Cache County UTGenWeb

As a prelude to this new Mormon economic plan of the United Order, it should be noted it came about six months after the national economy was affected by the Panic of 1873. This depression was one of the worst and longest in American history. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the details of the causes other than it involved political scandal and economic distress under-pinned by a splurge of speculation in railroads and industry beyond the existing needs and resources and produced a perilous inflationary boom. The bust came in September of 1873 when a leading financial firm failed, plunging the stock market into panic and the national economy spiraled downward as banks failed, railroads defaulted and businesses went bankrupt. Millions lost jobs, wages fell, agricultural prices sank so low that farmers could not pay mortgages and had to surrender their property. In Utah, even with its pioneering Mormon orientation of going their own way by stressing self sufficiency and cooperation, this national depression hit hard. Six of the seven banks in operation in Utah were owned by non-Mormons, who controlled the pecuniary economy of the Saints’ very homeland. The bank failures caused many of the mines to close down. This in turn negatively affected the stores, shops, factories and the markets for agricultural products. Any with debts were in a bind and even the Mormon Church’s tithing receipts were sharply reduced the following year. In these early days farming in Utah was just above subsistence and the economic woes brought less demand for farm products and lower prices. In Cache Valley, a series of bad winters, poor crops and spells of grasshopper invasions found a situation in 1873 where times were such that during long hard winters the Cache farmers had insufficient feed for their stock. President Brigham Young counseled them to not burn their straw but care for it by stacking it around their chaff piles created during threshing. This proved to be beneficial by providing the necessary last resort feed. Drought, poor crops, pests and even famine was understood by the farmers in Utah, but this financial squeeze by depression was troublesome and confusing to most farmers and even to Church leaders.

When President Brigham Young took his annual trip to southern Utah for the winter of 1873-74, he had much on his mind. He wanted to find a way to isolate or insulate church members from the troubles of depressions. His thoughts circled around several ideas; he believed the Mormons were too connected to the national economy, feeling they should become more self-sufficient at home and stop importing goods from the outside world. He believed his followers were too conscious of fashions and luxuries and needed a serious retrenchment in these areas. Further, his long range goal had been to achieve total economic unity with the Saints organized in a unified community in which their oneness would be all encompassing. Earlier during the start of their co-operative mercantile movement, he had stated: “The time will come when this cooperative system which we have partially adopted in merchandising, will be carried out by the whole people.” The resultant system devised from these feelings was a deliberate flight away from the developing exchange economy into a less complex or advanced household and community economy of the past frontier, but was more locally autonomous and self-sufficing and controlled by the Mormon hierarchy. Thus, hopefully it would prove favorable to the Mormons and not be prone to panics as shown by the broad Brigham City Cooperative that suffered little to no impact of the Panic of 1873 wherein it experienced its greatest expansion. A strong indicator favoring this new economic plan was along the line of the Brigham City Cooperative successes; under Church directions, the Mormon communities were to pool their resources and extend their cooperative operations into more enterprises, using their labor and investment to cut their ties and imports from outside their area and to reduce their wants and needs from the outside world. While doing so they would resolve labor-capital difficulties, grow more spiritual and achieve more equality, ending up better off temporally and spiritually.[1]

When Brigham Young arrived in St. George for his winter stay, he found southern Utah on the verge of destitution and in need of economic revitalization. On top of recent periods of drought and flood, they had suffered through two years of bad grasshopper infestation and the last blow was the Panic of 1873. It had shut down some mines which had been good markets for their produce and a source of labor that suddenly ended. In addition they had committed the previous year to construct a Mormon temple at St. George. Young held a series of talks and conferences with the local population and quickly found a ready willingness for some changes along the lines of his earlier thinking and discussions. He usually called for a show of hands of those desirous of entering into the new economic plan. In February of 1874, President Young responded, “Now is the accepted time, but if we are not disposed to enter this Order, the curses of God will come upon the people,” and he organized the United Order of the City of St. George. All the important details and procedures were set out with care as this original organization was to be the model for many more to come. About all the adults in the community, amounting to nearly three hundred persons, subscribed their names and pledged their support of this new order. There was a written document called an agreement that began with a preamble stating the self-sufficient hopes and goals with a written declaration of the Mormons’ past troubling experiences with the reminder that they were still “in perilous times,” and the counsel that “the friends of God” must look to themselves and help each other. Then came the long set of observations or platitudes (such as the struggles between capital and labor, oppression of monopolies, faithlessness of politics and business, debts, financial panics, etc.), rules (no lying, backbiting nor quarreling, live a good Christian life by Mormon standards, pray daily, live frugally, and they must obey their leaders) and provisions. The latter got to the economic heart of the United Order, the whole community was urged to join with those doing so formally pledging to contribute their economic property to the new organization in return for equivalent capital stock plus promised their “time, labor, energy, and ability” to the United Order. This was to provide the capital and resources to commence their united operations immediately. Both the property turned over to the order and the labors of those joining were subject to an elected board of management. Other provisions included pledges to encourage home manufactures, stop or reduce importing, simplify their tastes in fashion and wants and to hereafter deal only with members of the Order. Most United Orders incorporated the existing cooperative store into its organization. All who joined were asked to accept in payment for their labors and dividends the products of this enterprise, the cardinal rule that worked so well for the successful Brigham City cooperatives. Lastly, there was a spiritual element to this united oneness that should bring about increased spiritual growth as well as temporal improvement. The members of the Order were promised a more rapid increase in “earthly possessions” and more “leisure time” to cultivate their and their children’s minds. To seal this tremendous offering each person joining the United Order was rebaptized in a ceremony which included remission of sins, renewal of covenants and a pledge to observed the “rules of the holy United Order.”[2]

With much talk and written words on stated general goals, rules of conduct, promises of gains and glory and how to become a “great people,” there was almost nothing in the way of guidance and instructions as to how to be successful in this bold encompassing venture. Therefore, it fell to the local leaders (usually the ward bishops) to bear the great responsibility and burden to make it work Although the dye had been cast and the model set, the overall development of the Order would not be uniform and quite possibly never adequately explained or established. Brigham Young followed up by organizing twenty or more such enterprises in southern Utah, all patterned on the St. George model. In the spring of 1874 Young and his associates en route north to Salt Lake City organized at least thirty more in communities along the way. When each new branch of the United Order was set up, the written preamble and articles of agreement made at St. George were read, explained and copied as the model for each subsequent agreement to the extent that it quickly became known as the United Order’s constitution. As the Church President and his party journeyed toward the largest Mormon city, reports went to the Church newspaper for publication of the discourses on the benefits to be derived from this new economic plan. In addition published reports from some towns organized into the Order showed that they had joined the bandwagon with enthusiasm with over 400 joining at Nephi, “About two-thirds of the citizens of Beaver have gone into the New Order, and working like bees.” While at Greenville “almost to a man” they gave their names and at Minersville “the majority of the citizens” had joined. From the new tabernacle at Salt Lake City in late April of 1874 came this—“It was announced that the order to increase unity and prosperity among the people would be organized in ward after ward and settlement after settlement.”[3]

On April 6, 1874, the annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened and held one session and then adjourned for a month to allow President Young, still en route to the city, to attend conference and give counsel and instructions. Young and his party arrived in Salt Lake City in late April, and on the night of April 29^th President Young, along with George A. Smith, Erastus Snow, Brigham Young, Jr., and local ward leaders met in the schoolhouse of the Salt Lake Twentieth Ward with a large congregation, where after singing and prayer, President Young delivered a “discourse on the objects of the United Order, and the advantages that will result from its operation . . .during which he called for a show of hands of those who were desirous of entering it,” and before closing his talk he created the organization of the United Order in that ward. One hundred and nineteen men of various trades and professions enlisted their names in the organization. The adjourned annual conference reconvened on Thursday, May 7^th, and much time was devoted to the new United Order. Young, to the conference, stated he didn’t expect to say much but requested his brethren who addressed the conference to give “their instructions and views for or against this general co-operative system, which we, with propriety call the United Order. . . . A system of oneness among any people, whether former-day Saints, middle-day Saints, eleventh-hour of the day Saints, last hour of the day Saints, or no Saints at all, is beneficial.” In one of the conference sessions, “At the request of President Brigham Young, Elder David McKenzie read to the conference the preamble and articles of agreement adopted by the United Order at St. George, which explained the reasons and causes leading to the organization of the Order, and also indicated its character by the nature of the conditions imposed in the agreement.” President Young followed explaining that the proposed United Order would be conducted strictly upon business principles and more stringently and correctly than any other business. He went on to state, “We shall not ask the people, at present, how they like the rules and regulations that have just been read; but before we get through with the Conference we expect to organize the centre stake of Zion in these mountains. Then we shall ask you how you like these rules, and shall perhaps have them read to you again.” These last words were a gigantic understatement, for these rules (preamble and agreement) would be read innumerable times, copied by hand into new U.O. agreements, printed in the Church newspapers, a pamphlet and even in “an authorized edition on fine fancy colored paper, on a sheet 12 ½ by 20 inches, suitable for framing or mounting on a stretcher and hanging up in the houses of the Saints.”[4]

