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Fort Bridger and the Mormons
Utah Historical Quarterly
Vol. 42, 1974, No. 1
Fort Bridger and the Mormons
BY FRED R. GOWANS
ONE OF THE MORE PERSISTENT questions in western American history relates to the ownership of Fort Bridger during the decade of the 1850s. The controversy extends well beyond the Mormon leaders' claim of having purchased the fort in 1855 and Bridger's denial of it. The federal government also became involved, leasing the fort from Bridger in 1857 as a winter cantonment for General Johnston's troops but then refusing to make rental payments by claiming that Bridger could not establish satisfactory title. Beginning in 1869 and extending to his death in 1881, Bridger engaged in a series of unsuccessful legal machinations to force rental payments from the War Department. Finally, in 1899 Congress awarded Bridger's heirs a sum of $6,000 under an obscure equity law for improvements which the old mountain man had erected on his post prior to 1857, but not a penny in rent was ever paid.
This study seeks to clarify certain facts behind the lingering Fort Bridger controversy. It begins with a brief survey of the relations between Bridger and the Mormons — relations which began in friendship but ended in armed confrontation — and concludes with an examination of the claims and counterclaims of sale.
The rapid deterioration of relations between the Mormons and Bridger stemmed in part from the church leaders' suspicions that the old mountain man was exerting a mischievous influence on the Indians. A letter from Bridger to President Brigham Young on July 16, 1848, suggests that Mormon leaders had earlier accused Bridger of exciting the Indians against the Mormon settlements:
Several months later, on April 9, 1849, a letter of warning from Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez informed President Young that "the Indians were badly disposed against the white and that Old Elk and Walkara were erging attack on the settlements of saints in Utah Valley." A month later a letter from Vasquez at Black's Fork stated that Barney Ward and two other men had been trading with the Bannock Indians and that "an Indian with two horses and some bear skins left the village to go with them but was subsequently found murdered below the junction of Ham's and Black's Fork." Vasquez wished to know how many horses Ward had brought into the valley and stated "that the band of Indians were incensed, and talked of coming to the valley to war upon the white." In rather curious reaction to this correspondence, President Young commented to some of the church leaders, "I believe I know that Old Bridger is death on us, and if he knew 400,000 Indians were coming against us, and any man were to let us know, he would cut his throat." Then he went on to say, "Vasquez is a different sort of man, I believe Bridger is watching every movement of the Mormons, and reporting to Thomas Benton at Washington." A week later Young expressed his feeling that "Bridger and the other mountaineers were the real cause of the Indians being incensed against the Saints."
Another source of friction between church leaders and Jim Bridger lay in the mutual desire for control of the Green River ferry. The legislature of the state of Deseret, forerunner of Utah Territory, had granted the first ferry rights on the Green River on February 12, 1850. The first Utah Territorial Legislature, in an act approved January 6, 1852, granted these ferry rights to one Thomas Moor for one year. The act also provided that if any person should erect "any public ferry across said river within Utah Territory, without permission of the legislature of Utah, said person or persons shall pay the sum of one thousand dollars, to be collected for use of Utah." The passage of this ordinance caused much excitement among the whites and Indians in the area. For several years ferries had been maintained by the mountain men for the accommodation of travelers. The Mormons now ignored the "squatters' rights" of these people and asserted control through legislative charter. Unable to cope with the Mormons in the territorial legislature the mountain men improved their close relations with the Shoshonis, hoping to stir up the Indians against the Mormons in an attempt to build a case that the Mormons were driving the Indians off their lands.
A letter from A. Wilson at Fort Bridger on October 9, 1852, to Indian agent Jacob H. Holeman described the unrest of the Indians when the Mormons entered the Green River area for the purpose of building a ferry:
Holeman reacted by visiting this section of country immediately. He reported that a company of Mormons, under the territorial charter, had assembled on Green River and commenced the construction of a bridge, but finding so much opposition on the part of the Indians, they had abandoned it for the present and returned to Salt Lake City.
