HORRORS OF THE SALT LAKE TRAIL.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 208, 19 August 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

HORRORS OF THE SALT LAKE TRAIL.

’ HOW' MANY BANDS OF MORMON ; CONVERTS FACED DEATH IN ! THEIR LONG WALK TO THE J PROMISED LAND.

I (From “ P<-arson s Weekly. )

'THE firs', companies of Mormon omiI grants v iio followed the pioneers to Salt. Lake ;•< r--s the great plains got through without imi.li discomfort-, ni’il wit:, scarcely any loss oi life. Thi-, was because they were well oi-■mni-a-u and provisioned. with plenty oi waggons and other transport. It was fur ■itiicrui.se with the poorer class oi < migrants that followed them Many thousands of these came from England, vovaging from Liverpool in ships specially chartered ior tie m l v Brigham Young's agents there, am! afterwards joining what were know'’ as ” hand-cat, parties’’ tor the long trans-;-out men til tramp.

A large proportion were young itnnimr'isl iioineii ot the factory and ser-vant-girl ciasscs. or women field-work-er-; from the agricultural districts. There ivere also single young men. but not many; aml tlm re~t were made np of family groups, lusty fathers, buxom mothers, often with babies at their breasts, old tottering grandsire', and young toddling children.

HAD TO WALK IJ-OO MILES

All these penpie, young and old. the feeble as well as the strong, bad to face it walk of more than one thousand miles through a country destitute of roads and infested by roving bands of hostile savages. They had, moreover, to drag with them heavy hand-carts laden with provisions and baggage, for after crossing the Missouri River they were cut ofl absolutely from all chance oi replenishing their stores. The cruelty of the church officials in recommending and organising such an emigration under i ivh circumstance* was wicked, and was destined to bear bitter limit ere the United States Government .stepped in and forced them to discontinue it. It was not io bad in the summer, but ;:s the sen-on advanced the sufferings of some oi the parties almost surpassed i-.lief. (Hd m.eii nay be sect-to-day in S.-dt Lake City who were hoys then, iobl hi.g iimmd o.i the stumps of their legs, their feet hi ving been frozen off during th.i'C fearful marches. Others, mi re for tinwie. lagged be--1 ind or-wanderer, off the trial altogether. to tali sobbing beneath the spear thrust of the Red Mali e-r to encure the long-draw n-oit agonies of starvation ere death cam«. '•.« a mer,.'-

TJIIRTEEN FROZEN TO DEATH IN IN ONE NIGHT.

Of one company oi IGO who set out in the nut iinn of 185 G. no fewer than ( ; 7 died on the way. These were mostly English people, forming part of a shipment of Thirteen hundred converts dispatched from Liverpool in February oi that year.

Minter oveitook them rm the plains, and wh.-.t that means only those who know the eountrv can wfii faintly imagine. Facing blinding blizzards, struggling Mong through snow a foot or more deep, the only wonder i- that

any Mimivcd. One night the temperature fell le-lo.v zero. Next morning an examination of the rump showed thirticil dead, all stiffly frozen.’ Thev wore Imrn-d in :■ largo square hole, three or four abreast and three deep.

" When they did not fit ir.." writes one who was present, '• we put one or tv. o crc.sswise at tne head oi loot of the others. We covered them with willows ami then with earth. - ’ Two other victims froze to death before nightfall, and tho grave was opened again to inter them. Stones were piled over the place but parti-s passing eastward by the spot the following summer found that the wolves had uncovered the bodies, an] tliai. t leir bones v. ere scattered all'Over the n Jghb nirhi-od.

YOUNG GIRLS FOR HORSES YVORK.

In pa: t this ex'vssive mortality was dii<> to the bard labour involved in pushing and hauling tho heavy-laden i-nnd-i-a rts.

I'l.<>y weighed about 500 pounds, and many ci them wore pulled along by young giris. tho usual proportion of human draught animal-., however, being three women to one man. Meaiiwh'lo. the Mormor. - apostles " and “ h igl- priests." who were continually- passing up and down the linos to v.rgc ti e enegrents forward. traveller! luxuriously in carriages drawn by four

bor-os each. Dysentery atr.-oked tin m and extreme del dity. so that many found it iiapos/.dde to keep up, and tho prairie was lined for a mile behind the train ” ith th-' lame, the halt, the sick, and the dying.

Many a young womai. pulling until tie' last (linin' of her st length was gone, led and i;ied there anti then between ilie shafts of her car' Many a fatherI ii!<- i hi-, with his little children upon r. until ,i. hop,- >r m> bvtore his death. Yet complaints wire tew and far between. Iho victim = died with the calm faith amt iortiti:d ' of iii;>rtvis.

(>tn<; parties travelling in summer. j->-t lheir wav in tho desert and suffered o.goru-s from thirst. Knowing nothing of sucl phenomein. they allowed themsdie. to be deceived by the niir.•ge> that surrounded them on every -ide, iml which, only served to hire them to dost tuition.

LURED ON UY' YVONDERI FL SIGHTS. They beheld, as timy thought, garden groves, b autiiul lakes, and turroted leaii'ioii'. Scn-.etim■‘S a man walking clone would be multiplied into a company maiehing with beautiful military exactness, a few horsemen would become a troop. No wonder the poor ignorant omigi-nit» imagined themselves on the outskirts ot on < n: hanted land. 0m small hand of about thirty, misb r in ibis way vamiered i lean off the trial, and never heard of again. But in I'tfo. tui’iity year' afterwards, a number of skeletons, with fragments <•» h.-m.l carts and some mildewed rags ■ : I '•.thin :. were discover,'i ' p. -m.t . ■ in tho Black Hills, i .a • . .s away from the route ■ <l. ■. ... • . :ially folk ■ -i U . .. • ■:■ .o’itifled :. • ti. - ’Hains i:.. I, t p. •t > . The- 'i. ’ i'. ibly h iho . go Ij'.c pi-, w"o ■'■■if.. '. iig ".ci I■. . held li e-.-’ .. '■ s s tv'v. - T (.um-: , KT. ( it. surviv.-u : . t i o n strength.

of Mecca, the Mormon Zion, the Lat-ter-Day .Jerusalem, the City of the Honey Bee, became a city in very truth. The early wooden buildings were supplanted by handsome edifices of stone aud granite. The University of Deseret was founded. The tabernacle, to seat 10.000 people, and the mighty temple, began to take shape and form.

Modelled (on Solomon's temple, of vast size and architecturally imposing, il is built entirely of red granite quarried from the near-by mountains, and it- cast altogether nearly one million nr>-;iids.

bi-edo it is fitted up with the utmost splendour, ebony, marble, aud alabas-

.-'il e ntering lavishly into the .scheme of decoration; while the double doors leading to the Holy of Holies, as well as the shrine itself, are studded thick with precious stones.

BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE U.S.A

Vonn”.’' first open challenge to the Federal Government at "Washington consisted, in the establishment of a Mormon territorial militia, and the selling up on his own initiative of courts iasr.’.e which conflicted with the Uj>H--d States courts. When the Government s-mt judges and high official? ‘i Salt Lake. Young openly drove them out, or treated them so insolently that they had to leave. If they proved obdurate and refused to go, they were- politely told that they would be murdered if they stayed. Obviously no Government of any sellrespecting State could submit to this sort of tiling, and the United States dispatched an army across the plains to bring Brigham Young to his .senses. Ho replied by enrolling all the able bodied nude Mormons between eighteen and forty-live years and declaring war, as head of the Sovereign Independent Stat? of ))•■'(- ret. agonist the President and people of the United States of America.