those who had not the means to go
overland were to go by sea to the Pa
for that purpose by their agents at
New York. Elder Samuel Brannan was
given charge Of this expedition, and
under his leadership, the ship Brooklyn
sailed from New York on Feb. 4, 1916,
carrying 29S passengers, mostly Nor
mons.
At this time California was still a
part of Mexico, but during the SIX
months voyage of the Brooklyn the
Of n q
first acts of the war had been the seiz-
ure of California by the United States
On July s. three weeks before the ar
rival of the Brooklyn, the American
flag was raised at Yerba Buena.
Although the stars and stripes floated
in triumphant assertion from the low,
red-tiled building on Portsmouth
square, prociaiming to the Mormon
leader of the Brooklyn expedition the
change of ownership that had taken
place in the territory where he had
hoped to establish a colony, no pre-
monitions Of it's future greatness had
as yet stirred the sleepy little Mexican
town into busy life. Before the curious
eyes of the Brooklyn passengers lay a
sandy beach. streWn with the skeletons
of cattle slaughtered for their hides; a
succession of wind-swept hills bearing
tangled groWthS of scrub oak and
chapparal, the home of the coyote and
rabbit, and a few adobe and frame
houses, an adobe barracks, and tenn
porary hide buildings scattered along
the shore. A half dozen donkeys car
rying large bundles of wood, and a
few listless loungers lazily observing
the motions of the newcomers afforded
the element of life to the novel scene.
Upon coming ashore the emigrants
installed themselves in tents and wher-
i III, r,e
and thrifty, they soon found work,
some of their number going to the San
Joaquin valley. where they formed a
settlement and planted crops for the
use of the Mormons who We're expected
overland.
Meanwhile the main body of Nor
mons had taken up their line of march
overland to the west, and had formed
a temporary settlement near Council
Bluffs, Ia Compelled to leave the most
of their property behind them in their
enforced fight, they found themselves
poorly prepared for long, uncertain
| journey, and applied to the government
at Washington for assistance in their
migration The result was the organi-
cation Of the Mormon battalion. The
pay these soldiers would draw from
! the government was to be used in tax
ing care Of their families and trans
porting them to California, where the
members Of the battalion were to be
discharged.
Elder Brannan had been directed to
go overland and meet the church au-
thorities as soon as his own colony had
found a place to settle. Carrying out
his instructions, Brannan left San
Francisco the spring after his arrival
and met Brigham Young and his first
company of Utah pioneers on June so
1S47, just as they made camp near
Green river, Wyo. AT this meeting
Brannan tried to induce Brigham
Young to go on to California and set
tie, instead of turning off at Salt Lake
But California now belonged to the
! United States, while Utah was still a
part of Mexico, and the isolation OF
Salt Lake valley, shut in by high