All of the brethren addressing the conference had nothing but praise for the new economic plan. Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve said in part: “The United Order of Zion . . . is a grand, comprehensive, co-operative system designed to improve us who enter into it, financially, socially, morally, and religiously; it will aid us, as Latter-day Saints, in living our religion, and in building up Zion, and help us, by a combined effort, to cultivate every virtue, to put from us every vice, to conduct ourselves and our children sensibly, and to dispense with childish follies; it will enable us to adopt sensible fashions and habits of life and style of dress and manners; all of which can be effected by combined efforts, but not easily in our individual capacities . . . . Union is strength, and combination of labor and capital will give us power at home and abroad.” At Salt Lake City, a central United Order was established with Brigham Young as president to direct the entire movement or enterprise. Young’s counselors were made vice presidents with the twelve Apostles as “assistant vice-presidents” along with a secretary and several assistants, a general book keeper and George A. Smith appointed trustee-in-trust for the Church.[5]

At Salt Lake City it was realized that some variations would be required such as organizing by ward rather than by community with attention given to increased numbers of tradesmen and professions. By July of 1874 there was a “Tailors’ United Order Association,” and shortly the “Eleventh Ward Boot and Shoemakers’ Association” with the Church newspaper asking in print, “why don’t the various other trades follow suit?” There was an amalgamation of wards into some United Orders (U.O.), such as the Salt Lake Fourth Ward joining with the Seventh Ward in a single U.O. Also with the variation from a whole lot of everything found in the St. George model to concentration on a specialty. The Church paper echoed this move saying: “The plan of the United Order organization taking hold of one particular branch of business and making that a specialty and a success appears to be much better than ‘having too many irons in the fire.’ It is much easier to commence in a single line of manufacture and make that one thing successful by a grand concentration of capital and practical ability, and after that particular branch is in good . . .working

order. . . then take another, and another, as far as necessary.” Such thinking did not fit the initial pattern of the U.O. so a variant came about that didn’t require the consecration of all a person’s property or labor, but hoped for increased community or ward ownership by purchase in the operation of their cooperative enterprise much like the Brigham City Cooperative had established itself before the U.O. In these the pattern was the Brigham City model, where the United Order was only a devise to reinforce and hopefully extend the cooperative enterprise already working. However, no matter the variant or type, the constitution, goals, rules and rebaptisms were still required.[6]

By the spring conference, some three months after organizing the first United Order at St. George, it was clear that every ward and branch would be so organized. The recruiting and accompanying bandwagon would roll forth in every direction to that end. An element of this reached Cache Valley before the adjourned conference resumed, when Apostle Erastus Snow was sent to Cache Valley to initiate the United Order in the area. On Saturday, May 2, 1874, a meeting was held in Logan in which all the ward leaders were invited to attend at which the new economic plan was explained along with its benefits. Snow told how it had started at St. George almost four months earlier. He strongly urged the members in Cache Valley to start it, and he organized the area (at the time Cache Valley was not organized into a stake). The Church newspaper wrote: “Last Saturday Cache Valley was organized into a stake of the United Order. Elder Brigham Young, Jr., was elected President; William B. Preston, First Vice President; L. O. Liljenquist, Second Vice President; L. G. Farrell, Secretary; Orson Smith, Assistant Secretary; and Thomas X. Smith, Treasurer. These, with a director from each settlement, will constitute the central Board of Directors for the stake, besides which there will be a branch of the Order in each Settlement.”.[7] Soon two villages in the valley, Paradise and Clarkston, enthusiastically announced in the Church paper that they each had organized a branch of the United Order.[8]

On May 2, 1874, when Cache Valley was being instructed and organized in regard to the United Order in the meeting in Logan, Ralph Forster, acting church leader at Mendon, arose in the meeting and stated his ward’s thinking. He explained that Bishop Henry Hughes was away on a mission to England, and they were of the opinion to wait until his return before taking on this venture. This brought a sharp retort from Apostle Snow inquiring “if the Kingdom has to stop in Mendon” because the bishop was on a mission. This quickly moved Mendon into accepting and trying the new economic plan. In either May or June, Mendon organized their branch of the Order and elected a president, two vice presidents, a secretary, assistant secretary and a treasure. With these officers there were five additional directors chosen, making a total of eleven men directing this order. One of these directors noted a shortcoming of the United Order saying: “There was no real prescribed plan to work or to farm to.” But he declared they had a “Preamble.” Basically the local units were on their own, learning as they went, mostly by trial and error. “About one third” of the members of the ward joined which consisted of around twenty families. All who joined the United Order were rebaptized and some of the wording in this ritual was interesting and insightful. After saying the person was being baptized for the remission of their sins and “for the renewal of your covenants with God and your brethren, and for the observance of the rules of the holy United Order which have been said in your hearing,” concluding with a normal ending. Those joining consecrated all their economic property, meaning their farming or grazing land, their cattle and some other stock and the labor of each man, to the Mendon United Order in “good faith” never thinking they would possess this property again. They retained a stewardship over their city lots with their homes, their horses and ewes (female sheep). The organization was patterned on the St. George model with a written constitution with the preamble, platitudes, rules and provisions which were complied with except the promise to deal only with members of the order. The members of the U.O. were in the minority with twice their number not in the plan, perhaps being in the minority this may have been in their self interest. So they continued to deal and fellowship with those outside the order with only the thought that non-joiners may be weak in the faith. Thus one of the biggest incentives to join the order was never brought into play, ensuring they would remain in the smaller faction. In the end the United Order created two groups in the community and this division was called by a resident a “peculiar change,” causing frequent remarks that the U.O. couldn’t last.[9]

Their U.O. enterprise consisted of the co-op store and their lands and some animals. They were organized into two companies of ten men with a man supervising their work. First they set to plowing the land and because the previous winter had extended late in the spring, they had to wait until the land dried. The new cooperative way had an advantage; as soon as a piece of land was sufficiently dry, a group or two, quickly plowed the land and then sowed while in “good trim.” One participant in this activity noted it was a “novel sight” to see ten to twenty teams coming into town from their work at noon and night. One can only wonder if the same view was seen in the morning when the farmers took their teams to the assigned fields to begin work. Most likely when the person supervising the co-operative farming designated a certain field, he gave out a time to start this work. Did all arise early to complete their home tasks and chores to be able to move into a possession of workmen and teams going, or did some seem to be continually late and not showing the united spirit. At noon and night the work was called off at the same time so the movement back into Mendon was together by all in the working party. The return to work after the noon break, while possibly not as severe as the morning assemblage, could have shown a few stragglers frequently not marching to the same tune or time. Such differences in human nature, motivation and overall performance could have been seeds sown to undermine this united undertaking. The members of the Order continued to work together in cutting and putting up their hay crop. However, in regard to irrigating the crops each man watered the land he had turned over to the U.O. In the fall they harvested the crops and threshed the grain together. However, on the division of the crop they didn’t follow the plan but gave each farmer the grain raised on his former land. Still after a half a year in the system, there was some discontentment with a little chaffing along the line that the Order would break up when Bishop Hughes returned from his mission, he would “break the Golden calf in pieces.” On the other side, at least one saw benefits in the “oneness” with happiness, comfort and safety much like the people of Enoch or “the people of Nephi.” More than once President Brigham Young, Jr., presiding over Cache Valley, visited Mendon and congratulated the people’s efforts, saying he thought they “had it about right.”[10]

During the winter of 1874 -75, the members of Mendon United Order spent much time working in “Paradise Canyon” where they took a contract to haul lumber from the canyon sawmill over the ridge into Ogden Valley and on to Ogden. With their teams and wagons they would load the lumber and transport it to Ogden under the terms of their contract. The weather remained nice until New Year’s and made the hauling good; when the snow came, they had to choose times when they could haul the lumber. Apparently in payment for this lumber hauling they received both money and lumber. The lumber received in payment for this hauling was carried to Mendon where it was placed in storage. The Mendon branch of the U.O. began planning another cooperative enterprise of establishing a dairy (or cheese making facility) and the acquired lumber was to be used for this. In the early spring of 1875, the U.O. began preparing the ground and foundation for this new facility. A letter from Mendon to the Church newspaper dated January 24, 1875, reported the situation at Mendon as follows: “The United Order is progressing favorably. The majority of the people here are determined to carry it out. Some of the brethren have been off to the kanyon [sic – canyon], getting out lumber, to build a dairy which I think will be in operation sometime next summer, with brother Andrew Anderson superintendent.” This account by Alfred Gardner, a leading citizen of the town, was concise and appeared at the time to be a correct assessment.[11] However, when spring farming commenced, the work on the proposed dairy foundation ceased and it never begam again.

