The following interesting sketch of the Pioneer of Ogden, in the early incidents of his life and family, is from the pen of his grandson, Moroni F. Brown, and for the purpose of biographical strictness, is to be preferred in the early period to a more labored sketch of the historian:
Captain James Brown, the first permanent settler and pioneer of Weber County, Utah, was born fifteen miles from Lexington in Davidson County, North Carolina, on the 30th day of September, 1801, and died in Ogden City, Utah on his birthday in the year 1863, being accordingly on the day of his death sixty-two years old.
He was the son of James Brown Sr., who was born according to the best information available, in Maryland in the year 1758, and who, when quite young served as a soldier during the Revolution, and fought to secure for the colonies of America, freedom and independence; after the war was over, he married Mollie Emberson, a widow whose maiden name was Williams, and who then had two children, a daughter and a son. This widow's former husband, Emberson, had also been a soldier in the army, but he deserted, and for a long time concealed himself in his father's milk-house to avoid being apprehended; but on venturing out into the timber one day, to assist his father in hauling a load of wood, he was taken by four officers who started for head-quarters with him, but on the way they killed their prisoner with swords, and left his body in a mangled condition near a creek by the road-side.
The fruits of this marriage between James Brown and Mollie Williams Emberson was a family of nine children. After Peggy and John (the children which Mollie bore her former husband) come the names of those born in wedlock with James Brown, in the following order: Susan, Jane, Mary, Nancy, Obedience,
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Patsey, William, James and Daniel, of whom, (James, the second to the last, is the subject of this chapter. ) It is not known when James Brown, father of Captain Brown, removed to North Carolina; but the report that he was associated with Andrew Jackson at the time of the Revolution, favors the belief that it was before the war commenced. Jackson having taken a prominent part, when quite a boy, in fighting against the British in North Carolina, was no doubt engaged in battles in which young Brown fought. It is known, however, that after the war was over, he continued to reside in the above named State until his death, which occurred when he was sixty-six years old, in 1824. His occupation had been that of a farmer, and he is represented as having been a very tall, dark-complected man of wonderful anatomical and muscular proportions, and of whom, Alexander Brown of Lynne, Weber County, his grandson, (and son of the late Captain Brown) , is a true type; and when he was summoned by the hand of death it was said of, "If ever good men lived and died upon the earth, grandfather Brown was one of them."
Tradition traces the genealogy of Captain Brown back to his great grandfather who was a Scotchman by the name of Brown, and who was allied in marriage with a woman who was a native of Portugal; they being the grandparents of James Brown who served in the war as already stated. We regret that the source from which to obtain data regarding the ancestors of Captain Brown does not afford more effective information; but his great benevolence, charity toward the poor, virtue and integrity to principle, are index fingers pointing back to a line of noble descent through which many generations of Browns have made advents upon the earth.
During the youthful days of our subject, he was engaged with his brothers in working on his father's farm, the old homestead whereon he first saw the light of day, and in pursuing those studies which later in life fitted him for responsible positions. He was probably the most studious of his father's children, and he early succeeded in acquiring sufficient knowledge to qualify him for the position of school teacher, which occupation he followed at the age of eighteen years. He gradually grew in public favor, and when he became eligible to vote and hold office, he was elected to the office of constable in his
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native county. He was subsequently elected sheriff the same county, which position he filled with honor to himself, and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. The latter office he held until shortly before he removed from his native state.
In 1823, he married Martha Stephens, by whom he became the father of nine children - eight sons and one daughter.
His brother Daniel having gone west in l831, wrote back to his friends a flattering account of his new home. This induced James to remove with his family which consisted of his wife, Martha Stephens, and five children, whose names were: John M. Alexander, Jesse S., Nancy and Daniel, to Brown County, Illinois, where he settled, about twenty-five miles from the home of his brother Daniel in the year 1833. While residing in Brown and Adams counties, Illinois, Martha bore him four other children, whose names were James M., William, Benjamin F. and Moroni.
After locating his family in Illinois, the then western limit of civilization, he returned and spent the summer of 1833, in his native state, for the purpose of adjusting some property matters, which he was unable to accomplish at an earlier date. He returned home in the fall of 1833. After residing two years in Brown County, he removed to Adams County, where he engaged in the business of fanning on a large scale, hauling his produce to market at Quincy, on the Mississippi River. In the last named county he served the people as justice of the peace. By his firm yet sympathetic character, he became very popular in that region, and through his enterprise he was indeed in a fair way of becoming a wealthy man.
He had early in life accepted the Baptist doctrine and was a firm believer in the Holy Bible, having acquired, by diligent study quite a knowledge of its contents; and he frequently addressed the Baptist congregation upon the principles of the gospel; and as teaching the principle of charity toward the poor and needy, a doctrine which is richly diffused throughout the teachings of Christ and His apostles, his precept and example were eminently in accord with each other.
In the spring of 1839, after the Latter-day Saints had been expelled from Missouri and the exiles began to settle in Adams County, Illinois, the principles which that peculiar people taught
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were first declared to him by two Mormon Elders, at a meeting held in Dunkard, in the same county. After the meeting was over he said to the elders whose names were Jacob Foutz and David Evans, "Gentlemen, if that is the doctrine which the Mormons believe in and teach, I want you to come and preach in my house." The invitation was accepted, and an appointment was made for the elders to hold a meeting at Mr. Brown's house, on Sunday, two weeks from that day. With the appointed time, came elders Jacob Foutz and Tarlton Lewis, and held a meeting at the time and place agreed upon, later which Jacob Foutz baptized James Brown and his wife Martha Stephens Brown. This occurred in the early part of June, 1839.
He at once became a zealous laborer in the cause of the Latter-day Saints, under whose banner he continued to sail during the remainder of his natural life; sharing with them in the trials and hardships incident to their expulsion from Nauvoo, and settlement in the valleys of Utah.
After his inception in the Church and doctrine of the Saints, he lost no time in carrying the "glad tidings of great joy," to his brother and sisters who also lived in Illinois, and who shortly afterwards became members of the same Church. Not long after this, he having been ordained an elder, was sent on a mission through Illinois and the adjoining Territories, to preach to the Saints and to collect means from among them, to be used in the construction of the Nauvoo House and Temple. And finding that his business connected with the Church frequently called him to Nauvoo, he resolved to remove there with his family, which he did in the spring of 1842. He had buried his wife Martha in 1840, she having died when her last child Moroni was but a day or two old. Finding himself a widower, with a number of small children to care for, he, not long after the death of his wife, married Susan, a daughter of Jacob Foutz, the man who had converted him to Mormonism. He subsequently went on a mission to the state of Mississippi where he succeeded in allaying much prejudice, and making quite a number of additions to the Church by baptism. After returning home from this mission he removed with his family from Nauvoo to Augusta, Iowa, after which, he went in the spring of 1844, on a mission to his native state,
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North Carolina, where he preached the gospel to his relatives and many others. While on this mission his brother-in-law, Siren Jackson, attempted to take his life.
Ten years had elapsed since James Brown had removed from his native state to the west, and when in 1844, he appeared at the door of Siren Jackson, as a missionary sent to preach Mormonism, "Old Siren," as he was commonly called, became wroth, and with an oath he prefaced a sentence of death upon his would-be-benefactor, and seizing a gun rushed to the door in the act of "ramming" a bullet down, preparatory to carrying the sentence into execution. Siren's wife, Susan (eldest sister of James) was pleased to see her brother who had been absent for ten years, but she had to admonish him to flee from her door, and enraged husband, ere she had time to inquire into his welfare and that of his family. The missionary's retreat was saluted with the report of Siren's rifle, and the whizzing bullet by his head, which had a tendency to wonderfully accelerate speed.
While James Brown was upon this mission the Saints were called to mourn the death of their prophet and patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Shortly after this great event in the annals of Mormon history, James returned to his home in Augusta, and engaged in the business of running a saw and a grist-mill, which were situated on the bank of Skunk River. He expended much time and considerable money in reconstructing his mills in order that he might be able to supply the increasing demands of the settlers for lumber and lath. His flouring mill was a very good one, being built of hardwood; it contained three running stones for the grinding of flour. Thus we find him again applying his enterprise and genius to the accumulation of wealth, at the same time holding himself in readiness to heed any call that might be made of him by the authorities of the Church to which he belonged, the truth of which his after life disclosed.
"All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and their entrances,
And each man in his turn plays many parts."
In the great drama of life which is being evermore enacted by men and women in the world's theatre of realities, and in
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which our subject has taken an important part, we have thus far seen him as an obscure farmer's boy, laboring upon his father's farm, we have seen him as a school teacher; as an officer of the law, as an extensive farmer in Illinois, as a justice of the peace, as a minister of gospel traveling among friends, strangers and enemies, and now we find him a miller, located upon the banks of the Skunk River, in Iowa, on the frontier of civilization. We have yet to behold him as an exile, driven with this people from the haunts of civilized (?) life into the wilderness; as a volunteer to serve his country in the Mexican War; as a captain in he Mormon Battalion, marching at the head of his troops through deserts and over mountains; as a pioneer; as a wanderer across the American Desert from Salt Lake to California; we have yet to behold him pursued by hostile Indians; wandering three days without food on a desert; as a founder of a city; on the Isthmus of Panama, prostrate with yellow fever, while on his way to fulfill a mission to British Guiana, South America; and lastly, as the father of a numerous posterity. And amid all the delightful and horrid scenes that have crowned the many acts of his life, we shall find that he was so well acquainted with his part that it became an easy task for him to perform upon the great - the real stage of nature.
