FEATURE – Today it’s a desirable place. Somewhere people flock to for vacation or to live, attracted by the breathtaking landscape and the mild winter weather, among other superlatives. In fact, it’s one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, however, Washington County wasn’t a place many wanted to be. Some of those who received the call to settle here did not heed it with excitement.

Instead, many felt a sense of dread at the prospect of eking out a living on what was then considered a foreboding landscape.

Despite the odds against them, they persevered and grew cotton, which became both the foundation of the settlements of Southern Utah as well as the foundation of the pioneer’s faith.

Economic independence

The Cotton Mission is one of the best illustrations of  early LDS pioneers trying to achieve economic independence, striving for locally sourced cotton after seeing that the outside market for it could dry up during the Civil War. 

“Economic independence was, in fact, an aspect of Mormon theology,” wrote renowned LDS historian Leonard J. Arrington in a 1956 article entitled ‘The Mormon Cotton Mission in Southern Utah,’ which appeared in the ‘Pacific Historical Review.’

“The Cotton Mission was initially a series of experiments to determine whether cotton could be grown in Utah,” Arrington wrote. 

Fort Harmony, established in 1852, became the jumping-off point to establish the Cotton Mission. Fort Harmony missionaries petitioned the Utah territorial legislature as early as 1854 to send 150 men to establish cotton plantations and vineyards in the Santa Clara and Virgin river basins, but the legislature denied the request, citing lack of capital and Indian hostilities.

Other missionaries sent to Santa Clara to work with the Native Americans planted a quart of cottonseed in 1855, which yielded enough lint to produce thirty yards of cloth. Samples were sent to Church President Brigham Young as proof that the region could, in fact, grow cotton. The cotton harvest the following year was also meager, but “seemed to demonstrate the providence of God in providing the wherewithal for a self-sufficient Kingdom,” Arrington wrote.

In the April 1857 General Conference, church leadership called fifty families and unmarried men to settle Washington, Utah, located along the Virgin River. Most in this company were converts from the southern states, who knew a thing or two about growing cotton.

They were instructed to supply the territory with cotton, constructed dams and ditches, then planted fifty pounds of cottonseed in quarter-acre patches scattered over a 400-acre field, but the yield that year was not particularly good, Arrington explained. They planted it late, in the sand. The hot weather didn’t do the crop any favors either.

A few years later, elsewhere in southern Utah, cotton was grown “so successfully that several settlements were opened up over a forty-mile stretch along the Virgin River,” Arrington noted. 

However, Doug Alder and Karl Brooks, in their book “A History of Washington County: From Isolation to Destination,” note that the settlers’ early attempts at growing cotton proved costly. The two authors reported that the 1858 crop of 575 pounds was produced at a cost of $3.40 per pound. The next year, “they delivered a load of cotton to Brigham Young at $1.90 per pound,” Alder and Brooks wrote.

“This was still too costly to compete with cotton raised by southern states where rainfall eliminated the need for irrigation, but it suggested possible success for Mormon attempts and self-sufficiency,” Alder and Brooks explained.

“By December, 1859, a territorial legislative committee was able to report that cotton culture was ‘not impracticable’ and that ‘the experiments which have been made . . . give good reason to hope for sufficient success to enable the Territory at no distant day to supply itself without importation.’”

Total production reported in 1860 was 155 bales, which would have been greater, it was reported, if cotton had been “the subject of an active demand.” Some settlers, for instance, thought that Chinese sugar cane was a superior crop because of the ready sale for molasses, Arrington explained.

On the other side of the coin, there were settlers who grew too much cotton for their own good. One year, Grafton’s residents were too obedient to Young’s call to grow cotton and did not plant enough edible crops to feed their families. 

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Church adopted policies which elevated cotton culture beyond the developmental stage.

The expansion

“No longer able to import clothing from the States, and no doubt encouraged by the prospect of building up an export trade of their own, Mormon leaders determined to expand the southern colonies,”Arrington wrote. 

