| Territory of Utah | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organized incorporated territory of the United States | |||||||||||||||||
| 1850–1896 | |||||||||||||||||
.jpg) Territorialcoat of arms (1876) | |||||||||||||||||
 The Utah Territory upon its creation, with modern state boundaries shown for reference | |||||||||||||||||
| Capital |
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| Government | |||||||||||||||||
| • Type | Organized incorporated territory | ||||||||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||||||||
• 1851–58 | Brigham Young | ||||||||||||||||
• 1858–61 | Alfred Cumming | ||||||||||||||||
• 1875–80 | George W. Emery | ||||||||||||||||
• 1880–86 | Eli Houston Murray | ||||||||||||||||
• 1886–89 | Caleb Walton West | ||||||||||||||||
• 1889-1893 | Arthur Lloyd Thomas | ||||||||||||||||
• 1893–96 | Caleb Walton West | ||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Utah Territorial Assembly | ||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||
| 1849 | |||||||||||||||||
• UtahOrganic Act | 9 September 1850 | ||||||||||||||||
• Colorado Territory formed | February 28, 1861 | ||||||||||||||||
• Nevada Territory formed | March 2, 1861 | ||||||||||||||||
• Wyoming Territory formed | July 25, 1868 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 January 1896 | |||||||||||||||||
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TheTerritory of Utah was anorganized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850,[2] until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to theUnion as theState of Utah,[3] the 45th state. At its creation, the Territory of Utah included all of the present-day State of Utah, most of the current state ofNevada save for a portion ofSouthern Nevada (including the metro area of the city ofLas Vegas), much of modernwestern Colorado, and the extreme southwest corner of present-dayWyoming.
When theMormon pioneers moving westward across theGreat Plains began settling theSalt Lake Valley around theGreat Salt Lake in1847 and for many years afterward, they relied on existing institutions withinthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) or the secular civil governments.[4]
The Utah Territory was organized by anOrganic Act of theUnited States Congress, approved by the newly succeeded 13thPresidentMillard Fillmore (1800–1874, served 1850–1853), only two months after the formerVice President acceded to the higher office upon the sudden death in July 1850 of his military general predecessorZachary Taylor. The Utah Territory bill was approved by him in September1850, on the same day that theState of California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state (and the first time the American Union jumping across theNorth American continent to the oppositePacific Ocean west coast). Plus the original largerNew Mexico Territory in theGreat Southwest was added and erected from the southern portion of the hugeMexican Cession in1849 of formerCentralist Republic of Mexico lands, (which amounted to the northwestern one-third of their country) following their defeat in theMexican–American War.of1846-1848. The creation of the new Territory of Utah around the Great Basin and the Great Salt Lake was part of the elements of agreements in the politicalCompromise of 1850 made in the national capital ofWashington, D.C. that sought to preserve the balance of power between Southernslave states and free states in the North. With the exception of a small area around the headwaters of the upperColorado River in present-dayColorado, the United States had acquired all thenorthwestern lands of the territory and former provinces from southern neighborMexico after the negotiations and ratification of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, following several additional battles along theGulf of Mexico coast and central heartland, resulting in the occupation of the Mexican capital ofMexico City by Invading American military forces and their surrender with the end of the brief war. The peace treaty later passing in Congress in the upper chamber of theU.S. Senate, (which approves all foreign treaties according to theU.S. Constitution) and the lower chamber of theHouse of Representatives voted in the subsequent supplemental legislation in favor of organizing the federal Territory of Utah, 97–85.[5]
The creation of the Territory with no mention at all of the divisive issue of slavery in the documents, was partially the result of a petition sent by the Mormon pioneers under the leadership ofBrigham Young (1801–1877, served 1847–1877), the second church president. The petition had asked Congress to allow them to enter the Union as theState of Deseret, (which they had already organized the year before) with its capital asSalt Lake City and with proposed borders that encompassed the entireGreat Basin and the watershed of theColorado River, including all or part of nine current U.S. states in the southwest. The Mormon settlers had drafted a state constitution in 1849 and Deseret had become thede facto government in the Great Basin by the time of the creation of the subsequent Federal Utah Territory.[6]
Following the organization of the Territory, second church president Young was inaugurated as its first territorialGovernor of Utah. The firstTerritorial Capital City and Capitol building was located 1850 to 1856 in the small town ofFillmore, Utah, named for the new 13th PresidentMillard Fillmore, who approved and signed the Congressional organic act and territorial erection bill of September 1850, and the small local government was set up here including the meetings of the Territorial Assembly, although first governor and second LDS Church president Brigham Young remained mostly in hisBeehive House (current historic site) residence in Salt Lake City, but traveling to Fillmore 1850 to 1856, until his death in1877. The capital of the Utah Territory was relocated that year of 1856 to the major and largest town ofSalt Lake City, which built a new territorial capitol building for the government and its assembly and governor's offices for the next four decades and which also continued as the newstate capital after statehood in 1896. A massive monumentalUtah State Capitol building with landmark dome was later constructed there on the scenic ridge overlooking from the slopes of the surroundingWasatch Range mountains to the present.
