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How Cremation Came to Utah
In 1877, a cremation was scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City. The body to be burned was Charles F. Winslow's, a doctor from Boston, Massachusetts, who died of heart failure earlier that week on July 7th.When Winslow's friends read his will the…
Cyrus Dallin and the Angel Moroni
The Angel Moroni is an iconic symbol that sits atop the LDS temple in downtown Salt Lake City. But did you know it was sculpted by a Protestant artist? In 1891, the plaster model for the statue of the Angel Moroni that sits atop the tallest spire of…
Oscar Eliason, Utah's Homegrown Magician
In 1899, the Utah illusionist known as “Dante the Great” died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen in the tiny Australian town of Dubbo.Born Oscar Eliason to Swedish immigrant parents, the magician began his career at the age of twenty with a…
Christmas in Early Utah
Christmas in early Utah was a festive event, filled with parties, gifts, and games. There’s a lot of debate these days about the place Christmas should occupy in American culture. Some, including Utahns, argue that we need to put Christ back into…
Salt Lake’s Catholic Diocese
In 1891, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City was formed from the old Vicariate of Utah and Eastern Nevada. Over 8,000 members, fifteen churches, and fourteen priests belonged to the new diocese.
Catholics appeared early on Utah’s religious…
John Christopher Cutler
Learn about the political career and mysterious suicide of Utah's second governor, John Christopher Cutler. In 1846, John Christopher Cutler was born in Sheffield, England to a merchant family. After converting to Mormonism, the Cutlers picked up…
The 1872 Constitutional Convention
A bizarre political moment in Utah's long trek towards statehood exposes the tension between politics and religion in the Deseret. In 1872, delegates met at the Salt Lake City Hall to create a new state called Deseret out of the old Utah Territory.…
Settling Bluff
Learn about the harrowing expedition that settled the tiny San Juan County community of Bluff!In 1888, a hardy group of Mormon settlers founded the town of Bluff, Utah. The party, which has since become known as the Hole-In-The-Rock Expedition, had…
The Spark That Ignited the Black Hawk War
Conflict and rising tensions between a group of Ute Indians and Mormons in Manti, Utah led to an incident that sparked Utah’s Black Hawk War. In 1865, on the same day Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were negotiating an end to the American Civil…
The Story of the English Sparrow
A bird once considered to be helpful pest control, the invasive English Sparrow made it on a legislative “hit list” in the 1800s.Most Utahns have heard the tale of how in 1848 a flock of California gulls swooped down and gorged themselves on a…
The Morrisites
Eight members of a Mormon fringe group were killed by militiamen in south Weber County.In 1858, Mormon immigrant Joseph Morris sent a letter to LDS Church president Brigham Young naming himself as the church’s true leader. A convert to Mormonism…
Jean Baptiste, Grave Robber
The mysterious disappearance of a grave robber who literally stole the clothes off of people’s backs.When George Clawson dug up his brother Moroni’s body a week after it had been buried in a Salt Lake’s cemetery, he made the startling discovery…
Women’s Home Missionary Society
Female Methodist missionaries in Utah forged relationships with women across religious lines, protecting and advocating for women in need throughout the state.Between 1880 and 1890, the number one recipient of resources from the Women’s Home…
B’nai Israel
Utah’s first Jewish congregation, B’nai Israel, remains a symbol of the state’s first Jewish pioneers.When the first permanent Jewish settlers in Utah celebrated the high holy day of Yom Kippur a little less than 150 years ago, they did so in a…
Early Moab
White missionaries struggled to create a permanent settlement in Moab. They faced armed resistance from the local Ute tribe and abandoned their efforts until nearly 1875.In 1855, the first white settlers of the region around Moab left Salt Lake City…
Mormons Sing At Mass
A friendship between a Mormon settler and a Catholic priest led to the performance of an all-Mormon choir at a high mass in St. George.In 1879, the Mormon Tabernacle in St. George became the site of a Catholic High Mass. Miners, many of them…
John Lyon, Utah’s Own Robert Burns
John Lyon’s popular Mormon poetry and hymns secured his place in the hearts of many Mormon poetry lovers.In 1853, Scottish weaver and poet John Lyon immigrated to Utah after joining the LDS church. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, to working-class…
Utah Votes for Bryan
Voters from Utah went crazy for Democratic presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan in the election 1896.When it comes to politics, these days national news outlets list Utah as among the reddest of the Red States. But it wasn't always so.…
The 24th Infantry Regiment
Nearly 600 enlisted African American soldiers and their families migrated to Salt Lake City in 1896. These soldiers discovered that Utahns’ attitudes towards African Americans were much like the rest of the country, and faced racial discrimination…
General Booth Comes to Utah
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was received warmly by a large crowd in Salt Lake City on his visit to Utah.In 1894, William Booth arrived in Salt Lake City by train. Booth, an Englishman who was born into a poverty-stricken family…