Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-24

HE celebration of the anniversary Of the arr
Is rival of the Utah Pioneers In IS47 can
~ never be wholly regarded merely
ular function The religious aspect of it
IL is so intertwned with the history the
event that any account of the latter neces-
sarly requires some mention of the former is the
writer's intention to treat the topic of the jurney
of the pioneers as commemorative a state holiday
merely, and not to mention the religious ideas ASSOC
cated with that movement any further than may be
necessary for the vitality and conference of these
brief observations. Any apparent intrusions refer
ences to religious zeal to the peculiar faith in
divine providence manifested by the pioneers is dine
to the fact that these ideas assist powerfully In
explaining the motives which impelled them to their
perilous journey.
ORIGIN OF THE IDEA
1t is common mistake to suppose as many do,
that the idea of transplsnting the Mormon COM
munity from Illinois and Iowa to Utah was original
with Brigham Young The fact is that Josenh
Smith was the first to conceive and nurture the
conviction that the distant west and not the east
to be the permanent abiding place of the people
belonging to the Church which he had founded. His
occasional references to the destined western home
of his people had produced in the minds of great
many of the leading men in the Church in the days
of Nauvoo the impression that Illinois was to be
only temporary gathering place and that westward
was to continue to be. it had uniformly been be-
fore, the direction of the movement which the body
Of the people called Mormons sooner or later
take This feeling first created by the remarks of
tne FrOpnet, COntlnueQ TO gain strength
sisency by the course of events till it finally seems
to have become settled conviction in the minds of
the more discerning that the was to be the
true home of the people for long period and that
these continued migrations of the Church were in
some sense necessary to the wholesome life of the
community. Hyrum Smith, in 1881 at Kirkland
promised Lorenzo d. Young, who very Ill at the
time that he should recover and should go with
the people to the Rocky Mountains. The prediction
was significant as showing what expectations were
the minds rnen So Eaha r,
Kimball later said of Commerce, Ill "A very pretty
place. but not a long abiding home for the Sants!'
Joseph Smith himself clearly predicted the move
ment westward when, Aug. 6, 1912, at Masonic
hall in Montrose, he declared that his people would
continue to suffer much persecution and would be
driven to the Rocky Mountains :. Some Of you
will live to and assist in making settlements and
build cities. and the Saints become a mighty
people In the midst of the Rocky Mountains" Later
Joseph took steps to plan this contemplated exodus
of his people from Nauvoo to these mountains by
sending out n select company of men to "investi-
gate the locations of California and Oregon. and
hunt out a good location where can remove to-
On the twenty sixth of the following March, he ad-
dressed memorial to Congress, asking for author
ity to raise company of 100000 men ito open the
regions of the unpeoped west and south to
enlightened and enterprisng yeomanry." The OBJ
jective point of the route and other matters
detail outlined and June 23. 1874 just four
days before he slain. Joseph Smith and others
crossed the Mississippi to Montrose with the in
Mountains" But 1t left to others to carry out
what he had conceived.
EXODUS FROM NAUVOO
The companies left Nauvoo in the winter under the
command of Brigham Young. 400 wagons stopping to
pitch tents at first of the Camps of Israel upon
snow and ice. They renewed the journey the
first day of March, when they travelled five miles,
and rested on Sugar Creek Permission had been
obtained to cross through Iowa. The company
divided into two parts, and each of these into hum
dreds and tens with captains The prescribed
outfit for family one wagon, three yoke of
cattle three teams two COWS two beef cattle three
sheep 1000 pounds of -four, "a pounds OF sugar,
tent and bedding, seeds, farming tools, and rifle.
the total being estimated at the value OF $3.50 But
in addition to those which thus equipped, Col.
Kane relates that there large number OF nom
descript outfits the makeshifts of poverty from the
unsuitable heavy cart that numbered mysteriously,
with its crazy two-wheeed trund.e pulled along
by a little dry-dugged heifer. and rig
Eed UP only to drag such weight
as a baby a sack of meal or pack
of clothes or bedding" Roads were
bad most of the way and wagons
always breaking down, so that
the company considered 1t had mace q
remarkable progress whenever II COW II
cred 10 miles In day. The people NJ
OF Iowa used to tell that all day long -
the slow procession passed over their ~
! ! !. !: M
praries-the strangest spectacle they 5Iyayv
had ever witnessed--and that they .iaFN
sympathized with the toll or these ,rxsttT
quiet but Jealous pioneers. go. 1fry1r
ing they knew not WHITTIER FIjfI
but with cheerful confidence In hl41I: