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Mormon Philosophy and Practical Railroad Building
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Abstract
Mormon religious and economic self-sufficiency throve best on isolation, yet Brigham Young hailed the coming of the railroad. This practical and very successful adaptation to new circumstances was inspired by a religious goal. Increased profits and growing trade would accelerate the progress of the work of the Lord. Zion flourished, even as Young had foreseen, but the old social and economic institutions were undermined and Mormon dominance in the territory was challenged.
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958
References
1 A majority of the books dealing with general economic aspects of western history make little or no mention of this subject. Among them may be mentioned: Billington, Ray A., Westward Expansion (New York, 1949)Google Scholar; Coman, Katherine, Economic Beginnings of the Far West (2 Vols.; New York, 1925)Google Scholar; Hafen, Leroy R. and Rister, Carl C., Western America (New York, 1941)Google Scholar; and Quiett, Glenn C., They Built the West (New York, 1934)Google Scholar. Volumes which specifically treat transportation problems in the West also leave much to be said about the Mormons. The following are in this category: Hedges, James B., Henry Villard and the Railways of the Northwest (New Haven, 1930)Google Scholar; Paxon, Frederick L., “The Pacific Railroads and the Disappearance of the Frontier,” American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 107–118.Google Scholar Two well-known volumes need to be mentioned here: Riegel, Robert E. in The Story of Western Railroads (New York, 1926)Google Scholar summarizes the Mormon attitude toward the railroad (pages 110–111) and Trottman, Nelson in History of the Union Pacific (New York, 1923)Google Scholar gives accurate information on the construction of Mormon railroad lines (pages 177–179), but neither of these treats this railroad building in terms of Mormon philosophy.
2 Doctrine and Covenants, 42:30, 51:1.
3 The interpretations of the Mormon religion which are presented in this article have been checked and mostly approved by the director of the Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion at Idaho State College. It should be added, of course, that this is not a criticism of Mormon beliefs, but rather an attempt to evolve an economic policy from the sermons and writings of the church founders and leaders.
4 See McNiff, William J., Heaven on Earth (Oxford, Ohio, 1940).Google Scholar
5 The name of Deseret, taken from the Book of Mormon, means honeybee and indicates the emphasis of the Mormon Church on industry and thrift.
6 Young's sermons are recorded in the Journal of Discourses, which covers his addresses between December 16, 1851, and August 19, 1877.
7 The present name of Salt Lake City was not adopted until 1868.
8 Journal of Discourses, 19:97. See also Gardner, Hamilton, “Cooperation Among the Mormons,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXXI (May, 1917), pp. 461–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 According to the Mormons, a gentile is any non-member.
10 Speech in the Ogden tabernacle, quoted in Preston Nibley, Brigham Young (Salt Lake City, 1936). This volume is a series of articles originally printed in the Deseret News from 1934–1936.
11 Salt Lake City is not the permanent location of the Mormons because they still believe that Zion will eventually be established in Jackson County, Missouri.
12 See Coman, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 179, and Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Utah (San Francisco, 1890).Google Scholar
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14 See Anderson, Neis, Desert Saints: The Mormon Frontier in Utah (Chicago, 1942).Google Scholar
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20 Tullidge, Edward W., Tullidge Histories of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1889), Vol. II, p. 532.Google Scholar Tullidge incorrectly states the date of this memorial as 1852.
21 Nibley, op. cit., p. 418.
22 Arlington, loc. cit., p. 149.
23 May 24, 1868. (Italics mine.)
24 Statement to Grenville Dodge, cited in U. S. Senate, Doc. No. 447, 61st Cong., 2d Sess. (1909), p. 136.
25 Mann, David H., “Brigham Young's Road,” Railroad Magazine, Vol. XXXVII (Feb., 1945), p. 11.Google Scholar Although Mann's article was written for a popular audience and is not documented, it is an accurate and interesting account of the building of the Utah Central Railroad.
26 Tullidge, op. cit., p. 533.
27 Letter to Albert Carrington, Liverpool, Feb. 4, 1869, quoted in Nibley, op. cit., p. 445.
28 Dodge, Grenville M., How We Built the Union Pacific Railway (Washington: Govern ment Printing Office, 1910).Google Scholar
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30 There seems to be no accurate estimate of how many Mormons came to America with the aid of the Fund. Bancroft said that between 1837 and 1851, 16,000 arrived. Tullidge claimed that the figure was 14,364 for the years 1851–1856. It is fairly certain that the high figure was obtained during Franklin D. Richards' administration which began in 1850.
