Of Antelopes and Men

In 1847 Brigham Young and advance company of pioneers began their westward trek. There were 148 people in the original company, including my great-great-great grandfather Joseph Matthews.

Brigham Young relied on Joseph Matthews and Porter Rockwell to scout for him, reporting on what he could expect ahead. President Young felt that many men told him what they thought he wanted to hear rather than giving him an accurate account of things. He had no such reservations about his scouts. They would travel ahead and report back to President Young. Their reports were reliable and they did their job well. However, many of the church leaders on the trek were concerned about the faith Brigham Young put in these two men. Both were 'questionable' characters.

The Word of Wisdom was more of a guideline and less of a strict commandment at the time, and these men both clung to their tobacco. This disturbed some of the elitist, as did Porter Rockwell's temper and Joseph Matthew's habitual swearing. He didn't use hard swear words. One man said that he 'swore like Shakespeare' saying things like, "Oh ye shades of Hades!" It disturbed many of the others in the campe to the extent that several of them decided to take their concerns to President Young. "How can you trust such men?" they asked.

Brigham Young took aside the concerned individuals and called his scouts to him. They went walking together up to a bluff on the plains, talking about the area as they went. President Young had a spyglass with him. He paused to look through it and then exclaimed at the beauty of an antelope he could just make out in the distance. He passed the glass to another member of the party, asking them if they had ever seen such a magnificent specimen. He too propounded on the beauty of the creature, its white belly and rich coat. He passed the spyglass to the man nearest him, who also commented on the animal. When the spyglass came to Porter Rockwell, he passed it on to Joseph Matthews without saying anything. Brother Matthews was also silent, and passed the glass on. The next member sighted the glass and added his own opinion of the antelope. So it continued. Each man had something to say about the antelope that Brigham Young had seen, except for Porter Rockwell and Joseph Matthews.

When the spyglass returned to President Young, he confronted the silent members of the party. "Brother Rockwell, Brother Matthews, don't you have anything to say about the antelope?"

"Brigham," Brother Matthews spat. "You know damned well there ain't no antelope out there."

President Young laughed and said, "Brethren, that is why these are my scouts."

In an effort to weed the historical from the fictional, I did some research online.

It is true that Joseph Matthews and Porter Rockwell were scouts for Brigham Young. Their names are recorded as part of the first company in several registers, and they are pictured on the North Side of the “This is the Place Monument” in Utah. I also found a journal entry that talks about President Young’s spyglass. I found a blog of another descendant of Joseph Matthews that refers to the ‘antelope’ story. So how much of it is true? Darn it all to heck, I wish I knew.