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GROUND OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION By HEMAN C. SMITH [Read at the annual meeting of the
State Historical Society of Nebraska, January 16,
1913.] |
chiseled their habitation in the rocky ribs of our towering mountains. We ask, "Who were they? Whither have they gone? Were they civilized or barbarian? Were they Christian or heathen? What was the extent of their enlightenment in arts and sciences?" We turn inquiringly to the contents of our large and accumulating libraries but find no answer. We speculate and conjecture, but our conjectures and deductions lack historic confirmation. Fortunately the early pioneers of western civilization, the pathfinders, who traversed our fertile plains and scaled our romantic mountains were dreamers. They dreamed of an Eldorado with mountains of gold and perpetual springs, whose crystal waters were a fountain of youth. Those dreams and the hope of their realization moved them to heroic efforts, nor did they falter when in the quest of the fondly cherished goal; they met suffering and sacrifices even to the facing of death itself. The love of gold is authentically declared to be the root of all evil, and yet, incidentally, good often springs from its quest--not always to those who make the sacrifice or bear the suffering, but frequently as a legacy to those who come after. To our immediate ancestors who were the first permanent settlers of the west, great credit is due; for without their great practical accomplishments, through sacrifice and suffering, their dreams would be like the baseless fabric of a night dream, "as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite." . . . As the streams that drain North America have a general trend toward the south, one would naturally suppose the course of migration would be either southward or northward; but some power not easy to explain had a stronger influence than the natural contour of the country, and the |
trend of migration was toward the west or northwest. This, however, has not been peculiar to our western civilization, as the trend of civilization since history began has been westward. From its oriental cradle civilization has ever turned its face westward. There have, however, been a few exceptions to this general rule, as in the instance of Vasquez de Coronado, the earliest pathfinder among civilized men who traversed these western plains. Allured by the reports of vast wealth brought by Friar Marcos of Nice, he fitted out an expedition in a province of Western Mexico, and started February 23, 1540, through a trackless desert to the north and northeast. The reports of riches still spurred him on though often disappointed by finding abject poverty. The exact localities visited by Coronado are difficult to determine, but all students are agreed that he was in the territory embraced in modern Kansas. Whether he ever entered the territory embraced in Nebraska is doubted, though presented as probable by some writers. Authors differ widely, and the destination of Coronado is located from Genoa, Nebraska, to Junction City, Kansas. On a map showing routes of all the principal explorers and early roads and highways, from data prepared by Frank Bond, chief clerk, issued in 1908 by the department of the interior, Richard Ballinger secretary, the route of Coronado crosses the line of Kansas and Nebraska and thence northeast to a point in Clay county, Nebraska, near the present location of Clay Center. According to the map his route crossed the south line of the state of Nebraska and the Republican river near the southeast corner of Harlan county. Some color to the approximate correctness of this theory is afforded by the finding of the old sword on the Republican river some years ago. The theory is rendered even more plausible from an account published in the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology which |
claims to give distances, times and direction collated from all the accounts. Herrera, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of finding a river of more water and more population than others before passed, and Coronado, in a letter to the king, said that after a journey of seventy-seven days, in which he traveled nine hundred and fifty leagues from Mexico, he came to the province called Quivira. "Where I reached it, it is in the fortieth degree."1 (Page 582.) "After nine days march I reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their limit anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for more than three hundred leagues". (Page 580.) Law's map of 1721 indicates that the French had then explored the Missouri river as far north as Pierre, South Dakota; but the records of their explorations are very meager and indefinite. It is well known that the elder Verendrye reached the Missouri river as early as 1738. The map issued by the department of the interior indicates that the Verendrye brothers, sons of the above, crossed the Canada line in 1743, in an effort to find the western ocean, and pursued a westerly course to a point near the later site of Fort Benton, Montana, and then turned south and east to the region of the Bad Lands, now in Wyoming, where they gave up the search and turned backward.2 In 1769 Portalo, entering the territory of California below San Diego, traveled through the rich valleys of the Pacific slope to the region of San Francisco.3 In 1776-77, Dominguez and Escalente were exploring some of the more rugged sections of our mountain regions. 1 See F. W. Hodge's statement, footnote p. 17, infra, that the fortieth degree of latitude in question was at that time equivalent to the thirty-eighth degree.--ED. 2 For a sketch of these expeditions see "French Pathfinders" (Johnson) pp. 316-18; also South Dakota Historical Collections, v. 2, pt. 1, pp. 115, 118, 119.--ED. 3 See Early Western Travels, v. 18, p. 283, note, for an account of Gaspar de Portalo's expedition.--ED. |
