The streets were kept open, but were barely wide enough for travel, as the owners cultivated the space in front of their houses. At a meeting on the 24th of September, permission was granted to build on the lots immediately, all buildings to be at least twenty feet from the sidewalk; and a few days later it was voted "that a land record should be kept, and that $1.50 be paid for each lot; one dollar to the surveyor and fifty cents to the clerk for recording." A council-house

32

was ordered to be built by tithing labor; and it was suggested that water from the Big Cottonwood be brought into the city; the toll for grinding grain was to be increased, and a resolution was passed against the sale or use of ardent spirits. That all might be satisfied, the lots were to be distributed "by ballot, or casting lots, as Israel did in days of old."33"

On the 1st of October Brigham called the battalion brethren together, blessed them, and thanked them for the service they had rendered. "The plan of raising a battalion to march to California," he said, "by a call from the war department, was devised with a view to the total overthrow of this kingdom, and the destruction of every man, woman, and child.””

Winter was now at hand, and there was sore need that the saints should bestir themselves. The presilocated as near together as possible, and immediately south of the city. The line of the fence began at a steep point in the bluffs just south of the warm springs, thence straight to the north-west corner of the fort, then from the south-east corner of the fort, east of south, to some distance south of Mill Creek, thence east to the bluffs again, its entire length, including two sides of the fort, being 3,638 rods. Utah Early Records, MS., 20-1. The entire tract was 5, 153 acres, of which 872 acres were sown with winter-wheat, the remainder being intended for spring and summer crops.

32 Chas Crismon petitions that it be increased from 1-16 to 1-10; granted.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1848, 64.

83 The city plat is already allotted, and many families are at present without lots; therefore we have deemed it expedient to run off an addition to the city, commencing at the eastern line of the city and running east as far as the nature of the land will allow for building purposes. Not only is this addition necessary, but we are going to lay off a site for a city about ten miles north, and another site about ten miles to the south of our city.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1848, 69.

3 Hist. B. Young, MS., 1848, 65. This was not the case. vol. v. chap. xviii., this series.

See Hist. Cal.,

SECOND WINTER IN THE VALLEY.

287

dent and others of the church dignitaries worked indefatigably with their people, carrying mortar and making adobes, hauling timber and sawing it. There were but 450 log cabins within the stockade, and one thousand more well-filled wagons had arrived this

season.

A county government was organized, and John D. Barker elected sheriff, Isaac Clark judge of probate, and Evan M. Green recorder and treasurer. 35 Two hunting companies in December were formed, under the leadership of John D. Lee and John Pack, for the extermination of wild beasts. There were eightyfour men in all, and their efforts were successful." From the 1st of December until the end of February there were heavy snow-storms. On the coldest day the mercury fell below zero, and on the warmest marked 21° of Fahrenheit. On account of the snow in the cañons it was difficult to bring in the necessary fuel. As the previous winter had been warm, the settlers were unprepared for such cold weather, and there was much suffering.

38

836 George Coulson, Andrew H. Perkins, and David D. Yearsley, county commissioners; James Sloan, district clerk; Jacob G. Bigler, William Snow, Levi Bracken, and Jonathan C. Wright, magistrates.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 77. 36The two hunting companies organized last Dec. report that they have killed 2 bears, 2 wolverenes, 2 wild-cats, 783 wolves, 409 foxes, 31 minks, 9 eagles, 530 magpies, hawks, and owls, and 1,026 ravens.' Hist. B. Young, MS., March 1849.

37 To 33° below freezing-point on Feb. 5th.' General Epistle of the Twelve, in Frontier Guardian, May 30, 1849.

38 At Fort Bridger the winter had been unusually severe, and the traders, it was reported, had suffered almost starvation.' It was resolved that no corn should be made into whiskey, and that if any man was preparing to distil corn into whiskey or alcohol, the corn should be taken and given to the poor. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 4.

CHAPTER XII.

IN THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE.

