Brigham Young’s Wisdom of Choice

BRIGHAM YOUNG'S WISDOM OF CHOICE In the Spring of 1847, Samuel Brannan, who in 1846 sailed from New York to San Francisco with a company of Saints, crossed the Sierras and traveled east, by way of Fort Hall, as far as Green River. Here he met President Brigham Young and the other pioneers, and used every influence in his power to have the Saints settle in California, instead of Salt Lake Valley. President Young, however, could not be changed in his decision that, "This is the Place," notwithstanding Brannan's insistence that the Salt Lake Valley was no place for an agricultural people. It was cold, he declared, every month in the year; the ground was too dry to start the seeds without irrigation, and if irrigated with the cold mountain streams, the seeds planted would be chilled and prevented from growing, or if they did grow, they would be sickly and fail to mature. The Saints could not possibly subsist there. But Brigham Young prevailed, and remained. Brigham Young, the great pioneer of Western America, was born June 1, 1801, in Whittingham, Windham county, Vermont, of purely American stock, dating back many generations. On this one hundred and twenty-sixth anniversary of his birth, it is fitting to r.fer to his faith and steadfastness in the vision of Joseph Smith, where- n the Prophet saw that the Saints would become a great and mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. The late Hon. Joseph A. West called attention in an article on the "Construction of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads," some years ago, to his wisdom of choice, in these words: "Brigham Young claimed not to be a visionary man, for he was practical to the minutest detail in all the affairs of life; yet in his journey to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 he traversed the route of the transcontinental railroad, which was built twenty years later, almost the entire distance, and for the construction of which he and hi9 people petitioned Congress many times and long before it was ever thought of outside of Utah. When Samuel Brannan met him and his pioneer band at Green River and pictured to them the beauties of California, with its broad, fertile plains bedecked with wild flowers and its balmy semi-tropical climate, and contrasted it with the desolate wilder- ness between the mountains just beyond, and the Sierra Nevadas, and tried to induce him to make the Pacific coast the home of hi9 exiled people, he very emphatically declined to do so, but settled in a wilder- ness that has since become a wonderfully fertile state, possessed of a greater variety and quantity of primeval wealth than any state in the Union, despite its limited area. When, in the mountains east, Brig- ham Young first saw the great Salt Lake Valley in all the bleakness of a July day, with the dead sea of America glittering in the shim- mering rays of a hot July sun, he said after a moment's hesitation, as

6 76 IMPROVEMENT -ERA if comparing it with something that he had previously seen, 'This is the place, drive on' ; when, in first walking over the present site of Salt Lake City, he came to a certain spot, he struck his cane to the ground and said, 'Here we will build the Temple of our God,' which temple his people completed at a cost of many millions of dollars, just forty years later, after plans that had been minutely drawn under his direction; when he selected the sites of Salt Lake City and other cities of Utah, and laid them off with their broad streets pointing to the meridan, and their blocks four-square — he manifested a wisdom of choice, plan and purpose so marvelous that one can scarcely think it all done by his unaided mind alone. So also when he obtained a large tract of land west of Ogden City and offered it free to the Union and Central Pacific Railroad companies for depot' purposes, and even broke ground and with appropriate ceremonies dedicated a site thereon for a union depot building, which depot was- built on the site selected twenty-one years later, something more than the wisdom of man must have directed him, great though he was. He attributed it to the inspiration of the Lord, and why should we not believe him?" To Brigham Young He did not see the sunparched stretch Of stunted, dusty, purple sage. He glimpsed a mighty pageant scene, Unfold on that gigantic stage. He -heard a busy city's hum; He saw the mountain torrents brought Dowh to the thirsty, fertile plains — The whole wide vale a garden spot. He stood through all adversity Unwavering, and the path he trod, By faith and works, led ever up Nearer and nearer to his God. Today his dreams have all come true. A million voices sing his fame. He built an Empire in the west, And Zion ne'er forgets his name. Garber Oklahoma. DOUGLAS DAVIS.