In September, 1847, we found that the
Pioneers, and others of the Saints that had gone into the Valley shortly after
them, had been hard at work, sowing all the winter, for every waggon had taken
about two bushels of grain, consequently most of the wheat that the crickets
had not harvested on their own account, the inhabitants had, and they had
raised a considerable quantity of vegetables to boot. And, as it is well known,
after we had been in the Valley about a fortnight they prepared a splendid
feast, composed mostly of the fruits of their labour, to which feast all the
Saints and strangers in the Valley were invited.
Such numbers however had arrived in the
Valley that the vegetables raised by our brethren went but a little way, and
after the feast at their expense, it was a rarity to get any vegetables until
the following June, fourteen months from the time we left winter quarters, when
we partook of vegetables raised by ourselves. Our bread also became scarce
before the wheat put in by the Saints generally was ready to harvest. Some
persons lived for three months on their cattle, which they had to kill for
food, and on roots which they dug up. Of course, after a time, our clothes and
farming implements began to wear out, and we had the delightful prospect of
realising the ideas we had entertained at winter quarters, of wearing sheep
skins, &c. Those who had habituated themselves to such luxuries as tea and
coffee, found their stock exhausted, and no chance of getting any more from any
quarter, for the first shop was a thousand miles off, and some began to doubt,
and wonder what would be the issue of all this. There we were, completely shut
out from the world, with scarcely any knowledge of its proceedings, and it
equally ignorant of ours. Our boots, shoes, hats, coats, vests, and material to
make them of, were either fast going or altogether gone through wear. Our
picks, shovels, spades, and other farming implements were also getting used up,
broken, or destroyed. Our waggons were becoming scarce, many had been broken in
the kanyons, and we had no timber suitable for making more, and if there had
been, from where were we to get the iron work necessary for making them, or for
making ploughs, shovels, &c., for cultivating the ground, without which, of
course, food would cease, and starvation ensue. In fact, naturally speaking,
things looked alarming, and just calculated to dry up our hopes, and fill us
with fears. Matters were at this crisis, when one day Elder Heber C. Kimball
stood up in the congregation of the Saints, and prophesied that " in a
short time" we should be able to buy articles of clothing, and utensils,
cheaper in the Valley than we could purchase them in the States. I was present
on the occasion, and, with others there, only hoped the case might be so, for
many of the Saints felt like the man spoken of in the Scriptures, who heard
Elisha prophesy at the time of a hard famine in Samaria, "that before to-
morrow, a measure of fine flour should be sold for a shekel, and two measures
of barley for a shekel." We thought that " if the Lord would make
windows in heaven, then might this thing be," but without an absolute
miracle there seemed no human probability of its fulfilment.
However, Elder Kimball's prophecy was
fulfilled in a few months. In- formation of the great discovery of gold in
California had reached the States, and large companies were formed for the
purpose of supplying the gold diggers with food and clothing, and implements of
every kind for digging, &c. As these companies expected a most tremendous
profit on their goods, no expense or outlay of any kind was spared. Numbers of
substantial waggons were prepared, stored with wholesale quantities of clothing
of every kind; spades, picks, shovels, and chests of carpenters' tools, were
also provided to overflowing, and, to complete the list, tea, coffee, sugar,
flour, fruits, &c., on the same scale. In fact, these persons procured just
the things they would have done, had they been forming companies purposely for
relieving the Saints, and had they determined to do it as handsomely as un-
limited wealth would allow.
When these companies, after crossing the
plains, arrived within a short distance of Salt Lake city, news reached them
that ships had been despatched from many parts of the world, fitted out with
goods for California. This threatened to flood the market. their goods would
not repay the expense of conveyance. Here was a "fix "-the companies
were too far from the States to take their goods back, and they would not pay
to carry them through, and when to this was added the fact, that the companies were
half crazy to leave trading, and turn gold diggers themselves, it will easily
be seen how naturally the difficulty solved itself into the decision which they
actually came to-"Oh here are these Mormons, let us sell the goods to
them." Accordingly they brought them into the Valley, and disposed of them
for just what could be got- provisions, waggons, clothes, tools, almost for the
taking away, at least at half the price for which the goods could have been
purchased in the States.
Many disposed of their waggons, because
the teams gave out, and could not get on any further. Such sold almost all they
had to purchase a mule or a horse to pack through with. Thus were the Saints
amply provided, even to overflowing, with every one of the necessaries and many
of the luxuries of which they had been so destitute, and thus was the
prediction of the servant of the Lord fulfilled. (Benjamin Brown, Testimonies
for the Truth: A Record of Manifestations of the Power of God, Miraculous and Providential,
Witnessed in the Travels and Experience of Benjamin Brown [Liverpool:
S. W. Richards, 1853], 27-28)
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