In the fall of 1874, after the crops had been taken in and divided, the members of the Mendon U.O. made the final step to “fully” enter the new economic plan. They would work cooperatively in all facets—plowing, planting, haying, harvesting and threshing as they had the previous season, but this time each day’s work was recorded and credited to each member. This brought in the thorny issue of the value of each person’s effort, with concerns such as was there to be sameness or a difference between two farmers when one accomplished much more each day, or was the person herding the U.O.’s animals to receive the same credit as a man with a good team of horses doing heavy work, or should there be a difference between a person or persons doing the clerical recording of the various days work and everything associated with it, and those working in the fields. Was all labor to be equal no matter what, regardless of how it was done in quantity and quality. Questions that would have plagued even the wisdom of Solomon over the on-the-site practical workings of the economic plan. When the harvest and threshing was finished, an accounting would be made of all produced and labor credited with a calculation of the value of each day of labor. Whatever it amounted to, each would be awarded and paid in that produce. The farming season of 1875 proceeded and the two groups—one-third U.O. and two-thirds individual farmers—could see and estimate how each were doing in comparison to the other. In the summer of 1875 Bishop Hughes returned from his mission, and according to one of the directors, shortly after his return he had a “Dream”—“where it was shown unto him, that the tide was not yet high enough to float the ship, but after awhile it would be so and then he would take the breathern [sic – brethren], and with the rest of the Church work it successfully.” Apparently the discontentment with the United Order increased during the final farming season, and especially the final division of the agricultural goods. The director who kept a record of the activities in Mendon, stated that in this division, “The man with 25 Acres fared the same as the man with 5 Acres, or the man with none at all. . . . it was devided [sic –divided] . . . all according to the labor done.” In most of the failed United Orders, the most serious problem had been over the fair distribution of benefits, and in Mendon’s case this would have been the agricultural products raised. If in any way this division involved those considered indolent or slothful, it could make the situation grievous to unbearable. The accumulation of dislike for and problems of the United Order reached the point, according to the Mendon scribe, that the “Golden calf” (the new economic plan with all its promises) was broken “in pieces” (as all the pledged land and animals were returned to the original owners) as Mendon discontinued its United Order in the fall of 1875. Besides returning all the property, there was a division of lumber earned from the hauling contract. Mendon’s United Order existed for about eighteen months and one of the directors, Isaac Sorensen, gave a fitting epitaph for it stating: “. . . it was soon evident that the time had not Come for the establishment of the United Order.” Mendon was not alone in this as the same observer noted that the other settlements in Cache Valley had began working together like Mendon, also lasted for a “short duration.”[12]

According to Isaac Sorensen’s account, Mendon’s efforts with the United Order were short, covering just two farming seasons and disbanded completely in late 1875 when it proved unsatisfactory. While this was true there was a replacement of sorts that came into being. Likely the results of higher Church leaders, at stake and general levels, kept beating the U.O. drum incessantly at every conference, in Church periodicals and even the School of the Prophets, that the United Order had to be, was the only way, required, necessary and the Lord’s displeasure would come if rejected. To perhaps silence this constant sermonizing and ease some consciences, Mendon took a new tact and came up with its own version of a local co-operative project with local goals and objectives. In some way, never explained, the ward came to possess a parcel of 100 acres of land, which would be for the Mendon Ward, with the work open to the whole community on a voluntary basis. However, if pressure came from Church leaders, Mendon could refer to it as their united order. Apparently for over a year they preferred to call it their “co-operative farm.” It was a far cry from the original United Order, and not really a rejuvenated or re-directed U.O. Gone were the lofty goals and platitudes, promises, rules, regulations, rebaptisms, names affixed to an agreement or basic constitution or even stock in the venture. No regimentation, just a notice of work needed to be done in a co-operative way as had been done in Mendon since its founding. In mid-February of 1876, Bishop Henry Hughes was in Salt Lake City and he called at the offices of the Church newspaper, which gave his report of the situation in Mendon: “Matters generally prosperous in that settlement. A co-operative farm will be fenced and plowed in the Spring, preparatory to being sowed with wheat in the Fall, and early in the season a cheese factory will be established.”[13] This community farm came to play a significant role in Mendon.

The bishop’s information on activities in Mendon was only three months after the formal-name affixed United Order in Mendon was abandoned. Although the U.O. members had disregarded the written provision of their Order that encouraged them to deal only with members of the United Order, still its existence created a division in the small ward. There had been some disenchantment within the membership of the Mendon United Order over how it functioned but it was insignificant compared with what followed. The larger issue and bone of contention was between a faction that thought there had to be a U.O.; it was absolutely necessary and required, and another group that did not want any part of that new economic arrangement with each side blaming the other for the situation that developed. For whatever reasons this split was not healed by the disbanding of the Order nor the bringing forth the co-operative farm, and so the contention and bad feelings continued for one year whereupon in December of 1876 “the United Order” issue remained one of the principal topics of discussion and friction among the people. At this point Bishop Hughes thought it “wisdom” to deviate from their usual custom of reserving Christmas Day for the amusement of the youngsters and instead have this special day for a public dinner for adults “as one family.” The ward received the bishop’s idea favorably, appointed a committee, and all the necessary arrangements made. Special care was taken that “none were forgotten or neglected” with each family receiving a personal invitation, especially the poor, to this special dinner. Wagon teams were assigned to carry those needing transportation to and from this Christmas dinner. When the time to eat arrived, one hundred and twenty-five persons sat down to this “one family” dinner, which carried over to taking food out to those, through sickness or other causes, who could not attend in person. After the meal and visiting there were five hours of dancing to cap off the activities with “all present feeling perfectly satisfied with the day’s doings” on this special day with a local theme of peace and unity as one family in Mendon. By deeds, spirit, mood and possibly some words, the residents began to forget the past and look to a better future than they had since the division began back in the spring of 1874. The youngsters were not forgotten, for two days later on Wednesday, December 28^th, they had their Christmas celebration. All the children present were given a gift and in the evening a party with dancing and singing lasted till seven p.m. “when a herald announced the arrival of Santa Claus from the north, on his Shetland pony” and bringing “an abundance of apples and candies for the little folks.” The whole situation and the two celebrated occasions were described in a letter to the Church newspaper in which at the beginning the writer cited the continuing United Order discussions going on in Mendon. However, with the results of the peace and unity activities he concluded that it was “one of the happiest times ever enjoyed by the citizens of Mendon,” and ended it with his nom-de-plume or pseudonymous name or title, “U.O.”[14] Undoubtedly he had a reason for this moniker, and, the tone and content of the letter suggests that the town’s recent division was a thing of the past and perhaps a more appropriate ending would have been U. M.—United Mendon.

No references to the United Order have been found for 1876 in Mendon by any source, and at the quarterly conference held in April of 1877, Bishop Hughes gave his oral report of his ward with no mention of it. Six months later at the quarterly conference in November in 1877, Bishop Hughes’ turn came after several bishops had mentioned the U.O. in their wards. Then he reported on Mendon stating in part according to the newspaper account: “They had a good store, connected with which was a butcher shop, doing a successful business; also a U.O. farm, from which was raised 150 bushels of wheat . . .the proceeds of this farm were devoted to Temple-building.”[15] Conference reporting was a good time to bridge the semantics barrier, but in reality the community collectively farmed some land to assist them in their contributions to building temples much like missionary farms were later developed. Sixteen months later a letter dated from Mendon in mid-February of 1879, described the situation in the town as: “Mendon is a quiet little town, of between 90 and 100 families . . . . The community are [sic – is] industrious, frugal, and with scarcely an exception, farmers; each man sitting beneath his own vine and fig tree, owning the house he inhabits and the land he cultivates. The soil is very productive, and some of the best farms in the valley are contiguous to this settlement. Among these is one of 100 acres, owned by the entire settlement, whose yearly products are devoted to the building of the Logan Temple and the support of the Mendon Sabbath School.”[16] Mendon had found what suited them best and had no intention of trying the archetypal model of the new economic plan a second time.

Mendon’s actions in regard to the formal United Order came when they decided it caused more problems than it resolved. The resultant “co-operative farm” was the choice by local leaders as far better for their needs and situation with far fewer side effects. Besides it provided some cover while the general Church was heavily promoting the United Order as the necessary economic plan. After Brigham Young’s death the new leaders were not as sure that the U.O. was the answer, and with the United Order’s high failure rate they moved to a less grand board of trade approach. At the same time in 1878 the new leaders began advising ward bishops to purchase community or ward farms for multiple purposes such as: providing work for the unemployed, a place for the poor being sustained by the local ward and a situation whereby new arrivals without any knowledge of agriculture could be trained and gain experience before starting their own farm.[17] Mendon was ahead of the curve in moving in this direction. While this multi-purpose farm concept played out in a limited way, within a short time it was refined and heavily promoted that the each ward should have a missionary farm for the sustenance of families of missionaries while they were away preaching the gospel.[18] In due time Mendon created their own missionary farm of forty acres located between Wellsville and Hyrum.[19]

In summation, Mendon was only a single branch in a massive concerted effort by Church leaders to establish the United Order in every Mormon branch and ward, and some 150 to 200 were created. The leaders preferred the St. George model with the pledging of all one’s economic property and labor to the Order in return for equivalent stock as it was initially believed this would create immediately the largest amount of capital to launch self-sustaining home manufacturing. With the heavy recruitment and being told this was the Lord’s plan, the end of time was near, plus a host of promised temporal and spiritual benefits, the movement resembled a tide sweeping over Mormon country. Then an un-welcomed trend came into being when the percentage of members joining the United Orders dropped from most, to three-fourths, to half, to one-third, and lower ever farther from the “whole people” concept.. Church leaders countered with even more promises, explanations and declarations that this was the way, the only way, absolutely a necessity and had to be because it had been revealed. However, this did not significantly change the sign up numbers and a worse problem developed. Some of the newly created Orders did little more than organize and elect directors, and a great many, estimated by scholars as about half, lasted only a year. Most of these Orders were based on the St. George model wherein those joining pledged or consecrated their property and labor to the order. In 1878 the St. George Order dissolved and only a very small number of this type of order remained functioning. The pledging or consecrating of property and labor was never popular. Even worse, the promised Heavenly order appeared more like earthly chaos as the practical workings of the plan produced serious disagreement plus a nightmare in determining the value of labor and keeping track or account of everything involved.[20] The quick demise of the United Order in Mendon was on par with what was happening around it. With the United Order, the devil was definitely in the details, which the higher Church leaders avoided on the practical functioning aspects and left it all on the local stake presidents and bishops. With local control of the branches, there came a bewildering variety of United Order organizations with many seemingly custom designed or ruled, and that at Newton illustrates this as well as any.

