(Daniel Spencer Jr. led the second company of pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley. In 1838, he closed his thriving Massachusetts mercantile business for several days to read the Book of Mormon. "My God, it is true," he declared. "But it will cost me friends, kindred and all I have on earth." His prediction proved largely true. His rambling journal spotlights many of the events of early church and Utah history.)
At Winter Quarters: "We tarried during the winter of '46 and '47 near the banks of the Missouri River. I acted as bishop during these memorable months when the very essence of manhood and womanhood was tested, and I leave this affirmation - that the test was not only heroically met, but met with that divinity of patience and trust that only a people can show who are divinely inspired."On Indians: "We had no trouble with the Indians, for while we were suffering so cruelly from the Christian mobs, the hearts of the Indians seemed changed and softened and true sympathy was extended by them to a most touching degree."
The journey to Salt Lake Valley: ". . . here was to us a new world where for weeks no rain fell, for months no dew moistened the arid air. Here the very atmosphere seemed to lie and deceive in all the estimates of distance, objects seemingly 10 miles away would prove to be 20 or more. Here an animal could be killed at eventide, jerked, hung up by the wagon side and cured without taint as we traveled on."
Arrival in the Salt Lake Valley: "All are in good health and spirits. Having spent about four months on the way, arrived the 23rd of September, not losing a hoof of cattle or horses during our journey. . . . We found Brother Tarlton Lewis at the head of the fort. The brethren somewhat employed our time in examining the country and preparing to secure our cattle. The valley is beautiful and the soil extremely rich with nature - unusually so. The brethren of the soldier (Mormon Battalion) and Mississippi and the pioneers (the first company) had occupied all the outside building lots in the fort."
Clothing: "All that I had from then till landing in Utah I had to haul on wagons, everything save our clothing, which we easily carried on our persons and were not heavy weighted. And when we came to live six months on a ration of two ounces of flour a day from which to draw physical strength to carry the burdens incident to carving out a home in the desert, we found lack of weight on our bodies a blessing rather than otherwise."
Crickets: (Spencer spelled it variably "Crickits," "Crikets," and "Crickets," sometimes in the same sentence.) "Crickets cutting down all the crops that the frost has left . . . Went to the wheat corn noticing it, found that the crickets had eaten most of it up . . . Crickets are devouring all the spring and winter crops . . . Gulls came on to our corn land on Mill Creek and eat up all the crickets in that neighborhood, after they had destroyed our spring wheat and barley. The gulls left the ground in two weeks from the time they lit on the land . . . Sarcastic and infidelic statements have been made that the gulls were here before we came and that they came to the destruction of the crickets by instinct. I ask how that instinct brought them in just the 48 hours that saved the settlement? And I will venture the assertion that an honest person cannot be found who witnessed that occurrence, and has lived to the present, but what will testify that there was a ration of a thousand gulls then to one hundred that were never seen here by us before, or have been seen here since."
The Great Salt Lake: "About 20 miles distant is a salt lake, which will yield about one gallon of salt to five of water. On its shores there is plenty of coarse salt, good for all purposes except table use."
Resources: "Between our mountains in our canyons there is plenty of timber, stone, etc. We have not been able as yet to find iron or coal, but we have found gold. . . . The climate is very healthy, the most so of any I was ever in, not excepting old Massachusetts. We have all been well since we came here."
His testimony: "In leaving my native town I had many warnings from well-meaning friends who considered that no good thing could come to me and my family by going among the Mormons. Prophecies were plentiful that I should lose all my worldly possessions. . . . Though I have been peeled, robbed and driven by a mob, I have prospered in worldly things far more than those who gave me warnings; and the acquaintance I formed with Joseph Smith confirmed my faith in the work I have embraced."
Christmas, 1848: Weather cool. Several balls in the forts this evening. Paid Brother Snow $1 on land tax.
Spencer served missions to Canada, the American Indians, Massachusetts and Europe. He was a member of the City Council in Nauvoo and succeeded the martyred Joseph Smith as mayor of the city. He was president of the Salt Lake Stake from 1849 to his death in 1868 and was named to a committee to "take care of and transact the business of the fund of gathering the poor."
Spencer had seven wives and 20 children. His descendants plan a commemoration in conjunction with the annual July 24 celebration and are attempting to reach as many family members as possible. Interested persons can send information to The Daniel Spencer Jr. Commemoration, P.O. Box 58682, Salt Lake City, UT 84158; fax 1-801-943-8994.