Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, Number 1, 1988

TECHNOLOGY

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

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(ISSN 0042-143X) E D I T O R I A L STAFF M A X J. EVANS, Editor STANFORD J . LAYTON, Managing Editor MIRIAM B . MURPHY, Associate Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS KENNETH L . CANNON II. Salt Lake City, 1989 ARLENE H . EAKLE, Woods Cross, 1990

PETER L . GOSS, Salt Lake City, 1988 GLEN M . LEONARD, Farmington, 1988 ROBERT S . MCPHERSON, Blanding, 1989 RICHARD W . SADLER, Ogden, 1988

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City, 1990 GENE A. SESSIONS, Bountiful, 1989

GREGORY C . THOMPSON, Salt Lake City, 1990 Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, and reviews contributing to knowledge of U t a h ' s history. T h e Quarterly is published four times a year by the U t a h State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84101. Phone (801) 533-6024 for membership a n d publications information.

M e m b e r s of the Society receive the Quarterly, Beehive History, and the bimonthly Newsletter upon payment of the annual dues: individual, $15.00; institution, $20.00; student a n d senior citizen (age sixty-five or over), $10.00; contributing, $20.00; sustaining, $25.00; patron, $50.00; business, $100.00.

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Postmaster: Send form 3579 (change of address) to Utah Historical Quarterly, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84101.

HZSTORXCiLZ. aiXiLRTERLlT

Contents W I N T E R 1988 / V O L U M E 56 / N U M B E R 1

IN THIS ISSUE

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T H E BEGINNING OF M O D E R N ELECTRIC POWER SERVICE IN U T A H , 1912-22 T H E DEMISE OF T H E DESERET IRON COMPANY: FAILURE OF T H E BRICK FURNACE LINING T E C H N O L O G Y

J O H N S . MCCORMICK

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MORRIS A. SHIRTS AND WILLIAM T . PARRY

23

CHARLES L . SCHMALZ

36

KIMBERLYDAY

55

FREDERICK M . HUCHEL

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T H E FAILURE OF U T A H ' S FIRST SUGAR FACTORY FREDERICK KESLER, UTAH CRAFTSMAN T H E BOX ELDER FLOURING MILL BOOK REVIEWS

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BOOK NOTICES

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T H E C O V E R Workman on the Grace, Idaho, to Salt Lake City 130-kilovolt transmission line, 1913. Photograph courtesy of Utah Power & Light.

© Copyright 1988 Utah State Historical Society

Books reviewed

R O Y W E B B . If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners H . JEFFREY SILLIMAN NEWELL G . BRINGHURST.

88

Brigham

Young and the Expanding American Frontier

JAMES B . ALLEN

Harvesting the Light: The Paris Art Mission and the Beginnings of Utah Impressionism LAMAR

89

LINDA J O N E S GIBES.

PETERSEN

90

BARBARA A . BABCOCK, G U Y M O N T H A N ,

a n d D O R I S M O N T H A N . The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition . . . MARGARET K.

BRADY

92

WILLIAM M . FERGUSON and A R T H U R H .

ROHN. Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest in Color JOSEPH WINTER

93

J A M E S A. Y O U N G and B. ABBOTT

SPARKS. Cattle in the

Cold Desert

THOMAS CARTER

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Henry Hopkins Sibley: Confederate General of the West WILLL\M P . M A C K I N N O N

96

JERRY THOMPSON.

R . E. M A T H E R a n d F . E . BOSWELL.

Hanging the Sheriff: A Biography of Henry Plummer BARTON C .

OLSEN

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Hoytsville mill built by Frederick Kesler. USHS collections.

In this issue The rapid development of electric power service in the early twentieth century, as described in the first article, ushered in a new technological era in both home and workplace, although it did not end drudgery and street crime as some had hoped.

The overwhelming success of electric power makes it easy to forget its early difficulties. The next two articles focus on technological failures in two pioneer industrial ventures—the making of iron and sugar. An examination of evidence collected at the site of the Deseret Iron Company works indicates that the bricks lining the blast furnace could not withstand the stress and heat to which they were exposed and doomed the enterprise. Similarly, the first attempts to make sugar in Utah failed, probably because of problems with the vacuum pan, a key component in the final processing stage.

Fortunately these failures were offset by successes in other areas, thanks to the skills of many forgotten craftsmen who built an industrial base in the new Utah Territory. Chief among them was the tireless millwright Frederick Kesler. The fourth article details his colorful life and impressive achievements, and the final piece in this issue examines the history of one of his technological accomplishments, the Box Elder flouring mill.

The Beginning of Modern Electric Power Service in Utah, 1912-22

BY JOHN S. MCCORMICK

Utah Power & Light repairmen, 1919. The men on motorcycles are identified, left to right, as Chick Peterson, Finn McNeil, Cliff Beck, Hutchinson, Vest, and C. Pickering. The company not only sold electrical appliances, it repaired them as well.

All photographs courtesy of UP&L.

for thousands of years. In about 600 B.C. the Greek philosopher Thales produced static electricity by rubbing amber with a piece of cloth. Doing that, he discovered, gave the amber the power to attract small bits of wood, feathers, leaves, and other light objects. (The word electricity comes from the Greek word E L E C T R I C I T Y HAS FASCINATED PEOPLE

Dr. McCormick is a historian at the Utah State Historical Society.

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for amber, elektron.) It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, that the body of knowledge about electricity began to grow and not until the late 1800s, with the invention of the generator, the electric Hght, and the electric motor, that it could be put to practical use.^ Little has been written about the history and development of electricity in Utah. 2 What has focuses on the first period of that history, the years from 1881, when electric service began in Utah, to 1912, when, as Obed C. Haycock says, the formation of Utah Power & Light Company "ushered in a new era of power development in the state. "^ The subsequent years have received almost no attention from historians.

The following article deals with the founding of Utah Power & Light and its first ten years, during which time the foundation of the modern electric power industry was established.

Electric service in Utah began in the spring of 1881 when the Salt Lake City Light, Heat, and Power Company started supplying electricity to hght some of Salt Lake City's streets, businesses, and public buildings. The next twenty years or so was a time of slow progress and faltering steps. As in the rest of the country, the initial enthusiasm about the possibilities and benefits of electricity changed to exasperation and skepticism. Most of Utah's early power plants were small, isolated, locally owned, poorly financed and equipped, and located on canyon streams where they were subject to uncertain fluctuations.

Technical knowledge was limited and early equipment unsophisticated. Service was unreliable, available only part-time, and only slowly extended throughout the state.

Beginning in the 1890s the situation began to change. Two things happened. The first was a technological explosion. Vast improvements were made in generators and, at the same time, in the means of distributing the electrical current generators produced. The regulator, for example, made it possible to maintain a steady electric load even as demands on the line changed from minute to minute. With the invention of the switch, current could be shifted from one line to another in case of trouble. The development of alternating current and the use of transformers allowed electricity to be generated at a low voltage, iFor a brief overview of the history of electricity through the nineteenth century see Edwin Vennard, The Electric Power Business (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970), pp. 1-14.

2The main works are " U t a h Power & Light Co.: History of Origin and Development," a report of the company prepared in reponse to a Federal Power Commission order May 11, 1937; Obed C. Haycock, "Electric Power Comes to U t a h , " Utah Historical Quarterly 45 (1977): 173-87; and Boyd L. Dalstrup, "Electrification of Utah, 1880 to 1915" (M.S. thesis, Utah State University, 1976). ^Haycock, "Electric Power," p. 187.

Modern Electric Power Service Stepped up to a higher voltage for more efficient transmission, and then Stepped back down to a lower voltage for use, making electricity much safer to use and vastly increasing the area an electric power plant could service. Previously, only direct current was known, and it could be transmitted only a mile or so.

Finally, efficient electrical motors began to be built so that electricity could be used not only for lighting but also as a source of power for machinery, thus creating a huge demand for daytime power and putting the electric power industry on a much firmer basis than it had theretofore been as a part-time industry supplying power for lighting.

Quickly electric motors found their way into factories of all kinds, replacing steam engines and sending them to the scrap heap. In 1899 electricity ran only 5 percent of the industrial machinery in the country. By 1914 it was 30 percent and in 1929, 70 percent.* In Utah the first industries to convert to electricity were railroads, both innercity street railways and interurban systems, and mines. Their history is closely linked with the history of the electric power industry in Utah (just as, for example, the growth of the electric power industry in Michigan is closely connected to that of the automobile industry).

The second factor transforming the early electric power industry was the consolidation of small, individually owned stations into larger systems. In Utah that process culminated with the formation of Utah Power & Light Company.

UP&L was organized September 6, 1912, as a subsidiary of a large holding company. Electric Bond and Share Company (EBASCO) of New York, to consolidate dozens of large and small electric power companies in Utah and surrounding states. Holding companies were increasingly popular in the United States beginning in the early twentieth century and reached their peak in the 1920s. Within the utility industry they were particularly prevalent. By 1929 a group of sixteen holding companies generated over 80 percent of all electric energy in the country, and three systems accounted for over 45 percent.

The General Electric Company had organized EBASCO in 1905 to merge small, financially unstable electric companies into larger, financially secure ones, and to provide financial, management, and engineering advice to them and other companies. Utility companies •Forrest McDonald, Insult (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 40. A biography of Samuel Insull, this is the finest study available of any person connected with the electric utility industry and contains a wealth of information about the history of industry in the United States.

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required large amounts of capital, but small companies were not interesting to the investing public, and the new money required to meet the growing demand for electricity could not easily be secured. What was needed were companies large enough in service territory, volume of business, and earnings to interest investors in buying their bonds and preferred stocks.

One of EBASCO's first undertakings was the formation in 1906 of the American Power and Light Company, which then acquired the stock of a number of electric power companies in seven cities in Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and merged all of them into the American Gas and Electric Company. The new company was large enough to command a market for its bonds and preferred stock, which were sold to provide cash to retire the bonds of the constituent companies and to pay for new plants and transmission lines. As further opportunities arose, small companies adjoining the original cities were acquired, generating stations were enlarged, and distribution lines were extended to serve neighboring communities that previously had no electric service. Acquisitions continued through the years, and eventually all the properties in each state were interconnected and merged into a single company. The interconnections were also carried across state lines. The system in Indiana was connected with that in Ohio and in turn with the one in West Virginia. By the mid-1920s the fully integrated system extended from Lake Michigan to the North Carolina border. EBASCO proceeded in the same manner throughout other parts of the country. By 1925 it owned more than 200 operating companies in thirty states, generated 14 percent of the electrical energy in the United States, and had 11 percent of the customers.^ Following its formation Utah Power & Light moved quickly to acquire other companies. Within two months, on November 22, 1912, it bought Lucien L. Nunn's Telluride Power Company, which had been founded twelve years earlier to consolidate Nunn's power developments. It included five plants and served parts of southeastern Idaho, western Colorado, and northern Utah, including mines at Bingham and Eureka. Three months later, on February 7, 1913, a second company was acquired. Knight Consolidated Power, which comprised the power interests of mining king Jesse Knight and served parts of Salt Lake and Utah counties and the Tintic and Park City 5 Sidney A. Mitchell, S. Z. Mitchell and the Electrical Industry (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1960), pp. 67-80.

Modern Electric Power Service

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mining districts and included eight plants. A third acquistion followed two months later, the Idaho Power and Transportation Company, Ltd., which served southeastern Idaho and operated three plants. A fourth acquisition came in January 1915, the Utah Light and Traction Company, which operated street railway systems in Salt Lake City and Ogden, provided electricity for other purposes, and had five plants.

In addition to those large companies, UP&L also bought a number of other, mostly small enterprises that had been struggling for existence since their founding. Within two years they included Park City Light, Heat, and Power, Idaho-Utah Electric (Preston), Gem State Light and Power (Shelley), the Electric Company (Provo), Camp Floyd Electric (Mercur), Institute Electric (Bingham), Eureka Electric, Home Telephone and Electric (Davis and Weber counties). Salt Lake and Ogden Railway, High Creek Electric Light and Power (northern Utah and southern Idaho), Davis County Light and Power, Merchants Light and Power (Ogden), Bear Lake Power, and McCammon (Idaho) Power. In subsequent years it continued to acquire more. In 1916 it bought five, in 1917 three more, and in aU eventually absorbed some one hundred thirty.

Sledding turbine components to the Oneida plant, part of the Bear Lake development, 1915.

Above: Cove power plant site on the Bear River, September 1916. Below: Interior of the Wheelon plant on the Bear River, 1913.

Modern Electric Power Service

Above: Dredging the outlet canal for the Lifton pumping plant at the north end of Bear Lake. Below.- Dredging operations at Bear Lake, 1912. UP&L's new Bear Lake plants provided half of the company's power in 1922.

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Utah Power & Light did not set out simply to acquire plants and distribution systems that others had started, however. Its new properties would not continue to operate as separate, independent entities.

Rather, the goal was to unify them into one large, integrated ''superpower system." In general that entailed three things: upgrading existing facilities and equipment, interconnecting all properties with extensive and elaborate transmission lines, and developing Bear Lake as a huge storage reservoir and building a series of new plants on the Bear River.

By 1922, on its tenth anniversary, Utah Power & Light had made considerable progress toward its goal. It served 205 communities in four states, had 83,000 customers, and operated forty generating plants with an installed capacity of 224,000 kilowatts. Newly built or expanded Grace, Oneida, Cove, and Wheelon plants on the Bear River provided half of that capacity. Each of the 40 plants was connected through a system of high-voltage transmission lines with a new main distribution center, the Terminal Substation, in Salt Lake City.

Many other new substations had been built, and distribution lines (those that ran from substations to customers) had been upgraded and extended. Bear Lake had been developed as a storage reservoir with twenty-three miles of inlet and outlet channels that carried the entire flow of the Bear River in and out of the Icike; and at its north end the Lifton pumping plant, capable of delivering 3,000 acre-feet of water per day, had been built.^ A primary concern during UP&L's first ten years was to consolidate and interconnect all of its power companies to create a large, integrated system. A second emphasis was the effort to promote the sale of electricity—to stimulate demand rather than simply respond to it, as had been the case in the past. "This is the age of electricity, with almost unlimited possibilities for the future," its sales department proclaimed in 1916. "Electricity is not the plaything or luxury of the rich, but within reach of all and has become a necessity."^ The company was particularly interested in increasing the use of household appliances, which had become available in the first years of the twentieth century.

The electric fan made its appearance in 1901. The first commercially successful electric range arrived on the scene in 1908. A Chicago businessman produced the first electric blanket in 1912. Electric irons 6Utah Power & Light Co., Electrifying the Wheels of Progress; Ten Years of Efficient Public Service (Salt Lake City, 1922), p. 22. ''Utah Power & Light Company Bulletin 1 (Janyary 1916): 7.

Modern Electric Power Service

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Night lighting of sports facilities became more common in the tate 1910s. A surveyor's transit was used to focus lights at this Preston, Idaho, ballpark.

and toasters date from the same period. All of them, and a myriad of others, made life easier, the company emphasized, "relieving the housewife of the drudgery that has long been her lot." Because it would mean less work and more leisure, the goal of every woman should be "the complete electrification of the home."^ Utah Power & Light promoted a wide variety of appliances, from the serious to the frivolous, including washing machines, electric cigar lighters, electric shaving mugs, and electric "boudoir lamps." It was particularly interested, though, in encouraging the use of electric ranges and refrigerators. Soon it decided to market as well as service them. For the next several decades, until the onset of World War II, it was in the business of selling electrical appliances directly to the consumer as well as supplying electricity to operate them. There was, company officials frankly admitted, " a complete lack of public demand sibid., 2 (May 1917): 3.

Lulu Bates of UP&L's Home Service Department prepared for a demonstration ca.

1920.

for these items." Demand had to be created, and the company set out to tell customers about the benefits of electrical appliances and so to popularize their use. In their sales effort they tried to take advantage of every opportunity and use every conceivable argument. An article in a 1914 issue of the company magazine, for example, reasoned that over the course of a year, people with electric lights in their houses saved two full days of labor that would otherwise be devoted to picking up, lighting, and disposing of matches.^ When prohibition went into effect in Colorado at the end of 1915, the sales department saw an opportunity: men would now have money to spend on other things that had previously been spent on liquor. "It is up to us to get some of that money saved by his not drinking by inducing his family to avail themselves of the wonderful benefits of electricity," said a company publication.^° The symbol for the campaign to increase the sale of electricity in the house was vivacious "Susan Sparks." In one advertisement she proclaimed that with her use of an electric massager, she could "deftly dodge the fearful ravages of time." In another she touted the ease of using an electric sewing machine, in a third, a curling iron, and in a fourth, an electric coffee pot.

UP&L used a variety of methods in addition to advertising to promote the use of electricity in houses. One was to place electric ^Electric Era 3 (March 1914): 5. ^^Utah Power & Light Company Bulletin 1 (January 1916): 6-7.

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Cartoon characters Maggie andjiggs promoted appliances in this window display on Main Street in Salt Lake City.

appliances in the public schools for use in home economics classes.

Demonstrations were another way. The company's main office in Salt Lake City, for example, regularly held them. According to the woman in charge, in one instance, "A gentleman and his wife casually stopped at the demonstration table while I was preparing buckwheat cakes and coffee on a Westinghouse toaster stove and percolator. The couple were served with cakes and coffee, and they then asked for a demonstration of other appliances. Before leaving the store they purchased a Westinghouse turnover toaster, a perco, a Universal tea ball pot, a six-pound Hotpoint iron, a Royal vacuum sweeper . . . with a total bill of $90.97."1^ There were also special demonstrations for schools, churches, and community groups, and even people on the street. In the fall of 1916 the manager of the Provo office set up an electric washing machine on iilbid., 2 (December 1916): 28.

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Baker used new electric oven in Keeley's Restaurant in Salt Lake City in the 1920s.

the sidewalk, washed clothes for passersby, and hung them up to dry on a line he had strung between poles on the street. Happily, according to the company magazine, " H e was allowed to continue his work without any objection from the Police Department."^^ In the fall of 1912 the company announced it had available for showing two motion pictures designed to promote the benefits of electricity. The first, entitled The Power behind the Electric Button, showed how electricity was generated and distributed and how electrical appliances were made. The second was more dramatic. The Electrical Education of Mr. and Mrs. Thrifty showed a husband returning from work on sewing day to find his wife completely worn out from working all day with an old-fashioned sewing machine. That evening he read in the newspaper an advertisement citing the virtues of electricity and the next day bought his wife not only an electric sewing machine but also a vacuum cleaner, chafing dish, coffee percolator, and toaster stove. After a series of amusing incidents while the Thriftys learned to use the appliances, the story ended happily with the couple sitting down to a fine dinner. ^^

12Ibid., 2 (November 1916): 33. ^^Electric Era 1 (August 1912): 12.

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The two movies played to large audiences in cities and towns throughout Utah and the rest of Utah Power & Light's service area. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, " T h e tour is made in real theatrical style. An advance man sees that the inhabitants of a town are informed of the approaching event and no effort is spared in making it interesting as well as instructive. No charge is made."^* As part of its promotional efforts, UP&L also held annual exhibits and demonstrations at the Utah State Fair. In 1917, for example, it leased 10,000 square feet of floor space and "demonstrated various commercial and domestic labor-saving devices." Thousands of pieces of pastry, cake, and cookies were prepared and sold "at a nominal price." The exhibit also provided vocal and instrumental music by the Salt Lake Song Shop. All instruments used were electrically operated.

In all, an estimated 100,000 people visited the display.^^ In a similar vein the company each year participated in national Electric Week. In 1916 it distributed 150,000 pieces of literature explaining the uses to which electricity could be put, created elaborate window displays in each of its offices, offered a 10 percent discount on the purchase of all electrical appliances, gave free candy and cookies to anyone who attended its demonstrations, and sponsored an Electric Ball. 16 The results of the effort to promote the use of electricity were impressive. In 1913 UP&L's sales department generated more than $165,000 in new business. That grew to $287,000 in 1914 and to nearly $1 million in 1917. Merchandise sales showed a similar increase. They totaled almost $100,000 in 1913 and nearly $500,000 just four years later. In 1913 UP&L sold 38 electric ranges. In 1915 the number increased to 664, more than any other electric company in the United States, and in 1916 totaled almost 2,000.^^ During Utah Power & Light's first ten years the use of electricity by industry also increased substantially. At its founding in 1912, mines and street and interurban railroads were the main industries using electricity. A decade later the use of electricity in all branches of industry was the rule rather than the exception, and each year brought more and more industrial contracts. In 1915, for example, UP&L contracted to supply electrical power to the following enterprises: the Eagle i40ctober 30, 1912, p. 16. '^^Utah Power & Light Company Bulletin 3 (October 1917): 1. lelbid., 2 (December 1916): 14. >7lbid., 2 (May 1917): 12, and 3 (February 1918): 10-11.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

';•

. : * - :

i:^'m.iM

Workers on the Springville to Helper power tine. May 1916.