Newton was founded in 1869 and in 1870 had a big setback when over half of the people chose to remain in the old settlement of Clarkston. Between few people and less water, times were difficult in the new community. On March 2, 1872, the Newton Co-operative Mercantile Institution was founded with a capital stock of $428 sold to twenty-five shareholders and with Bishop William F. Littlewood at the head. The co-op store was operated out of a home and quickly became deeply indebted to ZCMI in Salt Lake City to the point of appearing to be forced out of business. It was rescued when John Jenkins donated his sheep herd and other personal items. It gained some financial ground in 1875 by purchasing butter and eggs for the Logan ZCMI, but still operated part-time out of a home. It was in this condition when the new economic plan was introduced in early 1874 at St. George and swept northward and throughout the Church. The course of the United Order in Newton is somewhat difficult to trace due to a variance of opinions from the multiple sources that tell parts of its story. LDS historian Andrew Jenson and others place its organization in 1875 while primary sources move that a year earlier. At Newton, different than most other United Orders, the Co-op store was not included in the beginning. Sometime during the latter half of 1874 the Newton United Order was founded and elected its officers with the bishop as president. They had to set in writing the goal, objectives and articles of agreement to which the members subscribing affixed their names. By the time that Newton established the United Order, this basic written document had moved from being a “preamble and articles of agreement” to being considered the constitution for the United Order. Newton had a copy of the St. George agreement and reproduced it for Newton’s use and it was substantially the form for the Church-at-large. While no copy from Newton’s past has been found, it is almost certain it contained, probably word for word, the preamble of the St. George branch, which expressed the goals of the Order with many legalistic “And whereas” included as follows:

resulting in strikes of the workmen, with their consequent distress; and also the

And whereas: —there is a growing distrust and faithlessness among men in the

political and business relations of life, as well as a spirit for extravagant specula-

And whereas: —our past experience had proven that, to be the friends of God we

And whereas: —to accomplish such a desirable end and to become truly prosperous,

And whereas: —we believe that by a proper classification of our labor and energies,

earthly possessions, at a more rapid rate, but will also have more leisure time to

devote to the cultivation and training of our minds and those of our children in

And whereas: —at the present time, we rely too much upon importation for a large

articles of luxury of but little value, for which we pay our money, most of which

And whereas: —we believe that the beauty of our garments should be the workman-

temperance, frugality, and the simple grandeur of manners that belong to the pure

And whereas: — we are desirous of avoiding the difficulties above alluded to, and

that we live in perilous times, socially, morally, politically, and commercially.

Therefore, be it resolved: —That we, the undersigned, being residents of the places

set opposite our respective names, do hereby, of our own free will and choice, and

direct and guide us in this action, —mutually agree, each with the other, and with

our associates and successors, to enter into and form a co-partnership for the purposes

Following the lengthy preamble came the articles of agreement containing the various provisions of the United Order organization. The most significant of these were: First, every person in the community was asked to contribute all of his economic property to the United Order in return for equivalent capital stock and also pledge all of their time, labor and energy to the same. Both this property and promised labor were to be subject to the direction of an election board of directors, who were to take these assets (capital and labor) with which to commence its operations in line with the stated objectives of the Order. Second, the members pledged to cease importing and encourage home manufacturing. In addition they agreed to subsist or receive in payment products or good created by the Order, along with promising to deal only with members of the Order. Lastly, it was stressed that there was to be a spiritual oneness or union as well as a temporal one. To help achieve this there was a long listing of rules directing how the members of the Order were to live. They were to be good Christians with no lying, backbiting, quarrelling, cheating nor use liquor, tobacco, tea and coffee. They were to be frugal, pray daily and they must obey their leaders (Order and Church).[22] With the preamble and basic provisions of the agreement, the basic constitution was set, but in reality there must have been a standard form and an adjusted form, wherein the local branches included some of their needs, requirements with possible exceptions to which they were not committed. This could have come in the initial drafting, as amendments later, or even as verbal agreements by the branch members. Within three months of starting the Order, it became apparent that the St. George model needed a few changes or adjustments. Here Newton’s United Order, by either written provision or verbal agreement, deemphasized the pledge of all one’s economic property and promising all of a member’s labor, taking a more limited joint stock company approach, much closer to their earlier co-operative ventures.

In Newton membership in the United Order did not hinge upon pledging all of one’s economic property to the Order, and the organization moved slowly piecemeal to find its niche in the economic life of the community. Its initial activity was in livestock and a herding operation. The officers of the Newton U.O. requested the Cache County court on December 30, 1874, to grant them a “herd ground east of Newton to the River.” With this operation the U. O. asked for more donations of cattle, hoping to purchase a sawmill which would become their main business enterprise. While this never happened, possibly due to lack of sufficient capital, the distance to a suitable logging area and the competition of so many other sawmills in the eastern mountains of the valley, the Newton branch asked again for donations for a sawmill on January 2, 1877, again without success. Thus, the herding operation limped along failing to produce the capital for another business venture and only expanded to include taking all dry stock to Promontory in Box Elder County at one dollar per head.[23]

Because the Order’s formation came late in the crop season in 1874, it wasn’t until 1875 that farming took the center stage by instituting a co-operative farming operations. In the small Mormon villages this was the core of their economic resources and hoped for mainstay in the United Order in such places. The theory behind the United Order was to get people to voluntarily pledge all their economic property to the Order along with a pledge of all their “time, labor, energy, and ability.” This in turn would provide the capital and resources to increase more rapidly and possibly extend into other economic activities. When the pledging of property (in Newton this meant land, and some animals with promised labor) by those joining the United Order, the number willing was very low as only sixteen persons joined the co-operative farming during the summer of 1875. This was about one-third of the families in Newton according to the statistical report, and the ratio was the same as Mendon. Furthermore, in Newton no one turned over all of their economic property and promised all labor to the United Order. Still, all who joined the U.O. were re-baptized and agreed to comply with its rules and regulations. In late October of 1875, John H. Barker, in a letter to his sister in England, explained what was happening in Cache Valley in regard to the people uniting in Utah in farming and manufacturing and other enterprises to become self-sustaining by producing all they needed and used. In Newton he explained: “I have worked with 15 other men this summer in Farming in Co-operation.”[24] The record is silent on the normal issuance of capital stock in exchange for the land placed in this co-operative effort; we can only guess it followed the normal pattern. While no listing of the members of Newton’s United Order has been found, probably the best source in attempting to identify its pledged members would be a close inspection of the assessment records of the Newton School District with a comparison of land owned in 1874 through 1876. Perhaps the following examples will help illustrate this by citing the two unquestioned members of the Newton United Order—John H. Barker and Bishop William F. Littlewood (Rigby)—as shown below:

Newton School District #6 Assessment Roll for 1875 [based on 1874 economic status]: [Key: – no entry.]

Newton School District #6 Assessment Roll for 1876 [based on 1875 economic status]:

Newton School District #6 Assessment Roll for 1877 [based on 1876 economic status]: [25]

To interpret this data, it shows that in 1874 (using the school assessment for 1875) the Co-op mercantile store had no land claims or cattle, just cited for the $500 worth of merchandise in the establishment. The following year of 1875 (school record of 1876) both John H. Barker and Bishop Littlewood had a significant reduction in the value of their land claims, some, not necessarily all, of that change of land put into the collective farming effort initiated by the United Order. The latter replaced the Co-op store in the school assessment records, and the value of its land claims was $1260 with the next highest amount being $350 possessed by Bishop Littlewood and one other person. The fifty-five cattle represented the herding venture of the U.O. and it also possessed $1,000 worth of machinery. The next year of 1876 (school records of 1877) Barker and Littlewood’s land claims returned back almost to their 1874 levels while the United Order (under a now interchangeable name of “Newton Co-op”) had a significant decease of one-third of its land claim value. By comparing this pattern of less land value from 1874 to 1875 and then the return back the high level in the following year, some judgment can be made as to the membership in the United Order of Newton. The following chart will show this data with the author’s judgment on some (thirteen) of the probable members:

Newton School District Assessment Roll for 1875, 1876 and 1877 (based only on value of land claims):

Key : – = no numerical entry ? = no entry or further information on name, i.e., moved, died, etc.

