[Deseret] The Mormon Church initiated the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) primarily to help Mormon refugees from Nauvoo, Illinois, migrate to Utah. It also became a major instrument for gathering Latter-day Saint converts to Utah from abroad, assisting some 26,000 immigrants between 1852 and 1887. (1)
[Lucy Mack Smith] Some time this year, Loren Salisbury, seventh child and fourth son of Katharine Smith Salisbury and Wilkins J. Salisbury, is born at Fountain Green, Hancock County, Illinois. (2)
[OREGON TRAIL] Word of the gold strike at Sutter's Mill turns the trail into a superhighway as 30,000 emigrants, most of whom are California-bound, race west. Overland parties come from as far away as the east coast. Cholera spreads west along the Trail, helped by damp weather. (3)
-- During 1849-1852
[Periodicals] Frontier Guardian,; Orson Hyde Kanesville, Iowa (News Paper) (4)
-- During 1849
[Utah Statehood] Hoping to obtain statehood as soon as possible, leaders in Salt Lake City sent a message to "all the citizens of that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra Nevada mountains" to attend a constitutional convention beginning March 8, 1849, in Salt Lake City "to consider the political needs of the community." The convention created a proposed state of Deseret that encompassed the entire Great Basin and east to the Continental Divide, including, besides the present state of Utah, most of present Nevada and Arizona and parts of southern California (with the port of San Diego), Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and Idaho. On March 10 the constitution for Deseret was completed, and on March 12 officers for the proposed state were elected: Brigham Young, governor; Willard Richards, secretary; Newell K. Whitney, treasurer; and Heber Kimball, chief justice. Almon W. Babbitt was selected to represent the provisional state in Congress. Traveling to Was
hington, D.C., Babbitt
procured the services of Sen. Stephen A. Douglas to present the documents to the Senate on December 27. The House of Representatives declined to seat Babbitt, and the Committee on Elections reported: "The admission of Mr. Babbitt would be a quasi recognition of the legal existence of the State of Deseret; and no act should be done by the House, which, even by implication, may give force and vitality to a political organization extra-constitutional and independent of the laws of the United States." The committee recommended the adoption of a resolution stating that it was "inexpedient to admit Mr. Babbitt to a seat in the House as a Delegate from the 'alleged State of Deseret.'" (5)
[West] California gold rush began. (6)
-- Jan 27, 1850
[Lucy Mack Smith] Frederick Salisbury, eighth child and fifth son of Katharine Smith Salisbury and Wilkins J. Salisbury, is born at Fountain Green, Hancock County, Illinois. (2)
-- Feb 28, 1850
University of Deseret (later University of Utah) founded. (7)
-- Mar 3, 1850
Oliver Cowdery died in Richmond, Missouri. (7)
-- Jun 11, 1850
[U.S. Religious History] David C. Cook was born. Cook was a developer of the original The Sunday School curriculum in the United States. (8)
-- Jun 14, 1850
The first missionaries to Scandinavia landed in Copenhagen, Denmark. (9)
-- Jun 15, 1850
the first edition of the Deseret News was published in Salt Lake City. (1)
Deseret News began publication in Salt Lake City. (7)
Deseret News began publication in Salt Lake City. (10)
The first number of the "Deseret News" was published. (9)
-- Aug 12, 1850
The first baptisms in Denmark, by legal authority, in this dispensation, took, place. (9)
Footnotes:
1 - History to Go, Pioneers and Cowboys, http://historytogo.utah.gov/timeline/pioneersandcowboys.html
2 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books
3 - Clackamas Heritage Partners, http://www.historicoregoncity.org/HOC/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=107Itemid=75
4 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.4, Appendix 3: Church Periodicals
5 - Thatcher, Linda, History to Go, Statehood Chronology, http://www.onlineutah.com/statehoodchronology.shtml
6 - Hale, Van, Mormon Miscellaneous, Rocky Mountain Prophecy, http://www.mormonmiscellaneous.com/radioprogramblog/id8.html
7 - Hemidakaota, "Church Chronology from 1800-2000," http://www.lds.net/forums/scripture-study-forum/12108-church-chronology-1800-2000-part-1-a.html#post214550
8 - Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline, http://bit.ly/Fwgbe
9 - Richards, Franklin Dewey and Little, James A., Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, Church Chronology, Ch.66, p.306
10 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Chronology of Church History, http://scriptures.lds.org/chchrono/contents
Mormon History Timeline /Chronology
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
