--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Lewis, B. Roland collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 2 published: 1920-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Lewis, B. Roland, "The Pilgrims and the Utah Pioneers," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 2 (December 1920): 95–103.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2402unse 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: improvementera2402unse start_page: 95 end_page: 103 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2402unse publication_year: 1920 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 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Pilgrims and the Utah Pioneers Improvement Era Vol. XXIV DECEMBER, 1920 No. 2 The Pilgrims and the Utah Pioneers By Prof. B. Roland Lewis, Chairman of the State Committee for the Utah- Pilgrim Tercentenary Celebration The Coming of the Pilgrims If you were to journey to Massachusetts today and were to go out on '.he long fish-hook shaped point of land known as Cape Cod, you would find on the low sandy sea shore a little village called Provincetown. In this little village, on November 11, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers, after a most trying voyage of sixty-seven days, first set foot on American soil and thus founded the great American nation of which you and I justly are so proud. Forty days later, on December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims stepped ashore at Plymouth Rock and actually made the first permanent settlement; but Provincetown must ever be granted first claim as the place where the Pilgrims actually first planted foot on this continent. And even the Pilgrims were not the first white folk to step ashore at this point, as many are wont to believe. It was not an entirely unknown land. An early record shows that Thor- vald and his daring crew of Icelanders landed here in 1004. Here it was that he lost his good ship in the treacherous sands of Provincetown; and here it was that, in a savage encounter with the Indians, he was mortally wounded by an arrow. Know- ing that his end was near, he charged his crew to bury him in the place "where we repaired our ship and place a cross at my grave and call the place Cape of the Crosses." Another record shows that Bartholomew Gosnold visited this place on May 15, 1602, (more than eighteen years before the Pilgrims came) ; and, when a cod fish was caught by one of the crew, he named the place Cape Cod. And in 1614 (but six years before the Pilgrims arrived) Captain John Smith, that doughty English- 96 IMPROVEMENT ERA man whose life was saved by Pocahontas when her father, Powhatan, was about to execute him, explored this region. The actual spot on which the Pilgrims first stepped ashore remained unmarked until 1917 when the Research Club of Provincetown erected a small granite slab on which is a bronze tablet bearing the inscription that on this spot the Pilgrims first touched foot on American soil. Today the patriotic citi- zens of Provincetown lay claim that "The Nation Was Founded Here." During the forty days that passed before the Pilgrims made their permanent settlement at Plymouth some few miles away, many interesting things occurred. It was in the little land-locked harbor of Provincetown that the immortal "May- flower Compact" was written and signed in the cabin of the Mayflower. It was here that Perigrine White, the first Eng- lish child born in New England, first saw the light. It was here, also, that Dorothy, the wife of William Bradford (after- wards Governor Bradford) was accidentally drowned in the bay and her remains never recovered. Here, too, they built a small vessel; and Captain Miles Standish marshaled his little valiant army of sixteen men (there were only forty-one adult men in the entire company that numbered but one hun- dred and two souls) that explored the new country and pro- tected the colonists from the savages. Here it was the Pil- grims found a good supply of the purest spring water; and here it was that they appropriated to their own use a secret cache containing a supply of excellent Indian corn. Later, when the Pilgrims were finally settled, they paid the Indians for this corn. Here, then, upon the present site of Provincetown our Pil- grim fathers made their first temporary abode on American soil, had their first encounter with the Indians, first tasted Indian corn, first drank of the delicious, cold spring-water. Moreover, they experienced the joy of the birth of a child in their midst a month after their arrival in Cape Cod bay, and felt the pangs of sorrow at the death of the wife of William Bradford. And above all, here, in the little dingy cabin of the Mayflower, the now world-famed "Compact" was framed and signed, a document upon which the whole idea of dem- ocratic government and free institutions was founded and, as Edward Everett Hale once said, an instrument as import- ant in our national life as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Pilgrim Wonien, too, played their part. In the struggles of the hour, they were not found wanting. They shared the burdens of the new life equally with their male companions. THE PILGRIMS AND THE UTAH PIONEERS 97 They carried water, endured the pangs of suffering from cold and hunger, helped to care for the sick, prepared the scant food, erected temporary shelters from the bleak November storms, and "cleaned the linen of the Mayflower" — the first wash-day in America. Thus the entrance of women into the life of our great country began with arduous toil. And today we rejoice and are exceedingly glad for the priceless inheritance of honest toil! History often speaks of the Pilgrim Fathers, but it is all too seldom that one finds any reference to the Pilgrim mothers. How they must have suffered during that terrible winter in that strange and savage land; how they silently must have longed for home. They were ill clad and ill equipped against the rigors of so severe a climate, and their spirits often must have been cut to the quick. Yet with courage and patience to endure to the uttermost they, like the noble and God-fearing women that they were, by their heroic conduct contributed a legacy to the young women of America equally as significant as that contributed by the Pilgrim Fathers to the young men of America. They estab- lished the faith, devotion, and courage of true motherhood on American soil! The Pilgrim Mother The Pilgrim Father's task was one That lusty manhood joys to find — Adventure toward the setting sun, And irksome custom left behind. What man with red blood in his veins But longs to come on unknown lands, Untrodden forests, trackless plains, And build new empires with his hands? His task was joy. But what of her Whose feet were made of gentler ways — Whose pulses only fear could stir Of lonely nights and savage days? The Pilgrim Father's heart was thrilled With High Adventure's wine and flame; The Pilgrim Mother's heart was chilled With grim foreboding — but she came! Rear ye the nobler monument To her whose simple faith sufficed For martyrdom — who was content To give up all and follow Christ! — Edwin Meade Robinson 98 IMPROVEMENT ERA The "Mayflower" Compact "If I were to have my way in celebrating the Pilgrim Ter- centenary," said Elihu Root, "I would place into the hands of every boy and girl in America a copy of the 'Mayflower Com- pact' and then require that it be committed to memory." A statement like this, coming from the source that it does, causes us to halt and ponder. We are impelled to want to know who the Pilgrims were and what ideals and institutions they ex- pressed in the world-renowned "Compact" that so significant a statement should be made concerning it. In 1608, twelve years before the Pilgrims landed on Amer- ican soil, they joined their common interests and left Eng- land to live in Ley den, Holland, where Jan Van Hout, the Dutch burgomeister, signed the official permission for the Pilgrim Fath- ers to reside. The Pilgrims were impelled to leave England be- cause of what to them was the high-hand tyranny of King James I, particularly in his regulations and directions in religious mat- ters. Those stern old fathers, steeped in the faith and prin- ciples of their sires, could brook no arbitrary mandates or re- strictions concerning those things that, to them, were their own personal concern and their own individual right by natural in- heritance. Freedom of individual religious conviction and prac- tice was theirs by natural right; and no man, not even a king or a government, could deny or abridge that right. To them governments were instituted not to give rights that were already theirs by nature, but to protect and safeguard those rights for the individual and for the common good. The Pilgrim Fathers were sober and stern to the last degree. They took life seriously. More than ten centuries of Anglo- Saxon blood and of Anglo-Saxon ideals and institutions flowed in their veins and functioned in their daily conduct. They had inherited the traditions of their race. Above all they could not countenance any superimposed authority except that of their own setting up; nor could they brook any restrictions of the individual independence at the expense of others. In a word the three fundamental precepts of the Anglo-Saxons were ( 1 ) a deep sense of fair play or the sanctity of individual right, (2) an abiding sense of the common good, and (3) absolute obe- dience to law once they themselves had instituted that law. On these three points the Pilgrims had the uncompromising convictions of their forefathers. Authority they were eager to obey, but it had to be of their own delegating ; laws they rigidly observed, but they had to be of their own making. Every man, whatever his breeding or social prestige, voiced himself in the councils of the group and whatever was done was always done THE PILGRIMS AND THE UTAH PIONEERS 99 for the common good. They were democratic with a firmness that was born of the deepest conviction. It is not to be wondered at, then, that when James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England in 1603, began to ad- vocate the idea of Divine Right of kings and took measures to prescribe in matters of religious belief and observations, that those serious-minded and democratic Pilgrim Fathers felt that their most sacred institutions were being encroached upon. It was not so much that they did not believe in the precepts and ideas promulgated by James I, it was not so much that they did not observe the rites of the Church of England as James I ordered, but it was because the king insisted upon superimpos- ing his authority in religious matters that the Pilgrims were im- pelled to quit their much-loved England. With characteristic Anglo-Saxon firmness and sobriety they would not endure any superimposed