Captain Brown remained at Augusta, Iowa, until the saints were expelled from Nauvoo, when he joined them in their journey toward the Pacific coast. Came as far as Winter Quarters with his family, and temporarily settled. Joined the Battalion, and taking his wife, Mary (Black) Brown, with him (also her son, David) he marches to Pueblo in Command of Company "C," leaving the greater part of his family at Winter Quarters. Remained at Pueblo during the winter of 1845-46, in consequence of many of the soldiers being sick and unable to march.
Came to Salt Lake the summer of 1847, arriving on the 29th of July, five days after the Mormon pioneers, under Brigham Young, entered the valley. He had left his family almost destitute back at Winter Quarters and without any means of support, as his son's John M., Alexander and Jesse S., had also gone in the Battalion, they being the only ones in his family capable of working to any advantage.
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On the 10th day of August, 1847, in company with nine other, Sam Brannan being the guide, he left Salt Lake City bound for San Francisco, California, for the purpose of obtaining from the government paymaster, who was stationed at San Francisco, the money due the volunteers of Company "C" of the Battalion, the total amount thus due the soldiers of Company "C" was $10,000. The journey thither was via Fort Hall, the "sink of the Humboldt," and Lake Donner, thence to San Francisco via Sutter's Fort which was situated six miles from where Sacramento was afterwards built.
This was the first company traveling westward, to view the remains of the celebrated Hastings company who perished at that memorable lake (Donner) the previous winter.
A company of soldiers returning east passed by the lake a few days before Brown's company of ten men arrived there.
The dead bodies of men, women and children were still strewn about the precincts of a few rude huts which had been built by those who thus perished. Jesse S. Brown, who was a member of this small company, gives a most interesting account of this journey, and how the awe stricken travelers gazed upon the horrid scene.
It required about one month to accomplish the journey to San Francisco, and twenty three days to reach Sutter's Fort, which, as above stated, was near the spot where Sacramento was built in after years.
Reached San Francisco about the 10th of September, and after spending two or three days in accomplishing his business with the paymaster, Captain Brown prepared to return to Salt Lake City, and could get but four men to join him in the return trip, among who was his son, Jesse S. Brown. Came to Sutter's Fort, which place the small company left with twenty-three day's provisions - expecting to accomplish the journey from that point in the same length of time that it had required to go from Salt Lake City to Sutter's Fort. The journey, however, required forty-eight days to be accomplished, hence Captain Brown and his company came near starving to death on the way back. They were pursued by twenty-five Indians while on the
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Truckee River. The Indians came upon them on the third day of their pursuit very early in the morning - just as a grayish twilight began to deck the eastern horizon. Samuel Lewis, who was one of Captain Brown's party, had served as picket or guard during that night and when in the dim twilight he beheld the stalwart form of about twenty-five Indian warriors, making rapid strides on foot toward the camp, he gave the signal to his comrades: "Captain, the Indians are upon us!" The Indians evidently expected to attack the camp when the men were all asleep, but the outpost had frustrated their design. By the time that the Indians had approached to within a short distance of the camp it had become broad daylight; Captain Brown advancing toward them, gave signs that they were to halt. The Indians were prompt in obeying the order, but began to make peace-signs, stating that they were "Shoshones," which, of course, was false. This was simply a stratagem of theirs to deceive. The fact of the Shoshones being friendly towards the whites, accounts for this band of warriors claiming to be that tribe. In the meantime Captain Brown, had given orders for his boys to prepare for moving, which they were busily carrying out. Finally at the solicitation of Captain Brown, ten of these redmen advanced to within a few spaces of where the small camp of scared white men were. They (the Indians) indulged in a mumbling conversation with each other as they stood gazing upon the proceedings of Captain Brown and his men, their talk would occasionally develop into a chuckling among themselves, characteristic of such people when they gain a victor over an enemy.
The Indians became very insolent in a few minutes, and even attempted to steal ropes, spurs, provisions, etc., and one young buck attempted to steal a horse right from under the gaze of the men. He jumped on one of the horses and started on a keen gallop toward a clump of brush that grew close by. Captain Brown raised his rifle and was in the act of taking aim at the Indian when his comrades called for him to return. He quickly complied and brought the horse back.
