Portable saloons, dance halls, gambling tents, and lean-to houses of prostitution were always one small step behind the army of workers converging on the Utah territory.
Narrator:
Portable saloons, dance halls, gambling tents, and lean-to houses of prostitution were always one small step behind the army of workers converging on the Utah territory. The enterprises earned the nickname of "hell on wheels":
[David Haward Bain] "…As the railroad track moved on, all of the purveyors, the saloon owners, and the gambling den owners the whisky ranches as they were called, would just pack up, and they'd be put on flat cars and sent off to the end of the track again. That's where the notion of hell on wheels came from."
[Samuel B. Reed] "The first place we visited was a dance house where a fresh importation of strumpets has been received. The hall was crowded with bad men and lewd women. Such profanity, vulgarity and indecency as was heard and seen there would disgust a more hardened person than I--Samuel Reed"
[Mike Johnson] "And they were tough places. They were probably as tough as any of the seamy parts of the great American cities. Murder was not unknown, robbery was fairly common, and these hell on wheels towns moved along with the grading gangs all across the line of the railroad."
[St. Louis Missouri Democrat] "I verily believe that there are men here who would murder a fellow creature for five dollars. Nay there are men here who have already done it! The St. Louis Missouri Democrat"
Narrator: By January of 1869 the hell on wheels caravan had camped for the winter in the Utah territory…at the newly created rail town of Wasatch."
[J.H. Beadle] "During its lively existence of three months it established a graveyard with 43 occupants, of whom not one died of disease. Two were killed by accident, three got drunk and froze to death…three were hanged…and many were killed in rows or murdered.-J.H. Beadle, The Salt Lake Reporter."
[Deseret News] "It is a capital idea for citizens to have loaded firearms in their dwellings where there is the least reason to expect visits of such characters--The Deseret News, April 28, 1869."
Narrator:
For Brigham Young, "hell on wheels" was only the most obvious symptom of a greater disease. Left unchecked, the railroad would carry the corrupting viruses of money and outside culture into the Utah territory.
[Michael Quinn] "The problem was that Brigham Young recognized that you could not separate the economic life of Utah from the social and political life. They all were linked, and so if you welcomed in with open arms the economic powers of the national culture, you would also be welcoming in its social structure and its political power. And Brigham Young was unwilling to do that. And he said, 'No we will not. We will resist to every degree that we can the influence of Babylon,' which is how they typically referred to states east of the Mississippi."
[Young] "The only thing for you and me to fear is whether we will build up the Kingdom of God. Whether our souls are in the Kingdom or not. The doctrine we preach is pure and holy, and if we will abide by it, it will make us pure and holy."
[Michael Quinn] "The first stage was to announce a boycott of all, first of all, hostile merchants. And then in 1867, that became all non-Mormon merchants, became the subject of the boycott. This draws many of them out of business, and merchants sold their remaining inventories and left Utah, which is exactly what Brigham Young wanted."
Narrator: In 1868 Brigham Young extended his economic defense plan even further when he assembled business leaders and directed formation of the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution.
[Leonard Arrington] "And it was a device for assuring that the merchandising, the importing and sales of products from the East and from San Francisco would be done by the saints, not some outside enterprisers who might work against the goals of the kingdom."
[Michael Quinn] "And this moved beyond simple boycotting the non-Mormons to requiring Mormon merchants to either join and turn over all of their inventories to ZCMI in exchange for ZCMI stock, or if they didn't they would be publicly identified as the enemy, and they would be subject to boycott."
[Martha Bradley] "The all seeing eye, holiness to the Lord was recognition that this was a member institution in the ZCMI operation. That meant that if you went inside that door that you were a loyal member of the church who was supporting a church business. And if you went in a different business next door that didn't have that kind of logo over the door, then you were essentially a traitor."
[Brigham Young] "We asked the people, were not those who sustained such characters virtually traitors to the cause and the God they covenanted to obey? The conference unanimously voted that they would no longer fellowship those who would persist in trading with such characters."
[Martha Bradley] "It was a line. It was like drawing a line in the sand along main street if you will…and those who chose to cross it often did it at their own peril."
Narrator: Brigham Young's determination to hold off outside influences was evident when a handful of Mormons resisted centralized church control of their businesses. William Godbe and others argued for a free-market economy and open doors to outside investment and ideas. They urged other Mormons to challenge Brigham's grip on Utah society. Godbe wanted the railroad to swing open the door of change.