After an inspection by church leadership of Southern Utah’s readiness to expand cotton cultivation and production, Brigham Young wrote that local leaders, “express a readiness to engage in the manufacture of cotton as speedily as circumstances permit, and if they are energetic in the matter, they can soon begin to supply a goodly portion of that class of goods we have thus far been obliged to import.”

At the October 1861 General Conference, the names of 309 heads of families called to the Cotton Mission were read from the stand of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. In addition to cotton, they were tasked with supplying sugar, grapes, tobacco, figs, almonds, olive oil and “such other useful articles as the Lord has given us, the places for garden spots in the south to produce,” Young wrote to Apostle Orson Hyde soon after the conference. 

Joining the original 309 families would be approximately 30 families of poor Swiss converts, whom the church supplies with teams and wagons and provisions along the way furnished by tithing houses. These Swiss pioneers settled in Santa Clara with the expectation to raise grapes and fruit to supply the cotton producers, Arrington wrote.

In October 1862, the church called 200 additional families to bolster the ranks, chosen for their skills that would balance out the community’s economic structure. 

“That first group consisted of individuals from extremely varying backgrounds and differing skills, most of which did not include growing cotton,” said Jeanine Vander Bruggen, Pioneer Courthouse Director. “Because of their diversity and the challenges of the climate, geography, water, soil and isolation, their ability to work together was miraculous.” 

In 1864, another large group of 50-60 families was called to settle along the Muddy River, approximately 100 miles southwest of St. George with the instructions to also raise cotton and other “semi tropical plants,” Arrington noted. They were reinforced with 163 families called three years later. All told, approximately 800 families equaling about 3,000 people were called to what became known as “Utah’s Dixie” in the early 1860s.

“To all of the missionaries the instructions were: grow cotton,” Arrington wrote. “They were told the Cotton Mission should be considered as important to them as if they were called to preach the gospel among the nations.”

Some cotton missionaries were not anxious to leave their Northern Utah homes, however.

“This apparent disinclination to undertake the mission rose partly from the formidable character of the land, with its blazing sun and brooding volcanic formations, and partly from the discouraging talk of visitors to that desolate region,” Arrington explained.

“This is the hardest trial I ever had, and had it not been for the Gospel and those placed over us, I should never have moved a foot to go on such a trip,” Charles L. Walker, one of the heads of household called to settle Utah’s Dixie, recalled.

The new settlers cleared the land, constructed dams and a dug a series of canals and ditches so that they could water the crops. The task was not easy — the river washed out dam after dam. During the flood of January 1862, the settlers of the new fledgling settlements lost nearly everything. 

“When progress was finally made toward getting water on the soil, they discovered that the soil was heavily impregnated with minerals which precipitated to the surface with irrigation and formed a hard crust, which prevented growth,” Arrington explained. “Cotton was finally planted on June 1, 1862, and the first year’s yield was 100,000 pounds of seed cotton.”

Locals fashioned clothing from this first crop and sent some to Salt Lake City. They even freighted a batch to the Missouri River, “but the bulk of it could not be disposed of because of the lack of a factory,” Arrington noted.

Some of the cotton was spun in Parowan at a small mill. John R. Young, President Young’s son, drove a team to Omaha to get some cotton gins and spinning jennies for the local settler’s benefit, returning with the machinery in the fall of 1862.

The challenges of poor soil, unruly rivers and distance from a ready market for the cotton grown, however, tested the settlers’ faith.

Increasingly, cotton farmers needed to augment their acreage of other crops vital to their subsistence — they couldn’t eat cotton.

Church leaders went to great lengths to ease the suffering, remitting tithing, granting credits at church institutions and calling additional missionaries to strengthen the settlement. By 1863, it was clear that the Cotton Mission would not succeed unless they established a factory which could efficiently produce quality cotton goods nearby. Soon after, a building equipped with machinery to process cotton and wool with 240 spindles was erected in Parley’s Canyon near Salt Lake City and operated there for two years.

The Cotton Factory

In 1866, construction began on the cotton factory in Washington City. Church leadership requested that the cotton missionaries donate labor and materials towards the construction of the factory. When one story and a millrace were finished, Brigham Young sent teams of wagons to transport the spinning and weaving machinery from Parley’s Canyon to Southern Utah.

