Pursuing "the things of this world": Mormon resistance and assimilation as seen in the furniture of the Brigham City cooperative, 1874-88

Winterthur Portfolio

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 191-212

  Main, Kari M ^a  

^a YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 55549117135     PISSN: 00840416     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/496859     Document Type: Review

References (109)

1. On the American/anti-American tensions within Mormonism, see Richard Kyle, The Religious Fringe (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), pp. 86-87.
2. Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), p. 324.
3. Lorenzo Snow letter, 1873, as quoted in Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation among the Mormons (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1976), p. 127.
4. Kenneth H. Winn, Exiles in a Land of Liberty: Mormons in America, 1830-1846 (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), p. 190.
5. Armand L. Mauss, The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), p. 22.
6. On "grand destiny," see Klaus J. Hansen, The Quest for Empire: The Political Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty in Mormon History (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1970), p. 47.
7. On Native Americans, see Kyle, Religious Fringe, pp. 86-87.
8. R. Laurence Moore, Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 31, 32.
9. On Mormon relocations, see Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-Day Saints (New York: Knopf, 1979; distributed by Random House), pp. 83-108;
10. and Davis Bitton and Leonard J. Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988).
11. It is entirely possible that Young had foreseen the proximity of the Brigham City site to a possible future thoroughfare from the East; Steven L. Olsen, "The Mormon Ideology of Place: Cosmic Symbolism of the City of Zion, 1830-1846" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1985), p. 290.
12. Mark Riddle, "Lorenzo Snow and the Brigham City Cooperative" (master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1970), p. 1.
13. On the early history of Brigham City, see Olive H. Kotter, Through the Years (Brigham City, Utah: Brigham City Eighth Ward, 1953).
14. Deseret News (Salt Lake City) (from vol. 12, no. 277),
15. as quoted in Vaughn J. Nielsen, The History of Box Elder Stake (Brigham City, Utah: Pat's Print Shop, 1977), p. 19.
16. E. H. Anderson, Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (Independence, Mo.: Zion, 1928), p. 116.
17. Deseret News (Salt Lake City), February 1, 1869,
18. as quoted in Nielsen, History of Box Elder Stake, p. 21.
19. Edward J. Allen, The Second United Order among the Mormons (New York: AMS Press, 1967), p. 33.
20. For an overview of the Brigham City cooperative, see Arrington, Fox, and May, Building the City of God, chap. 6;
21. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom;
22. and Leonard J. Arrington, "Cooperative Community in the North: Brigham City, Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 33, no. 3 (Summer 1965): 212.
23. "Articles of Agreement Signed by Lorenzo Snow, Samuel Smith, Alvin Nichols, and W. C. Thomas, Dec. 7, 1865, Co-Partners in Mdse, Styled L. Snow and Co.," LR 933 34, reel 3, box 4, folder 7, Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter LDS Church archives); Lydia Walker Forsgren, comp., History of Box Elder County (Brigham City, Utah: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers of Brigham City, 1937), p. 105. Lorenzo Snow to Edward Hunter, February 17, 1875, MS F 564, MS 302, LDS Church archives.
24. Gordon Eric Wagner, "Consecration and Stewardship: A Socially Efficient System of Justice" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1977). p. 45.
25. Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution, the most successful Mormon cooperative mercantile store, was founded in 1869 after Young announced "that the people of Utah should become their own merchants [to] insure the social unity of the Saints" (Anderson, Brief History of the Church," pp. 116-17).
26. Orson Pratt, October Conference 1868, as quoted in Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed: Themes in the Development of Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1984), p. 82.
27. Address of the Friends of Domestic Industry (Baltimore: Friends of Domestic Industry, 1831), p. 39;
28. see also The American Laborer: Devoted to the Cause of Protection to Home Industry (New York: Greely and McElrath, 1843).
29. Allen, Second United Order, pp. 10, 33.
30. Doctrine and Covenants, 78:5-6.
31. Journal of Discourses, 2:139,
32. as quoted in Gustive O. Larson, Prelude to the Kingdom: Mormon Desert Conquest - A Chapter in American Cooperative Experience (Francestown, N.H.: Marshall Jones Co., 1947). p. 255.