A third source of conflict between the mountain men in the Fort Bridger area and the Mormons was the tax placed on the former by the Utah Territorial Legislature. Holeman summed up the problem:
Although the tax was not levied by the Mormon church but by the territory of Utah, it was very difficult to separate the two, especially if one were a Gentile. There was, of course, very little separation of state and church at this time among the Mormon people.
Underlying each of these issues was Brigham Young's growing desire to control the Fort Bridger- Green River area, which was the eastern entrance into the Salt Lake Valley. Thousands of Mormon immigrantswere traveling to Salt Lake City each year, and an outpost where they could rest and replenish their supplies just before traveling the last one hundred miles through the mountains would be of untold benefit. The Mormons had already established ferries on most of the streams along the Mormon route and had provided stores of goods and livestock at various places for the immigrants. But on the streams of Green River valley the mountain men and Mormons entered into dispute over who should have the right to supply the needs of the passing immigrants.
Some of the Mormons were not content to see this lucrative business go to the enrichment of the mountain men. Early in the spring of 1853 William A. Hickman, a Utah attorney, left Salt Lake City with a good supply of merchandise and a plan to establish a trading post at a strategic location east of the entrance to the Basin. About the first of May he located a favored position on the Green River which gave him opportunity to intercept all immigration before it reached Fort Bridger. His business prospered, and he claimed to have netted about nine thousand dollars in three months. During the winter of 1853 - 54 the Utah Territorial Legislature granted a charter to Daniel H. Wells of Salt Lake City to operate the immigrant ferries on Green River. Wells transferred this charter, which did not expire until May 15, 1856, to Capt. W.J. Hawley and others. Hickman's account does not include Wells's transfer of the charter, but it does give a clear picture of the problem:
When the Mormon traders returned to Salt Lake City that fall they reported that Bridger was selling powder and lead to the Utah Indians and inciting them to war with the Saints. This was a clear violation of Governor Young's recent revocation, at the beginning of the Walker War, of all licenses for Indian trade. Thereupon, Sheriff James Ferguson was ordered by Young to confiscate Bridger's dangerous goods and deliver Bridger to Salt Lake City. When Ferguson's posse of one hundred fifty men arrived at the fort, Bridger was nowhere to be found, and his Indian wife claimed she did not know where he had gone.
After carrying out the orders regarding the Fort Bridger property— which included the destruction of liquor stores — some of the posse continued on to the Green River where they engaged in a battle with the mountain men at the ferries. Two or three of the latter were killed and much of their property, which included whiskey and several hundred head of livestock, was taken by the posse. When the sheriff and his assistants returned to Salt Lake City with the livestock, church leaders asserted that from that time on the Mormons were in Green River valley to stay and that Bridger was out, or his influence was at least greatly minimized.
The whereabouts of Bridger was not known, and mystery surrounded his departure. Dr. Thomas Flint, who arrived at Fort Bridger on August 27, recorded the following concerning the takeover of Fort Bridger by the territorial officers:
More explicit information was recorded by John Brown:
Part of the Mormon posse — at least twenty out of the one hundred and fifty — remained at the fort from August 26 until October 7 looking for Bridger. This seizure and occupation of Bridger's establishment has been distorted by later writers, and Bridger himself has added to the misunderstanding. For example, Capt. R. B. March, a close friend of Bridger, recorded the mountain man's own version of the event:
Twenty years after the raid, in a letter dictated to Sen. Benjamin F. Butler soliciting political aid in connection with reclamations at Fort Bridger in 1873, Bridger gave the following exaggerated account:
There is no evidence that Bridger was threatened with death, but only with arrest, and the fort was not partially destroyed by fire as Bridger testified in writing to Senator Butler. Bridger was guilty hereof trying to use the burning of the fort in 1857 by the Mormons, who then claimed to own it, to fit his story of what happened in 1853.