When the boys were ready to proceed on their way Captain Brown gave orders to the Indians to clear the way, and the small company filed out toward their destination, at the same time
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each man had his hand upon the trigger and his gaze centered upon the Indians.
The Indians followed to the first crossing of the Truckee River, where an episode occurred which caused them to abandon their pursuit. Captain Brown gave signs that they were not to cross the river after the five men had landed safe on the opposite bank, they beheld that their pursuers were nearing the first shore. They paused a moment on the brink of the stream, and then, with an air of persistency, waded into the river, and when the whole band were in the middle of the stream, Captain Brown's rifle leveled at the squad of Indians, was followed by one of the number being borne out of the water by his comrades. It was never learned by this party of travelers whether the shot proved fatal or not. Their course thence for about twelve miles extended along the Truckee River (which stream they had occasion to cross several times) after which a desert about forty miles in width was spread out before them. They rode to the edge of this desert, and encamped for breakfast shortly before noon. One of the Indians followed on foot for several miles, evidently with the intention of finding where the party of white men might camp the next night. However, he abandoned the pursuit. After breakfasting at this place, they prepared to launch out into the desert, and when they had packed a large mule with the flour which was to last them on their trip to Salt Lake City, that amiable quadruped took occasion to stampede and scatter the flour for two or three hundred yards through the sage brush. After this the boys had to subsist on boiled wheat until they reached the valley. Leaving their camping place, they traveled the remainder of that day and nearly the whole of the following night, and camped on the desert without water for their animals or themselves; and it was nearly noon the next day before they found water.
They had completely foiled the enemy in thus making along march, and the latter, not having horses or firearms, were unable to cope with even this small number of men who were supplied with both.
Thence they proceeded to the "sink of the Humboldt River," and agreeable with directions which they had received from a
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surviving member of the Hasting company of emigrants, most of which (as before stated) perished at Lake Donner, they left the old Fort Hall Route, and took what was called "Hasting's cutoff." They had been informed that by taking this course they would reach Salt Lake City with at least two hundred miles less travel. This course led them southward across what is known as the "Seventy-five mile Desert."
By the time they reached the Humboldt their provisions had entirely given out, and their horses being considerably reduced in flesh they were unable to travel very fast, and the country had not proven as prolific in game as they had expected. They yet had to encounter their greatest foe. It was this desert of seventy-five miles in width. The weather was getting very cold, and light snow storms had not been infrequent from the time they had left the Humboldt region. This had rendered the country in a condition greatly to impede travel. They had supplied themselves with nothing in which to carry any quantity of water to speak of, and when they came to the desert they simply had to stem the hideous foe by launching out into this stretch of alkali bed with a determination to go through.
Three days were consumed in accomplishing the journey across the desert. They found water the third day about 2 o'clock. Some of the animals had given out, and had been left on the desert. For three days these five men had subsisted on three very lean geese which Jesse had killed the day before the company arrived at the desert; and during that length of time they had no water. One or two members of the party gave out, and were so weak that they had to be assisted on their horses by their emaciated comrades. They arrived in Salt Lake City about the 1st of December, (1847) in an exceedingly broken up condition. This trip had reduced Captain Brown from 200 weight avoirdupois to 150, and the other members of the company proportionately reduced.
Captain Brown had succeeded in procuring the soldier's pay - $10,000 - which he brought with him to Salt Lake City, and distributed among his company. He also brought with him 4 1/2 bushels of wheat and a half bushel of corn, the first grain planted in Weber County.
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During his trip to and from San Francisco, and particularly when danger stared him in the face, Captain Brown took much consolation in reflecting upon the promise of Brigham Young, that "you shall return from California safely."
His family joined him in 1846 from Winter Quarters.
On the 8th day of November, 1847, in Salt Lake City, his wife, Mary (Black) Brown, gave birth to the first white female child born in Salt Lake Valley, which was given the name of Mary Eliza, she is now the wife of W. F. Critchlow, Esq., of Ogden City, Utah, and is the mother of twelve children. He was both by precept and example a strong advocate of the principle of celestial or plural marriage, which doctrine he accepted and entered into even before the Saints were expelled from Nauvoo, and his polygamous relations have resulted in a numerous posterity; nearly 200 surviving souls may be counted, who are the direct descendants of Captain Brown. His own children numbered twenty-four souls.