Boys in Salt Lake City sold light bulbs for UP&L, January 1921.

and Blue Bell mines in Eureka, the Hoover Brothers' flour mill in Provo, the Star Canning and Evaporating Company in Clinton, the Daly-Judge Mine in Park City, the Lincoln sugar factory near Idaho Falls, a cement factory and flour mill in Corinne, the Knight Woolen Mills in Provo, the Ogden Packing and Provision Company, the Inland Grain Co., the Kaysville Brick Company, and the Smithfield Roller MiUs.iÂŤ During the same period electrification of agricultural operations in Utah also made significant strides. It was in the decades after the 1890s that Utah's agriculture shifted from subsistence farming to commercial farming, 1^ and in that evolution electricity was important. It was used for a variety of purposes in both farming and ranching: to light houses and outbuildings; to run electric motors of all kinds for machinery such as grinders and grain elevators; and to operate irrigation pumps, which was the most extensive early use, given the importance of irrigation to farming in Utah. In 1922 UP&L estimated that electric pumps were providing water for 115,000 acres of land in Utah that produced crops with an annual value of $6 million.^^ laibid., 1 (December 1915): 10. i^See Charles S. Peterson, " T h e 'Americanization' of Utah's Agriculture," Utah Historical Quarterly 42 (Spring 1974): 108-25. '^'^Electrifying the Wheels of Progress, p. 23.

Mobile ladder used by UP&L workers repairing street lights in Salt Lake City.

Repairing a street light in Salt Lake City, September 1916.

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While promoting a variety of new uses for electricity, Utah Power & Light continued to emphasize its use for indoor and outdoor lighting.

In 1913 an estimated 15 million candlepower was used in its service area. By 1922 that had increased nearly five times to 71.6 million.^^ The most widely publicized lighting project was Salt Lake City's "White Way," a new system for the central business district that for the first time provided really adequate street lighting in Salt Lake.

White Ways spread rapidly among American cities after the development in 1907 of the incandescent tungsten-filament lamp, which was far brighter than previous electric lights. White Ways were intended to be ornamental as well as practical and efficient, and considerable attention was given to such things as post design, the concealment of wires underground and within posts, cluster lighting, spacing and post height, and providing illumination to the upper facades of buildings. Ssdt Lake, like most cities, had twin reasons for building White Ways: a realization that business would prosper from the increased illumination and a belief that such lighting had advertising value. "Well-lighted streets are indicative of progressiveness and enterprise and add to the attractiveness of a city," one booster said.^^ The company also promoted new kinds of lighting: flood lighting for public buildings and monuments, such as the Brigham Young Monument in Salt Lake City, which was lighted in the spring of 1917; night lighting of parks and outdoor sports facilities; and electric signs.

"Electric signs are the most striking and dignified ad medium in use today," the company noted. They were "simple, cheap, and more effective than traditional painted signs." It pointed as an example to the electric sign installed on the building of the Royal Baking Company, at 232 South Main in Sak Lake City in the faU of 1912 "as a striking demonstration of the possibilities of electric advertising." The sign, "standing high above the surrounding buildings, carries with it such a strong attracting power that few people, whose business or pleasure take them out of doors at night, fail to receive its message, not once, but many times. "^^ In general Utah Power & Light thought night lighting of aU kinds needed to be greatly increased. It would reduce "immoral" conduct ("Lack of Illumination in Liberty Park is Aid to Immorality" the headline of an ad in the company magazine proclaimed) and crime: 2ilbid., pp. 18-19.

225'a/i Lake Tribune, September 30, 1916, p. 3. "^^Electric Era 1 (October 1912): 13.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Ur^SJL 72pai,T iTuciz ana cra-ae., .; i>W.

Crime is afraid of the light. Bad people are afraid of the light. They want to get into dark places, out of sight. Flooding our cities with light would reduce crime and all vicious practices tremendously. When men are doing wrong, they want to get out of the light and into the dark street, away from the public gaze, away from the observation of their fellow men.^"*

As the company saw it, with increased lighting night would become safe and convenient for leisure activities. Promenades, wtndowshopping, sports, and park use would enliven city evenings. Access to leisure activity at night would be a boon to working people who labored six days a week but enjoyed evening sports and recreation. In general any daytime activity could also be undertaken at night with relative safety and convenience. While the city's bustle might calm in the evenings and street lights might dim in the wee hours, cities would never again slumber in pervasive darkness. That was the message Utah Power & Light sought to sell.

By the early 1920s the modern age of electricity was firmly established in Utah. One company supplied most of the state's electricity and was on its way to becoming one of Utah's largest corporations.

Consumption of electricity had increased dramatically. Industry was the chief user, followed by residential users, commercial users, and cities and towns. No longer an expensive luxury of limited application and questionable reliability, electricity had taken its place as an integral part of people's lives.

2*Ibid., 2 (December 1913): 7.

SL*::ssfÂť'-^^:

Figure 1. Painting by R. D. Adams of the Deseret Iron Company works in Cedar City. His grandfather, David Barkley Adams, served as furnace keeper. The artist's father described the site from memory while the scene was being painted. Illustrations courtesy of authors.

The Demise of the Deseret Iron Company: Failure of the Brick Furnace Lining Technology

BY MORRIS A. SHIRTS AND WILLIAM T. PARRY

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Utah Historical Quarterly

I N 1851-52 THE MORMON CHURCH BEGAN a systematic plan of industrial development. Sermons were delivered in church meetings, editorials were published in the Deseret News, individuals were called to establish various home industries encouraged by the legislature, and emigrating European members were directed to bring designs and tools.

A colony was established at Parowan in 1850-51 to serve as a supply base on the Salt Lake to California route and to initiate an iron industry. This colony was composed of farmers, frontiersmen, and a cadre (primarily from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) experienced in coal mining and iron working. After the first harvest had been completed some of them were sent to establish a pioneer iron company at Cedar City, twenty miles to the south of Parowan. This was later reorganized as the Deseret Iron Company and provided the organizational structure to implement the objectives of the Iron Mission. The first iron sample was not produced until September 1852.

The project was officially terminated in October 1858.

Careful sifting and interpretation of information from numerous sources, a partial excavation of the iron works site, and an examination of furnace technology reveal at least a dozen reasons for the demise of the Deseret Iron Company, among them, a poor choice of original location of the iron works, unsuitable materials used in the construction of the furnace lining, erratic power supply, inadequate fuel supply, inadequate financing, erratic climate, lack of suitable technology for local ore, management flaws, disunity of personnel, Indian problems, and the Utah War. The focus of this essay is on materials used in construction of the lining of the furnace.

DESIGN OF A NINETEENTH-CENTURY BLAST FURNACE

A typical 1850 iron blast furnace consisted of an outside wall or stack of dressed stone blocks and an inside wall or lining of refractory brick or stone. The size varied with the type of fuel and ore used.

Generally, the furnace was about 25 feet square at the base and 50 feet high. The foundation on which the stack stood had to support the weight of the stack, lining, and burden of fuel, limestone, and iron ore.

Dr. Shirts is professor emeritus of education. Southern Utah State College, Cedar City, and Dr. Parry is professor of geology/geophysics. University of Utah. MSS pertaining to the Deseret Iron Company, including account books and minute book, are in Special Collections, SUSC. Germane to the understanding of early blast furnaces and metallurgy are J. E. Johnson, Blast Furnace Construction in America (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1917); James D. Norris, The Story of the Maramec Iron Works, 1826-1876 {Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1972); Fredrich Overman, The Manufacture of Iron in All Its Various Branches (Philadelphia, 1850); Fredrich Overman, A Treatise on Metallurgy (New York, 1852).

The Deseret Iron Company

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Blastfurnace components: (1) hearth or crucible (2) bosch or slope (3) furnace lining (4) furnace chimney (5) mouth offurnace (6) furnace stack (7) iron rod binders (8) tuyeres or air nozzles

Overman woodcuts (1852) show blastfurnace interior, above, and design of bottom of a furnace, below.

The crucible is the small square in the center.

The circle represents the circular part of the furnace lining. The radial lines from square to circle represent the bosch or slope of the furnace. Solid and dotted lines show the binding rods that hold the stack together.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

The furnace lining consisted of the hearth, the bosh (or bosch), and the upper lining. The hearth was a square masonry box at the bottom of the furnace designed to contain the liquid iron and slag. The bosh was a masonry, funnel-shaped section that capped the hearth and flared upward and outward to reach a diameter of approximately six feet and served to support the furnace burden, keeping it from entering the hearth. The lining proper (funnel or tunnel) sloped inward and upward, slightly resembling a tall, inverted funnel which extended to the top of the furnace, or the mouth, and was approximately three feet in diameter at that point. The furnace was charged (or burdened) through the mouth (figure 2).

An arch built into one side of the furnace stack at ground level gave the iron workers access to the furnace lining through which liquid iron Figure 3. Front or working arch of the Marmec Spring blastfurnace near Rotla, Missouri, in operation during 1829-75. The tall chimney was added during conversion to hot blast operation. The Deseret Iron furnace resembled this structure.

James Foundation photograph.

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The Deseret Iron Company

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and slag were drawn. This was referred to as the working, front, or tymp (delivery point) arch. Smaller arches (torino or tuyere arches) built into the two opposite sides were fitted with pipes with adjustable nozzles (tuyeres) by which a blast of air was directed to increase the combustion efficiency of the fuel.

The Deseret Iron Company constructed at least three blast furnaces in 1852, 1853, and 1854. The 1854 furnace was the largest and followed this general design (figure 1). It measured 21 feet at the base and stood 35 feet high. The hearth measured 23 inches square and the diameter of the bosh was 6 feet, 6 inches. The mouth of the furnace was 3 feet, 6 inches in diameter. It closely resembled the restored Maramec Spring furnace in southern Missouri, except for a side delivery charging arrangement near the top (figure 3). Being burdened (or charged) from the top, most furnaces were built at the base of a small hill with a bridge connecting the top of the furnace with the top of the hill. This was covered to keep the ore, limestone, and coke dry and was called the bridge house. The Deseret Iron Company utilized an endless chain and a winching system that lifted the charges from the ground to the side delivery door and into the furnace mouth (figure 1), although one reference mentions a bridge house.

T H E TECHNOLOGY OF THE SMELTING PROCESS

The separation of iron from iron ore involved more than just melting the iron ore. The smelting process took place inside the blast furnace in a series of complex chemical and physical reactions that could not be observed directly for obvious reasons. Our understanding of them has been gained empirically and through theoretical considerations that give us a great technological advantage over the early iron workers who had no such thing as a complete periodical table of the elements. They had to rely on a basic recipe that was constantly adjusted—as grandmother did with her chocolate cake recipe.

At the risk of oversimplification, the iron smelting process is explained essentially as follows. The high temperature needed in the blast furnace began with the combustion of the fuel (usually coke or charcoal). This was aided by a blast of air injected by nozzles (or tuyeres) through the furnace lining near the junction of the hearth and the bosh.

In 1829 it was discovered that the efficiency of the blast could be improved by preheating the blast. The combustion of fuel gave off carbon monoxide, a powerful reducing agent, that, combining with the oxygen of the iron oxide (iron ore), reduced it. The reaction (plus other

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concurrent ones) generated more heat, raising the furnace temperature to over 2800 °F or near the melting point of iron. The iron was freed from the iron ore in a liquid state and collected in the hearth. Many other chemical reactions were taking place (including those involving the limestone), producing gases that were driven off through the mouth of the furnace. Other molten compounds were produced by the fusion of the limestone, which absorbed unwanted elements in the form of a hot, thick liquid called slag or cinder. In addition, the slag floated on top of the liquid iron in the hearth, keeping it from cooling until the iron could be trapped or drawn off and cast into molds as pig iron. The cinder was dumped into lagoons or onto cinder piles for disposal.

T H E R O L E OF REFRACTORY MATERIALS IN THE FURNACE LINING

The lining of the furnace, including the hearth, the bosh, and the lining proper, served as a "holding pot" to contain the furnace burden while it was being smelted. In order to successfully do this, materials used in the furnace lining needed to meet very stringent requirements: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Withstand all temperatures up to the melting point of iron.

Resist thermal shock and sudden changes in temperature.

Resist the actions of hot liquids—slag and iron.

Resist the impact and abrasiveness of the furnace burden as it moved down through the furnace.

5. Resist the compression stresses at all temperatures.

6. Resist the actions of gases, oxides, and salts that penetrate lining materials.

To fulfill all these requirements the brick of the hearth, the bosh, and the upper lining should have contained 40 to 45 percent dumina and been low in iron content. The bosh brick, especially, had to be highly refractory.

Modern manufacturers produce a wide variety of refractories to meet a wide range of needs. For simplicity these are classified into four general groups (with a number of subgroups): High Alumina Brick. These brick may contain as much as 90 percent alumina (aluminum oxide.) Other varieties contain around 60 percent alumina plus silica and minor quantities of other elements. These brick provide maximum resistance to abrasion, high temperature, and slag and metal penetration.

Basic Brick. The chief constituent is magnesium oxide (around 70-90 percent) with varying amounts of other elements, including approximately 9 percent chromium oxide. In some varieties the chromium oxide reaches 23 percent with the magnesium oxide dropping to around 34

The Deseret Iron Company

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percent. These brick are very resistive to spalling, high temperature, and structural distortion. The raw materials are imported chiefly from the Philippines and South Africa.

Fire Clay Brick. Because of its relatively low cost and availability this is the most useful of all refractories. It contains approximately 60 percent silica and 35 percent aluminum oxide with varying amounts of other elements depending upon the thermal and mechanical needs. They can be mixed specifically for abrasive resistance, spalling, or thermal resistance or a general compromise for general application.

Silica Brick. These brick contain as much as 95 percent silica but are not recommended for iron blast furnaces. This material has excellent resistance to abrasion and therefore is used extensively in coke ovens.

The Deseret Iron Company had no detailed specifications or technology such as given above. They could not mix constituents scientifically and were limited to what nature provided locally.

Failure of the brick to meet the requirements doomed the furnace lining in any sustained operation, requiring its replacement and probably the complete reconstruction of the entire furnace. Such failure would be extremely costly in terms of time, energy, and production—to say nothing of the despair and discontent of those having to do the work.

Resistance to high temperature is particularly important in the hearth and bosh where the highest temperatures are developed. This is especially true in cases where coke is used as the fuel and where the blast is preheated. The hot slag and the molten iron are exceedingly active chemically and physically and, depending on the acid balance of the system and the individual constituents, can work havoc as they come into contact with the furnace lining. Gases produced through chemical and physical reactions can and do create disintegration, sometimes with explosive force. For example, too much moisture contained in any furnace lining or burden constituent may develop pockets of trapped steam that could rip the furnace lining apart. Sudden changes in temperature may also cause the lining to spall (breaking away or peeling off the surface of the refractory).

The fusing (melting) and vitrification (turning into glass) of the lining materials make the refractories soft, weak, and unfit. The furnace burden, containing extremely hard bits of iron ore, as well as limestone and coke, is very abrasive and literally wears out a soft furnace lining. The materials of a furnace lining, therefore, had to be selected with great care. Sandstone was traditionally used, but the development of coke as a furnace fuel and the hot blast predestined the use of higher refractory materials in the furnace lining. According to

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Utah Historical Quarterly

some experts, the use of sandstone was superseded somewhere around 1846 by fire brick, quartzite, and mica schist. Although some of these materials had been discovered in the United States, they were not widely known. Fire brick containing alumina (known as Stourbridge brick) made in England was exported to the eastern United States and Canada, but, of course, none was transported to Utah.

Iron workers of the 1850 era who had received their training and experience in England or in the eastern United States would have been familiar with the mica schist, quartzite, and Stourbridge brick materials available for construction of furnaces there, but deposits of these are very rare in Utah and were undiscovered at that time. Even if they had been known, shipping by ox-drawn wagons over non-existent roads from sites discovered later in Wah Wah and Bull valleys and from west of Utah Lake to Cedar City would have been prohibitive.

BRICK SAMPLES

In the fall of 1982 construction crews of the Cedar City Corporation were updating the underground utilities and the curbs and gutters at the 100 East and 400 North intersection in Cedar City. Quantities of coke, coal, charcoal, cinder (slag), and furnace rubble were exposed (figure 4). Morris A. Shirts, knowing that this location had been previously documented as the site of the 1854 blast furnace of the Deseret Iron Company, collected and catalogued numerous samples of these exposed materials. Much of the collection consisted of blackened, fragmented, and distorted brick and sandstone specimens. A number of these were sent to William T. Parry at the University of Utah for analysis to determine the extent to which the brick samples met the above described requirements and the role they might have played in the failure of the Deseret Iron Company to produce large quantities of pig iron.

SOME ESSENTIAL CHEMISTRY

The chemical and physical reactions that take place inside a blast furnace are too complex to explain here. However, the following relate specifically to the function of the furnace lining.

Eutectic Temperature. The lowering of the melting point of a mixture can be explained using silica and lime, two of the constituents found in the brick lining, as an example. The addition of lime to silica will lower the melting point of the mixture below the melting point of silica and likewise the addition of silica to lime will lower the melting point of the

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The Deseret Iron Company

Furnace Site Cedar City, Utah

specimens recovered included: (A) blackened earth and partially smelted iron ore; (B) cinder; (C) ashes, not from blastfurnace; (D) furnace rubble—brick and sandstone; (E) scattered furnace rubble; (F) coke, charcoal, and sand; (G) cinder; (H) cinder, charcoal; (I) coal, charcoal; (J) cast iron pieces. (K) indicates possible location offirst furnace.

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mixture below the melting point of lime. The lowest melting point obtained in the mixture of lime and silica is called the eutectic at 2617 °F, and any mixture of lime and silica will begin to melt or fuse at the eutectic temperature. Some melting points and eutectic temperatures for components likely to have been used in early brick manufacture are: COMPONENTS

MELTING POINTS

Iron Silica Alumina Lime Alumina/lime Silica/lime Silica/alumina

1535 °C (2795 °F) 1610 °C (2950 °F) 2015°C (3659 °F) 2015°C(3659°F) 1395 °C (2543 °F) eutectic 1436°C (2617 °F) eutectic 1955°C (3551°F) eutectic

From this data, it can be seen that resistance to the molten iron in the blast furnace required bricks of silica and alumina: other mixtures would partially melt at their eutectic temperatures before the melting point of iron was reached. The quartzite refractory used in the eastern United States corresponded to relatively pure silica with a melting temperature of 1610 °C (2950 °F) which is higher than the melting point of iron, enabling it to remain stable while the iron ore was smelted.

Phase Changes. Some of the chemical compounds used in bricks or formed in bricks during chemical reactions change their crystal structure at elevated temperatures. One of these is quartz, the most common form of silica, and a common constituent of sandstone. This form of silica undergoes a structural change and becomes beta quartz at 573 °C (1063 °F) with a volume increase of 20 percent. Beta quartz then changes to tridymite at 867 °C (1593 °F) but, if a flux such as lime is present, a different substance is formed called cristobalite. Quartz melts at 1610°C (2678°F) and recrystallizes to cristobalite. The low temperature form of calcium silicate forms at 500 °C (932 °F) and changes to a different structure at 1125°C (2057 °F) called alpha calcium silicate.

Two other chemical reactions should also be understood. First, silica reacts with any lime present in the brick to produce a compound known as calcium silicate plus carbon dioxide gas at temperatures above about 500°C (932 °F), producing softened and bloated brick.

Second, reducing gases generated in the furnace, which are responsible for reducing iron oxide in the iron ore to molten iron, may also reduce any iron present in the brick lining (usually red brick) to molten iron, causing the brick to collapse or deteriorate.

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The Deseret Iron Company

'•'.;"'•• mnmwww.^^^wwW^^^^^^,

Figure 5. Brick from Deseret Iron coking kilns illustrates thermal and chemical deterioration. It has partially melted, and gases from chemical reactions have produced bubbles.

Figure 6. End-cut view of brick from the lining of Deseret Iron blastfurnace showing bloating— bubbles produced by partial melting and evolution of carbon dioxide during thermal and chemical reactions inside the furnace.

EXAMINATION OF BLAST FURNACE BRICKS

Samples of brick collected during excavation of the blast furnace site were examined in detail. The techniques used in examining the bricks included simple chemical analysis for the presence of carbonate rock constituents in the bricks, microscopic examination to identify chemical compounds in the bricks, and x-ray diffraction analysis to identify the structural state of the chemical compounds. An analysis of brick samples from the Deseret Iron Company blast furnace site reveals: 1. Little alumina is present—a constituent necessary for the production of high refractory brick.

2. The presence of large amounts of quartz (silica oxide), iron oxide (in the red variety), and calcium carbonate.

3. Physical and chemical reactions with these brick constituents are listed below and shown in figures 5 through 8. a. The bricks melted below the melting point of iron (figure 5).

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Utah Historical Quarterly

.•,;..J,--p,.^^^^^^ Figure 7a. A severely spatted ' ' ' J- i •". '•' i^iJl^Tpy brick from the lining of Deseret ' - iJ7*j Iron blast furnace.

Figure 7b. End-cut view of above spatted brick showing bloating from melting and gas evolution in the partially melted brick. b. Reaction of quartz and calcium carbonate produced calcium silicate and carbon dioxide gas which produced large bubbles within the partially melted brick (figures 5 and 6). c. Much of the brick was essentially transformed into cinder (slag) due to the high calcium carbonate (limestone) present as happened in the furnace proper. d. Reaction between carbon monoxide produced in the furnace and the brick reduced iron oxide in the brick to metallic iron, thus weakening the brick.

