Josiah McClain, Utah (New York: Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1900), Columbia University Libraries. Internet Archive link.

Utah

By
Rev. Josiah McClain
Synodical Superintendent

The Story of Utah—Early History

A complete story of Utah never can be written, because some of the facts necessary are not now within reach and never will be. Such a story would add a new chapter to the history of our country, for her religious and political career has been unique.

Capt. James Bridger explored the region about great Salt Lake in 1824-5; Col. John C. Fremont explored this same region in 1843, and the settlement of the territory was due in part to the published account of his great exploration. In 1847 the Mormons, under the leadership of Brigham Young, took possession of this region in the name of the Lord. It was then owned and controlled by Mexico, but was ceded to the United States the following year, 1848. The territory of Utah was created by Congress in 1850. From 1847 to 1889 the Mormons held undisputed possession of everything in the territory save a few government appointments, which they very largely controlled.

The Mormons were pioneers in the truest sense of the word and they entered into this work with a religious zeal that carried them through many severe trials and great difficulties. In those years families were sent out on missions to colonize different portions of the state. Through difficulties or dangers, at the bidding of their leaders, they went out to toil and suffer. I will not here attempt to enter into a discussion of their religious affairs farther than to say, wherever they went a church or place of worship of some kind was prepared, where the people could gather for service. Thus the church and its work were never neglected.

In fact, that was what they were in this desert land for, that was why they were going out into these waste places—because the call of the prophet to go was to them the call of the Lord.

The First Missionary Work

The first missionary to invade this territory was the Rev. Norman McLeod, a Congregational minister and Chaplain in General Connor’s Army at Fort Douglas. He came in 1865 and opened services in Old Independence Hall, in Salt Lake City. In 1864 Rev. Henry Kendall, D.D., of the Presbyterian Church, spent a few days in Salt Lake City, investigating conditions with a view to opening mission work. In 1869 Sheldon Jackson organized a Presbyterian church in Corinne. In October, 1871, the Presbyterian work was opened in Salt Lake City by Rev. Josiah Welch. Then followed quickly the opening of other fields, by organizing mission schools and establishing preaching stations. At this time the school work was sustained by the aid of a few missionary societies in the East and by individual contributions.

The work grew so rapidly that the Presbytery of Utah in 1877 overtured the General Assembly to authorize the Board of Home Missions to commission and pay lady teachers for this work. This was the origin of the Woman’s work for the exceptional populations in our country. We claim the honor of originating this work. Out of Utah’s necessities the call came, which opened the work to which so many women have given their lives and of their means.

With the impetus thus given the work by this action, mission schools were opened in every important center, beginning at Paris, Idaho, on the north, extending through Utah down to St. George on the extreme south. At this time the whole Church of Christ was stirred by the importance of this mission work and great things were undertaken. The Methodist Church opened mission schools and increased its mission force.

The Congregationalists enlarged their work by putting in schools at many important points and by increasing their ministerial force. The Episcopalians also did a very important educational work. With us new missions were opened, churches were organized, buildings were erected and the school work grew in favor. Those were the days when men’s souls were tried, for the opposition, always great, to the mission worker, was made intense after 1885 by the Government’s strenuous execution of the laws against polygamy and unlawful cohabitation. The Mormons refer to this period as “the days of persecution.”

Our School Work

Our mission schools were not intended to supersede the public schools, but rather to supply the great need of the people along that line and use them to open the door for the missionary in his work. But very soon the idea of academy work for the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute took form, then Mt. Pleasant was settled on as a second point for the building up of an academy, then the New Jersey Academy was established in Logan, then Hungerford Academy was established at Springville. These academies were intended to be a permanent feature of the work.

The first step toward the organization of a college was taken at the meeting of Presbytery in Springville March 26, 1892. A board of trustees was selected and at once proceeded with the organization of a college to be located at Salt Lake City. In 1895 Dr. Sheldon Jackson came forward with a donation of property in Washington, D. C., to the college. Through the generosity of Col. W. M. Ferry a splendid site of twenty-two acres within the city limits was donated to the college. Money was quickly secured and Converse Hall was erected. Then Mrs. Col. W. M. Ferry donated $15,000 toward the Woman’s building and now that handsome structure adorns the campus. We also have in the treasury $30,000 toward the erection of a boys’ dormitory. Gen. John Eaton, of Washington, D. C., was elected the first president August 26, 1896. March 4, 1897, Dr. R. G. McNiece was elected Dean of the college, and opened College work in the following September. On him rested the burden and responsibility of this work till 1905, when Rev. R. M. Stevenson, D.D., was elected president, who is now engaged in a campaign raising an endowment fund. This is the only Christian college within a radius of four hundred miles from Salt Lake City. This will crown our educational work, by giving the boys and girls of this Intermountain region the opportunity of securing a first-class college education under Christian influences.

