Bitter Sweet: John Taylor's Introduction Of The Sugar Beet .
Bitter Sweet: John Taylor's Introductiono f the Sugar Beet Industry in DeseretBy MARY JANE W O O D G E RSince the mid-1800s, rumors have circulated that Church of JesusC h r i s t of Latter-day Saints p r e s i d e n t B r i g h a m Y o u n g and hissuccessor, J o h n Taylor, did not get along. This position could besupported by the record of a heated discussion that took placed u r i n g a m e e t i n g on March 17, 1853. T h e minutes reveal that Youngaccused Taylor of knowing no more of business "than a mere stranger," notknowing "that a million doUars is worth a red cent," being as "wild in [his]calculations as a man can be," and "manifest[ing] the spirit of an old Englishlord." After Young hurled these accusations, Taylor rebuffed, "I am asi n d e p e n d e n t as any other man in my way,and I k n o w the respect that is due to your Notes and drawing probablyoffice and calling in the K i n g d o m of God; made by John Taylor showingbut, no man has the authority, in any position sugar-making equipment he hadthat he may hold, to cram a thing down my studied in France.Mary Jane Woodger is assistant professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University.247
UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLYthroat that is not so."1The story that brought this argument to a head began in 1849. Duringthe church's general conference in October, Young called forty-two-yearold Taylor to open France to the spreading of the M o r m o n gospel, translatethe Book of M o r m o n into French, and look for "new ideas, new enterprises, and new establishments. that could be organized in Utah." 2 DespiteTaylor's many achievements on his ensuing European mission, his introduction of the sugar beet industry to America is often considered a dark spotwithin a life of accomplishment.The Saints needed sugar, and there was a scarcity. During the early yearsin the Salt Lake VaUey, the pioneers used parsnips, carrots, beets, watermelons, and juice from cornstalks for sweetener. 3 In 1849 Louis Vasquez"opened a store of goods in Great Salt Lake City and quickly sold all hissugar at 3 pounds for 2."4 T h e next year, in September, the church's FirstPresidency stated:Sugar is not only a beverage, a luxury, but it is, in its nature and substance, one of thec o m p o n e n t parts of our animal structure; and a free use thereof is calculated to p r o m o t e health; and could the Saints have a more abundant supply, they would need lessmeat. Should every person in Deseret consume one-third of an ounce of sugar per daythrough the coming year, it would require about one hundred and twenty tons, m o r ethan has [been] or will be brought by our merchants this season. 5The First Presidency estimated that the Saints would need three hundredtons of sugar p e r year. At forty cents p e r p o u n d , the cost w o u l d be 240,000. Young, calling this expense "suicidal," determined that the Saintsshould find their own sweetener resources. 6Just two weeks after being caUed as a missionary, on October 19,1849, Taylor headed for Europe. O n June 15, 1850, the Millennial Star, aM o r m o n newspaper published in England, announced, "Elder John Taylor,one of the Q u o r u m of the Twelve Apostles, with Elders John Pack, SeniorPresident of the Eighth Q u o r u m of Seventies; and Curtis E. Bolton, HighPriest, arrived in Liverpool on the 27th of May in good healthThesebrethren are on a mission to France to preach the Gospel." After a brief stayin England,Taylor arrived at Boulogne-sur-mer, France, on June 18. 71"Minutes of the Deseret Manufacturing Company with President Young, March 17, 1853," MS14280, fds 9 and 12, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Archives (Church Archives), Salt LakeCity, Utah.2Philip De La Mare, "The Deseret Manufacturing Company, 1908," MS 3079, Access N o : 28882A R C H - 8 8 , Church Archives.3Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958; reprint,Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), 116.4Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, November 21, 1849, ChurchArchives (hereafter Journal History).5"Fourth General Epistle, September 27, 1850," in James R . Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1833-1951, 5 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965) 2:57.6"Governor Young's Message to the State of Deseret's Legislative Assembly, 1850," cited in B. H.Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City:Deseret News Press, 1930) 3:490.7Francis M. Gibbons, John Taylor: Mormon Philosopher, Prophet of God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,248
SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY IN DESERETIn mid-October 1850 Taylor visited JerseyIsland, where he met a young convert, PhilipD e La Mare. Taylor asked the young man toaccompany him to Paris and help translatethe Book of Mormon. De La Mare, a j o u r neyman and blacksmith, willingly acceptedthe call. H e would not only be invaluable inthe mission field but w o u l d also b e c o m einstrumental in bringing the beginnings ofthe beet sugar industry to Utah. Utah—IdahoSugar Company executive Fred G.Taylor saidof D e La Mare, " H e was well on his way to asuccessful engineering career. But the call ofthe gospel dwarfed aU other things." 8Three months after the Book of M o r m o nJohn Taylor.translation was completed, Taylor received aletter from Young urging him to get "ideasand machinery if necessary" to build up Deseret's industries. 9 Taylor sharedYoung's vision of an independent Deseret, and he suggested in December1850, "There is nothing we require but we can manufacture ourselvesWe need sugar, the sisters won't like to get along without their tea; I carenothing about it without the sugar myself. H o w must we get that? We aregoing to raise beets, the same as they do in France."10By March 1850, Deseret's delegate to Congress had obtained enoughsugar beet seed to plant two acres in the Salt Lake Valley. By the end of theseason, a satisfactory crop of both seed and beets had been raised. This ledchurch officials to announce that attempts would be made to "relieve thesugar market" by cultivating and refining sugar beets. Seth M. Blair andJoseph Young attempted to extract beet juice, but, lacking necessary information and expertise, they failed.11 To Brigham Young, the matter wasbecoming more urgent, and in a message to the legislature that Decemberhe discussed the soaring freight rates of sugar importation. 121985), 106; Millennial Star, June 15,1850; Roberts, A Comprehensive History, 3:392.sLeon R . Hartshorn, "Philip De La Mare, Pioneer Industrialist" (M.S. thesis, Brigham YoungUniversity, 1959), 15; Fred G.Taylor, A Saga of Sugar (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1954), 29.9Philip De La Mare, "Deseret Manufacturing Company." Taylor is credited with translating the Bookof Mormon into French with the help of his first Paris convert, Louis A. Bertrand, a writer on economicquestions. However, Taylor's companion, Elder Bolton, stated emphatically that Taylor "never had anythingto do with it [the French translation of the Book of Mormon] at all, except to raise part of the money forits publication." Bolton, desiring credit for the work, wanted the "facts to be known.for the benefit ofposterity." He recorded that he himself was responsible for the translation; see Curtis E. Bolton journal,July 20, 1850, French Paris Mission Records, LR 29782, reel, Church Archives.Deseret was the Mormons' name for their theocratic "kingdom." By the time Taylor received the letter, however, the name and the kingdom had been supplanted; Congress formed Utah Territory inSeptember 1850.10Millennial Star, December 1, 1850.11"Sixth General Epistle, September 22, 1851," in Clark, ed., Messages, 2:8-83.12Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 116.249
UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLYYoung and his counselors wrote to ask Taylor to remain in Franceanother year: "It is our wish that the presidency in England, France andother places should search out such practical operators in the manufactureof sugar as fully understand their business, and forward them to this place,with all such apparatus as may be needed and cannot be procured here."13This counsel sent Taylor, D e La Mare, and Curtis Bolton to n o r t h e r nFrance in search of sugar industry experts. A factory in Arras, Pas-DeCalais, France, produced from two to three million pounds of sugar peryear, and these three men investigated the soil and plants of the area. Taylorwas satisfied that Deseret's conditions were comparable to Arras's soil andclimate, and that the industry could thrive in Utah. 14Despite Taylor's optimism and energy, Bolton tired, complaining that hewas giving aU his time and attention to sugar manufacturing. O n October7, while visiting a sugar refinery that was housed inside the Barriere Passyconvent, Bolton interpreted for Taylor for more than