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| Perpetual Emigration Fund | |
|---|---|
| Name | Perpetual Emigration Fund |
| Formation | 1849 |
| Founder | Brigham Young |
| Type | Financial trust |
| Purpose | Assist migration |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah Territory |
| Dissolved | 1887 |
Perpetual Emigration Fund. The Perpetual Emigration Fund operated as a mid‑nineteenth century Latter-day Saints migration trust intended to finance assisted passage for converts to the Salt Lake Valley, organized amid the aftermath of the 1848 Mexican–American War and the establishment of Great Salt Lake City. Its structure intertwined with the leadership of Brigham Young, the administrative mechanisms of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and contemporary migration systems such as overland trails, the Oregon Trail, and transatlantic packet lines used by emigrants from United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Ireland.
Church leaders including Brigham Young, Jedediah M. Grant, and Orson Pratt responded to the displacement of converts after conflicts such as the 1846 Mormon Exodus and legal developments like the Compromise of 1850 by proposing collective solutions modeled on earlier colonization schemes such as the Hudson's Bay Company settlements and philanthropic practices associated with Charles Dickens‑era relief. Early proponents debated mechanisms in meetings at Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, consulting practical examples from American Fur Company logistics, Railroad pioneers, and philanthropic funds tied to figures like Samuel Brannan and Thomas L. Kane. Formal organization occurred in 1849 when trustees including Heber C. Kimball and Amasa Lyman framed bylaws that mirrored trust instruments used by British Emigration Commissioners and Colonial Land Companies.
The trust drew capital from tithing converts and voluntary contributions from leaders such as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and lay benefactors in Liverpool and Stockholm, and it coordinated receipts through the Presidency of the Church and regional agents like Peter Maughan. The fund issued loans and promissory notes repayable from future wages or property, resembling credit mechanisms used by Hudson's Bay Company and Western Union financial agents, while recordkeeping involved clerks akin to those in Bureau of Indian Affairs offices. Administration relied on committees that negotiated rates with steamer lines such as Isabella (ship) and wagon contractors reminiscent of John Y. B. Smith outfitting outfits, and trustees balanced remittances from Great Britain and Scandinavia against costs of outfitting companies on the Platte River.
Prospective emigrants applied through local branches in Liverpool, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Christiania, and Dublin where missionaries including William Clayton and Parley P. Pratt facilitated paperwork; successful applicants received tickets, supplies, and guidance for staged travel via New York City or New Orleans to Missouri River embarkation points. The voyage combined transatlantic passage on packet and steamships similar to those run by Cunard Line and Black Ball Line, river transfers at St. Louis or Council Bluffs, and overland wagon caravans organized like those led by James Clyman and Patrick Bell. Emigrants encountered challenges recorded by diarists such as J. C. Little and Eliza R. Snow, including provisioning disputes analogous to accounts from Gold Rush parties and coordination issues with freighters resembling Fremont expeditions. Repayment obligations often involved labor in Salt Lake City wards, land claims in Utah Territory townsites, or agricultural work on projects similar to Irrigation schemes pioneered by settlers like Elias Smith.
The fund materially increased arrivals from Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, accelerating colonization of Utah Territory townsites such as Provo, Ogden, St. George, and Logan, and supporting settlement efforts in Idaho Territory and Arizona Territory. By underwriting coordinated brigades and handcart companies in the 1850s and 1860s, the trust influenced demographic shifts comparable to population movements associated with Manifest Destiny and western expansion by groups like Mormon Battalion veterans. Its financing enabled the construction of community infrastructure—mills, canals, and roads—comparable in effect to projects undertaken by Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution and civic boosters such as Dan McArthur.
Critics including some emigrants and non‑Latter-day observers compared the trust’s repayment terms to indenture practices noted in transatlantic labor migrations and raised concerns akin to critiques of company towns and private credit systems used in mining districts like Comstock Lode. Accusations arose regarding preferential treatment by trustees such as Amasa Lyman and Heber C. Kimball, disputes over accounting similar to controversies involving Bank of California, and episodes where outfitting contractors were alleged to have engaged in overcharging reminiscent of scandals in Canal and Railroad projects. Debates in territorial press references to figures like Albert Carrington and commentary from eastern editors echoed wider tensions over federal oversight embodied in statutes such as the Edmunds Act debates later in the century.
The fund’s relevance waned as transcontinental railroad construction culminated with the First Transcontinental Railroad and as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shifted immigration policy; administrative strain, repayment shortfalls, and increasing federal court interventions paralleled pressures that led to formal dissolution in the 1880s and transfer of obligations amid legal changes culminating near the era of the Dawes Act‑period reforms. Its legacy persists in studies of migration finance, nineteenth‑century colonization comparable to Homestead Act settlement patterns, and genealogical records maintained by institutions like Church History Library and historians such as Leonard J. Arrington, Juanita Brooks, and Richard O. Cowan.
Category:Latter Day Saint history Category:History of Utah