A
few Latter-day Saint historians suggest that because the beehive is prominent
in the Third Degree of Freemasonry. Freemasonry introduced Brigham to the
symbol (7). According to Masonic scholar Allen E. Roberts, “The bee . . . works
hard and tirelessly, not for himself, but for the swarm. He has a strength and knowledge
of materials that cannot be duplicated. He works in complete cooperation, and
without dissension, with his fellow bees. He protects the Queen, refuses
admittance to enemies builds, makes honey, and lives in a society ruled by law”
(8). In his attempt to link bees to the activities of Freemasonry, Roberts
writes of the ancient Masonic lodge as a “Hive of Free-Masons.” He calls
dissensions that threaten the hive and attempts to separate and from new lodges
“swarming,” a reference to the pattern of bees and ancient masonry (9). What
historians fail to recognize is that the beehive symbol was introduced and
placed in circulation in Nauvoo over a year before Freemasonry officially entered
town (10).
On
February 27, 1841, Governor Thomas Carlin signed into law “an Act to
Incorporate the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association” (11). The
purpose of the association was to promote agriculture and husbandry and to
manufacture flour, lumber, and other necessary articles. According to the act,
capital stock in the association (a maximum of $100,000) was to be subdivided
into $50 shares. Shares or stock certificates were to be numbered and dated
before being issued. On the fact of each certificate the symbol of the beehive
was to appear (12).
The
Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association made no attempt to mention or
link the beehive to deseret on the certificates. Likewise, published
accounts of meetings and suggestions given for improving agricultural and
manufacturing output in Nauvoo did not reference the word deseret (13).
It was Peter Haws, one of seven principals of the association (14), who kept the beehive symbol in circulation among Latter-day Saints long after the Nauvoo Agricultural Manufacturing Association had become defunct. While camped at Garden Grove in Iowa Territory, Peter embossed on the front side of a brass token dated 1846 on ornate beehive with the slogan “Do Your Duty.” On the obverse side, he embossed clasped hands with the motto “Union Is Strength” (15). His token was circulated in Garden Grove and throughout Pottawattamie County and used as a barter or exchange among Latter0day Saints. As the Nauvoo Agriculture and Manufacturing Association certificates, there was no attempt by Peter Haws to link the beehive symbol to deseret (16). (Susan Easton Black, "The Beehive and Deseret Mormon Symbols in Salt Lake City,” in Salt Lake City: The Place God Prepared, ed. Scott C. Esplin and Kenneth L. Alford [Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History; Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011], 121-22)
Notes for the Above
(7) See H. L. Haywood, Symbolical Masonry (New York: George H. Doran,
1923); Henry W. Coil, A
Comprehensive View of Freemasonry (Richmond, VA: Macoy
Publishing, 1973).
(8) Allen E. Roberts, The Craft and Its Symbols: Opening the Door to Masonic
Symbolism (Richmond, VA: Macoy Publishing, 1974), 74.
(9) Roberts, Craft and Its Symbols, 73.
(10) Freemasonry entered
the town unofficially with Latter-day Saint converts who had been or still were
masons.
(11) History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 4:303. It
should be noted that when the Nauvoo Agricultural and Manufacturing Association
was organized, Brigham was in England. On February 27, 1841, the same date the
act was signed, “President Brigham Young went to Manchester, and preached in
Lombard Street.” History of
the Church, 4:305.
(12) It should be noted
that the beehive was a prominent symbol used in American communities before
being introduced in Nauvoo. The beehive is found on antique clocks made in Connecticut,
cast-iron string holders, ovens built with ash-chutes, and even
seventeenth-century coiffures.
(13) See E. Robinson,
“Special Notice,” Nauvoo
Neighbor, January 10, 1844, 3; “Trades Meeting,” Nauvoo Neighbor, February 5, 1845, 3–4.
(14) Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and
Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants (Provo,
UT: Seventy’s Mission Bookstore, 1981), 260.
(15) There are two
varieties of the token. Variety 1 does not have initials on the obverse side.
Variety 2 has the initials P. H. on the obverse side below the clasped hands.
The P. H. stands for Peter Haws, a private coiner indicted for counterfeiting
United States coins in Nauvoo. There is no clear evidence that the motto “Union
Is Strength” adopted by the second, third, fourth, and fifth wards in Salt Lake
City in 1890 traces its origin to the Peter Haws brass token. See Alvin E.
Rust, Mormon and Utah Coin and Currency (Salt Lake
City: Rust Rare Coin, 1984), 33–35.
(16) The coining of
Peter Haws in Garden Grove was unacceptable to Brigham Young. When Brigham
learned that Peter Haws had a coining press in his wagon on May 12, 1846, he
reproved him: “While I was standing with Prest. Kimball at his tent, an outcry
was heard from Peter Haws’ Camp; . . . Haws had let Williams have some bogus
money on shares. . . . I reproved them for dealing in base coin and told Haws
he could not govern himself, his family, or a company; and unless he repented
and forsook such dishonesty, the hand of the Lord would be against him and all
those who partook of such corruption.” Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 1846–1847, ed. Elden J. Watson (Salt Lake
City: J. Watson, 1971), 158.