4. Bricks spalled or fractured from volume expansion during heating and cooling (figures 7a and 7b).

CONCLUSIONS

The brick lining failed to meet the requirements imposed for successful blast furnace operation. The only available local materials made

The Deseret Iron Company

35

a brick that was not mechanically strong enough to support the furnace burden to begin the furnace operation. The bricks then failed to withstand the high temperatures in the blast furnace. Due to the composition of the brick, essentially silica and lime, the bricks melted at temperatures as low as 1400 °C (2552 °F). Lime and silica reacted to produce calcium silicate and carbon dioxide gas that, upon expansion, produced large gas bubbles in the brick, distorting and fracturing them. The silica component of the bricks underwent phase changes to the beta form and to cristobalite that involved large volume changes and resultant weakening of the bricks. The iron oxide coloring matter in the bricks was reduced to molten iron in the furnace lining, resulting in their deterioration. Some of the bricks revealed serious spalling. The net effect of all these brick problems could have been disastrous for any single run of the furnace. The hearth lining could have been breached, permitting premature escape of iron, slag, or furnace gases. The bosh could have collapsed, allowing brick lining and the charge to fall into the hearth (figure 8). The tuyeres, through which the air was blown to enhance the combustion of the fuel, could have collapsed, shutting off the air and prematurely plugging the furnace; or the entire stack lining could have collapsed, as is indicated in many of the journals and minutes of the Deseret Iron Company. Any or all of these effects could have contributed substantially to the failure of the iron-making operation. This probably influenced the decision to revert back to the use of sandstone for the lining of the 1854 furnace and continued experimentation with lining material. Since the sandstone deposits near Cedar City were the chief sources of the material from which the bricks were made, similar results were probably obtained. Most of the sandstone lining may have endured long enough for furnace runs of one or two days; but, like the brick, it would have disintegrated before much iron was produced. Specimens of muscovite quartz sandstone found at the furnace site and not yet analyzed may have served much better as furnace lining, perhaps making longer furnace runs possible near the end of the project; but the determination and tenacity of these early iron workers were evidently exceeded by the refractory problems they encountered early in the project.

Figure 8. Cinder or slag from the Deseret Iron blastfurnace containing partially dissolved brick incorporated into the slag when the furnace lining failed.

o^j^j, ^'ilo^jc cugar factory building designed by Truman 0. Angell and erected during 1854-55. USHS collections.

The Failure of Utah's First Sugar Factory

BY CHARLES L. SCHMALZ

in pioneer Utah.

The prospect of extracting a sweetener from locally grown sugar beets excited the first settlers. LDS church leaders took an active part in promoting beet culture among the Saints. Early communications from the Salt Lake Valley advised prospective emigrants to bring sugar beet S U G A R WAS A SCARCE AND EXPENSIVE COMMODITY

Mr. Schmalz, Burley, Idaho, presented a version of this paper at the Mormon History Association meeting in Salt Lake City, May 3, 1986.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

37

eed.^ The U.S. Department of Agriculture was attempting to establish a domestic sugar beet industry during this period also. John Bernhisel, Utaih's representative in Washington, D.C., acquired beet seed from the USDA and sent it to Utah in the spring of 1850.

DESERET MANUFACTURING COMPANY

John Taylor was an early advocate of sugar production in Utah.

In the fall of 1850 he told church members at a conference in Manchester, England: We need sugar; the sisters won't like to get along without their tea— I care nothing about it without sugar myself. How must we get that? We are going to raise [sugar] beets as they do in France.^

The following spring, near the end of his French mission, Taylor organized the Deseret Manufacturing Company (DMC) to bring the sugar beet industry to Utah. The company consisted of Taylor and three English converts—^John W. Coward, a Liverpool merchant; Joseph Russell, a shipbuilder; and Philip DeLaMare, a native of Jersey who was a blacksmith and builder. During 1851 Taylor visited beet sugar factories in France and machinery firms in France and England.

He also started to build a technical staff. Henry MoUenhauer, a "sugar making expert" from Liverpool was employed by the DMC September 10, 1851. He subsequently visited French sugar beet factories with Taylor and DeLaMare.^ A consignment of sugar beet seed was sent to Utah in June 1851 with Loran Babbitt, a returning missionary.* Instructions for planting and growing the beets were also sent. Taylor planned to grow a crop of beets during the summer of 1852 and process them with the machinery scheduled to arrive in Utah that fall.

The machinery was ordered from Faucett, Preston and Company; an established Liverpool firm with considerable experience in the fabri-

-%

iThird General Epistle, Journal History, April 12, 1850, HDC; William McMurtrie, USDA Special Report #28, Report on the Culture of the Sugarbeet and the Manufacture of Sugar Therefrom (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880), pp. 167-68; Journal History, March 27, 1850. The abbreviation HDC has been used throughout to denote the Archives of the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. ^Samuel W. Taylor, The John Taylor Papers, vol. 1 (Redwood City, California: Taylor Trust, 1984), p. 171.

3 A draft of the original partnership agreement is in the HDC along with numerous other records and notes pertaining to the DMC. Most of the papers deal with financial matters. Very little has been preserved concerning technical aspects. Mest items are filed in the Brigham Young Papers, boxes 106 and 107. Subsequent references to this collection will be DMC Papers. See also Curtis E. Bolton, Curtis E. Bolton Journal (1850-52), October 13, 1851, holograph, HDC. Bolton was Taylor's assistant in the French mission. His journal provides an insightful record of this period. Bolton served as Taylor's translator on most sugar factory visits, but he was not happy about taking time from the mission. *Fred G. Taylor, A Saga of Sugar (Salt Lake: Utah-Idaho Sugar Co., 1944), p. 33.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

cation of machinery.^ The equipment was apparently scheduled to be shipped from England in February 1852.

An advance party of the D M C left Liverpool January 10, 1852, on the ship Kennebec. This group, which included Philip DeLaMare and two other blacksmiths, was sent ahead to prepare wagons and assemble teams for the journey across the plains.^ Joseph Russell, the majority stockholder, is reported to have accompanied this group but is not listed in the Emigration Record nor on the Kennebec's passenger list.

The D M C employed a group of English workers (most of whom were also LDS converts) to come to the valley and operate the machinery. There is little recorded concerning these workers, their names or skills. The party to accompany the machinery was under the supervision of Elias Morris. Since Morris canceled his reservation on the February emigrant ship, the Ellen Marie^ it is probable that delivery of the machinery was delayed.^ The machinery left Liverpool March 6, 1852 on the ship Rockaway. It arrived in New Orleans on April 26, 1852, where it was met by John Taylor and Joseph Vernon, an English engineer employed by the D M C . They had also left Liverpool March 6, traveling on the steamship Niagara, via Boston. The party with the machinery included thirty people. According to the Rockaway's passenger list, however, only two in the group listed sugar skills. They were John BoUwinkle and Ebnor Connor.^ Taylor and Vernon proceeded on to Utah ahead of the machinery, reaching Salt Lake on August 20, 1852. They immediately began to prepare a plant site in Provo. By the end of September contracts for adobe brick, shingles, and building stone had been written. Taylor and others conducted a survey for a ditch to carry water from the Provo River to the factory site. Commitments were also made for charcoal

sjane Marsden, manager, Library and Information Services, Tate and Lyle Industries, Reading, England, to author, February 7, 1986. ^Liverpool Office Emigration Record, Book B, 1851-55, p. 24; Kennebec Passenger List, New Orleans, March 15, 1852, microfilm, LDS Genealogical Library, Salt Lake City. ^Taylor, A Saga of Sugar, pp. 30-42; Journal History, December 31, 1852; Liverpool Office Emigration Record, Book B, p. 44. ^Passenger List of the Rockaway, New Orleans, April 26, 1852; Passenger List of the R M S Niagara, Boston, March 19, 1852, microfilm, LDS Genealogical Library; Frederick Piercy and James Linforth, Route from Liverpool to the Great Salt Lake Valley, ed. Fawn M. Brodie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962), p. 43; Taylor, p. 31.

There is some confusion as to just who traveled with whom coming to Utah and who the sugar experts were. The sequence and dates listed here is as complete as existing emigration records permit.

MoUenhauer, BoUwinkle, and Connor are the only sugar workers listed as such. A further complication is that no record has been found of anyone by the name of Henry MoUenhauer passing through Boston or New Orleans. MoUenhauer must have traveled separately and probably arrived via New York.

39

Utah's First Sugar Factory

Philip DeLaMare.

USHS collections.

"as required for the factory." Notes indicate that a lime kiln was also planned.^ Meanwhile, the sugar machinery was being freighted across the plains. It finally began to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley early in November and reached Provo a few weeks later. ^° Records indicate that the wagons straggled into Provo over the better part of a month.

An unknown amount of the machinery was left in Weber Canyon due to heavy snow.^^ This would logically have included the largest and heaviest components, most likely the steam boiler, the vacuum pan. ^Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology, 2d ed. (Salt Lake City, 1899), p. 46; Sugar Works Journal, DMC Papers. loLeon R. Hartshorn, "Philip DeLaMare, Pioneer Utah Industrialist" (M.S. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1959), pp. 34-41.

11 Journal History, February 26, 1856.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

and the two "heaters" (actually large open-topped, steam-jacketed copper tanks weighing in the neighborhood of a ton each). The items known to have made it into the valley that winter include the beet washer, the evaporating vessels, and at least one rasp and one beet press.

Sometime in late November it was decided to abandon, temporarily at least, efforts in Provo. The Deseret News for November 27, 1852, reported: We understand that the sugar company have suspended operation at Provo, for the present, and that they are preparing to put into immediate action, a portion of the machinery, at the Public Works, in this city.

It was becoming apparent that the erection of a sugar factory was going to be a major time and resource consuming venture, greater than previously thought. The project missed its initial shipping date and suffered additional delays en route. It was at least three months behind schedule. Obviously they were not going to process sugar beets in Provo that winter. The DMC, anxious to produce sugar and no doubt urged by Brigham Young, made the move back to Salt Lake in midDecember. There the machinery was set up using available water power in the old blacksmith shop on Temple Square. Beets were washed, rasped, pressed, and evaporated into molasses in February 1853. There is no record of any sugar being produced at this time.^^ Significantly, after these initial attempts the prospect of making granulated sugar essentially disappears from public utterances. Virtually all subsequent references to the sugar beet project speak of molasses as the end product. Experiences during the Temple Square tests seem to have caused second thoughts about the chances of crystallizing sugar from beet juice.

Some public outcry developed during the Temple Square trials— complaints about wasting scarce fuel as well as disappointment at the failure to produce sugar immediately. The latter was answered by a statement that there had been no intent to produce sugar during the initial trials, due in part to the poor condition of the beets which had been stored through most of the winter. ^^ In retrospect it appears that another reason for the failure to produce sugar at this time could have been that the vacuum pan, in which sugar was crystallized, had apparently been left in the mountains east of Salt Lake. The accounts of the i2lbid., February 10, 12, 1853. ^^Deseret News, March 19, April 16, 1853.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

41

Temple Square trials mention the evaporating pans but not the vacuum pan. As it was one of the heaviest pieces of equipment, weighing some 3,300 pounds, it was most likely left behind. This theory is supported by Truman Angell's later comments implying that the 1854 efforts to work with the vacuum pan represented the first time that it had been assembled.

T H E C H U R C H TAKES O V E R

By the end of the 1853 tests the DMC was broke. The two principal stockholders. Coward and Russell, turned their interest over to the LDS church. In return the church assumed the outstanding debts of the company. It had already provided financial aid, paying the import duty in New Orleans and subsidizing the overland transportation of the machinery. Brigham Young held a meeting with DMC personnel on March 17, 1853, at which he announced the change in ownership. He dismissed John Taylor and assumed the role of manager of the project.

He appointed Orson Hyde to "superintend the erection of a suitable building for the manufactuary." The exact timing here is unclear as other records indicate the decision to turn the DMC over to the church had been made as early as February 22, 1853.^* Some confusion exists about the specific roles played by Young and Hyde in the Sugar House project. In light of its subsequent failure it is not too surprising that later writers have minimized Brigham Young's involvement. There are, however, numerous references to visits by Brigham Young or his representative to the sugar works during construction.^^ It would have been unusual for any church venture of this magnitude not to have been under the general direction of President Young.

Orson Hyde does not appear to have had too much to do with the project. His comments, in the DMC meeting minutes and elsewhere, seem to imply that he had doubts that sugar could be made from beets.

One published statement devotes as much space to alternate uses for the machinery as it does to sugar manufacture.^^ A few visits by Hyde to the site or the architect's office are noted.

Brigham Young called Truman Angell to design the sugar factory.

This Angell proceeded to do over the next six months. He had never i*Leonard J . Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1958), p. 451; DMC Minutes, March 17, 1853; Deseret News, March 5, 1853. i^Truman O. Angell, Journal of Truman O. Angell, March 5, 1853, May 4, November 4, and November 29, 1854, holograph, H D C . ^^Deseret News, February 22, 1853.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Truman 0. Angell. USHS collections.

seen a sugar factory, and although he was a talented architect and builder he was not an engineer. He had no background in machinery design or chemical process operations. He was given a field piled with fifty-odd wagonloads of machinery, John Taylor's notes, and Brigham's blessing. Angell was aware of the challenge and of his limitations. His journal for this period recounts the effort and his concern for the quality of the work.^^ The actual construction of the factory building was probably under the direction of A. O. Smoot, the first bishop of the Sugar House Ward. A record listing those laboring on the Sugar Works building was kept by Joseph Vernon who was apparently working as clerk to Bishop Smoot. ^^ It is logical to assume that a church public works project such

i7Angell Journal, May 23, 25, 27, 1853. isjoseph V. Vernon, "Account Book of Sugar Works" in Margaret T. M. Smoot Journal, holograph, H D C . Margaret, a wife of Bishop Smoot, used the remainder of the account book for her journal.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

43

as this would have been under the immediate direction of the bishop of the local ward.

Following the church takeover some of the original DMC personnel left the venture. The exact number is not clear, but it is certain that John Taylor and Philip DeLaMare both left at this time and very little is subsequently said about Henry MoUenhauer. Their absence would have been critical as they were the only people in Utah who had actually visited a sugar beet processing factory. John BoUwinkle was the only original sugar worker of record when the Sugar House factory was operating. His experience, so far as can be determined, was in Liverpool sugar factories. Prior to 1868 the English sugar industry was exclusively engaged in cane sugar refining, so it is doubtful that he had any experience with sugar beet processing. ^^ John Taylor's notes are reasonably complete and accurate.^^ A few details are sketchy and a number of terms are not fully explained, but the essential information required to successfully process sugar beets is present. To one who had not seen the equipment in operation the information could have been somewhat confusing, however.

The English engineer Joseph Vernon was also working on the project. His skUls appear to have been more with fabrication than operation. His recorded efforts are in the area of the actual factory building construction. Not too much is known about Vernon himself other than that he was reputed to have worked for Faucett Preston, joining the DMC and the church in Liverpool. The language of a talk he gave a few year's later indicates that he was fairly well educated. He traveled with John Taylor to Utah and was involved with the sugar project to the last, operating the factory with Henry Wilde its final season.

Vernon later moved to Hawaii where he subsequently died.^^ T H E SUGAR HOUSE FACTORY

Delays plagued the project. Other church construction projects such as the Salt Lake Temple competed for men and materials.

19MoUenhauer is somewhat of a mystery figure. Very little is recorded about him. The only place his first name has been found is on receipts for funds drawn from the DMC in 1851 (DMC Papers). He was apparently a figure of authority as all of the contemporary records refer to him as Mr. (or Bro.) MoUenhauer. As noted above, he apparently did not travel to Utah with any of the other DMC. groups.

He did leave his family behind in Liverpool (DMC meeting, March 17, 1853). MoUenhauer seems to have left Utah before 1855 as no mention is made of him during the Sugar House operating period. For BoUwinkle see Sugar Factory Journal, DMC Papers; Michael Foy, The Sugar Industry in /re/anrf (Dublin: Irish Sugar Company, 1976), p. 30.

20Holograph, DMC Papers. ^^Deseret News, March 26, November 26, 1856; Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1913), p. 1224.

44

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Utah Historical Quarterly ./• ^'' i

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Utah's First Sugar Factory

45

Drawing of the Sugar House sugar factory by Charles Nickerson. The factory later housed a paper mill, a railroad terminus, and a retail coal outlet. It was located in the vicinity of present 2100 South and 1100 East.

Ground was broken April 25, 1853, but actual construction did not begin untU April 15, 1854. Foundations were completed September 9, 1854, and the machinery installed later that faU. A photograph of Angell's July 1853 drawing for the Sugar House factory survives. It is reputed to be one of the most detaUed drawings AngeU produced.^^ AU of the machinery needed to produce sugar is present and appears to be placed properly.

Truman Angell appears to have been the individual most concerned with the actual installation of the sugar machinery, although Frederick Kesler, the pioneer millwright, apparently worked on the drive machinery.^^ From September 1854 through February 1855 Angell worked full-time at the sugar works. He appears to have devoted his entire energies to the project, doing much of the actuzd 22Truman O. Angell, "Plan and Longitudinal Section of Sugar Factory, July 1853," Photograph MSF07, HDC; Paul L. Anderson, " T r u m a n O. Angell, Architect and Saint" in Supporting Saints: Life Stories of Nineteenth Century Mormons, ed. D. Q_. Cannon and D. J . Whittaker (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young Press, 1985) p. 152.

23 Angell Journal, April 25, 1853; Frederick Kesler papers. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

work himself. On October 19, 1854, he made his only journal entry during the period: Since the last sketching in this journal [September 23, 1854] I have been busy at the sugar factory daily til last Monday. That day I was unable to leave the fabric and come to town and now comes a more difficult time. I cdlude to the manufacturing parts or machinery for I do not feel to throw that off my mind yet for I am alone the arranger of it and help is scarce for the execution, etc. That work will show for itself if I can get it up in its parts. I have not seen which [way] to turn some days for the hands was wanted somewhere else and a scanty help had to do me. This makes it tiresome and unpleasant.

An indication of Angell's devotion to the sugar project is his failure to even mention the December 25, 1854, dedication of the Seventy's Hall, a project Angell had devoted much time and effort to earlier. His next journal entry, dated February 1, 1855, reflects his discouragement that the sugar factory was having numerous difficulties.

Despite forecasts that the factory would be ready to operate in the fall of 1854, it was February 1, 1855, before the machinery actually started processing beets. Between then and March 17, 1855, when it shut down, approximately 22,000 bushels of beets were ground and pressed but no sugar was made.^* Comments about the operation seem rather optimistic in retrospect. The following from a letter by George A. Smith was published in the St. Louis Luminary on March 31, 1853: The Sugar Works are in successful operation. . . . They remove the beet taste from the molasses. . . . And when they are able to make the sugar it will be one of the greatest blessings to our Territory.^^

The second year's operation was started on July 1, 1855. As in the previous year, all efforts appear to have been directed toward molasses production. A combination of drought and grasshoppers almost wiped out the sugar beet crop and there were few beets to process that year. One report, dated September 30, 1855, states: "the Sugar Works have ceased operations, in consequence of the failure of the beet crop."^^ Truman AngeU does not appear to have had anything to do with the sugar works after the spring of 1855, for there is nothing noted in "^^Deseret News, October 26, 1854; Journal History, December 11, 1854; George A. Smith to Franklin D. Richards, February 7, 1855, G. A. Smith Letterbook, HDC; Journal History, March 17, 1855.

25Copied in Journal History, February 6, 1855.

26jensoh, Church Chronology, p. 54; Deseret News, August 15, 1855; Journal History, November 17, 1855.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

47

his journal concerning the second season. In the spring of 1856 he was caUed on a mission to England. WhUe there he managed to visit a cane sugar refinery in Liverpool. He also traveled to Ireland and visited that country's first sugar beet factory at Mountmellick, built in 1851. Although it produced "an acceptable sugar," it was apparently not a financial success and was closed about 1860. Angell summarized the visits and recommended improvements at Sugar House in a letter tr Brigham Young. ^^ The letter apparently arrived too late to save the venture; at least there is no record of any action being taken. Angell's first speech in Salt Lake after returning from the mission field makes no mention of sugar.

He did retain an interest in sugar production, though. For a number of years he conducted sorghum or "Chinese sugar cane" growing experiments in his Salt Lake City garden.^^ Little is recorded concerning the 1856 season's operation. An announcement stating that Vernon and Wilde had been appointed by Brigham Young "to manufacture molasses for the Church" was published. It went on to say that "new processes" developed at the sugar works would be used. The announcement was signed by Joseph Vernon. No subsequent references to the operation of the sugar works have been found, nor any information as to what the new processes were. The factory does not appear to have been used to process beets after the fall of 1856.2^ During the winter of 1856, however, the church still maintained a public position that the sugar works could be successfully operated.

The Fourteenth General Epistle stated: Notwithstanding the efforts that have been made . . . to make sugar from the beet, as yet no available results have been realized; yet we expect to continue our efforts until these objects are fully realized. . . . We have been delayed in making sugar mainly through the failure of the beet crop for the last two seasons. . . . We trust, through the blessing of the Lord, that no failure of the kind will again thwart our wishes, and that we shall soon be able to furnish, from the beet, sugar sufficient for home consumption; we are sanguine that this can be done, and it is our purpose to continue our labors in this enterprise until it is fully accomplished.^^

The reasons for the above statement are not clear, but it appears to have been made primarily for public consumption. Obviously such 27Foy, The Sugar Industry, pp. 26-30; Angell Journal, October 28, 1856. '^^Deseret News, }\i\y 29, 1857; Anderson, "Truman O. Angell," p. 160. ^^Deseret News, November 26, 1856; Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 120. ^°Deseret News, December 10, 1856.

48

Utah Historical Quarterly

feelings were not held by all concerned, as the Sugar House project was essenticdly shut down at the time.

