Utah’s Days of ’47: It’s a place for Latter-day Saints, of course, but Catholics, too

Did a Jesuit explorer assist convert Brigham Younger to settling within the Salt Lake Valley?

For a few years, I assumed Catholics had no position within the Days of ‘47, the annual Utah celebration of the Mormon pioneers’ arrival within the Salt Lake Valley.

A few historic markers taught me in any other case.

When Brigham Younger entered the valley in July 1847, the person referred to as the “Lion of the Lord” reportedly emerged from his wagon and introduced, “That is the precise place. Drive on.” As a boy, I attended my hometown Ogden’s annual Pioneer Days Parade marking that arrival. I loved the horses and floats, however, as a Utah Irish-Catholic, I didn’t really feel any connection to the Mormon pioneers.

Maybe I ought to have.

A big memorial devoted in 1947 marks the spot of Younger’s historic arrival. Surprisingly, the monument additionally contains Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Nineteenth-century Jesuit missionary and explorer. Why is a Belgian Catholic priest on a monument to the Mormon pioneers?

A distinct historic marker again in Ogden explains: “Father De Smet turned nicely acquainted with the area of the Nice Salt Lake, and gave a lot helpful data to Brigham Younger and the Mormon pioneers whereas they had been at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in November 1846.” A 1909 Intermountain Catholic newspaper article goes even additional, concluding that Younger “was most likely induced to settle at Salt Lake by the Jesuit’s glowing account of the valley.”

That’s a reasonably important Catholic connection to the Utah vacation. And it isn’t the one one.

When Utah’s first Catholic bishop, Lawrence Scanlan, died on Could 10, 1915, the Intermountain Catholic famous, “His relations with Brigham Younger had been all the time cordial and nice, and no antagonism between the bishop and any of the successors of Brigham Younger has ever arisen.”

My pal Utah historian Gary Topping, nevertheless, has mentioned he “doubts that the 2 males had a lot to do with one another.”

Scanlan arrived in Utah in 1873. Younger died 4 years later in 1877. In his 2013 article about relations between Latter-day Saints and Catholics within the early years, Topping defined, “The Mormon prophet was in his declining years, and the younger priest had his fingers full making an attempt to offer church buildings and monks and colleges for his far-flung flock, scattered from Ogden to Silver Reef [in southern Utah].”

Thus, comity between members of the 2 faiths most likely developed as a result of circumstances aside from a private friendship between the 2 church leaders. One issue could have been Scanlan’s persistently tolerant perspective towards the Saints.

Avoiding Catholic-LDS animosity

In a 1952 Utah Historic Quarterly article, Utah Catholic Father Robert J. Dwyer described Scanlan’s perspective, “Early in his profession within the stronghold of Mormonism, the younger priest (he had simply turned 30) appears to have decided a plan of action towards the Latter-day Saints from which he not often different in all the next years. He would reside amongst them on phrases of cordiality, avoiding intimacy on the one hand, and antagonism on the opposite. Amongst his predecessors, Father [Edward] Kelly appears to have shared a number of the gentile bitterness towards Brigham Younger and his followers, and infrequently, as time went on, Scanlan detected a like tendency on the a part of a number of of his associates within the Utah priesthood. He by no means inspired it. He took no half within the anti-Mormon campaign, though there was by no means any doubt as to his stand on the problem of polygamy.”

Maybe it’s this cordial demeanor that earned Scanlan an invite to take part within the Days of ‘47 ceremonies dedicating the well-known statue of Brigham Younger in downtown Salt Lake Metropolis. The occasion occurred in July 1897, on the fiftieth anniversary of Younger’s arrival.

A web based article in regards to the monument’s historical past units the scene: “The statue stood wrapped in an American flag on its new pedestal. Behind the statue, a platform to accommodate the pioneers had been erected 6 ft excessive and lined with an awning. Sitting within the entrance of the platform was LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff, who was the oldest dwelling pioneer, his counselors, the Quorum of the Twelve [Apostles], Gov. Heber Wells, Bishop Lawrence Scanlan of the Catholic Church, and Decide John M. Zane. When latest presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan arrived, the gang stirred with enthusiasm.” Brigham Younger’s son — additionally named Brigham and a Latter-day Saint apostle — was current, too.

I’ve discovered no particular experiences of what Scanlan mentioned in his benediction, and newspaper accounts merely report the truth that he gave it. Based on Dwyer’s article, nevertheless, Scanlan “referred with no little feeling to Younger’s private benevolence towards him and his fellow Catholics within the days when the church was struggling to acquire a footing in Utah.”

A time of strained LDS-Catholic ties

Fifty years later, through the 1947 centennial celebration of Younger’s arrival, one other Catholic bishop helped unveil one other statue depicting the Lion of the Lord. Bishop Duane G. Hunt, who served as vice chair of the monument fee, joined the dedication of the monument at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake Metropolis’s jap foothills.

All these benevolent emotions crossing denominational strains could be sorely examined through the subsequent yr or two when — amongst different issues — Trappist monks from Kentucky, with assist from space Catholic leaders, established a brand new monastery in northern Utah within the yard of David O. McKay, a Huntsville native who quickly could be president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Within the course of, monastic leaders expressed some unfavourable attitudes in regards to the Latter-day Saints, and McKay advised followers he feared that the Catholic Church was out to get them. I inform all about it in my new book-in-progress, tentatively titled “Within the Valley of Monks and Saints.” That’s, nevertheless, a narrative for an additional day.

A greater sentiment for right now comes from former Salt Lake Tribune columnist Tom Wharton, a fellow Catholic. Ten years in the past, Wharton wrote, “A state vacation corresponding to July twenty fourth ought to be spent celebrating all of our many Utah roots, religions and cultures. It ought to be a day when non-Mormons not solely honor the spirit of Brigham Younger — who did certainly assist the pioneers make the desert blossom like a rose — however [also] our personal roles in shaping a state that, regardless of its quirks, stays a beautiful place to reside and lift a household.”

Michael Patrick O’Brien (https://michaelpobrien.com) is a author and lawyer dwelling in Salt Lake Metropolis who typically represents The Salt Lake Tribune in authorized issues. His guide “Monastery Mornings: My Uncommon Boyhood Among the many Saints and Monks,” about rising up with the monks at an outdated Trappist monastery in Huntsville, was printed by Paraclete Press in August 2021.