He went on a mission in company with Elijah Thomas to open up the gospel in British Guiana, South America. Was unable to reach that land in consequence of the feeling that existed against the Mormons. Went to New York and filled a mission in the eastern states where he labored several months. Sailed to New Orleans and assisted in the emigration from England. Brought a company of Saints to the valley in the fall of 1854, having been absent from home two years.
The following extract is taken from a pamphlet entitled "Answers to questions concerning the Rise, Progress and Travels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." page 36:
Elders James Brown and Elijah Thomas, missionaries to British Guiana, shipped from San Diego, California to Panama, thence to Chagres and Aspinwall. From the latter port, unable to ship for British Guiana, they embarked for Jamaica. After conferring with the West India missionaries, they concluded to embark with them for Barbadoes being still unable to ship for the point of their destination. After buying their passages they were not allowed to proceed thither; the prejudice was so great against the elders that the harbor agent or naval officers would not allow them to
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be shipped to any English island. As the only alternative they proceeded to New York with the West India missionaries, where they all landed in February, 1853, and labored in the United States, except Elder Darwin Richardson, who went to England and labored there.
During this mission and while on the Isthmus of Panama he was attacked by the yellow fever, from which he recovered, and agreeable to the promise of Heber C. Kimball, when setting him apart for the mission, he lived to perform great work preaching the gospel to his fellowmen. While on the Isthmus, he and his companion were robbed of their trunks, which left them destitute of clothing and money, as all they had was contained in them; they afterwards recovered the same in accordance with a dream Captain Brown had.
When returning home in charge of the company of Saints, as above stated, he became the victim of another dread disease - the cholera - and he was at one time given up for dead. He survived it, however, and came on to the Valley.
Captain James Brown figured prominently in public matters from the early settlement of Utah by the Mormon Pioneers until his death.
When, on the 26th day of January, 1851, the Weber Stake of Zion was organized with Lorin Farr as president, the Weber Branch which had previously been organized was given the name of Ogden, and was divided into two wards, known as First and Second Wards. James Brown was chosen as first counselor to Bishop Isaac Clark of the First Ward. This was the first ecclesiastical organization effected in Ogden City.
Grandfather Daniel Rawson was Justice of the Peace and District President in 1849 until it was divided into two wards.
The Territorial legislature, of which Captain Brown was member (of the House), on the 6th day of February, 1851, passed an act incorporating Ogden City, and on the 23rd day of October, 1852, the first municipal election was held, at which our subject was elected as a member of the city council.
He was the first magistrate elected for the Weber River precinct, and with David B. Dillie and James G. Browning he
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represented Weber County as a member of the House at the first session of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah, which convened on the 22nd day of September, 1851. In the fall of 1854, after returning from the east, the people of Weber County again chose him to represent them in the legislature, which position he filled with his usual earnestness and to the satisfaction of his constituents.
He entertained the utmost contempt for men who would stoop to acts of lawlessness; and probably few men have lived who despised a liar more than he.
To follow him through all his business, social and public affairs would require more space than would be proper to devote to him in this work; we therefore conclude by briefly stating the facts connected with his death.
When on the 25th day of September, 1863, he was operating a molasses mill near Weber River, just west of where the rail-road depot is now situated, in Ogden City, he met with an accident which five days later resulted in his death. He was in the act of feeding the machine when the cogs of the same, being in motion, caught the sleeve of his garment, and the latter, being of an exceedingly strong texture, drew his arm into the cogs. As soon as he could recover his balance he made a tremendous surge which drew from the mill his arm in a lacerated condition, the muscles being literally tom off. He was taken to his home where he had summoned around his bedside his numerous family.
He seemed confident from the first that his work was finished on earth; and in his wounded condition he directed the distribution of his property among his wives and children, and the justice of his will has not left room for a demurrer by any of his numerous posterity. On the 28th day of the same month, while conversing with his son, he said, "Johnny, if I live until the day after tomorrow, I will be sixty-two years old; and I guess that I'll just about make it."
And his premonitions were correct, for on that day, after having suffered intensely for five days, he closed his eyes in death.
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And as was said of his father may also be said of him: "If ever good men lived and died upon the earth, Grandfather Brown was one of them."
Being a man of an exceedingly strong constitution and endowed with strong will-power and great executive ability, Captain James Brown was eminently fitted for the work of pioneering and building up a new country like Utah was forty years ago, and his labors in that direction have erected a more durable monument than it is possible for pen to do. And it is but a duty of homage due him that actuates the writer in attempting this to perpetuate his name.
Here closes the sketch of Captain James Brown as written by his grandson to which we supplement the following of him as the pioneer of Ogden City and Weber County.
