Gentile Irruption And Mormon Schism

The end of the complete seclusion of the Mormon settlement in
Utah from the rest of the country--complete except so far as it
was interrupted by the passage through the territory of the
California emigration--dates from the establishment of Camp
Floyd, and the breaking up of that camp and the disposal of its
accumulation of supplies, which gave the first big impetus to
mercantile traffic in Utah.* Young was ever jealous of the
mercantile power, so openly jealous that, as Tullidge puts it,
"to become a merchant was to antagonize the church and her
policies, so that it was almost illegitimate for Mormon men of
enterprising character to enter into mercantile pursuits." This
policy naturally increased the business of non-Mormons who
established themselves in the city, and their prosperity
directed the attention of the church authorities to them, and
the pulpit orators hurled anathemas at those who traded with
them. Thus Young, in a discourse, on March 28, 1858, urging the
people to use home-made material, said: "Let the calicoes lie on
the shelves and rot. I would rather build buildings every day
and burn them down at night, than have traders here communing
with our enemies outside, and keeping up a hell all the time, and
raising devils to keep it going. They brought their hell with
them. We can have enough of our own without their help."** A
system of espionage, by means of the city police, was kept on
the stores of non-Mormons, until it required courage for a
Mormon to make a purchase in one of these establishments. To
trade with an apostate Mormon was, of course, a still greater
offence.

* "The community had become utterly destitute of almost
everything necessary to their social comfort. The people were
poorly clad, and rarely ever saw anything on their tables but
what was prepared from flour, corn, beet-molasses, and the
vegetables and fruits of their gardens. . . . It was at Camp
Floyd, indeed, where the principal Utah merchants and business
men of the second decade of our history may be said to have laid
the foundation of their fortunes, among whom were the Walker
Brothers."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City," pp. 246-247.

** Journal of Discourses, Vol. VII, p. 45.


Among the mercantile houses that became strong after the
establishment of Camp Floyd was that of Walker Brothers. There
were four of them, Englishmen, who had come over with their
mother, and shared in the privations of the early Utah
settlement. Possessed of practical business talent and
independence of thought, they rebelled against Young's
dictatorial rule and the varied trammels by which their business
was restricted. Without openly apostatizing, they insisted on a
measure of independence. One manifestation of this was a refusal
to contribute one-tenth of their income as a tithe for the
expenditure of which no account was rendered. One year, when
asked for their tithe, they gave the Bishop of their ward a
check for $500 as "a contribution to the poor." When this form of
contribution was reported to Young, he refused to accept it, and
sent the brothers word that he would cut them off from the
church unless they paid their tithe in the regular way. Their
reply was to tear up the check and defy Young.

The natural result followed. Brigham and his lieutenants waged an
open war on these merchants, denouncing them in the Tabernacle,
and keeping policemen before their doors. The Walkers, on their
part, kept on offering good wares at reasonable prices, and thus
retained the custom of as many Mormons as dared trade with them
openly, or could slip in undiscovered. Even the expedient of
placing a sign bearing an "all-seeing eye" and the words
"Holiness to the Lord" over every Mormon trader's door did not
steer away from other doors the Mormon customers who delighted
in bargains. But the church power was too great for any one firm
to fight. Not only was a business man's capital in danger in
those times, when the church was opposed to him, but his life
was not safe. Stenhouse draws this picture of the condition of
affairs in 1866:--"After the assassination of Dr. Robinson, fears
of violence were not unnatural, and many men who had never
before carried arms buckled on their revolvers. Highly
respectable men in Salt Lake City forsook the sidewalks after
dusk, and, as they repaired to their residences, traversed the
middle of the public street, carrying their revolvers in their
hands.

With such a feeling of uneasiness, nearly all the non-Mormon
merchants joined in a letter to Brigham Young, offering, if the
church would purchase their goods and estates at twentyfive per
cent less than their valuation, they would leave the Territory.
Brigham answered them cavalierly that he had not asked them to
come into the Territory, did not ask them to leave it, and that
they might stay as long as they pleased.

"It was clear that Brigham felt himself master of the situation,
and the merchants had to bide their time, and await the coming
change that was anticipated from the completion of the Pacific
Railroad. As the great iron way approached the mountains, and
every day gave greater evidence of its being finished at a much
earlier period than was at first anticipated, the hope of what
it would accomplish nerved the discontented to struggle with the
passing day." *

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 625.


