THE REFORMATION, 1856.

Hard Times Were Difficult for Some To Endure.—Recording Church History.—Dedication of Historian's Office.—First Hand-cart Company.—The Reformation Inaugurated.—Death of Jedediah M. Grant.—Suffering of the Hand-cart Companies.—Heber C. Kimball's Dream.

The year 1856 found the people engrossed in the labors incident to pioneer life. They were beginning to appreciate more than ever the wonderful resources of their new Zion. The growing opportunities to accumulate means were absorbing the more progressive classes. The social life of the people, however, was not neglected, and there were picnics and celebrations. The Fourth and the Twenty-fourth were great days. The out door amusements of those times were more enjoyable because of the general surroundings. This year the Fourth was ushered in by the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. There were processions and orations that pleased and inspired the people. The canyons were near by and they were agreeable resorts in days when there were few groves. These occasions helped the people to forget many of the hardships incident to pioneer life. Some could not easily endure the trials of those days because they had not sufficient faith to penetrate in the least the future. To them all was darkness and hardship. Some were discouraged.

About this time, one of the chief clerks in the Historian's Office became weary of the hardships of those days, was a victim of despair. He entertained doubts of the truth of the work; and though he was treated well by all the brethren, he was nevertheless unhappy and returned to England to take up again the life in which he had been reared. Apostle Woodruff wrote of him thus: "He could not stand the hard times, and did not know whether Mormonism was true or not, so he returned home. He had taken a very honorable course in all his business dealings." The man was respected and spoken well of. He felt that he had made a mistake, but he was honest and honorable. He never sought to shift the burden of his own unhappiness and discontent on to the shoulders of others. He aimed to be fair and wanted to do what was right. The man had not the faith to support him in the trying ordeals of those early years in Utah. It was one circumstance out of many; and like some others who left the Church, he never felt it his duty to bring reproach upon those whose faith he could neither understand nor appreciate. The man was not hindered in the execution of his wishes. He was wished God speed, and his old-time friends would still be friends, even though there might be a great disparity in the matter of faith.

In those days, Elder Woodruff was occupied largely in the historian's office reading Church history to President Young. From the beginning of the Church in Utah, President Young had felt the importance of keeping an accurate and extended history of God's dispensation in the Valleys of the Mountains. Many important things connected with the Church in its infancy had not been recorded, and were then even becoming matters of hearsay.

On the 6th of September, 1856, a large number of missionaries were set apart and the burden of the instructions to them then was the keeping of a journal. The special instructions on that occasion were given to them by Parley P. Pratt and Wilford Woodruff, the latter outlined in a general way what should make up a journal. The record was to be "full, correct, and proper." Matters were to be so fully given that future generations would not be at a loss to understand them. They should be so correct, that credence could be given to what was written, and so proper that inappropriate and irrelevant matters should not fill up and make a journal tedious and of no consequence, except, perhaps, to the one who wrote it. All official acts in the exercise of the authority of the priesthood should be carefully kept. Whenever it became important for the Church to give a history of any event, it should be able to put its hands on the records of those who took part in them.

Parley P. Pratt said: "I have reflected upon this subject for years to know what a man should write, and have come to the conclusion that he should write his official acts in the priesthood. I am sorry that I have not kept more of a journal than I have. I wish I had written every man's name that I ever baptized, or administered to in any manner. In setting forth the hand dealings of God with this people, the elders of the Church become personal witnesses for God, and every event which is a manifestation of God's power in their lives and ministry should be recorded." They fully appreciated the fact that though an event may not be of great importance to-day, it may be valuable to-morrow in the light of all that follows it.

On the 10th of September, Apostle Woodruff and the clerks in the historian's office moved to their new office, which was an imposing building in those days, and which still stands on South Temple Street between State and Main Streets. Elder Woodruff was mouth in the dedication of this building on September 15th, 1856. Elder Woodruff records this blessing in his journal and exclaims therein: "Wilt thou bless, O Lord, with thy holy spirit this building, that we may never profane thy name in this house, or dishonor the holy priesthood, or bring approach upon thy cause, or grieve thy holy spirit in any way. Bring to our remembrance all things necessary to be written in the history of the Church, and cause that papers and documents that are necessary may be brought to us that we may be enabled to compile a correct, useful, and proper history."

