![]() Little did the nation’s leaders know that Brigham Young and his followers waited with anticipation and enthusiasm as workers laid track at a frantic pace. Therefore, they reasoned that when the railroad came it would allow the oppressed Latter-day Saints a convenient means of fleeing to the freedom of the East-even though one of them acknowledged that President Young, upon learning of this idea, remarked that his religion “must, indeed, be a poor religion, if it cannot stand one railroad.” 1 Their confidence was based on an erroneous belief that Brigham Young was an evil dictator who held his people in captive subjection. Leading public officials outside the Church also wanted the “iron horse” running through the Utah Territory, not only because of the wealth that they could accrue from this but also because they were confident that when the transcontinental railway reached Utah, the Church would collapse. Early Measuresīecause he saw it as a great aid in making it easier for immigrants to reach the Great Basin, Brigham Young had encouraged a railroad as early as the 1850s. Several measures were taken at this time to establish the Church’s independence from contaminating worldly influences. This was especially true with the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, which eliminated Utah’s isolation. Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory Summit, UtahĪpostate faction-Godbeites, or New Movement-establishedĪfter the Civil War, Church leaders recognized more than ever before the wisdom of being self-sufficient and the strength this would give the Saints both economically and spiritually. Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution formally opened School of the Prophets organized in Salt Lake CityĬhurchwide cooperative movement inaugurated
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