William Carter Staines

1 Brigham Young, “Sermons,” 1872, reprinted in Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers, ed. William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen, 344–347, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), 389. 2 Edward Hunter, “Report of the board of directors of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society on the exhibition of 1860,” Deseret News, October 17, 1860. 3 “Early garden advice of great leader is recounted,” Deseret News, March 5, 1938. 4 Elizabeth Wells Randall Cumming, “Letters of Elizabeth Cumming,” in Among the Mormons: Historic accounts by contemporary observers, ed. William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen, 302–315, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), 309. 5 Hazel D. Moyle, “Early pioneer gardens brought astonishment to Utah visitors,” Deseret News, December 14, 1940.

6 Charles Lowell Walker, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, Vol. 1, ed. A. Karl Larson and Katharine Miles Larson (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980), 161–168, 193, 233; Brigham Young, “Comprehensiveness of true religion—The Saints but Stewarts,” in Journal of Discourses, 1853, ed. Orson Pratt, 1:334–341. Facsimile of the First Edition, (Salt Lake City, UT, 1966), 335. 7 Elizabeth Wood Kane, “Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in succession on a Journey through Utah to Arizona,” Utah, The Mormons, and the West (Salt Lake City, UT: Tanner Trust Fund, Univ. of Utah Library, 1974), 4:68.

by Ronald W. Andersen

During the fi rst years of his residence here, William Carter Staines engaged in various avocations. As an expert gardener, Staines not only cultivated fruits and fl owers upon his own premises, but superintended at one time the gardens and orchards of President Brigham Young. He also had a farm of 300 acres in Davis County. Staines was 36 years of age when he married Lillias Thompson Lyon on October 30, 1854, and began building his impressive home a block north of where the Utah Jazz play their basketball games. Negotiations for the settlement of the Utah War took place there between new Governor Alfred Cummings and replaced Governor Brigham Young. Sir Richard Burton, author of City of the Saints, was entertained there in 1860 and portrayed Staines as a Horatio Alger–like character, a poor man who became rich in America through effort.

Photos from Utah State Historical Society.

Thomas L. Kane also spent time there. The home was later sold to William Jennings, Utah’s fi rst Mormon millionaire, owner of the Eagle Emporium on Main Street. Jennings made extensive additions to the home in the 1870s and named it Devereaux House, after the area of England where he grew up. Staines’s connection with the Deseret Agricultural and Mining Society began when it was incorporated in January 1856. His interest and success in fruit culture is partly indicated by the fact that on one occasion, September 18, 1857, he had upon his table from his own orchards six kinds of peaches, some of them measuring nearly 10 inches in circumference; also grapes of his own raising. As a purveyor of fruits and vegetables, Staines was well known in the city, and in 1857 was a partner with David Candland in Candland’s saloon (restaurant) on Main Street, just south of the Council House.

Block 84, north side of South Temple.

8 Walker, 254–255. 9 Brigham Young, “General Epistle,” reprinted in Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration 1856–1860 with Contemporary Journals, Accounts, Reports; and Rosters of Members of the Ten Handcart Companies, ed. LeRoy Hafen and Ann Hafen, Pioneers Edition (Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1960), 22. 10 Hazel D. Moyle, “Lovely Utah fl owers a pioneer bequest,” Deseret News, December 19, 1948. 11 Ibid; “Her fl owers spread happiness,” Deseret News, December 5, 1948. 12 Kane, 86. 13 Elaine Jarvik, “Roots: Salt Lake’s oldest trees,” Deseret News, April 28, 1985. 14 Mary Ann Hafen, Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: A Woman’s Life on the Mormon Frontier, Bison Books Edition (Lincoln and London: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2004), 21, 34. 15 Esther Truitt, “Home gardening on city lots in the Salt Lake Valley, 1847–1918,” master’s thesis, (Univ. of Connecticut, 1986), 23. 16 Thomas Christopher, In Search of Lost Roses (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1989), 162. 17 Moyle, “Early pioneer gardens.” 18 Walker, 169. 19 Joseph Ellis Johnson, “Culture of fruits and fl owers,” Deseret News, April 15, 1863. 20 Sarah DeArmon Pea Rich, “Autobiography,” 1885, Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, Salt Lake City, UT, MS 1543 folder 2, 79–80. 21 Joseph Ellis Johnson, 1868–1872. Account and garden books, Book 9, 1868–1872. Annie Clark Tanner Western Americana Collection. Univ. of Utah Libraries Special Collections Dept. Salt Lake City, UT. 22 Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, “Minute Book,” 1863–1874, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City, UT, Series 59925. 23 Richard G. Francaviglia, The Mormon Landscape: Existence, Creation, and Perception of a Unique Image in the American West (New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1978), 84–89. 24 Deseret News, “Early garden advice.” 25 Elizabeth Emma Brewer Barrows, Pioneer Personal History Interview by Alice G. Mitchell, May 26, 1938, Works Progress Administration Pioneer Personal History Mormon pioneer fl owers seem to

have been roses, peonies, various pinks, and geraniums, though other popular fl owers of the time, such as dahlias, phlox, hollyhocks, asters, and lilies were also widely available.

Collection, Utah State Univ. Archives, Logan, UT, MS COLL 18 Box 1 Folder16.

26 Kane 7,62. 27 Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country (Lincoln, NE: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1981). 28 Kane, 111; Sir Richard Burton, The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California, 1862, excerpt reprinted in Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers, ed. William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen, 328–334. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), 331. 29 Walker, 185. 30 Hafen, 48; Hyrum Allen, Pioneer Personal History Interview by Winford Bunce, January 28, 1937, Works Progress Administration Pioneer Personal History Collection, Utah State Univ. Archives, Logan, UT, MS COLL 18 Box 1 Folder 4; Martha Spence Heywood, Not by Bread Alone: The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850–56, Ed. Juanita Brooks (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1978), 116–117. 31 Hafen, 41. 32 Burton, 331. 33 Deseret News, “Early garden advice.” 34 Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society Minute Book.

35 Rich, 79.