Salt Lake City, Utah, replaces Fillmore, Utah, as the capitol of the Utah territory. (1)
[Lucy Mack Smith] Orson Pratt serves as president of the British Mission until called back by the outbreak of the Utah War. (2)
[OREGON TRAIL] Indian wars do what cholera could not and keep emigration down to only 5000 each year. Travel changes with the beginning of freight traffic leaving Leavenworth, Atchison, and Westport. The largest freight company is the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell. (3)
-- During 1856-1957
[Periodicals] The Western Standard; George Q. Cannon San Francisco, California (News Paper) (4)
-- During 1856
[Utah Statehood] The constitutional convention assembled in Salt Lake City on March 17, 1856, and ten days later adopted a constitution. George A. Smith and John Taylor traveled to Washington to present it and a memorial to Congress. They met with Utah's delegate to Congress, John M. Bernhisel, who told them that a statehood attempt would be futile at that time and might create obstacles in the future. Stephen A. Douglas advised them to wait until his popular sovereignty principles were more fully implemented. Later that year the Republican National Platform Committee paired polygamy with slavery when it declared it the "duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism--polygamy and slavery."
1857-58
Soon after taking office in 1857, President Buchanan removed Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory and sent a 2,500-man military force to accompany the new governor, Alfred Cumming, thus precipitating the so-called Utah War. The troops wintered at Camp Scott, Wyoming. When they finally marched through Salt Lake City on June 26, 1858, they found it abandoned by the Mormons. The army proceeded to a site 40 miles southwest of the capital where they built Camp Floyd. Cumming assumed office unchallenged and made peace with the Mormons.
1861-62
The third movement for statehood began in December 1861 when the territorial legislature convened and passed a bill calling for a constitutional convention. Gov. John W. Dawson, who had arrived in the territory on December 7, vetoed it, because the time between its passage and the date fixed for the election of delegates was too short. Dawson left Utah under controversial circumstances on December 31. At mass meetings on January 6, 1862, citizens elected delegates to a constitutional convention that met on January 20 in the county courthouse in Salt Lake City. By January 23 the 67 delegates had drawn up a constitution for a state still to be named Deseret. On June 9 Delegate Bernhisel presented the constitution to the House. This effort to achieve statehood also failed. More worrisome, though, was the passage a few days earlier, June 3, of the Morrill Anti-bigamy Act in the Senate. It prohibited polygamy in the territories and disincorporated the Mormon church. It was never
effectively enforced. (5)
-- During 1856 to 1883
[Wilford Woodruff] Serves as Assistant Church Historian. (6)
-- Jan 4, 1857 - 1 July 1866
[1st Presidency Changes] Brigham Young Heber C. Kimball Daniel H. Wells Daniel H. Wells called as Second Counselor (7)
-- Jan 4, 1857
[Quorum of the Twelve] Daniel H. Wells ordained an apostle and set apart as a counsellor to Brigham Young. (8)
-- Mar 4, 1857
[Deseret] James Buchanan takes office as President of the United States. (9)
[Utah War] Pres. James Buchanan's inauguration.
Members of his administration included:
Secretary of State Lewis Cass
Secretary of War John B. Floyd
Army Chief of Staff Winfield Scott (10)
-- Mar 12, 1857
[Apostle Rudger Clawson] Born to Hiram Bradley Clawson and Margaret Gay Judd in Salt Lake City. (11)
-- Mar 30, 1857
[Utah War] Judge W.W. Drummond wrote a letter of resignation in which he charged that the Mormons accepted no law but the priesthood; that there was an oath bound organization to resist the laws of the land; that some Mormon men were called to assassinate those who questioned the authority of the Church; That the Gunnison party was murdered by Indians under the orders and advice of the Mormons; that his predecessor, Leonidas Shaver, had been poisoned by the Mormons; that the Babbitt party was not killed by Indians, but rather several Mormons on orders from Brigham Young; and, the Church had ordered destruction of the Supreme Court papers. He recommended that President Buchanan replace Brigham Young with a non-Mormon governor escorted to Utah by a military force. (complete text: New York Times, May 14, 1857) (10)
-- April 1857
[Deseret] Troops are mobilized for the Utah campaign (Poll & MacKinnon 1994, p. 30). The press in the Eastern U.S. begins to speculate on who would be appointed to replace Brigham Young.^[78] (9)
-- Apr 18, 1857
[U.S. Religious History] Clarence Darrow was born. (12)
-- Apr 23, 1857
A company of about seventy missionary elders left Salt Lake City to cross the plains with handcarts. (13)
-- May 13, 1857
Elder Parley P. Pratt murdered near Van Buren, AK. (14)
Footnotes:
1 - Wikipedia, 19th Century (Mormonism), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century_(Mormonism)
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 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, Utah
7 - Wikipedia, First Presidency (LDS Church), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Presidency_(LDS_Church)#Chronology_of_the_First_Presidency
8 - Wikipedia, Chronology of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_Quorum_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_(LDS_Church)
9 - Wikipedia, Utah War, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_War#Timeline_of_events
10 - Hale, Van, Mormon Miscellaneous, Utah War Chronology, http://www.mormonmiscellaneous.com/utahwar/id2.html
11 - Larsen, Stan (editor), A Ministry of Meetings:The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson, Significant Mormon Diaries Series No. 6, A Rudger Clawson Chronology, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City 1993
12 - Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline, http://bit.ly/Fwgbe
13 - Richards, Franklin Dewey and Little, James A., Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, Church Chronology, Ch.66, p.306
14 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Macmillan Publishing, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4, Appendix 2: A Chronology of Church History
Mormon History Timeline /Chronology
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
