WILLIAM CARTER Compiled by Alaine Gardner Bracken

19 Pages·2010·1.42 MB·English

by  Alaine G. Bracken

WILLIAM CARTER
Compiled by Alaine Gardner Bracken

WILLIAM CARTER
An original pioneer of Utah, William Carter was
born February 12, 1821 in Ledbury, Hereford, England.
He and his parents were living on Bishops Street. They
christened William at the Ledbury Parish Church, called
St. Michael & All Angels Parish, on March 11, 1821. He
was the sixth child of Thomas Carter and Sarah Parker.
William grew up in Ledbury. Sarah Parker was from
Eastnor Parish, Herefordshire and Thomas Carter, his
father, was listed as a laborer and was born at
Feckenham, Worcestershire, England.
LEDBURY PARISH CHURCH ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS
“Ledbury is an ancient market
town serving a large rural area. Some
of its buildings are very old – for
example, the church is thought to date
back to the eleventh century, and
many of the half-timbered properties
that can be seen on a walk around the town are from the Tudor period.” Ledbury is a town east of
Hereford, which takes its name from the River Leadon, on which it stands. The old English berg
(hill) has been added to the river name. They recorded Ledbury in Domesday Book as
Liedeberge. The town is situated on the southern slope of the Malvern Hills.
“Hereford‟s shire, an island county on the SE border of Wales, and bounded North by
Shropshire and Worcestershire, East by Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, South by
Gloucestershire and Monmouth shire, and west by Monmouth shire, Radnor shire, mid Becon
shires; greatest length North and South 38 miles, greatest breadth East and West 35 miles;
532,918 acres, population 121,062. The county is almost circular in form, and its surface shows a
series of quiet and beautiful undulations. It is watered by Wye, Luge, Monnow, Arrow, and
Frome, also the Teme, which flows on NE boundary. All these streams are well stocked with
fish. Of late agriculture has been greatly improved in the county the soil is peculiarly suitable for
the growth of timber, which is very abundant. The pear and apple orchards of Hereford shire are
famous, while the luxuriant meadowland affords pasture for well-known breed of oxen. Marl and
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clay form the chief part of the soil, the subsoil is mostly limestone. There are no valuable
minerals and the manufactures are insignificant.”
William attended school in Ledbury and he had beautiful handwriting. His father Thomas
Carter was a sawyer or lumberman. At an early age, William began work in a glass factory
where he became an efficient glass blower. He later served as an apprentice in a blacksmith shop.
“Elder Wilford Woodruff on the newly organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, had been laboring in Birslem, Hanley, Stoke and the Potteries from the time he arrived in
England to the second of March 1840, and many were baptized. While preaching on the Sabbath
day, March 1, 1840, the anniversary of his birth, it was made known to him by the spirit that he
was to move to the south. Acting on this impression, he journeyed to the farm communities of
Hereford shire and stopped at the home of Mr. John Benbow at Castle Frome, Hereford shire.
Mr. Benbow was a prosperous farmer, cultivating some three hundred acres of land. Brother
Woodruff introduced himself as a missionary from America representing the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, and said that he had been sent to preach the Gospel to Mr. Benbow in
his household.”
Wilford Woodruff wrote, “I continued laboring in Staffordshire until the first of March,
when I felt it to be the will of the Lord that I should go more to the south part of England. I left
the care of the Staffordshire church in the hands of Elder Turley, and traveled eighty miles south,
in a region where the word had not been preached. I commenced preaching near Ledbury,
Hereford shire; this is about forty miles from Briston, forty from Birmingham, fourteen from
Worcester, one hundred and twenty from London. As soon as I began to teach, many received
my testimony. I there preached one month and five days, and baptized the superintendent of the
church of the United Brethren, a branch of the Methodist church, and with him 45 preachers,
mostly of the same order, and about 114 members, making 160 in all. This put into my hands, or
under my care, more than forty established places of preaching, licensed according to law,
including one or two chapels. This opened a large field for the spread of the work in this
country.
