History Commons^™

How The Defiance Of The Mormon People Was Expressed By The Attitudes Of Federal Officials In Utah, Preston Hammerschmidt

Student Scholarship

The second half of the 1800s was one of the most important eras in all of American history. It is filled with bloodshed, great political movement, heroic actions, and sorrow. The Civil War was fought due to many factors including the ending of slavery and states’ rights. The Republican Party of 1856 ran on the ending of the "Twin Relics of Barbarianism." These relics are the issues of slavery and polygamy. The party looked to push a more radical agenda and end both of these "relics." The question of polygamy in the late 1800s parallels the issue of slavery in …

Women's Suffrage: Voting Rights In Cache County, Utah 1870-1965, Chloe Miller

Research

This project focuses on notable women of Cache Valley and their relationships to the woman's suffrage movement at the end of the nineteenth century. It also contains a brief history of Utah's relationship to woman's suffrage and how it changed over time; historic sites in Logan pertaining to the movement; and a general timeline of the major events both in the nation's and in Utah's suffrage history.

Pardon For Murder: Jared Dalton, The "Assassin Of Old Mother Parker", Rebecca A. Wiederhold

Faculty Publications

View the video presentation here: https://youtu.be/soJlvXhvvDA?t=3032

On her fateful 63rd birthday in April 1880, Mary Parker was lured to the outskirts of the small southern Utah town of Rockville, where she falsely expected to reunite with a disgraced son. There, she was “outraged” and murdered, her throat slit and her body left under a pile of rocks. Mary Parker’s tragic story was once a sensational news item that shocked the rural community and was indignantly reported and followed throughout the state. Her presumed murderer was swiftly identified as Jared Dalton, the twenty-two-year-old son of a Latter-day Saint polygamist and his …

Captain Medorem Crawford’S 1862 Military Escort Emigration Report, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

An 1862 report of Capt. Medorem Crawford, U.S. Army, Assistant Quartermaster. An account of a military-accompanied emigrant road expedition from Omaha, Nebraska Territory to Portland, Oregon. Includes insights into Civil War conditions on the Overland Trail.

Johnson Family - Letters To (Sc 3219), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3219. Letters to Speed and Pernie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tennessee, from various Mormon elders. They write of their missionary activities, primarily in east Tennessee, express faith in their work and that of the Johnsons, and comment on the hardships of the Depression. One of them dismisses a claim that the “blue eagle” symbol of the National Recovery Administration is a sign of the Antichrist. Also includes childhood letters from the Johnsons’ daughter and a photograph of Speed and Pernie Johnson.

Opera And Its Voices In Utah, Walter B. Rudolph

Arrington Annual Lecture

The annual lecture honors Arrington, whose papers were donated to Utah State University’s Special Collections and Archives, a division in USU’s University Libraries. Part of the gift agreement was to offer an annual lecture on some facet of Mormon history.

“Opera initially did not cross the plains with the Mormon pioneers, nor did classical music,” Rudolph said. “But singing was a very important part of the pioneer heritage and everyday lives.”

Rudolph earned a bachelor’s in music and a master’s in musicology from Brigham Young University. He started a career in performance and teaching in the mid-1970s before turning to …

Supplanting The Saloon Evil And Other Loafing Habits: Utah’S Library-Gymnasium Movement, 1907-1912., Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

In 1907, the Utah State Legislature created the Library-Gymnasium Commission; by 1909, 8 cities had approved a tax, with 18 others in the preliminary stages. The movement was intended to counteract delinquency among young unemployed males on the theory that they would be attracted to the gymnasium and eventually the library, where they would be influenced by the moral and socially improving materials found there. However, none of the cities ever built a structure to house both a library and gymnasium. The commission was abolished in 1911. Factors that played a role in the movement’s trajectory are the social construction …

“The Frontier Thesis In Transnational Migration: The U.S. West In The Making Of Italy Abroad,” In Immigrants In The Far West: Historical Identities And Experiences, Edited By Jessie L. Embry And Brian Q. Cannon (Salt Lake City: University Of Utah Press, 2014), 363-381., Mark I. Choate