Actually, itemized ledgers were kept by the sheriff and posse from the time of their arrival in August 1853 until their departure in October on each item that was purchased from the fort's commissary or used while the posse resided at the fort. These ledgers show that $802.91 worth of merchandise was either ptirchased or used during that period. In addition, ledgers on all items taken from the fort back to Salt Lake City are available and show that a total $1,433.30 worth of merchandise representing knives, caps, lead balls, powder, iron, and guns (both pistols and rifles) were taken. The ledgers reveal that $500.00 was entered for rent for the "occupation of fort and houses near 2 months." Thus a total of $2,236.21 represented the loss in inventory that Bridger sustained by the Mormon posse. This, of course, does not include the loss of income he suffered from his forced exile. The following written statement was included with the invoice turned over to Mormon leaders on the return of the posse: "The above goods are charged at the established price of the county given under my hand this the 25th day of February, 1854. James Bridger." This signature could not have been authentic, since Bridger could not write; nor was it written by his consent, because he had gone into hiding and could not be found. Had Vasquez been available to approve the fixed price, he would almost certainly have signed for both himself and Bridger, as he did on all other documents. But the fradulent entry of Bridger's name does not necessarily detract from the accuracy of the data entered on the ledgers.
In 1858, when the final payment was made to Bridger and Vasquez for the fort purchased by the Mormons in 1855, a settlement was also made concerning this merchandise taken and used at the fort in 1853. Apparently Bridger and Vasquez did not feel that the fort's purchase price of $8,000.00 completely covered the loss of $2,236.21 sustained in 1853, so a separate payment of $1,000.00 was made to them on October 18, 1858. From the ledgers, then, it is apparent that Bridger's holdings at the fort which were used or taken by the posse amounted to almost twenty-three hundred dollars. That the value of the remaining merchandise and the fort itself was worth several thousand more cannot be questioned. However, the sum of $100,000.00 stated by Bridger to be the value of the fort in 1853 when he escaped the arrest of the Mormons, was surely a gross exaggeration.
The old mountain man must have confined his exile to the Green River valley, for soon after the posse left on October 17, 1853, Bridger and John H. Hockaday, a government sLirveyor, began a land survey of the property claimed by Bridger. On November 6, 1853, the survey was completed. The plat contained 3,898 acres. The following spring, on March 16, 1854, a copy was filed with Thomas Bullock, Great Salt Lake County recorder. A copy was also filed with the General Land Office in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 1854.
Prior to this, Bridger had recorded another deed of some property he had purchased from Charles Sagenes on August 28, 1852. Bridger paid Sagenes four hundred dollars for this property, consisting of five houses with some acreage, which was later included in the survey by John H. Hockaday. This bill of sale was recorded at the Great Salt Lake County offices on October 28, 1853.
After completing the survey of Fort Bridger, the mountain man took his family and settled on a farm at Little SantaFe, Jackson County, Missouri, near Kansas City. Even from that distant location he continued to be a thorn in the side of the Mormon leaders. Brigham Young's letter to Stephen A. Douglas in April 1854, recorded by his secretary, reported that:
It is obvious that by late fall of 1853, due to the creation of Utah Territory, the takeover of the Green River ferries by the Mormons, and the expulsion of Bridger from his fort, that the mountain men were fighting a losing battle. Even though Bridger had his lands at Fort Bridger surveyed in a final attempt to establish some legal claim to them, it was of little value since he never again resided at the fort except for the short period of time during the summer of 1855 when he sold his property to the Mormons.
By October 1853 the Mormon leaders thought they were in a position to establish themselves permanently in Green River valley, at Fort Bridger, and to control that portion of the territory. Orson Hyde was called to organize a colony, and on the last day of General Conference in October 1853 Hyde read the names of thirty-nine persons who had been called by the church leaders to serve in the Green River Mission. Approximately three weeks later this company was organized at the State House in Salt Lake City under the direction of Capt. John Nebeker and started their march to the contemplated settlement, arriving at Fort Bridger eleven days later.
