OUR PIONEER HERITAGE

By Richard G. Hinckley

 

 

YOU REALLY ARE A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT.  Jane and I have loved the combining of the wards, and we thank you for your friendship and goodness. You helped us raise our family, and we thank you for it.

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I have been asked to speak about our Pioneer heritage. Before doing that in a traditional way, I thought it would be interesting to talk about others who came to these valleys in the early days.

 

We hear a great deal about our own Mormon Pioneers at this time of year, and of course that is entirely appropriate. But this morning, before I turn to them, I thought it would be of interest to expand my remarks to include a few of those of other faiths, or of no definable faith at all, who played key roles in the establishment of the civilization, culture, refinement, and the sense of community we all share today.  

 

Several years after our own people settled here, those of many faiths and backgrounds came to Utah in the hope of improving their lot in life—to many, it was to escape religious persecution, to others, Utah was a stop on a tedious journey out of poverty.

 

Catholics first came with the Domínguez-Escalante expedition in 1776. This was a rugged and difficult undertaking, which had as its purpose two primary goals:  to explore and map unknown territory, and to convert the native population to Catholicism. These Catholic explorers did not remain here, but half a century later, trappers noticed Ute Indians with crucifixes, evidence of continued contact with Catholic missions in New Mexico.

 

After the Latter-day Saints established permanent settlements in the Utah Territory, Catholics and others began to arrive and put down roots, mainly to serve people of their various faiths who came here from Southern and Eastern Europe to work the mines, mills, and smelters. Relations between the Church members and Catholics generally were amicable, at least in the beginning. With the assistance of Brigham Young, Father Edward Kelly purchased land for a church in 1866, and his successor, Father Patrick Walsh, completed construction of the first Catholic church in the Utah Territory, St. Mary Magdalene, in 1871. Father Scanlan replaced Father Walsh in 1873. This highly energetic and charismatic Catholic leader, in a rather remarkable display of cooperation and mutual respect, was invited to conduct Catholic services in our own St. George Tabernacle in May 1879, preaching to a predominantly LDS congregation of about 3,000, and the local Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang the “Peter’s Mass” in Latin conducted by a native of Edinburgh, John MacFarlane.  

 

In 1867 Episcopal Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle came to Utah to begin the organization of Episcopal Church activities. His congregation included just three confirmed Episcopalians, all women. In addition, he also had a mission committee, consisting of a Roman Catholic, a Methodist, and a Latter-day Saint. Now that’s what I call making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!  If you decide to try that approach, bishop, please don’t tell anyone that I suggested it!

 

With this toehold, the Episcopal Church began to grow, and several churches were built. Ultimately, St. Mark’s Cathedral was completed in 1871. This beautiful cathedral remains in service to this day. We celebrated the 150th anniversary of this cathedral a few days ago. I attended the funeral services three weeks ago in that cathedral for my childhood friend, Carolyn Tanner Irish, where I admired the beautiful stained glass and architecture of that grand old building. I was happy to see some of our members at that funeral, including our own Jesselie Anderson.

 

Episcopal Bishop Tuttle founded the first perpetual care cemetery in Utah, and later took credit, in his words, for “shaming the Mormons into taking better care of their own ground.” Thank you, Father Tuttle, I’m sure we needed it.

 

The first Jewish services were held in Salt Lake City in 1864, just 17 years after the pioneers arrived in this valley. The fifty or so adult Jews primarily were businessmen. Rabbi Benny Zippel and other Jewish leaders make significant contributions to Utah society to the present day.  

 

And, under the general heading of evangelical Christians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Lutherans, and members of the Church of Christ have been operating in Utah since its territorial period.

 

And as you know, churches of every description dot the landscape of Utah today. I am grateful for their contributions and for the spirit of collegiality and cooperation found between our leaders. I hope that relations between our members and theirs are as cordial.

 

And now something of our own heritage as members of the Church. Of course, it is unlikely that any of these other churches would have established themselves in Utah without the efforts of the Mormon Pioneers, at least not before decades had passed. 

 

Between 1847 and 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, some 60 to 70,000 converts walked the final 1,100 miles to this valley or came in wagons. We all know something of the terrible persecutions they had endured that had forced them to leave first New York, then Ohio, then Missouri, and finally Illinois. The Prophet Joseph Smith had been slain, and they were forced to leave their homes one more time, this time to a place far, far away where none could come “to hurt or make afraid” as their hymn said.

