Destroying Angels
By Davis Bitton

A recurring threat to the survival of the Latter-day Saints who settled in the Great Basin was insects. We all know of the horrendous invasion of crickets in 1848 and the miracle of the gulls that saved at least part of the crop. But the scourge did not end with that year. Crickets came on other occasions, and grasshoppers or locusts, and the distinction was not always clearly made, continued to come, not every year, but every few years.

The Deseret News called them "destroying angels ... armed and legged and winged — as orthodox angels should be — and fully equipped for war."

Bishop Alfred Cordon described a Pioneer Day celebration in 1868 with its flags and banners, races and processions, and a concluding dance in the evening. "There was nothing to mar our peace only the thought that the locust were destroying our crops. The locusts were very numerous. They eat our clothing as we sat in the Bowery."

John Fell Squires said the hoppers would eat everything of a green nature right down to window blinds and green paint. "If a male or female appeared out doors dressed in green they would be driven to cover or uncover in less than no time. You must remember this, if they could eat all the bark from a shade tree which they did, it would not take them long to eat up a fellow's pantaloons when the color suited them."

The threat was serious. For many, the destruction of crops meant economic ruin, if not starvation. To face up to the scourge the settlers of Utah utilized or at least tried many strategies, not just one. Here are some of the counter-measures they considered:

1. Eat the insects. This was what the Indians did. Nebraskan Charles Riley was one who thought the white settlers could do the same thing. He even tried different recipes. "A broth can be made which tastes like beef broth," he wrote. "When fried or roasted in their own oil they have a nutty flavor. Also boiled and then served with a few vegetables and a little butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar, makes an excellent fricassee." There is no evidence that this suggestion caught on in Utah or anywhere else. The cultural aversion to such a diet was too strong.
   
2. Plant extra crops. It was Brigham Young who put forth the idea that the poor insects required nourishment. Why not, then, plant additional fields grain that would feed them. "I put in considerable of a crop on purpose for them to eat," he wrote in 1867, "hoping that my regular crops might be spared. The crop I put in for them suffered but slightly." Every time I think of this suggestion, I chuckle. Did he envision signs saying "Grasshoppers! Your field is over there. Stay out of this one" or "Welcome, grasshoppers, this is for you with our compliments"? But perhaps he was simply thinking in large terms of what the hatching insects would consume. Planting more, he thought, would leave more after the hoppers had done their damage.
   
3. Bring in other birds to feed on the insects. Pigeons were reported to be good destroyers of grasshoppers in Payson. Meadowlarks and hawks were also praised for consuming large numbers of grasshoppers. In Smithfield, chickens were pronounced "very useful in destroying grasshoppers in gardens." In Ephraim someone figured out how to put hen houses on wheels and move them across fields. But the idea proved impractical on a large scale.
   
4. Find alternative sources of food when insects destroyed the grain. The most successful such enterprise, launched in 1855 and 1856, was catching and netting fish in large quantities, especially in Utah Lake. When there is not much on the table, one can well imagine that a trout, or even a sucker, was welcome fare. Apostle John Henry Smith thought these fish deserved as much praise as the gulls.
   
5. Send in the U.S. Army. This proposal came in 1875 from the state entomologist of Missouri. After discussing various techniques, he said the surest way to defeat the insects was to attack them in their home in the Rocky Mountains, "employing the soldiery if necessary." The Deseret News pronounced this "a capital idea ... Think of the soldier boys out on the benches, chasing the locust, and following the grasshopper!"
   
6. Use mechanical devices to destroy the invaders. Shovels and brooms are simple mechanical devices, of course, but it didn't take long before inventors were coming up with machinery that could destroy insects in large quantities. In 1871, for example, A.W. Winberg, a Salt Lake City blacksmith, demonstrated a horse-drawn machine that scraped up the insects and moved them through a pair of rollers that were "apt to completely demoralize the 'iron clads.'" An ambitious government report published in 1878 included a lengthy chapter entitled "Remedies and Devices for Destruction."
   
7. Bounties. In Nebraska someone hit upon the idea of paying a bounty for dead grasshoppers. No doubt it was thought cheaper to pay for their destruction in this way than suffer the loss of crops. Unfortunately, according to the Omaha Bee, this program brought out the worst in human nature. It had "a most pernicious and demoralizing effect upon the community, leading to a wholesale course of lying, cheating, and everything mean and low, by which the county could be swindled." In Utah bounties were still being employed at the end of the century.
   
8. Pray. This, of course, was the recourse in 1849. As we tell the story, the pioneers fell to their knees and pled to the Lord to help them. The gulls then appeared like a white cloud, a true deliverance from the west. It requires little reflection to realize that others threatened by the invading insect hordes also prayed. For example, Missouri in 1875 and Minnesota in 1877 set aside a day of fasting and prayer. And miraculous deliverance was not always forthcoming. Yet the Saints were grateful for whatever instrumentality appeared that lessened their suffering. In the fall of 1855, according to John Wakeham, a strong east wind arose and blew hordes of locusts into the Great Salt Lake. He considered the wind an answer to prayer.

But at no point, to my knowledge, were the Saints inclined simply to pray and then sit on their hands while waiting for the Lord to solve the problem. "Faith without works is dead," said James.

Oliver Cowdery thought he could translate the ancient plates without effort but discovered (D&C 9) he had first to do his best and then pray for confirmation. Even in the nineteenth century the people were urged to have a reserve supply of food to help tide them over in case of emergency. Said Brigham Young in 1868: "I would rather the people would exercise a little more sense and save means to provide for themselves, instead of squandering it away and asking the Lord to feed them."

Works combined with faith and prayer — this was the pattern. The Lord would not desert them, but the Latter-day Saints should do all in their power to help themselves.

Click here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.

Davis Bitton, our long-time Meridian writer, died in early 2007, and as a remembrance of his excellence and incisive writing, we are rerunning his columns called “History Bits.” He was a retired University of Utah history professor. After serving a mission in France, he graduated from BYU and then received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. For ten years he was assistant Church historian. His most recent books were Images of the Prophet Joseph Smith and George Q. Cannon: A Biography. Davis had the good fortune and blessing to marry JoAn, a convert and former missionary in Chile. Daughter of an immigrant from Malta, JoAn edits a newsletter for Maltese Latter-day Saints and missionaries.