On the 26th of the same month, the two first hand-cart companies entered Salt Lake Valley. They were in charge of Edmund Ellsworth and Daniel Duncan McArthur, the former was the husband of President Young's oldest daughter. Elder Ellsworth died some years ago, but Elder McArthur, at this writing, 1909, still lives in St. George in the 86th year of his age. For some years he was president of the St. George stake of Zion. These companies of Saints were met at the mouth of Emigration Canyon to the east of the city and were escorted with much display and honor to the city. President Young and the general authorities went out to meet them. Bands of music enlivened the occasion, and the presence of many Saints gave great distinction to the scene. They had pushed and pulled their hand-carts from the Missouri River, over a thousand miles. They had waded the streams, climbed the mountains, and had made better time than either the ox or the horse teams.

This new method of crossing the plains had been first suggested and decided upon in England during the presidency in that mission of Franklin D. Richards. It was, in a measure, an outburst of the enthusiastic desire and spirit of the people there to gather with their religious comrades in the Valleys of the Mountains. The first companies had fared measurably well, but those who came later, and were the victims of an unusual and extraordinary winter, suffered greatly.

At this place in Elder Woodruff's journal, he records a dream related by Daniel H. Wells and the latter's interpretation of it. He saw in his dream a butcher's cleaver in the heavens, from which he was led to predict the near approach of war and bloodshed in the nation. The time, he declared, was nearer than people imagined.

The completion of the Historian's Office this year was followed by the dedication of the Endowment House on October 2nd. The leading men of the Church met at the baptismal font where the dedicatory prayer was offered by Heber C. Kimball. Elder Woodruff says: "It was full of sublimity and prophecy which found its fulfillment in the history of the font and the building." It would be difficult even to estimate the sacred influence which that building has exercised upon the lives of untold thousands who felt themselves within its sacred precincts in the presence of their God. The purity that went out from that sacred house into the lives of those who were married there has been the guiding star and the savior of thousands of men and women in the Church. How strange, how remarkable, that a place with such sacred and uplifting influence should be made the object of vicious attacks by those who were the enemies of the Church and its persecutors!

The completion of the font signalized the importance of the so-called Reformation in the Church which began in that year. President Young entered the font and baptized his counselors, Heber C. Kimball, and Jedediah M. Grant. Later Elder Woodruff and others were baptized; and the privilege extended to all the Saints throughout the Church to renew their covenants. There was a spirit of trouble brewing; a growing opposition throughout the United States toward the Saints was felt by the leaders, who were impressed by the spirit of reform. It was important that the people should be so upright and chaste in their lives that the Lord should have no occasion to punish them for their shortcomings. It was a time of revival in the observance of the duties and the ordinances in the Church. The people were called upon to repent. Questions touching their morals and the manner of their worship were put to the people both in public places and in their homes. The people generally were asked to renew their covenants by baptism.

An excerpt from the journal of Elder Woodruff illustrates something of the spirit of those times. After explaining to a certain individual that he considered it a privilege to be re-baptized, the man professed his immunity from sin.

"In all the trials incident to the pilgrimage and pioneer life, have you never sworn nor used bad language?"

"No sir," was the prompt reply.

"Have you never broken the Sabbath day?"

"No sir," came the quick response.

"Have you never cheated your neighbor in trade?"

"No sir," thundered the unrepentant man.

"Then, for heavens sake, go off and do something. You are the only perfect man I ever saw, and hope never to see another in this life."

Subsequent events, however, proved that the man who was so self-assertive was the very sort of an individual who was greatly in need of repentance.

From the days of the gold excitement in California, there had been an influx of adventurers into Utah. Most of them were men of reckless lives, men of improper habits. Their influence became greatly detrimental to many of the Saints. It must be counteracted, and the so-called Reformation was to be the means of setting the people right. It was to be a time of repentance. Every responsible position that men held, whether ecclesiastical or civil, called for the most devout obedience to God's law. Men who were legislators observed the ordinance of baptism that they might more conscientiously and more uprightly enact laws for the happiness and welfare of the people.

The October conference which was then at hand was devoted to the proclamation of repentance throughout the Church. The new zeal was felt everywhere, both at home and abroad. There were frequent visits from house to house. The leaders of the Church were foremost in the new move. A special call was put upon Jedediah M. Grant. To him the work of the Reformation was a special mission. He was by nature a most zealous man, and this special call increased his zeal. He gave to the work all his energies and carried more the burden of that mission than any other man of his time. It proved too much for his physical nature, which could not bear the incessant labors, and consequently on the 1st of December, 1856, he departed this life.

