Brigham's Backsliders

Thursday morning, March 12th, I attended an interesting lecture at BYU presented by the History Department. The lecture was titled "Brigham's Backsliders; Early Provo's Reprehensible Reputation". The lecture was presented by D. Robert Carter, a noted local historian who specializes in the history of Utah County.

For it's first 25 years Provo had a bad reputation for not following counsel, disobeying instructions from Salt Lake City, and for general filth and disorderly conduct. Notable activities included gambling, horse racing, drinking, and dancing. It took them 12 years to build the first real church building though the completed a couple of very large dance halls including one known as Bell's Folly.
In 1850 Provo was to be the site of a large trading fair with the Ute Indians. Brigham Young had a large amount of goods shipped to Provo for the fair. However when he arrived at the scene he was so dismayed at the behavior of the settlers with the native's that after a short inspection he left and upon returning to Salt Lake city disfellowshipped the entire community.
Brigham had instructed the community leaders to locate the town center at what is now the corner of University Avenue and Center Street. Most people wanted to be closer to the river so they put the center at 5th west and Center Street. The divide between the Church leaders wishes and the community attitude resulted in two distinct business districts, one along 5th west and the other along University Avenue. To this day there is somewhat of an East/West divide in Provo.
In 1862 Abraham O. Smoot was called by Brigham Young on a mission to Provo to help clean things up. When he received this call his response was that he would rather 'go to hell'. Brigham replied that if he didn't accept he might just end up in hell anyway.
Provo was noted as a stinking hole due to the odor from the swamps along the lower Provo river and the poor sanitation of the residents as many had never bothered to dig Privy's.
In 1868 a particularly raucous dance was held at a building on 3rd west and Center Street which served as a saloon, meeting place, and theater. The City Council considered several proper punishments for this event including tearing the building down. Bro. Smoot recommended that instead of punishment what Provo needed was a way to provide education for its young adults. He recommended they form a branch of the University of Deseret in Provo using the building on 3rd West. This led to the establishment of Brigham Young Academy and eventually Brigham Young Univerisity.
It is ironic that BYU, the stone cold University, originated from a drunken party and started out as part of the University of Utah. We've come a long ways since then.