Utah Territory
Territory of Utah | |||||||||
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the United States | |||||||||
1850–1896 | |||||||||
The Utah Territory upon its creation, with modern state boundaries shown for reference | |||||||||
Capital |
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Government | |||||||||
• Type | Governor | | |||||||
• 1851–58 | Brigham Young | ||||||||
• 1858–61 | Alfred Cumming | ||||||||
• 1875–80 | George W. Emery | ||||||||
• 1880–86 | Eli Houston Murray | ||||||||
• 1886–89, 1893–96 | Caleb Walton West | ||||||||
Organic Act | September 9 1850 | ||||||||
• Colorado Territory formed | February 28, 1861 | ||||||||
• Nevada Territory formed | March 2, 1861 | ||||||||
• Wyoming Territory formed | July 25, 1868 | ||||||||
January 4 1896 | |||||||||
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The Territory of Utah was an
History
The territory was organized by an
The creation of the Utah Territory was partially the result of the petition sent by the
Following the organization of the territory, Young was inaugurated as its first governor on February 3, 1851. In the first session of the territorial legislature in September, the legislature adopted all the laws and ordinances previously enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret.
During Brigham Young's governorship, he exerted considerable power over the territory. An example being that in 1873, the territory legislature gave Young the exclusive right to manufacture whiskey.[6]
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 the polygamy practiced by the settlers, which itself had been part of the cause of their flight from the United States to the Great Salt Lake basin after being forcibly removed from their settlements farther east.
Although the Mormons were the majority in the Great Salt Lake basin, the western area of the territory began to attract many non-Mormon settlers, especially after the discovery of silver at the
In 1869 the territory approved and ratified women's suffrage.[7]
46 years elapsed between the organization of the territory and its admission to the Union in 1896 as the State of Utah, long after the admission of territories created after it. In contrast, the Nevada Territory, although more sparsely populated, was admitted to the Union in 1864, only three years after its formation, and Colorado was admitted in 1876.[citation needed]
Coat of arms
The Utah state coat of arms appears on the state seal and state flag. The beehive was chosen as the emblem for the provisional State of Deseret in 1848 and represents the state's industrious and hard-working inhabitants, and the virtues of thrift and perseverance. The sego lilies on either side symbolize peace.[8][9]
Population
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[10] |
In 1850, 9 churches with regular services in the Utah Territory were unclassified by historian Edwin Gaustad in his Historical Atlas of Religion in America (1962), but were probably LDS churches.[11][12] In the 1890 United States census, 25 counties in the Utah Territory reported the following population counts (after 7 reported the following counts in the 1850 United States census):[10]
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 |
See also
- Historic regions of the United States
- History of Utah
- Territorial evolution of the United States
References
- ^ "FlagTerritorial.jpg". pioneer.utah.gov. Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
- ^ 9 Stat. 453
- ^ "Utah". World Statesmen. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
- ^ "Friday, September 6, 1850". The National Era (Washington, D.C.). Newspapers.com. September 12, 1850. p. 3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8061-5916-4.
- ^ Vance, Del (2008). Beer in the Beehive (2 ed.). Salt Lake City: Dream Garden Press. p. 32.
- ISBN 9780691191171.
- ^ Utah State Coat of Arms State Symbols USA.
- ^ Utah State Emblem: Beehive eReferenceDesk.
- ^ a b Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. pp. 162–163. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0816038671.
- ^ Gaustad, Edwin (1962). Historical Atlas of Religion in America. New York: Harper & Row.
Further reading
- (1994) "Coins and Currency" article in the Utah History Encyclopedia. The article was written by Leonard J. Arrington and the Encyclopedia was published by the University of Utah Press. ISBN 9780874804256. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024 and retrieved on April 12, 2024.
- (2017) Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory by Brent M. Rogers, University of Nebraska Press.
External links
- Utah in 1851, with the text of the 1850 Act of Congress to Establish the Territory of Utah, Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
- Utah's Role in the Transcontinental Railroad, Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
- Utah State History Archived April 20, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Utah Office of Tourism Official Website
- Henry Sommer, Watercolors and Pencil Drawings Related to the Utah Expedition. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.