[Michael Quinn] "…and Brigham Young made them a test of faith. He said, 'If you continue advocating what you're advocating,' and Godbe and his associates began advocating this publicly, Brigham Young said we cannot tolerate this."
Narrator: When Godbe refused to drop back in line, Brigham Young excommunicated him from the ranks of the Latter-day Saints, branding Godbe and his followers traitors to the cause.
[Brigham Young] "They have failed. And yet they have added another proof of the truth of the saying of Jesus that those who are not for us, are against us."
Narrator: But there was new fuel being added daily to the fire of challenge facing Brigham Young.
The Union Pacific railroad was slow in paying for the Mormon work being done in Weber and Echo canyons. Brigham Young's personal guarantee to his people of getting paid well and in cash was in jeopardy of falling apart. Missing pay days with regularity workers were sometimes paid in food from church storage. Workers started to walk off the job.
[C.A. Madsen] "October 11, 1868
Dear Brother Musser:
People are leaving their work on the railroad, and are complaining of not getting their payment in cash. This is not agreeable to the progress of work on president Young's contract.
C.A. Madsen"
[Brigham Young] "October 8, 1868
There is much dissatisfaction among the men. The monthly payments have only been one-third or one-half of the value of the work. Very many of the men are unpaid, and numbers are compelled to leave the work to provide for their families --Brigham Young"
[David Haward Bain] "By the time we get to 1868 and 1869, as the railroad is about to enter into Utah territory, the Union Pacific is basically completely cash strapped. The only asset that it has is its own railroad and its rolling stock and the amount of work that has been done and the promise for the future. Banks are ready to foreclose, loans were taken out to pay other loans, I mean the whole thing could have collapsed under the right circumstances."
Narrator: By the end of November, 1868, Brigham Young…as primary contractor…owed his fellow Mormons well over one hundred thousand dollars for work already completed. He had tapped personal and church cash accounts believing repayment from the Union Pacific was imminent.
When it did not arrive, Young sent a personal plea to Thomas Durant of the Union Pacific:
[Brigham Young] "The total due me through November 30, 1868 is $130,605. I have expended all my available funds in forwarding the work. If I had the means to continue I would not now ask for assistance.
Very truly yours, Brigham Young"
Narrator: Knowing that Mormon labor would be critical for a final push out of the canyons, Durant convinced Young to keep Mormon labor on the job, building a railroad bed through the town of Ogden…to the north of the Great Salt Lake…in the direction of the Nevada border. Young told associates that Durant had promised to pay any cost. At the same time, Leland Stanford appeared in Salt Lake City representing the Central Pacific. Stanford wanted the same number of Mormons to aid his railroad's drive from Nevada to the Wasatch front. Again, Young would confide that Stanford had agreed to pay any price.
[Bain] "And there's a moment where Brigham Young accepts a contract of course and subcontracts it out from the Union Pacific to grade up past Ogden toward the Promontory Mountains. And then the Central Pacific people come in and they say, well can you give us a contract too? And all of a sudden, Young is presented with the delightful idea of playing one off against the other, and collecting money from both sides."
[Leland Stanford] "November 8, 1868
Today I had a talk with Brigham Young. He will do our grading, and will not make our work secondary to the Union Pacific. He will put plenty of men to work on both lines, and I am satisfied he can do it. This is our policy. We can't keep the Union Pacific from grading their line, but through Young we can have our own graded to lay track on when we can reach it.--Leland Stanford"
Narrator: Already hip-deep in debt, Young decided to wager the economic future of thousands on the cut-throat competition between the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. Young believed the demand for labor was certain to ensure Young and the men would be paid.
At first, it seemed to pay off. Soon Mormon crews were simultaneously working for the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, grading rail lines east and west in northern Utah. Mormon subcontractors soon got into a bidding war for local workers as manpower was in short supply in the face of the head-to-head battle.
[Joseph A. West] "Competition for men and teams became so great that companies began to bid off each others men by increasing wages. And the construction cost became enormously heavy--Joseph A. West"
Narrator: Brigham's contractors ratcheted up wages…confident that their costs would be met by the railroads. And Brigham Young urged the work forward…confident in his agreements with both companies that any price would be paid to keep the workers on the job
[Brigham Young] "Dear brethren:
It is my wish and council to all the brethren working on my contract to push the work ahead with all possible dispatch. Therefore brethren, work at it until the job is completed.--Brigham Young."
Narrator: Completion seemed to be at hand. But if the nation had expected the two railroad companies to gently stop when they reached each other…Most observers were stunned when the two companies kept right on going.
