Philip de la Mare's own story
Philip de La Mare
From the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, 1930 by Nicholas Morgan, grandson of Philip de la Mare
Family
Philip De La Mare was born 3 April 1823, in the village and parish of Grouville on the Island of Jersey, of French parentage. His father was Francois De La Mare, born 1792, and his mother, Jeanne Esther Ahier.
It was about 1600 that Philip De La Mare's ancestors left France, because of the bloody revolution that was then taking place in that realm, and emigrated to the little Isle of Jersey only some 14 miles away and plainly visible in fine weather. They were Protestants and were of a law abiding and peace-loving nature.
The Isle of Jersey, at the present time a possession of England, is a land of romantic history. It was originally the home of a Celtic people and although it is and has been for centuries a farming land and recognized as one of England's store-houses, yet there remain today the ruins of grand old castles and structures of architectural beauty which tell of another day when feudalism in all its magnificence and pomp held sway in the island.
Suffice it to say, then, that Philip De La Mare and his ancestors were a rural people. Francois De La Mare, the father, was a contractor and builder and in his time was reputed to be a man of exceptional skill in marine construction work and possessed of great executive ability. The latter's father was also a contractor and built the Old North Pier in the 17th Century.
Like many of the boys in his day Philip de la Mare was privileged with but a limited schooling. He was in his tenth year when he began to work on a farm. He spent two years at this employment and then secured a five-year apprenticeship in a blacksmith shop. During this period he received no remuneration whatever. The following year he was paid 30 cents a day, which was increased to 36 cents the next year.
In the year 1841, the Jersey States or Parliament awarded to Francois De La Mare, the father, the contract to build in granite the great Victoria Pier located on the Southwest Coast of Jersey, the contract price being £280,000. To the people in those days this was an enormous undertaking and the amount involved was considered almost fabulous. Young De La Mare, having learned his trade and finished his apprenticeship, became one of his father's assistants. He was at this period only eighteen years old and yet, because of his experience, he was put in charge of 29 skilled blacksmiths, workmen whose duty it was to make all the tools necessary to carry on the work of construction.
The year 1845 saw the completion of the Victoria Pier. Philip De la Mare was now 22 years old and considered an expert in his trade.
Not being contented with the opportunities that were afforded him in Jersey, he went to England, and there secured employment in the shops of Abbott and Brown, at Van Castle. Here he worked for three years, studying during his spare time and endeavoring to make the most of his opportunities.
While in England he assisted in the construction of the great high level bridge across the Tyne River. It was made in five sections and stood over one hundred and ten feet above the rushing water of the river below.
In the year 1847, his father was awarded a second contract by the Jersey States to build thg Albert Pier. This was an enterprise even greater than the building of the Victoria Pier. Young De La Mare was called home from England. Five hundred men were employed and at the end of five years the great project, which had cost £549,000, was completed. So successful had they been in this work that Philip De La Mare, himself made £10,000 clear profit.
It was while engaged in this work that he heard one day from one of his workmen — one John Le Cocq, a blacksmith — that a new religion was being preached in the town. Being naturally of a religious nature he became interested and upon attending one of the meetings was so thoroughly impressed with the principles and doctrines there taught that he requested to be baptized. One week later he was ordained to the priesthood and began preaching the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
John Taylor
Two years after the first settlement of Utah by the Mormon people, Brigham Young — at that time president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — ordained certain men to go and perform missions in different parts of the world. Among those called was John Taylor, one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Apostle Taylor was called to go to France. There he was to preach the gospel and in addition was to translate the Book of Mormon into the French language. He also had another work to perform. Young, realizing the necessity of bringing to Utah new ideas, new enterprises and new establishments to develop and build up the waste places of Deseret, advised his brethren who were to travel in foreign lands to keep their eyes open to enterprises or industries that could be organized in Utah.