Starting from Santa Fe they traveled westward through northern Arizona to a point in or near the southeastern corner of Nevada and thence in a northeastern course through the mountainous regions of southern Utah and on to a point nearly as far north as the south line of Wyoming, thence east and southeast through portions of Colorado and back into New Mexico .4 The Commercial Company, organized for the discovery of the nations of the Upper Missouri, in its three expeditions led by Clanmorgan and James Mackay in 1794-5, made extensive surveys of the Missouri river and tributaries as far north as the forty-seventh degree, in the vicinity of Bismarck, North Dakota.5 All these explorers by land added to the incentives of later brave spirits to make history for our western civilization. Add to these those who sailed our western waters following the Pacific coast and leaving no trail upon the trackless deep, but leaving impressions never to be obliterated from the mind by their reports of these wonderful regions and we have a background for our history as rich and varied as any country on the globe. These, all of the eighteenth century, may be classed with the dreamers whose discoveries form our wonderful background of history; and yet, with few exceptions, they accomplished nothing practical towards the building up of civilization, and their work has perished, except so far as 4 See History of Utah (Bancroft), pp. 8-18. According to an accompanying map, the route of the explorers extended no farther north than Utah Lake.--ED. 5 Zeno Trudeau, lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, urged the organization of the Spanish Commercial Company for the purpose of discovery and trade on the upper Missouri. James Mackay was a member of an expedition which left St. Louis in August, 1795, under the auspices of the company, the discovery of the Pacific ocean being one of its objects. (History of Missouri (Houck), v. 2, pp. 58, 70- 71); also Annals of St. Louis 1804-1821 (Billon), p. 9; South Dakota Historical Collections, v. 1, p. 373; ibid., v. 3, p. 379.--ED. |
they have served as examples for the practical generation following. With the beginning of the nineteenth century came what we might call the semi-practical dreamers; for, though largely controlled by dreams of gold and adventure, these expeditions contained many practical men who, seeing the value of the rich soils and varied resources of the country, dropped out by the way, forming colonies and settlements which became the basis of our practical western civilization. The Mormons are unique, not alone because of their peculiar doctrine, which it is not the purpose of this paper to discuss, but because it was not the love of gold, glory or adventure that caused them to join the company of pathfinders. Passing over their advent into the west-into Missouri in 1831--their finding uncongenial surroundings there and subsequently in the state of Illinois, and the murder of their leading men in June, 1844, we find they became pathfinders in their search for a location where they could dwell in peace. Their advent into the world was received much as was the infant's by its elder brother who was led into the mother's room to greet the new arrival. He looked at it for a few minutes then exclaimed: "We didn't need that!" But room had to be made for 'the little fellow whether he was needed or not. So the Mormons, whether needed and worthy or not, they have made their place in history, so that now, neither the history of our western civilization, nor the history of the United States nor of the world can be written without recognizing them. In August, 1844, a company of these people under the leadership of James Emmett left Nauvoo, Illinois, and, following up the courses of the Mississippi and Iowa rivers, wintered in the vicinity of State Center, Iowa. The next spring, over the then trackless prairies of Iowa, they proceeded westward into what is now South Dakota until their progress was impeded by the swollen condition of the 21 |
Missouri and Dakota rivers, and so the succeeding winter was spent in Vermillion. In the spring of 1846 they sent emissaries back to Nauvoo who returned with the intelligence that the main body was on its way westward and would cross the Missouri river somewhere about Sarpy's old trading point. This caused them to move again, this time southward, following the course of the Missouri river, I think on the east side, until they made a junction with the main body in the vicinity of Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 1845 another colony of these people, under Lyman Wight, one of the twelve apostles, leaving Black River, Wisconsin, a hundred miles above Prairie du Chien, drifted down the river on rafts of lumber to a point near Davenport, Iowa, and, there exchanging lumber for outfits, passed through Iowa in a southwest direction, through northwest Missouri, Kansas and Indian Territory into Texas, where they founded settlements in Travis, Gillespie, Burnet and Bandera counties. The general exodus from Nauvoo began early in 1846 and passed through the southern counties of Iowa, making settlements in Decatur and Union counties, and established Winter Quarters on what is now the site of Florence, Nebraska, just above Omaha. A vanguard was formed of the James Emmett company, before mentioned, and a company under Bishop George Miller. On July 7, 1846, this vanguard crossed the Missouri river with instructions to winter near Grand Island on the Platte river, but at the Pawnee village below Fremont they were visited by some Ponka chiefs who told them of good range for cattle on the Running Water, or Niobrara river. Bishop Miller, under the impression that the Ponka knew more about the country than Brigham Young, turned northward and wintered in the lands of the Ponka. In the spring of 1847 they returned to Winter Quarters, where James Emmett and his followers became identified with the |
main exodus to the west, while George Miller disagreed with the constituted authorities and proceeded south to join the Lyman Wight colony in Texas. The company under the leadership of Brigham Young, as is well known, followed up the north side of the Platte river which they crossed at Fort Laramie and struck the Oregon Trail, following it to the Rocky mountains. From the crossing of the Loup to Fort Laramie, they made their own road, though from a point just west of the east line of Deuel county, Nebraska, they paralleled the Oregon Trail on the opposite side of the river. All along the path of those Mormon parties through Iowa and Nebraska there were left men who were dissatisfied with the administration of the leaders. These formed the nucleus of a protesting organization and made homes on what was then esteemed the desert, and also formed the beginning of many a pioneer settlement which turned attention to the cultivation of the virgin soil. I mention the Mormons particularly because the public is less acquainted with them than with others. Not from the Mormons alone, but from many of these pioneer companies of travelers have come the sturdy sons of toil. They have learned that there is more profit in the golden harvest than in the yellow dust for which the dreamer sought. To them we are indebted for the existence of our prosperous cities and towns, our smiling fields and richly laden orchards. Let us mark the trails of the dreamer so that we can follow with unerring certainty the footprints made on the old Spanish, Santa Fe, Oregon and other trails, while the more splendid monument of western civilization shall commemorate the deeds of the practical men who built our factories, our farms, our railroads, our churches, our schools, colleges, universities, and other evidences of advancing civilization. |
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