With the factory coming online, the settlers planted more cotton in 1866 than all previous years, reportedly 466.5 acres. That year, however, was the height of Native American hostilities in the area, forcing farmers to neglect their crops as smaller settlements were consolidated with larger ones to better defend themselves in the event of an attack. The crop harvested that year was three-fourths of that of the year before.

“To make matters worse, the end of the Civil War caused the price of cotton to drop to fifty cents per pound,” Arrington continued. “Despite the erection of the factory, therefore, many church officials began to give up hope that the cotton acreage would ever be built up to assure territorial self-sufficiency.”

Apostle George A. Smith, a driving force in the settlement of Southern Utah and the namesake of St. George, began to have his doubts about the feasibility of cotton, saying: “the great expense of irrigating the land in the cotton-growing districts is very likely to cause the abandonment of the cultivation of cotton when the market is again supplied by its former reasonable price.”

Brigham Young seemed undeterred, calling even more cotton missionaries in 1867 and throwing financial resources into the cotton factory with the thought that once the mill was working, local people would buy him out and take it over, Alder and Brooks explained.

The factory did not begin operation until 1868 or 1869, depending on the source one reads, and in 1870 it was raised to two and a half stories with improved machinery that could handle wool or cotton and cotton/wool combinations. The new machinery led to better quality production, but skilled help was difficult to obtain to operate it. The venture was not making sense economically, especially with the mines in Pioche, Nevada, and later the mines of Silver Reef, providing lucrative markets for other products such as wine, molasses and dried fruits.

With the help of incentives from local members of the United Order, the cotton factory processed at least 100,000 pounds of cotton per year from 1874 to 1885, according to Arrington’s article. Part of the production came from Bunkerville, Nevada, established in 1877 by a communal United Order group.

In the mid 1880s, the woolen factory in Provo began to turn out an improved and cheaper product, causing the market for the output of the Washington cotton factory to dwindle. On average, the Washington factory operated at half of its capacity in the 1890s. 

In 1892, the factory was leased to Thomas Judd, an able businessman and the founder of Thomas Judd’s Store, which is still in operation today.

“Under [Judd’s] management, the factory was as much a store as a mill,” Alder and Brooks explained. “Amazingly, Judd turned a profit for about four years, perhaps because he paid his employees one-third in cash, one-third in factory scrip, and one-third in store scrip.” 

At the end of the 19th century, the amount of land cultivated in cotton was negligible. By 1910, the factory closed and the equipment was moved elsewhere. 

Arrington concluded that the most significant accomplishment of the Cotton Mission was spearheading the settlement of the colonies of Southern Utah and Southern Nevada. According to Alder and Brooks, even though the cotton factory ultimately proved unsuccessful, it made a huge contribution to Washington County by employing scores of young women, facilitating the use of farmers’ harvests, promoting a wide system of freighting, and keeping the “Dixie Mission” well advertised throughout Mormondom.

“No one ever became wealthy from the cotton factory, but it operated in the black some years of its existence, particularly when it diversified under Thomas Judd,” Alder and Brooks concluded. “Its demise was particularly painful for Washington City.”

Today, Washington City is proud of its cotton growing legacy, calling its annual city festival Cotton Days and incorporating a cotton boll into its city logo.

The old cotton factory, located at 385 West Telegraph Street in Washington City, thankfully has been restored to its former glory after lying in disrepair for decades.

It stands today as the most prominent reminder on the landscape of the toils of those called to the Cotton Mission. It is worth a trip to the building, now home to Star Nursery, to be reminded of the faith and determination of pioneers called to carry out a mission that proved unsustainable. 

But if they had succeeded in the endeavor they were called to execute, would they have been as revered? Their failure was a lesson in fortitude and stick-to-it-iveness — a lesson current Washington County residents can learn from and apply in their own lives when the going gets tough.