PROCESS ANALYSIS

One factor inhibiting the production of usable sweeteners from sugar beets is that crude beet juice contains too many dissolved salts to be edible. In order to make a usable product the juice has to be treated to separate the sugar from the bitter-tasting salts. Modern science has techniques such as ion exchange to remove unwanted salts; unfortunately, such technology lay eighty years or so in the future when Sugar House was running.^^ Crystallization, an efficient technique for separating sugar from dissolved impurities, would have permitted the production of an edible sweetener, but there is no record that crystallization was ever accomplished at Sugar House.

The equipment purchased by the DMC and brought to Utah does not appear to have been faulty. Faucett Preston was a reputable firm established in 1758 as a foundry. By 1850 it had developed a reputation as a supplier of ships' engines and cast cannon. Subsequent to the production of the DMC's equipment the firm fiUed numerous orders for sugar machinery throughout the world.^^ Although the DMC order was one of the firm's early sugar machinery orders, the equipment, with the possible exception of the vacuum pan, appears to have functioned as designed.

There is no evidence that any of the DMC's machinery was lost or damaged on the long journey west. Tales that some of the machinery was lost in the Missouri River when the steamer Saluda blew up are highly unlikely since the Saluda accident occurred on April 9, 1852, and the sugar machinery did not reach New Orleans untU AprU 26, 1852. A number of those who had traveled with the DMC advance party, including William Dunbar, the elder who had baptized PhUip DeLaMare, were on the Saluda. The DeLaMares, delayed in St. Louis by illness, were not on the Saluda.^^ 31A number of beet-sugar processers, including Sugar House's spiritual offspring, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, used ion exchange to produce edible syrup products from molasses during World War IFs sugar shortages. This was discontinued when sugar rationing was stopped and syrup production became unprofitable. (Robert S. Gaddie, general chemist, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, conversation with the author, 1966.)

32J. Gordon Read, archivist, Merseyside County Library, Liverpool, England, to author, February 25, 1986.

33jenson, Church Chronology, p. 45; Conway B. Sonne, Saints on the Seas (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983), p. 103; Deseret News, ^axinaxy 12, 1986, Church News Section, p. 10; Hartshorn, "Philip DeLaMare," p. 35.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

49

Some heavy components, presumably including the vacuum pan and steam boUer, were left in the mountains east of Salt Lake during the winter of 1852-53 but did not appear to suffer for the experience. At least there is no mention of problems resulting from the rigors of the trip. There obviously was some mix-up and confusion during the moves from Provo to Temple Square to Sugar House. This is borne out by Angell's comments concerning searching out various components when assembling the machinery.^^ ActuaUy, there was not too much difference between the machinery at Sugar House and that used later at the successful Lehi, Utah, plant. The major difference was the addition of crystal separation equipment to reflect industrial improvements made in the 1870s. Lehi did have bone char equipment, but, as far as can be determined, it was not used. One other component unique to Lehi, German-trained sugar technologists, brings to mind AngeU's comment that Sugar House needed a set of strangers to operate it.^^ Purification of sugar beet juice was an infant technology in 1851.

Lime (calcium oxide) had been used for a number of years to precipitate impurities. The use of carbon dioxide was introduced in France in 1849.^^ John Taylor's notes and the inclusion of a gassing tank in Angell's design indicate that the D M C planned to use carbon dioxide.

Lime/carbon dioxide purification does not remove sodium or potassium salts, the source of the strong, bitter taste that makes sugar beet juices inedible.

There is no indication that lime purification caused any problems at Sugar House. Lime burning was a common industry in pioneer Utah. Carbon dioxide production was carefully detaUed in Taylor's notes, and the simple equipment needed could have been fabricated locally if it had not been brought from Europe.

For years the stated reason for the Sugar House factory's failure was the lack of bone char, a form of activated carbon used to purify cane sugar syrups. The principal source of this theory is the account written some years later by PhUip DeLaMare. He blames the failure on the absence of bone char production retorts. Angell's journal also mentions the lack of "animal charcoal to bleach and purify the juice."

Carbon will remove color and some calcium salts from crude beet 34Angell Journal, October 28, 1856.

35"Beet Sugar in U t a h , " Scientific American 65 (December 5, 1891): 360; Taylor, A Saga of Sugar, p. 98; Angell Journal, February 1, 1855.

36L. Lindet, Les Procedes Techniques, in Histoire Centennale Du Sucre De Betterave (Paris: Sindicat Des Favricans De Sucre De France, 1912), pp. 46-50.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

juices but has little effect on other properties.^^ Both of the above comments dealt with operations where edible syrup was the goal. In that context a lack of bone char might have made the production of a usable syrup difficult. In light of the relatively high sodium and potassium content of Utah beets, however, it is doubtful that even bone char treatment would have made the beet syrup edible. Carbon treatment does not remove sodium and potassium compounds.

DeLaMare's account deals with experiences during the 1853 Temple Square trials. By the time Sugar House was started DeLaMare had moved to Tooele. He does not appear to have had any association with sugar after the spring of 1853.^^ The references to a lack of charcoal are somewhat puzzling. In the absence of retorts charcoal can be prepared and regenerated in kilns similar to those used for the burning of limestone to lime. Also it can be partially regenerated by letting it ferment and then washing it with water. Furthermore, it is highly doubtful that men as practical as Brigham Young would have installed the large number of char filters in the Sugar House factory without some means of preparing the absorbent material itself (e.g., the previously cited contract for charcoal).

Truman AngeU's letter from England bears this out in that he makes no mention of problems associated with the char filters, despite his earlier comment about their lack. Rather, he states that "the [char] filtering should be carried out as calculated in the plan in the vaUey. "^^ The principal problem at Sugar House appears to have been sugar boiling—the final evaporation stage where the syrup is thickened under carefully controUed conditions untU crystallization takes place.

The notes taken by John Taylor indicate that the basic information needed to produce sugar was available to the operators of Sugar House. "Directions for BoUing the Vacuum Pan"*° are correct as far as they go and should have resulted in sugar production.

Sugar is boiled under vacuum in an airtight vessel. The Sugar House vacuum pan followed the design of E. C. Howard, an early 37Leonard J . Arrington, Brigham Young, American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1985), pp.

184-85; Taylor, A Saga of Sugar, p. 53; Philip DeLaMare, "Deseret Manufacturing Company," typescript, 1908, HDC; Angell Journal, February 1, 1855; George P. Meade and James C. P. Chen, Cane Sugar Handbook, 10th ed. (New York: John Wiley, 1977), pp. 472-74.

38Mildred A. Mercer, ed. History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Tooele County DUP, 1961), p.

64; Henry DeLaMare, "Philip DeLaMare," Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 2\ (1930): 5-11 and 86-89.

39john G. Mcintosh, The Technology of Sugar, 3d ed. (London: Scott, Greenwood, 1915), p.

141-44; Charles G. W. Lock et al., Sugar: A Handbook for Planters and Refiners (London: E. & F. N. Spon, 1888), pp. 481-82; Angell Journal, October 28, 1856. *"Holograph, DMC Papers.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

51

Original in Church Archives, Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

British engineer. It was a spherical vessel, approximately six feet in diameter, simUar to those used in other nineteenth-century sugar factories.*^ The pan was equipped with an integral condenser and air pump to produce the vacuum. Steam was introduced into a spiral coU or "worm" in the bottom to heat the syrup charge. Thermometers, a pressure gauge, and "proof stick" were provided for control.

The boiling point of a solution containing dissolved compounds rises as their concentration increases. The "boUing point rise" is the basic technique used by sugar boUers to determine the saturation of the syrup and control the crystaUization process. Since the boUing point is also dependent on the pressure in the pan, pressure control is critical.

Taylor's instructions caU for boUing an initial graining charge to a temperature of 165-170° F at an absolute pressure of 145-160 mm mercury.

4iPieter Honig, Principles of Sugar Technology, 3 vols. (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1963), 2:381-33.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Under these conditions the syrup would be supersaturated with sugar and crystallization should have occurred spontaneously. Continued careful operation of the pan as described would have resulted in the production of sugar. However, if the pressure in the pan were higher than 160 mm the syrup would not be supersaturated at 165-170°.

The instructions do not detaU the critical graining step—at that time typically involving physically shocking the mass of syrup, usually by a sudden change in the pan's pressure or striking the side of the pan —however, the temperatures and pressures given would have placed the syrup in a condition where crystallization should have started spontaneously.

The most likely factor in the failure to produce sugar was an inabUity to produce and hold the required vacuum. Others, writing about the operation of Howard pans, discuss the difficulties encountered in this area.*2 Angell discusses his observations on vacuum-pan operation in some detail in his 1856 letter to Brigham Young and goes on to note the shortcomings of the Sugar House pan. Especially interesting is his surprise at the large quantity of water he saw being used in England to condense steam from the vacuum pan. By implication the Sugar House pan did not have a sufficient supply of cooling water.

Angell also comments on problems with the Utah pan's vacuum pump installation: the pump's pulley was not the proper size and the pump was running more slowly than those he observed in England. A pump running at reduced speed and with an inadequate supply of cooling water would have been hard-pressed to produce the vacuum required. As noted previously, insufficient vacuum raises the boiling point of a solution. Thus, the Sugar House syrup would not have been supersaturated at the temperature noted in the boiling instructions, and crystaUization would not have taken place.

OTHER FACTORS

The quality of the Utah beets may have played a part in the failure, especially as far as edible molasses production is concerned.

The beets most certainly had a higher salt content than those grown in France. Modern processors know that beets grown around Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake have a higher salt level than those grown elsewhere in the West.*^ The salts would give the beet juice a stronger *2J. A. Watson, A Hundred Years of Sugar Refining (Liverpool: Tate and Lyle Refineries Ltd., 1973), p. 20. *3Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1970 Report of Agricultural Research.

Utah's First Sugar Factory

53

flavor, making it inedible even after purification. Crystallization would have been the only means of producing usable sugar. Higher salt levels reduce the yield of sugar crystals but do not prevent crystallization.

External events could also have influenced the decision to give up on sugar beets. By the summer of 1857 Brigham Young and the Saints had other problems. Johnston's Army was on the march to Utah and the situation was uncertain. Most public effort was going into preparations for the expected invasion. In addition, the general hard times made it difficult to sustain the various enterprises of the church.^* There were many demands on limited resources. The sugar works, less than a smashing success, would have had a very low priority.

Alternate uses for the machinery could also have contributed to the demise of Sugar House. These would have provided a graceful means to abandon the sugar-making venture. For instance, Thomas Howard was making paper in Salt Lake by the middle of the decade.

The idle sugar machinery, especially the large vats and presses, was an inviting resource begging to be used.*^ Finally, Brigham Young, sensitive to criticism of his management of any of the church's affairs, would have been less than eager to pursue a project that had been such an obvious and public failure.*^ The Saints had been promised sugar "Real Soon Now" for over five years and received nothing but quantities of poor-quality syrup which whUe sweet could hardly be classed as edible. The statement that an error had been made and important parts left behind would have been more palatable than the admission "we just don't know how to boil sugar." This was especially true in light of the official theory that anyone could do anything if sustained by prayer and desire. In addition, those responsible for the purchase and transportation of the machinery were conveniently out of the valley. Those trying to operate it were present and available for criticism.

In retrospect it seems that the pioneer effort to produce sugar was a near success. Delays resulted in the loss of the most knowledgeable individuals before the plant actuaUy started operating. The missing know-how, particularly concerning the vacuum pan, could have made the difference. All of the necessary equipment was there, but critical knowledge appears to have been lacking. **Leonard J . Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience (New York: Random House 1979), pp. 167-69; D. H. YJelh, Journal of Discourses, 7:94 (March 9, 1856). *5Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 114-15.

46Newell Bringhurst, Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1986), p. 132.

The Richards grist mill in Farmington. USHS collections.

Âťw Âť, ,,

Frederick Kesler, Utah Craftsman

BY KIMBERLY DAY

Utah Territory reflected the Mormon emphasis of self-sufficiency. Motivated by a common philosophy, the settlers stressed a planned and balanced economic development based on agriculture. Frederick Kesler was a part of the coalition of frontier farmers, working men, businessmen, and artisans who directed their energies toward building a kingdom of God on earth. He was a self-reliant craftsman as well as an industrialist, inventor, architect, engineer, and a man who took advantage of the available resources and opportunities. His talents in buUding mUls and machinery and operating them are attested to by the number and variety he either constructed, superintended the construction of, or drafted plans for others to buUd. These include over twenty flour and saw miUs, oU mills, foundries, a naU factory, sugar and molasses factories, carding and weaving mills, a paper mill, blacksmith shops, grain-cleaning machines, a button factory, and others. He also designed or constructed churches, schools, bridges, canals, private homes, and shops.

THE

EARLY ECONOMIC HISTORY OF

Ms. Day lives in Salt Lake City.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Coupled with his commitment and creativity as a craftsman was an emotional commitment to his church. During his lifetime Kesler remained a true believer, seemingly never faltering in his responsibUities to his church, his ward, and his community. He became involved in almost every aspect—religious and secular—of his pioneer community.

With this combination of attributes Kesler should hold a very prestigious ranking in the history of Utah. Yet, his name and achievements are all but forgotten. Most of the mills and factories with which he was involved are not credited to his expertise, and with the demolition of most of them he has slipped into obscurity. Why, when a man's talents were so extensively utilized and necessary in the establishment and maintenance of many communities did he become virtually anonymous? This inquiry into Kesler's economic importance to Utah cannot supply a definitive answer to that question, but several assumptions can be made based on a review of events significant in Kesler's life.

On January 20, 1816, Frederick Kesler, Jr., was born to Frederick and Mary Sarah Lindsey Kesler in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. His father, of German descent, was a trapper who located his famUy in successive log cabins in the primitive areas of northwestern Pennsylvania. Following the untimely death of Mary Sarah upon the birth of their sixth chUd, Frederick Sr. soon found homes for his three boys and three girls "amongst strangers far apart from each oather except two which were cared for by the same Family."^ The adventuresome father then returned to the untamed country never to be heard from again.

At the age of six his son Frederick was residing with Edward Campbell, a farmer in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Desirous of learning a trade, Frederick apprenticed himself at age fifteen to Abram Clark, a mUler in Trumbull County, Ohio. During the next five years young Kesler diligently acquired the skills necessary to "construct and buUd good . . . Saw or Flouring Mills. "^ After the completion of his training, Kesler was asked to accompany Levi Moffet and his family to construct mills in the "far west" and with eight other families moved toward the "eldorado of the west." Their El Dorado, after some preliminary perusal, lay within the 1 Fredrick Kesler Autobiography, p. 1, MS Collection 49, Papers of Frederick Kesler, 1837-99, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. All MSS cited herein are in this collection.

2lbid., p. 2.

Frederick Kesler

57

Black Hawk Purchase near the Mississippi River. Kesler and Moffet constructed a sawmill that, according to Kesler, was the first built in what would become lowa.^ In the spring of 1836 Kesler married Emeline Parker and "at once commenced Keeping House in a little log cabin 10 x 12 feet square situated within a few rods from the North bank of the Skunk river.''

Within a few weeks the young couple became violently ill with an unknown fever that was rampant in the community. Frederick did not recover until the following spring, at which time he sold most of their belongings and worked to pay accumulated debts of "several hundred dollars." With his creditors appeased, he next sought employment near Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he constructed a large double sawmill. He then traveled "80 miles back in the cuntry [and] put in operation a corn Mill cotton jin & cotton press for a wealthy widow who had a large number of slaves.'' Just as their situation showed signs of amelioration, their savings of "severial Hundred dollars was sudently lost by the suspending of a Mississippi Bank . . . we simply had ourselves & my chest of tools and my trade to commence a new in the world."* Fortunately, Kesler was very competent in an important and necessary trade.

During the summer of 1839 Kesler first became aware of the Latter-day Saints: "This strange people as I thought they must be ware located in a place cald commerce, a place 20 miles distant from whare I lived." Intrigued, he soon journeyed to their community and introduced himself to Joseph Smith and other leading men. He was "Greatly suprised in finding them a verry intelegant people & that they believed in & taught the same Doctorn & princaples That was taught

by Christ & His apostles & that all thare doctrons was founded on the Bible." Overwhelmed and inspired, the Keslers were baptized in the Mississippi River at Nauvoo, Illinois, in June 1840. Although residing in the Augusta Branch of the church in Iowa, Kesler continued to make frequent visits to Nauvoo and became "quite intimate with . . . [Joseph Smith] as well as with His aged Father Mother Brothers & Sisters." At the conference held in Nauvoo in AprU 1842 Kesler was ordained an elder and by the following September had ventured east on his first Mormon mission.^

3Ibid., pp. 2-3. *Ibid., pp. 3-5.

5lbid., pp. 6-7.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Two years later, after his return to Iowa, Kesler was called to Nauvoo with thirty others to protect Joseph Smith from mob violence.

On landing from the steamer in Nauvoo we ware met & excorted by a Band of Music to the Head Quarters of the Nauvoo Leagon after congratulations we ware asinged to quarters whare we ware made as comfortable as posable the last time I seen our Great Leader & Prohpet He past by our quarters he was on his favourite Black HorseyŠ—& was Drest in his military costume as he past he Bowd & said God bless you my Breathen.^

After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith the Keslers and several families in their Iowa branch moved to Nauvoo. In the expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo Kesler sacrificed several Thousand dollars worth of Property in this terable crusade out of which I was only able to raise a meagre bit out for to go on a long unknown journey, to wit one old wagon 3 inferior yok of oxen one cow one old mare with about 6 or 8 months provisions & a scanty suply of clothing I had not the amount of ten Dollars in cash.^

The Keslers crossed the Mississippi on April 16, 1846, and by May 26 had met the main companies at Mount Pisgah, Iowa. They joined Brigham Young's company and continued to Council Bluffs, arriving there one week later.

On June 13 Brigham Young asked Kesler to superintend and help construct a ferry on which the Saints would cross the Missouri River to Winter Quarters. By the evening of June 29 the boat was completed.

Kesler reported: I kept at work day and night, ferrying the hosts of Israel with their wagons and all their belongings to a place of safety. We ferried hundreds of wagons across, and at last I had to rest; I was completely tired out. I had worked for weeks, day and night, without money and without price.^

Kesler was counseled to remain at Winter Quarters where he buUt a flour mill in early 1847 to grind corn, the main source of nutrition for the Mormons. He claimed this was the first flour mill in Nebraska.

To gather the necessary provisions for the westward trek several families, including the Keslers, sought employment by journeying down the Missouri River in the spring of 1847. In Kansas City Kesler constructed a small horse-powered mill that could grind both wheat

elbid., pp. 7-8.

7lbid., p. 9.

8"A Veteran of 1846: Leaves from the Journal of Bishop Frederick Kesler," Deseret News, May 29, 1897.

Frederick Kesler

59

Frederick Kesler. Special Collections, University of Utah Library.

and corn. Completing this in October and finding no further employment, the Keslers ventured to Texas where Frederick buUt and installed a water wheel in a flour mill. Returning to Kansas City in the spring of 1849, he obtained a government contract to construct a flour miU for the Potawatomi Indians 100 mUes west of the city. He "also BuUt a Frame House for the miUer . . . this was the First Flouring mill . . . in Kansas."^ In the early spring of 1851 the Keslers left Kansas City with three wagons, six yoke of oxen, one span of pony horses, one cow, and other provisions. At Florence, Nebraska, they joined Orson Pratt's company bound for the Salt Lake Valley.

After a cursory examination of the valley Kesler believed Box Elder would be a desirable place to locate his family and buUd his own mill. Before taking any decisive action, however, he discussed his plans with Brigham Young.

He listened with much atention unto my plans & remarked that I could no doubt acomplish & be successful in the enterprise & would be able to make myself & family comfortable if not wealthy & then said if it met my mind He wished me to Superintend mill Building for Himself & that the Church would Have considerable of work in my line which He wished me

9Kesler Autobiography, p. 11.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Empire mill in City Creek Canyon was built by Kesler for Brigham Young. Samuel J. Sudbury was the miller. USHS collections. to look after as well & that my servises would be more benifit to the church than for me to go off & build for myself & that I should be more abundantly Blest by so duing.^^

With the promise of spiritual prosperity to guide him, Kesler established a home in Salt Lake City within the Sixteenth Ward and began his activities as an appointed overseer of Zion.

The first work he accomplished was to place the water-power machinery on the northeast corner of the temple block for the Public Works Department. ^^ This represented the beginning of the utilization of a skUl and inventiveness that would involve Kesler in many and varied enterprises.

Within the first five years of his residence in Utah Kesler became a polygamist, marrying Jane Elizabeth Pratt in 1853 and Abigail Snow in 1857. He also served on an economic mission to the eastern states in 1854, purchased a large farm/ranch west of Salt Lake City, and was ordained bishop of the Sixteenth Ward in 1857. lolbid., pp. 11-12.

11 The Public Works Department was established with the dual purpose of providing gainful employment for newly arrived immigrants and building the kingdom of God. See Leonard J . Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), pp. 108-12.