authority that had not been of their own choice and will. "The actual difference between the Pilgrims and the Pu- ritans was that the Pilgrims were Separatists and sought the New World in order to have freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, while the Puritans desired no separation from the church itself only from the abuses of the church, and sought only to reform it. The Pilgrims were the first advocates of freedom of conscience and believed in a free religion as an act of obedience to God only." Holland, in many ways, was a most excellent place in which to make a livelihood; but the Pilgrims, after twelve years of residence there, were losing their identity among the Dutch in- habitants. They were English; and English they wished to re- main. They were losing their nationality, and sooner or later they would lose their fundamental ideals and institutions. Their children were learning Dutch ways, marrying into Dutch fam- ilies, learning to use the Dutch language instead of using their native English. Nothing daunted, under the leadership of William Brewster they left Holland by the way of Delfshaven and passed over to Plymouth, England, from which place, after some delay, in September, 1620, they set sail for the New World. It is to be noted that not all of the one hundred and two souls that sailed were Pilgrims; a number of them were rough and hardened sailors from Plymouth and London whom the Pilgrims had hired to bring over the Mayflower. It is also to be kept in mind that their charter was from the London- Virginia Company and that their intended landing place in the New World was on the Deleware river, then a part of Virginia territory that had been settled at Jamestown thirteen years be- MM) IMPROVEMENT ERA lore. After a very rough voyage of sixty-seven days, and after adverse November winds that had blown them northward far out of their course, the little band found themselves off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620. Because they had landed far north beyond the Virginia territory, some of the sailors and others who had become dis- gruntled, insisted that their charter no longer functioned as their governing authority. There was dissent, questioning of authority, secret planning to seize the Mayflower and escape, leaving the Pilgrims to the perils of a savage and unknown land. Some wished to return to England, others to Virginia; others hoped to reach Guiana. The more sturdy Pilgrims de- sired to land and make a settlement. In the midst of these cross-purposes and secret connivings that threatened to disrupt the little band, it was finally decided to submit an agreement as the basis of their future government. And it was in this way that aboard the Mayflower in Province- town Harbor the immortal "Mayflower Compact" came into ex- istence on November 11, 1620. Here follows both the "Com- pact" and the names of the forty-one adults who signed it : The "Mayflower" Compact "In the name of God. Amen. We, whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereigno Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, have undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia; doe, by these presents, solemnly and mutually; in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and com- bine ourselves together into a civill body politick, for our better order- ing and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just and equall laws, ordi- nances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the general good of the Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd the 11th of November, in the year of the raigne of our sovereigne lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scottland the fiftie-fourth, Anno. Dom. 1620." Steve Hopkins, Degony Priest Edward Tilly, John Tilly, Francis Cook, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Tinker, John Rigdale, Edward Fuller, Richard Clarke, Francis Eaton, James Chilton, John Crackston, John Ft i 1 1 in lit on. John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, Isaac Allerton, Miles Standish, John Alden, John Turner, Samuel Fuller, Christopher Martin, William Mullins, William White, Richard Warren, John Howland, Moses Fletcher, John Goodman, Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow, Edward Margeson, Peter Brown, Richard Britterage, George Soule, Richard Gardiner, John Allerton, Edward Dotey, Thomas English, .' Edward Liester, THE PILGRIMS AND THE UTAH PIONEERS 101 If you will read this compact carefully, you will be im- pressed with the fact that the three important principles in it are the very identical three precepts devotion to which had impelled the Pilgrims to leave England for Holland. In this document are the very same ideals and institutions that have always been so fundamental in all Anglo-Saxon and Pilgrim life. It is to be noted that in the first place they were to enter into a "covenant" in which they "combined themselves together into a civill body politick." Under such a covenant the rough and untutored member of the group was to have as much right and voice in affairs as did the educated and cultured John Carver, the governor. Here we may see the Anglo-Saxon sense of fair play. In the second place, it is to be noted that they "from time to time" were to "frame such just and equall laws * * * as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the general good of the Colonic" Here is the Anglo-Saxon con- cern