 

Time does not permit the telling of even a small number of these stories, so I will limit myself to a brief telling of two with which I am most familiar. One is of my great-grandfather, Ira Nathaniel Hinckley; the other is from the memoirs of a girl, who, as a 13-year-old, made the journey from England to the Salt Lake Valley in 1856.  

 

I believe it is important when we retell or listen to these Pioneer stories, that we remember that all they did, the hardships they endured, the privations they suffered, and their willingness to give their very lives, was grounded in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in their determination to follow Him and His Restored Gospel. That is the lesson we should take away and apply to our own lives.

 

Ira Hinckley, joined the Church in 1844 at the age of 16. He came to Nauvoo in time to hear the Prophet Joseph Smith preach several times in the grove of trees near the Nauvoo Temple before Joseph was martyred in that same year. At the age of 23 he left Nauvoo with his wife Eliza Jane Evans and their 5-month-old daughter and set out for Utah. Eliza Jane and her brother both died on the same day while crossing Iowa. Ira made coffins, buried them in the prairie sod, picked up his little girl, and continued the long journey to these valleys.

 

After his arrival here he ultimately married again and settled in Coalville, Summit County where he farmed and was a blacksmith and a stonemason.   

 

His son, my grandfather, Bryant S. Hinckley, was born in a tiny log cabin that was Ira’s home in Coalville in July of 1867. I was very close to my grandfather during my growing up years. He died at the age of 94 while I was serving my mission.

 

Just three months before grandfather’s birth, a rider galloped up to Ira’s cabin in Coalville bearing a letter from Brigham Young. That letter changed their lives forever. It read in part:

 

“Great Salt Lake City

[Friday] April 12, 1867 

 

Elder Ira N. Hinckley

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Dear Brother:

We wish to get a suitable person to settle on and take charge of the Church Ranch at Cove Creek, Millard County. Your name has been suggested for this position. As it is some distance from any other settlement, a man of sound practical judgment and experience is needed to fill this place. . . If you think you can take this mission, you should endeavor to go south with us. We expect to start a week from next Monday. It is not wisdom for you to take your family there until the fort is built. . . Should you conclude to go, let us know by the bearer of this letter, and when you start, come with conveyance to accompany us.

Your brother in the Gospel,

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Brigham Young. . .”

 

Ira fed the man’s horse, invited him into their little cabin for a hot meal, then said simply, “Say to the President I will be there on the appointed day with conveyance prepared to go.” There was no debate; no conditions were required, Ira just said, “I’ll go.” He arrived in Cove Creek two weeks later and began superintending the building of the fort immediately.  

 

His daughter Adell later wrote, “So was one of life’s programs changed in an hour. Our thoughts of a permanent home in Coalville were given up forever, and the thoughts of a home in a fort out on the highway, between settlements, occupied our attention.”

 

Many of you have visited Cove Fort, now restored and open to the public, one of Utah’s most visited sites.  I visited there many times with my grandfather when I was a boy. It wasn’t much of a place then. There were no amenities, and it was rather run down. He spent ten years of his life there, from infancy until age 11, and he kept me spellbound with wonderful and exciting stories of his childhood on the frontier.  

 

That is just one of the countless stories of our pioneer ancestors, many of which are part your own family legacies.

 

When the Pioneers trekked West, they were grouped into companies. It took weeks to make the trek, and many perished along the way. Of course, the most celebrated of these Companies were the Willie and Martin Handcart companies, accompanied by the Hunt and Hodgett wagon companies; all told, these 4 Companies included some 1,600 souls, mostly from Europe. Individual stories of them are legion. They left Iowa City in the late summer of 1856. Many of these people are in your own family lines. With all our telling and re-telling of their stories, we can neither detract from their achievements nor can we add to them, but we can and should learn from them and be inspired by them.

 

The story I know best is of a girl named Mary. Some 53 years after their arrival in the Valley, and after growing to adulthood and bearing and rearing 13 children, then burying 4 of them along with her husband, someone persuaded Mary to write her recollections of their journey. In fewer than 4 pages, now typewritten, she recounted from memory her harrowing journey west as a 13-year-old girl. Subsequent scholarly research has shown her memory, other than one or two incorrect dates, to be remarkably accurate.