Frederick Kesler

61

In addition to these activities, Kesler became a member of the Big Cottonwood Canyon Lumber Company which included such prominent individuals as Brigham Young, Daniel H. WeUs, Abraham O. Smoot, John Sharp, and Feramorz Little.^^ After evaluating the timber resources to see if the amount and avaUabUity justified the expense of conveyance from the canyon, the company began construction of the first of several sawmills in Big Cottonwood. The lumber from these miUs supplied the public works program of the LDS church which promoted systematic industrial development around the valley. ^^ Kesler was also involved in the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company which was designed to facUitate the movement of the immigrant companies, maU, freight, and passengers from the Missouri Valley to Salt Lake City. His talents were utUized in this enterprise in the construction of milling facilities at the Deer Creek and La Bonte stations. Just as the construction of the stations was nearing completion, the maU contract with the United States was cancelled, an army was sent against the Mormon outpost, and the stations were dismantled and closed.^* During the Utah War, Kesler, who had been a major in the Nauvoo Legion in Illinois, took command of the Second Battalion, Second Regiment. For a time he and his men were stationed in Echo Canyon. In March 1858, when Brigham Young ordered the evacuation of northern Utah in anticipation of the arrival ofJohnston's Army, Kesler, on the instruction of Daniel H. WeUs, began the preparations to move most of his considerable family to Provo. ^^ His first venture to Provo, on AprU 7, was to contract with "Shadrack Holdeway" {sic) to house Brigham Young's carding machine. He returned to Provo on May 16 to attend a meeting where he learned that he should dismantle the flour mill in Box Elder, the mill he had desired to construct and own, and move it to Provo. He immediately embarked upon this duty and returned to Provo with the machinery on June 4. He and Brigham Young selected a site for the Provo flour mill, and delegating his foremen, Samuel Ensign and "Pharious WeUs" {sic), to begin the groundwork, Kesler returned to Salt Lake City on June 19 to draft a design for the miU and to continue boarding up his home.^ÂŽ i2lbid., pp. 165-262. i3"A Veteran of 1846." i*Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 170-82. i5See March 1858 entries in Kesler Diary no. 1. i^Ibid., April-June 1858 entries.

Utah Historical Quarterly

62

Milt built by Kesler for Heber C. Kimball in Bountiful. Photograph was taken in 1907. USHS collections.

With the June 30 announcement in Provo by Brigham Young that the " w a r " was over and those who wished could return north, Kesler assembled his family and belongings and went home. This did not end his trips to Provo, however. On July 3 he was on his way there again to check on the mill, and a week later he returned to the site with further instructions from Brigham Young. Soon after, the church leader told Kesler to dismantle the mill at Provo and reinstall it in Box Elder.

Kesler estimated his travel connected with the mill and the move south at over 900 miles and his personal expense at a thousand dollars.^^ With the members of the Utah Expedition entrenched at Camp Floyd, the increased trade and employment gradually improved Utah's economy. Official contracts to supply grain and lumber to the camp and sales of army surplus netted profits for the territory and church and for the Big Cottonwood Canyon Lumber Company which quickly rid itself of its surplus by supplying needed timber for the construction of Camp Floyd for "thousands of dollars in gold."^^ On September 14, 1858, two months after the mill was relocated in Box Elder, Kesler and Horace S. Eldredge, purchasing agent for the i7lbid., July 1858 entries. i8"A Veteran of 1846."

Frederick Kesler

63

LDS church, were sent on an economic mission to the East with the money the lumber company had accrued to purchase machinery and goods. Their purchases included equipment for the manufacture of naUs, buttons, and paper, and wool and cotton carding machines and looms. ^^ Shortly after his arrival home, Kesler discovered problems within his sizeable family. On September 15, 1859, he wrote, " . . . My Oldest and Favorite ChUd Has turned away from the truth and married a JintUe & Has Came out & Said to my face in my own House that She was fuUey Determined to go Her own way." Then, on September 18 he found that his "2nd Daughter Antynett Had left my house and gone to Maryetts Her Sister thus testifying By her works that she Loves the Sosiety of the Jentiles in prefferance to the Saints which Fact She Has Confest to m e . " He could not comprehend the apostasy of his two daughters and never lost faith that they would eventually repent and return home.^° During the next five years Kesler actively supervised the construction and repair of several mills and factories around the valley. These were years of great productivity for him, involving his talents in the construction of canals, a schoolhouse for his ward, a smokehouse for the army, a new ranch house, and a bowery, along with his many duties as a bishop. Added to this, on February 13, 1860, he received his commission from the Utah Territorial Legislature to serve as a member of the board of directors of the penitentiary.

Kesler was quite successful as a private entrepreneur in the valley.

With the dissolution of the Big Cottonwood Lumber Company in 1862 he offered to seU his interest in it for $2,607.06. Less than a year later he and Brigham Young purchased a miU in Big Cottonwood Canyon for $13,000, and Kesler moved his third wife, AbigaU, to the miU. Despite his many responsibUities, Kesler also found time for pleasure. He was very active socially with the members and hierarchy of the church and also found great enjoyment as a horticulturist, cultivating extensive gardens at his home in Salt Lake City and at his farm.^^ On November 14, 1865, most of the activities of this remarkable man came to an abrupt end. WhUe in a carriage with his daughter i9The earliest economic missions were voluntary, but as the church expanded individuals were "called" to such duty to help maintain the viability of the larger community. See Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 33.

20Kesler Diary no. 2, September 15, 18, 1859.

21 Kesler Diary no. 3, April 27, 1861.

64

Utah Historical Quarterly TABLE OF ACTIVITIES

Owner

Location

Type

Date Begun

Dates of Operation

1855 or 1856

1857-

Lorenzo Snow

Brighjim City

Flour

Lorenzo Snow & Samuel Smith

Box Elder Canyon

Saw

Heber C. Kimball

Bountiful North Millcreek Canyon

Flour

1851

Samuel Richards

Farmington

Carding

1856

Franklin Richards

Farmington

Flour

Lorin Farr

Ogden

Flour

1861

1862-1897

Chauncey West

Ogden

Saw

1860?

1860

Ezra T. Benson

Logan

Flour

1860

Ezra T. Benson

Logan

Saw

1860

Samuel P. Hoyt

Fillmore

Flour

1860

Samuel P. Hoyt

Hoytsville

Flour

1861

1861-1867

Brigham Young

Salt Lake City

Flour

1851

1852-1878?

Brigham Young & J . B. Little

Parley's Canyon

Flour

Brigham Young Empire Mill

City Creek Canyon

Flour

1861

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. Mill A

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1855

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. MillB

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1855

1857-1866 1854-1861

1862-1900 ?

-1859 1864-

65

Frederick Kesler TABLE OF ACTIVITIES

Power/Source

Construction Materials

Wheel/Saw Type

Box Elder Creek

Comments Removed to Provo and replaced in Box Elder in 1858

Box Elder Greek North Mill Creek

Adobe & Timber (48 by 30 feet)

North Cottonwood Creek

Stone & Timber

Now Heidelberg Restaurant

Ogden River

Adobe & Timber

Destroyed twice by fire, rebuilt brick & rock

Overshot Wheel

Logan River

Became entertainment center confectionary store, demolished near beginning of century

28 July 1860 Kesler explained mill plans to West's foreman Could have become Union Roller Mills

In midst of construction, Hoyt sent to Hoytsville Closed down in 1867 because not enough water power

Weber River Adobe & Timber Parley's Creek City Creek

Timber

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Undershot or Small Overshot

Now Liberty Park Chase Mill

Possibly turbine later on

Became a wool-cotton factory

Overshot or possibly turbine

Burned down in 1883 New saw 1857

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Date Begun

Dates of Operation

Owner

Location

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. MillG

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1857

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. MillD

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1857

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. MillE

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1857

Big Cottonwood Lumber Co. MUIF

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Saw

1857

Brigham Young

City Creek

Saw

Brigham Young

City Greek

Saw

1858

Brigham Young

Salt Lake City

Sugar

1860

Heber C. Kimball

Bountiful

Sugar

1861

Brigham Young

Parley's Canyon

Wood& Cotton

Public Works Dept.

Salt Lake City

Nail Factory

18581859

1860-1865

Public Works Dept.

Salt Lake City

Paper

1860

1861-1868

Button Factory

1859

Bountiful

Linseed OU Mill

1859

Deer Creek

Saw

1857

La Bonte

Saw

1857

Public Works

Heber C. Kimball

Type

1857-

1856

18611863-

1860-

There exists in Kesler's materials brief references to other mills within the territory.

Because the notations are so scanty and brief and because other sources have not

67

Frederick Kesler

Power/Source

Construction Materials

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Big Cottonwood Creek

Log

Wheel/Saw Type

Overshot, Circle

Later owned by D. H. Wells, July 24 celebrations held here

Became Excelsior Mill owned

by Kesler & Brigham Young Overshot

City Creek

Comments

Gould have been the Chase saw mill in Big Field which was moved 7 miles up this canyon in 1856 Not known if actually built

Pitch-back

North Mill Greek

240 spindles—eventually dismantled & machinery sent to southern Utah

Parley's Greek

Parley's Greek

Timber

Overshot

Could make 4-12 penny nails, closed down when iron supply left by U.S. Army exhausted

Parley's Creek

Machinery placed in old sugar works. Sugar House

Parley's Creek

Horn or bone buttons, Kesler purchased machinery while on eastern mission

North Canyon Creek

Adobe & Timber

Overshot

Hydraulic press utilized, housed in flour mill Not known if ever completed Not known if ever completed

been located, these additional edifices have not been included.

68

Utah Historical Quarterly

Isaac Chase mill in Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, was later owned by Brigham Young. USHS collections.

Laura he struggled with a fractious horse. Just as the animal "was about to go down a presapice," Laura jumped from the carriage without injury, but Kesler's feet begame tangled in the lines and he was thrown "violently on the Hard ground." He landed on his left hip and broke his femur near the hip socket.^^ Although several attempts at surgery were made, Kesler's fracture never healed properly. An invalid for the remainder of his life, he was frustrated and discouraged by his handicap and his consequent inabUity to pursue his craft actively. His religion and his gardens became his passions, and he pursued with vigor his own obedience to church principles and that of others as bishop of the Sixteenth Ward.

In December 1867 Kesler received an invitation to join the School, of the Prophets. Following instruction in that group, Bishop Kesler and his counselors established a Relief Society in their ward on June 15, 22Ibid., November 14, 1865.

Frederick Kesler

69

1868, a cooperative mercantile company in Kesler's granary until another building could be constructed on February 22, 1869, and canvassed the ward periodically to have the members reaffirm their commitment to the kingdom and to the Word of Wisdom. Kesler outlined his own commitment: I left off the use of Tea in the year 18571 left off the use of coffee tobacco & all kinds of Spiritous Liquers in the year 1868 I left off eating of Swines flesh in the year 1868 & thus far 1 can truely say that it has bin a benifit to me. . . . I have taught the same to my family some of whome observe the same & I trust all of my family will eventually see the necessity of not only observing the word of wisdom . . . but will hearkin & obey every word that is spoken by the servants of the Lord. . . .^^

The termination of the School of the Prophets by Brigham Young in August 1872 marked the dissolution of but one commitment in Kesler's life. On January 26 of that year Kesler's first wife, Emeline, had filed for divorce in the Third District Court before Judge J. B. McKean, a gentile, on the grounds of adultery—citing Kesler's plural marriages—among other charges. Kesler blamed "her children Maryette, Joseph, Fredy . . . in this unjust & unlawful preceedings aginst her best friend on this earth." On February 14, on the advice of Brigham Young, Emeline withdrew her suit and settled out of court for what Kesler later called " a lions share of my property for her & her chUdren," including real estate worth "$4500.00 in gold, besides a good cow and all her household goods. . . ."^^ Kesler's domestic troubles were not over. In March 1873 his third wife, Abigail, also sought a divorce. Kesler blamed the influence of Emeline for these difficulties and hoped AbigaU might "see her folly & repent of her eavil thoughts," but she was determined to leave. " I was once young and happy," she wrote, "but your abusive toung has destroyed my happiness and all love for you[;] my children were conceived, born, and nursed milk steeped in sorrow." She solicited Kesler's cooperation in the divorce, saying she would teach the chUdren to "respect you as their father" and that she would keep her past unhappiness private. If he proved difficult, however, she would carry her tale of woe to Brigham Young.^^ Kesler's response was evidently not satisfactory, for AbigaU obtained a divorce from him on March 11 through Brigham Young.

23Ibid., January 1, 1871.

24Ibid., January 1872; Kesler Diary no. 11, August 22, 1898.

25Kesler Diary no. 3, March 11, 1873; Abigail Kesler to Frederick Kesler, March 3, 1873.

Utah Historical Quarterly

70

Bishop Frederick Kesler, white beard, and other Sixteenth Ward leaders. Left to right, standing, Joshua Summerhays, William J. Newman, Thomas E. Jeremy; seated, Peter Reid, William Langton, Theodore McKean (inset), Kesler, George R. Emery.

USHS collections.

Young requested Kesler to list all of his holdings—which amounted to $12,000 in cash, real estate, and other property—and then divided this property between AbigaU and Jane, Kesler's remaining wife, according to the number of their surviving children. Abigail was allotted $4,000 under Brigham Young's formula and Jane $8,000, leaving Kesler with nothing. Fortunately, his wife Jane Elizabeth Pratt took him into her home, gave him power of attorney over her affairs, and thus "quieted down" his anxiety.^^

By November 1874 Kesler was embroiled in another controversy, this time with the Utah Western Railroad. The foundation of this altercation lay with the establishment of rights-of-way over the Kesler ranch and the amount Kesler expected the railroad to pay for those rights. He wanted $1,500 for a right-of-way thirty feet wide across his acreage.

Arbitrators representing the rival interests settled the matter on Jan26Kesler Diary no. 11, August 22, 1898.

Frederick Kesler

71

uary 5, 1875, by requiring the company to pay Kesler $1,133.33 and grant him a free lifetime pass on the railroad from the city to his farm.^^ This might have settled the matter, but on February 3 when Kesler attempted to use the pass to ride from Salt Lake City to the ranch the conductor informed him that he had been instructed "not to stop the train between Chambers home & Black Rock for anyone."

Accordingly, Kesler was deposited at the Chambers home, three mUes from his own, and walked home using a crutch for support. The same thing occurred on February 16, but this time, upon Kesler's arrival home, he found that "the train had stopt at my House & put off 4 men but nothing was said to me about riding on to my place. "^^ In exasperation Kesler took his case to the High Council of the LDS church, a kind of ecclesiastical supreme court. Because "outsiders" were involved in the matter, the council decided it had no jurisdiction. Kesler next approached Brigham Young and Hiram B. Clawson, a member of the board of directors and Young's son-in-law.

Shortly thereafter the train began to stop at the ranch.^^ Tranquility continued to evade Kesler, however, for Brigham Young was interested in the ranch and made two unsatisfactory attempts to purchase it from the Keslers. In a letter to Kesler dated June 16, 1875, Young stated: I have been reflecting upon your offer to sell your place on the U. W. R. R. and think it may prove better for your health and your financial welfare to sell and engage in sheep raising, winemaking, or some easy and pleasant occupation in the southern regions of our Territory. . . . I would be pleased to see if we may be able to make a trade satisfactory to both parties.^°

No such trade was ever arranged. Probably still smarting from Young's unfavorable decisions and actions concerning his marital and raUroad difficulties, Kesler, an active lender of financial resources throughout the valley, wrote to the church leader on September 20, 1875, reminding him of a delinquent account. circumstances beyond my controle caused what little propperty I had to [be] divided amongst my wifes which has left me without a home that I can call my own [and] I feel as though I greatly need that money that I let you have when you was in great need in the year 1852 which was one thousand dollars in coin [and] I feel as though I should Reciev ten per ct 27Kesler Diary no. 4, January 5, 1875.

28lbid., February 3, 16, 1875.

29lbid., June 10, 1875.

30Young to Kesler, June 16, 1875.

72

Utah Historical Quarterly interest per annum from the date of it falling [due, March 3, 1853] until the same is paid.

Young addressed a quick reply to Kesler asking him to bring the note to his office the next time he called and stating, " I am not in the habit of borrowing money without giving my obligation for the same." Kesler took the disputed note to Young's office on October 21, 1875.

According to Kesler's account, the church president "did not feel verry pleasant over it Said I had made a presant of the money & the note might be a forgrd one and said some oather hard things." But Kesler held his ground, saying he would "be willing to testify in any court in heaven or on the earth that he did receive the money." After "considerable" further discussion Young "told James Jack to pay the Note interest & all." Kesler declined the interest, which he had computed at $2,200.31

Kesler next addressed the raUroad directors, informing them on October 22, 1875, that the Utah Western RaUroad had but ten days to pay him the $1,133.33 for the right-of-way before he would start charging them interest. The High Council became involved in the affair on November 2 when it decided to reduce the amount the raUroad owed to $500 plus the lifetime pass, in exchange for which the Keslers were to forfeit to the railroad by warranty deed a fifty-foot-wide strip across their land. By November 15 the matter was apparently settled. Six years later, however, on May 21, 1881, the Keslers were informed by William Riter "that the Presant RaU Road companey was not bound & was under no obligation to carry" Kesler and his wife free. Furthermore, the Keslers' lifetime passes "Had run out 3 years ago."^^ This disagreement may never have been resolved, for Kesler was still seeking a settlement in 1883.

The remaining years of Kesler's life were filled primarUy with untiring devotion to his religion. From the time of his accident on, he had become increasingly preoccupied with it. His diaries record his thoughts on the significance of life and death, how to achieve everlasting life through devotion to God, and concern for the status in the hereafter of his estranged brothers and sisters and an old girl friend he had known before his first marriage. He baptized all of them posthumously into his church.

As always, Kesler displayed great concern for the members of his ward, visiting them as often as he could in sickness and in health. He 51 Young to Kesler, September 22, 1875; Kesler Diary no. 4, October 21, 1875.

32Kesler Diary no. 5, May 21, 1881.

73

Frederick Kesler

''>t;.^._';'%''Kesler participated in two ceremonies during the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, laying a granite slab on the west center tower and viewing the placement of the Angel Moroni. USHS collections.

attended and often administered the various rituals of life and death and organized many religious and social activities for them throughout the year. He took pride in all the LDS temples built in the territory and visited weekly the partially completed Salt Lake Temple to observe its progress. Despite his damaged hip he often climbed the scaffolding to see at close hand what the workmen were doing.

The completion of the Salt Lake Temple marked a high point in his later years, for on September 3, 1891, the seventy-five-year-old Kesler was summoned to place one of the granite slabs on the west center tower of the temple. When the rock was hoisted into place, he "at once proceeded to lay [it] . . . to the entire satisfaction of the Master Rock layer. . . ."^^ The following spring, on April 9, Kesler, his youngest son, and a neighbor visited the temple to view the placement of the statue of the Angel Moroni. On this occasion, Kesler "was invited to ascend in rude elivator . . . up about 200 ft. then proceeded up to the Angel Moroni By stairway. . . . I walket around the angel and toutched it with my hand I also Deposited my Name & . . . Archies written on a small piece of paper through the Bolt Hole that led in to 33Kesler Diary no. 9, September 3, 1891.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

the Center of the BaU. . . ."^^ Finally, on May 23, 1893, on the completion and dedication of the temple, Kesler was baptized to improve his health and also baptized for a dead relative. He was very moved by the event: Lorenzo Snow zmounsed that I was to be the first person to be Baptised . . . every desirable blessing was pronounced on my head . . . I felt verry Greatly Honored . . . being the first one . . . in the font . . . it is an event long to be remembered.^^

Kesler's religious commitment appears to have been recognized during his lifetime, but history has not accorded him a stature commensurate with his contributions to the economic development of the territory. His divorces by themselves do not seem likely to have been factors hindering his prominence. Many pioneer leaders were granted divorces by Brigham Young. ^^ What remains intriguing about Kesler's divorces, however, are the vindictive property settlements arranged by Young that left Kesler virtually propertyless. His disputes with the Utah Western RaUroad and with Brigham Young over an old debt may have stamped him as intractable and therefore unworthy of too much recognition for his achievements. Whatever the reason, bit by bit Kesler was stripped of much of his worldly goods. The accident that left him an invalid in his fiftieth year seemed in many ways to mark a turning point in his fortunes, for it was not long after that two of his marriages ended and his financial problems began. He died at his home on June 12, 1899, at the age of eighty-three, following a severe and painful Ulness. Deeply moved, his son Archie wrote in his father's journal that this was " a man greatly beloved and respected by all who knew him. . . . From a poor orphan boy he worked his way upward in life, becoming a truly great and good man. . . ."^^ Lacking specifics, even the son's statement does not give the man his full due. Frederick Kesler provided with his mills the means by which several communities could move into an industrial future. In Salt Lake City, particularly, his mechanical acumen contributed to the evolution of an industrial society, an emergence he witnessed from early settlement to statehood.

Indeed, Kesler's wide-ranging activities represent the very dynamism of the pioneer.

3*Ibid., April 9, 1892.

35Ibid., May 23, 1893.

36Eugene E. Campbell and Bruce L. Campbell, "Divorce among Mormon Polygamists: Extent and Explanations," Utah Historical Quarterly 46 (1978): 5.

37Kesler Diary no. 12, June 12, 1899.

tsimwxm^^M^^^^^^^^wM Box Elder mill. Drawing by Ned Young.

The Box Elder Flouring Mill

BY FREDERICK M. H U C H E L

THE DIRECTION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG the first settlers, William Davis, James Brooks, and Thomas Pierce, arrived at the site of present-day Brigham City in March 1851. Other famUies came later that year. By faU the beginning of a viUage was underway, and the settlers had buUt a fort on Box Elder Creek at what is now 700 North between 300 and 400 West. Eight or nine famUies spent the winter of 1851-52 in the settlement called "Box Elder," surrounded by about 500 Shoshone Indians. In the spring the settlers broke up the fort and moved out onto their own farms. Following Indian troubles about a year later, the Box Elder residents were ordered by Brigham Young to UNDER

Mr. Huchel lives in Brigham City.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

move again into a fort. It was built on higher ground south of the first fort near present 300 North between 100 and 200 West. By October 1853 records hsted 204 inhabitants of Box Elder. At the LDS church conference that month Lorenzo Snow was called to take fifty famUies to Box Elder. When they arrived the next year the fort was enlarged.