The record of the entrance of Captain James Brown into the valley with his detachment of the Battalion is recorded in Wilford Woodruff's history of the pioneers. In his notes of July 27th, he says:
Amasa Lyman came into camp, and informed us that Captain Brown's detachment of the Mormon Battalion would be with us in about two days.
We again started on our exploring expedition. All the members of the Quorum of the Twelve belonging to the pioneers, eight in number, were of the company. Six others of the brethren, including Brannan of San Francisco, were with us.
On the 29th, President Young, with a number of brethren mounted and started to meet the Battalion detachment, under the command of Captain James Brown.
We met some of them about four miles from camp, and soon after met Captain Brown and Higgins, Lieutenant Willis and the company. There were one hundred and forty of the Battalion and a company of about one hundred of the Mississippi Saints, who came with them from Pueblo. They had with them sixty wagons, one hundred horses, and three hundred head of cattle, which greatly added to our strength.
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In his notes of the return of the Pioneers to Winter Quarters, Historian Woodruff says:
On the morning of the 26th of August, 1847, the Pioneers with most of the returning members of the Mormon Battalion, harnessed their horses and bade farewell to the brethren who were to tarry. The soldiers were very anxious to meet their wives again, whom they had left by the wayside for their service in the war with Mexico. These being, too, the "young men of Israel," had left many newly - wedded wives; and not a few of those young men were fathers of first-born babes whom they had not yet seen.
After the departure of President Young and the majority of the Pioneers and the Battalion detachment, Captain Brown started from the Valley for San Francisco to collect from the Government the pay to the men of his detachment, he having been so instructed by President Young, and furnished with powers of attorney from the men to collect for them.
The company that left the Valley consisted of Captain Brown and nine others - namely, "Sam" Brannan, Gilbert Hunt, John Fowler, Abner Blackburn, William Gribble, Lisander Woodworth, Henry Frank and Jesse S. Brown, third son of Captain Brown.
Relative to this company and their meeting of Governor Mason, who succeeded General Kearney as Military Governor of California, Bancroft in his history of California says:
On September 5th the Mormons were at the scene of the Donner disaster, where many fragments of human bodies were lying unburied. Next day they met Samuel Brannan returning from a visit to the eastern Saints. He announced the arrival of the advance party of immigrants in Salt Lake Valley, but gave a gloomy picture of prospects there, and advised all, except those whose families had reached Salt Lake, to turn back and work till spring, when very likely the Church would be tired of the dreary desert and come to California. Presently, after Brannan's departure, Captain James Brown, originally of the battalion, was met with letters for many, and an epistle from the twelve apostles, advising those of small means to remain in California through
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the winter. About half of the men followed the counsel, returning at once to New Helvetica, where they were hired by Sutter to work on his millrace.
In his report of October 7th, Governor Mason, Cal. and N. Mex., Mess. and Doc., 1850, p. 355, writes:
When on my way up to San Francisco, I was overtaken by Captain Brown of the Mormon Battalion, who had arrived from Fort Hall, where he had left his detachment of the battalion to come to California to report to me in person. He brought a muster-roll of his detachment, with a power of attorney from all its members to draw their pay; and as the battalion itself had been discharged on the 16th day of July, Paymaster Rich paid to Captain Brown the money due the detachment up to that date, according to the rank they bore upon the muster-rolls upon which the battalion had been mustered out of service. Captain Brown started immediately for Fort Hall, at which place and in the valley of Bear River he said the whole Mormon emigration intended to pass the winter. He reported that he had met Captain Hunt, late of the Mormon Battalion, who was on his way to meet the emigrants and bring into the country this winter, if possible, a battalion, according to the terms offered in my letter to him of the 16th of August, a copy of which you will find among the military correspondence of the department.
Captain Brown and his companions arrived at the valley of the Great Salt Lake on the 15th of December, 1847, and found the building of the Fort commenced by the pioneers previous to their return to Winter Quarters, considerably advanced, during his absence in California collecting pay for his detachment.
Hearing that Miles Goodyear had a desirable place on the Weber River to sell - namely, all those lands which he claimed upon his Mexican grant, Captain Brown went up to Weber in the latter part of December to see the claim and negotiated with Goodyear with the purpose of founding a settlement. He was accompanied by Amasa Lyman, Jedediah M. Grant and others to view this important situation for the planting of new settlements, and to advise with him relative to its purchase.