NOTE: Names were frequently misspelled with the most common error being ending of

Most, if not all, of the sixteen farmers who turned over a portion of their land to the United Order had left the co-operative farming aspect of the U.O. in 1876 and were able to reclaim their land pledged to the United Order, and the remaining $800 land claim value possessed by the Newton Co-op (or U.O.) was the pasture lands granted by the county next to Bear River to the southeast and some grazing land west of town. No information has been found to trace the $1,000 worth of machinery. Overall, these assessment records show how local leaders customized the U.O. as they saw fit, wherein the few who joined the Order pledged only some of their land and labor to the new economic plan.

There was an attempt to expand the number of members who would join the order or do so to a larger degree. In February of 1876 in a priesthood meeting A. P. Welchman exhorted his fellow brethren “most solemnly not to dally with the principles of plural marriage and of the United Order, but to go forth in faith practicing these cornerstones of the Kingdom of God.” Welchman, who came to Newton to teach school, had about the lowest amount of property in Newton and his assessment rolls suggest he contributed none, but under Newton’s own way he still could have belonged to the Order as he was often requested to keep church and school records. In addition it could have been possible to be connected to the U.O. by way of the herding operation. Some women were rebaptized into the U.O., as Elizabeth Anne Trehem Griffin was re-baptized into the United Order on August 1, 1875.[26] However, the Newton residents dallied and support of the collective farming did not increase and before the 1876 farming season, the pledged lands were returned to the original owners. There was a positive movement as finally on November 28, 1876, the co-op store was combined with the United Order. Newton was still trying to find its way in the new economic plan. Still, on March 9, 1879, and some four years after Newton’s United Order had been set up, a Church member on a stake assignment declared to its citizens “that the U. O. must yet be established.” While the rhetoric was proper, the United Order had been stalemated for some time and was now declining almost everywhere, including Newton. Yet, in minor ways and form it continued perhaps because it was preached at each conference into the 1880s. A son of Bishop Rigby (surname changed in 1878) born in 1868 recalled one element of the old way saying, “We formed a sort of United Order to get hay for the winter.” He told how a couple of men with mowing machines picked out the best pieces of wild grass and cut it, and he as a lad ran a sulky rake to rake it into piles then others “who worked in the United Order” came and hauled the hay and stacked it. Lastly, the hay was divided to “each one according to the animals he had.”[27]

At a Cache Valley quarterly conference held in the Logan Tabernacle on Saturday, March 10, 1877, the bishops of the various wards gave their oral reports of their wards with most covering temporal and spiritual progress. When it came Bishop Littlewood’s (Rigby) turn, he covered the spiritual side and stated according to the newspaper coverage: “He represented the people of Newton Ward as being in a flourishing condition, the United Order was working extremely well, and the people were prospering in that Order far more than those outside.”[28] Surely he was hopeful that the U.O. would work out for the best, but in reality it was slipping back from a very modest beginning. If those in the Order were doing much better than those not in it, certainly they should have had the incentive to remain fully engaged while others noting the differences should have been attracted to an U.O. “working extremely well.” Such was not even close to the case at hand, for since the united farming venture stopped after the harvest and threshing of 1875, the U.O. in Newton was declining. In January of 1878 the United Order’s corral at Newton was used by the bishop to receive stock donated for the temple fund, the emigration fund, tithing and etc. On January 18, 1880, the U.O. of Newton ordered $300.00 worth of wire to fence a half section of land for pasture for horses. Eight months later a committee was appointed to get a threshing machine in Newton, it is not known if this succeeded, but earlier the U.O. operated a thresher. In the school records it becomes confusing with debits and credits being transfer from the co-op to the U.O. and back to the co-op store, but the taxes assessed against the U.O. after 1876 show a sharp decline to 1883 with its last assessment being only eleven per cent of what it paid in 1877. In 1883 the co-op store was separated from the United Order and continued to function into the twentieth century. The United Order remained to liquidate its few assets. The last record of the Newton United Order came on March 18, 1884, when it sold twenty acres of its land to the Newton Ward at $4.00 an acre for a “Missionary Farm.”[29]

When Church historian, Andrew Jenson, wrote his short history of Newton he painted a beautiful and rosy picture of the Newton U.O., saying it had “most of the people” consolidating their farming operations and the order proved quite successful for a number of years. Most likely he copied this notion from a unreliable source and far from the facts.[30] Less than a third of the families participated in co-operative farming which lasted only one season. Otherwise, the Order bounced around at an elementary level never able to extend itself much beyond the herding operations with a short term threshing operation. It tried but something was lacking—primarily leadership and sufficient capital to finance other enterprises or even making the collective farming attractive and successful. Among the reasons for failure was leadership, the highest Church leaders gave an ambitious program of economic development that proved utopian in scale for an agrarian society with inadequate directions except live good lives and obey Church leaders. At the local level, the Newton bishop had the tougher assignment to lead or guide while attempting to make it work on a practical scale. Even with the local customizing it still failed to carry the people with it. Furthermore, Bishop Littlewood (Rigby) had multiple interests and was away from home and his community frequently, first with his interests connected to the railroad, then his dodging the officers searching for polygamists and then his efforts in Idaho where he moved his primary headquarters. Thus the Newton United Order did very little and existed, at least on paper, until 1884 and died without much notice. A similar fate befell most of the United Orders.

Almost every settlement in Cache Valley formed a branch of the United Order and with few exceptions they followed the St. George pattern. Here the pledged property was primarily land, animals and promised labor. In some of the larger communities they evolved into specialized United Orders shaped along the lines of the Brigham City Cooperative model and in Logan they were formed by wards as at Salt Lake City. In both cases they were communal stock company systems far removed from the consecration, stewardship and pledging of property and labor aspects of the St. George system. Usually the towns in which their co-operative efforts had extended beyond their co-op store would adapt the United Order name and be the most active and successful. There are few details known of most of the United Orders in Cache Valley, and in Cache, like the rest of Mormon country, there was much variance in the organization and functioning of them. What will follow is a brief survey of some of the United Orders known to exist in Cache County and some known information concerning them.

Here one of the earliest United Orders in Cache County was established when Brigham Young, Jr., President of the Saints in Cache Valley, and Presiding Bishop William B. Preston visited Paradise on May 16, 1874, and organized a branch of the United Order. It included the already functioning co-operative store. There was a sawmill in the vicinity but it appears to have been a private venture, and there has been found no information on any agricultural or herding co-operative efforts. In 1875 a resident publicized a suggestion to end “winter’s idleness” by cultivating a “willow farm” and go into the manufacture of baskets. Nothing more was found on this suggestion. The town experienced a serious crop failure in 1877 and “the men were compelled to go from home to earn breadstuffs.” In the late 1870s a new rock meetinghouse was built and the co-op seemed to function well and prosperous. A report to the newspaper stated: “ On the whole Paradise is as near its namesake as any settlement in the valley we presume.”[31] But while this community had proudly proclaimed its formation of the United Order early, subsequently little to nothing was mentioned of it in conference reports, newspaper, etc., so the presumption is that it was founded, at least on paper, and its existence was short lived and not memorable.

As with Paradise, Clarkston reported to the Church newspaper in Salt Lake City that their ward had joined the United Order on May 31, 1874. The notice to the paper’s editor stated: “A branch of the United Order was organized in this settlement last evening [May 31th], under the direction of Elders Lorenzo and Erastus Snow of the Twelve, and Bishop Wm. B. Preston, the following officers being elected: Bishop Simon Smith, President; Andrew Quigley, 1^st Vice President, Ole A. Jensen, 2^nd Vice President; Andrew W. Heggie, Secretary; Henry Stokes, Treasurer.” Clarkston’s United Order would have been based on the St. George model wherein property (land and animals) and a person’s labor would constitute the capital to drive the enterprise into some form of co-operative activity. If so, it must have encountered the same problems that other farming communities had with this new order. We are devoid of the details of how this came about, but a more immediate problem did arise in some form or fashion. Bishop Simon Smith (serving since 1870), president of the new economic plan began to encounter difficulties in 1875 with the indication being they arose over the United Order. Possibly it came specifically over the bishop’s ways to get more members to join the United Order, and may have been spurred by directions from higher Church leaders. Presiding Bishop William B. Preston, at Logan, stated that “no man had a right to be a teacher unless he was willing to join the United Order.” Whatever, there came increased activity by the teachers’ quorum and more bishop’s trials in Clarkston and before long a petition by the ward members asked that their bishop be removed during 1876. Brigham Young, Jr., President of the Cache Stake, and Presiding Bishop Preston went to Clarkston to resolve the problem. President Young rebuked those with the petition and said that was the wrong way to handle the situation, and he stated that Bishop Smith should have been more alert and not allowed the problems to fester. President Young encouraged Clarkston to do more in regard to the United Order and his written report stated: “He also thought that re-baptism would be a good solution for all the difficulties existing here in Clarkston.” It is not known if the Clarkston members were re-baptized (which by that time had become quite common both to join certain orders as well as to solve grievances), but if so it didn’t resolve the problem at Clarkston, and in the fall of 1876 Smith was released and a new bishop brought in from Wellsville. Smith left Clarkston, relocating in Weber County, joined the Reorganized LDS Church and spent the remainder of his life waging a war of words against the Utah Mormons.