The Mormon historian incorporates these two last paragraphs in
his book, and says: "Here is at once described the Gentile and
apostate view of the situation in those times, and, confined as
it is to the salient point, no lengthy special argument in favor
of President Young's policies could more clearly justify his
mercantile cooperative movement. IT WAS THE MOMENT OF LIFE OR
DEATH TO THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH . . . . The
organization of Z. C. M. I. at that crisis saved the temporal
supremacy of the Mormon commonwealth."* It was to meet outside
competition with a force which would be invincible that Young
conceived the idea of Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution,
which was incorporated in 1869, with Young as president. In
carrying out this idea no opposing interest, whether inside the
church or out of it, received the slightest consideration. "The
universal dominance of the head of the church is admitted," says
Tullidge, "and in 1868, before the opening of the Utah mines and
the existence of a mixed population, there was no commercial
escape from the necessities of a combination."**

* Tullidge's "History of Salt Lake City," p. 385.

** Cooperation is as much a cardinal and essential doctrine of
the Mormon church as baptism for the remission of
sin."--Tullidge, "History of Salt Lake City."


Young is said to have received the idea of the big Cooperative
enterprise from a small trader who asked permission to establish
a mercantile system on the Cooperative plan, of moderate
dimensions, throughout the territory. He gave it definite shape
at a meeting of merchants in October, 1868, which was followed by

a circular explaining the scheme to the people. A preamble
asserted "the impolicy of leaving the trade and commerce of this
territory to be conducted by strangers." The constitution of the
concern provided for a capital of $3,000,000 in $100 shares.
Young's original idea was to have all the merchants pool their
stocks, those who found no places in the new establishment to go
into some other business,--farming for instance,-- renting their
stores as they could. Of course this meant financial ruin to the
unprovided for, and the opposition was strong. But Young was not
to be turned from the object he had in view. One man told
Stenhouse that when he reported to Young that a certain merchant
would be ruined by the scheme, and would not only be unable to
pay his debts, but would lose his homestead, Young's reply was
that the man had no business to get into debt, and that "if he
loses his property it serves him right." Tullidge, in an article
in Harpers Magazine for September, 1871 (written when he was at
odds with Young), said, "The Mormon merchants were publicly told
that all who refused to join the cooperation should be left out
in the cold; and against the two most popular of them the Lion
of the Lord roared, 'If Henry Lawrence don't mind what's he's
about I'll send him on a mission, and W. S. Godbe I'll cut off
from the church."'

After the organization of the concern in 1869 some of the leading
Mormon merchants in Salt Lake City sold their goods to it on
favorable terms, knowing that the prices of their stock would go
down when the opening of the railroad lowered freight rates. The
Z. C. M. I. was started as a wholesale and retail concern, and
Young recommended that ward stores be opened throughout the city
which should buy their goods of the Institution. Local
cooperative stores were also organized throughout the territory,
each of which was under pressure to make its purchases of the
central concern. Branches were afterward established at Ogden,
at Logan, and at Soda Springs, Idaho, and a large business was
built up and is still continued.* The effect of this new
competition on the non-Mormon establishments was, of course,
very serious. Walker Brothers' sales, for instance, dropped
$5000 or $6000 a month, and only the opportunity to divert their
capital profitably to mining saved them and others from immediate
ruin.

Bancroft says that in 1883 the total sales of the Institution
exceeded $4,000,000, and a half yearly dividend of five per cent
was paid in October of that year, and there was a reserve fund
of about $125,000; he placed the sales of the Ogden branch, in
1883, at about $800,000, and of the Logan branch at about
$600,000. The thirty-second annual statement of the Institution,
dated April 5,1901, contains the following figures: Capital
stock, $1,077,144.89; reserve, $362,898.95; undivided profits,
$179,042.88; cash receipts, February 1 to December 31, 1900,
$3,457,624.44, sales for the same period, $3,489.571 .84. The
branch houses named is this report are at Ogden City and Provo,
Utah, and at Idaho Falls, Idaho.

