{"id":4285,"date":"2007-12-10T12:42:22","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T16:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=4285"},"modified":"2007-12-10T15:28:27","modified_gmt":"2007-12-10T19:28:27","slug":"my-people-shall-wear-wooden-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2007\/12\/my-people-shall-wear-wooden-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"My People Shall <\/em>Wear Wooden Shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1874 a short lived satirical newspaper appeared in Utah, under the title Enoch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Advocate: A Temporary Journal Devoted to the Interests of the United Order of Wooden Shoes.<\/em> The paper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sole intent was to take jabs both in picture and in print at Brigham Young and the United Order effort he had launched territory wide that year. Justin, in an earlier thread here at T&S quoted from a song<\/a> printed in the Advocate<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The King of the Mormons <\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Brigham Young of the Mormon Band,
\nWhose faith is built upon the sand;
\nMy will is law through all the land
\nInhabited by the Mormons.<\/p>\n

My people shall <\/em>wear wooden shoes,
\nwooden shoes, wooden shoes,
\nMy people shall <\/em>wear wooden shoes
\nWhile I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the King of the Mormons.<\/p>\n

Of Enox order I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the head.
\nThe people by of the nose are led.
\nOn sorghum they shall all be fed
\nWhile I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the King of the Mormons.<\/p>\n

. . . . <\/p>\n

The revelations through me given,
\nAre steady as the winds of Heaven.
\nSome last for weeks, quite six or seven,
\nAnd greatly bother the Mormons.<\/p>\n

Enox order is the last,
\nis the last, is the last,
\nEnox order is the last,
\nAnd wooden shoes for the Mormons.<\/p>\n

In the same issue the paper printed a mock revelation on the United Order which in part read: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And now, behold, I have given unto you the principles of unity and oneness and are they not simple? That all clocks may tick alike, regulate them by one clock; and that all brains may think alike, regulate ye them by one brain. Now behold this is heavenly and full of beauty, for it keepeth down aspiring clocks and brains, and it surpresseth much criticism which is always of the evil one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n

It continued, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And now as to the common people, I say unto you that it is wisdom that they be taught that wooden shoes and colored shirts and home made clothing is all that is necessary for the working man in Zion; and the women that they abolish ribbons and long skirts and all appendages which use up money: and this because it saveth means for the chief Treasurer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Clearly, wooden shoes in the Advocate <\/em>became a discourse designed to disparage perceived Mormon blind obedience. It also symbolized the perception that Brigham Young was using the United Order to grow wealthy at the expense of his followers, who were reduced to wearing wooden shoes. <\/p>\n

The same year that the Advocate <\/em>published its version of life in the territory, Mormon authorities from St. George organized a United Order effort at Hebron, Utah a small ranching outpost on the southern rim of the Great Basin close to the Utah\/Nevada border and the Washington\/Iron County line. While there were several different levels of participation in the United Order movement, generally those involved consecrated all or part of their properties to the Church, with the aim of becoming economically and socially equal. United Order participants were encouraged to use only material goods produced within the order, which in some cases were inferior to items available in commercial markets\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor among local Native Americans. In southern Utah, the effort to avoid importing leather led to the production of wooden-bottomed shoes, with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strong cloth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for uppers. Brigham Young told women at St. George that using the shoes would not only save the Saints money but would be especially helpful during the scorching southern Utah summers when the ground became heated. (See Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation among the Mormons <\/em>(1976; reprint, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992), 157-58 and James G. Bleak, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Annals of the Southern Utah Mission,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d typescript, vol. B, 260, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah).<\/p>\n

Despite such admonition from Brigham Young, Hebronite Orson Welcome Huntsman complained that the wooden shoes were uncomfortable and that he could hardly walk in them; they made him stumble and felt clumsy on his feet. Huntsman went to Moroni\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s camp ( a local Southern Paiute band) and struck a bargain with Moroni. Huntsman gave Moroni \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a pan full of potatoes and a little flour\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in exchange for Moroni making him \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a good pair of Moccasins.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huntsman wore his new footwear to church the following Sunday, where \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Bishop and others had to acknowledge that the moccasins took the shine off the old wooden shoes, both for comfort and hansome [sic].\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As Huntsman recalled, his trade spelled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the end of the wooden shoe here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Diary of Orson W. Huntsman, typescript, vol. I, 78, L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University).<\/p>\n

On one level this little twig of wooden shoe history could be viewed as another chink in the armor of a Monolithic Mormonism described in Dave Banack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thread<\/a>. It certainly signals a lack of evidence at the grass roots level for blind obedience to uncomfortable footwear. (I would suggest that at Hebron there is considerable evidence of this in issues other than wooden shoes as well. In the 1880s when Hebron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bishop was frequently in hiding due to the federal crackdown on polygamy, Hebronites lobbied for a new bishop. St. George authorities obliged. When the new bishop chose his counselors, however, one refused to serve and the congregation voted down the other). <\/p>\n

Beyond the issue of priestly rule and blind obedience, for the historian this episode teaches important lessons on sources as well. How should we weigh the evidence from the various sources? How much should we rely upon the Advocate <\/em>for information? Huntsman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diary? Brigham Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speeches? If the Advocate <\/em>were our only source on wooden shoes, what conclusions might we draw? If Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s message to St. George women on wooden shoes were our only source, how would it shape our view? Or, if Huntsman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diary were the single source, what message might it send? <\/p>\n

Now translate these questions to the macro level: When writing Mormon history, how can we best understand this faith? How should we weigh the evidence from the various sources and from what vantage point can we most profitably view it? Should we view it from the vantage point of its critics, people who are on the outside and therefore not blinded by the irrational pitfalls of the believer? Or, should we rely more heavily on the view from the pulpit, carefully parsing quotes from the LDS hierarchy found in the Journal of Discourses or other such sources to best understand the faith. Or does the truest picture of Mormonism emerge not from the pulpit, but from the pew, from the people like Orson Welcome Huntsman who actually lived Mormonism \u00e2\u20ac\u0153on the ragged edge,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (to borrow a phrase from Juanita Brooks)?<\/p>\n

How do we, in other words, truly understand what it was like to walk in wooden shoes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1874 a short lived satirical newspaper appeared in Utah, under the title Enoch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Advocate: A Temporary Journal Devoted to the Interests of the United Order of Wooden Shoes. The paper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sole intent was to take jabs both in picture and in print at Brigham Young and the United Order effort he had launched territory wide that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"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-4285","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\/4285","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\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}