During Brigham Young's governorship, he exerted considerable power over the territory. An example being that in 1873, the territory legislature gave to Governor / President Young the exclusive right to manufacture and distilwhiskey.[7]
Mormon governance in the territory was regarded as controversial by much of the rest of the nation, partly fed by continuing lurid newspaper depictions of thepolygamy marriage practiced by the settlers, which itself had been part of the cause of their flight from their previous homes and center back East inNauvoo, Illinois, in the United States, trekking westward across the continent to theGreat Salt Lake basin after being persecuted and forcibly removed from their settlements in several Eastern states.
Although the Mormons were now the majority in the Great Salt Lake basin, the western area of the new territory soon began to attract many non-Mormon settlers, especially after the discovery ofsilver at the famousComstock Lode ore deposits in theVirginia City area, east of theSierra Nevada mountain ranges andLake Tahoe (of present-day westernNevada) in1858. Only three years later on the eve of the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War in1861, and partly as a result of this, with its importance of the recovered silver bullion for Federal Treasury coffers plus huge growth in population with the influx of prospecting miners (and assorted supporting commercial business interests) and with the subsequent intensive deep shaft industrial mining and drilling, the newNevada Territory was then created out of the western part of the previous Utah Territory of a decade before. Non-Mormons also entered the opposite side in the easternmost part of the territory during thePikes Peak Gold Rush, resulting in the discovery ofgold atBreckenridge in the Utah Territory in1859 (ten years after the first mineral findings along theAmerican River inCalifornia, resulting in the phenomenalCalifornia gold rush of 1849-1855 there). So also in that same year of 1861, additional legislative action was taken by the Congress and the new 16th PresidentAbraham Lincoln (1809–1865, served 1861–1865), to take a large portion of the eastern area of the Utah Territory to be separated and added to as part of the newly created adjacentColorado Territory further east.[6]
In1869, the territory's legislature (the Territorial Assembly) approved and ratifiedwomen's suffrage.[8] This allowed women to vote in all future territorial elections continuing to1896 with statehood (although both male and female residents in American territories had no voice or vote in Federal elections back East).
A total of 46 years elapsed between the organization of the territory and its admission to the Union in 1896 as the 45thState of Utah, long after the admission of other federal territories created after it. In contrast, the Nevada Territory to the west, although more sparsely populated, was admitted to the Union in1864 in the midst of the ongoingAmerican Civil War only three years after its territorial formation, and Colorado was admitted in1876 during theAmerican Centennial celebration year, fifteen years after first becoming a territory.[citation needed]
The Utah state coat of arms appears on the state seal and state flag. Thebeehive was chosen as the emblem for the provisionalState of Deseret in 1848 and represents the state's industrious and hard-working inhabitants, and the virtues of thrift and perseverance. Thesego lilies on either side symbolize peace.[9][10]
The first flag to represent the Territory flew in 1851 and consist of 13 red and white stripes, a blue canton with 13 stars andeagle that was positioned above a large 5 pointed star.[11] The flag was preserved in the Smithsonian Institution for a bit, but its location now is unknown. The second flag was raised in 1854 and it similarly contained "...stars, stripes, eagle, and beehive." The flag was raised up a flag pole on temple block to celebratedPioneer day.[12] The following year at the Governor's mansion on July 4th they "...unfurled the territorial flag."[13] The third flag was depicted on a cigarette trading card in the 1880s. The flag was in a squared ratio with blue background and the Utah state coat of arms in the center. There is no evidence that the flag was ever made or flown.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1850 | 11,380 | — |
| 1860 | 40,273 | +253.9% |
| 1870 | 86,336 | +114.4% |
| 1880 | 146,608 | +69.8% |
| 1890 | 210,779 | +43.8% |
| Source: 1850–1890[14] | ||
In 1850, nine churches withregular services in the Utah Territory were unclassified by historianEdwin Gaustad in hisHistorical Atlas of Religion in America (1962), but were probablyLDS churches.[15][16] In the1890 United States census,25 counties in the Utah Territory reported the following population counts (after seven reported the following counts in the1850 United States census):[14]
| 1890 Rank | County | 1850 Population | 1890 Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Lake | 6,157 | 58,457 |
| 2 | Utah | 2,026 | 23,768 |
| 3 | Weber | 1,186 | 22,723 |
| 4 | Cache | – | 15,509 |
| 5 | Sanpete | 365 | 13,146 |
| 6 | Summit | – | 7,733 |
| 7 | Box Elder | – | 7,642 |
| 8 | Davis | 1,134 | 6,751 |
| 9 | Sevier | – | 6,199 |
| 10 | Juab | – | 5,582 |
| 11 | Emery | – | 5,076 |
| 12 | Millard | – | 4,033 |
| 13 | Washington | – | 4,009 |
| 14 | Tooele | 152 | 3,700 |
| 15 | Wasatch | – | 3,595 |
| 16 | Beaver | – | 3,340 |
| 17 | Piute | – | 2,842 |
| 18 | Uintah | – | 2,762 |
| 19 | Iron | 360 | 2,683 |
| 20 | Garfield | – | 2,457 |
| 21 | Morgan | – | 1,780 |
| 22 | Kane | – | 1,685 |
| 23 | Rich | – | 1,527 |
| 24 | Grand | – | 541 |
| 25 | San Juan | – | 365 |
| Indian reservations | 4,645 | – | |
| Utah Territory | 11,380 | 210,779 |
