'Little colony' has persisted for 150 years
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CEDAR CITY, Utah — From an unsuccessful attempt a century and half ago to develop an iron-smelting industry in southern Utah sprang this thriving university community, the location today of a renowned annual Shakespearean festival.
Cedar City observed its sesquicentennial with an evening gala Nov. 10 on the campus of Southern Utah University, with President Gordon B. Hinckley as the featured speaker.
Referring to the Church's southern Utah Iron Mission that entered the valley and sagebrush flats Nov. 11, 1851, President Hinckley said, "That little colony has persisted and grown through all of these 150 years. Today, it is a good and wonderful community, a place of industry, a place of education, a place of culture and art. You who are the inheritors of those who first parked their wagons beside Coal Creek must ever be thankful to your forebears."
Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of Utah, himself a Cedar City native, also spoke to the audience of more than 6,000 in the sold-out Centrum Arena, declaring that he is grateful to have been born in Cedar City and that it would always be his home.
Much of the program was presented by an orchestra and chorus organized for the occasion from area musicians under the direction of Gerard Yun, professor of music at the university. Among the selections was an original arrangement of one of President Hinckley's favorites, "Danny Boy." It incorporated the melody of "Amazing Grace," which Dr. Yun played on a Lakota Indian flute. The written arrangement was presented as a gift to President Hinckley.
Also performed was "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains," the well-known Latter-day Saint Christmas hymn that was composed by John Menzies Macfarlane, who for 15 years from 1854, directed the Cedar City Choir.
Fred Adams, who founded the famous Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, conducted and narrated the program, which included readings from the journals and reminiscences of Cedar City pioneers.
The gala was preceded by a banquet and followed by a sesquicentennial ball. Earlier in the day, a commemorative wagon train traveled to Cedar City from Parowan, 20 miles to the north. The original settlers first gathered in Parowan before making their way south to found what became Cedar City. (Unfortunately, during the wagon-train re-enactment, a man was trampled and seriously injured when horses were spooked after a wagon tongue broke.)
Much of President Hinckley's address during the gala was a recounting of the experience of Ellen Pucell, a member of the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company of 1856. He recalled that 10 years ago, on the university campus, he had dedicated a statue of this courageous woman, who was 9 years old when she left her native England with her parents and 14-year-old sister to be with the saints in the Salt Lake Valley. During the ordeal on the high plains of Wyoming, the girls became orphans. As a result of frostbite, Ellen's feet had to be amputated just below the knees.
"The stumps never really healed," President Hinckley recounted. "She grew to womanhood, married William Unthank, moved south and here [in Cedar City] bore and reared an honorable family of six children. Moving about on those painful stumps, she served her family, her neighbors, and her Church with faith and good cheer and without complaint. Her posterity is numerous, and among them are educated and capable men and women who are scattered over the nation."
Quoting from a manuscript written by William Palmer, President Hinckley recounted that years later a group was discussing the unfortunate handcart companies, and many in the group spoke critically of the Church and its leaders because the company of converts had been permitted to start so late in the season.
"One old man in the corner of that Sunday School class sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it," President Hinckley read from the account.
"Then he arose and said things that no person who heard will ever forget. . . .
"He said in substance, 'I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. A mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes, but I was in that company, and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine, and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities.' "
"The man who stood up here in Cedar City and spoke those words was Francis Webster," President Hinckley said. "He was 26 years of age when, with his wife and infant child, he went through that experience. He became a leader in the Church and the communities of southern Utah."
That kind of faith and heroism was the substance of those who built the Cedar City community, President Hinckley said. He traced the history of those who answered President Brigham Young's call to go south and form the Iron Mission.
"The story of the Iron Mission. . . is a story of sacrifice," he said. "It is a story of courage. It is a story of little knowledge and great faith. It is the story of the founding of Cedar City. . . .
"They thought they had made it when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. But they were asked to travel 300 miles south into this strange and unsettled land.
"During the next seven years they worked like slaves trying to perfect the chemistry of mining and smelting ore. Their Herculean efforts were like the mountain that brought forth a mouse. During those seven years they were able to create a little iron. But they really never learned the secret of bringing together the ore, the coal and the flux available to them. . . .
"Finally in 1858, when a considerable colony had been planted here, the Iron Mission essentially shut down.
"Great was the disappointment. I am confident that no one felt that disappointment more keenly than did Brigham Young. But disappointment pervaded this settlement and other settlements in the area.
"And while a sense of failure pervaded, a great thing had come into being.
"A substantial community had been established here. It was solid and strong. Its tentacles reached out in many directions. Streets were laid out. Homes were constructed. Churches were erected. And eventually, the beginnings of this great Southern Utah University fell into place. Cedar City, named for the trees which once grew here, became a strong and vital community in this part of the country."
E-Mail: rscott@desnews.com