As soon as this company was on its way, Hyde busied himself in raising another company to follow. In less than two weeks a group of fifty-three men, primarily volunteers, had been raised and fitted with supplies and necessary tools and implements. With Isaac Bullock as captain and accompanied by Hyde, this group left Salt Lake City three days after the first company had arrived at Fort Bridger.
The first company was greeted at Fort Bridger by a dozen angry mountain men. Having had two or three of their number killed at the Green River ferry by the Mormon posse only a few weeks previously, they had no intentions of turning the fort over to the Mormon colonists. According to James S. Brown, the Mormons were "considerably cowed" by the "twelve or fifteen rough mountain men" who seemed to be "very surly and suspicious," the "spirit of murder and death appeared to be lurking in their minds." The Saints, being unprepared for such a reception, soon lost interest in occupying the post. Wandering southward they learned that about twenty additional mountain men, together with a band of Ute Indians, had settled for the winter on Henry's Fork.
Green River valley looked to these colonists "as if it were held in the fists of a well organized band of from seventy-five to a hundred desperadoes," and the fearful Saints turned southwest through snow along Smith's Fork, finally being forced to halt by bad traveling conditions at Willow Creek, a tributary of Smith's Fork about two miles above the confluence of the two streams and at a point about twelve miles southwest of Fort Bridger. Here they chose to settle. They were joined on Willow Creek by the second group sent out from Salt Lake City, and together they established a settlement known as Fort Supply. One of the original members, James S. Brown, remarked that "on November 26th, 1853, Captain Isaac Bullock came in with fifty-three men and twenty-five wagons. When they joined us our company was ninety-two strong, all well armed and when our block house was completed we felt safer than ever."
While Orson Hyde had fulfilled his assignment of starting a settlement in Green River valley he apparently was not happy with the prospects. The following spring when Hyde was traveling east and stopped at Fort Supply his traveling companion Hosea Stout gave their opinion of the new settlement:
Although the Mormons had built Fort Supply instead of occupying Fort Bridger, they had not surrendered their interest in acquiring the older post. They knew that time was on their side, and in the winter of 1853 - 54, when Green River County was organized as part of Utah Territory, Fort Bridger officially came within their jurisdiction. In addition to Fort Supply and Fort Bridger, the county included the ferries on the Green River. W. I. Appleby was appointed probate judge, Robert Alexander, clerk of probate court, and William A. Hickman, county sheriff. Hickman was also made prosecuting attorney, assessor, and tax collector. Brigham Young assigned Hickman to use his influence in quieting down the mountain men in that section of the country. The county seat was established at the Mormon ferries.
One of the principal problems in writing the history of Fort Bridger has been the question of when and under what circumstances the post was actually purchased by the Mormons. Accounts have varied all the way from Bridger's claim that he was "run off his property and never received payment, to Mormon church historian Andrew Jenson's assertion that prior to November 1853 Brigham Young had "purchased of James Bridger a Mexican Grant of thirty square miles of land and some cabins afterwards known as Fort Bridger."
A letter written by Lewis Robison to Daniel H. Wells, dated August 5, 1855, was found recently in the LDS church archives. This letter appears to answer some of the questions concerning the possession of Fort Bridger from the time of Bridger's escape in August 1853 until the purchase of the fort in August 1855. It reports that the mountain men controlled Fort Bridger until the spring of 1855 when Bridger returned and he sold it to Lewis Robison on August 3, 1855. This document is now available to scholars and is important in clearing up the controversy concerning the purchase of the fort by the Mormons and the actual date of occupancy.