While William Carter was working at a forge in Ledbury, he heard some beautiful
singing. He went to the door but could not detect where the singing was coming from. That night
as he was returning home from work, he met a Church Elder who invited him to come to a
meeting that evening. William took some of his family and went to the gathering. The gospel
message of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so impressed him that he went to the
speaker after the meeting and asked to be baptized. They told him he should wait and learn more
about the gospel before being baptized. They told him he should wait and learn more about the
gospel before being baptized. William replied, “If I should wait a year, I would not be any more
ready than I am now.” Young William was certain it was the true gospel. His mother was of the
opposite opinion and her children were forbidden to attend any more meetings! They baptized
Williams‟ married sister Elizabeth Carter Thomas, September 22, 1840.
Despite his mother‟s wishes, William continued to attend the meetings in secret. Brigham
Young visited Mr. Ochey on December 20, 1840. A week later, nineteen-year-old William
walked to Castle Frome, where they baptized him on December 27, 1840, by Elder Edward
Ochey. All this was done in secret, his mother not being the wiser of what he had done. His
father was alive until 1848, but William never mentioned his opinion of the Church.
William‟s sister, Elizabeth, who was married to Charles Thomas, was living at Stanley
Hill, a hamlet 4.5 miles northwest of Ledbury, and in the parish of Bosbury. Elizabeth, Charles
and their four children had also joined the Church. They were planning to go to America. When
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Sarah, their mother, heard of this, she was very upset and tried to persuade Elizabeth to change
her mind. Sarah was very attached to her ten-year-old granddaughter Eliza, and asked that she
come and visit her before she left for America. Sarah had decided that she would not let her
return to her mother. Elizabeth tried to get the child from her mother without causing any
trouble, but Sarah insisted that the child stay longer.
William planned to go to America on the same ship at his sister, her husband and their
family. He and Elizabeth planned to get Eliza away from their mother before they set sail. Being
just ten years old, Eliza wasn‟t aware of the plans to sail to America. The night before they were
to leave, William told her the plans and that they would need to quietly leave her grandmother‟s
house, so as not to disturb her. At 3:00 am, William awakened Eliza and together they prepared
to leave. They were able to leave the house without disturbing anyone. That was to be the last
time William ever saw his home in England, his mother and father, or any family members other
than his sister Elizabeth and her family.
Little Eliza and William walked all the way to Briston to the ship where the group of
Saints was preparing to sail. Elizabeth and her husband, Charles were thankful as they met
William and their daughter at the boat. They set sail from Bristol, England, in April 1841 on the
320-ton bark Caroline, arriving in Quebec, a passage of more than two months. The bark
Caroline was 106‟ x 27‟ x7‟. The built her in 1825 at Cochin, India. These passengers were
among the first Mormons to emigrate from England. This vessel carried the group of Saints
under the leadership of Elder Thomas Clark. However, not information is available on this
voyage. THREE MASTED BARK
From British records of ship registrations
identifying this vessel with reasonable assurance
was possible, although the name Caroline is one
of the most popular in ship registries. This small
three-masted bark was London owned. They built
her with two decks, a square stern, and had a
figurehead of a woman‟s but. On 26 March 1850
they wrecked her at Honolulu. They landed in
Quebec, Canada, and sailed up the St. Lawrence
River. The company sailed across the Great Lakes
to Chicago, Illinois, and they journeyed by land to
Nauvoo, Illinois. By the time William arrived in
Nauvoo, his shoes were worn, and he was
barefoot.
When the party was just a few miles from
Nauvoo, they heard someone shout, “Here comes
the Prophet.” Thrills went through the little
company and they stopped at the side of the road. William, being ashamed of his bare feet,
quickly stepped behind a fallen log by the side of the road. The Prophet Joseph Smith rode up on
his horse and stopped in front of them. This was a joyous moment for William Carter and the
band of Saints that had been traveling for three months. They were worn and tired, but now were
being greeted by a prophet of God. When Joseph Smith saw William, he said, “Boy, what are
you here for?” William replied, “For the Gospel‟s sake.”
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July 11, 1841, was the day William arrived in ELLEN BENBOW CARTER
Nauvoo. He began work the next day on the Nauvoo
House. He became acquainted with the Prophet
Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith, and
assisted in the erection of the Nauvoo Temple.