for the common good. And in the third place, laws once made, they "promise all due submission and obedience." And here is the Anglo-Saxon sense of obedience to whatever by common consent they set up to be the laws and precepts of the land. Thus in the "Mayflower Compact," really the first written form of a free constitution of a free and liberty-loving people, were established on Afcnercan soil those very same Anglo-Saxon ideals and institutions that for more than ten centuries had been the great underlying motives of our mother country, England. And it is to those doughty Pilgrim Fathers of 1620 that our modern American life owes its liberties and its free institu- tions! The Landing of the Pilgrims The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods, against a stormy sky, Their giant branches tossed: And the heavy night hung dark The hills and water o'er, When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. Not as the conqueror comes, They, the true-hearted, came, Not with the roll of the stirring drums, And the trumpet that sings of fame; Not as the flying come, In silence and in fear, — ]02 IMPROVEMENT ERA They shook the depths of the desert's gloom, With their hymns of lofty cheer. Amidst the storm they sang, And the stars heard and the sea! And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the anthem of the free. The ocean-eagle soared From his nest hy the white wave's foam, And the rocking pines of the forest roared — This was their welcome home! Thero were men with hoary hair, Amidst that pilgrim-band — Why had they come to wither there Away from their childhood's land? There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by her deep love's truth; There was manhood's brow serenely high, And the fiery heart of youth. What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith's pure shrine! Aye, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod! They have left unstained what there they found — Freedom to worship God ! — Dorothy Felicia Hemans Utah and the Pilgrims Utah heartily welcomes the Pilgrim Tercentenary. The year 1920 is as glorious in our state history as the year 1847 when the pioneers entered great Salt Lake valley. We look upon the year 1920 as a golden opportunity to pay noble tribute to those sturdy Anglo-Saxon Pilgrim forefathers to whom the people of Utah owe so much and to whom they are so closely and so directly linked. Perhaps only the people of Massachusetts can point with greater pride to the Pilgrim Fathers than can the people of this great state. It is a very truth that many of the people of Utah are among the spiritual sons and daughters and real blood descendants of the Pilgrims. Notwithstanding the highly cos- mopolitan nature of the population of Utah today, as varied a8 that of any commonwealth in the land, the back bone of Utah is essentially of the staunchest New England Puritanism in its more wholesome and rigorous sense of morality, recti- THE PILGRIMS AND THE UTAH PIONEERS 103 tude, and justice. We of Utah point with just pride to our in- heritance froin the Pilgrim Fathers. If you will consult the roster of the names of the pioneers who came into the Great Salt Lake Valley, in 1847, and in the years subsequent thereto, you will find therein some of the very same names that are found in the list of passengers who landed at Provincetown and Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the 1620's. The blood of many a Pilgrim, by direct descent, flows in the veins of many a citizen of Utah. In the very commu- nities in which you reside, are persons now living whose an- cestry goes back directly to those doughty New Englanders. And once more read the list of names of the men who signed the "Mayflower Compact" and you will find some of the most prominent family names in the State. Bradford, White, Hopkins, Brown, Soule, Gardiner, Williams, Martin, — not to mention others. And when we think of such prominent family names in our midst as Grant, Snow, Bullen, Crockett, Young, Hatch, Allen, we are reminded at once of their direct blood re- lation to the very best families of early New England. The very life of the people of Utah has its roots deep in the life and traditions of the Pilgrims. Yankee thrift, intelligence, sin- cerity, and common sense are fundamental qualities here. Few of us adequately realize our indebtedness to the Pil- grim Fathers. The very same Anglo-Saxon institutions — the keen sense of fair play, the wholesome and abiding sense of the common good, and the unswerving obedience to law — so effec- tively expressed in the "Mayflower Compact," combined with a love and deep regard for the soil, for the home, for the church, for the state, and for the school — which our forefathers founded in America at Provincetown and Plymouth in 1620, were founded and permanently established in the inter-Rocky Moun- tain district by the doughty pioneers who came to Utah in 1847 and in the years immediately following. The ideals and insti- tutions of the Pilgrims are the ideals and institutions of this great commonwealth of which you and I are so proud. The very civilization that we so firmly believed in, those very lib- erties and free institutions that we so thoroughly enjoy today, the very hopes and aspirations that motivate us to higher and nobler endeavor, are a priceless inheritance to the men and women of Utah direct from our Pilgrim fathers! University of Utah, Department of English