Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, was located by Col. P. E. Connor. (1)
-- Nov 19, 1862
[U.S. Religious History] The famous American evangelist Billy Sunday was born. (2)
-- 1862
Church Membership at end of year: 68,780
New Converts : 2,569
Percent Change from previous year: 3.88% (3)
[Deseret] Gravedigger Jean Baptiste was arrested and sent to jail for robbing some 300 graves. Mobs gathered at the jail, threatening to lynch him so the justice department exiled him to Fremont Island. (4)
On July 4 the Deseret Union Cricket Club and the Eleventh Ward Cricket Club played the first cricket game in Utah at Union Square. (4)
The first concert of the Deseret Musical Association was given on December 9 in the Tabernacle. (4)
[Deseret] The first performance in the Salt Lake Theatre was held on March 8. (4)
Patrick E. Connor arrives in Utah with California recruits to represent the federal government as they had been pulled out of Utah due to the American Civil War. He establishes Fort Douglas and encourages his men to find valuable ores so that miners are enticed to settle in Utah to offset the Mormon population. (5)
[OREGON TRAIL] The removal of troops from the western frontier to fight in the Civil War drops emigration to 5000 in '61 and '62, and 10,000 in '63 after word of gold strikes in Montana filters back east. The Pony Express goes bankrupt following the completion of transcontinental telegraph lines. Pony Express owner Ben Holladay extends his stage company to Oregon. (6)
-- During 1862-1863
[Periodicals] Die Reform; John L. Smith Geneva, Switzerland der Heiligen der Letzten Tage GERMAN (Periodical) (7)
-- Jan 29, 1863
[Deseret] Colonel Patrick E. Connor, with about 200 troops, defeated a band of Shoshone Indians on the Bear River (now known as the Bear River Massacre). (4)
-- Mar 3, 1863
Great mass meeting held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, to protest against the infamous course of U. S. officials. (1)
-- During Aug. 1863
[Lucy Mack Smith] The first RLDS missionaries come to Utah. Alexander, David, and Joseph III make periodic preaching tours between 1866 and 1876. Brigham Young responds with slurs about them and their mother. RLDS proselyting efforts in Utah stop in 1890; at that point, 3,000 have been baptized. (8)
Footnotes:
1 - Richards, Franklin Dewey and Little, James A., Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, Church Chronology, Ch.66, p.306
2 - Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline, http://bit.ly/Fwgbe
3 - Wikipedia, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Membership History, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_membership_history
4 - History to Go, Pioneers and Cowboys, http://historytogo.utah.gov/timeline/pioneersandcowboys.html
5 - Wikipedia, 19th Century (Mormonism), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century_(Mormonism)
6 - Clackamas Heritage Partners, http://www.historicoregoncity.org/HOC/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=107Itemid=75
7 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.4, Appendix 3: Church Periodicals
8 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books
Mormon History Timeline /Chronology
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