three hours. H ewrote," [John Taylor] runs me to death. My ankle pains me at night so I canscarcely sleep." Three days later the pair took a seven-hour railroad ride to"a number of other sugar manufactures." Bolton lay down complaining ofpain. Filled with a sense of urgency about the project, Taylor told Bolton to"rise in the name of the Lord," and Bolton did as he was commanded. InArras, Taylor met for two weeks with Mr. Crespel, the managing partner ofthe plant. While Bolton complained that his mission president "neverwould be hurried by anybody," Taylor drew plans of the plant so they couldduplicate the system in Utah. 15Plans that seem to fit this description are found in the LDS archives. Asmall book of plans, with the date October 17, 1851, inscribed on the frontpage, is entitled "Plans and models of Manufacturing of Sugar from thebeet root at Crespel-Delisse at Arras." The book contains fifty-one pages ofnotes and twenty rough sketches of machinery and processes. It alsoincludes one large colored drawing of sugar beet machinery. In 1853Taylor told Young, "I made the plans for the machinery and sent them[from] France."16 Such records indicate that the book of notes and sketcheswas made by Taylor.Taylor now dedicated himself to implementing his plans in Deseret. Thefirst hurdle was to obtain capital. Taylor and Philip De La Mare found twoother investors in England, and the four became partners with equal sharesin a new company.The stock was valued at 50,000 pounds sterling, equal to1314Ibid.Ibid. De La Mare contracted typhoid fever in France, remaining seriously ill for over a month. He leftParis for his home on February 25, 1851. While Taylor and Bolton continued to explore the sugar industry, De La Mare attended a mission conference in London on June 6, 1851, assisted in preparing the LDSperiodical L' Etoile du Deseret, and helped his father construct the Victorian Pier on the Isle of Jersey; seeHartshorn, "Philip De La Mare, Pioneer Industrialist," 21—24.''Bolton journal, October 7—25, 1851.16"Minutes of the Deseret Manufacturing Company, March 17, 1853."250
SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY IN DESERETa quarter of a million dollars. 17 A cash b o o k reports the receipts anddisbursements as follows:Recapitulation of Deposits to Deseret Manufacturing Company 18Joseph H. RussellJohn W CowardJohn TaylorPhilip D e La MareInterestTotal A m o u n t 4 9 9 9 10 11 1/2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 223 4 2 350 724 66459Coward was a salt dealer and recent convert to the LDS church fromLiverpool; Russell was the Scottish shipbuilder w h o had constructed theBrooklyn, the ship that carried Sam Brannan's company to California. 19 T h efour partners signed articles of co-partnership on April 4, 1851, formingthe Deseret Sugar Works (later the Deseret Manufacturing Company). T h epartners agreed toenter into a co-partnership for the purpose of purchasing machinery and lands, erectingbuildings, and fitting up and establishing a sugar manufacturing in the Territory ofDeseret, or Utah territory. T h e object is to manufacture sugar from the beet root andalso molasses, spirits, oil and such other things as we may deem expedient.T h e agreement also clarified that Taylor was not "to engage to do anythingthat [would] interfere with his official duties in his office and calling."20After signing the contract, Taylor wrote Young:You in your epistle speak about manufacturing sugar, etc. Since then I have organized acompany to manufacture sugar at h o m e instead of having the merchants carry it to thevalley; but I will need a little of your counsel and assistance in the matter. T h e companywill bring out apparatus and machinery to manufacture from 150 to 300 tons of sugarin the fall.21Taylor then contracted Fawcette, Preston, and Company of Liverpool tomanufacture the e q u i p m e n t . T h e cash b o o k records three receipts toFawcette and C o . , w i t h 2 , 5 0 0 , or 1 2 , 5 0 0 , paid. 2 2 T h e e q u i p m e n tmanufactured was identical to the Arras Sugar C o m p a n y ' s , w i t h o n eexception. Arras's hydraulic press cylinders were made of cast iron. To lessentransportation weight, Taylor suggested that the cylinders be replaced with17B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965), 240; Gibbons, John Taylor, 129.[John C. Coward], "Cash Book of the Deseret Manufacturing Company (1851-1853)," cited inHartshorn, "Philip De La Mare," 31.19Hartshorn, "De La Mare," 32; Gibbons John Taylor, 129.20"Articles of Co-partnership of the Deseret Sugar Works," Deseret Manufacturing Company, MS14280, Fd 13, Church Archives.21John Taylor to Brigham Young, March 13, 1851, cited in Samuel Taylor and Raymond Taylor, TlieJohn Taylor Papers: Records of the Last Utah Pioneer (Redwood City, CA: Taylor Trust Publications, 1984), 169.22"Minutes of the Deseret Manufacturing Company, March 17, 1853"; [Coward], "Cash Book."18251
UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLYwrought iron.23 The production of the new factoryequipment was reported in the Millennial Star:"This machinery [is] in every respect of thebest quality that could be procured. .andsuch is its weight, that it will require aboutfifty teams and wagons to convey it fromCouncil Bluffs to Great Salt Lake City."24T h e c o m p a n y ordered twelve h u n d r e dpounds of "the best French Beet seed," at 2 , 5 0 0 , and m a d e o t h e r p r e p a r a t i o n s ,including "finding European brethren whomight know the mechanics and chemistry ofbeet sugar manufacturing." 25The need to find skilled engineers to go toSalt Lake Valley was constantly on Taylor's mind.For instance, at a conference held in Carpenters'Philip De La Mare.Hall, Manchester, England, in October 1850 Taylorcalled for "the emigration of mechanics to the Valley. that we may manufacture our own materials." Mechanic Elias Morris was called at Holywellon September 28, 1851, to the sugar venture. Morris, along with threebrothers, John, William, and Joseph Nuttall, w h o m Taylor had converted inLiverpool, were in charge of getting the equipment to America. Afterorganizing the company, securing equipment production, purchasing andshipping seed, and finding trained manpower, Taylor sailed for America onMarch 6, 1852, aboard the Niagara, arriving at Boston twelve days later.26In January 1852 Joseph Russell and Philip De La Mare, accompanied byhis family, left Europe on the ship Kennebeck. T h e y were heading forSt. Louis, where they planned to secure wagons and teams for hauling theequipment across the plains. O n March 28 Utah's first sugar beet factoryheaded for America under Morris's charge aboard the Rockaway, arrivingeight weeks later at N e w Orleans. Mr. Vernon, Mr. Mollenhauer, Mr.Bollwinkel, and Mr. Conner, sugar experts employed by the DeseretManufacturing C o m p a n y (DMC) to eventually assemble the factoryequipment, also sailed on the Rockaway.27The DMC's first setback of many took place in N e w Orleans, whereofficials charged Morris 4,056 duty on the machinery. The church ended23Philip De La Mare, " W h y the First Efforts at Sugar-making in Utah Failed," 1893, cited inHartshorn, "Philip De La Mare," Appendix 1.24Millennial Star, April 1, 1852.25Journal History, March 6, 1852; Ibid., March 13, 1851; Deseret News, April 19, 1851.26Millennial Star, December 1, 1850; Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: ACompilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daySaints, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company and Deseret News, 1901), 1:355; PhilipDe La Mare, "Deseret Manufacturing Company"-Journal History, March 6, 1852. Journal History, January 10, 1852; Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia 1:355; [Lydia De LaMare], "Biography of Philip De La Mare," MS, n.d., Church Archives.252
SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY IN DESERETup paying the fee, and the company proceeded up the Mississippi River byboat to St. Louis and then up the Missouri River to Fort Leavenworth,Kansas.28 However, Taylor was convinced that a conspiracy lay behind theexcessive tariff charges. H e visited Col. Thomas L. Kane in Philadelphia,then proceeded to Washington, where he tried to have the governmenttariff rescinded and the money returned to the church. Although Taylormet with Utah's territorial delegate to Congress, John M . Bernhisel, andSenator Stephen A. Douglas, he was not able to get the charges reversed.29At every turn, the machinery shipment seemed to be doomed. If something could go wrong, it did. W h e n the machinery arrived in the U.S.,Philip D e La Mare was trying to find, purchase, and break to the yoke 600oxen to pull the wagons and also trying to buy 100 head of cattle. Russell,m e a n w h i l e , was supervising the c o n s t r u c t i o n of fifty-two wagons atOmaha, Nebraska. Neither of these tasks proved to be easy. D e La Marerecorded that in trying to find and purchase enough oxen he traveled onfoot more than 1,000 miles, carrying the great weight of 6,000 in gold ina money belt around his waist.30 But he found only 400 animals, mostlyuntamed, which he purchased from more than 100 sellers. Philip's son,T h o m a s D e La Mare, records that his father felt the task was "almostbeyond the power of man to accomplish." 