 

This is an abbreviated version of her story.

 

Missionaries serving in Brighton on the southern coast of England taught her family the Gospel. They were baptized in November of 1855.  Just 6 months after joining the Church, her father sold his business and all their possessions, and the family set out for Utah. They departed their home on May 19, 1856. When they arrived in Iowa City, and with the proceeds from the sale of all their earthly possessions in England, purchased a covered wagon a team of oxen. They were assigned to the Hunt Wagon Company. There were 8 members in Mary’s family: her parents and 6 children. By the time they stumbled out of the frozen mountains in Emigration Canyon on December 11, nearly 7 months later, three of the children, including one born along the trail, had perished from freezing or starvation. Their mother, aged 43, lay frozen in the wagon, having died just a few hours before reaching the Valley. The survivors were so badly frostbitten that some of them lost their toes.  

 

I quote a few excerpts from Mary’s own words: 

 

“We traveled until we got to the Platte River. That was the last walk I ever had with my mother. We caught up with the Martin handcart company that day. We were ordered to stay with them to help them if we could.

 

“We watched them cross the river. There were great lumps of ice floating down the river. It was bitter cold. We went back to the camp and went to prayers. They sang ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints no Toil nor Labor Fear.’ I wondered what made my mother cry. That night my mother took sick and the next morning my little sister was born. We named her Edith. She lived six weeks and died for the want of nourishment.”

 

“When we arrived at Devils Gate it was bitter cold. We left lots of our things there. We left our wagon and joined teams with a man named James Barmen. He had a sister who had frozen to death. While we were there an ox fell on the ice and the brethren killed it and the beef was given out to the camp. My brother James ate a hearty supper and was as well as he ever was when he went to bed.  In the morning, he was dead. He was four years old.”

 

She continues:

 

“We arrived in Salt Lake City at nine o'clock at night the 11th of December 1856. Three of us children who were still living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. Two of my sisters and my little brother had been buried on the plains.

 

“Bishop Hardy had us taken to a house in his ward and the brethren and sisters brought us plenty of food. We had to be careful and not eat too much as it might kill us we were so hungry. . . The doctor amputated my toes using a saw and a butcher knife.”

 

And finally, this last paragraph from her narrative,

 

“It is October 24, 1909. I went to Sunday School and was asked to relate a few incidents of our journey across the plains 53 years ago. I told them we had the first snowstorms in October 1856. There were fifteen who died through the cold and exposure while crossing the Platte River. Sister McPherson sat by me, and she said her mother was the fifteenth to die. They were all placed side by side and a little dirt thrown over them. I met Brother Langley Bailey. We talked over incidents of our trip across the plains. It made me feel bad. It brought it all up again. It is wise for our children to see what their parents passed through for the gospel? Yes, I think it is.”

 

I close with two more quotes, one from an ancient prophet, the second from a recent prophet.

 

In his last great message to his people, Joshua reminded the children of Israel, who had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and who were now settled in a new land they had not built:

 

“. . . I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.”

 

And so it can be said of us. These valleys were barren and desolate 175 years ago, and now we live in cities and towns that are fertile and productive, truly flowing with milk and honey. We did not build them, yet we live in them and enjoy them. 

 

And finally, this insight from a talk a recent prophet gave shortly before he died:

 

“It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. In our times of abundance, it is good occasionally to be taken back to earlier days, to have our minds refocused on the struggles of the early Latter-day Saints, to remind us of the necessity for labor if the earth is to be made to yield, of the importance of faith in God if there is to be lasting achievement, and of the need to recognize that many of the so-called old values are worthy of present application.”

 

Or, in the words of Mary:

 

“It is wise for our children to see what their parents passed through for the gospel? Yes, I think it is.”

 

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, may we remember, and be inspired, by those who have gone before, whether our ancestors were among them or not, that we might resolve to live a little better, to look to the future with a little more faith, to draw a little closer to God, our Eternal Father and to His Only Begotten Son, that by remembering the price paid by our own Pioneers we might appreciate perhaps just a little better the terrible suffering the Savior endured in our behalf, that we might live the gospel with greater determination and enthusiasm, and appreciate and love and support one another just a little better. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.