1856 The Literary and Musical Society of Salt Lake City Issue 2 Volume 2 Salt Lake Metro

The Literary and Musical Society of 1856

Thomas Brown Holmes Stenhouse (1824-1882) was a successful journalist who assisted in editing  "The Mormon" in New York, was an editor for the Deseret News, post master of Salt Lake City in 1862, and founded the Salt Lake Telegraph in 1864, a daily newspaper which was establish to counter Colonel Patrick Connor's Union Vedette.  After a falling out with Brigham Young and due to an association with the Godbeite movement, Stenhouse requested and was granted excommunication. Before that however he was a member of the inner circle of church authorities.  During the 1870's, Stenhouse wrote a history of the Latter Day Saints called “The Rocky Mountain Saints”.

In this book, Stenhouse mentions a "Literary and Musical Society" formed by a few young Mormon men in about 1855. While there is no suggestion by Stenhouse that these men formed among themselves what is known as "romantic friendships" of the 19th Century, or that they had any other interest other than improving their intellectual lives in frontier Utah, traditionally many Gay men have been attracted to the literary arts as a form of expression of their "forbidden passions" in the 19th Century. For example the "Transcendentalist Movement" in literature from New England was almost entirely made up of homosexuals in the 1840's.

Stenhouse stated that the Literary and Musical Society was created by young "men of superior talent," as would be the homosexual Bohemian Club, when formed in Salt Lake City in the late 19th century. No doubt, any young man of a "sensitive nature", would have been attracted to such a society. 

In 1856, Utah was at its theocratic height, and the first Presidency of the Latter Day Saints Church made up of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah M Grant set in motion a "Reformation" of Mormon society from its perceived evils and calling the people to repentance.  

Jedediah M. Grant pushed this reformation forward speaking in Provo, Utah, on July 13, 1855, saying, "“The Church needs trimming up, and if you will search, you will find your wards contain branches which had better be cut off. The kingdom would progress much faster, and so will you individually, than it will with those branches on....I would like to see the works of reformation commence, and continue until every man had to walk to the line, then we would have something like union, . . . Purify yourselves, your houses, lots, farms, and everything around you on the right and on the left, then the Spirit of the Lord can dwell with you” 

Jeddy M Grant

By September 21, 1856, Brigham Young warned, “We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform, for I know that very many are in a dozy condition with regard to their religion...You are losing the spirit of the Gospel, is there any cause for it? No, only that which there is in the world. You have the weakness of human nature to contend with, and you suffer that weakness to decoy you away from the truth, to the side of the adversary; but now is the time to awake, before the time of burning. . . . notwithstanding all that has been taught, still the people are full of idolatry, the spirit of contention and the spirit of the world...Well, I just say, my brethren and sisters, it cannot be suffered any longer, a separation must take place; you must part with your sins, or the righteous must be separated from the ungodly”

Brigham Young

Brigham Young felt that this "literary society" was one of the threats to his theocratic control over the lives of Latter Days Saints. Stenhouse attributed this attitude as simply Brigham Young's need to subjugate every aspect of early Mormon society to his will. No doubt this is probably the main reason for the church to squelch the literary organization but perhaps "the prophet" saw something else going on there reported by his spies and may have been alarmed by the caliber of the Mormon young men who attended these literary meetings. So much for speculation. Here is what Stenhouse actually wrote in Chapter Thirty-Six of "The Rocky Mountain Saints" and you can draw your own conclusions.:

"Everything that was not ordered and presided over by the priesthood, was denounced as leading to apostasy, and all who did not take an active part in self-accusation of the meanest kind were suspected of deep sin and treated accordingly. For an example, a number of young elders of literary tastes and acquirements, some whom were acknowledged to be men of superior talent organized a `Literary and Musical Society', a few months before the `Reformation' began. They gave public entertainments to their friends, which consisted of original essays and poems, recitations, declarations, orations and music. They had ample talent among their own committee to occupy the evenings fully and to make them highly interesting; but as they designed to diffuse a love of literature and music throughout Zion, they called in all the talent that surrounded them. Any new arrival from the States or Europe possessed of talent was at once waited upon and requested to add to the interest of the entertainment. The society became very popular, was conducted in an interesting manner, and was governed as a thoroughly democratic institution, each member of the committee occupying the chair and keeping door in turn. This society would have done credit to any city in the world, and would have reflected honor on its originators."

The meetings, which were held weekly, were opened and closed by singing and prayer. But they became too popular, and flourished without the president's direction, and consequently drew forth the denunciations of Brigham, Heber, and 'Jeddy.' In the public meetings at the Tabernacle the committee and society became the objects of ridicule, contempt and abuse, charging them with pride, ambition, big-headedness, conceit, and sins. A meeting was afterwards called by the society, its object being, after the exercises were concluded, to dissolve itself. Brigham, Heber, and 'Jeddy' were present, and, on being invited to speak, belittled and berated the institution, and on being informed that the society would dissolve that evening, the leaders recommended—which was equal to a command—that the members become associated with the 'Theological Institution,' a pet association that had died about three years before, but had that evening very conveniently revived. Its first death was caused by the short-sighted course characterizing many of Brigham's policies, by appointing favorites to occupy positions and hold offices who had neither ability, taste, nor education to fill them. This institution swallowed the Literary and Musical Society in one night; but it was too great a gulp, and it died again in two weeks, never to be revived.

 In order to add insult to injury and to crush the committee completely, the next Sunday, in the Tabernacle, eight of the most prominent and efficient members of the Literary and Musical Society were called to be door-keepers at the Tabernacle! On the motion being announced to that effect a titter passed through the vast congregation, most of whom understood the matter to be a punishment. The gentlemen, 'obedient to the heavenly call,' entered at once upon their newly appointed duties, and honored the office, if the office did not honor them. They did their duty, and were afterwards complimented for their efficiency and punctuality by those who sought to crush them. The 'Reformation wrought more evil than good, and it is now regarded by the best men in the Church as the height of folly and fanaticism."

The Old Tabernacle 1852-1867