[337] For Running Water (Eau qui Court) River see our volume xxii, p. 291, note 252.—Ed.
[338] Apparently Bon Homme Island, the largest in that vicinity, for which see our volume vi, p. 91, note 34.—Ed.
[339] For Fort Vermillion see our volume xxvii, p. 153, note 22 (De Smet).
Major Joseph V. Hamilton was Indian agent at Council Bluffs, 1839-41; in 1843 Audubon found him at Fort George, in temporary charge of the agency at that place.—Ed.
[340] For old Council Bluffs see our volume xxii, p. 275, note 231. See also De Smet’s letters on this locality in Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, i, pp. 42-44.—Ed.
[341] For Cabanné and the location of his post see our volume xxii, p. 271, note 226.
For the early history of the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois, see our volumes xx, pp. 94-99 with accompanying notes; xxiv, p. 119, note 99; and xxvi, pp. 334-338.
The charter of Nauvoo, their Illinois settlement, having been revoked early in 1846, the Mormon leaders organized an emigration, and moved west through Iowa to the Missouri River. Having held a council with the neighboring Indians, they established winter quarters at what is now Florence, Nebraska, where De Smet found them. Early in the spring of 1847 a delegation was dispatched to seek a permanent home. The valley of Salt Lake was chosen, and removals thither began in 1848. In a later letter Father de Smet intimates that his account to them of the Salt Lake basin had some influence in determining the site of their future home.—Ed.
[342] Brigham Young was born in Vermont in 1801; at the age of sixteen he removed to New York, where he became a convert to Mormonism, entering that church in 1832. Three years later he was chosen one of the twelve apostles, and in 1837 led a band of followers to Missouri. After the persecutions in that state, he aided in founding Nauvoo, Illinois, and in 1840 made a missionary trip to England. Upon the death of Joseph Smith, Young became the head of the church—a position maintained until his death in 1877. He guided the emigration to Salt Lake, and in 1850 was appointed governor of the territory of Utah.
De Smet’s early sympathy with the Mormons, as expressed at this time and in other letters, later suffered a considerable change. See his letter of 1858 in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1407-1415.—Ed.