Having bargained for the Goodyear lands and improvements of the Weber County, Captain James Brown sent up his sons,
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Jesse and Alexander, and also a brother pioneer by the name of Datus Ensign, to take care of the place and stock previous to his commencement to found the projected settlement on the Weber River, in the spring of 1848. They came up before the close of the year 1847, immediately after the return of Captain Brown to Salt Lake City, who, with Amasa Lyman and Jedediah M. Grant, undoubtedly reported the prospects for northern settlements to the high council left in charge of the parent colony, presided over by Father John Smith, General Charles C. Rich, and John Young, brother of President Young.
For strict fidelity to the history as well as for the understanding of readers of later times, it will here be proper to suggest that this Goodyear purchase was probably made and also as likely projected under the counsel and direction of the authorities of the Church, which had been appointed by the Pioneer band, previous to their return to Winter Quarters.
Jesse Brown, third son of Captain James Brown, states that his father was instructed by President Young to make the Goodyear purchase. Without recording this note as an historical certainty, it seems consistent and according to well-known general facts. That Captain Brown was sent by President Young to San Francisco to collect the pay due to his detachment of the Battalion soldiers, we may be quite sure, for otherwise, though he was their immediate commanding officer Captain Brown never would have carried with him a power of attorney from each member of his detachment to collect their pay as a body. In a previous case, when the men enlisted, agents were sent by President Young, as leader of the community, from Winter Quarters to Washington, to collect the first installment of the Battalion pay; not only to supply the wants of the families of the enlisted men, but also to aid the leaders in the removal of the community from Winter Quarters to the Rocky Mountains. Captain James Brown, no doubt was sent on a similar mission - as an agent of the Church, as well as of the men whose pay he was authorized to collect by his power of attorney.
Captain Brown received from Paymaster Rich $10,000 in Spanish doubloons. This money he brought with him to the Valley to payoff the men of his detachment.
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With the gold brought from California Captain Brown purchased the Goodyear lands; and this statement does not imply that it was paid from a joint stock fund of the soldiers, but rather from his own proportion and accumulations while in the service and in probable business gains on his recent trip.
The money thus brought into the country during absence of the Pioneers, gives an evident reason of the commencement of the colonization in the north, on the Weber River, a year before it began in the south with the Provo colony. It was the money obtained by Captain Brown, that enabled him to make the purchase in question, and hence to start a colony in the North, which further strengthens the historian's opinion that it was a part of the colonizing plan of President Young given to Captain Brown when he sent him to California to collect the Battalion pay.
At this point may be also emphasized the fact that the Goodyear claim consisted of something more than unoccupied lands. There was a fort and farm stock, which furnished a very fair and sufficient start for a regular settlement of the Mormon colonists who had just arrived in the Valley, while in the south there was nothing of the kind, nor had the settlement, out of which grew Salt Lake City, so much as a Goodyear fort and stock to commence upon. So far Ogden antedates Salt Lake City.
Besides the fort described in the opening chapter, there were included in the purchase for $3,000, seventy-five head of cattle, about a similar number of goats, twelve head of sheep and six horses.
In the spring of 1848, Captain Brown and his sons planted five acres of wheat from seed which he brought from California, which was the first wheat planted in the Weber country. He also planted corn, potatoes, cabbage, turnips and a few watermelons. Goodyear and his men expected the crop would be a total failure, and so frankly represented the prospect to the Captain at the time he made the purchase. One of Goodyear's men told the story that he had been about four years trying to raise corn, and had never raised a roasting ear. This, he said, was because frost killed the corn when it commenced silking; and "so it will be with you Mormons," he added.
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However, nothing discouraged Captain Brown and his sons from putting in their crops; and they raised that season one hundred bushels of wheat, and seventy-five bushels of corn, besides potatoes, cabbage, a crop of fine turnips and a few watermelons.
Jesse and Aleck Brown plowed the first furrow in Weber County; and, from the stock purchased of Goodyear, the family milked twenty-five cows, and made the first cheese produced in Utah, several thousand pounds being the result of the first season's milk. Mary Black, one of Captain Brown's wives, made the cheese. Their dairy was considered, in these early times quite a cheese manufactory, from which the community at Salt Lake, as well as the settlers of the Weber, obtained the rare luxuries of dairy supplies.
Meantime, till harvest, Captain Brown sent his son Alexander to Fort Hall to purchase flour to feed his family, Aleck was accompanied by Thomas Williams, one of the Battalion, who was afterwards well-known as one of the principal Salt Lake merchants, and Ebenezer Hanks. Between them they bought six hundred pounds of flour - three hundred pounds each. They loaded it on pack animals. Brown's portion furnished the family at Goodyear Fort; the remainder, though but a small quantity, was a welcomed portion of that year's supplies to the Salt Lake colony.