William bought a little farm a short distance from
Nauvoo and built a house on it. William was a
member of the Nauvoo Legion. John Benbow owned
the Grist mill where he took his grain to be ground;
Brother Benbow had a niece living with him, whom
he had raised. Her name was Ellen Benbow. William
fell in love with her and they were married in Nauvoo
on December 5, 1843. The following June Joseph and
Hyrum Smith were martyred at Carthage Jail and
William mourned this tragedy with the other Saints.
William took an active part in protecting and burying
their bodies.
In 1846, they drove the Saints from their
homes in Nauvoo. They moved to Council Bluffs,
Iowa, and from there to Winter Quarters. They spent the winter of 1846 at Winter Quarters. The
next year William was one of those chosen by Brigham Young to go and find a home for the
Saints west of the Rockies. William and the Mormon pioneers made preparations for this
journey. They camped at Elkhorn and readied for their start across the plains the group consisted
of 73 wagons, 143 men, three women and two children. While there, Brigham Young and several
others, including William Carter, returned to Winter Quarters.
PAINTING OF WINTER QUARTERS CIRCA 1847

William found his wife Ellen very ill. They did not expect her to live. William hurried to
Brigham Young to see what he should do. The counsel he gave him was. “Go, Brother Carter,
and I promise you in the name of the Lord that your wife will recover and follow you out to the
West.”
With his wagon third in line, William went, with the first pioneers, across the plains. On
July 22, 1847, a small group called the “Advance Company of Pioneers,” entered the Salt Lake
Valley. William Carter was among this Advance Company. Apostle Orson Pratt called the
company together and dedicated the land to the Lord, invoking his blessing on the seed about to
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be planted and upon the labors of the Saints in the Valley. On July 23, 1847, William plowed the
first half-acre of soil in Salt Lake Valley, though Levi Kendall and Bishop Taft also intended to
help prepare the ground for planting. He turned to his team and plow and sank the first furrow in
the great basin beyond the mountains. But even more important than the plowing of the first
furrow was the act of turning the water over the earth. This was the first irrigating done by and
Anglo-Saxon on the American Continent. When westerners of today consider the fact that a
greater part of the inter-mountain empire would be a barren desert if it were not for irrigation, the
significance of William Carter‟s act became apparent. On this day, July 23, 1847, Brigham
Young had not yet arrived in the valley. He was to look out across it from his sick bed in the
carriage of Wilford Woodruff, as the vehicle was stopped on Emigration Point, the next
day…July 24, 1847. HORSE AND PLOW
William Carter said,” July 23,
1847, I put in my plow on the south side
of the 13th Ward, opposite Tuft‟s Hotel,
on the west side of the block. Levi
Kendall and Bishop Taft put in their
plow and broke the beam; this was close
to camp and they could not plow.
Farther south I plowed about half an
acre before any other teams came. This
took place about noon.
Plowing and planting would
have been useless had it not been for the
irrigation projects that kept the produce
growing. This first furrow was the
beginning of an irrigation system and an agricultural endeavor that amazed the world. For the
first bushel of corn raised, Jim Bridger offered to pay $1000. Flour raised in the valleys of Utah
sold for $1 per pound to California gold seekers and $25 per 100 pound after harvests.
Agriculture was the only dependable method of obtaining food for the thousands of
emigrants gathering in Utah with the coming of the pioneers. The first furrow plowed deep into
soil that had kept the west alive. By 1849, they raised 130,000 bushels of cereals on about 17,000
acres of land and by 1880 more than 1259 bushels of grain were raised from 17 acres of the soil
first plowed in Salt Lake Valley.
“Modern irrigation methods in the United States began in the 1840‟s. At that time,
Mormon settlers built a system of irrigation canals in the Salt Lake Valley of present-day Utah.
The reclamation Act of 1902 authorized the government to build irrigation systems in many
Western States. Irrigation expanded rapidly in the West since that date. Through the years,
irrigation spread to every region of the United States.
Two other pioneers put a plow into the hard soil but broke the beam and could not go on.
They were planting potatoes in the prepared soil by the time. Brigham Young drove by in his
wagon July 24, 1847. Brigham Young, who had been ill, came into the Slake Lake Valley on the
24th of July with the remainder of the pioneers. The pioneers rejoiced as they had reached their
journey‟s end in safety.
