The Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847

by Jacob, Norton

• ISBN13: 9780874216103
• ISBN10: 0874216109
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-20
• Publisher: Utah State Univ Pr

Summary

There are no historical events that have more iconic significance for the people of Utah than the trek of the vanguard company of Mormons west in 1847. Its meaning may vary, but overall, the march has a highly symbolic and seminal historical importance for virtually all Utahns. While the journey has been widely celebrated, memorialized, and even sanctified and various books have been written about it, there is more that can be said and understood about the migration's place in western history; about its context, including events preceding and following it; and about the real experiences of its participants. Particularly lacking in most published accounts are the stories of the rank and file members, the individuals who, in contrast to the well-known leadership, with Brigham Young at the top, might fittingly be called foot soldiers. The 1847 company had a military-like organization, which is captured by Ronald Barney's term brigade in the title. Norton Jacob was such a man of the ranks in 1847. He had no special status in the Mormon Church, and there was little to make him stand out in the historical record than that he left what is regarded by many trail historians as one of the best and most informative journals of the early Mormon emigration. While the heart of Jacob's record concerns the 1847 journey, there is much more to it. The diary published here begins in 1844, the year of church founder Joseph Smith's murder. It continues through the crisis events that followed: the Mormons' flight from Nauvoo, their trudging journey across Iowa to Winter Quarters, and the beginnings of mass migration to Utah. After the apex of 1847, the are of the narrative moves through accounts of Jacob'sreturn to Nauvoo late that year and of the much larger Mormon emigration in 1848. It reaches denouement in a short record of his first years in Salt Lake Valley.

Author Biography

Ronald O. Barney is currently a historian and archivist for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(14)
Norton Jacob's Life	15	(13)
Reminiscence and 1844	28	(14)
1845	42	(21)
1846	63	(29)
January-April 1847	92	(29)
May 1847	121	(36)
June 1847	157	(35)
July 1847	192	(42)
August 1847	234	(19)
September-December 1847	253	(21)
1848	274	(26)
1849-1852	300	(13)
Appendix 1 (Norton Jacob's genealogy)	313	(5)
Appendix 2 (Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847)	318	(2)
Biographical Notes	320	(53)
Bibliography	373	(14)
Index	387