1849.

FOOD SUPPLY AND SHELTER-BUILDING LOTS-CURRENCY ISSUE-Bank NOTES AND COINAGE-PRIVATE AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS-WIDE AREA OF THE CITY-SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE PIONEERS-FESTIVALS AND AMUSEMENTS-LABOR A DUTY AMONG THE SAINTS-EFFECT OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD DISCOVERY-IMMIGRATION-CARRYING COMPANY-CALIFORNIA-BOUND EMIGRANTS—THEIR TRAFFIC WITH THE MORMONS-PRODUCTS AND PRICES-GOLD-HUNTING FROWNED UPON BY THE CHURCH.

THROUGHOUT the winter of 1848-9 food was scarce among the settlers. Many still subsisted mainly on roots, thistles, and even on rawhides.1 Milk, flesh, and the small quantity of breadstuffs that remained were, however, distributed among the poor in such quantities as to prevent actual starvation. On April 1, 1849, each household was required to state the smallest allowance of breadstuffs that would suffice until the forth-coming harvest. Some received half a pound a day, and others four ounces.2

1' Many were necessitated to eat rawhides, and to dig sago and thistle roots for mouths to subsist upon.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 95.

2 The committee on breadstuffs reported on the 8th of Feb. that there waslb. per capita for the next five months. Utah Early Records, MS., 45. In the former part of Feb. the bishops took an inventory of the breadstuff in the valley, when was reported a little more than lb. per day for each soul, until the 9th of July; and considerable was known to exist which was not reported. Hence while some were nearly destitute others had abundance. The price of corn since harvest has been $2; some has sold for $3; at present there is none in the market at any price. Wheat has ranged from $4 to $5, and potatoes from $6 to $20, a bushel; and though not to be bought at present, it is expected that there will be a good supply for seed by another year.' General Epistle of the Twelve, in Frontier Guardian, May 30, 1849. Those persons who had imparted measurably to those who had not, so that all extremity of suffering from hunger was avoided.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 95.

DWELLINGS OF THE SAINTS.

289

Until the first fruits were reaped the famine continued, but the harvest of 1849 was a bountiful one, and for six years thereafter none wanted for bread in the city of Salt Lake.*

During part of this season many women and children were without shelter or fuel. To each family as it arrived was given a city lot, until the site was exhausted, as we have seen; but for most a wagon served for dwelling during the coldest months, and later an adobe hut, roofed with unseasoned lumber, and thatched with hay or frozen mud." Before suminer all were housed in log or adobe dwellings, the fort

It was not injured by crickets. Kane's The Mormons, 67. Our prophet predicted that if we would exercise patience under our difficulties during the immediate future, our necessities would be supplied as cheaply as they could be in the city of St Louis; and this proved to be true, for in 1849 we raised fair crops.' Smoot's Mormon Wife, MS., 5-6.

The peculiar chemical formations in earth and water proved of great practical value when once understood. For two years all the saleratus used was obtained from Saleratus Lake, near Independence Rock; the salt from the lake became an article of value in local use and among their exports. The alkali swept down from the mountains, and composed of a great variety of ingredients, such as magnesia, soda, salt, etc., when once subdued, makes the most durable of soils, which needs no enriching.' Richards, in Utah Notes, MS., 8.

Now as regards my beginning at Salt Lake. Soon after my arrival a city lot was assigned to me for a home and residence, on which I placed my wagon box or wagon bed, which contained our provisions, bedding, and all our earthly goods, placed them upon the ground, turned away our stock upon the winter range, and looked about us. I soon disposed of some of my clothing for some adobes, and put the walls up of a small room, which we covered with a tent-cloth, that answered us during the winter, until lumber could be procured next spring.' Richards' Narr., MS., 38; Early Records, MS., 36-8.