Soon another group of immigrants further increased the size of the settlement. In December 1854 Wilford Woodruff reported that there were sixty famUies in Box Elder. In 1855 Jesse W. Fox laid out a townsite under the direction of Lorenzo Snow, and the buUding of the community—named Brigham City in honor of the Great Colonizer—had begun in earnest.^ In AprU 1855 a report published in England noted that "Elder Lorenzo Snow is building a mill, and making a farm at Box Elder.

About 25 famUies are going with him."^ The mill was erected at the top of a steep bank overlooking the Box Elder Creek bottoms. The town plat began at the mill—the mUl taking up the northeast corner of the city as it was laid out. Plans called for the entire town to be enclosed by a rock wall twelve feet high built by the settlers with each earning his building lot by constructing a portion of the wall. The mill not only formed the northeast corner of the town, it served as a strategic military outpost as well by providing a lookout and a fortified position for protection from the still hostile Shoshones.^ As an early settler explained: Brigham City was once entirely surrounded with a wall of rock. This was the settler's protection against "Pocotello" and his scalping Indians.

At the mere mention of 'Tocotello" children would scud for home. At times the Indians were fierce, when sentries were kept on guard night and day, rain or shine. Many a weary hour they must have spent on guard.*

The Box Elder flouring mUl, the first industry necessary for setting up a Mormon agricultural community, was built at the insistence of iMary Nichols et al.. Through the Years (Brigham City, Ut.: Brigham City Eighth Ward, 1953), p.

8; Russell R. Rich, Ensign to the Nations (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Publications, 1972), p.

629; Veara S. Fife and Chloe N. Petersen, Brigham City, Utah, Residents—1850-1877(Brigham City, Ut.: Golden Spike Chapter, Utah Genealogical Assn., 1976), pp. 4, 8. ^Millennial Star, April 27, 1855.

3Concerning the mill and the wall see Nichols, Through the Years, pp. 8-9, and Lydia Walker Forsgren, ed., History of Box Elder County (Brigham City, Ut.: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1937), pp.

259-60. Forsgren says that the wall was "about eight feet high, three feet wide at the base, and two feet wide at the t o p . " Nichols notes, " T h e original rock wall, which was intended to enclose the city, was never finished. The north and east lines were partly built twelve feet high, but for the walls to be erected on the south and west sides, only the rocks were hauled on the ground." Forsgren further states that the wall "was never completed except across the east side, and that ran from where Bott's Marble works is now located, to Second South, just west of the high school [now a junior high]. Some parts of the wall were built on all sides of the city." * Brigham City Bugler, July 24, 1897.

Box Elder Flouring Mill

77

Frederick Kesler. Special Collections, University of Utah Library.

Brigham Young who provided the money for building it and acquiring the machinery. That he had a stake in the mill is evidenced by mention of a visit he made to Box Elder "to inspect a mill owned by myself and Elder L. Snow."^ Lorenzo Snow served as superintendent of the mill, with Samuel Smith also having a directing interest. Later stockholders were William Gardner, Ike Jensen, and "Miller" Jensen.^ The construction of the mill was directed by Frederick Kesler, Brigham Young's master mill builder. Born January 20, 1816, to Frederick and Mary Sarah Lindsey Kesler, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, Kesler apprenticed himself to a millwright at age fifteen. By the time he was nineteen he was contracting on his own to build mills. In 1835 he buUt the first flour mill in Iowa as well as some sawmills. Baptized into the Mormon church in 1840, Kesler and his family arrived in Utah in October 1851, having tarried to build mills on the way west.^ 5 Vaughn S. Nielsen, The History of Box Elder Stake (Brigham City, Ut.: Box Elder Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977), p. 9. ^LaVone B. Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company, I n c . , " MS, December 14, 1939, p. 9, Special Collections, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. ^Nichols, Through the Years, p. 8; "Register of the Papers of Frederick Kesler (1816-1899)," pp.

3-4, ed. Margery W. Ward, Register 14, MS49, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. All Kesler MSS cited herein are in this collection unless otherwise noted.

78

Utah Historical Quarterly

Kesler wanted to build a grist mUl and go into private business; in fact, he wanted to buUd his mill in Box Elder, but Brigham Young told him his business was to be millwright for the church rather than a private businessman. Obedient to counsel, Kesler began immediately to build mills at Young's direction. After constructing several mUls in and around Salt Lake City, Kesler was sent on a "mission" to the East to learn about the latest technology for all sorts of mills. The trip, taken with Horace S. Eldredge, lasted from March to July 1854. The following year Young directed his millwright, now armed with the latest ideas in mill building, to erect a mill for Lorenzo Snow in Box Elder, the place where Frederick had wanted to settle and build himself a mUl.^ The Kesler daybooks show that construction on the mill was underway by June 1855 and give specifications for timber: beams, posts, girts, plates, columns, and caps. The floor joists were being put in and the rafters set in place. By September 15 Kesler had worked twenty-seven days on the Box Elder mill. The December daybook entries show the materials needed for such things as the "floom."

Other materials mentioned included spindles, wheels, flanges, rollers, a hoisting screw, and a regulating screw. In May 1856, when travel was again possible, Kesler ordered a shaft for the bottom of the wheat elevator and a load of two-inch planks and "spurr & water wheels." By June the heavy construction was apparently almost finished for his orders were for finishing materials. Numerous orders were placed during the summer months for parts for the mill mechanism, including wheels, cogs, and the mill stones. On August 23 Kesler noted some personal items his workers wanted him to order: Coffee! Coffee!! Coffee!!!

5 plugs of tobacco for S. Ensign 3 plugs of tobacco for Geo. Taggart

Finally, in late October Kesler placed his last recorded orders for the mill for plaster, scales, and paint.^ The completion of the mill was timely. Wheat crops for the years 1854-56 had been poor due to crickets, grasshoppers, and drought.

The year 1857 was the first that a grist mill could profitably be used by the community. ^°

^"Register of the Papers of Frederick Kesler," p. 4; Kesler Papers, box 2, book 5.

9Frederick Kesler Daybook, microfilm of holograph (original in Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.). The book is titled on the flyleaf: Oil Mill Sugar Works by F. Kesler. The records begin in April 1855. loNielsen, " T h e History of the John H . Bott and Sons Company," p. 9.

7A''Y

^^

III

^^P ^

Box Elder mill. Drawing by Ned Young.

The Box Elder grist or flouring mill was typicad of mills built all over Utah by master millwright Kesler. Other mills designed by him of which photographs exist show a great similarity in structure and design with a distinctive clerestory running the length of the roof and unique treatment of the end walls. The Willard Richards mill in Farmington (1849-51), presently the Heidelberg Restaurant, was built by Kesler as was the Samuel Hoyt grist mUl (1862) on the Weber River in Hoytsville. The old mill in Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, known as the Isaac Chase-Brigham Young miU (1852), was also built by Kesler.^^ 11 Interviews with Nichole Bachman, Delia Dye, Gary Topping, Wallace N. Cooper H, and L. Max Bott, spring 1981; "Register of the Papers of Frederick Kesler," p. 69. Records for the period are incomplete, but circumstantial evidence from the structure indicates that the Willard Richards mill was built by Kesler. Apparently none of the Kesler grist mills contains original machinery or an original interior. This presented difficulties for restoration architect Cooper during the Chase mill restoration project; however, much valuable information was obtained from a study of the Box Elder mill despite the many modifications it has undergone.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

The Box Elder mill, as noted above, sits on a steep bank above Box Elder Creek and is designed so that from the top of the bank (city side) entrance is on the main or ground level. The back (north side) of the mill is at the bottom of the bank and entrance is to the basement level.

The basement and foundation of the mill are of rock while the main building, containing two stories above the main level, is of local adobe, probably from the first adobe yard north of town which was used before the adobe yard west along the creek was opened. The walls are three feet thick on the first story and two feet thick on the second.

The beams and floors are of rough-cut lumber from local mountain pine, now long gone.^^ Characteristic of Kesler mills, the ground level has a split-level floor, allowing for the machinery and gravity feed used at that time.

The flour was ground by two stone burrs. As the top wheel was rotated by the water-powered mUl machinery, wheat was fed through an opening in the upper wheel into the grinding space, forced into the burr grooves, and ground into flour. The buffers were located on the upper floors. Water from the creek was diverted through a race ditch to a flume that ran into the buUding and out again at the northeast corner and back into the creek. The water wheel was inside the miU.^^ Since the mill had been built to serve not only as a mill but also as a fort the only windows were on the second and third levels. On the ground floor a door opened on the south side, and rifle ports faced south and west, overlooking the creek. The ports were about eighteen inches deep, the thickness of the walls, and wedge-shaped with the smaU slit in the outer waU surface. A rifle could be moved in a considerable arc with minimum exposure. With a fortified miU and a rock waU running west and south from it, the town was quite secure from the northeast. Even so, there were some anxious moments.

One story is told of "Miller" Jensen. He went into the basement of the mill which at that time was a network of machinery and old timbers.

At the bottom of the stairs he met a big . . . Indian who had . . . managed to get in. . . . The . . . Indian had a gun, but instead of using it he grappled with "Miller" Jensen . . . until . . . Jensen was so tired that he thought he would have to give up. Suddenly the Indian let him go and

i2Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," p. 9; Brigham City Bugler,]\x\y 24, 1897. The " p i n e " mentioned in the accounts was most probably douglas fir, called "red pine" by early settlers. i3Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," pp. 9, 14.

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81

said, " M e good Indian." "Miller" Jensen thought he had overpowered him and certainly gave him a lecture.^*

To operate the new mUl Lorenzo Snow called Mads Christian Jensen, then living to Ogden, to come to Box Elder. Born April 4, 1822, in EUing, Denmark, Mads probably learned the miller's trade from his father-in-law who not only was a miller but also owned a distillery. Jensen's wife, Maren Hansen, came from the village of Borglum some twenty-five miles from Ellin near the shores of the Skagarack. In August 1851 the couple were baptized into the Mormon church and the following year left Denmark for "Zion" in the company of John E. Forsgren of Box Elder, one of the missionaries who had labored with them in Bastholm. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley on September 30, 1852, and soon located in Kaysville where Mads helped build a flour mill for a Brother Winel. During the next few years they lived in Salt Lake City and Weber County where Mads pursued his craft and served in the militia. In answer to Snow's call Jensen moved to Box Elder in February 1857. He had been there about a year when Brigham Young ordered the northern settlements evacuated in preparation for the Utah War. Jensen's two wives moved south with the rest of the residents of Brigham City, but the miller stayed behind to grind all the wheat that remained into flour for the use of those who were moving, for they had no idea if or when they would return. In August 1858, however, the Jensen family was able to return to Brigham City where they established permanent residence.^^ Mads Christian Jensen, known as "Miller" Jensen, became a capital stockholder in the flouring mill and the woolen mill and was highly respected in the community. A man of means, he secured homes for each of his three wives. His first home, where his first wife lived, was on 300 East (then called High Street), just around the corner from the mill. Jensen served as miller for many years, probably throughout the active life of the Box Elder flouring mill.^^

i*Ibid., pp. 10-11. i^Kathryn S. Jensen, comp., Ancestry and Descendants of Mads Christian Jensen (Salt Lake City, 1960), pp. 14, 15, 19, 22, 37; Fife and Petersen, Brigham City, Utah, p. 56. i6Jensen, Ancestry, pp. 22-24. "Miller" Jensen's standing in the community is illustrated by this incident recorded in ibid., p. 22: "When the U.S. Marshals were hunting down the polygamists he made no effort to hide from them. At the time he was arrested the marshal found him working at his mill.

At his request they took him to his home first where he shaved off his mustache and beard and made himself ready for the penitentiary. They took him to Ogden for trial. Non-members were subpoenaed as witnesses, whom it was thought would condemn him. His hearing was a short one. His witnesses regarded him highly and their testimonies acquitted him, much to the surprise of himself and family. He was never again molested by the U.S. Marshals."

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Utah Historical Quarterly

The move south during the Utah war provided a unique chapter in the history of the mill—a story detaUed by Frederick Kesler. ^^ On March 25, 1858, there was a mass meeting about the planned move south, noted by Kesler. Two months later he took up the story of the Box Elder mill's move south: May 26 This morning I had orders (from Brigham Young) to go to Boxelder & take out the machinery & forward the same to Provo. I left the city with 4 of my foremen for Boxelder. Slept in straw stack by corn pen.

May 27 Rained all night cold day arrived at Boxelder at 2 ocl P M Found the guard all well 16 in all.

May 28 Stopt the mill at 7 ocl A M and commenced taking it to pieces the news soon got to the Indians who were campt nearby about 40 in no. who soon came in to see what was up.

May 29 Got the machinery of the mill al ready for loading up by 12 ocl I visited the city the houses were left in a very dirty state fences down & everything bears the mark of distruction.

May 30 Sunday morning very cool teams arived at 1 ocl P M Got all loaded up By }4 past 7 ocl A M May 31 Over took our ox teams at Willow Creek Broke one axeltree of the waggon that had on the mill Stones Lightened up the other waggons and Started them on. I then pushed a head Staid at Holmes Creek Slept in a Straw pile.

June 4 Fine warm morning went to Provo visited Pst B. Young He showed me the site where he intended building a flouring mill. I returned to camp in the evening.

From this it appears that had the war not been settled the Box Elder mill machinery might have been installed in a mill in Provo. By the middle of July 1858, however, a peaceful settlement had been made with the federal government and people returned to their homes. The millwright's job became now to reverse what he had done. Again, Kesler noted the task:

17See Kesler's diaries in Kesler Papers, box 1, book 1, under dates cited.

Box Elder Flouring Mill

S3

July 17 Visited B. Young Got instructions to Replace Boxelder Flouring Mill.

July 18 My ox team Has Traveled During our move South & Back over 900 miles . . . the past move Has lost me at least one thousand Dollars.

July 25 Loaded up the Boxelder miU & Started Back for the City—arrived at Home 2 ocl at night July 30 Gathered items for the Box Elder mill July 31 Started for Boxelder—stayed at Ogden—roasted beef on a stick in the street for supper, slept on top of Bishop's haystack.

During August 1-6 Kesler reinstalled the mill machinery and got it in running condition. On August 12 he returned to Box Elder and the following day started the mill, commenting that it "performed well making beautiful flour." It continued to serve the community well for about a quarter-century.

The mUl remained under the control of Lorenzo Snow and Samuel Smith, even through the period of the Brigham City MercantUe and Manufacturing Association, or the Co-op, whUe the planing miU, the tannery, and the woolen mill were acquired by the cooperative association. This was not unusual. It seems to have been the custom of the presiding authority in a settlement to keep an independent source of income so that he could work as overseer of the Co-op "for nothing" and would not be open to criticism for profiting from the Co-op's enterprises.^^ Apparently by the 1880s, when business began to grow and the demand for flour increased, the water power was not adequate for expansion at that site. The Brigham City Flouring MiUs Co., under Snow and Smith, built a new miU at the mouth of the canyon, abandoning the old burr miU. The company was renamed the Brigham City Roller Mills. 19 About the same time, the federal government stepped up its campaign against the Mormon church and its economic influence. The isBook A of Abstracts, p. 155, Box Elder County Recorder's Office, Brigham City; Leonard J .

Arrington, "Cooperative Community in the North: Brigham City, U t a h , " Utah Historical Quarterly 33 (1965): 207. isNielsen, " T h e History of the John H . Bott and Sons C o m p a n y , " p. 8; Book A of Abstracts, p.

155, deed of J u n e 18, 1897.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

Above: The Box Elder mill ca. 1920. Changes have been made in front windows and power lines added to operate lights and some equipment, although the waterwheel was still used to power stonecutting. Below: Mill yard with monument stones. Crane in center was used to lift heavy blocks. Rail handcars carried stone inside for cutting and finishing. Compton Collection, Utah State University Library.

Box Elder Flouring Mill

85

cooperative movement in Brigham City collapsed under the pressure, and the mills were all put out of business and up for sale.^^ At this point, John H. Bott entered the picture.

Born February 2, 1858, to PhUip Wise and Elizabeth Skeggs Bott, John Henry and his family joined the LDS church in 1867 and left England for America four years later. The young Bott trained as a machinist in New York on the way to Utah and after arriving in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1873 moved to Brigham City. He married in 1876 and shortly thereafter was called to work on the Salt Lake Temple where he learned the stonecutter's trade. In 1877, following counsel from Lorenzo Snow, Bott began a stone-cutting and monument business in Brigham City, working first from a John H. Bott. lot near the cemetery. As business increased Compton Collection.

Utah State University he moved to a location on south Main Street Library. and built a small shop. By 1890, when the Bott Company again needed a larger plant, the Co-op mills were available.^^ Bott looked the old miUs over and found that the flouring miU, abandoned for several years, had sufficient water power for his purposes, which the tannery did not, and was avaUable for a lower price than either the planing miU or the woolen miU. He acquired the flouring mill and the entire city block on which it stood for $300. The last payment on the miU was made by supplying the famUy of Judge Samuel Smith with a cemetery monument, and Bott received title to the property in 1897.^^ 20Nichols, Through the Years, p. 10; Arrington, "Cooperative Community," pp. 214-17; Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," p. 8. For additional information on the Brigham City Co-op and the Mormon cooperative movement in general see LeonardJ. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966). The section dealing with Brigham City is on pp. 324-33.

2iNielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," pp. 6-7. Bott married Maria Hadvae Jensen on October 13, 1876. The couple had seventeen children. It is in this family that the mill operation has continued. On January 1, 1880, Susan Reeder became his second wife and bore ten children; on December 28, 1882, he married Cecelia R. Peterson by whom he had six children.

22 Ibid., pp. 8, 11; interview with L. Max Bott; deed dated June 18, 1897, in Box Elder County Recorder's Office.

86

Utah Historical Quarterly

When John Bott first took possession of the mUl the building was in disrepair. He strengthened the walls, put up roof drains to eliminate further deterioration due to water damage, added a large red brick chimney on the west end, and performed other repairs. The second and third floors he remodeled for use as living quarters and as rooms for his business. He leveled the main floor and replaced the machinery with equipment for the stone business.^^ Over the years the city wall had been torn down piecemeal, with the stone used for walls, basements, and foundations all over town.

With the Indian threat long gone windows were needed more than gun ports, and so the narrow slits in the main floor walls of the mill were enlarged and glazed. A frame structure was added to the northwest corner of the mill for more living space. Bott rebuUt the power train, replacing the old flume with a penstock and moving the wheel outside the mill walls. In the process of leveling off the bank north of the mill workers uncovered the skeletons of two Indians and reburied them elsewhere. Shortly after the turn of the century pneumatic tools became available, and John H. Bott incorporated the new technology.2* Bott had trained his sons John, Lorenzo, Philip, and WUliam in the business, which became known as John H. Bott and Sons Company. When Bott died in 1914 his sons Lorenzo, Philip, and William bought the property and the business, incorporating in 1917. Over the years the business grew and in 1933 became a strictly wholesale enterprise with William managing the plant and Lorenzo, president and general manager, doing the traveling and sales work. A show yard was opened in 1916 just south of Merrell Lumber on Main Street near First North. Equipment was added as the business grew, and the plant became one of the largest and most modern operations of its kind in the West. The old waterwheel was replaced by a more efficient turbine and the penstock by an underground pipe. The front door was enlarged to its present size and a crane installed. A frame addition was built on the east side of the mUl, thirty-two feet wide by seventy-five feet long, later enlarged to two hundred feet long.^^ Until 1916, when a hydrant was installed in front of the mill, drinking water was taken from the race ditch. The piped water was

23Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," pp. 11-13.

2*Ibid., pp. 12-15, 20-21; Nichols, Through the Years, p. 9.

25 Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," pp. 5, 21-24; interview with L. Max Bott. Philip Bott sold his interest in 1932 and conducted a monument business of his own in Ogden.

Box Elder Flouring Mill

87

especially welcome to the wives of William and Lorenzo who still lived in the mill. Soon after, a city water system made running water avaUable throughout the mill. About 1920 the families built homes just west of the mill, finally separating the business operation from the families' living quarters.2ÂŽ Updating continued with sandblasting replacing pneumatic chisels in the monument making, and about 1930 an in-house granite polisher was installed. By 1939 the company was receiving stone in railroad car sized blocks from nearly a dozen locations throughout the country. From seven to fifteen men were required to maintain operations with occasional night shifts needed to keep up with demand.^^ In 1943 Lorenzo Bott bought out his brother William's interest and ran the business until 1949 when he sold it to his son L. Max and a son-in-law, WUliam Durrell Nielsen. Later, Max acquired sole ownership, and it once again became a retail business.^^ The old Box Elder flouring mill was built very early in Brigham City's history as the town's first industrial structure. Very few buildings dating from the 1850s survive in town. The wholesale destruction associated with the faddish demolition of historic structures in the name of "progress" has left little from Brigham City's pioneer era. It is pleasantly surprising, therefore, that the town boasts a Kesler mill, intact and functioning, one of the oldest operating mills in the state.

Presently under the direction of a fourth-generation family member, John H. Bott and Sons, operating in Brigham City since 1877 and in the mill building since 1890, is one of the oldest businesses in the town and with the closure of Elias Morris and Sons is the oldest stone monument business in the state.^^ A final note of historical interest: descendants of Mads Christian "Miller" Jensen are still operating a flour mill in Brigham City. In 1909 Jensen's sons organized the Jensen Brothers Milling and Elevator Company and built a mill on west Forest Street, now known as the Big J Milling and Elevator Company, a modern roller mill operated by the fourth and fifth generations of "Miller" Jensen's descendants.

