While in France Elder Taylor became somewhat acquainted with the process of manufacturing sugar from the sugar-beet, and being convinced that both climate and soil in Utah were favorable to the production of the beets, he organized a company to found that industry in the distant vales of Deseret. The company was to be known as the "Deseret Manufacturing Company," and while its purposes were not confined to the establishment of one industry alone, sugar was to be its first venture.
The company was composed of four partners with equal shares, of which Elder Taylor was one. The capital stock was put at fifty thousand pounds sterling, equal to a quarter of a million dollars.
Elder Taylor had the machinery for the intended sugar works made in Liverpool by Faucett, Preston & Co., at a cost of twelve thousand five hundred dollars. It was first class machinery, the very best that could be obtained, and such was its weight that it would require fifty-two teams to carry it from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake. It was an immense undertaking.
Having fulfilled his mission and accomplished in addition these miscellaneous but important labors, Elder Taylor set sail from England on the 6th of March, 1852, on board the steam-ship Niagara. There were about twenty emigrating Saints who accompanied him.
The first Sunday out the passengers, composed principally of the English aristocracy, were anxious to have Elder Taylor preach to them in the cabin; but the law, alias the captain, a narrow-minded, bigoted man refused to accede to their request.
The Niagara reached Boston harbor on the eighteenth of the same month, and Elder Taylor proceeded to Philadelphia, where he visited Colonel Thomas L. Kane, then confined to his bed by sickness. After preaching to the Saints in that city, he proceeded to Washington, where he met his old friend, Dr. John M. Bernhisel, Utah's delegate to Congress. He also met with Senator Stephen A. Douglas and a number of other senators and members of the lower house.
From Washington he went to St. Louis and there remained a week or more, awaiting the arrival of the ship Rockaway, at New Orleans, having on board a company of emigrating Saints, and his sugar manufacturing plant. While waiting the arrival of this vessel he was actively engaged in preaching the gospel. The Rockaway arrived in port in the latter part of April; and having made arrangements for the shipment of his machinery, Elder Taylor again turned his face homeward.
After a tedious journey across the plains, he arrived in Salt Lake City on the 20th of August, where he was welcomed by his family, and by his brethren of the priesthood, who heartily approved of all his labors, blessed him for his faithfulness, his untiring zeal and the energy he had manifested.
How sweet to the ear! how joyous to the soul! how gratifying to the heart is that grandest of all salutations—"Well done thou good and faithful servant!" and when spoken by those holding the holy priesthood, backed by the warm grasp of the hand, and confirmed by the countenance lit up with unfeigned brotherly love, it certainly is a fore-taste of the joy that shall fill the hearts of the faithful who hear the same salutation from the Master, who will add: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"