Letter signed Alex [Badger] to Mother [Mrs. Alexander Badger, Sr., St. Louis]. The streets here are all about as wide as Washington Avenue in St. Louis. They are not graded, nor are the sidewalks paved. The houses are, with few exceptions, built of adobes, resembling in color the houses we lived in on Fourteenth Street. Further description of Salt Lake City. The people here are about the commonest looking set of beings I ever saw, awful homely. They look as though they were made to labor and not to think and you may be sure they do labor. Brigham [Young] does the thinking for them – he directs, controls, and owns everything. Most are in a state of abject poverty and kept so. So long as they are poor they cannot leave the valley, and Brigham can use them to effect all his purposes. Brigham has a very powerful system of government for them. Describes government, Brigham Young’s various buildings, Temple Block, and the building of the great temple. We have a fine theater that Brigham erected. Everybody attends the theater. Brigham and his wives and a good number of his children are always present. Some of his daughters perform on the stage. For instance, last evening two of his married daughters, the Mrs. Clawsons [both married to the same man who was also on the stage] performed. I received a handsome Christmas gift from Will and Parma [Cayton] of a set of gold and enamel sleeve buttons and shirt studs; from the Colonel a letter of acknowledgement for an ivory and gold lead pencil I gave him. Individuals mentioned: Heber Kimball, Daniel Wells, and Captain [Wallace?]., 1863 Jan 11

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 2

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Collection contains material of the St. Louis-based Badger family, including letters of Capt. Alexander Badger, Sr. and Jr.; newsclippings; bonds; steamboat memoranda; a pilot certificate issued to William H. Cable in 1852; envelopes of Wells Fargo and Overland Mail; cards of steamboat Magnolia and a timetable of St. Louis railroads and steamships; material concerning the Badger, Cable and Cayton families; two Missouri defense bonds issued in 186-; and several letters of Alexander Badger, circa 1860, written from Fort Vancouver, Western Territory, and various places in the west, which describe everyday happenings.