As mentioned earlier, Bridger evaded the posse in August 1853 and returned to the East sometime that fall. He spent much time in Washington, D.C., trying to legalize his title to his property and to find redress through the federal government for the losses he had sustained at the hands of the Mormons. In the spring of 1855 he returned to the mountains. John L. Smith, writing to George A. Smith on June 19, 1855, states that "near Fort Kearney I met Bridger on his way to the mountains." In the summer of 1855, Bridger was approached by an agent of the Mormon church about selling. Robison's letter to Wells clarifies the point in question. Robison arrived at Fort Supply on Tuesday, July 31, 1855, to make the final transaction. Prior to that Hickman had been in contact with Bridger and was waiting for him to decide if he would sell. Hickman arrived at Fort Supply on Wednesday, August 1, and told Robison that the mountain men were putting pressure on Bridger not to sell and that Bridger was still indifferent. Robison went to Fort Bridger on Thursday, August 2, and found that Bridger would not come down from the $8,000 figure he had earlier indicated would be his selling price. Vasquez was not present at this time, but knowing of the plans to sell, he had commissioned H. F. Morrell to be his agent. Robison, realizing that Bridger would not reduce his selling price, told Bridger that he would take him at his offer of $4,000 down and the balance in fifteen months. Bridger started to hedge when he realized that Robison was willing to pay the price and pointed out that he felt that he should get $600 to $800 more. When Robison told him he would not give him a dime more, Bridger finally agreed to sell. Btitwhen the problem of the title to the property was brought up, Bridger refused to try to obtain any title to the ranch more than he had "which is only Possession." The old mountain man would not sign or accept the papers that Robison had prepared and brought with him from Salt Lake City. Bridger claimed that he had a "first Rate Lawyer Boarding with him that could doo business up Right." This undoubtedly was H. F. Morrell, the agent of Vasquez, who signed the following contract for Bridger's portion on August 3, 1855:
Fort Bridger Utah Teritory Green River Co
August 3, 1855
This indenture made and entered into this day and date where written witnessed h That Bridger & Vasques of the first part for and in Consideration of the sum of Fight thousand dollars one half in hand paid and the other half to be paid in fifteen months from this date have this day Bargained Sold and Conveyed and by these presents do Bargain Sell and Convey to Lewis Robison of the Second Part All the Right title and interest Both real and Personal to which we have any Claim in Said Green River County Utah Teritory Consisting of the following Property to wit — Twenty miles square of Land more or less upon which is situated the hereditaments and appurtinences the Buildings Known as Fort Bridger Buildings Consisting of the Ranch and, Hurd Ground togeather with all the right Title and interest of the Said Party of the first part to all and every article of Property belonging to Said Post including Cattle Horses Goods Groceryes &c — Now if the Said Party of the second Part shall well and truly pay to the Said Party of the first Part the sum of Four thousand dollars in effect in fifteen Months from this date, then this Bond to be in full force and effect in Law, otherwise to be null and void and the property above discribed to revert Back to the Said Party of the first Part. In witness whereof we have hearunto set our hands and Seals this day and date above written in presence of
Almirin Grow Wm A Hickman
his Jas x Bridger mark (Seal)
Lewis Vaques (Seal) per B [H] F Morrell Agent
Bridger and Vaquez kept the original document while Robison hada copy made to send back to the Mormon leaders.
On August 5, 1855, the same
day he wrote Wells, Robison stated that he had possession of the fort and all its Stock except for Historical Society of Colorado. five oxen and one wagon which were on the Green River in the care of Bridger. In another letter written to Wells on August 13, 1855, Robison explained that he had sent for the oxen and wagon. He also sent an invoice to Wells itemizing in detail all that had been purchased at the fort. His letter estimated the total sum of merchandise and stock at nearly five thousand dollars. The estimate came close. Robison's itemized invoice valued all the goods purchased, excluding the five oxen and wagon, at $4,727.30.
Enclosed in Robison's August 5 letter to Wells was a note dated August 3 pertaining to his payment of $4,000 to Bridger and Vasquez:
Robison concluded his letter to Wells by saying that the boys at Fort Supply were glad that Fort Bridger was in the hands of the church.
