The Western Echo / A Description of the Western State and Territories of the United States. As Gathered in a Tour by Wagon

by George W. Romspert

The lake encompasses several islands, with high, mountainous peaks, among the largest of which is Church Island, situated so near the eastern shore as to be accessible for grazing purposes, for which it is extensively used. The air is wonderfully pure and bright. Rain seldom falls in the valley, though storms occur in the mountains almost daily. A cloud comes up in the western hills, rolls along the crest and threatens the city with a deluge, but then breaks into wind and showers, and seems to run along the hill-tops and sail away eastward into the snowy range.

While delighted to find the people all apparently so well circumstanced, we were also amused at their many curious peculiarities. There is one block in the city called “Temple Block.” This is surrounded by a high and powerful stone wall. Inside of this wall stands the mighty granite temple (yet unfinished), and also the tabernacle. The tabernacle is built of adobes made from the blue clay from the mountain-foot. It is round, about eighty feet in diameter, with walls about thirty feet high. It is splendidly seated, and has a large gallery. There are large double doors all around, leaving columns of wall about ten feet between the doors. In warm weather these doors are all thrown open, and the building is a cool, delightful place. At one end stands the next to the largest pipe-organ in the world; next is a beautiful platform, which the band and choir of about seventy-five persons occupy; then comes the large, decorated, and comfortable chair in which the president sits; then the long sofa for the twelve apostles; then the pulpit for the ministers; and then comes the congregation, who usually throng the house. The choir is composed of cultured and beautiful singers; and sweeter music than I heard in that old tabernacle never met my ears. After the preaching is done and the songs are sung, the president arises and prophesies, and the apostles cry out, “Amen.” The fictitious Mormon Bible that they claim was found by Joe Smith in Mormon Hill has been changed and modified from time to time, and to-day they preach from nearly the same Bible as ours. They have services every Sabbath; and all finding it possible, from the tottering infant to the aged and gray, gather in to hear the word and listen to the prophecies. They take sacrament every Sabbath; but water is used instead of wine. I was in one of their thronged congregations when the cup went around, and when it reached me my delight at the thought of getting a good big swallow of old Mormon wine was blighted by a cup of something that I had been drinking ever since I was a drinker. Nevertheless, it went pretty well in warm weather. We happened to be there when the body of Rev. Joseph Stanley—a Mormon missionary who was killed in Georgia—arrived for interment, and we had the pleasure of hearing the services. The sixth chapter of the Revelation of St. John was read, and the text was taken from the thirty-fourth verse of the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew. The remarks were all tinged with vindication; and the prophet indulged freely in threatening wrath upon their opposers. There were about fourteen thousand people present, and the strong language of the dignitaries excited them to such a degree that I tried to look just as much like a Mormon as possible.

There is a large church-building in which to store away the property belonging to the church; and from the poorest maiden at the wash-tub to the wealthiest merchant of the city, one tenth of everything that is made must be surrendered to the church. It is amusing to see how cheerfully the farmers trot off to the store-house with every tenth bushel of apples, or load of hay, or grain. This store is managed and run by the dignitaries, who dispose of the grains and fruits, and handle the silver and gold. And not being compelled to ever produce a balance-sheet, nor any account whatever, they have the funds entirely in their own fingers; and hence their fine mansions and flowery beds of ease. The poor ignorant dupes submit to all this, and appear to think that they are paving their way into heaven by lavishing luxuries upon their priesthood.

At the other end of the valley stands the city of Ogden, which is about half as large as Salt Lake City, and not nearly so beautiful. About one fifth of the persons here are not Mormons, while at the other end there are very few who do not nestle in the folds of the church. The Central Pacific Railroad passes through Ogden, and sends off a branch called the Utah Central down to Salt Lake City.

The lake lies several miles from the city, and there are several fine bathing-houses on its shores. These are reached by narrow-gauge railroads; and during the bathing-season great loads of gleeful boys and girls can be seen most every evening riding down to the beach to bathe.