33. Allen, Second United Order, p. 48.
34. On United Order branches, see Wagner, "Consecration and Stewardship," p. 53.
35. Hansen, Quest for Empire, p. 18.
36. Doctrine and Covenants, 104:59. Other verses with similar themes include 104:11, 40, 42, 67-70.
37. "Rules That Should Be Observed by Members of the United Order," as quoted in Kate B. Carter, ed., Heart Throbs of the West, Vol. I (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1939), p. 70.
38. Shepherd and Shepherd, Kingdom Transformed, pp. 99, 103.
39. Anonymous history, LR 933 34, reel 3, box 4, folder 7, LDS Church archives. Lorenzo Snow to Brigham Young, 1873, as quoted in Forsgren, History of Box Elder County, p. 109.
40. "Minutes of the Meeting of Directors of the Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association, March 30, 1874," LR 933 34, reel 44, box 50, folder 1, LDS Church archives. Henry Dinwoodey, a Salt Lake City cabinetmaker, was in the East arranging the first imported shipments of furniture when the Golden Spike was placed; see Olive Wooley Burt, "Founder of Tradition," The Utah Magazine (July 1946): 46.
41. Eliza Roxy Snow Smith, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Co., Printers, 1884), p. 290.
42. Adolph M. Reeder, "The Brigham [City] Manufacturing and Mercantile Association" (Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, typescript), pp. 4-5.
43. See also Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 324-26.
44. "Latter-day Legacy," Country Home (August 1991): 82-84.
45. "Lorenzo and Elma Hansen, conversation with author, July 1996; Anonymous history. Ledger A, 1874-76, LR 933 34, reel 51, box 55, folder 1), LDS Church archives. Inventory of Goods of the Cabinet Department, 1880-84, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
46. See, for example, entries for June 22, 1881, "Chairs-6, No. 4 K.D.," "Chairs-6, No. 3 1/2 K.D.," and "Chairs-6, No. 1 K.D.," Ledger A, 1874-76. See also various loose receipts in LR 933 34, reel 51, box 55, folder 3, LDS Church Archives.
47. Accounts of Cooper Department and Charles Kelly, Ledger A, 1874-76. Ledger A, 1880-82, LR 933 34, reel 51, box 55, folder 3, LDS Church archives.
48. Journal of Discourses (from October 7, 1873),
49. as quoted in Allen, Second United Order, p. 47. Wage accounts can be found in Ledger A, 1874-76, and Ledger B, 1876-79, LR 933 34, real 51, box 55, folder 2, LDS Church archives.
50. "Minutes of the Meeting of Directors of the Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association, March 30, 1874," LR 933 34, reel 44, box 50, folder 1, LDS Church archives. Martin Luther Ensign, Diary/Autobiography, MS 5372, MS 4220, LDS Church archives; Kotter, Through the Years, p. 8.
51. "Deed of Sale of Cabinet Shop of Samuel Smith and J. W. Walker to Brigham City Co-op Mercantile and Manufacturing Association," Book D of Deeds (Box Elder County Records, Brigham City, Utah), pp. 20-21.
52. I thank Larry Douglas, Director of the Brigham City Museum-Gallery, for his expertise on the comparison of local land prices. On Samuel Smith, see Riddle, "Lorenzo Snow and the Brigham City Cooperative," p. 3.
53. Ledger A, 1874-76.
54. Ledger A, 1874-76.
55. Lorenzo Snow to Edward Hunter, February 17, 1875, MS F 564, MS 302, LDS Church archives. Accounts of the Social Hall, the Saw Mill, and Lorenzo Snow, Ledger A, 1874-76.
56. Accounts of B. L. Nichols and Lorenzo Snow, Ledger A, 1874-76; Daughters of the Utah Pioneers histories mention James Ingram working "at his trade as a wood turner" in Brigham City and Severin N. Lee "turning of chair legs and spindles and all matter of things that could be turned on a wood turning lathe" (Forsgren, History of Box Elder County, pp. 1, 4).
57. Accounts of the Public Hall, James May, and J. D. Reese, Ledger A, 1874-76. Wage accounts in Ledger A, 1874-76, and Ledger B, 1876-79. Forsgren, History of Box Elder County, p. 119. Accounts of M. D. Rosenbaum, P. Starke, and J. C. Dewey, Ledger A, 1874-76.
