--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, Edward H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 9 published: 1909-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Edward H. Anderson, "How the First Pioneer Day was Celebrated," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 9 (July 1909): 693–695.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1209unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1209unse start_page: 693 end_page: 695 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1209unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # How the First Pioneer Day was Celebrated HOW THE FIRST PIONEER DAY WAS CELEBRATED. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. This is how the first Pioneer Day was celebrated in Salt Lake Valley.* To understand its significance let us first give the inci- dent a local political setting. Let it be remembered that in March, 1849, the people of the Valley had pecitioned Congress to give them an organization of a territorial government for the settlers of the great basin; and had on the twelfth of the same month elected officers for such a gov- ernment, Brigham Young being Governor. Later a numerously signed memorial, asking for a civil government organization, was carried to Washington by Dr. John M. Bernhisel, who also carried a letter of introduction to Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, from Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards. But on July 2 of that year, the General Assembly of the Pro- visional government of the State of Deseret held its first session in Salt Lake City. This body resolved to go one step further and ask for statehood; hence, they prepared and adopted in early July, by joint vote of the Assembly, a new memorial asking Congress to admit Deseret into the Union as a state. This body also elected Almon W. Babbitt a delegate to Congress from the new state of Deseret to convey the memorial and the proposed constitution of the state to Washington. Nothing resulted from these and other efforts for recognition until, on September 9, 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed * An account of the occasion is found in Whitney's History of Utah, Vol. I, pp. 410-12. the act of Congress creating the Territory of Utah. But the denial of the prayer for statehood, and the passage of this act, creating out of a portion of the provisional State of Deseret the Territory of Utah, and the definite news of the action of Congress did not reach the Valley, owing to a lack of mail facilities, until January of the following year. In the meantime the Provisional Government of Deseret held sway and passed many important measures, which were subse- quently reenacted into laws by the Territorial Legislature. While the people were in this anticipating state of mind the cele- bration of Pioneer day was first observed, July 24, 1849, two years after the arrival of the Pioneers. At this time it is clear that the people had uppermost in their minds three important thoughts: Independence Day and the transfer of the Great Salt Lake Valley of region to the United States the year previous by the treaty Guadaloupe Hidalgo; the entrance of the Pioneers into the Valley in 1847; and the hope of being recognized as a State of the Union, a part of the United States. The celebration was held in the historic "Old Bowery," a tempo- square rary building located on the Southeast corner of Tabernacle and built of brush and timber, one hundred by sixty feet in size and enlarged for the occasion by a vast awning. There were music, firing of musketry and artillery, shouts and hurrahs, the unfolding and hoisting on a large liberty pole of an immense national flag made by the "Mormon" women. A great pageant started from the residence of President Young at nine o'clock, under the direction of Lorenzo Snow, with Horace S. Eldredge, Marshal. The pageant consisted in part of a brass band; twelve bishops bearing the ban- ners of their wards; twenty-four young men, more particularly de- scribed later in this article in the statement of Mr. Ballantyne; twenty-four young ladies in white, each carrying a Bible and Book of Mormon, and one, a banner inscribed, "Hail to our Chief;'' Brigham Young and his company of nine prominent men; again twelve bishops; twenty-four "silver-greys" lead by Isaac Morley, one carrying the Stars and Stripes bearing the inscription, "Liberty and Truth." The procession was loudly greeted on the way to the Bowery, where Jedediah M. Grant acted as master of ceremonies. Here the program and the celebration went merrily HOW THE FIRST PIONEER DAY WAS CELEBRATED. 695 on. Among the exercises was this one, as described by Richard Ballantyne, one of the twenty-four young men who took part. Elder Ballantyne, by the way, a pioneer of 1848, in December of that year became the founder of the Latter-day Saints Sunday Schools. He says in a heretofore unpublished account of the cele- bration and concerning his part in the program: "On the 24th of July, 1849, the anniversay of the arrival of the Pioneers, and the first occasion of the celebration of our Inde- pendence, in the great valley of the Great Salt Lake, and on which occasion this territory was declared an independent state, entitled the state of Deseret, I was called upon to present to President Brigham Young the Declaration of Independence and the Consti- tution of the United States. In the following words I made the presentation, on the stand in the presence of the assembled multi- tude: President Brigham Young, Dear Sir: — In behalf of the young men whom, on this occasion, I have the pleasure to represent, and in behalf of the Saints in these valleys, and all true pa- triots, I would beg most respectfully to present you with the Declaration of Inde- pendence and Constitution of the United States, as a pledge of the entire con- fidence we repose in you as our future Governor and defender of our rights. Pray- ing our Heavenly Father that he may long preserve your life to act in this capac- ity, I would beg to present you with those sacred instruments. "This was followed by the people three times cheering, 'Long live the Governor of the State of Deseret.' "On this occasion I also acted as standard bearer to the 24 young men who were draped in white, with white coronets on their heads; each with a white sash on his left shoulder, tied under the right arm, and carrying a sword and sheath in his left hand, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, in his right. These twenty-four young men constituted a portion of President Young's escort. The motto of our standard was, 'The Lion of the Lord.' Then followed the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Erastus Snow; the "Mountain Standard" by the clerk; con- gratulatory address to the aged twenty-four silver greys, who then sang "Ode on Liberty;" music by the band; following which the "Hosannah Shout" was given, just as forty years later it echoed