As Carter told it, he was only one of three from the vanguard company who had plows
that historic Friday morning. Besides Carter, Shadrach Roundy and George W. Brown rigged up
plow to turn the sod. They met at five-acre plat, staked off by others of the Pioneers late that
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morning, northeast of campsite. The plot was near present State Street between Second and Third
South.
In commemoration of William‟s endeavor, a plaque was placed in downtown Salt Lake
City at Third Sough and State Street, by the Utah State Conference of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, on July 23, 1931. The plaque reads:
“MODERN IRRIGATION
in the vicinity
on July 23 and 24, 1847
by the
“Mormon Pioneers‟.
-------------
„Encamped near the bank of a beautiful
creek of pure, cold water. In about two hours
after our arrival we began to plow and the
same after noon built a dam to irrigate the soil.‟

„July 24th this forenoon commenced planting
our potatoes, after which we turned the water
upon them and gave the ground quite a soaking.‟

„Orson Pratt thus records compliance with the
instructions of Brigham Young,
who with the main company, arrived
about the time the irrigating began.‟
----------------
“This tablet is within the half-acre of ground
first plowed, as identified by William Carter,
who held the plow.”
-----------------
„Placed by the Utah State Conference,
Daughters of the American Revolution,
July 23, 1931.
Four days after the arrival of the Pioneers on the barren site of this now lovely city, July
28, 1847, President Brigham Young, while walking over the ground with some of his associates,
suddenly stopped, and striking the point of his cane into the parched soil exclaimed, “Here we
will build the temple of our God.” His prophetic words were noted by his companions, and
HARRIET TEMPERANCE UTLEY Apostle Wilford Woodruff drove a wooden
stake into the small hole made by the point of
President Young‟s cane. On the evening of the same
day, the ten acres selected for the temple block were
marked out, and they decided that the future city
should surround the square.
Ellen arrived in the valley in H. O. Sarvot‟s
company of fifty. She had driven her own team
across the plains into the valley, arriving there in
September 1847. Her brother Thomas Benbow came
in at the same time in the same company. He stayed
ten years in the valley before going on to San Jose
Mission in Alameda County, California.
After William and Ellen had been married
for almost ten years, their first child was born, a son,
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whom they called William John Benbow Carter. This child was born in 1852, and in November
of 1853, William married his second wife, Harriet Temperance Utley. In February of 1857 he
took a third wife. Sophronia Ellen Lenora Hart Turnbow.
“In the early days of this dispensation, as part of SOPHRONIA TURNBOW CARTER
the promised restitution of all things, the Lord revealed
the principle of plural marriage to the Prophet. Later the
Prophet commanded the leading brethren to enter the
practice, which they did in all virtue and purity of heart
despite the consequent animosity and prejudices of
worldly people. After Brigham Young let the Saint to
the Salt Lake Valley, they openly taught and practiced
plural marriage until the year 1890. At that time
conditions were such that the Lord by revelation
withdrew the command to continue the practice, and
President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto
directing that it cease.
In the spring of 1857 William left Salt Lake
City, with many other missionaries with hand carts, on
a mission to Quebec, Canada. He sold the only work
animal he possessed a gray mare, and bought a
handcart. This mission proved unsuccessful and
William found the people cold and indifferent. Artson
Perry Winsor, who was in charge of a company of pioneers, arrived at Fort Leavenworth May 1,
1857. From there, he wrote a letter to President Brigham Young, notifying him that Johnston‟s
army had started for Utah. Believing exaggerated reports that the Mormons were in a state of
rebellion, U. S. President James Buchanan secretly ordered 2,500 federal troops to Utah,
William served in Quebec only briefly, being recalled because of the crisis precipitated
by Johnston‟s army. Will and the missionaries that were with him left for home immediately.
They arrived home in June 21, 1858, weary and worn, but with gratitude for their safe return and
the fact that the U. S. Army had not yet taken the valley. At the same time they were concerned
about the army coming into the valley. William Carter had been away from home for 14 months
and in all that time had not received any word about his family. William was thankful that his
family was safely out of Salt Lake.