The Cotton Mission Legacy

The author invited some of Washington County’s preeminent historians to share their thoughts about the legacy of the Cotton Mission. Below are their thoughts, edited slightly for content:

Teresa Orton, Director of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Memorial Museum

These families willingly sacrificed possession and comfortable homes and businesses to go and settle a very hostile area. They were asked by the Prophet and because of their deep faith in his leadership they gave up so much to try to settle and survive in a very difficult place. There probably wasn’t much that was enticing to these people to encourage them to make the move.  Many of them were very reluctant, some absolutely wouldn’t do it, but the majority followed the calling and made the sacrifices necessary. 

I think that the general feeling of camaraderie was what sustained them on the difficult journey and made it possible for them to stay.  I’m sure those first few years were beyond difficult and if it hadn’t been for their friends and families being there in the same condition it wouldn’t have been the St. George that we know today.  I am pretty sure that I would not have made a very good Pioneer settler, more likely to give up at the first sign of trouble.  So I have to admire the stamina and grit they had to make a life here.

Jeanine Vander Bruggen, Director of the Pioneer Courthouse

Prior to the first large group coming to Southern Utah as the Cotton Mission, this area was considered uninhabitable. Other than Jacob Hamblin and the missionaries in Santa Clara, the few families sent to Washington City to prove cotton could be grown, and a scattering of small settlements along the waterways, there was nothing. At the time of the Civil War, there were only about 75 or so families in the entire county. And yet, this group willingly came in obedience to an unknown world. While there were some who left, the majority stayed to conquer the elements and build their homes, never imagining what a beautiful community would now exist.

Loren Webb, Past President, Washington County Historical Society

While the Cotton Mission struggled throughout its history to be a viable economic industry, particularly after the Civil War when other markets in the southern United States and elsewhere became competitive, the economic aid that the Cotton Mission and particularly the Cotton Factory in Washington provided to the Mormon settlers cannot be stressed enough.

When taken as a whole, the outposts and adjuncts to the Cotton Mission resulted in the settlement of a number of communities in the lower Virgin River basin. In addition, the legacy of those settlers who willingly sacrificed everything to come to such a harsh environment as the red rock country of Washington County, cannot be stressed enough.

Their enthusiasm for the “Dixie Mission,” was said to be similar to that of the gold rush because they saw it as an honor to be among the first 309 families to open the way. In addition, 30 Swiss families were called the same year as the St. George settlers, to settle the “Big Bend” land at what is now Santa Clara, Utah.

Even though they were promised nothing other than eternal blessings, and experienced years of toil, unbearable heat and constant battles with the unruly Virgin River, they created a region that blossomed as a rose. Visual results of that legacy can be seen in the building of many projects, including the St. George Temple, the St. George Tabernacle and the courthouse, all public works projects backed by Brigham Young.

Lyman Hafen, Author and Former Executive Director, Zion Forever Project

I’ve always been amazed at how Brigham Young hand-picked the 300+ families called to St. George. It was a very deliberative process to select a cross section of skill sets and talents that could turn a completely desolate place into a true community in just a few years.

Nothing was automatic, they could have just as easily failed, and some did leave, but the combination of butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers, not to mention, farmers, builders, horticulturalists, musicians, journalists, artisans, etc., along with a never-say-die, can-do attitude (which came to be known as the Dixie Spirit), made it possible to survive pure poverty in the earliest years and begin to prosper after a decade or so.

I’ve always been amazed to imagine what it would have been like to walk down a street in St. George during that first generation of settlement and hear all the accents and languages spoken. Folks came here from the eastern and southern states, Canada, England, Scotland, Denmark, Switzerland, and other places. What an awesome thing it would be to hear a group of them talking. There wouldn’t have been much diversity in how they looked, but there would have been a wide diversity in how they sounded when they talked and in their cultural backgrounds.

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About the series “Days”

“Days” is a series of stories about people and places, industry and history in and surrounding the region of southwestern Utah.

“I write stories to help residents of southwestern Utah enjoy the region’s history as much as its scenery,” St. George News contributor Reuben Wadsworth said.

To keep up on Wadsworth’s adventures, “like” his author Facebook page.

Wadsworth has also released a book compilation of many of the historical features written about Washington County as well as a second volume containing stories about other places in Southern Utah, Northern Arizona and Southern Nevada.

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