31 W h e n she was ninety-two yearsold, Alice D e La Mare Gowans remembered, "Father worked hard. H e wasgone from his family most of the time fixing a broken wagon wheel or abroken axle or shoeing an ox. T h e greatest hardship was in Wyoming wherethere was a terrific blizzard and not much to eat. It stormed so badly theycouldn't keep a fire."32While livestock problems kept D e La Mare occupied, Joseph Russell wasworking with wagons. Russell had experience in shipbuilding, but thisk n o w l e d g e did n o t transfer over to w a g o n m a k i n g . T h e wagons h econstructed "proved to be absolutely worthless and completely unable tosustain the weight of the machinery." Most fell apart and had to be discarded or were donated to destitute LDS pioneers. D e La Mare then metCharles H . Perry, w h o was willing to let the D M C purchase forty Santa Fewagons on credit. D e La Mare also purchased flour on credit, but the flourt u r n e d out to be full of w o r m s and plaster of paris, and it had to bereplaced at church expense. 33O n July 4, 1852, the Santa Fe wagons, each pulled by eight yoke of oxenand carrying five to eight thousand p o u n d s of machinery, started the28Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 117.Roberts, Life of John Taylor, 240—41; Gibbons, John Taylor, 132—33.30Philip De La Mare, "The Deseret Manufacturing Company, 1908," MS 3079, Access N o : 28882A R C H - 8 8 , Church Archives.31Thomas De La Mare, "The Life of Philip De La Mare" (Grantsville, U T : Leland S.Tate, 1943), 4.Cited in Hartshorn, 37.32Alice De La Mare Gowans, interview by Leon R . Hartshorn, 1959, cited in Hartshorn, 39.33Philip De La Mare, "The Deseret Manufacturing Company, 1908," MS 3079, Access N o : 28882A R C H - 8 8 , Church Archives.29253
UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLYjour
Mormon newspaper published in England, announced, "Elder John Taylor, one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with Elders John Pack, Senior President of the Eighth Quorum of Seventies; and Curtis E. Bolton, High Priest, arrived in Liverpool on the 27th of May in good health These b
Sep 26, 2021 · *Introit Sweet Sweet Spirit1 UMH #334 Words & Music by Doris Akers There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord. There are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord. Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly Dove
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THE GIGANTIC SWEET POTATO By: Dianne De Las Casas FRUITS AND VEGETABLES: sweet potatoes Ma Farmer plants a sweet potato so she can make sweet potato pie. But the sweet potato grows so big it takes everyone on the farm to help harvest it. Lily Mouse saves the day. THE GIGANTIC TURNIP By: Aleksei Tolstoy & Niamh Sharkey
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Taylor series As the degree of the Taylor polynomial rises, it approaches the correct function. This image shows and Taylor approximations, polynomials of degree 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. The exponential function (in blue), and the sum of the first n 1 terms of its Taylor series at 0 (in red).
TAYLOR FAMILY HISTORY Forward The family genealogy presented here is for one of many Taylor families that immigrated to America in Colonial times. We will be concerned with the line of descent from John Taylor, joiner, who in 1671 was accepted as a resident of Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ending with Charles P. Taylor, banker,
Lee & Low Books Sweet Potato Pie Teacher's Guide p.6 2. Bring in sweet potatoes for students to study. Help students discover information such as how sweet potatoes grow, what part of the plant people eat, the nutritional value of sweet potatoes, and states that are the leading growers. If possible, prepare
Agile Development in a Medical Device Company Pieter Adriaan Rottier, Victor Rodrigues Cochlear Limited rrottier@cochlear.com.au Abstract This article discuss the experience of the software development group working in Cochlear with introducing Scrum as an Agile methodology. We introduce the unique challenges we faced due to the nature of our product and the medical device industry. These .