In this mission work in Utah the Presbyterian Church has always taken a leading part. Her churches and schools were located in the strategic places. Our work has been strong and aggressive. Since the organization of the work in 1869 till the present year we have 127 ministers and students under commission from the Board. For twenty years, beginning with 1885, our mission teaching force averaged, yearly, 74. They had under their direction during that time 34,096 pupils. As the direct outgrowth of this mission school work, 600 of these pupils were converted and 21 churches were organized.

Above is mention of the Presbyterian work only. No one can estimate the results following the combined work of all the churches farther than to say, in a general way, that it has contributed very largely to the bringing about of every good thing we now enjoy in the state; our public school system owes its beginning to the mission school work; our greater liberty of thought and expression on religious and political subjects owes everything to the influence of the missions. But very many things remain to be set in order.

The Development of the State

Due credit must be given to the pioneers of this state. They found the country a wilderness. They began in earnest to establish their kingdom, that they might carry out their peculiar religious ideas. Under the power that controls them they have stood together, never faltering, never hesitating, desiring always to be alone and to be let alone, willing to endure hardships. For years this territory was never mentioned, save as the home of the Mormons. It was never thought of as a place for outsiders. While Oregon and Washington and Montana and Idaho were extensively advertised through the East, and as the result emigration was pouring into these regions, Utah was severely passed by. It has taken a long time to break down the bitter prejudice against outsiders immigrating into the state.

But when the soil began to tell its story of what it could produce in these valleys, and the mountains began to reveal the secret of their hidden treasures, of gold and silver and copper and coal, the world heard and the people began to push in uninvited. Then the real struggle began. The Government pushed hard for the enforcement of its laws. From 1885 to 1890 was a time of strife and bitterness. The attitude of every man, woman and child was understood.

The manifesto, which put forth the claim of suspending the practice of polygamy, came through President Woodruff in 1890. Then statehood came in 1894, which for a brief time seemed to promise peace, but the spell was soon broken, to be followed by more strife among the people and a deep-seated distrust, on the part of the non-Mormons, of the church authorities, whose solemn promises to the Government and country had been broken.

Then followed the great contest over the seating of Reed Smoot as United States Senator and the protest of a million men and women against it, ignored by a majority of the Senators. In this contest the attitude of the hierarchy toward political rule in this state was clearly defined. Their stand was taken and will be maintained while their power lasts. But in spite of our oft-repeated conflicts, the people have been coming in, till out of a population of 373,000 the non-Mormons number 100,000.

The Development of a New State

While all of our difficulties have not yet been settled and perhaps never will be, in spite of this we have caught the spirit of the age. Commercialism has taken a strong hold upon all classes and population is invited to come in and help develop this state of wonderful possibilities. Utah today is alive with boosters. Everywhere through the state new projects are being opened and the outsider is urged to come in and see for himself. We have the sunshine, the soil and the water, the gold and silver and copper, the coal and the iron. We need farmers who know how to farm, we need men of means to develop our resources, and we are sure they will bring prosperity to themselves and to all the people. We believe a very large percentage of the people look upon this new movement with favor. For in it they believe they see the only way to a final adjustment of present conditions. No compromise can be made while the world stands. We must be in harmony with our sister states and with the civilization of the age. Many are longing and striving for that kind of harmony.

Opportunities

First of all, Utah has a diversified climate. In this respect it rivals California. In the extreme southern part of the state it matches California for mildness. In that region where cotton is raised and almonds and figs grow in abundance, you are within easy reach of lofty mountain elevations.

Utah is a mountainous country interspersed with valleys. In summer or winter one can easily escape from the extremes of heat or cold. The soil is rich and favorable to a great variety of products, notably wheat, oats, alfalfa and sugar beets. The valleys are of surpassing beauty, the mountains are lofty and they are the great reservoirs holding the undeveloped water supply for these valleys. No finer spot on earth for the making of beautiful homes is now offered to the world than in Utah. It is a land of sunshine. It has many beautiful towns and villages. Salt Lake City is not surpassed for beauty of situation, for broad, clean streets, for climate, east or west. “Utah has some two million five hundred thousand acres of land now opened for homestead entry, an area comprising only about 2 per cent. of the total area of the state, and of this area one million acres are now under irrigation, while the acreage of the arid farms is about eight hundred thousand already under cultivation.”

Twenty million acres of arid land designated as “America’s latest and last bread reserve,” will soon be open to the future settler.

Our mountains are rich in gold, silver, lead, copper, iron and coal. One corporation is investing ten million dollars in purchasing and developing coal mines in Emery County. Vast deposits of coal and iron remain yet undeveloped in Iron County. Our resources seem to be unlimited. This seems to be the land for the man of limited means as well as for the man of large means.

The author’s conclusion carries striking implications. Economic forces are proving potent in the spiritual regeneration. The relaxing of the Mormon hierarchy’s hold upon this region is bound to continue under this process. Certain localities already present the aspects more of the typical American new settlement than of the Mormon community. The emigrant to Utah should carry with him a sense of his Christian Americanism and his American Christianity. He is the leaven which is to spread life through the whole lump.