Utah

Utah enters this account as the destination of Solomon Young’s ambitious 1860 freight expedition: forty wagons carrying goods and salt pork for the Army. The arrival at Salt Lake caused a stir, and when the officer in charge would not receive the shipment, a meeting with Brigham Young opened another way to complete the transaction.

A freight destination

In 1860, Solomon Young took a convoy of forty wagons to Utah with provisions intended for the Army. The scale and arrangement of the train made the journey notable: the wagons were coupled in pairs, each pair carrying about six thousand pounds and drawn by six pairs of oxen. The report of the arrival emphasized that the cattle looked remarkably well and that not a single ox had been lost on the trip.

The Salt Lake negotiation

The shipment met an obstacle when the officer in charge at Salt Lake refused, for an unspecified reason, to receive the goods. Rather than end the venture there, Solomon Young met with Brigham Young, who was not a relative but was a fellow Mason. Brigham Young agreed to take the entire shipment if Solomon Young would extend him credit. The bargain satisfied both men and allowed the goods to find a buyer despite the initial refusal.

Place in Solomon Young’s trading routes

Utah was one destination within a broader trade that connected Solomon Young with western travelers and markets. He also outfitted and advised emigrants bound for Oregon or Santa Fe, whose numbers reached the thousands each year. The Utah expedition shows the practical range of that commerce: heavy freight, a carefully organized ox-drawn train, and personal negotiation all mattered to moving goods across the region.