[[1]]
Salt Lake City
Utah
Aug[ust] 8/[18]77
Dearest Hyacinth *1
I last wrote from George--town, on the 5th, & posted the letter that night at
Denvers[?]. After changing my plants &c on that night & we & turning in, I was
roused up at midnight by Prof[esso]r Hayden who brought me letters from Willy [William
Henslow Hooker], [William Turner Thiselton] Dyer (including one from Harriet
[Thiselton-Dyer]), Mrs Hodgson & Sir J[ames]. Colvile (about Hodgsons settlements),
but none from you! I was consoled by expecting one from you at Cheyennes next
day, whither we were to go to take the Union Pacific rail from Ogden, En route for
this place, but on arrival there no letters were to be found. So I must be content to
wait till I get to San Francisco a fortnight hence. Where (if your letters to me are not
altogether lost I may hope to get them). We were two days & a night --
[[2]] the Rail coming here, over the base line ranges of the Rocky Mts sometimes we
went for miles over bleak granite m[oun]t[ain] tops, or over plains covered with short
grass & bushes of wormwood &c or through Rocky Cañons, or over "Bad Lands" -desolate regions when the ground is full of Salt & there is very little vegetation. -After several hundred miles of this country which varied from 6000 to 8000 ft above
the sea we descended to the immense broad valley of the Salt Lake, which is the
domain of the Mormons, in the State of Utah. -- Here they settled in 1847 when
driven out of the U.S. & when Utah belonged to Mexico. In 1848 after the U.S. war
with Mexico the latter surrendered Utah to the U.S. -- but the Gov[ermen]t did not
interfere with this out of the way territory till lately when mines railroads & civilization
pushed across the
[[3]] continent. Then many Gentiles bought land in Utah, Gold Silver Lead & copper
mines were opened, & Utah became one of the States territories of the States with a Governor
appointed by the States. Meanwhile the U.S. Govt does not interfere with the religion or
Education of the people, the mass of whom are Mormons, professing unbounded
faith in their spiritual head, Brigham Young (the successor of Jos[eph] Smith) giving
him a tithe of their goods annually & accepting his rule in all things Spiritual. The City of
30,000 inhab[itants] occupies a flat area of several miles, not far from the Lake, & the whole
neighbourhood for 30 miles around is peopled by Mormons, They are an agricultural
& Pastoral people, very simple, clearly quiet & industrious, prosperous though not
rich[,] well disposed & orderly: -- peace plenty & prosperity are conspicuous every
where, & there is nothing but these qualities to distinguish this from any other city of
the kind in America. Few have more than one wife, our Landlord who has been 25
years here, & is a very wealthy man has
[[4]] (or is said to have) 3 -- one for general managing, another for managing the
Housemaid department & the third for the Cooking Dep[artmen]t of the House. I
have seen one, a stout elderly party, the shape of a bolster with a tape tied round it,
who asked if I had all I wanted -- & offered to change my room (there are 150 of
them) for a bigger when some other parties should leave. As in all other Hotels the
people are extremely civil & anxious to make you comfortable: & certainly for order &
cleanlyness[sic] these Hotels even in the most out of the way places, & when the
accommodation is of the rudest, are always clean & nicely kept by civil people.
To day we called on Brigham Young & had a chat with him -- he is about 70 stout
well dressed & with rather a refined countenance. He reminded me more of a Stout
elderly & thoroughly respectable butler
[[5]] than any thing else. In person & conversation he is less of a Yankee than 9/10
of the Gentlemen I have been introduced to. Of course he is an arrant impostor, but
nothing in speech look or manner differs from those of a quiet well bred English
gentleman. I talked a good deal with him about the Climate history & productions of
his country & found him communative[sic] & intelligent. He gave us iced[?] water, &
"God blessed us"! when we left! His missionaries bring in converts from all quarters,
especially Wales, Sweden & Prussia -- of course from the most profoundly ignorant
classes, but once arrived here they get plenty of work -- good food, comforts &
domestic happyness[sic] -- for a plurality of wives, which few care for & fewer can
afford is the only sin that J B[righam].Y[oung]. allows, & for that he quotes the
testament. All the school children are all brought up to believe in him, & in a lot of
scripture history as useless &
[[6]] idler[?] as that taught in our schools -- & the religious teaching is altogether
contemptible.
The gentile ladies hold no intercourse with their Mormonite sisters; nor is it likely they
should, Educated U.S. Ladies would not care to associate with the ignorant class to
which the Mormonite Ladies [1 word crossed out, illeg.] belong, -- in that as far as I
can make out the system of polygamy is that of making your female servants nominally
your wives. They are servants without pay & who cannot run away! & a well to do
man here with large farms cattle, vegetables & other produce of all sorts for distant &
near markets has plenty for many wives to do, & he will take the trouble to [1 word
crossed out, illeg.] teach them & then rule them.
It is very hot here here, the elevation 4000 ft. We go tomorrow into the mountains
botanizing & two days hence leave this for Calavera & Mariposa in Nevada whence
we go to San Francisco. The Strachey[']s motions are uncertain, they have
indifferent news of the children
[[7]] and talk of going straight home from this *2 Mrs Strachey offers to go alone &
leave the General to go to San Francisco with us -- if so they will arrive a month
before me --
Now dearest I must write up -- as I have lots to do, in fact I was never so busy on
any excursion in my life. I send you herewith a tiny Forget me not from 13000 ft
elevation on Grays Peak in Colorado. It is a specimen of Eretrichium a genus near
Myosotis & is a most lovely thing on the mountain. Harriet [Thiselton-Dyer née
Hooker] tells me that Charlie [Charles Paget Hooker] has passed his examination, &
that Brian [Harvey hodgson Hooker] had not gone up yet. Willy [William Henslow
Hooker] complains of the dilatoriness of the workmen in the house. He had not yet
(16th July) got his I[ndia]. O[ffice]. app[ointmen]t. Of you Gracie[Grace Ellen Hooker]
& Reggie [Reginald Hawthorn Hooker] I know nothing.
Mrs[?] Hodgson described Dyer as in the 7th Heaven of bliss -- Mr Dyer has written
me an excellent long letter which I must now answer
[[8]] Please say everything I ought to say to everybody & with love to Reggie & your
parents.
E[ve]r y[ou]r devoted husband | J.D. Hooker [signature]
I leave it to you how to manage about the boys & Harriet seeing such parts of my
letters to you as will interest them. I have written to Willy, Dyer, & Harriet.
Please thank Willy for his last letter of July 16th which I received on the same day but
after that on which I posted a letter to him.
ENDNOTES
1. Lady Hyacinth Hooker née Symonds later Jardine (1843--1921). Joseph Hooker's
second wife, they married in 1876.
2. The wording from here to "us" is written vertically down the left hand side of page
seven.
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