58. Accounts of the North Farm, the Egg and Butter Department, Lorenzo Snow, and the Tailor Department, Ledger A, 1874-76. Accounts of E. Wight and A. Hillam, Ledger A, 1874-76. For examples of luxury goods, see Accounts of H. P. Jensen and M. L. Ensign, Ledger A, 1874-76. For the "whatnot" order, see accounts of Lorenzo Snow, Ledger A, 1874-76.
59. Journal of Discourses, 15:20, as quoted in Wagner, "Consecration and Stewardship," p. 215.
60. Deseret News (Salt Lake City), September 20 and October 20, 1876.
61. By 1880 the cooperative had established new affiliated stores in Three Mile Creek, Willard, and Bear River City, which also helped disperse furniture throughout the area; Salt Lake Herald (Utah), October 25, 1876;
62. Forsgren, History of Box Elder County, p. 92.
63. Arrington, Fox, and May, Building the City of God, pp. 128-29.
64. Anonymous history.. Arrington, "Cooperative Community in the North," p. 212. Ledger B, 1876-79; Ledger A, 1880-82.
65. Author's calculations based on data found in Ledger A, 1874-76; Ledger B, 1876-79; Ledger A, 1880-82; Ledger B, 1883-88, LR 933 34, reel 51, box 56, folder 1, LDS Church archives; and Daybooks LR 933 34, reel 51, box 56, folders 2, 3, LDS Church archives.
66. See Eileen Dubrow and Richard Dubrow, Furniture Made in America, 1875-1905 (West Chester, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing, 1982) for examples of wall pockets (p. 294) and towel rollers (pp. 184, 304). 1880 Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
67. Ledger A, 1880-82; notations of "Views" with rarely any accompanying figures make it difficult to determine exactly how many views were sold that year.
68. Karin Calvert, Children in the House: The Material Culture of Childhood, 1600-1900 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992). pp. 143-46.
69. Kotter, Through the Years, p. 21.
70. Arrington, "Cooperative Community in the North," p. 205; the evidence regarding the exact year of the appearance of baby carriages in Brigham City is confusing - an 1876 Deseret News article makes reference to the fact that the Cabinet Making Shop could not keep up with the demand for baby carriages. Yet the account books do not reflect any transactions for baby carriages until 1880; various loose receipts, LR 933 34, reel 51, box 55, folder 3, LDS Church archives. 1882 Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
71. Ledger A, 1880-82. Inventories can be found in LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
72. Daybook entry for September 8, 1882, Ledger A, 1880-82, for a "Cupboard Ornament" sold for $1. A. Roda's Illustrated Catalog of Solid Wood Furniture Carvings, Carved Heads, Carved Drawer Handles, Mirror and Frame Carvings (Rochester, N.Y.: Union and Adv. Co. Print., 1876).
73. Elaine Thatcher, "Some Chairs for My Family: Furniture in Nineteenth-Century Cache Valley," Utah Historical Quarterly 56, no. 4 (1988): 333.
74. 1880 Inventory. "We use no Pine Lumber in the Manufacture of our Furniture," claims a label inside the cover of the trade catalogue of Kent Furniture Manufacturing Company (Illustrated Catalogue of the Kent Furniture Mfg. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. [Grand Rapids: Cornell and Dean, 1881].)
75. Dean A. Fales Jr., American Painted Furniture, 1660-1880 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1972), p. 44.
76. Fales, American Painted Furniture, p. 198.
77. December 31, 1879, Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 52, box 56, folder 4, LDS Church archives. See, for example, May 15, 1885, Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives, for illustrations of graining tools and typical Utah graining patterns, see Marilyn Conover Barker, The legacy of Mormon Furniture (Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs-Smith, 1995), pp. 137-42.
78. Reinhild K. Janzen and John M. Janzen, Mennonite Furniture: A Migrant Tradition, 1766-1910 (Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1991), pp. 184-85;
79. for examples of architectural painting, see the Beehive House, previously the home of Brigham Young, and the faux surfaces in the nineteenth-century buildings on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Barker, Legacy of Mormon Furniture, p. 137.
80. 1883 Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
81. Shop inventories show numerous disassembled and turned chair parts. See, for example, the December 31, 1879, Inventory. In addition to invoices for chairs from the St. Louis Chair Manufactory, notations for "k. d.," or knock-down, chairs found in the account books and inventories indicate the items were being shipped to Brigham City. For an examination of the range of furniture available through catalogues, see Dubrow and Dubrow, Furniture Made in America.
