Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.

Deseret Gold

A Historical Sketch of Pioneer Money

By Leslie L. Sudweeks

LACK of a medium of exchange with which to carry on its commerce can be quite as hampering to a community or a people as being without money can be to an individual. A bushel of wheat to pay for a few yards of cloth or a bushel of potatoes for a horseshoeing job is decidedly inconvenient to carry in one's pocket. Nevertheless during the early years in the Salt Lake valley, "payment in kind" was of necessity a common practice.

The return of Captain James Brown from California in December 1847, with the pay for the invalided detachments of the Mormon Battalion, which had wintered at Pueblo, added about ten thousand dollars in Spanish gold doubloons to the monetary fund of the valley. When Brigham Young returned from the East in September 1848, he brought with him eighty-four dollars in small change which was distributed through the community but was entirely inadequate to supply the need. 1

Through fortuitous circumstances, a group of Mormon Battalion members returning from California, where they had been mustered out of the United States Army, stopped at Sutter's Fort to obtain temporary employment and in January 1848, discovered gold. With a practical "Mormon" sense of values, these men gathered all the gleaming yellow dust they could in a few month's time and carried it to the Salt Lake valley with them.

IN the First General Epistle of the First Presidency, issued April 9, 1849, appeared the following item:

On the return of a portion of the Mormon Battalion through the northern part of Western California, they discovered an extensive gold mine, which enabled them by a few days' delay to bring sufficient of the dust to make money plentiful in this place for all ordinary purposes of public convenience; in the exchange the brethren deposited the gold dust with the presidency, who issued bills or a paper currency; and the "Kirtland Safety Fund" re-signed, is on par with gold.

This gold dust was of inestimable value to the community, but it did not prove a satisfactory medium of exchange due to the difficulty in making small change and because there was considerable loss in repeated weighings. Accordingly, the municipal council of Salt Lake City authorized the issuance of paper money in small denominations. A small hand press was obtained, and on New Year's day in 1849, Brigham Young and Thomas Bullock set the type and printed the first bank bills in the valley. These were one dollar notes and were validated by the personal signatures of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, and Thomas Bullock, clerk. This was the first printing done in the Salt Lake valley. 2

Sketched from engraving in B. H. Roberts, "A Comprehensive History of the Church," facing page 406, Volume III.

Three weeks later, January 22, 1849, fifty-cent paper bills were issued, and the notes of the Kirtland Safety Society, which had failed in Ohio during the panic of 1837, were legalized. These old Kirtland, notes, several examples of which may still be seen in the Bureau of Information Museum on Temple Square, were very elaborate, having been made up by a commercial printer in the East, and were signed by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Many of the Saints still retained these worthless bills, which were now validated by being countersigned by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Joseph Smith that the Kirtland notes would someday be as good as gold. 3