History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

A THRIVING COMMUNITY. 329
taxable property at the latter date was $1,160,883.80,
or an average of more than $400 per capita. The
entire revenue amounted to $26,690. 58, 23 of which sum
$9,725.87 was expended for public improvements, the
encouragement of industries, or educational purposes.
Little more than five years had elapsed since the
pioneer band entered the valley of Great Salt Lake,
and now the settlers found themselves amidst plenty
and comfort in the land of promise, where until their
arrival scarce a human being was to be seen, save
the Indians whose clothing was the skins of rabbits
and whose food was roasted crickets. 24
There was
no destitution in their midst; 25 there was little sickness.
26 In these and some other respects, the wildest
misstatements have been made by certain gentile
writers, among them Mr Ferris, who, as we shall see,
was appointed secretary for Utah. 27
In this pure
show as soon as possible a population of 100,000, which would entitle them
to claim admission as a state.
23 Not more than one tenth was collected in cash, payment being usually
made in grain. Contributor, 332. ' Securing a territorial revenue of $23,000,
including merchants' licenses and tax on liquors.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1852, 2.
24 The most exposed parts of the country are annually run over by the
fires set by the Indians to kill and roast the crickets, which they gather in
summer for winter food.' Gunnison's The Mormons, 21.
25 The country was canvassed to ascertain how many inmates there would
be for a poor-house, then projected. Only two were found, and the Mormons
concluded that it was not yet time for such an institution. Id. , 34.
26 The number of deaths in the territory during the year ending June 1,
1850, was 239. U. S. Census, 1850, 997; and in Salt Lake county, which virtually
meant Salt Lake City, 121; in both, the mortality was therefore less
than 20 per thousand, or about the average death-rate in San Francisco during
recent years. Moreover, the population of Utah included a very large
proportion of infants. Of 64 deaths reported in the Deseret News of March
8, 1851, 34 occurred between the ages of one and ten.
27 Utah and the Mormons: the History, Government, Doctrines, Customs,
and Prospects of the Latter-clay Saints; from personal observation during a
six months' residence at Great Salt Lake City. By Benjamin G. Ferris, late
secretary of Utah Territory, Neio York, 1854. Mr Ferris is not the first one
whom in his own opinion a six months' residence in the west justifies in writing
a book. It was the winter of 1852-3 which he spent there, and while
professing that he writes wholly from an anti-Mormon standpoint, as a rule
he is comparatively moderate in his expressions. The illustrations in this
volume are many of them the same which are found in several other works.
Beginning with the physical features of Utah, he goes through the whole
range of Mormon history, and concludes with chapters on government, doctrines,
polygamy, book of Mormon proselytizing, and society. While sometimes
interesting, there is little original information; and aside from what
the author saw during his residence in Utah, the book has no special value.