Probably the above problems placed the United Order at Clarkston in a holding pattern with little to no economic activity through most of 1875 and 1876. A year later in November of 1877 at the Cache Valley
Stake Conference, the ward bishops made their normal oral reports. Clarkston’s bishop, John Jardine, reported that Clarkston’s new meetinghouse was “built and nearly ready to be dedicated, and the people, young and old, manifested a united energy while doing this work, that was truly characteristic of the United Order.” Very likely the whole membership of the ward, not just United Order members, co-operated in the work to construct the new rock building, and cloaking it in the mantel of the Order was good public relations. Clarkston was one of the closest knit communities in Cache Valley and united in many ventures, but its involvement in the United Order was limited and of short duration. In April of 1880 a leading member of their ward wrote a long article for the Church newspaper suggesting a good possibility for a home industry was glass making and cited his previous experience in this work while in England. Clarkston lacked the capital for such an enterprise and no one else came forward to push this idea.[32] Besides, the formal branch of the United Order at Clarkston had ceased to function earlier.

At Hyrum the older co-operative movement had progressed beyond that in most of the area’s towns, and so the new economic plan was shaped along the lines of the Brigham City Cooperative model. While they still had all the trappings of the other units, there was less attention focused on pledging or consecrating all one’s property and labor but strived to increase community ownership and operation of various cooperative enterprises. The United Order was used as an umbrella to encompass and reinforce those cooperatives already functioning and to generate new ones. Their success came from resourceful local leadership along with the cardinal rule of having all pay and dividend being in the items they were producing. Both the earlier cooperative and the United Order movements at Hyrum tapped the grazing and timber resources in Blacksmith Fork Canyon close to their settlement. A report in August of 1874 surveyed the cooperative development operations in Hyrum. They had a steam sawmill at the head of the canyon running constantly and turning out ten to twelve thousand feet of lumber daily, and they had another sawmill powered by water in the same canyon and they had a lath and shingle mill. The lumber business boomed to the extent that an association for the distribution and sale of the lumber was formed. In addition Hyrum had a sheep herd and a dry herd and had plans to commence operation of a co-operative dairy with production of butter and cheese.

In the spring of 1875 the various co-operative activities at Hyrum were consolidated under the United Order with Bishop O. N. Liljenquist as president and other elected officers with James Unworthy serving as secretary and business manager. Their June 2, 1875, announcement of this move stated their dairy would start the following week and all of their mills would be in running order in a short time, and they owned the “great wagon road into Blacksmith’s Fork Canyon.” While now formally under the U.O. they continued their efforts in line with their co-operative joint stock enterprises and held annual stockholders meeting to present their business transactions, reports and usually awarded dividends. The Order’s store was reported as representing $30,000 in goods and other assets. On November 14, 1877, the Church newspaper reported that all was thriving at Hyrum with a “remarkable showing of the benefits of home industries” with its two sawmills, shingle mill, cheese factory and two lumber yards (one at Hyrum and one at Logan). The only caution to their success was the “if they can only dispose of the products of their labors,” then the U.O. could meet all its liabilities and declare a “handsome dividend.” They did and their community reflected this with improvements in their homes, barns and good fences. Since they didn’t stress pledging their property to the Order but gave repeated dividends, more people were induced to purchase stock in these ventures.[33]

The good times continued into the 1880s with increased appreciation that these enterprises “provided employment for a great many men and boys.” At the annual meeting in 1880 it was stated that the “foundation of the Order” was their “well-conducted co-op store,” with all the rest being the outgrowth of their mercantile beginning. In spite of the loss of the shingle mill that burned down the previous year, they had rebuilt it and improved their planing mill (to make smooth the rough edges of sawed lumber) considerably. They had made a profit and declared a ten per cent dividend paid as follows: “One-fourth in merchandise, three-fourths in our productions, and payable December 1st, 1880.” The deferred payment came because the Order had just paid out a dividend of fifteen per cent declared previously. They were desirous of extending their business and considering blacksmithing, furniture, tailor and shoe shops. By mid July of 1881 there existed a serious shortage of lumber in Cache Valley as the sawmills were contracted out in making railroad ties, and the Hyrum U.O. had orders for large quantities of lumber that they could not fill for many weeks. The shortage was throughout Cache Valley to the extent that there was some thinking along lines that were counter to the goals and ideals of the United Order. The Logan newspaper explained along these lines. It reported that lumber from Truckee (along the Nevada-California line) could be imported and sold in Cache for about the same price, if not cheaper, than lumber cut locally. So the paper stated: “while the wisest men in our community have deemed it unwise to import lumber, it seems to us that this must be done if the demand continues to so far exceed the present capacity of our mills to supply.” The modern concepts of price, supply and demand were business factors that didn’t bode well for the much less advanced economic way that Brigham Young hoped to achieve. The Hyrum U.O. built a new mercantile store in 1881-82 and its business was termed “immense” to the point that the organization’s scrip or paper orders were no longer heavily discounted but were considered “nearly or quite as good as cash. No better evidence of the soundness of the concern is needed that to see its paper at par.” With business better in the store and as good in the sale of lumber, the company decided to run all its various enterprises which it stated gave employment to about fifty persons. At the annual stockholders meeting in January of 1883, the Hyrum U.O. reported it gave out $12,273 in dividends and paid its employees $12,600 for the year 1883. The company noted that both would have been more except the steam sawmill and shingle mill had not been operated the past season. While it gave no explanation for this, the company’s advertisements emphasized that they sold all kinds of lumber “below bed-rock prices” and hinted strongly that the great increase in the number of sawmills, over-production and importation had possibly glutted the lumber market.[34]

A downward slide in business took place in the various enterprises of the Hyrum U.O., and in January of 1891 at the annual stockholders meeting the grim financial news was disheartening. The board of directors in consideration of this deemed it necessary to not declare a dividend for the previous year. A year later in January of 1892, the news was even worse as it was noted that the Hyrum United Order with the assistance of two employees of Z.C.M.I. (its biggest creditor) had been checking stock over two days to determine the real condition of the business with the hope of reducing the old stock of the institution to a cash basis and also increasing its capital by taking in new stockholders. The Logan newspaper on September 24, 1892, had a long article showing that the United Order in Hyrum ceased to exist, but some of it parts still survived. The dairy had a successful season and the company store was still operating. But Hyrum had suffered a severe blow and a great number were displeased, or as the paper put it “Many have much fault to find with the now defunct Hyrum U.O.” Much later a noted economist observed that Hyrum’s co-operative and United Order successes were based on an exploitation of the resources of Blacksmith Fork Canyon (grazing and timber) and when these were about exhausted in the late 1880s, the Hyrum co-operatives began to fail.[35]

At the county seat at Logan the United Orders followed the example taken at Salt Lake City and formed primarily in each ward and followed the Brigham City model with cooperative joint stock enterprises pursuing specialized ventures. There were grand plans for a woolen factory to process the wool from northern Utah, and to effect this development a “United Order of Cache County” was established, and construction of the building was commenced but never finished and put into operation. In terms of financial resources, capital and knowledge, Logan was the leader in Cache Valley.[36]

First Ward: This ward initiated a foundry and machine shop in mid 1876 by offering stock for capital invested. A newspaper statement from 1878 perhaps sums up the beginning best with the following words: “This institution was organized in 1876 and at first labored under many disadvantages, against which it struggled with little immediate prospect of success. But the workmen contented themselves with low wages, and determined that they would force their business into notice and patronage by the quality of their work and reasonableness of their charges. In time these began to have effect, business increased and success crowned their praiseworthy patience and perseverance.” In November of 1877 their bishop’s conference report stated: “The United Order Foundry and Machine, Blacksmith and Wagon Shop which had been in operation some eighteen months, had done very well considering the difficulties all such enterprises had to struggle against.” In February of 1878 the company with a slightly different name of “Logan United Order Foundry, Wagon and Machine Manufacturing Company” held their annual stockholders meeting and reported a net profit of $2,106.73 or 34% gain of the capital stock invested which they used to declare a dividend of ten per cent to the shareholders “payable in stock or work at the option of the stockholder,” with the remaining thirty-four per cent placed in a reserve account for the company. The meeting elected the officers for the ensuing year with all the previous officers re-elected except Moses Thatcher, whose other duties (new president of the Cache Valley Stake) prevent him from continuing on the board of directors.

On March 19, 1878, the Church newspaper in an editorial praised the “Logan U.O. Foundry as follows:

“One of the most useful and successful of Utah's home industrial institutions is the organization known as 'The United Order Foundry, Machine and Wagon Manufacturing Company, of Logan, Cache County.' It has a long title, but its operations are varied and extensive enough to justify the lengthy name. . . .

“The people of Northern Utah have no need to send abroad or to any other part of the Territory for wagon work, blacksmithing of any kind, castings, or mill fittings. Turbine water wheels, saw mill and shingle mill machinery are manufactured entirely at this establishment, and in the machine shop are implements made therein for the use of the institution, which will challenge comparison with any outside work. Among these are an engine lathe, self-acting screw cutter, iron

press drill, etc., etc. Seventeen men are employed including the secretary and treasurer. . . .

