The Failures of the Pioneers

A talk given in the North Park YSA Ward in Bountiful, Utah, on July 24, 2016.

I am delighted to speak today about the pioneers. I am not a history person—history was always my worst subject in school—but God has placed me in situations and circumstances where I am privileged to learn about the sacrifices and efforts of the pioneers. Some of you in the audience may feel like pioneers are irrelevant to you, because you don’t have a pioneer heritage. Some of you are converts, or your parents or grandparents may be converts. To be more inclusive, while I do have pioneer ancestors, the stories I will be sharing today have nothing to do with them, so I hope we all can find value in the example of the pioneers.

When we talk about pioneers, we have images of wagons and handcarts, and we sing that pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked[1]—we focus on the overland journey so much that it makes it seem like when they arrive in the Salt Lake Valley, that’s the end of the story. But really that’s just the beginning of the story. In a historical sense, the Utah pioneers are defined as those who arrived between 1847 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. I want to talk about some of the events that occurred in Utah during the pioneer period.

The pioneers had many successes. The very fact that we are here today is proof of that. After Brigham Young and his company arrived in July 1847, many of them left the next month to go back to Iowa. On their journey, these outgoing pioneers met the company of Perrigrine Sessions, and they told him a little about the valley. He arrived in Salt Lake, and soon he went a few miles north and established a farm. This area was called Sessions Settlement initially, but eventually it became Bountiful.[2] He is buried in the cemetery across the street.

However, with all their successes, the pioneers had a lot of failures. I’m going to talk about a few of their failures.

In the early 1850s, John Taylor was on a mission in France, and Brigham Young had asked John  Taylor to look for new ideas that would be useful in Utah. He discovered that in France, they extracted sugar from sugar beets, and he thought that would be a valuable idea, because sugar was scarce in the desert. So he bought a bunch of French sugar beet seeds and some equipment for extracting the sugar. It was a major hassle getting the equipment across the plains. Once they got here, actually extracting the sugar didn’t work. One of the batches of molasses even the hogs wouldn’t eat. Decades later there was a successful sugar industry, but in the 1850s it failed for a number of reasons.[3]

Another kind of failure they had was in missionary work. There were many converts who came from Denmark and Scotland, like my ancestor Alexander Melville, but they sent missionaries to other places in the world, and these missions weren’t very successful. For example, in 1852 Hosea Stout, James Lewis, Walter Thompson,[4] and Chapman Duncan were called to China. James Lewis and Chapman Duncan were both in Iron County, and word arrived that, “Hey, BTW, you’re going on a mission to China. Time to say goodbye and pack up.”[5] James Lewis described that as the great trial in his life. When they arrived in Hong Kong, they couldn’t do anything. They didn’t speak Chinese, and no one who spoke English would listen to them. They couldn’t go to the mainland of China, just like today, but for different reasons. After two months they prematurely left their mission because it was fruitless and returned to America.[6]

Growing up, I heard that Las Vegas had been founded by Mormons. That’s only somewhat true. In the 1850s, Mormons did establish a settlement at Las Vegas, in part so that there would be a waystation for travelers going to California. People were called on missions to go there. Some were assigned to mine, and some were assigned to preach to the Native Americans in the area. Due to several problems, including clashes between the missionaries, the settlement failed and the missionaries left, and their Las Vegas settlement was completely abandoned. The Las Vegas of today has nothing to do with the Las Vegas of these early Mormons.[7]

Now, what strikes me about the pioneers, in all these efforts, is that they were not afraid to fail. Often I doubt myself and think I won’t succeed, so I won’t bother. When I do that, I don’t fail, but I don’t succeed either. The pioneers didn’t seem to be scared of failure. They accomplished many things that they didn’t know would work, because they had faith in what they were doing.

Think further about the failures. For me, I don’t think, “Oh, what dumb pioneers. What were you thinking, sending people to China? What were you thinking, settling a town in Las Vegas?” No, I am impressed by their determination, their efforts, and their ambition. Sugarhouse today is still named for the unsuccessful sugar factory, and the manhole covers in the neighborhood have sugar beets on them. 

We don’t call the area Failureville. I need to remember that if I fail in my efforts, it does not make me a failure, nor does it disappoint the Lord. Failure is a part of life and a part of learning and growing.

Now, this does not mean we can be irresponsible and reckless. We need to realize severe consequences come from unwise decisions. One historical moment that could have used a little discretion was the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. I’m a little hesitant to talk about them, because I feel like we hear their stories over and over—you may be watching 17 Miracles this weekend, or doing your home teaching using President Monson’s story about Shane’s ancestor.[8] We often place misleading emphasis on handcarts, when only 4 or 5 percent of all the pioneers actually used them. However, I think we usually tell the wrong side of the story—the suffering and deaths caused by a series of poor decisions. Frankly, I don’t find that terribly inspiring. I am much more inspired by the reaction of the Saints here in Utah when they learned of the plight of the companies.

For years, Brigham Young had wanted to use handcarts, because many Saints were coming via aid from the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, and handcarts would be cheaper and faster without having to worry about all the oxen and wagons. There would still be a few wagons traveling with the company, but they were mostly handcarts. In 1856, they finally experimented with handcarts, and in the fall of that year, three handcart companies successfully arrived. Brigham Young was delighted, as their experiment was a success. Then Apostle Franklin D. Richards arrived and informed him that there were still two handcart companies way back on the trail, which was not a good thing. This was early October, right before general conference. Many missionaries had just returned, and they were to be speaking. When Brigham Young opened the conference, he explained that the theme of the conference was “to get them here.”