Faculty Publications

In 1879, a young postal worker in the small town of Lendinara, Italy, decided to emigrate. Adolfo Rossi, twenty-two years old, was discouraged with his prospects in his small town near Venice. Adolfo lived at home with his mother in the heavily populated Polesine valley. Although he had a steady job, he wanted to become a journalist. In Adolfo’s words, while taking a walk along the Adige river one night, a strange idea struck my mind like a bolt of lightning. I reflected only a moment and committed myself to an audacious resolution. “No, I will not stay vegetating here,” …

"The Brave Men, Living And Dead, Who Struggled Here": Utah Veterans And The Gettysburg Reunion Of 1913, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., Ken Nelson

Faculty Publications

Gettysburg was the defining battle of the American Civil War as Union and CSA soldiers clashed in Pennsylvania. This Utah Historical Quarterly article from Summer 2013 explains how Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War, who were living in Utah, traveled to and participated in the 1913 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg (which took place July 1-3, 1863). The article also includes lists of the Utah veterans who attended and additionally notes which veterans participated in the battle of Gettysburg.

On Searching For Iosepa, Lee Bangerter

Library Research Grants

No abstract provided.

Volkerding Family Papers (Mss 385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 385. Letters written chiefly by Herman Frederick Wilhelm Volkerding, of Louisville, Kentucky, to his wife Mary Elizabeth (Hauber) Volkerding while traveling as a salesman for the John T. Barbee distillers. Volkerding pines for home and describes the scenery, hotels, amusements and rail travel in the western United States.

The Lot Smith Company: Utah Goes To War, Joseph Stuart, Kenneth Alford

Library Research Grants

The authors take a close look at the cavalry unit that was called to military service on April 28, 1862, at President Lincoln’s request. Their ninety-day period of service was the only unit-level active duty military contribution Utah Territory made during the Civil War. This paper was later published as a book chapter from "Civil War Saints" (2012, published by the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center and the Deseret Book Company) and can be accessed here.

We Know No North, No South, No East, No West: Mormon Interpretations Of The Civil War, 1861-1865, Richard Bennett

Faculty Publications

While peace reigns in Utah, civil war, with all its horrors, prevails among those who earnestly desired to see the soil of these valleys crimsoned with the blood of the Saints, and, if we are mistaken in the signs of the times, before the conflict between the North and South shall have ended, all they unitedly desired to see meted out to the Mormons, will be poured out without measure upon those who have initiated the war of extermination, and are now carrying it on with all the energy they severally possess. So read the lead editorial in the Salt …

She Speaks As One Having Authority”: Mary E. Downey’S Use Of Libraries As A Means To Public Power, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Polygamy And The Public Library: The Establishment Of Public Libraries In Utah Before 1910., Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"The Hardest Worked River In The World": The 1962 Bear River Project, Utah And Idaho, Robert Parson

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Arising on the north slope of the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah, Bear River travels five hundred miles through three states and ten counties in Utah,Wyoming, and Idaho.The river’s route traverses from mountain slopes, through several valleys, deep canyons and gorges before terminating at the Great Salt Lake, only ninety miles from where it begins.This unique geological and geographical mix, as well as interstate politics have complicated efforts to fully harness its waters.

A Time For Change : Improving Salt Lake City, 1890-1925, J. Michael Hunter

Faculty Publications

Although visitors to Salt Lake City during its earliest years described the valley as a place of order and beauty, by the 1880s the city had become dirty, polluted, and unsanitary. This article details the efforts at improvement beginning in the 1880s, including the installation of water and sewer systems, public transportation, electricity, paved streets, and the beautification of parks and playgrounds.

From Mules To Trax : A Brief History Of Salt Lake City's Mass Transit, J. Michael Hunter

Faculty Publications

The history of the mass-transit system in Salt Lake City is reviewed, and the system is compared to those in other cities, such as Chicago and New York. The advantages and disadvantages of animal-transit systems, electric street cars, buses, and light rail systems are discussed.

Bernard Devoto's ‘Utah’, Davis Rich Lewis

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Saints And Sinners: Utah's Past And Present, Davis Rich Lewis

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A New Town In The Valley: The Centennial History Of Newton, Utah 1869-1969, Larry D. Christiansen

History Student Research

In 1969 Newton celebrates its centennial and in commemoration of its first hundred years this history is intended. This work salutes the citizens of this small Mormon town, past and present, for their accomplishments.

