(Previous installment)

(David’s early days in the Valley … and then his travels continue yet again.)

The first companies of Saints that arrived in Great Salt Lake Valley did not find the comforts and conveniences existing that now surround us on every hand. They found only a desolate wild, without inhabitants, save a few degenerate Indians, clothed in rabbit skins, and living on sunflower seeds and crickets.

We were told by the mountaineers, who had sojourned among the Indians for years, that it was impossible to raise grain, fruit or vegetables in the Rocky mountain region; but our prophet and leader, Brigham Young, predicted that God would establish His kingdom here in the tops of the mountains, no more to be thrown down forever; and that the earth should be blessed so that it would yield an abundance for the sustenance of the Saints. Also that the climate would be modified for their comfort, and that the desert should yet blossom as the rose, so as to attract the admiration and wondering gaze of all nations to the home of the Saints, where peace and plenty would abound.

It required great faith in those days to believe the word of the Lord and go to work and build up Zion in a desert wild fifteen hundred miles from a market. Some who looked at things naturally with the spirit of the world faltered and fell into by and forbidden paths, while those who put their trust in God and proved faithful found His word to be true, as it is now manifest to all nations in the works of the faithful who have built up this country and made the desert to blossom as the rose.

The first work we were required to do after entering the valleys of the mountains was to renew our covenants by baptism. President Young and the Twelve having set the example and consecrated themselves and the Great Salt Lake Valley to the work of the Lord, for the building up of His kingdom, that all might be holy to the Lord, and His kingdom be established in righteousness.

Temporary houses were first erected around a ten acre plat for serve as a fort, as a protection against a chance raid from the Indians, and a shelter during the winter. We were told the snow sometimes fell to a very great depth; but we were happily disappointed in this during the first winter, for the weather was open and mild and but very little snow fell in the valley. The farmers went to plowing the ground and putting in fall wheat, President John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt showing the example in this, as well as in spiritual duties, cheering and encouraging the Saints by their faith and works to put their seed in the ground, and trust in God to give the increase.

I was employed in cutting and hauling hay, getting fire-wood and saw-logs, and sawing the latter into lumber with a whip saw.

We were scantily supplied with bread stuff, and our principal food consisted of meat and thistle roots, which never satisfied the appetite, although it served to sustain life.

I remember that I sawed lumber all one day for a tailor, and received for my pay a mess of beans which he had brought from the east, and they were relished the best of any food I ever ate. That poor fellow apostatized afterwards and went to ruin, yet I always think of him kindly for that mess of beans.

Those were times that tried men’s souls, and brought them out in their true character. Some proved stingy and hid their breadstuff, while others were liberal and divided to the last; and this latter class always had and always will have plenty.

My clothes wore out, for I left all my best clothing behind in St. Louis, to be sent after me to Winter Quarters, and they failed to come before I started; but I got a new buckskin suit, and moccasins for my feet which served me all winter. I was proud of my clothes, for they were fashionable. The High Council recommended the brethren to trade with the Indians for furs and buckskins for clothing until we could manufacture our own; for we did not then think we could get any from the east for a long time, and as yet there was no market in the west.

Uncle John Smith was president of the stake, and afterwards Patriarch of the Church, and was generally beloved. One day he called on me to get a load of wood for him, and told me he would give me a blessing, as that was all he had to give. I was truly glad of the chance, and went at once; for the wood was plentiful in those days. On my return Uncle John said:

“Brother David, I find I have no paper, but you can hunt up a sheet somewhere and write all the good things you want upon it, and bring it to me and I will sign my name to it.”

I went off, pondering upon what Father Smith meant, and came to the conclusion that if I proved faithful all the blessings in store for any person would be mine to enjoy. I knew it was written, “Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive of the blessings laid up in store for the faithful.”

I never got the paper, but I got his blessing in the spring of 1848, when he called upon me with others to carry the mail back to Winter Quarters, on the Missouri river, “For,” said he, “President Young and the Saints there will be anxious to hear from us.”

Accordingly, a company of seven men, all members of the “Mormon Battalion” except myself, were detailed for the mission. My companions were among those who had planted victoriously the flag of our country on the Pacific slope, and they were now to return with the first mail from the Rocky mountains under its protection. We started on the sixth day of March to cross the Big mountain, but found the snow too deep, and returned to the valley. We then went up Weber canyon, following an Indian trail to Echo canyon, where we struck the wagon road our emigrants had made and followed it through the snow, more or less, until we crossed the Black Hills.

We were taken by a band of Sioux Indians on the Laramie plains, who were out hunting buffalo. They detained us all day and filched our trappings, our powder and ball, but feared to touch the mail when we told them the great father of our country would be angry and send an army to punish them if they detained us or injured the mail. They let us go in the evening, and we traveled all night, fearing that they might follow us. We had no more trouble until we reached the Loup Fork of the Platte, where we found we had to swim our animals. Our captain, William Gardner, could not swim, and came very near drowning. He lost his gun in the river, and barely got out himself. All our animals got across but an old Spanish horse that got down on a sand bar in the middle of the river and could not get up. We feared that he would remain there and die, and were about to leave him to his fate, when we remembered that the Patriarch, Uncle John Smith, blessed us and predicted that we should all get through alive and that we should not lose an animal. After talking the matter over, we concluded to make another effort to save the old horse and fulfill Father Smith’s prophecy; so those of us who could swim went back, believing that the Lord would assist us on this occasion as He had previously protected us.

We found the old horse in the quicksand, unable to move or make an effort to help himself; so we concluded to leave him to his fate, when someone suggested that we drown him, the water being about two feet deep where he lay. So we crowded his head under water, when he made a spring to save his life and floundered out in the deep water. He then swam ashore, to our great joy, thus fulfilling Father Smith’s prediction.

We arrived safely in Winter Quarters on the 11th of April, and received a hearty welcome from President Young and others of the Twelve, who took us to their homes where we enjoyed their hospitality and received their blessings, which to me have ever been more than meat or drink.

I found my clothing there which I had left, and soon replaced my old greasy buckskins with a new suit, and set off rejoicing to St. Louis with the letters from the valley to that place, by order of President Brigham Young.

The End … or not.
(I think there is another set of stories written by David M. Stuart, but I have not yet located them.)