The last week or two in July can mean a number of things. For children, summer vacation is starting to wrap up and thoughts start turning to the coming school year. This is also the time for the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
But if you live in Utah, the 24th of July is a day that is celebrated with almost the same enthusiasm as the Fourth of July. It’s called by many names: “Pioneer Day” and “Days of ’47” to name a couple. Most businesses are closed and there are parades, rodeos and even fireworks.
On the surface this is a celebration of the day the first pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. But, this holiday means much more than that.
From its founding in 1830 in Fayette, New York, to the subsequent emigration to Utah, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continually faced threats to their rights to worship, property and their own lives.
As people began to join this new faith, they started to gather in northern Ohio around the city of Kirtland, partly due to a large number of its residents who had converted. They also started to form a second community in Independence, Missouri, in hopes to establish a central gathering place for the number of people joining the church and desiring to find strength and support with one another.
This sudden growth in these two areas caused concern for many of the other residents. Newspaper articles began to be written making false claims about the church and its members. This led to mobs that interrupted church services and some members were tarred and feathered.
In Missouri, the persecution took a much deadlier turn. Here, there was a growing concern that the general political climate might change.
Missouri at the time was considered to be a slave state, but members of the church were opposed to slavery. After an editorial written by a leader of the church was published opposing slavery, state and local government militias were formed to force them to leave the state.
Ultimately, on Oct. 27, 1838, Governor Lilbourn Boggs signed an order declaring the Latter-day Saints as enemies of the state who “must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary.”
This expulsion pushed the saints to try to build a new home along the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois. Unfortunately, the persecution continued to follow them—culminating with the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, leader of the church at the time, and his brother Hyrum on June 27, 1844.
Then in February, 1846, under threat of more mob and militia violence, they crossed the Mississippi River to ultimately settle in Utah with the first group arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
This unique pioneer celebration has freedom of religion as its foundation. It is through this founding principle rooted in the Constitution of the United States that we all can proclaim the right to live our lives as we see fit and to worship who or what we may. It is something we should all celebrate and defend.
Mark D. Fullmer is High Councilor in the Morgan Hill Stake, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is an active member of the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County and can be reached at 1d******@***il.com.
