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Brigham Young Signed Letter in The Middle of the Massive Emigration to Zion and as Governor of Great Salt Lake City
Brigham Young Signed Letter in The Middle of the Massive Emigration to Zion and as Governor of Great Salt Lake City
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Young Brigham



Brigham Young Signed Letter in The Middle of the Massive Emigration to Zion & as Governor of Great Salt Lake City

 

Single page letter signed, 7.5" x 9.75". Dated "Executive Dept U. Territory / G.S.L. City, August 2, 1854", and signed by Brigham Young as Governor, "Brigham Young" . Light creasing edgewear and professional archival repair to splits along fold lines.

 

Several years after Brigham Young created an entire community for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with his vision now attained, he presides as Governor of Great Salt Lake City, an appointment made by President Millard Fillmore. His letter offered here to the Governor of New Hampshire is shown below, in addition to the highlights of what it took to make this monumental task move from a Young's vision to reality:

 

Sir,

The mail of the 1st instant brought me Foster's Reports Vol 3 in good order, which I hereby acknowledge.

Most Respectfully

Brigham Young, Governor

 

 

On June 28, 1847, Brigham Young met with Jim Bridger, famed frontiersman and owner of Fort Bridger. The two men discussed the merits of settling the Salt Lake Valley. Bridger expressed his opinion that growing grain would be difficult in the area, making it unsuitable to sustain a large population. President Young responded, “Wait a little and we will show you.”

 

PERPETUAL EMIGRATION FUND ORGANIZED.

Gathering to Zion, or moving to live in communities with the rest of the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a central principle of the faith; in fact, the tenth Article of Faith stated, "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel..." The converts to the church were Israel and they needed to be gathered to the Promised Land. The process to attain this end was the sophisticated establishment of The Perpetual Emigrating Fund which started in 1849 and whose goal was to assist with mass emigration on what would equate to relatively little financial resources to do so.

 

President Young returned in September 1848, and by the end of the year, almost 3,000 Saints had arrived in the valley. President Young wrote to those still on the trail that the Saints had found “a haven of rest, a place for our souls, a place where we may dwell in safety,” . “Some of the early pioneers were very impressed by how luxuriant it was, how well watered it was, how much grass was growing here," Olsen said. "That’s not to say they didn’t have to dam up the creeks and create networks for irrigation, but it wasn’t the kind of arid landscape that we often think about.” The Saints did not have much time to take in the scenery, however. There was a lot of work to do to establish Great Salt Lake City.

“They were starting from scratch,” Olsen said. “If they were going to establish a community here, they had to establish it from the ground up. Hardly any of these people had any experience in doing that. … So they had to build roads, and they had to build irrigation systems and transportation systems and communication systems, and they had to build social institutions and they had to build all these elements … with relatively few resources and with relatively little background experience.”

Assistance by the church via the PEF was always given as a loan, rather than as a gift. Emigrants were expected to repay the loan as they were able. Funds were raised from profits from church assets, as well as private contributions, and were made available based on individual need. However, because the funds were so limited, priority was given to individuals with skills that were desperately needed in the West. Special preference was also given to those whose relatives had contributed to the fund or those with the longest faithful church membership, usually 10 years or more.



To stretch the limited funds even further, doubling up in wagons, group contracts and the organization of handcart companies were some of the processes employed. As the emigrants were able to establish themselves and begin to repay the loans, the monies were extended again to aid more PEF emigrants. This cycle lead to a perpetual fund and allowed the church to emigrate an enormous number on very little "seed" resources. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, more than 30,000 people were helped through the Perpetual Emigration Fund, about one-third of them from Europe.

 

“When you’re with people you’re committed to by covenant … you can’t discount the value of religion bringing this thing together,” Olsen said. “So, there was just this amazing commitment they had to one another, even though often they didn’t share the same language (or) the same background. But they did share the same religion, so that was the glue that held them together and encouraged them to collaborate and share and sacrifice and do all those things that actually enabled them to succeed here where other people would not have.” In only 10 years, the pioneers, through hard work and determination, had built a growing city with homes, shops, churches, farms and schools, and an area where they thought the Saints could live free from persecution and interference.

By 1851, President Millard Fillmore appoints Brigham Young first territorial governor of the Utah Territory, an appointment later renewed by President Franklin Pierce. Young serves in the post for seven years, before being replaced on April 12, 1858, by Alfred Cumming, at the time of the arrival of Johnston’s Army.



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