The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-07-04
Hill Cumorsh
Near PaImura,N NY

awaiting trial on the charge the Mormon leader,
with his brother, Hyrum, and two others, were
lodged in the Jail at Carthage. There, despite a
pledge from Governor Ford that state troops
would protect them, they were dragged out of
the Jail by mob on June q, 1874, and the two
Smiths were shot to death.
The Illinois legislature next annulled the Nau-
VOC city charter and again the Mormons were
homeless. Brigham Young had succeeded Joseph
Smith and he and the other Mormon leaders
made a proposition that If their prosecutors
would cease their acts of violence and aid the
Mormons in disposing Of their property they
would remove from the state This proposition
was accepted and the Mormons contracted for
several thousand wagons and began making
preparations for move to California or Oregon
in the early spring.
But it was not until February, 1885, that Young
and the other Mormon leaders guided about
1000 of their people across the frozen surface
of the Mississippi and headed west. This COM
pany reached Council Bluffs, Neb., on the west
side of the Missouri river and near there erected
700 cabins at place which they called Winter
Quarters. Here they passed the winter, suffering
greatly from sickness, exposure and lack of food.
In April, 1S47, Young, with a chosen band of
143 pioneers, left Winter Quarters and began
their journey westward in search of a place
where the Mormons might make home on soil
to which the sovereignty of the United States did
not extend. But If he had hoped to find that
place in California he was doomed to disap-
pointment. For even as he was journeying west,
the Mexican broke ont. California was
seized by the Americans and at the end Of the
war the next year the great empire of the West
from the Missouri to the Pacific was under the
Stars and Stripes.
On July "a. 1847, Young and his pioneers
reached the valley of the Great Salt lake. Look
ing out over this valley from the summit of Big
mountain, the Mormon leader declared simply
This is the place" The wanderers had reached
their Chosen Land. That fall 700 wagons bear
ing Mormon families arrived in the valley In the
same autumn Brigham Young set out for Winter
Quarters again and came back the following year
with about 100 wagons laden with more families
and supplies.
The opening of 1s4s saw the beginning of the
great migration. "The American frontier never
beheld movement quite like that of the Nor
MONS" says a recent historian. During the
spring and summer of that year nearly all of the
Saints who had gathered at Winter Quarters and
other places along the frontier set out across the
plains until more than 5000 had reached Utah.
By the fall of 1852 this food of migration had
mounted to more than 10000.
OF this epic movement the late Judge c. c.
Goodwin of Utah, in his tribute to The Mormon
Pioneer" said: -. When Aeneas, with his fell
low followers, took his little company to Italy,
when Xenophon led his heroes on the long
march from the valley of the Tigris, across the
wilds of Kurdestan and over the rough highlands
of Armenia and Georgia to the shores of the
Euxine; when the Pilgrim Fathers, in their
little ship, faced winters Atlantic voyage and
then on landing had the faith and strength to
kneel the frozen coast and offer praise
service to the Infinite for his mereies, the world
has been touched and thrilled at the spectacle
and fha story continues tO ring out on Srlcceef-
ing centuries like psalm. i. +.
But the exodus to Utah was not like any
other recorded in history. The exodus to Italy
was to a land of sunshine, native fruits and
flowers; the march of Xenophon's Immortal
Band was march of fighting men back TO their
homes; the exodus Of the Pilgrims was to new
world of unmeasured possibilities but the exodus
to Utah was march out of Despair to destina-
ton on the unresponsive breast of the Desert.
1.-The Utah pioneers had been tossed out Of
civilization into the wilderness and on the outer