He started with, “I wish the most strict attention of the entire congregation.” He then admonished people to be quiet and mothers to take their noisy children out. This is something we can relate to when we visit family wards. Speaking of parents who don’t take noisy children out, he said, “I cannot say much for the education, based on good feeling, that such persons have. Were I to describe it in a plain way, I should say that they are people of no breeding, that they were never bred but came up; that is about as good a character as I can afford to give to any mother that will keep a squalling child in a meeting.” That may sound harsh, but they didn’t have microphones back then, and they were meeting in the bowery, which didn’t have good acoustics, and this was general conference. But he had very important things to say. He said, “I make these remarks because I wish the brethren who will speak to you to-day, the Elders who have lately returned, to be heard. . . . Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with hand-carts, and probably many are now 700 miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. . . . That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess, it is to save the people.”[9]

Sister Linda K. Burton, Relief Society General President, talked a little bit about this incident in her own general conference talk in the context of helping refugees.[10] Like her, I admire the powerful words of Brigham Young:

I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain; the preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you.[11]

The things he told them were a call to action. He continued, “I want the sisters to have the privilege of fetching in blankets, skirts, stockings, shoes, &c., for the men, women and children that are in those hand-cart companies.” And indeed, right there in general conference, women took off their petticoats and stockings to donate. I only wish I could be so generous.

Many of us here have been on missions, and I find that the words Brigham Young told the RMs of 1856 still apply to today. Only men were sent on missions in those days, but his words apply to sisters as well:

I request the elders of Israel who have been on missions abroad, also those that are now on missions, to keep the Spirit of their missions, if they have it; do not lay off your gospel armor. Laboring abroad is but a small portion of the good an elder can do.…Our elders have got to take a stand to never follow the crowd, but to walk in the footsteps of their Redeemer. [12]

On my mission, I truly remember loving people that I otherwise would be unlikely to know, much less love. I grew to love addicts, recovering criminals, and all sorts of people who are very different from me. I suspect that was the same with others. We need to find a way to maintain that love for others, both those who are different and those who are the same.

At this conference, Brigham Young said they needed people to go rescue the companies the very next day. If no one would volunteer, they would end the meeting immediately so that the First Presidency could go help. So they took a vote:

“It is moved and seconded that Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M. Grant go back to help the P. E. Fund Emigrants. Unanimously negatived.” Everyone in the audience recognized that it was their own duty to help the Saints, not just the First Presidency's.

“Pres. Kimball called on the blacksmiths in the congregation to retire; as they were wanted to shoe the horses and repair the wagons of those about to start to assist the brethren on the plains.” [13]

I am impressed with the immediacy of this situation. Saving people was more important than their meetings.

I can remember this happening in this very ward nearly five years ago. In December 2011, there was a huge windstorm that came through the area. Trees were toppled all over the place. So the first Sunday in December, they announced that we would not be having Sunday School or priesthood and Relief Society. We would be going out to help clear fallen trees. Now, this was not nearly the same magnitude or seriousness as hundreds of people out in dire conditions on the plains, but it was a modern-day example of putting the gospel into action.

After this incident, Brigham Young chided Franklin D. Richards. Elder Richards had told the Martin Company of the dangers they would face leaving so late, but he let them vote on it, and they all decided to go. Brigham Young told him he should not have let them go, even when they voted on it. Many of the pioneers believed that since they were doing the righteous thing by gathering to Zion, God would save them. But Brigham Young said that faith without works is dead.[14] You can’t make unwise decisions and expect God to save you in them. A little discretion is necessary.[15]

Even though he recognized they had made poor decisions, though, he still insisted that they be helped. It didn’t matter that it was their own fault. It reminds me of King Benjamin’s address in Mosiah 4:

And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
  Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.[16]

We have a responsibility to follow the Savior and help each other. Even when their struggles are their own fault, even when they’re hard to love, even when we may disagree with their decisions. That is true religion. That is what we can learn from our pioneer heritage.

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[1] “Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked,” Children’s Songbook, p. 214.

[2] Perrigrine Sessions, Reminiscences and diaries 1839–1886, vol. 1, 11–13.

[3] See Mary Jane Woodger, “Bitter Sweet: John Taylor’s Introduction of the Sugar Beet Industry in Deseret,” Utah Historical Quarterly 69, no. 3 (Summer 2001): 247–63.

[4] Due to sickness, Walter Thompson didn’t make it past California.

[5] Not an actual quote.

[6] See Reid L. Neilson, ed., “Early Mormon Missionary Work in Hong Kong: The Letters of James Lewis to Apostle and Church Historian George A. Smith, 1853–1855,” Mormon Historical Studies, forthcoming.

[7] See Fred E. Woods, A Gamble in the Desert: The Mormon Mission in Las Vegas (1855–1857) (Salt Lake City: Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, 2005).

[8] Thomas S. Monson, “True to the Faith of Our Forefathers,” Ensign 46, no. 7 (July 2016): 4.

[9] Brigham Young, “Remarks,” Deseret News, Oct. 15, 1856, 252.

[10] Linda K. Burton, “I Was a Stranger,” Ensign 46, no. 5 (May 2016): 13–15.

[11] Young, “Remarks,” 252.

[12] Brigham Young, “Remarks,” Deseret News, Oct. 15, 1856, 256.

[13] “Minutes of the Semi-Annual Conference,” Deseret News, Oct. 15, 1856, 256.

[14] James 2:17.

[15] See Howard A. Christy, “Weather, Disaster, and Responsibility: An Essay on the Willie and Martin Handcart Story,” BYU Studies 37, no. 1 (1997): 6–74.

[16] Mosiah 4:16–18.