"There are now eighty-one stockholders, owning $6,600, paid up of the $10,000 capital which is the limit....”[37]

Year after year this stock company performed good quality work, paid dividends, provided employment and continued in operation after almost all the other United Order branches in Cache Valley had ceased.

Second Ward: By issuing stock to obtain capital, this ward used the resources of Logan Canyon to direct their co-operative movement and then in 1875 placed it all under the umbrella of the United Order for their ward. By the time of the U.O. it included seven sawmills, a planing mill, a woodworking shop and a mercantile store. In their bishop’s report at the November of 1877 quarterly conference it stated: “The U.O. Manufacturing and Building Company, which was incorporated two years ago, was doing good business; it had in connection with it a small store.” By the time of the annual stockholders meeting held in February of 1881, the stock company reported total assets or resources of $56,236.29 with liabilities of $50,306.52 yielding a year’s business profit of $5,929.77. The company declared a divided of twelve per cent to the stockholders “payable in cash at any time during the month of May,” but there was an incentive if spent for merchandise from the U.O. store of two per cent discount if used within the same month. This was a good financial return to the stockholders, and it came after an earlier pay out from the company’s reserve of a twenty-four per cent dividend “which percentage less the tithing on the same, was placed to the credit of each stockholder.” This caused the Church newspaper to expounded—“It is gratifying to know that during the five years of the company's existence, 99 per cent. will have been paid out in dividends, and it is certain that the company is at the present time, on as firm a foundation financially, as as [sic] it ever was. . . .”[38]

Over two years later the same paper wrote of this institution: “A Valuable Enterprise. –The best of motives actuated the founders of the United Order Building and Manufacturing Company of Logan. It was their design to build up the resources of our city and county and afford employment to the poor. It has done much to accomplish both these objects, and at the present time is paying wages to a larger number of embloyees [sic- employees] than any other institution in the county. Its two stores, one on Main street and the other on Third, three blocks west of Main, at which all kinds of merchandise are sold, do a good business. Besides these, as branches of the Institution, there are several saw mills, a dairy, a furniture store, a cabinet shop and a sash and door factory, which turn out all kinds of building furnishings. These several departments are now running in full blast and are worthy of a generous patronage from the general public.”

Three to four months later came a published rumor that this U.O. had experienced a misfortune and probably some of its property would have to be sold off at a sacrifice. To quickly counter this serious and unenviable report, the offending Salt Lake paper (Herald) published another letter to present the situation in a better light. This was followed by reports from the chief creditor of the Logan U.O and the Church’s newspaper charging that the unfavorable information was by a repeat of street gossip “that had no foundation in fact.” The creditor, Salt Lake’s Z.C.M.I., stated the Logan company did not owe their institution one-third the amount rumored and besides it had enough unencumbered real estate, logs, lumber and merchandise to satisfy all their obligations. Furthermore, Z.C.M.I. had and would continue to extent a credit of $10,000 to the Logan U.O. without giving any security. Then by the lengthy and involved explanation of how even solid companies can appear to be in financial troubles, it would appear that there was some smoke, however over stated, behind the whole affair.[39]

The following year in July of 1884, fire destroyed the United Order Manufacturing and Building Association’s steam sawmill, sending $7,000 of its assets up in smoke. The Church newspaper bemoaned the loss of the mill and the loss of jobs, which it observed was one of “U.O.M. and B. Association of Logan,” “chief functions . . .in supplying labor for people.” It hoped the effects of this loss would not destroy or permanently cripple the enterprise, and recommended some sort of financial aid would be in the interest of the community and urged the people to “step forward and give it a helping hand to bridge over the river of adversity, that the shore of prosperity may be reached as speedily as practicable.” This U.O. bridged this problem, but lawsuits prevented the prosperity from taking hold. In 1886 the United Order Manufacturing and Building Company of Logan was sued for $20,837.50 by federal prosecutors in what the LDS Church branded as “unjust and oppressive suits” instituted against sawmill owners in the district courts. It was all entangled in and around the last anti-Mormon government acts striking at the economic power of the Mormon Church. But by this time only the name of the enterprise—“United Order Manufacturing and Building Company of Logan”—was in accordance with the old economic plan of the United Order and had become a private enterprise with a united order name. The court motions, demurrers and other proceedings were long and drawn out and still pending in March of 1900 in the case of the “United States vs. United Order Manufacturing & Building Company.”[40] It put another U.O. out of business.

Third Ward: This ward set up a dairy of which little is known. The bishop of the ward in his 1877 conference report stated: “The co-operative Dairy, started two years ago, was now connected with the 2nd Ward enterprises.”[41]

Fourth Ward: The 1877 conference report stated: “Some of the farmers had made a move towards combining their labor, which had given satisfaction.”[42]

Smithfield, under the co-operative program started in 1869, had a mercantile store, a sawmill and a tannery in operation which by 1874 needed to be enlarged. The following year the United Order was instituted as confirmed by a contemporary newspaper reference that stated: “The United Order Tannery was started in 1875,” which helps pinpoint the establishment of the Order. By the summer of 1875 the Smithfield co-op store was doing a thriving business, and they had established a “commodious shoe shop” that had recently opened and had built a new tannery building some 62x25 feet in size two stories high with fifteen vats which was nearly finished. It was calculated that the latter would “soon be able to supply the entire valley with those staple commodities, shoes and leather.” In the fall of that year the enterprise may have operated a threshing machine as an accident was reported on a thresher belonging to the “United Order of Springfield, Cache Co.,” which most likely was a misspelling of the location. In April of 1877, Bishop Samuel Roskelley read a statistical report of the Smithfield ward showing it had 195 families with 1,186 persons, and had established a “large tannery” under the United Order which was a successful operation. It had declared a dividend to stockholders of ten and a half per cent for the year 1876. No information has been found to discover whether Smithfield attempted co-operative farming under the United Order plan; if so, it probably involved few farmers and existed for a short time as in the other wards that tried it and/or Smithfield tried the agricultural aspects in their own way as will be shown.

By the fall of 1877 the United Order situation in Smithfield became clearer with the bishop’s report at the quarterly conference in October as published by the Church newspaper: “Smithfield - In connection with their store of general merchandize they had a tannery employing five hands, boot and shoe shop employing nine journeymen and two apprentices, harness shop employing two men, all of which were doing well. Also connected with the institution was an agricultural department, consisting of five companies of men, who supplied it with grain, receiving therefore stock in the institution. The proceeds from a threshing machine were appropriated in the same way. The blacksmith's shop and saw mill were also a success.” Eighteen months later in April of 1879, Smithfield was cited as having 190 families and four mercantile establishments, which, the writer observed, “though all are fairly supported, is just three too many.” Still the Co-op Store had the better of the trade which amounted to about $22,000 yearly. Up in the nearby canyon a United Order co-operative stock company had a sawmill.[43]

The Logan newspaper in early October of 1880 gave its description of “The United Order of Smithfield” as follows:

“This institution has lately completed a building designed for a shoe and harness shop and

salesroom, and a few days since commenced taking orders for both . . . . The shoe shop employs

six hands at present but others will be added immediately, and this department commences business with all the orders they can fill.

“The tannery of the Order is a well appointed institution of capacity sufficient to turn out all

“The Order manufactures lumber, shingles, and lath and will keep on hand at the sale room in

Smithfield, a stock of home made cloth, yarns, &c. Arrangements are being perfected by which

the Order will be enabled to supply the settlements north of Smithfield and up into Idaho with

doors and sash. The ground adjoining the shoe shop has been graded preparatory to erecting a

blacksmith shop. A planing machine is to be immediately added to the wood working machinery

“In fact the United Order of Smithfield is fast assuming proportions that will render it a very

With the establishment of a newspaper published in Cache Valley, the institution began running advertisements letting all know that at the United Order of Smithfield, they manufactured and sold men’s boots and shoes, made and repaired harnesses along with homemade cloth of all kinds, door and sash, lumber, shingles and lath. Then on April 11, 1881, at a meeting of the stockholders of the “Smithfield United Order Co-operative Store and Co-operative Saw Mill,” a significant change was made. “The name of the association was changed from the United Order of Smithfield to that of Smithfield Manufacturing and Mercantile Institution, and the shares placed at five dollars each, Instead of twenty-five dollars; the capital of the company still remains as when first incorporated $30,000.” Thus, the old Smithfield U.O. passed into history.[45]

Few details are known of most of the U.O.’s in Cache Valley and with some there is very little or no record. At Millville the U.O. encompassed the established co-op store and circular sawmill, and in January of 1875 began work “on the United Order principle . . . for the purpose of raising broom corn and manufacturing brooms and other industrial pursuits.” By the following October they had thirty acres of good broom corn ready to harvest, good broom machinery and an experienced broom maker and expected to supply all Cache and adjacent counties with as “good an article of brooms as can be obtained from the States.” In Wellsville the co-op store, two sawmills and other cooperative enterprises were taken over by their United Order in May or June of 1874. In the spring of 1875 their U.O. board started a butcher shop which began selling meat. They slaughtered between sixty and seventy head of beef and many sheep during the summer and fall and made a profit. They sent all the hides to the Smithfield tannery but hoped this would prove the nucleus for another local industry. On June 9, 1875, they effected a “reorganization of the United Order,” elected new officers, and asked the residents to take more stock in the institution and took steps to incorporate according to law. In Richmond the United Order was not set up until October of 1875, quite late for a sizeable population of about one thousand that had a co-op mercantile in operation for a dozen years with the initial capital investment that had increased almost seven times. A year after the U.O. took over, the bishop of the ward reported in quarterly conference that the store was doing fine and their “co-op saw-mill, butcher shop and shoe shop were doing well.” A year and a half later, the mercantile store was continuing to increase in business. In press reports from Richmond the United Order by name received almost no mention.[46] There is even less known of the United Order efforts in the other towns of the county.