He didn‟t know at the time he was called on the handcart mission that his first wife Ellen
was expecting a baby. She did not want to stand in the way of the mission. She with the help of
Gabe Utley, harvested 600 bushels of wheat and had moved it with her household goods to
Spanish Fork, the time of the „move south‟ when Johnston‟s Army was expected. On William
Carter‟s return trip with the immigrants he was routed through Canada because of the presence
of the Army at Winter Quarters and it was here he heard of the birth of a son. But Brother
Turnbow one of the missionaries that had been sent to meet the company, corrected him on the
error as it was a girl baby that had been born during has absence.
Negotiations succeeded with representatives of the government, just as the army started
to move. They installed Alfred Cumming as governor, and on June 12, 1858, Brigham Young
accepted a pardon for his supposed rebellion. Two weeks later, General Albert Sidney Johnston
let his troops through a deserted Salt Lake City and established and isolated Camp Floyd, forty
miles to the southwest. The Utah War became known as Buchanan‟s Blunder.
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They proved that the Mormons were a peace WILLIAM CARTER
loving people and the army left the city. The women
and children returned and they settled down again to
their daily tasks. In 1860 William appears on the 1860
Utah census in Salt Lake County with 11 in his
household. His occupation is listed as farmer and his
real Estate worth is $1,800. William‟s personal worth
is recorded as $1.000.
William was a counselor to Bishop Hoagland
in the 14th Ward of Salt Lake City from January 31,
1861 until the following fall. Responding to a call
from President Brigham Young, William went to the
Dixie Mission. He helped settle St. George; a new
settlement placed more than three hundred miles to
the south. William took his third wife, Sophronia
Turnbow, and their daughter Adeline, with him.
William‟s historic plow followed him to St.
George where in February 1862 he scratched a ditch,
the first furrow in that area, to mark a campsite for the
wagons. William and Sophronia lived in a large
Sibley tent [large cone of canvas about 18 ft in
diameter and 12 feet tall and supported by a center pole] until the following fall. On Christmas
day she cooked a big dinner and invited a lot of the people in to eat and celebrate. They played
games and sang songs and had an enjoyable time. That winter William and his wife made adobe
bricks and built a little house with a lean-to. In the fall of 1862, the Carters moved into a three-
room home, built during the summer from adobe bricks. Later they built a kitchen and another
bedroom on the back of the house out of lumber from Pine Valley Saw Mills.
William went back to Salt Lake. In General Conference Brigham Young first spoke to
those called to settle the St. George area. Brigham Young said, “ Now brethren those of you who
have been called to settle Southern Utah, don‟t leave a calf tied up here that you will have to run
back to see every little while.” As a result he sold his home and farm for five yokes of oxen and
three new wagons. He took the rest of his family, with the household items, and a crop of grain
and corn that his wife Ellen had harvested. They started for St. George with all their possessions.
They ate Christmas dinner on the black ridge between Cedar City and St. George, Utah.
They called William to the Bishopric and he served as a second counselor to Bishop
Robert Gardner. He also served in the bishopric when they called Daniel D. McArthur as St.
George presiding bishop in 1869.
Regarding the Building of the St. George Temple a Declaration by David Henry Cannon
Jr., one of the first settlers in St. George; “I am eighty-two years old tomorrow [Oct 14, 1942] I
am the only living person so far as I know, who heard and saw what I am about to relate. At the
time of what we shall speak, I was a lad of eleven years, all-seeing and all-hearing, and drove a
team hitched to a scraper.”
“President Brigham Young had written to Robert Gardner, president of the stake high
council. In this letter he expressed a wish that a temple be built in St. George. Also, that Brother
Gardner select a few leading brethren and as a group visit sites where it might be best to build
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the temple. This they did. Visiting spots that each thought might be best. They could not agree,
and so informed President Young. STONECUTTERS WORKING ON ST. GEORGE TEMPLE
“President Young, WILLIAM IS IN THE CENTER WEARING SUSPENDERS
arriving later, somewhat
impatiently chided them, and at
the same asked them to get into
their wagon, or whatever else
they had, and with him find a
location. To the south they
finally stopped. „But, Brother
Young,‟ protested the men, „This
land is boggy. After a storm, and
for several months of the year,
no one can drive across the land
without horses and wagons
sinking way down. There is no
place to build a foundation.”