Elder Taylor, in company with other missionaries, left Utah in the spring of 1849. In the group were Lorenzo Snow and Joseph Toronto, bound for Italy, and Erastus Snow, on his way to Sweden. Apostle Taylor took passage on the boat ‘‘Westervelt’’ and after a month's travel reached his destination.
In the fall of 1850 he visited the Isle of Jersey, where Elder W C Dunbar was doing missionary work. After remaining in Jersey in company with Elder Dunbar for some six or seven days, he prepared to return to France to resume his labors. It was during this week's stay in Jersey that he made the acquaintance of Philip De La Mare.
Elder John Taylor returned to France to resume his labors. After a winter of successful labor, he again came to Jersey. His object this time was to secure Philip De La Mare to assist in translating and publishing the Book of Mormon in the French language.
Elder de La Mare, for he had been ordained to the higher priesthood, had by this time acquired such a strong testimony of the divinity of the Gospel that he did not hesitate to respond to the call. They left Jersey for France on a cutter run by one Philip Countanche, an uncle of Philip De La Mare. After a short and safe voyage they landed at Granville in Normandy.
A long journey on foot now lay before them. They started east toward the seaport of Havre de Grace at the mouth of the Seine River. Their course took them through a beautiful country covered with many prosperous plantations. They were especially interested in the ‘Colza’ plantations.
The colza plant is an oil plant, the oil from which was used in lamps to illuminate the homes in the place of sperm oil, which was then generally used for that purpose. So interested was Apostle Taylor in this industry that he was tempted to follow President Young's injunction and carry the necessary seed and knowledge of cultivation back to Utah. This failed to materialize, however.
Upon arriving at Havre de Grace they journeyed direct for Paris. Here they arrived after an uneventful seven days, their entire trip having lasted about 15 days.
Without delay, work was begun on the translation of the Book of Mormon into the French language. L A Bertrand, a writer on economic questions and Apostle Taylor's first convert, assisted in the work. C C Bolton and John Peck also helped.
Very shortly after, in the spring of 1851, the French branch of the Church was organized. The Church paper, L'etoile du Deseret, was published and great efforts were made in promulgating the Gospel. Three months after the completion of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Apostle Taylor received a communication from President Young urging him to further his endeavors in getting ideas and machinery, if necessary, to send to Deseret to build up her industries. In the spring of 1851 Taylor and De La Mare left Paris for Arras, a little town in the northern part of France.
Sugar beet
For many years this district had been noted for its extensive beet sugar industries, putting upon the French market from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds of sugar annually. Elders Taylor and De la Mare, in visiting this place, were to see if the beet sugar industry could not be started in Utah.
They began a careful investigation. First they tested the soil and the growing plant; they then went to the factories and through the courtesy and kindness of the one in charge they secured plans concerning all details.
The investigators were now thoroughly enthusiastic in the work and so sure of its feasibility that they proceeded immediately to England to raise the necessary capital to incorporate a stock company. John W Coward, a great salt dealer in England, and a recent convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the first to join the company, contributing f1000. Capt Russell, a very wealthy ship builder who also had joined the Church, became a member of the company. He agreed to contribute f9000. A Mr Collison, a manufacturer in boots and shoes in Liverpool, in whose establishment President John R Winder was working when he first learned of Mormonism, became a stockholder in the company, contributing £1,000. Philip De La Mare was also a stockholder, having contributed the first f1,000.
This capital combined constituted £12,000, or about $60,000. The company was capitalized for this amount and given the name of the Deseret Manufacturing Co. For his efforts in organizing the company, Apostle Taylor was given $10,000 worth of the company's stock.
With the company organized and the money secured, Elders Taylor and De La Mare proceeded to purchase the machinery and prepare it for shipment to Utah. The machinery was purchased from Faused and Co., in the fall of 1851. On 10 of June 1852, Elder De La Mare left Liverpool on the ship Kennebec for America; his destination being St Louis, on the Mississippi River, where he was to secure the necessary wagons, etc, to haul the machinery across the plains to Utah.