26Nielsen, " T h e History of the John H. Bott and Sons Company," p. 24.

27lbid., pp. 26-27, 29, 31.

28"Salute to J . H. Bott and Sons Monument C o . , " copy obtained from Mrs. Lorenzo J . Bott.

29As L. Max Bott neared retirement age there was some uncertainty about the fate of the company. His sons had professions of their own and were not interested in the stonecutter's trade.

Fortunately, the legacy of John H. Bott provided an heir, Dennis R. Bott, a great grandson of John H .

Bott through his son Joseph and a skilled artisan. The transition began in 1985.

Utah Historical Quarterly

If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners. By ROY WEBB. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986. xii + 194 pp. Paper, $14.95.)

A major river is a many-faceted reality, especially in the semiarid western United States. If We Had a Boat was written to bring to light the many facets of the Green River. In this book one will find well written and informative material on a variety of subjects from the physical geography of the river to the history of its exploration and use from 1825 to the present. Beginning with William Ashley, moving on to John Wesley Powell, and then to moderns such as Bus Hatch, one meets trappers, prospectors for gold, explorers, adventurers, pleasure seekers, and business people. Webb's account of how people began to run the river for the sheer adventure of doing so and the evolution of commercial river running are particularly strong parts of the book and genuine contributions to the literature.

The chapter on surveyors and dam builders digests much material from government studies and documents, summarizing and telling the story in understandable, ordinary language. A major part of this chapter focuses on the proposed dam in Echo Park and how that proposal rose and fell in the political arena as a result of a tug of war between the Bureau of Reclamation, commercial interests, and Utah politicians (except for Governor Lee) on the one hand, and a coalition of conservation groups and other politicians on the other. Webb's account

of this struggle conveys well the drama of the whole situation with its various dynamics and implications. This is another strong part of the book.

The major disappointment of the book is that it only partially delivers what the publisher promises. The subtitle Green River Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners, the blurb on the back cover, and the introduction all lead the reader to think that this is a treatment of the entire Green River from its Wyoming origins to its confluence with the Colorado River in southeast Utah.

Not so. The scope of the book is clearly limited to the portion of the river from Green River, Wyoming, to Jensen, Utah. But this is only about half of the length of the river. An author has every right to cover whatever he or she wants to in a book, but a more helpful subtitle would have been "Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners on the Upper Green."

Admittedly, the canyons of the upper Green, such as Red and Lodore canyons, are probably more beautiful than those on the Green below Jensen, such as Desolation and Gray canyons.

True, Hell's Half Mile, Upper and Lower Disaster Falls, and Moonshine are more challenging rapids than Coal Creek and Rattlesnake. But one wishes that the stories of the river in these canyons could be told also.

What about the dam site at Coal Creek where excavation is evident and the rock houses in which the workers

Book Reviews and Notices lived still stand? Why was this project abandoned? After how much cost to whom? Or what about Dan Seamount and his wife, Flossie, and their ranch at Rock Creek? What of the stories that they rafted crops and even livestock to market down the river? Or what about Jim McPherson and the outlaws? Or many other subjects? Perhaps Roy

89 Webb will one day write about the Green River from Jensen to its confluence with the Colorado with as much skill and readability as he has demonstrated in this excellent book on the upper part of the river.

H. JEFFREY SILLIMAN

Salt Lake City

Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier. By NEWELL G . BRINGHURST. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1986. xvin -i- 246 pp. Paper, $6.95.)

Newell Bringhurst's Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier is a fine addition to Little, Brown and Company's already excellent American biography series. This series consists of short, concise biographies that not only cover the lives of various significant Americans but are also interpretive in nature and help illuminate some important themes in American history. In this case, as the title suggests, the theme is Brigham Young's role as a contributor to the development of the American frontier.

The book is well written and interesting and briefly involves the reader in almost every aspect of Brigham Young's fascinating career. His early years in Vermont and New York, his conversion to Mormonism and his early church activities, the Ohio and Missouri persecutions, his important mission to England, his activities in Nauvoo, his rise to church leadership and his magnificent work in directing the building of the kingdom in the Mountain West, his conflict with the federal government on various political and religious issues, his financial activities, polygamy, Indian relations— these and many more topics are all handled in a responsible and most readable manner.

This study, however, is not just a chronology of the events of Brigham Young's life. In places Bringhurst also

does a nice job of weaving them into the broader social, cultural, and political setting in which this Mormon leader found himself. In a way, then, the life of Brigham Young illuminates at least some aspects of its larger American setting. In describing Young's youthful years in New York and his eventual conversion to Mormonism, for example, Bringhurst also gives the reader a brief glimpse of the economic development of that region as well its religious culture. He comments on the revivalism and the search for the primitive gospel that were such important aspects of the times, and several other elements of the religious environment that probably contributed to the Young family's interest in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The socioeconomic conditions that led to the success of Brigham Young and the other Mormon missionaries in England are also handled briefly but well. The same can be said for such things as the political climate that frustrated the various Mormon efforts for statehood.

A possible criticism of the book, however, is that it does not go far enough in incorporating this cultural setting, or in developing its interpretive framework. On page 101, for example, the author observes that with the conclusion of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mormon

90 sanctuary in the Great Basin "was not a part of the expanding American frontier." But he misses the opportunity, here and elsewhere, to expand on what that meant, and to be very specific on exactly what Brigham Young contributed to that frontier. It is clear that the establishment of the Mormon kingdom in the West was his main contribution, but the book lacks a major interpretive discussion of the American frontier as a whole and how Brigham Young fit into it. How, for example, did his Indian policy (described very well in the book) fit in with the larger frontier experience, and with American Indian policy as a whole? How could a discussion of the larger American scene affect our understanding of such important things in Young's history as the Nauvoo difficulties and exodus, the Utah War, antipolygamy legislation, or the importance of the transcontinental railroad? The author sometimes hints at these things, and his last paragraph makes a nice summary, but for the most part he leaves the reader to figure them out for himself.

In a few places, but only a few, Bringhurst seems to strain slightly in his interpretation. On page 25, for example, he comments that after Young met Joseph Smith he "sought to impress the Mormon leader with his own religiosity" and uses the episode

Utah Historical Quarterly of speaking in tongues as the example.

The hard evidence on which to build such interpretive value judgments, however, is not really there. Also, on page 62, Bringhurst might have given better balance to his discussion of the Nauvoo Expositor affair if he had paid more attention to Dallin Oaks's fine article on the topic that appeared in the Utah Law Review in 1965.

On the other hand, such problems are minor when compared with the value of Bringhurst's generally well balanced, well written, and empathetic approach to this important American pioneer leader. He shows no bias either for or against Mormonism and does a fine job of balancing his discussion of controversial issues, such as polygamy, church-state relations, and the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Bringhurst seems very favorably impressed with the personality, leadership, and accomplishments of Brigham Young, and the book reflects this well.

He clearly recognizes, for example, and frequently illustrates, Brigham Young's "extraordinary abilities as an organizer and administrator." On balance, the book is an excellent, readable, and very worthwhile short biography of an important American colonizer and church leader.

JAMES B . ALLEN

Brigham Young University

Harvesting the Light: The Paris Art Mission and Beginnings of Utah Impressionism. By LINDA JONES GIBES. (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1987. viii + 107 pp. $13.95.)

The new and beautiful LDS Museum of Church History and Art across from Salt Lake City's Temple Square recently housed a special seven-month exhibition of Utah art entitled "Harvesting the Light—the Paris Art Mission and Beginnings of

Utah Impressionism." The exhibit consisted of works largely by Mormon artists who were trained at the Academy Julian in Paris. To complement and emphasize the importance of the exhibit, art connoisseur Linda Jones Gibbs has reproduced some fifty color

Book Reviews and Notices plates of the paintings in a handsome table-top book bearing the same name as that of the exhibit, Harvesting the Light. An excellent fifty-page commentary precedes the display of paintings and also includes forty black and white reproductions.

A preamble to the book contains this admonition from famed Utah artist John Hafen, written in 1905: " I n paintings that you may see hereafter cease to look for mechanical effect or minute finish, for individual leaves, blades of grass, or aped imitation of things, but look for smell, for soul, for feeling, for the beautiful in line and color.''

The exhibitors, as well as Gibbs, have chosen well from the canvases of talented Utah artists, no doubt finding the problem of elimination a difficult task; even so the book gives a limited if splendid view of the wealth and diversity of Utah art. The subtitle, Paris Art Mission, refers to the choice of five men, namely Edwin Evans, John Fairbanks, Herman Haag, John Hafen, and Lorus Pratt, who were subsidized by the LDS church in exchange for future services in decorating Mormon temples. It might be expected that the works of this quintet of artists would reflect their religious interests by portraying the sacred icons of Mormon history, but with few exceptions this is not the case. There are no depictions of gold plates, heavenly beings, nor sacred relics, though some Biblical scenes are presented. Mostly they are portraits and nature studies showing considerable sophistication in the styles of French Impressionism. Some are reproductions of murals in the Salt Lake and other temples, including frequent Garden of Eden scenes. Some viewers have called this latter category "pretty" and one viewer was overheard to call them "sweet." Though harvest scenes in the collection are in abundance there is little or no depic-

91 tion of Utah's famous canyons, mountains, lakes, nor rivers.

That the book was not intended as a missionary tool is evident in the prominence given to the works of James T. Harwood and his wife Harriet which in combination number nearly forty, or close to half of the total exhibit. Harwood, independent of church support, entered Academy Julian in 1888, two years before the five men listed above.

His high place in Utzih art is unquestioned; his works are marked by vitality, originality, and great beauty but do not usually reflect religious influence. While serving as head of the University of Utah art department for eight years (1923-31) he once referred to his hobby, profession, and religion as "farmer, artist, and church with one member." {100 Hundred Years of Utah Painting, p. 19.)

Granting the excellence of the work of the Harwoods, it nevertheless seems unfortunate that some space could not have been allotted to other noted Utah painters such as Lewis Ramsey, Lee Greene Richards, Joseph A. F. Everett, LeConte Stewart, Mahonri Young, Cornelius Salisbury, or C. C. A. Christensen, to name only a few.

True, the exhibit and its book counterpart could not possibly give recognition to all those deserving of it, but there does seem to be an imbalance between what is offered and what was possible. Perhaps fewer of some types (harvest scenes, murals, for example) could have made room for a wider presentation.

In 1872 pioneer painter C. C. A. Christensen wrote: " I would never have believed so much talent could be found among us as a people who are nearly all gathered from among the most downtrodden classes of mankind."

Harvesting the Light (such a wonderful title for a book about painting!) is a crowning achievement in artistic ex-

92 pression. Among those institutions offering similar books that illuminate the best of their region this proud palette of studies from the LDS

Utah Historical Quarterly Museum should stand gloriously high.

L A M A R PETERSEN

Salt Lake City

The Pueblo Storyteller: Development of a Figurative Ceramic Tradition. By BARBARA A. BABCOCK, GUY MONTHAN, and DORIS MONTHAN. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1986. xx -i- 201 pp. $40.00.)

With children climbing, jostling, or perching precariously on her arms, and legs and other little ones sitting attentively in her broad lap, the Pueblo storyteller sits open-mouthed, the words of her story frozen in time. In their new book. The Pueblo StoTyteller, Barbara A. Babcock and Guy and Doris Monthan give a new voice, albeit a scholarly, published one, to the ceramic figures that have become so highly valued in the last twenty-five years in both the pueblos in which they are produced and in the art world of southwestern collectors. For in this book Babcock and the Monthans have provided us with the rare opportunity to observe and understand the origins and development of one particular artistic tradition in a way that is virtually unrivaled in the field of ethnic art scholarship.

Babcock, an anthropologist and literary scholar, provides a rich and detailed history of the connections of the storyteller figure with Pueblo figurative tradition and with the revival of figurative ceramics among the Pueblos. With this background in place, she then carefully documents the evolution of the storyteller dolls themselves. In an examination of the blending of the forces of tradition and the innovative impulses of Pueblo potter Helen Cordero, Babcock gives us one of the best examples of the way in which a number of forces operate in the lives of traditional artists to make new forms not only possible but aesthetically desirable as well. Through an analysis

of the artistic contributions of three generations of potters who have taken up the making of storytellers, Babcock continues to suggest the ways in which tradition and personal style constantly interact. This continual process of negotiation of aesthetic values within communities is especially highlighted in her discussion of the ways in which the traditions of each Pueblo come into play in the work of the individual artists involved in the creation of storytellers: " . . . different Pueblos distinguished themselves for particular variations of the Storyteller. . . . at Santa Clara, for example, animal and clown Storytellers were the most popular forms, and only in this Pueblo could one find matte-and-polished blackware and redware Storytellers.

Tesuque, long-famous for its posterpaint Rain Gods, produced brightly colored Storytellers which were very much the exception at other Pueblos. . . . " In looking at personal, generational, and cultural influences in the making of storytellers, Babcock elucidates in the most powerful way the forces at work in any artistic production within a traditional society. She also includes an examination of the influence of commercialization, suggesting that such influences cannot be overlooked in any attempt to deal with contemporary artistic production in the Southwest.

If she had ended her analysis of the storyteller tradition with the above discussion, Babcock would have produced a landmark work, I think, since such a

Book Reviews and Notices careful documentation of the evolution of an artistic tradition is so rare; however, she does not end there. She goes on to describe what she terms the "regenerative power of the Storyteller" and presents the most significant and sophisticated analysis in the book. This discussion of the symbolic meaning of the potteries and their making is both brilliant and accessible, allowing the reader to see how a single artistic object can be multivalent, how it can have one set of culturally appropriate meanings for the maker and her community and quite another for the collectors of that object as a piece of art.

And yet, as Babcock concludes, "Like telling stories, making and exchanging potteries has always been a vehicle for retelling family history and for expressing personal and tribal identity. With the encroachment of an Anglo world and the expansion of an Anglo market for Indian objects, ceramic art has become increasingly important not only as a source of income, but as a cultural voice." Just as the tradition of storytelling itself has operated for generation upon generation to bring people together, so these storyteller figures function today. With this additional perspective enlivening and making the historical documentation of the storyteller tradition even more meaningful, Babcock has provided the

93 reader with an incomparably fine introduction to the storytellers of the Pueblos. Only the beautiful photographs (70 of them with 43 in full color) of Guy Monthan, and the sensitive quotations from the artists collected by Doris Monthan could make it better. In addition, Doris Monthan has provided a listing of 233 potters who make storytellers and related figures and provided biographical information for each; this in itself is a major achievement, providing scholars with one of the most extensive documentations of Pueblo potters available.

Taken together, text, photographs, biographical documentation and quotations from the artists make The Pueblo Storyteller a most remarkable volume: visually it is absolutely beautiful; intellectually it is a rare find, a most important contribution to the scholarship not just on Pueblo pottery but on the interaction of tradition and innovation, on the effects of commercialization on ethnic arts, on the ways in which meaning is encoded and shared cross-culturally. It is a book that deserves to be read and taken to heart by scholars, collectors, and indeed anyone interested in the Southwest and its rich Indian heritage.

MARGARET K . BRADY

University of Utah

Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest in Color. By WILLIAM M . FERGUSON and ARTHUR H .

ROHN. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. xiv -i- 296 pp.

Cloth, $40.00; paper $20.00.)

As an archaeologist who's worked in the Hovenweep and Mesa Verde country, I must admit a bias toy^dcrd Anasazi Ruins of the Southwest, especially considering its cover photo of Hovenweep Castle and its detailed description, illustrations, and photos of the region.

My esteem for the book goes beyond this bias, however, for it's an all-round

beautiful production, and it more than meets the authors' goals of providing a guide for the casual visitor and stay-athome traveler to the more significant and accessible Anasazi ruins. It is richly illustrated with high-quality color and black-and-white photos, along with maps, drawings, and tables, and the quality of the binding, plates,

94 cover stock, and paper is extremely good. I also like the format with its introductory discussion of Anasazi prehistory arranged both chronologically and culturally, and all in all I feel that the authors have more than accomplished what they set out to do—"to display and explain the magnificent Anasazi ruins of the Southwest and the culture of these ancient peoples," at least for the general reader.

This is not to say that the book is without flaws or that it would be useful for other trained archaeologists.

Frankly, it is too general to be of use to other archaeologists, and there are too many errors in data and interpretations for it to be used in the classroom.

For example, its maps and texts give the impression that the Rio Grande Valley was an empty void prior to Pueblo III times, when in fact there are numerous Basketmaker and early Pueblo sites in the region. Also, its boundary for the Rio Grande Pueblo III region could be extended at least 50 miles to the east, and I would expect that there are similar boundary and interpretive problems with other regions that I am not as familiar with.

Other glaring errors include the authors' persistence in placing Yucca House, Goodman Point, most of the Hovenweep sites, and a number of other sites in the Montezuma Valley

Utah Historical Quarterly (when in fact they're part of the McElmo drainage system) and that there is an almost complete absence of data and photos on the post-A.D. 1540 Pueblo Indians. I find this last problem especially troublesome, since it ignores the fact that the Pueblo/Anasazi culture is still alive and thriving and that it did not die out with the appearance of the Spaniards. Finally, while the book is very well illustrated and the photos are generally good (some are exceptional), certain of the photos are washed out and overall photo quality in no way compares with Muench and Pike's Anasazi. However, as a general overview it is much more comprehensive than the latter book, and I found its discussions and format to be more useful as a guide.

In short, while the book is not useful as a text or a scholarly synthesis (to be fair, it is not intended as such) and it contains a number of errors, it should prove very useful to the genered reader and potential visitor who desires an expert guide. As Richard Woodbury writes in his foreword, " . . . here is a chance to visit ruin after ruin, summer or winter, and to plan a tour to include favorite places to revisit and new ones to explore for the first time."

JOSEPH WINTER

University of New Mexico

Cattle in the Cold Desert. By JAMES A. YOUNG and B. ABBOTT State University Press, 1985. xxii -i- 255 pp. $27.00.)

Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in the distinctive cowboy or buckaroo culture that developed around the range cattle industry in the Intermountain West. The term buckaroo is an anglicization of the Spanish vaquero and pays tribute to the prominent role California cowboys played in shaping occupational practices in a vast area that includes most of

SPARKS.

(Logan: Utah

northern Nevada, southern Idaho, southeastern Oregon, and contiguous areas of Utah and California. Cattle in the Cold Desert is a history of an area considered by many the heart of buckaroo country, the area in the northwest corner of Nevada along the Goose Creek and Thousand Springs Creek drainages. The book covers a period from about 1865, when the first Texas

Book Reviews and Notices cattle were trailed into this rugged s a g e b r u s h / g r a s s l a n d country, to around the turn of the century, a time marking the effective end of frontier settlement. The account focuses largely on the lives of two early ranchers, John Sparks and Jasper Harrell, men who controlled much of the land that was eventually consolidated into the Utah Construction Company's UC ranch during the early twentieth century.

Historians of western ranching will undoubtedly find much of interest in Sparks and Young's book. There are useful accounts of the first exploration of the region, the creation of a market for beef in nearby Idaho mining communities, early experiments in wintering cattle in the harsh environment, and finally, the emergence of largescale ranching operations. Yet Cattle in the Cold Desert is more than an exercise in narrative history. The authors, one a range scientist and the other an amateur historian, have attempted—not altogether successfully, but it is a worthy attempt all the same—to create a general theoretical framework for understanding ranching history and culture. The path they chose, although they do not say so explicitly, is what anthropologists call cultural ecology, the study of the relation between man and his local habitat. Underlying Sparks and Young's narrative is the thesis that the specific nature of the sagebrush/grassland environment had a great deal to do with shaping the human history of the region. Would cattle survive on the cold desert? And how would the men and women themselves cope with their new rangeland homes? These were the questions the early ranchers faced, and they are the central questions addressed in the book.

Unlike most histories of the West which are arranged chronologically.

Cattle in the Cold Desert is constructed as

95 a dialogue between the land and the people. The first chapter contains a detailed description of the pristine sagebrush/grassland ecology. Following chapters deal with the introduction of large cattle herds into the area, the utilization of the available resources, the vicissitudes of the climate, and some of the colorful men and events associated with settlement. The authors look carefully at how the environment influenced the direction of local ranching and what ranching did to the land. Both suffered; the land yielded grudgingly and people learned slowly. The idea of putting up hay for winter feed, for example, hit home only after local ranchers lost up to 95 percent of their livestock in the heavy snows of 1889-90. Not to be outdone, in two short decades the cattlemen left the range severely overgrazed and depleted.

It is an engaging story and a useful contribution to the growing body of literature on buckaroo country, although not without shortcomings.

Readers will be irritated, as was this reviewer, by the overall lack of cohesion. The thesis, intriguing as it is, is never clearly articulated, nor is it fully developed as the text unfolds. Without a underlying structure, the narrative tends to wander and what could have been a powerful conclusion gets lost in the exploits of John Sparks's later life.

The writing itself varies. The sections on the indigenous plant communities, for instance, are overly technical and often confusing. The historical account is plagued by digressive excess. The former could have been corrected by a better glossary and a few well constructed diagrams, the latter by more attentive editing. There are several sections devoted to illustrations, but they are generally poorly reproduced and never integrated into the text.

A more serious problem is one of tone. In a lengthy prologue, the

96 authors graphically describe a catastrophic range fire that ravaged Elko County during August 1964. The fire, we are told, was caused by a century of exploitation and mismanagement by local ranchers. That the history of the region is one of ranchers abusing the land is a recurring theme in the book.

