History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

DWELLINGS OF THE SAINTS. 289
Until the first fruits were reaped the famine continued,
but the harvest of 1849 was a bountiful one, 3
and for six years thereafter none wanted for bread in
the city of Salt Lake. 4
During part of this season many women and children
were without shelter or fuel. To each family as
it arrived was given a city lot, until the site was
exhausted, as we have seen; but for most a wagon
served for dwelling during the coldest months, and
later an adobe hut, roofed with unseasoned lumber,
and thatched with hay or frozen mud. 6
Before summer
all were housed in log or adobe dwellings, 6 the fort
3 ,
It was not injured by crickets. Ka?ie s The Mormons, ' 67. Our prophet
predicted that if we would exercise patience under our difficulties during
the immediate future, our necessities would be supplied as cheaply as they
could be in the city of St Louis; and this proved to be true, for in 1849 we
raised fair crops.' Smoot's Mormon Wife, MS., 5-6.
4 The peculiar chemical formations in earth and water proved of great practical
value when once ' understood. For two years all the saleratus used was
obtained from Saleratus Lake, near Independence Rock; the salt from the
lake became an article of value in local use and among their exports. The
alkali swept down from the mountains, and composed of a great variety of
ingredients, tuch as magnesia, soda, salt, etc., when once subdued, makes the
most durable of soils, which needs no enriching.' Richards, in Utah Notes,
MS., S.
,J
' Now
as regards my beginning at Salt Lake. Soon after my arrival a
city lot was assigned to me for a home and residence, on which I placed my
wagon box or wagon bed, which contained our provisions, bedding, and all
our earthly goods, placed them upon the ground, turned away our stock upon
the winter range, and looked about us. I soon disposed of some of my clothing
for some adobes, and put the walls up of a small room, which we covered
with a tent-cloth, that answered us during the winter, until lumber could be
procured next spring.' Richards' Narr., MS., 38; Early Records, MS., 36-8.
6 On Feb. 18th the people began to move out of the fort to their city lots.
Id., 47. A number of temporary farm buildings had been completed before
this date. Pratt's Autobiography, 406; Millennial Star, x. 370. A correspondent
of the New York Tribune, writing from Salt Lake City, July 8, 1849, gives
an exaggerated account of the place, which has been copied by several writers
on Mormonism. ' There were no hotels, because there was no travel; no barbers'
shops, because every one chose to shave his neighbor; no stores, because
they had no goods to sell nor time to traffic; no centre of business, because
all were too busy to make a centre. There was abundance of mechanics'
shops, of dressmakers, milliners, and tailors, etc. ; but they needed no sign,
nor had they time to paint or erect one, for they were crowded with business.
I this day attended worship with them in the open air. Some thousands of
well-dressed, intelligent-looking people assembled, some on foot, some in carriages,
and on horseback. Many were neatly and even fashionably clad.
The beauty and neatness of the ladies reminded me of some of our congregations
in New York.' The letter is in Mackay's The Mormons, 282. It is
unnecessary to expose the absurdity of this description, as the reader is well
aware that hundreds of California-bound emigrants passed through the valley
this year. Harvesting began July 9th, and until that date the Mormons were
Hist. Utah. 19