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Lot 162
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Important Mormon document highlighting Brigham Young, Bridger's Ranch, and the Perpetual Emigration Fund
Important Mormon document highlighting Brigham Young, Bridger's Ranch, and the Perpetual Emigration Fund
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Description:

Mormons

Important Mormon document highlighting Brigham Young, Bridger's Ranch, and the Perpetual Emigration Fund

 

Single page Trial balance sheet on pale blue lightly lined paper stock, 5.25" x 16," with header of "Trial Balance (pages 22 to 30)  July 2/57." The P.E.F. known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund, started in 1849 with the goal to assist with mass emigration of The Latter Day Saints to Utah on what would equate to relatively little financial resources to do so. Neatly penned accounting ledger inclusive of  the head office ("T Office" (Tithing office) ) names of individuals including Brigham Young as "B. Young," "D.H. Wells," E. Smith," names of possessions and tangible items ("stock,")  common accounting buckets of "Donations," "Bill Payable" and "Bills Receivable," "Cash," and a credit from the "Estate of D. Campbell." But perhaps the most intriguing was the debt to "Bridger's Ranch," which has an intriguing history with the emigrating Mormons (see below). Verso of page blank. Page very lightly toned with a touch of nicking along top edge. Expected folds, else near fine.

 

Companion to controversy wherever it appeared in the early days, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nevertheless grew at a phenomenal rate. Hundreds of converts were baptized each month in 1850s England and Wales. But Brigham Young's Zion—and the new proselytes' surest refuge—was in America. As noted by Arthur King Peters in his Seven Trails West, "the Mormon Trail of those years stretched all the way from Liverpool to Salt Lake City, making it by far the longest of any trail west."

 

"And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy." (Doctrine and Covenants 45:71).

Inherent to the belief of early Latter-day Saints was the spirit of gathering. They sought to build a centralized "Zion" community with fellow Saints, safe from ridicule and strife. As the Church spread through Europe, tens of thousands of new converts emigrated to America, leaving everything behind them for their faith and desire to be with fellow members. Of the 60,000 to 70,000 Saints who emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley in the late 1800s, more than 98 percent of the survivors were from Europe, and 75 percent were from Britain. The British converts began to emigrate with the arrival of Brigham Young to Britain in 1840. As American members faced persecution, new European members brought strength and refreshment. "They have so much of the spirit of gathering," Brigham said, "that they would go if they knew they would die as soon as they got there or if they knew that the mob would be upon them and drive them as soon as they got there."

The journey from Europe and locations across the plains were well orchestrated by The Church who employed PEF agents. Such an "agent' in Liverpool, England would be employed to charter ships or arrange ocean passage. When the Saints reached New Orleans, another agent would meet them and arrange passage up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. A third agent met them in St. Louis and arranged passage up the Missouri River to the outfitting station for the wagon trip to Utah. Later, once the railroad reached St. Louis, the emigrants would travel to St. Louis via New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. The entire journey from Europe to Salt Lake City often took the better part of a year.

When the Saints first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they were satisfied that they were isolated from their enemies and could build the kingdom of God in peace and safety. Brigham Young declared to members of the Pioneer Company on 24 July 1847, “If the people of the United States will let us alone for ten years, we will ask no odds of them.”1With the sustaining help of the Lord and by their own industry, the Saints established a strong refuge within the ten years. Success, however, did not come easily. Conflicts developed with government appointees, and great sacrifice was required to gather Church members to Zion and to colonize.

 

Offered here is an official page from the ledger of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, indicating the presence of the Tithing Office "T Office" as a debit of 950.65, debt to "Adj General's Office" of 20, and funding debit commissioned to Brigham Young "B Young" for 661.60. The sheet shows a perfectly reconciled ending balance of credits and debits, with an ending balance of "3719.48". Brigham Young defined tithing as 10 percent of one's property upon conversion and then 10 percent of one's annual income. He also instituted an "immigration tithe" requiring 10 percent of one's net gross upon arrival in the State of Deseret. However, Young admitted that neither he nor anyone else had paid a full tithe as he interpreted the Doctrine and Covenants. Other interesting highlights include a line item for Donations, Bills Receivable, Cash, the Estate of D. Campbell, along with line items for many individual names including ""D.H. Wells," "Little," "Arrowsmith," "H.C. Kimball," "T.W. Ellerbeck," and "E. Smith," many of whom are found within the database.

 

However, especially revealing with this ledger is the debt and credit to "Bridger's Ranch" which has an especially unique history with the emigrating Mormons. Fort Bridger was first established in 1843 as a trading post by Jim Bridger and his partner, Louis Vasquez, on the on Black’s Fork of the Green River. Planning to trade both with the Indians and the westward-bound emigrants, the first “fort” was composed of two double-log houses about 40 feet long,  joined by a pen for horses, and provided a small blacksmith shop. Westward bound emigrants who looked forward to the stop and a break from the long monotonous days of traveling were often disappointed upon their arrival at Fort Bridger. Unlike Fort Laramie, a “civilized” outpost, in their minds, Fort Bridger was little more than a crude collection rough-hewn log buildings. Of the fort, emigrant Edwin Bryant would say, “The buildings are two or three miserable log cabins, rudely constructed and bearing but a faint resemblance to habitable houses.”

 

When the Mormon Pioneer Company reached the fort on July 7, 1847, they spent a day there but considered the prices of supplies too high at the remote trading post. When a group of Mormons settled near Fort Bridger, tensions arose between Bridger and the new settlers. The next year, the Mormon settlers reported to Brigham Young, in Salt Lake City, that Bridger was selling liquor and ammunition to the Indians, a violation of federal law. Young, who was a federal Indian agent, determined to stop the practice and on August 26, 1853, a Mormon militia of forty-eight men started for Fort Bridger from Salt Lake City. However, Jim Bridger was warned and escaped minutes before the Mormons arrived. When the Mormons arrived, they discovered plenty of liquor, which they destroyed, but found no ammunition.

That same year, the Mormons established Fort Supply specifically for Mormon emigrants, about twelve miles south of Fort Bridger. In retaliation, Bridger wrote a letter to General B.F. Butler, a U.S. Senator, in October 1853 claiming he was “robbed and threatened with death by the Mormons” and that over $100,000 of his goods and supplies had been stolen. The following spring, Brigham Young sent fifteen well-armed men to take control of Fort Bridger, as well as the Green River ferries, both of which would become an integral part of the Mormon settlement plan. The men built a large stone wall around the fort and several stone buildings. The Mormons controlled the fort for the next year until Jim Bridger returned in July 1855. The Mormons asked him to sell, but he refused when he noticed the improvements. The next month, he finally agreed to the sale, under some pressure from the Mormon militia. Agreeing on a sale price of $8,000, $4,000 was paid immediately, and the balance was to be paid in November 1856, fifteen months later.

This may be but one page of an important ledger, but one can spend hours investigating the context of each line item. Especially revealing when each line item is reviewed. The ledger was a part of a larger archive inclusive of numerous letters by Erastus Snow. An important document and worthy of additional research.

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