But at this time an influence was preparing to make itself felt
in Utah which was a more powerful opponent of Brigham Young's
authority than any he had yet encountered. This influence took
shape in what was known as the "New Movement," and also as "The
Reformation." Its original leaders were W. S. Godbe and E. L. T.
Harrison. Godbe was an Englishman, who saw a good deal of the
world as a sailor, embraced the Mormon faith in his own country
when seventeen years of age, and walked most of the way from New
York to Salt Lake City in 1851. He became prominent in the
Mormon capital as a merchant, making the trip over the plains
twenty-four times between 1851 and 1859. Harrison was an
architect by profession, a classical scholar, and a writer of no
mean ability.

With these men were soon associated Eli B. Kelsey, a leading
elder in the Mormon church, a president of Seventies, and a
prominent worker in the English missions; H. W. Lawrence, a
wealthy merchant who was a Bishop's counsellor; Amasa M. Lyman,
who had been one of the Twelve Apostles and was acknowledged to
be one of the most eloquent preachers in the church; W. H.
Sherman, a prominent elder and a man of literary ability, who
many years later went back to the church; T. B. H. Stenhouse, a
Scotchman by birth, who was converted to Mormonism in 1846, and
took a prominent part in missionary work in Europe, for three
years holding the position of president of the Swiss and Italian
missions; he emigrated to this country with his wife and
children in 1855, practically penniless, and supported himself
for a time in New York City as a newspaper writer; in Salt Lake
City he married a second wife by Young's direction, and one of
his daughters by his first wife married Brigham's eldest son.
Stenhouse did not win the confidence of either Mormons or
non-Mormons in the course of his career, but his book, "The
Rocky Mountain Saints," contains much valuable information.
Active with these men in the "New Movement" was Edward W.
Tullidge, an elder and one of the Seventy, and a man of great
literary ability. In later years Tullidge, while not openly
associating himself with the Mormon church, wrote the "History
of Salt Lake City" which the church accepts, a "Life of Brigham
Young," which could not have been more fulsome if written by the
most devout Mormon, and a "Life of Joseph the Prophet," which is
a valueless expurgated edition of Joseph's autobiography which
ran through the Millennial Star.

The "New Movement" was assisted by the advent of non-Mormons to
the territory, by Young's arbitrary methods in starting his
cooperative scheme, by the approaching completion of the Pacific
Railroad, and, in a measure, by the organization of the
Reorganized Church under the leadership of the prophet Joseph
Smith's eldest son. Two elders of that church, who went to Salt
Lake City in 1863, were refused permission to preach in the
Tabernacle, but did effective work by house-to-house
visitations, and there were said to be more than three hundred
of the "Josephites," as they were called, in Salt Lake City in
1864.*

* "Persecution followed, as they claimed; and in early summer
about one-half of the Josephites in Salt Lake City started
eastward, so great being the excitement that General Connor
ordered a strong escort to accompany them as far as Greene
River. To those who remained, protection was also afforded by the
authorities."--Bancroft, "History of Utah," p. 645.


Harrison and Tullidge had begun the publication of a magazine
called the Peep o' Day at Camp Douglas, but it was a financial
failure. Then Godbe and Harrison started the Utah Magazine, of
which Harrison was editor. This, too, was only a drain on their
purses. Accordingly, some time in the year 1868, giving it over
to the care of Tullidge, they set out on a trip to New York by
stage. Both were in doubt on many points regarding their church;
both were of that mental make-up which is susceptible to
"revelations" and "callings"; by the time they reached New York
they realized that they were "on the road to apostasy."

Long discussions of the situation took place between them, and
the outcome was characteristic of men who had been influenced by
such teachings as those of the Mormons. Kneeling down in their
room, they prayed earnestly, and as they did so "a voice spoke
to them." For three weeks, while Godbe transacted his mercantile
business, his friend prepared questions on religion and
philosophy, "and in the evening, by appointment, 'a band of
spirits' came to them and held converse with them, as friends
would speak with friends. One by one the questions prepared by
Mr. Harrison were read, and Mr. Godbe and Mr. Harrison, with
pencil and paper, took down the answers as they heard them given
by the spirits."* The instruction which they thus received was
Delphic in its clearness--that which was true in Mormonism
should be preserved and the rest should be rejected.

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 631.