31 Letter to Franklin D. Richards, May 23, 1866, in Nibley, op. cit., p. 434.
32 Mann, op. cit., p. 21.
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36 The original Union Pacific Act of 1862 (U. S., Statutes at Large, Vol. XII, p. 389) offered 10 sections of public lands and the loan of $16,000 of U. S. Bonds per mile, but the Act of 1864 amended this to allow twice the amount in the foothills and treble it in the rough mountains. For treatments of the financial problems of the Union Pacific Railway, see Paxon, op. cit.; Dodge, op. cit.; Trottman, op. cit.; and White, Henry K., History of the Union Pacific Railway (Chicago, 1895).Google Scholar
37 Mann, op. cit., p. 21; Nibley, op. cit., p. 451.
38 Bishop John Sharp, who was vice president of the Utah Central Railroad, gave some detailed testimony on the construction and financing of that line to the Pacific Railway Commission. See U. S. Senate, Doc. No. 51, 50th Cong., 1st Sess. (1887), pp. 2,154 ff.
39 May 3, 1871.
40 Letter from Brigham Young to Albert Carrington, Dec. 11, 1872, in Nibley, op. cit., p. 487.
41 The Utah Southern and the Utah Southern Extension roads were sold in 1900 to the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City Railroad. This line was incorporated as a part of the Union Pacific Railway in 1921. See Utah: A Cuide to the State (New York, 1941).
42 See the writer's doctoral dissertation, “An Economic History of Idaho Territory, 1863–1890” (Saint Louis University, 1957).
43 For details of the construction, see Abe Lillibridge, “Utah and Northern,” M. S. No. 47 (n.d.), Idaho State College Museum; Wrigley, Robert L., “Utah and Northern Railway Company,” Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XLVIII (Sept., 1947);Google ScholarHistory of Idaho Territory (San Francisco, 1884); and Hawley, James H., History of Idaho (3 Vols.; Chicago, 1920).Google ScholarSee also Jay Gould's testimony before the Pacific Railroad Commission, op. cit., pp. 572 ff.
44 When the Mormons settled Franklin, they assumed it was a part of Utah; a survey in 1871 proved them wrong.
45 Wrigley, op. cit., p. 251.
46 Lillibridge, op. cit. Narrow gauge (3') track was used on this line because it would cut costs and because Young doubted that standard track (4' 8½”) could be utilized in the gorges. The 262 miles between Pocatello and Butte were converted to standard track in one day. See Wrigley, op. cit., p. 250.
47 Utah …, op. cit., p. 379.
48 Nibley, op. cit., p. 491.
48 From the books of the Utah Central Railroad, cited in Tullidge, op. cit., p. 170.
50 See Beai, Samuel M., The Snake River Fork Country (Rexburg, 1935)Google Scholar, and Driggs, B. W., History of Teton Valley (Caldwell, 1926).Google Scholar
51 Report of the Territorial Controller, 1879–80 (Boise City, Idaho, 1880). Poor's Manual for 1882 points out that the Utah and Northern earned $3,271.84 per ton mile — an excellent record for its location (p. 858).
52 Arrington, “The Transcontinental Railroad…,” op. cit., p. 152.
53 Anderson, op. cit., p. 257.
54 The Deseret News, July 12, 1866, pointed out that the gentile traders were “avowed enemies of the people,” and it proposed that their businesses not be patronized.
55 Roberts, B. H., A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1930), p. 229.Google Scholar
56 The Solt Lake Daily Telegraph, Dec. 20, 1866.
57 Allen, Edward J., The Second United Order Among the Mormons (New York, 1936), p. 39.Google Scholar
58 A ward compares to what most churches call a parish.
59 Doctrine and Covenants, 104: 47–53. The Mormons believe that the United Order was established by Joseph Smith through divine revelation. It was tried in the early 1830's but failed, so the idea lay dormant until the gentile threat after 1869.
60 Quoted in Nibley, op. cit., pp. 500–501.