The condition of the community generally, in the spring of 1848, is graphically described by Parley P. Pratt in his autobiography; and his touching passages are very suggestive here of the primitive luxuries of Brown's prolific dairy at Goodyear Fort. Parley P. Pratt says:
During this spring and summer my family and myself, in common with many of the camp, suffered much for want of food. This was the more severe on me and my family because we had lost nearly all our cows, and the few which were spared to us were dry, and therefore we had no milk to help out our provisions. I had plowed and subdued land to the amount of nearly forty acres, and had cultivated the same in grain and vegetables. In this labor every woman and child in my family, so far as they were of sufficient age and strength, had joined to help me, and had toiled incessantly in
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the field, suffering every hardship which human nature could well endure. Myself and some of them were compelled to go with bare feet for several months, reserving our Indian moccasins for extra occasions. We toiled hard and lived on a few greens and on thistles and other roots. We had sometimes a little flour and some cheese, and sometimes we were able to procure from our neighbors a little sour skimmed milk or buttermilk.
In this way we lived and raised our first crop in these valleys. And how great was our joy in partaking of the first fruits of our industry."
These passages of the early history of the community in the valleys as described with that graphic simplicity so peculiar to Parley P. Pratt's pen, are very suggestive of the support given by Brown's settlement on the Weber River, with its seventy-five head of cattle; about the same of goats; twelve head of sheep; with the milk of twenty-five cows, and a dairy that supplied several thousand pounds of cheese and butter, Captain Brown's cows inured to the climate and accustomed to the feed of the country, yielded abundance of milk when Apostle Pratt's cows were dry; and the blessing to the community of the butter and cheese made at "Brownsville," as the settlement was styled in Captain Stansbury's book, can be readily appreciated at a time when a little sour skim milk and a pound of cheese were esteemed so rare a treat to the family of a favorite Apostle.
It was during this destitute condition of the parent colony that "Brownsville," on the Weber River, was as the land of Goshen to the children of Israel. At a time when Captain Brown might have readily sold his breadstuff for ten dollars per hundred, he sold it to his destitute brethren for four dollars per sack of flour; while he slaughtered a large portion of his fat cattle, which he had purchased from Goodyear, to supply them with beef.
The old settlers of Weber County, to this day, speak with grateful appreciation of this public benevolence of their pioneer to the community at large, at the onset of our colonies, when their little settlement grew up as a worthy help-mate of the present settlement of Salt Lake City.
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It is true the gulls seemed as angels sent in a miracle to save the Saints, but the sociologist and historian will most note the patriarchal example, and attribute much of the good result to the presiding care of Brigham Young and the semi-communistic example of such pioneers as Captain James Brown, who with an unstinted hand fed to the people his breadstuff, and his beef, and butter, and cheese from his bountiful dairy.
This little settlement on the Weber River, of course, suffered somewhat from the ravages of the grasshoppers; yet compared with that of the settlement of Salt Lake, the loss of the Captain's crops was light. As before noted, Captain Brown raised, in the season of 1848, one hundred bushels of wheat and seventy-five bushels of corn, besides potatoes, cabbage, and a fine crop of turnips. Such a crop, at such a time, when the whole community were famishing, was a blessing indeed; and well does Captain Brown deserve the historical record that, when wheat sold for five dollars per bushel, and potatoes from six to twenty dollars per bushel, he sold his flour to the brethren at four dollars per hundred.
Of the Goodyear claim Captain Brown retained only two or three hundred acres, allowing his fellow colonists, in whose interest as well as for himself the claim was purchased, to settle in the country without price or question of their rights. Indeed, at this period, the Mormon community were living strictly up to the tenor of the first sermon which Brigham Young preached in the valley, Sunday, July 25th, 1847, in which he said: "No man of the community should buy any land who came here; that he had none to sell; but every man should have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes. He might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of it."
So Captain James Brown, though he had purchased the Goodyear claim, to give the colonists undisputed occupation, was living up to the strict order of the community; he had no land to sell to his brethren; it was theirs for legitimate settling without money and without price.
It may be also here noted, before closing these special references to Captain Brown and the Battalion settlers, that it was their soldier pay of $10,000 in Spanish gold, that furnished the
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first money in circulation in these valleys. Excepting these doubloons, and half double with which Brown's detachment was paid off, there was probably not a cent of money in the country among the Mormons in the year 1847 and 1848, until the arrival of their companies in September, 1848, seeing that the community from February, 1846, had been on their migration passage from the eastern frontiers to the Rocky Mountains, and that absolutely all their money resources were spent in outfitting the pioneer companies.
ORSON PRATT BROWN WEBSITE HOMEPAGE