When they returned to Utah they took Elder Eli B. Kelsey, Elder
H. W. Lawrence, a man of wealth, and Stenhouse into their
confidence, and it was decided to wage open warfare on Young's
despotism, using the Utah Magazine as their mouthpiece. Without
attacking Young personally, or the fundamental Mormon beliefs,
the magazine disputed Young's doctrine that the world . was
degenerating to ruin, held up the really "great characters" the
world has known, that Young might be contrasted with them, and
discussed the probabilities of honest errors in religious
beliefs. When the Mormon leaders read in the magazine such
doctrine as that, "There is one false error which possesses the
minds of some in this, that God Almighty intended the priesthood
to do our thinking," they realized that they had a contest on
their hands. Young got into trouble with the laboring men at
this time. He had contracts for building a part of the Pacific
Railroad, which were sublet at a profit. An attempt by him to
bring about a reduction of wages gave the magazine an
opportunity to plead the laborers' cause which it gladly
embraced.*

* Harpers Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 605.


In the summer of 1869 Alexander and David Hyrum Smith, sons of
the prophet, visited Salt Lake City in the interest of the
Reorganized Church. Many of Young's followers still looked on
the sons of the prophet as their father's rightful successor to
the leadership of the Church, as Young at Nauvoo had promised
that Joseph III should be. But these sons now found that, even to
be acknowledged as members of Brigham's fold, they must accept
baptism at the hands of one of his elders, and acknowledge the
"revelation" concerning polygamy as coming from God. They had
not come with that intent. But they called on Young and
discussed with him the injection of polygamy into the church
doctrines. Young finally told them that they possessed, not the
spirit of their father, but of their mother Emma, whom Young
characterized as "a liar, yes, the damnedest liar that lived,"
declaring that she tried to poison the prophet * He refused to
them the use of the Tabernacle, but they spoke in private houses
and, through the influence of the Walker brothers, secured
Independence Hall. The Brighamites, using a son of Hyrum Smith
as their mouthpiece,** took pains that a goodly number of
polygamists should attend the Independence Hall meetings, and
interruptions of the speakers turned the gatherings into
something like personal wrangles.

* For Alexander Smith's report, see True Latter-Day Saints'
Herald, Vol. XVI, pp. 85-86.

** Hyrum's widow went to Salt lake City, and died there in
September, 1852, at the house of H. C. Kimball, who had taken
care of her.


The presence of the prophet's sons gave the leaders of "The
Reformation" an opportunity to aim a thrust at what was then
generally understood to be one of Brigham Young's ambitions,
namely, the handing down of the Presidency of the church to his
oldest son; and an article in their magazine presented the matter
in this light: "If we know the true feeling of our brethren, it
is that they never intend Joseph Smith's nor any other man's son
to preside over them, simply because of their sonship. The
principle of heirship has cursed the world for ages, and with
our brethren we expect to fight it till, with every other relic
of tyranny, it is trodden under foot." Young accepted this
challenge, and at once ordered Harrison and two other elders in
affiliation with him to depart on missions. They disobeyed the
order.

Godbe and Harrison told their friends in Utah that they had
learned from the spirits who visited them in New York that the
release of the people of the territory from the despotism of the
church could come only through the development of the mines. So
determined was the opposition of Young's priesthood to this
development that its open advocacy in the magazine was the cause
of more serious discussion than that given to any of the other
subjects treated. As "The Reformation" did not then embrace more
than a dozen members, the courage necessary to defy the church
on such a question was not to be belittled. Just at that time
came the visit of the Illinois party and of Vice President
Colfax, and the latter was made acquainted with their plans and
gave them encouragement. Ten days later the magazine, in an
article on "The True Development of the Territory," openly
advised paying more attention to mining. Young immediately
called together the "School of the Prophets." This was an
organization instituted in Utah, with the professed object of
discussing doctrinal questions, having the "revelations" of the
prophet elucidated by his colleagues, etc. It was not open to
all church members, the "scholars" attending by invitation, and
it soon became an organization under Young's direction which took
cognizance of the secular doings of the people, exercising an
espionage over them. The school is no longer maintained. Before
this school Young denounced the "Reformers" in his most scathing
terms, going so far as to intimate that his rule was itself in
danger. Consequently the leaders of the "New Movement" were
notified to appear before the High Council for a hearing.