“We will make a
foundation,‟ said President
Young.
“Later on while plowing and scraping where the foundation was to be, my horse‟s leg
broke through the ground into a spring of water. The brethren then wanted to move the
foundation line twelve feet to the south, so that the spring of water would be on the outside of the
temple.”
“Not so,‟ replied President Young, „We will wall it up and leave it here for some future
use. But we cannot move the foundation. This spot was dedicated by the Nephites. They could not
build it [the temple], but we can and we will build it for them.‟
“To this day the water from that very spring is running through a drain properly built. I
make this statement of my own free will and choice, and without any ear of misgiving,” signed
David Henry Cannon Jr.”
At 3:30 p.m. on November 9, 1871, the day the temple site was dedicated, men began the
momentous task of working on the temple. Since the site did not have a solid foundation, it was
necessary to fill it with rock. They chose to use black volcanic rock taken from the black ridge
on the west side of St. George. To quarry the rock, they made a road along the volcanic ridge.
They rocks were then hauled by oxen teams to the site.
The next problem was getting the rock deeply imbedded into the ground to form a solid
foundation. These pioneers invented a way to accomplish this seemingly impossible task.
Jesse W. Crosby brought with him to southern Utah, a small cannon. “The story of this
cannon pile-driver is another of the romantic stories of the West. According to Howard R.
Driggs, this cannon was manufactured in France and was taken by Napoleon in his siege of
Moscow and abandoned in his retreat from the burning city.. From there it was dragged into
Siberia, thence to Alaska, and finally landed at Fort Ross in California. When Sutter bought the
fort, he acquired the artillery with it. Members of Mormon Battalion, coming north after their
historicmarch in 1846, were employed by Sutter, along with other items, two brass cannon
mounted on wheels. These they dragged over the northern route to Salt Lake City in 1848, in
1851, one was brought south to Parowan and then to St. George in 1861. They took the barrel of
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the field piece, filled it with lead, encased the barrel in heavy ash timbers held tight with iron
bands, and place a ring in the end of the muzzle. This was the hammer that pounded the volcanic
rock into the muddy earth to make a firm ST. GEORGE TEMPLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
footing upon which the walls were to rest.
William Carter constructed and directed
the device for hoisting the hammer. With a
system of pulleys rigged to teams of mules
and fastened to the old cannon, now filled
with lead, the pioneer workmen crafted
their only „power too.‟ Over and over they
hoisted, and then dropped the heavy
cannon on the volcanic rock. As the rock
was made firm in the bog, the masons laid
up great slabs of sandstone and the
foundation of the temple began to take
shape. The construction of the temple was
under way.
The work on the temple moved
rapidly, on March 10, 1873, the masons laid the cornerstone for the foundation and proceeded to
lay the foundation stone. Most of the lumber for the temple came from Mount Trumbull in
Northern Arizona. On August 11, 1875, the baptismal font was dedicated and they performed the
first baptisms. In November of 1876 just five years after the construction began, they were
landscaping the temple block. The St. George Temple was dedicated January 1, 1877 by Elder
Wilford Woodruff.
NEWLY COMPLETED ST. GEORGE TEMPLE William Carter was set apart as an
ordinance working in the St. George
Temple in 1877, and served there for 13
years. During the following years the
United States Government Officials
began to harass the polygamist. The
government would send State officers
into all the towns to find the men and
take them to jail. During June 1888,
William was placed under arrest on the
charge of “unlawful cohabitation.” He
left St. George with several other men,
in the custody of United States
Marshals. They took them to Beaver,
Utah for a trial. They sentenced
William to six months in the State
Prison, in Salt Lake City.
On the Covered Wagon Days celebration of 1888, they recognized William Carter‟s
contribution to western civilization and a gold medal was struck for him. It was to be presented
at fitting exercises at the Tabernacle on July 24. Unfortunately William Carter was still
incarcerated in the state prison, having been sent there by the Federal government. They carried
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