Kindled

Improvement Era Vol. XXIII SEPTEMBER, 1920 No. 11

Sociological Aspects of "Mormonism"

By Levi Edgar Young, M. A., Professor of Western History, University of Utah

Family Life in Early Day Utah Family life in early day Utah was very wholesome. From an economic viewpoint the family was the producer of wealth, and the home was the distributing center for the goods manufactured at the fireside. The people had high regard for the rights of property and of persons. The children of the home were taught self-restraint, obedience to high religious and ethical ideals, and as a rule each individual dedicated his life to the service of others. The family was held together by a common religi- ous idealism, which helped to establish a splendid social unity in villages and scattered communites. There was always a very high regard for marriage and the sacredness of family life. In fact, in the early days, records show very few divorces; in some communities up to 1860 there were none. The family was a distinct group where every person co- operated for the welfare of all. While living was very simple, necessitated, of course, by the new country and the isolation from eastern markets it was nevertheless of a high order. The danger and death faced by the pioneers in their search for free land and homes in this western wilderness gave a human and broad outlook on life. In every community there were problems common to all, such as protection against the In- dians, the getting out of water from the mountains that the soil might be irrigated, and the clearing of the ground of sagebrush and greasewood. All these conditions had to be met bravely; and therefore the people naturally developed an aggressiveness and resourcefulness that made them honest and intense in their purposes. Something of the life of the people in the early days of Utah is described by Eliza R. Snow. She says:

954 IMPROVEMENT ERA Our first winter in the mountains was delightful; the ground froze hut little; our coldest weather was three or four days in November, after which the men plowed and sowed, built houses, etc. The weather seemed to have been particularly ordered to meet our very peculiar circumstances. Every labor, such as cultivating the ground, procuring fuel and timber from the canyons, etc., was a matter of 'experiment. Most of us were houseless; and what the result would have been, had that winter been like the succeeding ones, may well be conjectured. President Young had kindly made arrangements for me to live with his wife, Clara Decker, who came with the pioneers, and was living in a log-house about eighteen feet square, which constituted a portion of the east side of our fort. This hut, like most of those built the first year, was roofed with willows and earth, the roof having but little pitch, the first-comers having adopted the idea that the valley was subject to little if any rain, and our roofs were nearly flat. We suffered no inconvenience from this fact until about the middle of March, when a long storm of snow, sleet and rain occurred, and for several days the sun did not make its appearance. The roof of our dwelling was covered deeper with earth than the adjoining ones, consequently it did not leak so soon, and some of my neighbors huddled in for shelter; but one evening, when several were socially sitting around, the water commenced dripping in one place, and then in another; they dodged it for awhile, but it increased so rapidly that they finally concluded they might as well go to their own wet houses. After they had gone I spread my umbrella over my head and shoulders as I ensconced myself in bed, the lower part of which, not shielded by the umbrella, was wet enough before morning. The earthy overhead was thoroughly saturated, and after it commenced to drip the storm was much worse indoors than out. The small amount of breadstuff brought over the plains was sparingly dealt out; and our beef, made of cows and oxen which had constituted our teams, was, before it had time to fatten on the dry mountain grass, very inferior. Those to whom it yielded sufficient fat to grease their griddles, were considered particularly fortunate. But we were happy in the rich blessings of peace which, in the spirit of brotherly and sisterly union, we mutually enjoyed in our wild mountain home.

The pioneer homes, dotting the desolate tracts of the Far West, where very often the drifting sands covered the newly tilled fields, became the great factors in subduing the wilderness and transforming the primitive land into beautiful private gardens. While the colonists of these Western valleys were kept busy with the tasks of overcoming obstacles they were not unmindful of the fact that isolation from the world produces a static condition. They therefore built roads and bridges to other communities and the road from Salt Lake City to any neighboring village was always a great factor in adding new varieties of life to the pioneer who had gone into the wilderness to settle. The first law passed by the first legislative assembly of the provisional government of the State of Deseret in 1850 was for the maintenance of roads and bridges, and in 1851, the Legislative assembly of the newly organized territory of Utah petitioned Congress for a transcontinental railroad. From every town and village good roads were built, for the people