When this hearing occurred, Young managed that Godbe and Harrison
should be the only persons on trial. Both of them defied him to
his face, denying his "right to dictate to them in all things
spiritual and temporal,"--this was the question put to
them,--and protesting against his rule. They also read a set of
resolutions giving an outline of their intended movements. They
were at once excommunicated, and the only elder, Eli B. Kelsey,
who voted against this action was immediately punished in the
same way. Kelsey was not granted even the perfunctory hearing
that was customarily allowed in such cases, and he was "turned
over to the devil," instead of being consigned by the usual
formula "to the buffetings of Satan."

But this did not silence the "Reformers." Their lives were
considered in danger by their acquaintances, and the
assassination of the most prominent of them was anticipated;*
but they went straight ahead on the lines they had proclaimed.
Their first public meetings were held on Sunday, December 19,
1869. The knowledge of the fact that they claimed to act by
direct and recent revelation gave them no small advantage with a
people whose belief rested on such manifestations of the divine
will, and they had crowded audiences. The services were
continued every Sunday, and on the evening of one week day; the
magazine went on with its work, and they were the founders of
the Salt Lake Tribune which later, as a secular journal, has led
the Gentile press in Utah.

* "In August my husband sent a respectful and kindly letter to
the Bishop of our ward, stating that he had no faith in
Brigham's claim to an Infallible Priesthood; and that he
considered that he ought to be cut off from the church. I added
a postscript stating that I wished to share my husband's fate. A
little after ten o'clock, on the Saturday night succeeding our
withdrawal from the church, we were returning home together . .
. when we suddenly saw four men come out from under some trees
at a little distance from us . . . . As soon as they approached,
they seized hold of my husband's arms, one on each side, and held
him firmly, thus rendering him almost powerless. They were all
masked . . . . In an instant I saw them raise their arms, as if
taking aim, and for one brief second I thought that our end had
surely come, and that we, like so many obnoxious persons before
us, were about to be murdered for the great sin of apostasy.
This I firmly believe would have been my husband's fate if I had
not chanced to be with him or had I run away . . . . The
wretches, although otherwise well armed, were not holding
revolvers in their hands as I at first supposed. They were
furnished with huge garden syringes, charged with the most
disgusting filth. My hair, bonnet, face, clothes, person--every
inch of my body, every shred I wore--were in an instant
saturated, and my husband and myself stood there reeking from
head to foot. The villains, when they had perpetrated this
disgusting and brutal outrage, turned and fled."--Mrs. Stenhouse,
"Tell it All," pp. 578-581.


But the attempt to establish a reformed Mormonism did not
succeed, and the organization gradually disappeared. One of the
surviving leaders said to me (in October, 1901): "My parents had
believed in Mormonism, and I believed in the Mormon prophet and
the doctrines set forth in his revelations. We hoped to purify
the Mormon church, eradicating evils that had annexed themselves
to it in later years. But our study of the question showed us
that the Mormon faith rested on no substantial basis, and we
became believers in transcendentalism." Mr. Godbe and Mr.
Lawrence still reside in Utah. The former has made and lost more
than one fortune in the mines. The Mormon historian Whitney says
of the leaders in this attempted reform: "These men were all
reputable and respected members of the community. Naught against
their morality or general uprightness of character was known or
advanced."* Stenhouse, writing three years before Young's death,
said:--

* Whitney's "History of Utah," Vol. II, p. 332.


"But for the boldness of the Reformers, Utah to-day would not
have been what it is. Inspired by their example, the people who
have listened to them disregarded the teachings of the
priesthood against trading with or purchasing of the Gentiles.
The spell was broken, and, as in all such like experience, the
other extreme was for a time threatened. Walker Brothers
regained their lost trade . . . . Reference could be made to
elders, some of whom had to steal away from Utah, for fear of
violent hands being laid upon them had their intended departure
been made known, who are to-day wealthy and respected gentlemen
in the highest walks of life, both in the United States and in
Europe."

** For accounts of "The Reformation" by leaders in it,
see Chap. 53 of Stenhouse's "Rocky Mountain Saints," and
Tullidge's article, Harper's Magazine, Vol. XLIII, p. 602.


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