The author has tried, to the best of his ability, to use contemporary accounts as the foundation for this history, and using secondary works to supplement the information found in primary works or to fill gaps when no other information was available. The author is aware of contradictions between this work and the diverse accounts written by other townspeople. Some of the contradictions are covered in …

Chronology, Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, 1976-1985, United States Department Of Defense, Air Force Department

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

Chronologies have a very special place in written history--they present a sequential record or chronicle of events, without attempting to interpret their significance. They are an important reference tool for historians providing the correlation and give meaning to the events that have taken place in any given period of history. This is the seventh in a series of Chronologies pertaining to major events concerning the Ogden Air Logistics Center and its predecessors. A convenience summary for interested readers and researchers, it was extracted to some degree from the annual official Ogden ALC Histories which are classified. This unclassified publication will …

Thomas Moran In Utah, Gaell Lindstrom

Faculty Honor Lectures

On July 9, 1873, Thomas Moran wrote to his wife Mary from Salt Lake City: "In the afternoon Powell and I went to Brigham Young's house and I was introduced to all the leading Mormons. There was Brig[ham] Young. Geo. A. Smith second man in power. Bishop Nusser [Musser]. Bishop Cannon. The editor of the Mormon paper and delegate to Congress. Bishop Hooper and some other Mormon high priests. They are very much like the rest of mankind and all smart fellows."l Moran came to Salt Lake via the Union Pacific Railroad to meet John Wesley Powell of Colorado River …

Orphaned By Black Hawk's Warriors, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

William D. Kuhre was orphaned at a young age and grew up having few recollections of his parents. William's parents had joined the Mormon Church and moved to the small town of Ephraim, Utah in 1862. War broke out with the Ute Indians in 1865, after several years of increasingly hostile interactions. While the town of Ephraim was protected by a large stone wall, families had to leave the protection to collect firewood and harvest crops. One unfortunate day, while William’s parents were gathering potatoes outside the city wall, a band of Black Hawk’s men arrived and killed them, leaving …

The Pony Express Stations Of Utah In Historical Perspective, Richard E. Fike, John W. Headley

Elusive Documents

No abstract provided.

The Massacre In Thistle Valley, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

War broke out between the white settlers of Utah and the Ute Indians in 1865. Before the whites could gather for better defense, the Ute Indians struck a house made of willows in 1865. All six members of the Given family were killed, and they were all buried in a the same wagon box in the Fairview, Utah, Cemetery.

The Price Of Prejudice, Leonard J. Arrington

Faculty Honor Lectures

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7,1941, about 127,000 persons of Japanese descent were living in the United States, of whom more than 112,000 were on the Pacific Coast. These could be conveniently divided into three groups: the Issei or immigrants born in Japan; the Nisei or American-born, American-educated children of the Issei;' and the Kibei, who were born in America but received some of their education in Japan.

Permanently excluded from becoming American citizens by United States law, and seriously limited in their ability to acquire agricultural and residential property by alien land laws, the 40,000 Issei had …

Zion In Paradise, S. George Ellsworth

Faculty Honor Lectures

EVERYONE KNOWS something about the Mormon struggle for a place on the American frontier, and the ultimate settlement in the mountain valleys of Utah in 1847. But on the underside of the world at the same time there was being enacted on volcanic islands and coral reefed atolls of the South Seas another part of the Mormon epic, an epic itself, heroic and enduring, unheralded and unsung, of ardent missionaries dedicated to a prophetic religion's inherent commitment to the idea of universal conversion. From most humble and precarious beginnings the first truly foreign mission of the Mormons spread its influence …

Press Bulletin, Vol. Vii, No. 8, 1942, Kaz Oka

Japanese American WWII Incarceration Camp newspapers

Poston Relocation Center covers civic leaders, W.R.A policy, FBI cooperation, lost and found, classified ads, scouting problems, occupational group, memberships, government courses, obituary, trust fund forum, community council, sports score results, Y.B.A officers elected, classified ad, musicians needed, clubs, and project policy.

Press Bulletin, Vol. Vi, No. 29, 1942, Susumu Matsumoto

Japanese American WWII Incarceration Camp newspapers

Poston Relocation Center newspaper covers Industrial training, Red Cross chapter, birth notices, new classes, religious service notices and news, Sunday services, library donations, employment advertisement, meetings, school discussions, health education, Christmas community plans, sport score results, and a letter to the community.