The machinery, in the care of Elias Morris, John Nuttall, William Nuttall and Joseph Nuttall, left Liverpool on the ship Rockaway on 6 March 1852. Two months later the cargo arrived in New Orleans and two months later it arrived at St Louis, where it was transferred to small boats and taken to Fort Leavenworth, in Indian Territory.
Philip De La Mare, who had come direct to Fort Leavenworth from Liverpool, was out in the country buying oxen when the machinery arrived. Capt Russell, who had accompanied De La Mare from England, was busily engaged in making 50 wagons at a point now occupied by the City of Omaha. These wagons and cattle were to be used in transporting the machinery to Salt Lake Valley.
Westwards
These two men brought the cattle and wagons to Fort Leavenworth, where the machinery was loaded and preparations made to commence the journey to the west.
In securing the cattle he had traveled on foot, or the best way available, over 1,000 miles. Hidden in a belt that he fastened about his waist was $5000 in gold, with which he was to buy cattle. After he had been successful in this his first move, he saw before him a task that looked to be almost beyond the power of man to accomplish. A thousand miles of uninhabited plains lay before him and beyond rose great chains of almost unexplored mountains. This was to be the course over which he was to travel to reach Utah.
This was his first experience in this class of work. He had experienced but little of the hardships that enter into a frontiersman's life. His home, where he had been raised and brought up to manhood, was a community where civilization had existed for centuries. His little family was composed of a wife and three children, and en route all three of the little ones were seriously sick with the cholera; the eldest of whom died and was buried in St Louis.
It is quite impossible to portray in fitting language the trials, hardships and privations that were connected with this journey, as told by Mr De La Mare. He considered his work well done if he correctly stated the main facts and incidents of the journey from Fort Leavenworth to Utah.
The 50 wagons that Captain Russell had made proved to be absolutely worthless; many of them falling to pieces and others breaking down under the great weight of the machinery. As a result he was compelled to discard most of them and the remainder he gave to poor families who were on their way to Utah. A more exasperating and trying situation could hardly be imagined. He was now without wagons, without money, and without friends to assist him.
His journey had hardly begun and winter was hurriedly coming upon him. But with a determination to overcome all obstacles he set forth to get more wagons, Accidentally he met one Chas H Perry — a non-Mormon — and from him he purchased upon credit some 40 great Santa Fe wagons.
Encouraged with this success he now undertook to load and replenish his commissary for the many months he contemplated being on the journey. He secured a large amount of flour on credit. This flour later proved to be filled with worms and Plaster of Paris, consequently it had to be thrown away. Notwithstanding the many reverses he experienced in this, his second preparation for the journey, he felt satisfied with his efforts and felt assured of success.
Fellow travellers
4 July 1852 saw the beginning of the great journey across the plains. From Fort Leavenworth Philip De La Mare directed his caravan — which in addition to his own wagons now consisted of a number of emigrant families who had joined them at Fort Leavenworth and along the way — directly west.
Out into the great uninhabited plains they traveled. Each day they drew further away from civilization. The first beet sugar refitting machinery that had ever been brought to the Western Hemisphere was being transported across the great western plains in 40 ponderous Santa Fe wagons, each drawn by from four to eight yoke of oxen, and carrying from 5,000 to 9,300 pounds each of iron machinery.
What a splendid sight it must have been to see this great train en route. It was the realization of the poet when he wrote "Westward the course of Empire takes its way". Days, weeks and months passed and still they traveled. The long hot days of summer were now drawing shorter and cooler and the falling of the leaves from the trees predicted winter.
At Sweetwater river they experienced their first severe snow storm. Snow fell to the depth of two feet and the thermometer dropped below zero. The night of the storm many of the cattle got away and ran in every direction. Most of them were rounded up but some were never heard of again.