Upon receiving the information on the purchase of the fort, Brigham Young wrote Robison on August 9, 1855, that "we are glad the purchase is made . . . the account is opened with Bridger Ranch." Heber C. Kimball also noted the sale in a letter to Franklin D. Richards in England: "The Church has bought out Bridger Ranch one Hundred horned cattle, seven or eight horses, flour and goods and paid $8,000.00 for it. Bridger is gone."
From a letter to Robison from Wells, dated July 31, 1856, it is apparent that the church leaders were then preparing to make the final payment due November 3, 1856, fifteen months from the day of purchase. "You will please forward to tis the note in order to enable tis to make the payment due this fall on the ranch. We must keep an eye out for that payment do you know were the note is? In answer to Wells's request Robison replied, "The note we owe for the ranch I presume is in the hands of Vasquez, tho I have no certain knowledge of it."
In March 1856, seven months alter the Mormons had purchased the fort, Bridger and Vasquez hired Timothy Goodale to be their lawful agent in handling affairs pertaining to the final transactions of the selling of Fort Bridget. The final payment was to be made in Salt Lake City. Why Goodale, or for that matter Bridger or Vasquez, did not pick up the money on the due date is not known. In a letter to Robison from Brigham Young there is evidence that the money had been kept on reserve for Bridger or Vasquez, or their agent, to pick up. Vasquez had written Robison about the money in May 1857, and his letter had been forwarded to Brigham Young who requested Robison to get in touch with Vasquez and resolve the matter. Young's letter implies that it would be best for all concerned to have Bridger and Vasquez pick the money up in Saint Louis from the church agent. However, the money would also be available in Salt Lake City if this met with their convenience.
In August 1857 Young wrote Robison that "we have made arrangements with Mr. Bell to settle with Bridger whenever he comes for his money." The final payment was not made until October 1858, however, when Vasquez, delayed by the Utah War, finally arrived in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young's clerk made the following entry in his journal under the date of October 16, 1858: "Vasquez, the late partner of Jim Bridger, called upon Pre. Young this morning about the affairs at Fort Bridger." Two days later the following entry was made:
Thus on October 18, 1858, nearly a year after the Mormons had burned Fort Bridger to the ground, the final payment of $4,000 was made in Salt Lake City to Louis Vasquez. The indenture, signed by Vasquez, was recorded at the county clerk's office in Salt Lake City. Vasquez testified before Samuel A. Gilbert, county clerk, that he was duly authorized to act on behalf of James Bridger. Three days later, on October 21, 1858, the indenture signed at Fort Bridger in 1855, when the first $4,000 was paid, was also recorded in the county clerk's office.
The Mormon involvement with Fort Bridger lasted only a decade, beginning with the meeting of the Mormon advance party and James Bridger in June 1847 and ending with the destruction of the fort in October 1857 by Mormon colonists retreating from the approaching federal army. What began as a friendly relationship between Brigham Young and the owners of Fort Bridger rapidly deteriorated as the Mormon leaders came to suspect Bridger of unfriendly activity, especially with the Indians. Trouble over the control of the Green Riverferries plus reports of illegal trade with the Indians around Fort Bridger prompted the Mormon leaders to send a posse to arrest Jim Bridger in 1853. The old mountain man evaded arrest, but the posse occupied the fort. By 1855 Bridger had returned and sold Fort Bridger to the Mormons. Years later he claimed that the Mormons had driven him from his fort, seized his merchandise illegally, and then failed to pay him. But in point of fact the Mormon seizure of the post was done under proper legal injunction. The posse kept a careful record of merchandise it used and seized, and payment was made for it.
Bridger's actual sale of the fort to the Mormon leaders is a matter of documented record. In 1855 he and his partner, Louis Vasquez, agreed to sell the post for $8,000 under a contract which called for a down payment of $4,000 and a final payment of $4,000 within fifteen months. The down payment was given to Bridger himself. The final payment was available for collection at the time specified by the contract; but because of complexities arising from the Utah War it was not until late 1858 when Vasquez arrived in Salt Lake City, testified that he was authorized to act for Bridger, and collected the remaining $4,000.
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