John Varah Long was cited to appear before church officials in 1866 for, among other reasons, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153belonging to the young men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social club, and other conduct unbecoming a saint.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Is it possible that the social club, one cause of Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s excommunication, was also a model for the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mutual Improvement Associations?<\/p>\n
I tuned in to KUER\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s RadioWest program<\/a> yesterday to hear the latest chapter in what historian Will Bagley describes as an experience of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unpeeling the onion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the John V. Long papers currently being explored by rare books dealer Ken Sanders. Since their last public appearance, Ken had invited Ron Barney and others from LDS Archives to look over the documents, and Ron described what he had seen and addressed some of the claims made earlier in the program. (Juvenile Instructor<\/a> has a great summary of the radio program.)<\/p>\n One point of special interest was Ken\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reading of part of the 1866 document calling Long to appear before his high council to answer charges concerning his standing in the church, and especially the charge of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153belonging to the young men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social club.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n The host asked about that organization.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mystery after mystery,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Will responded. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I asked the best historians in the LDS church, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchave you ever seen a reference to this?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and none of them had an answer. As I investigated it, I went through the only paper except for the Deseret News<\/em> published in Utah at the time, which was the Union Vedette<\/em>, and the only reference to clubs involved a billiards club, and another club that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t specifically identified.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Thank you, Will, for publicly acknowledging me as one of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the best historians in the LDS church,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an answer for you when you asked. I do now, though.<\/p>\n Whoever drew up Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summons used an incorrect name \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the generic term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social club\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c instead of the institution\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s formal name. Had he used the formal name, none of those queried, or Will himself, would have had a moment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hesitation in identifying the group. <\/p>\n Yesterday afternoon I mentioned the problem to Paul Reeve, assistant professor of history at the University of Utah and an occasional commenter on T&S, and he instantly recognized the group. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Young Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Literary Association,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122oh! Of course! And my forehead-slapping has been repeated numerous times as I passed the word along. There is virtually no doubt that this is the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social club\u00e2\u20ac\u009d referred to in the Long document.<\/p>\n The Young Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Literary Association was organized by the Gentiles (a term proudly adopted by non-Mormons in Utah at this era) in 1864, operating through at least 1867. Their meetings consisted of guest speakers, member debates, and recitations of poetry and literary masterpieces, and they held numerous balls \u00e2\u20ac\u201c winter balls, balls celebrating the anniversary of the Bear River Massacre, balls in honor of visiting dignitaries. They collected books and newspapers for a members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reading room, and they took occasional field trips. They distributed honorary life memberships to hosts of traveling Gentiles who spoke to their meetings.<\/p>\n Reports of activities appear very frequently in the Union Vedette<\/em> (which was, in fact, not<\/em> the only paper besides the Deseret News<\/em> published in Utah at this time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c T.B.H. Stenhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Telegraph<\/em>, one of the finest Utah papers ever published, was in print all through this period). On paper, the YMLA was a genteel as well as a Gentile organization \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the last meeting a fine essay was read by one member and by another a choice selection of poetry.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were a goodly number present \u00e2\u20ac\u201c every one was social \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the dance was earnestly participated in \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the chief aim of the members of the Association seemed to be to make themselves and every one around them happy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The constitution provided for the expulsion of members for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153any violation of gentlemanly conduct.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d No doubt they were entirely respectable by worldly standards.<\/p>\n But by Mormon standards, they were anything but respectable. The membership consisted of military officers and hangers-on, federal officials, merchants and miners. The success of their fancy balls in these pre-transcontinental-railroad days depended on seducing young Mormon girls into participation. Their speakers were not kind to the Mormon community \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the chaplain at Fort Douglas, a member of YMLA, testified to Congress in 1866 that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the whole [Mormon] system is pregnant with principles of eternal antagonism to the civilization of the nineteenth century. It is the purest, or rather the impurest despotism on earth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d — and announced topics for forthcoming meetings were often along the lines of “Morality vs. Mormonism.” <\/p>\n The YMLA built Independence Hall, which was the first home of the Godbeites, the Liberal Institute, and the Liberal Party, all of which came into being specifically in opposition to Mormonism.<\/p>\n In short, given the personnel of the YMLA and the nature of many of its evenings, no one can be surprised that regular attendance at its meetings and steady fraternization with its members would have been grounds to question any Mormon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allegiance to his own people. <\/p>\n The minute books of the YMLA are preserved in the Marriott Library at the University of Utah, so it should be easy for Ken to confirm Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s membership.<\/p>\n The intriguing question for me, apart from the specifics of Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, is whether, or to what extent, the YMLA had a role in sparking the formation of the Young Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mutual Improvement Association. Salt Lake\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s YMLA is one of a great many YMLAs in existence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a Google search turns up references to such groups in London and Calcutta and through the eastern United States in the 1850s and 1860s \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it would have been the one most familiar to Mormons in Utah. The early activities of the MIAs mirror the YMLA to a great extent, intellectual development interspersed with social entertainments, although the MIA of course has a heavy overlay of religious motivation lacking in the YMLA. And the YMMIA was organized in 1875, not long after the YMLA was most active.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a question I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer without more research than I can invest right now. But to me, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an intriguing possibility worth investigating. Some day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Varah Long was cited to appear before church officials in 1866 for, among other reasons, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153belonging to the young men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social club, and other conduct unbecoming a saint.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Is it possible that the social club, one cause of Long\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s excommunication, was also a model for the church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mutual Improvement Associations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}