History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

434 MISSIONS AND IMMIGRATION.
Etoile du Deseret. Before leaving Europe he translated the book of Mormon
into the French language, and preached the gospel of the saints at Hamburg,
where under his direction the same work was translated into German, and
where he also published a monthly paper named Zion's Panier. Returning to
Salt Lake City in 1S52, he was elected, two years afterward, a member of the
legislature, but resigning this office, went as a missionary to New York, where
he superintended the affairs of the church in the eastern states, and established
a journal, the first number of which appeared Feb. 17, 1S55, under the title
of The Mormon, the paper being discontinued in 1857, when Taylor was recalled
at the outbreak of the Utah war. After that date, his labors were
mainly confined to the territory, where he was partly engaged in literary work
for the church, serving also for a brief term as probate judge of Utah county,
and for several terms as a member of the Utah legislature and speaker of the
house. In Oct. 1S80 he was appointed, as we shall see later, president of the
church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. Further details as to his early
career will be found in Hist. B. Young, MS. ; Woodruff's Journal, MS. ; Richards'
Narr., MS., and many other manuscripts and books.
George Q. Cannon, a native of Liverpool, England, was trained in the Mormon
faith, his parents having been converted in 1839, when he was twelve years
of age, through the preaching of John Taylor, who some time before had married
his father's sister. A short time before the assassination of Joseph Smith
the family arrived at Nauvoo, where George found employment as a printer
in the office of the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor. In 1847 he set
out for S. L. City with Parley Pratt's companies, and for two years was engaged
in farming, house-building, and other labor incidental to new settlements.
In the autumn of 1849 he went to California in company with Chas C.
Rich, and there worked in the gold mines until the summer of 1850, when he
was sent on a mission to the Sandwich Islands. On arriving at Honolulu he
began to study the Hawaiian language, which he mastered in six weeks, and
then travelled and preached among the natives, organizing several branches
of the church. In 1854 he returned to Salt Lake City, and the following year
went as a missionary to California, where he established and edited a newspaper
called the Western Standard. When news arrived of the Utah war, he
again returned to the valley, and during the exodus of 185S took charge of the
press and printing materials of the Deseret Neivs, which were conveyed to Fillmore
City. In October 1859 he was chosen an apostle to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of Parley Pratt, and was afterward appointed president
of the European mission. In 1862 he was ordered to Washington to support
the claims of Utah to admission as a state, of which more later. After the
adjournment of congress he repaired to England, where he labored until
August 1864, 13,000 converts being forwarded to Zion during this period.
Being then summoned home, he was elected a member of the legislative council,
aifd was for three years private secretary to Brigham Young. In 1S67 he
became editor and publisher of the Deseret Neivs, which was then a semiweekly
paper, and started the Deseret Evening News, which was issued daily,
his connection with the latter continuing until the autumn of 1872, when he
was chosen delegate to congress. In 1880 Mr Cannon was appointed first
councillor to President John Taylor. For further particulars, see authorities
before quoted; also Sala's America Revisited, 302; Reno Daily Gazette, Jan. 24,
1S82.
Joseph F. , the son of Hyrum Smith, who with his brother, the prophet,
was assassinated at Carthage jail, was born at Far West, Mo., in 1838. After
passing his early youth among the vicissitudes attending the expulsion from
Nauvoo and the colonization of Utah, he was ordered, when 16 years of age,
to proceed as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands, where he labored
earnestly and with marked success. ' By the blessing of the almighty,' he
writes, ' I acquired the language of the islanders, and commenced my labors,
preaching, baptizing, etc., among the natives, in one hundred days after my
arrival at Honolulu. ' At the beginning of the Utah war he returned to S.
L. City and served in the militia up to the time when Johnston's army entered