82. Sharon Darling, Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft, and Industry, 1833-1983 (New York and London: W. W. Norton in association with the Chicago Historical Society, 1984), p. 99;
83. Celia Jackson Otto, American Furniture of the Nineteenth Century (New York: Viking Press, 1965), pp. 167, 170-73.
84. Coogan Brothers Illustrated Catalog (New York: Martin B. Brown, 1876), p. 28.
85. M. and H. Schrenkeisen Cabinet and Parlor Furniture Manufactures Catalog (New York: Crichton, 1869).
86. For imitation walnut panels, see Illustrated Catalog of Chairs and Furniture Manufactured by J. W. Mason and Co. (New York: Corlies, Macy, 1874).
87. Darling, Chicago Furniture, p. 11.
88. See Kari M. Main, "Pursuing 'The Things of This World': Mormon Resistance and Assimilation as Seen in the Furniture of the Brigham City Cooperative, 1874-88" (master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1997), for a full listing of objects examined and a categorization of the probability of their manufacture at the cooperative.
89. December 31, 1879, Inventory.
90. The dimensions of the pre-made crowns from Roda's were 38″ to 48″ wide and 11″ to 14″ tall; the crowns attributed to Brigham City are 38″ wide and 11 1/4″ tall; one particular crown from Roda's, no. 111, bears these dimensions exactly and costs $1.50;
91. A. Roda's Illustrated Catalog of Wood Furniture Carvings, p. 30. The note on the handles and tops is on a small slip of paper in LR 933 34, reel 52, box 56, folder 4, LDS Church archives. 1882 Inventory.
92. These 4 bureaus are located at the LDS Museum of Church History and Art, Salt Lake City, Utah (LDS 9603203), in the private collection of Scott Christensen (Salt Lake City), at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery (H90.8), and in the private collection of Wallace Budd (Salt Lake City). Accounts of the Southern Mission, J. D. Reese, Lorenzo Snow, and the Egg and Butter Department, Ledger A, 1874-76. 1885 Inventory of Brigham City Mercantile and Manufacturing Association Cabinet Making Shop, LR 933 34, reel 54, box 60, folder 1, LDS Church archives.
93. Michael J. Ettema, "Technological Innovation and Design Economics in American Furniture Manufacture of the Nineteenth Century" (master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1981), p. 5.
94. Sugg and Beiersdorf Furniture Manufacturing Co. Illustrated Catalog (Chicago: Shober and Carqueville, 1878), p. 43.
95. Darling, Chicago Furniture, p. 96.
96. George Q. Cannon as quoted in Larson, Prelude to the Kingdom, p. 251. Anonymous history.
97. Alvin Nichols to Edward Hunter, 1874, as quoted in Riddle, "Lorenzo Snow and the Brigham City Cooperative," p. 10. "Meeting of the Council of the United Order, April 8, 1877," LR 933 34, reel 44, box 50, folder 3, LDS Church archive.
98. Brigham Young to Lorenzo Snow, 1873, as quoted in Fors" gren, History of Box Elder County, p. 107.
99. "Minutes of the Directors of the Brigham City Cooperative," November 4, 1872, November 26, 1872, April 19, 1873, November 7, 1874, February 12, 1877, March 11, 1877, March 25, 1877, LR 933 34, reel 3, box 4, folder 7, LDS Church archives. Rosenbaum was eventually placated by being appointed the supervisor of the Logan branch store in 1876; Deseret News (Salt Lake City), October 20, 1876.
100. Deseret News (Salt Lake City), September 20, 1876. "Meeting of the Council of the United Order, April 8, 1877."
101. Elaine Thatcher, "Nineteenth-Century Cache Valley Folk Furniture: A Study of Form and Function" (master's thesis, Utah State University, 1983), p. x.
102. Ledger B, 1883-88. Brigham City Bugler, June 14, 1890,
103. as quoted in Kotter, Through the Years, pp. 16-17.
104. Moore, Religious Outsiders, p. 35.
105. Watkins to Gates, as quoted in Riddle, "Lorenzo Snow and the Brigham City Cooperative," p. 5.
106. Wagner, "Consecration and Stewardship," pp. 54, 62.
107. Klaus J. Hansen, Mormonism and the American Experience (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 128.
108. Mauss, Angel and the Beehive, p. 22.
109. Shepherd and Shepherd, Kingdom Transformed, p. 202.