On Feb. 18th the people began to move out of the fort to their city lots. Id., 47. A number of temporary farm buildings had been completed before this date. Pratt's Autobiography, 406; Millennial Star, x. 370. A correspondent of the New York Tribune, writing from Salt Lake City, July 8, 1849, gives an exaggerated account of the place, which has been copied by several writers on Mormonism. There were no hotels, because there was no travel; no barbers' shops, because every one chose to shave his neighbor; no stores, because they had no goods to sell nor time to traffic; no centre of business, because all were too busy to make a centre. There was abundance of mechanics' shops, of dressmakers, milliners, and tailors, etc.; but they needed no sign, nor had they time to paint or erect one, for they were crowded with business. I this day attended worship with them in the open air. Some thousands of well-dressed, intelligent-looking people assembled, some on foot, some in carriages, and on horseback. Many were neatly and even fashionably clad. The beauty and neatness of the ladies reminded me of some of our congregations in New York.' The letter is in Mackay's The Mormons, 282. It is unnecessary to expose the absurdity of this description, as the reader is well aware that hundreds of California-bound emigrants passed through the valley this year. _Harvesting began July 9th, and until that date the Mormons were

HIST. UTAH. 19

being rapidly broken up by the removal of the houses on to the city lots. The city was divided into nineteen bishops' wards;' the ten-acre blocks were divided into allotments of an acre and a quarter, the five-acre lots in similar proportion, each building facing the garden of the one adjoining, the space of twenty feet left between the houses and the surrounding fence being afterward planted with trees and shrubbery.

8

The need of a circulating medium had been felt ever since the valley had been settled." Their currency was blankets, grain, and seeds; and even after gold-dust was brought in by the miners great inconvenience was experienced in its use, and many refused to take it, as there was a waste in weighing it. To meet this emergency, bank bills for one dollar often without their daily bread, as we have seen. The following is probably much nearer the truth: The houses are small, principally of brick (adobe), built up only as temporary abodes, until the more urgent and important matters of enclosure and cultivation are attended to; but I never saw anything to surpass the ingenuity of arrangement with which they are fitted up, and the scrupulous cleanliness with which they are kept. There were tradesmen and artisans of all descriptions, but no regular stores or workshops, except forges. Still, from the shoeing of a horse to the mending of a watch there was no difficulty in getting it done, as cheap and as well put out of hand as in any other city in America.' Kelly's Excursion to California, 226.

The bishops were David Fairbanks, John Lowry, Christopher Williams, William Hickenlooper, William J. Perkins, Addison Everett, Seth Taft, David Pettigrew, Benjamin Covey, Edward Hunter, John Murdock, Abraham O. Smoot, Isaac Higbee, Joseph L. Heywood, James Hendrix, Benjamin Brown, Orville S. Cox, and Joel H. Johnson. Utah Early Records, MS., 47-8, 69. The valley is settled for 20 miles south and 40 miles north, and divided into 19 wards. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 57.

8 At a council held Feb. 17, 1849, the committee on fencing reported that the enclosure termed the big field would include 291 ten-acre lots, 460 fiveacre lots, the church farm of 800 acres, and 17 acres of fractional lots, the whole requiring 5,240 rods of fencing, of which it was recommended that 3,216 should be of adobes, 663 of adobes or stone, and 1,361 of ditch, posts, and rails. 'When the Mormons first arrived they did not quarrel for best lands, but cultivated a whole district in common, dividing the harvest according to work done, seed supplied, and need of family. On dividing the town into lots, each received his plat, and so with fields, for south of the town lay a field of 6 square miles, cultivated in common; this was divided into 5acre square lots and given to heads of families, by lot or distribution, in tracts of one to eight lots each. After the distribution some began to speculate with their lots, but to this the church objected, saying that none should sell his land for more than first cost and improvements, for it belonged to God, and was merely held in use by the holder. Still, secret speculations occurred.' Olshausen's Mormonen, 166-7.

94 'Owing to the absence of small change, the tax collector was instructed to give due-bills for sums less than a dollar, and redeem them when presented in sufficient amount.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 23.