The commissary got low and they were compelled to kill some of the remaining cattle. Necessarily they were forced to travel far more slowly. While traveling through Wyoming they were met by Joseph Horne, who had been sent by President Taylor to meet them. The provisions and articles he brought were of great assistance to the almost famished emigrants. At Green River in southwestern Wyoming they purchased some cattle from two trappers — Descamp and Garnier — to replace the ones they had eaten. These trappers had purchased their cattle from people traveling in that section.
At Fort Bridger more assistance was received. Abraham Smoot brought from Salt Lake City a load of flour. Flour at this time was selling for $50 per 100 pounds.
After a few days rest Mr Smoot began his return journey, taking with him several of the emigrants.
Shortly after reaching Bear River the mountainous trails were found to be so rugged and the snow on them so deep that several of the largest boilers had to be left behind. They were brought in the next spring.
The emigrants then continued their journey. After crossing the Bear River they followed the trail of the pioneers of 1847 and came through Emigration Canyon into Salt Lake. Their destination was at last reached and their journey almost ended. The families who had accompanied the train stopped off in Salt Lake and the machinery was taken to Provo City, 50 miles south. It was now the latter part of November 1852; five months having been spent in making the journey from Fort Leavenworth, a distance of 1,200 miles.
Established in Tooele
After arriving in the Valley, in the year 1852, Philip De La Mare spent the remainder of the winter in Salt Lake City. He worked for Kinkaid and Livingston at Camp Floyd getting out wood and timbers. Robert and Sharp Walker worked for him in the lumber business. He established his home in the little settlement of Tooele in the year 1854, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
In the year 1855 he secured the position of blacksmith with Col Steptoe’s party of government surveyors, who had been sent to the northwestern part of the United States to do exploratory and survey work. He was with this company for a period of 18 months, when he received word of the famine in Utah. He immediately resigned his position, forwarded what money he could to his family by means of the pony express, and then, in San Bernardino, with some of the remainder of his money, he purchased goods and merchandise which he brought on to Utah. On his arrival home, he used the remainder of his savings, which he had brought in a buckskin vest, to assist those in need at home.
Philip De La Mare, under the leadership of Daniel H Wells, spent the winter of 1857 in preparing the defense against Johnston's Army in Echo Canyon. In 1860 he was called to preside over the Channel Conference, where he labored diligently as a missionary for the Church for a period of three years and eight months. On his return home, in company with Elders John Needham and Samuel H Smith, he brought a company of immigrant Saints to the Valley in the fall of 1864.
In the year 1865 he opened a blacksmith shop on Second South, about half way between Main and West Temple streets in Salt Lake City. His tools and equipment which he purchased cost one dollar a pound. Shortly after he took his blacksmith shop to Tooele where he carried on his trade for a number of years. It was he who made the anchor for the first large boat owned by Patrick O'Connor and named The Garfield, used on the Great Salt Lake. This anchor weighed 500 pounds and was made from scrap iron.
He was an expert tool maker and was employed at one time by the Federal Government to make a large platform scale to be used in weighing heavy loads. When tested by officials this scale was found to be exact to a pound.
Philip De La Mare was a man of great honor and integrity. He was a perfect specimen of physical manhood, which, perhaps, was the reason for his being able to stand the great hardships encountered in his strenuous work of pioneering. He was a man of vision. He saw the possibilities of the great beet sugar industry and devoted a fortune and his best efforts to its establishment in Utah. Although it didn't become a commercially profitable industry until later years, yet Philip De La Mare is entitled to the credit of being one of the very few who laid the foundation of this great industry.
He stands at the head of a great and honorable family, and today we revere his memory and honor his name. Philip De la Mare was one of God's noblemen. He died in his 93rd year, quite helpless, but with a mind active almost to his last day. He died peacefully amid the loving care and affection of his large family and his host of friends.
He was a faithful Church worker, and held many public offices as a citizen in the community where he lived. In 1882 he was chosen a member of the High Council of the Tooele Stake, and in 1898, he was ordained a Patriarch. At the close of his eventful career he left a name well known and respected, not only in Tooele, but throughout Utah.
Family tree