The grand economic plan of the United Order was no more successful in Cache County than it was throughout the Mormon country. Its most notable successes were in the co-operative endeavors that were either started prior to the United Order or could have been accomplished without the U.O. The life span of the movement was surprisingly short considering the extraordinary amount of talk and words devoted to putting the U.O. in place and keeping it working. There were many factors combined to prevent it from succeeding with just a few of these being: uncertainty as to the goals and rules, influx of immigrants with no capital to contribute, internal disputes, difficulties evolving around the fair distribution of benefits, a division in the community and external pressures as the government’s measures were hostile to Mormon economics as well as polygamy. In the end its development was not uniform, and it was never adequately explained or established. Probably in the final analysis there were way too many problems, and then the promised economic benefits were slim to non-exiting in most of the U.O.s. In the beginning almost every ward or branch of the Mormons joined in setting up the U.O.s, but the numbers within these branches were discouragingly small. A Mormon scholars found that about half of the United Orders lasted no more than one year and very few existed a decade. By the fall of 1876, about two years after initiating the United Order, even President Brigham Young could see the fate of the economic program. At a meeting of bishops on September 21, 1876, he told them that he had “been inspired by the gift and power of God” to establish the United Order among the saints and “now was the time, but he could not get people to enter into it. He had cleared his skirts if he never said another word about it.”[47]

Still to his death in August of 1877 he continued his struggle to get the United Order accepted, and for some time afterwards the U.O. was a conference theme, but this effort did not perpetuate it. The usual explanation or spin on this aspect has been that the people were not ready for it. Perhaps that was the easiest way out, but probably a more thoughtful explanation came from Daniel H. Wells, who served as a counselor to President Young for many years. On June 1, 1878, at Provo he stated: “Why could not we establish the United Order among the people? Because we did not know how to do so, and I have not seen a man who knew how, and for this reason that we were not prepared to receive it.”[48] Thus, there were at least two crucial elements to the failure of the United Order, the leaders and their followers.

[1] Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900. (Reprint Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1963), 323-324, 330. Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (Urban & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 376-377.

[2] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 323, 327-329. Deseret News Weekly (Salt Lake City, UT), May 6, 1874. Arrington, Brigham Young, 380.

[3] William E. Berrett, The Restored Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954), 434. Deseret News Weekly, April 15, 22, 29, 1874. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 329.

[4] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 329. Deseret News Weekly, May 6, 13, 1874, July 26, 1876.

[5] Deseret News Weekly, May 13, 1874.

[6] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 329-331. Deseret News Weekly, June 3, July 22 and Aug. 5, 12, Dec. 2, 1874.

[7] Deseret News Weekly, May 13, 1874. Isaac Sorensen, History of Mendon: A Pioneer Chronicle of a Mormon Settlement (Logan, UT.: Cache County Historical Preservation Commission & Utah State Historical Society, 1988), 79. Isaac Sorensen, from Mendon, became one of the directors in the U.O. in his town and his writings give an inside view of some of the activities with it.

[8] Deseret News Weekly, May 20, July 1, 1874.

[9] Sorensen, History of Mendon, 79-82. Arrington, Brigham Young, 380, 393. Three years later and within three months of Young’s death he explained that in rebaptizing people into the United Order, only the basic words need to be spoken, “but if you want to put in anything else, you can do so.”

[10] Sorensen, History of Mendon, 79-82.

[11] Ibid, 82. Deseret News Weekly, Feb. 10, 1875.

[12] Sorensen, History of Mendon, 81-83.

[13] John R. Patrick, “The School of the Prophets: Its Development and Influence in Utah Territory,” (Master’s Thesis BYU, 1970), 107-109, 114-115, 136. Deseret News Weekly, Feb. 16, 1876.

[14] Deseret News Weekly, Jan. 10, 1877.

[15] Deseret News Weekly, April 18 and Nov. 14, 1877.

[16] Ibid, March 5, 1879.

[17] Deseret News Weekly, July 3, 1878.

[18] Ibid., Dec. 24, 1884, May 3, 1886.

[19] Ibid., June 13, 1895.

[20] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 330-331.

[21] St. George United Order’s preamble to their articles of agreement quoted in Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 327-328.

[22] Ibid., 328-329.

[23] Andrew Jenson, “History of Newton” (Unpublished typescript in the LDS Church Archives). Joseph C. Felix, “The Development of Co-operatives in Cache Valley, (Unpublished typescript in the files of Cache Valley Historical Society), 2, 19, 27-28. Marybelle Pike, “Cache Valley’s West Side,” Proceedings and Papers of the Cache Valley Historical Society, IV, 1954-1955, p. 266. M. R. Hovey, “An Early History of Cache County,” (Unpublished typescript in files of the Cache Valley Historical Society). 112.

Newton Ward Historical Record Book 72529, p. 29; and Newton Ward Historical Book “B”, p. 93 (in the LDS Archives).

[24] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 328. John H. Barker letter to his sister Jenny, October 24, 1875 (Author has a copy of this and other Barker letters).

[25] “Newton District School, Book A, 1875 -1886.” (Origin record book donated to Special Collections of

Merrill Library, Utah State University, Logan, Ut. A transcription of this entire book can be seen at the Cache County GenWeb site under the “Towns” link under “Newton.”), assessment rolls—1875. pp.10-11; 1876- pp.126-127; and 1877- p. 148.

[26] Newton Ward Priesthood Minute Book 1873-1886, p. 53. Newton Relief Society Minute Book “B:

1882-1893, 226 in a obituary. (both records in LDS Church archives.)

[27] M. C. Rigby, “Life Sketch of Martin C. Rigby,” (Edited by Annie Cowley) Author has a copy. Newton Ward Historical Record Book “B,” 93.

[28] Deseret News Weekly, April 18, 1877.

[29] Newton Ward Historical Record Book “B”, 7, 137, 191, 337-339, 348. Newton School District Minute Book “A”, 68, 115.

[30] Andrew Jenson, “History of Newton.” M. R. Hovey, “An Early History of Cache County,” 112.

[31] Deseret News Weekly, May 20, 1874, June 30, 1875, April 18, 1877, Nov. 14, 1877, July 10, 1878, Feb. 12, 1879. Logan Leader (Logan, Utah), March 5, 1880, March 4, 1881. March 4, 1881.

[32] Deseret News Weekly, July 1, 1874, Nov. 14, 1877, April 7, 1880. Ben J. Ravsten and Eunice P. Ravsten, History of Clarkston: The Granary of Cache Valle, 1864-1964 (Privately printed 1964), 10-11.

[33] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 317, 331-332. Deseret News Weekly, June 1, 1875, April 18, 1877, Nov. 14, 1877.

[34] Deseret News Weekly, April 7, 1880. The Logan Leader, July 1, 1881, Jan. 6, 1882. The Utah Journal (Logan, UT), June 5, 1883, Jan. 26, 1884. Oct. 21, 1885

[35] The Journal (Logan, Ut.) Jan.9, 16, Sept. 24,1892. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 331-2

[36] Deseret News Weekly, Aug. 12, 1874, June 23, 1875. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 330-333.

[37] Deseret News Weekly, Nov. 14, 1877, Feb. 27, 1878, March 19, 1878. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 333.

[38] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 333. Deseret News Weekly, Nov. 14, 1877, Feb. 23, 1881.

[39] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 333. Deseret News Weekly, Aug. 15, 1883, Dec. 12, 1883.

[40] Deseret News Weekly, July 16, 1884, July 14, 1886. Feb. 4, 1891. The Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT.), March 3, 1900.

[41] Deseret News Weekly, Nov. 14, 1877. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 333.

[42] Deseret News Weekly, Nov. 14, 1877.

[43] Deseret News Weekly, Dec. 9, 1874, June 16, Oct. 6, 1875, April 18, Nov. 14, 1877, April 2, 1879. Logan Leader, Aug. 13, 1880.

[44] Logan Leader, Oct. 8, 1880.

[45] Ibid., April 22, April 29, 1881.

[46] Deseret News Weekly, Dec. 9, 1874, June 2, 16, 1875, Nov. 14, 1877, April 1, 1879 and Apr. 29, 1881.

Pike, “Cache Valley’s West Side,” 266. The Logan Leader, April 29, 1881.

[47] Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 330-331. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, 388 (direct quote from “Bishops’ Meeting 1871-1879” record book, page 577 for 21 Sept. 1876 meeting.)

[48] “Discourse by Counselor Daniel H. Wells,” Journal of Discourses (Liverpool, England: William Budge, 1878), Vol. 19, 370-371.

The United Order in Mendon and Newton

with Insights on other Cache County Branches