The rise of Mormondom has been so miraculous, and their superstitions are so curious and numerous, that a brief sketch of their career from the finding of the Bible by Joe Smith, together with a part of their theology, may be in place here, and will doubtless be interesting to many of my readers. The following is what, with care and pains, I have been able to collect from interviews, records, and other sources:

Joe Smith, jr., the putative father of Mormonism and the Church of Latter-day Saints, was born in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, December 13, 1805. When he was seventeen years old he found a curious stone in the dirt thrown from a well. It was the shape of a child’s foot, of a whitish, glassy appearance, though opaque, and resembling quartz. He thought a great deal of the stone, and asserted the gift and power with it at his eyes of revealing things past and things to come. The discoveries soon became too dazzling for his eyes in daylight, and he had to shade his vision by looking at the stone in his hat. There are fools in all ages; and Joe had his believers, who often came to him to find out where lost or stolen property was. He always charged; and though there was no reality in his pretentions, he succeeded in keeping the eyes of certain dupes covered. He would tell them where there was a large chest of money buried, and get them to digging, and he would stand by with his stone; but every time, just as they were almost to the treasure, the enchantment would be broken by some one speaking, or otherwise, and though he never found any money, they still believed. He made his dupes believe that while he was engaged in secret prayer in the wilderness an angel appeared and told him that all his sins had been forgiven, and proclaiming further that all the religious denominations were believing false doctrines; that none of them were acceptable of God as of his church and kingdom; and also promising him that the true doctrine and fullness of the gospel should at some future time be revealed to him. He was told that the American Indians were a remnant of the Israelites; that their prophetic records regarding the last days were buried at a certain spot; that this spot was made known him, and him only, and that if he kept faithful he should be the chosen prophet to translate them to the world. A short time afterward he had another astonishing vision; and he was commanded, upon a secretly-fixed day and hour, to go alone to a certain spot revealed to him by an angel, and there take out of the earth a metallic book of great antiquity, which was of immortal importance to the world, and which he said was a record of mystic letters of the long-lost tribes of Israel; that no human being besides himself could see it and live, and that the power to translate it to the nations of the earth was given to him only as the chosen servant of God.

Smith’s dupes and relations gave the report a wide circulation; and accordingly, when the appointed hour came, assuming his practical air of mystery, he took in his hand his money-digging spade and a large napkin, and went off alone into the solitude of the forest. In three hours he returned with his sacred charge concealed within the folds of the napkin. He again warned his friends of the fatal consequences of looking at it, and a strong chest was procured and the charge kept under lock and key. He said that as he was digging for the treasure, he was confronted by ten thousand devils, gathered there with their menacing, sulphurous flame and smoke, to deter him from his purpose. The sacred treasure was never seen by mortal eyes save those of the anointed.

About the year 1826 it became expedient to have a new revelation. The veritable existence of the book was certified to by eleven witnesses of Smith’s own choosing; and wonderful stories and predictions followed in regard to the future light and destiny of the world. The spot from whence the book is said to have been taken is on the summit of a hill at Manchester, New York, which has ever since been called Mormon Hill. The book, after the new revelation, was represented by Smith and his echoes as consisting of metallic leaves or plates resembling gold, bound together by three rings running through one edge of them and opening like a book. Smith translated the book and a certain school-master did the writing; and the new Bible went to print in the summer of 1830.

Here was the organization of the first Mormon Church. Though great efforts and impositions had been practiced upon the people, the scheme was generally ridiculed and the converts were few and of the most ignorant of the race; and Smith coming to realize that a prophet was without honor in his own country, he, with his most fanatic followers, began to talk of going on a mission into the western country to convert the Lamanites (meaning the Indians). In the year 1830 or 1831 they started on their western expedition, stopping at Mentor, Ohio, where lived a few Mormon converts.