Of him Elder Woodruff writes in his journal: "He died December 1st, 1856, twenty minutes past 10 o'clock. He was aged forty years, nine months, and seven days. We went immediately to his house where we found his wives and children weeping bitterly. Jesse C. Little, Leonard W. Hardy, Daniel H. Wells, Doctors Sprague, and Dunyon, and Israel Ivins, stood by him as he breathed his last. As I gazed upon his tabernacle of clay, I felt to exclaim, a mighty man in Zion is laid low, a valiant man in Israel and a great champion of the Kingdom of God is taken from us! We feel his loss deeply. For two months it seemed as though he had been hurried to close up his work. He had been preaching for several months calling upon the people to repent. His voice had been like the trumpet of the Angel of God. He has labored night and day until prostrated by sickness. He called at the Historian's office on the 19th of November which was his last day out. During his sickness, he beheld a glorious vision from which he related to the brethren all he had seen of the spirit world."

Of President Grant, Elder Woodruff records the following testimony by Brigham Young: "We have no cause to mourn for Brother Grant. He is well off. He has lived in advance of his age and is better fitted for eternity in the forty years of his lifetime than many would be in one hundred years."

Elder Woodruff records among the closing events of those years the sufferings and other experiences of the hand-cart companies. He tells of the anxiety about those who were overtaken by the storms in Wyoming. Relief parties were sent out, provisions were forwarded, and at the fire sides of the Saints, there were fervent prayers for the protection of their unfortunate brethren and sisters struggling to reach the land of Zion—the goal of their ambition, and the object of their devotion.

On the 12th of October, 1856, Elder Woodruff records the ordination of Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little as the first and second counselors to the presiding bishop. Edward Hunter. About this time, Frederick Kesler was ordained bishop of the 16th ward, a position which he held with honor for nearly one-half century.

Through all the latter months of 1856, the work of the Reformation was going on. There was quite a universal spirit favoring the highest and purest standard of life. Men of a sensitive and a religious nature found within themselves an excessive conscientiousness that sometimes made them imagine they were sinners because of a state of perfection they saw, but could not feel. Such a condition brought with it doubts and misgivings. Some of the very best men in the Church felt their unworthiness and shrank from responsibilities which they imagined others could fulfill better than they. President Woodruff records at this time that he and Lorenzo Snow called upon President Young and offered to surrender their apostleship. They had received it at his hands and were willing to give it up in favor of any one that the President might think more competent and more worthy. President Young expressed his perfect satisfaction with them and his confidence in their integrity and labors, and gave them every assurance of his love and blessing.

There were those, however, in those days who were not so conscientious and by nature so upright. They took advantage of the repentant and humble condition of others. They exercised authority that was unjust and harmful. The dangers of the excesses of a certain class began to be felt and restraint was put upon them. When the movement had accomplished the good intended and dangers arose, the Reformation subsided and has gone into history with a mixture of evil with a vast amount of good. Elder Woodruff records his belief that the Reformation had a great effect for good upon the lives and the conduct of the people. It also had a tendency to separate those who were insincere and untrustworthy. It was a judgment upon the Saints that they themselves pronounced in their willingness or unwillingness to be in harmony with the spirit of the times.

The spirit of the leaders at that time when the call to repentance was loudest was one of the most enthusiastic and God-fearing character. They felt themselves in the presence of heavenly beings and constantly answerable to God for the condition of the people Elder Woodruff speaks of a tongue lashing which he received from one of his brethren who did not take kindly to the spirit and methods of the times. The man did not care to have his conduct brought into question. He had repented and been baptized once and the repetition of repentance was not in harmony with his feelings, and he resisted the call made upon him by his brethren who did not hesitate and who were not easily brushed aside in their purpose and determination to bring about a reformation. To those who did not take kindly to the spirit of those times, it looked like an invasion of their personal liberty.

In his journal, Apostle Woodruff records a dream related to him by Heber C. Kimball, which reflected not alone the latter's views of the times, but the general spirit among the leaders. The dream runs as follows:

"I dreamed that I was traveling with a companion, and we came to a powerful, rapid stream of water like the Niagara River. The waves were rolling very high and increasing in size. They had been muddy, but were getting clear. As we came to this rushing stream, we did not know how we should get over it. I turned my eyes a few moments from my companion, and when I looked back I saw him on the other side of the river and climbing a steep hill. I did not know how he got there. I wanted to cross, so I called to him as loud as I could to stop and wait for me, but he paid no attention to me, but went on as fast as he could. Then a person came to me and said you have an iron rod in your hand, which I perceived I had. It was several feet long. The angel said to me: 'You must use this rod and feel your way over the river.' Then I awoke.

"I considered my dream and interpreted it as follows: My companion was J. M. Grant, who had suddenly died and left me, and was on the other side of the veil. The waters mean the people. They are increasing in strength and growing better and clearer. The iron rod is the word of God, which I must cling to till I get through life. I consider there are great things awaiting this people."