At the same time, the authors clearly display their admiration for the protagonists in their story—men like John Sparks and Jasper Harrell who came to rule over small ranching empires.

Were these men greedy capitalists, despoiling the land for their own profit, or were they well-meaning American businessmen, doing what needed to be

Utah Historical Quarterly done in the name of economic development? The issue is eventually forgotten, and just as well perhaps, but the reader is left wondering what the authors really believe.

In the coming years more and more scholarly attention will be devoted to the formation of distinctive regional cultures in the West. The best studies will look closely at the complex interaction of land, occupation, and culture in shaping the history of this part of America. Despite its fuzziness, Cattle in the Cold Desert offers a useful beginning.

THOMAS GARTER

Salt Lake City

Henry Hopkins Sibley: Confederate General of the West. By JERRY THOMPSON. (Natchitoches, La.: Northwestern State University Press, 1987. xix + 399 pp. $25.00.)

Since Henry Hopkins Sibley was neither a Utahn nor a Mormon, the question arises as to why readers of this journal should be interested in his biography. For this reviewer several reasons for examining Sibley's life come to mind. First, it could be argued that Sibley's career—especially his campaigns in Utah and New Mexico — serves to remind the people of the Great Basin of the region's oftensensitive, nineteenth-century linkages to the rest of the United States. At the same time, Thompson's book also provides Utahns with a glimpse into the aggravating impact of their frontier on conflicts within the antebeflum army's officer corps while revealing the relentless process by which misuse of alcohol toppled a brilliant, motivated officer into the pit of failure as a senior leader in the armies of three countries. If the Great Basin is the story of what transpired once the floods receded and a motivated people filled its vacuum, the region also in part reflects the human wreckage that washed through and around its enormous periphery during the mid-1800s.

Sibley—not to be confused with his distant relative Henry Hastings Sibley, Minnesota's first state governor and a Union general—was born in 1816 at Natchitoches on Louisiana's Red River. Although Sibley's family was relatively prosperous, the death of his father when he was seven years old resulted in a genteel form of destitution and for Sibley the beginning of a lifetime of rootless wandering that took him to the homes of relatives, private secondary school in Oxford, Ohio, and in 1833 to the barracks of West Point.

In 1838 a well-liked but unstudious Sibley was commissioned in the Second Regiment of Dragoons—then led by the volatile David E. Twiggs and William S. Harney—and immediately plunged into the swamps of Florida for the Second Seminole War. T h e r e followed assignments in Louisiana, Indian Territory, and Texas as well as several years of Mexican War campaigning during which Sibley began to drink heavily and acquired a reputation "as one of the most stubborn, argumentative, and controversial officers in the United

Book Reviews and Notices States A r m y . " Militarily, Sibley acquitted himself well during the Mexican War, was promoted to captain and was brevetted a major for his conduct at Medellin, although an alcohol-fueled clash with E. V. Sumner in 1847 nearly brought him before a court-martial.

After the Mexican War, Sibley spent several years in recruiting duty for the second Dragoons along the Atlantic Coast, service that brought him into constant conflict over accounting discrepancies and clerical errors with both Bvt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke and the army's adjutant general. In 1850, frustrated with his recruiting chores, Sibley asked to rejoin his regiment in Texas where he remained until 1855 when the unit was assigned to Kansas as part of that territory's peacekeeping force. During the next two years in Kansas he patented and attempted to sell to the army an ingenious, tepee-shaped field tent and again clashed with Colonel Cooke, a conflict that resulted in arrest but no court-martial.

With the organization of the Utah Expedition in 1857, Sibley, related by marriage to Albert Sidney Johnston (his son's namesake), moved west with the Second Dragoons and took part in that regiment's grueling march from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger during the fall of 1857. Once into Utah Territory where the troops field tested the tent bearing his own name, Sibley's service as a company commander was active but unspectacular, although in April 1858 he unsuccessfully brought charges against a dragoon major for profiteering and in July 1858 at Camp Floyd was himself court-martialed and largely acquitted on petty but galling charges again preferred by Colonel Cooke.

By the end of 1859 Sibley was out of Utah on leave, and he spent the balance of his U.S. Army career in

97 New Mexico Territory unsuccessfully chasing Navajos. In April 1861, after tentatively plotting to take his command into the Confederacy, Sibley resigned his captain's commission and left New Mexico just before his appointment as a federal major arrived. He then visited Jefferson Davis, a patron who appointed him a Confederate brigidier general to command an expeditionary force created in Texas to seize New Mexico, Colorado, and California.

The results in New Mexico were disastrous. In February 1862 at the Battle of Valverde Sibley's subordinates sustained heavy casualties while driving from the field federal Gen. E. R. S. Canby, a veteran of the Utah Expedition. Although the engagement was technically a Confederate victory, Sibley's personal reputation was devastated since he rarely took the field during the battle and was widely believed by his own troops as well as Canby's to have been intoxicated in his ambulance at the rear. A subsequent chain of defeats—including that at Glorieta Pass—was accompanied by similar perceptions, and in the spring of 1862 Sibley was forced to withdraw his Army of New Mexico to west Texas with great loss of life and materiel. Aware that one of his subordinates had preferred charges over his conduct in New Mexico, Sibley rushed to Richmond with several loyal staff officers and personally pleaded his case with President Jefferson Davis.

After an incomplete investigation, a compassionate or cavalier Davis dismissed the charges and ordered Sibley to resume command of his brigade in Louisiana.

Sibley's return to Louisiana—amid growing manifestations of disrespect— produced more reverses, and his leadership at the Battle of Bisland in the spring of 1863 was so inept, erratic, and apparently drunken that he was

98 court-martialed. Although acquitted at his trial, Sibley spent the balance of the war under a cloud as a brigadier without a command.

Following Appomattox, Sibley was paroled, lived with relatives in Brooklyn and then served as a mercenary brigadier general advising the Egyptian Army during 1870-73, an assignment that ended prematurely because of his progressively heavy drinking.

After his return to the United States, Sibley lived with his daughter in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he taught French, wrote occasionally for publication, dabbled with military inventions, and drank himself into the need to wear a diaper until his death at age seventy in 1886.

Writers of military biography almost universally choose the well known and the victorious as their subjects—not failed generals who lie in unmarked graves for seventy years. By focusing instead on H. H. Sibley, Professor Jerry D. Thompson of Laredo (Texas) Junior College, has mined other lodes.

In the process he has provided us with a view of nineteenth-century American military life that rarely surfaces—a comprehensive picture of the mediocre, inept officer who, when thrust into positions of great pressure and responsibility, unwittingly produces great carnage. Although Thompson shows sensitivity to General Sibley's strengths — intelligence, mechanical ingenuity, and the ability to inspire loyalty and friendship on a personal, individual basis—it is clear that the author is also acutely aware of Sibley's weziknesses. One need only read the book's dust-jacket c o m m e n t a r y , Thompson's biting introduction, and an extraordinary foreword by Professor Frank E. Vandiver to realize the extent to which Sibley's highly complex if not flawed personality is displayed in this book—a remarkable frankness when one considers that

Utah Historical Quarterly Thompson was heavily dependent on the cooperation of Sibley's descendants and sought publication in the very Louisiana community that still constitutes the Sibley family seat. If Sibley displayed courage in Mexico, Thompson surely has done so in Natchitoches.

Perhaps the greatest value of the book is the extent to which it illustrates the impact of frontier isolation— Utah's included—on the contentious behavior of the army's officer corps during the antebellum period. For family reasons, Sibley frequently sought duty away from the frontier— Texas in 1850 notwithstanding—yet he repeatedly had to serve long tours of duty apart from his family but in proximity to professional rivals and illiterate troops in Florida, Louisiana, Indian Territory, Texas, and Kansas, Utah, and New Mexico territories before he left federal service for the Confederacy and Egypt. When one links this physical, cultural, and family isolation with officers' medical histories (mental as well as physical) and an impacted promotional system— Sibley was only a captain after twentythree years of commissioned service— as well as sectional tensions and a hypersensitivity to personal honor, it is clearer why conflicts arose during the period between the Mexican and Civil wars involving not only Sibley but also Generals Winfield Scott, David E. Twiggs, John E. Wool, William S. Harney, and E. V. Sumner as well as their civilian commanders. Secretaries of War Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd. With Sibley's entire commissioned federal service in the Second Dragoons, is it likely that his behavior was not in some way molded by the clashes among Scott, Twiggs, Harney, and Sumner? It would be extraordinary if from this "stew" of leadershipby-example Sibley had emerged emotionally unscathed from more than twenty years in the dragoons.

Book Reviews and Notices If there are shortcomings to Thompson's biography, they primarily run to the matter of sources—factors beyond his control. With the exception of portions of one letter written to a Texas newspaper editor and several articles submitted during the 1880s by Sibley to Frank Leslie's Chimney Corner, Thompson has had to rely entirely on Sibley's official military correspondence and the accounts of third parties appearing in contemporary diaries, letters, or newspaper commentaries about the general. Recognizing this gap, Thompson has literally retraced Sibley's footsteps, including two ascents of Popocatepetl, the Mexican volcano that Sibley climbed in 1848 with U.S. Grant. Absent the general's

99 personal papers, the result is a sort of two-dimensional view of Sibley's life— especially with respect to the crucial matter of his health—that, while immensely valuable, stands in sharp contrast to the more full-bodied life of a contemporary Southern cavalry officer described in Emory M. Thomas's recent volume Bold Dragoon, The Life of J. E. B. Stuart. Nonetheless, Sibley's story needed to be told, and Professor Thompson has done so, notwithstanding typos and a repeated page, in a way valuable to students of the American West as well as the Civil War.

WILLIAM P. MACKINNON

Birmingham, Michigan

Hanging the Sheriff: A Biography of Henry Plummer. By R. E. MATHER and F. E. BosWELL. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987. v -i- 226 pp. $17.95.)

It is fascinating to read a genealogically researched book declaring the innocence of a man (Henry Plummer) that history has consistently declared to be a notorious sheriff/robber/killer.

The book is easy and interesting reading and Henry Plummer may be a much maligned man. Certainly history's judgment that he was a coldblooded desperado is at variance with the authors' judgment: "Plummer was not a robber chief, gunslinger, or a dual personality. What he really was he has not been remembered for: he was simply a lawman and by all reports a very good o n e . " In spite of the massive research the authors have done, there is, it seems to me, a kind of "historical novel" aspect about their narrative. There are too many assumptions about the motives of those whom the authors blame for discrediting Plummer. Negative adjectives too often appeju" in the text to further the authors' thesis. It would be interesting to do a comparable research

study on James Williams, the shy, unassuming man who apparently headed the Montana Vigilantes.

The authors do not develop the role of the Masons in the vigilantes' activities. They were deeply involved, and their actions and motives need to be part of any evaluation of Plummer. In this regard the book seems to have a tendency to be an "apology" for Henry Plummer's life—e.g., explaining away why he was found guilty of murders even though he was "innocent" and often impugning the motives of those who didn't like or suspected Plummer of wrongdoing.

On the other hand, the authors present a telling case for Plummer.

The way their research and narrative are presented makes their thesis very logical. How one reconciles the negative opinions of those who were Plummer's contemporaries, the motives of those who formed the vigilantes (were they all men who felt they had to "destroy the law" in order to save it).

Utah Historical Quarterly

100 and the research the authors have done relative to Plummer's life—I do not know. Were Plummer and his relatively few supporters the only ones " i n step" with honor and the administration of justice?

I commend the authors for a truly

extraordinary study. I am now less sure of Plummer's guilt than I was before, but I still wouldn't vote for him to be sheriff.

BARTON C . OLSEN

California Polytechnic State University

Book MjUmL Notices The Hotel: Salt Lake's Classy Lady, The Hotel Utah, 1911-1986. By LEONARD J.

ARRINGTON

and

HEIDI

S.

SwiNTON. (Salt Lake City: Authors, 1986. viii + 101 pp.)

The Hotel Utah opened in 1911 under the direction of Joseph F. Smith, and until its closing in August of 1987 played an important role in the history of Szdt Lake City. This book, which is arranged chronologically, discusses the construction and management of the hotel, as well as each significant period in the hotel's history. It also contains a chronology listing the officers, directors, and managers of the hotel.

National Parks: The American Experience.

By ALFRED RUNTE. 2d ed. rev. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. xxii -I- 335 pp. Cloth, $23.95; paper, $9.95.)

Runte, who is currently working on a centennial resource history of Yosemite National Park, has updated his work, which was originally published in 1979. \n National Parks: The American Experience, R u n t e " a r g u e d t h a t

national pride in scenic wonders, not a concern for preserving the wilderness, led Americans to establish the first national parks." He has added four new chapters to this edition, which include information on the management and expansion of national parks as well as the allotment of national park lands in Alaska.

The Trail: A Bibliography of the Travelers on the Overland Trail to California, Oregon, Salt Lake City, and Montana during the Years 1841-1864. By LANNON W . MINTZ. (Albuquerque:

University of New Mexico Press, 1987. XXV + 201 pp. $24.95.)

This book was compiled by Lannon W. Mintz, the secretary-treasurer of Albuquerque Westerners, for book dealers, collectors, and librarians, as well as amateur and professional historians. It is, according to the author (p. xv) " a n attempt to gather together, for the first time, all published accounts by those who were involved in the overland story. . . . " Included are both contemporary and later accounts of the crossing. The entries

101

Book Reviews and Notices are arranged alphabetically, with an alphabetical listing, by year of travel, in the appendix.

Geology of the Great Basin. By BILL FIERO. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1986. xiv -i- 198 pp. Paper, $14.50; cloth, $22.50.)

This volume, the third in the Great Basin Natural History Series, was written for the "armchair reader and the active nature enthusiast" in nontechnical language. The author has included a introductory section on basic geological concepts and processes and a discussion of the geologic history of the Great Basin. Included are chapters on minerals, fossils, shaping of the landscape, major geologic epochs, mountain building, caves, and volcanoes.

Shrubs of the Great Basin: A Natural History. By

HUGH

N.

MOZINGO.

Drawings by CHRISTINE STETTER. (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1987. xx -i- 342 pp.

Cloth, $27.95; paper, $16.95.)

This is another in the excellent Great Basin Natural History Series being produced by the University of Nevada Press. Previous volumes have been published on geology, trees, birds, and fishes. Each of the volumes in the series is primarily descriptive and is intended to provide the reader with a brief understanding of the nature and characteristics of the wide array of plants and animals found in the very diverse environmental settings of the Great Basin. This volume is no exception and consists of short (two to thirteen pages) botanical and ecological descriptions of sixty-five of the most common Great Basin shrubs such as saltbush, greasewood, and serviceberry. Each description is accompanied by at least one full-page line

drawing of the shrub's summer aspect and many are accompanied by drawings of its winter aspect and/or drawings of related species.

The drawings and descriptions, together with a section containing fiftyseven color photographs, are more than sufficient to allow even the amateur botanist to identify the shrubs in the field. One major drawback to the volume is that it defines the Great Basin floristically and describes only those shrubs common to the central and northern Great Basin. A descriptive flora of southern Basin shrubs must be found elsewhere.

Sideways to the Sun. By LINDA SILLITOE.

(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987. V -I- 255 pp. Paper, $7.95.)

Being a single female in a community that emphasizes marriage presents multiple challenges. A woman whose husband has disappeared and a divorced woman—the only single ones in their Bountiful LDS ward—become close friends of necessity, groping and growing toward the light, in this wellcrafted novel by Linda Sillitoe.

The Fantastic Life of Walter Murray Gibson, Hawaii's Minister of Everything. By JACOB ADLER and ROBERT M. KAMINS. (Honolulu: University

of Hawaii Press, 1986. xvi -t- 243 pp. $24.95.)

Walter Murray Gibson led an interesting and complex life that brought him into close association, and eventual disfavor, with the M o r m o n church. Gibson joined the church in 1860 and, at his request, was sent on a mission to the Orient. Circumstances precluded his going to the Orient, and he eventually ended up in the Hawaiian Islands. Gibson was more interested in building an empire than

102 missionary work, and Brigham Young was forced to send a committee to the Islands to investigate his activities.

Gibson was found to be preaching false doctrine and was excommunicated.

This work discusses Gibson's early life, his association with the Mormon church, his activities in Hawaii before his excommunication, and his later involvement in ranching and politics.

The Second Century: Latter-day Saints in Great Britain, volume 1, 1937-1987.

By DEREK A. CUTHBERT. ([Cambridge, England]: Cambridge University Press, 1987. ix + 223 pp. ÂŁ6.95.)

Cuthbert, a convert to the LDS faith and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, compiled this volume from his personal experiences in the church. He discusses his conversion in 1951, as well as the missionary program and growth of the church, the church building program, the dedication of the London Temple, etc., in England. He also includes appendices which list church growth, baptisms, number of buildings, organization of the British stakes, British stake presidents, mission presidents called from the British Isles, presidents of the L o n d o n T e m p l e , and area and regional officers.

Crisis on Campus: The Exciting Years of Campus Development at the University of Utah. By PAUL W . HODSON. (Salt Lake City: Keeban Corporation, 1987. viii + 330 pp. $18.95.)

Hodson, vice-president emeritus of the University of Utah, has written this history which covers the campus years 1946 to 1969. He worked for the Uni-

Utah Historical Quarterly versity from 1942 until his retirement in 1973. This book is not meant to be an official history of the university, but according to the author, "is a frank recollection of my intimate involvement with the University of Utah's decade of most explosive campus growth, and a record of my contending with the crises of thirty-two years in the president's office" (p. vii).

While the book deals with the administration of the university and outside influences such as state funding, changes of governors, etc., most of the emphasis is on the expansion of the university. Hodson includes information on master planning, roads, bonding, campus expansion, naming of buildings, etc. Also included is a chapter on the Medical Center; Pioneer Memorial Theatre; the Physical Education, Sports, and Special Events Center; Marriott Library; and the heating plant.

Nevada Biographical and Genealogical Sketch Index. C o m p i l e d by J .

CARLYLE PARKER PARKER. (Turlock,

and

JANET

G.

California: Marietta Publishing Company, 1986. xxxiii -I- 96 pp. $23.95.)

The Nevada Biographical and Genealogical Sketch Index, an important research tool for Nevada biographical, historical, and genealogical information, contains 7,230 index entries to eightysix published sources. Sources indexed include regional, country, and city histories, and biographical directories of Nevada published between 1870 and 1985. Besides indexing the principal person in the biographical entry, "parents, spouses, children, other relatives, and friends mentioned" (p. ix) have also been included.

Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to everyone We invite you to join.

If you are already a member you may use the blank or piece of plain paper to purchase gift memberships, or fill in the "Share the Wealth" coupon and we will send those you list a special invitation to join the Society.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Membership Secretary Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 Please enter my membership in the category below for the calendar year 19 I understand that I will receive Utah Historical Quarterly, the Newsletter, and Beehive History for that calendar year. I have enclosed a check or money order in the amount indicated: D Individual, $15.00 D Senior Citizen (65 or over), $10.00

D Institution, $20.00 D Sustaining, $25.00 D Business, $100.00 D Patron, $50.00 D Contributing, $20.00 D Student, $10.00

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STATEMENT OF O W N E R S H I P , M A N A G E M E N T , AND C I R C U L A T I O N

The Utah Historical Quarterly (ISSN 0042-143X) is published quarterly by the Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84101. The editor is Max J . Evans and the managing editor is Stanford J . Layton with offices at the same address as the publisher. The magazine is owned by the Utah State Historical Society, and no individual or company owns or holds any bonds, mortgages, or other securities of the Society or its magazine.

The following figures are the average number of copies of each issue during the preceding twelve months: 3,625 copies printed; 58 paid circulation; 2,581 mail subscriptions; 2,639 total paid circulation; 244 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 2,883 total distribution; 742 inventory for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total 3,625.

The following figures are the actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 3,730 copies printed; 64 paid circulation; 2,525 mail subscriptions; 2,589 total paid circulation; 252 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 2,841 total distribution; 889 inventory for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total, 3,730.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Department of Community and Economic Development Division of State History BOARD OF STATE HISTORY THOMAS G . ALEXANDER, Provo, 1990

Chairman L E O N A R D J . ARRINGTON, Salt Lake City, 1989

Vice-Chairman M A X J. EVANS, Salt Lake City Secretary DOUGLAS D . ALDER, St. George, 1989 PHILLIP A. BULLEN, Salt Lake City, 1990 ELLEN G . CALLISTER, Salt Lake City, 1989 J . ELDON DORMAN, Price, 1990 H U G H C . GARNER, Salt Lake City, 1989

DAN E . JONES, Salt Lake City, 1989 DEAN L . MAY, Sah Lake City, 1990 AMY ALLEN PRICE, Salt Lake City, 1989 SUNNY REDD, Monticello, 1990

ADMINISTRATION M A X J . 'ENANS, Director J A Y M . HAYMOND, Librarian STANFORD J . LAYTON, Managing Editor DAVID B. MADSEN, State Archaeologist A. KENT POWELL, Historic Preservation Coordinator PHILLIP F . NOTARIANNI, Museum Services Coordinator JAMES L . DYKMAN, Administrative Services Coordinator

The Utah State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, and publish Utah and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fiilfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historicail materials: collecting historic Utah artifacts; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric buildings and sites; and maintaining a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs, museum, or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

This publication has been funded with the assistance of a matching grant-in-aid from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended.

This program receives financial assistance for identification and preservation of historic properties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.