-- During 1846-47
[William Clayton] In March, while camped on the plains of Iowa, he wrote the words to "Come, Come, Ye Saints." He spent the winter of 1846-47 at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and was with the vanguard pioneer company that crossed the plains to Utah in 1847 and selected the site for the new Mormon gathering place in Salt Lake Valley. His published pioneer journal is the most well-known account of that expedition. He also prepared and published The Latter-day Saints' Emigrants' Guide, a meticulous description of the entire route from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City, with suggestions for camping places. It became an invaluable guide not only for Mormon migrants, but also for thousands of pioneers bound for Oregon and California. In Utah, Clayton became a prominent and well respected citizen. He continued for a time to help keep the records of the church, and he also engaged in various public and private business activities. He became auditor for the Territory of Utah as well as r
ecorder of marks and brands, holding both positions until his death. He also worked for a time as treasurer of the Deseret Telegraph Company and secretary of ZCMI. His private ventures included collecting debts, filing land claims, acting as an attorney, lending money, merchandising, farming, and mining speculation. He also continued to participate in cultural activities, particularly those associated with music. (1)
-- During July 1847
[Wilford Woodruff] Woodruff was a member of the Mormon pioneer company that arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. In addition to his ecclesiastical responsibilities, he worked hard to support his family on his farm in Salt Lake City which consisted of a garden, orchard, and herds of cattle and sheep. Products from his soil repeatedly won awards at the territorial fair. Besides farming, he enjoyed hunting and fishing, and helped popularize fly-fishing in Utah. He served in a variety of community capacities including the Utah Territorial Legislature, the board of directors of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI), and president of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society of Utah, the Utah Territorial Horticultural Society, and the Universal Scientific Society. (2)
-- During January 1868
The Utah Magazine begins. Founders are Church members who are disaffected with Brigham Young‘s economic policies (especially the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution). Abandoned in 1870, with launch of Mormon Tribune by same founders. (3)
-- During March 1868
Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution, known as ZCMI, the "People's Store," is what one historian called America's First Department Store, and was founded in March 1868. By that date the Latter-day Saints had lived in the Great Basin for little more than two decades but had already foreseen a new threat to their peace and prosperity with the coming of the railroad. To combat the inevitable change that territorial growth would bring Brigham Young gathered a group of community and business leaders to form an organization of community-owned merchandising dedicated to the support of home manufacturing and to sell goods "as low as they can possibly be sold, and let the profits be divided among the people at large." (4)
Footnotes:
1 - Utah History Encyclopedia: William Clayton, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/c/CLAYTON%2CWILLIAM.html
2 - Utah History Encyclopedia: Wilford Woodruff, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/w/WOODRUFF%2CWILFORD.html
3 - Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984
4 - Utah History Encyclopedia: ZCMI, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/z/ZCMI.html
Mormon Timeline: Z.C.M.I
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