History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

290 IN THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
being rapidly broken up by the removal of the houses
on to the city lots. The city was divided into nineteen
bishops' wards; 7 the ten-acre blocks were divided
into allotments of an acre and a quarter, the five-acre
lots in similar proportion, each building facing the
garden of the one adjoining, the space of twenty feet
left between the houses and the surrounding fence
being afterward planted with trees and shrubbery. 8
The need of a circulating medium had been felt
ever since the valley had been settled. 9
Their currency
was blankets, grain, and seeds; and even after
gold-dust was brought in by the miners great inconvenience
was experienced in its use, and many refused
to take it, as there was a waste in weighing it.
To meet this emergency, bank bills for one dollar
often without their daily bread, as we have seen. The following is probably
much nearer the truth: 'The houses are small, principally of brick (adobe),
built up only as temporary abodes, until the more urgent and important matters
of enclosure and cultivation are attended to; but I never saw anything to
surpass the ingenuity of arrangement with which they are fitted up, and the
scrupulous cleanliness with which they are kept. There were tradesmen and
artisans of all descriptions, but no regular stores or workshops, except forges.
Still, from the shoeing of a horse to the mending of a watch there was no difficulty
in getting it done, as cheap and as well put out of hand as in any other
city in America.' Kelly'* Excursion to California, 226.
7 The bishops were David Fairbanks, John Lowry, Christopher Williams,
William Hickenlooper, William J. Perkins, Addison Everett, Seth Taft, David
Pettigrew, Benjamin Covey, Edward Hunter, John Murdock, Abraham 0.
Smoot, Isaac Higbee, Joseph L. Heywood, James Hendrix, Benjamin Brown,
Orville S. Cox, and Joel H. Johnson. Utah Early Records, MS., 47-8, 69.
The valley is settled for 20 miles south and 40 miles north, and divided into
19 wards. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 57.
8 At a council held Feb. 17, 1849, the committee on fencing reported that
the enclosure termed the big field would include 291 ten-acre lots, 460 fiveacre
lots, the church farm of 800 acres, and 17 acres of fractional lots, the
whole requiring 5,240 rods of fencing, of which it was recommended that
3,216 should be of adobes, 663 of adobes or stone, and 1,361 of ditch, posts,
and rails. 'When the Mormons first arrived they did not quarrel for
best lands, but cultivated a whole district in common, dividing the harvest
according to work done, seed supplied, and need of family. On dividing the
town into lots, each received his plat, and so with fields, for south of the town
lay a field of 6 square miles, cultivated in common; this was divided into 5acre
square lots and given to heads of families, by lot or distribution, in tracts
of one to eight lots each. After the distribution some began to speculate with
their lots, but to this the church objected, saying that none should sell his
land for more than first cost and improvements, for it belonged to God, and
was merely held in use by the holder. Still, secret speculations occurred.'
Olshausen's Mormonen, 166-7.
9 * Owing to the absence of small change, the tax collector was instructed
to give due-bills for sums less than a dollar, and redeem them when presented
in sufficient amount.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1S49, 23.