Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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Penniless in Salt Lake

We were in Salt Lake Valley almost without clothes and but very little bread stuff. My son weighed the bread stuff the next day after he came and said that he wished we were back in the States. I told him I did not wish that, but Father was a God or he would provide for us if we would put our trust in him. We then killed an ox that we might have beef. I got all the tallow I could and it made three candles. William went to work and built us a house in the Fort wall so we made ourselves as comfortable as possible.

James Wesley Bainbridge. Son of Fred Nance Bainbridge and Elizabeth Hendricks. Born Oct. 21, 1848, Salt Lake City.

About the middle of the winter my oldest daughter (Elizabeth) was married to a man by the name of Fredrick Bainbridge. When hard times came on and he had to irrigate, he could not stand it so he wanted his wife to go back to the States with him or to California. But she knew too much to do either. He did not think that the Lord required him to stay here without bread or to irrigate and he would not stand it. I told him we would have to stand up to our rack, hay or no hay, and if he could not do it, he would have to start and take himself off, but that he could not take my daughter, so he left.

We had no bread from the middle of May until the middle of July, only what Sister Adeline Benson would save from her rations until she would get enough for a meal for my family, then she would bring it to us and say "have something good." We had plenty of milk and butter and had bought some of the best cheese I ever ate and we had meat nearly all the time, so we were strong to go and fight the crickets.

Rebecca and Joseph, my two youngest children carried a bed-cord one at each end, they would walk in the irrigating ditches and would drag the cord over the heads of the grain, thus knocking the crickets off the grain and my husband with William would go through the corn row by row and we would kill and drive them in so doing we saved six acres of ground out of twenty that was planted and we saved forty bushels of wheat off of eight acres of ground and so we secured our bread by faith and perseverance.

In July we went over our wheat and with knives and scissors cut the ripest heads and spread them on the house tops to dry and when it would shell, we beat it out on blankets, then ground it in hand mills and it made the sweetest bread I ever ate.

The people that drove us out of Missouri and Illinois thought we would starve and come to naught and that we would be out of the U. S. Government, but the Lord did not intend that we should leave our beloved constitution for our Mormon Batallion redeemed the land on which we settled, from Mexico and so we remained under our own Stars and Stripes. The Lord intended to build His house in the tops of the Mountains that all Nations may flow into it. I could take up much time and paper to write these things but it is not my purpose.

The Old Bath House. Photograph by W. H. Hopkins, ca. 1920. Courtesy Special Collections & Archives, Merrill Library, Utah State University.

The next move we made was to the warm Springs to build a bath house. We built a log house first then a large adobe, then the bath house which contained twelve rooms, six on each side and a large room in front. Then the warm water was to be brought about l/3 of a mile in pipes and they had to be made of logs bored through the center lengthwise (these were called pump logs) which required considerable labor¹.

We lived there three years. The important changes that occurred during these three years I will give in short. During these three years we had six marriages, one death and four births and our living to make in keeping boarders in which I was the principal actor. I could not tell the hardships we passed through while we were there. The property belonged to the church and we could not pay the rent but while there we paid $547.00 rent and never cleared $50.00, but this never tried my faith in the Gospel, but I learned many lessons.

We built a large adobe house close by, but never moved into it, but sold it. We then bought a small house in which we lived, adding rooms as we could until we were comfortable.

Rebecca's husband went back east and stayed for one year. Wrote good letters. He thought he could live his religion there as well as here and wanted her to go to him or if she desired he would come and fetch her. She wrote him that she would neither go with or without him from the church for in it were all our hopes. Then there were more trials awaiting me for my youngest child Joseph was married in his nineteenth year, leaving me with my little grandson (James W. Bainbridge) to make a living with and this was the third time I was left to make a living with a little boy nine years old. William was nine years old when his father was shot and Joseph was nine years old when William went to the Batallion and James was nine years old when Joseph was married and my husband to dress and undress, still I worked in the garden and wove for a living. The people thought that William supplied us but he did not and when we had dealings it was counted in dollars and cents and we were no detriment to our children.

In 1858 when Johnston's army came in we left our houses and homes again, for we had held up our hands to follow Brigham Young into the wilderness if it was necessary. We went to Springville and waited there to see how things would turn out and the Lord fought our battles and we returned to our homes again. We made good gardens and the Lord blessed every move we made. I still wove, made gloves and rope, and kept boarders for to gain a living, but not without praying much unto the Lord to open my way and give my faith for this is the way I had to live. We paid our tithing all the time of what we made.

NOTES

1. "Wednesday 27 [1850] —The Warm Springs bath-house north of G. S. L. City, was opened with a festival attended by the First Presidency, a number of the Apostles and other leading men; Heber C. Kimball offered the dedicatory prayer." (Heart Throbs of the West, Vol.11, p.382.)

   "Deseret Bathing House—The inhabitants of Deseret are hereby respectfully informed that the Baths are now open, and printed tickets ready for issuance to accommodate families by the quarter, half year or year. The following are the terms for privilege of the Baths, viz:
          For single per quarter $ .50 
          Families of from 2 to 4 persons per hour $1.00 
          Families of from 5 to 8 persons per hour $2.00 
          Families of from 8 to 16 persons per hour $3.00 
          Families of from 16 to 24 persons per hour $3.50
   Families to furnish their own towels. Tickets for sale at the Tithing Office and also at the Bath House. March 14, 1851 James Hendricks, Proprietor" (Heart Throbs of the West, Vol.11, p.306.)

   "Two days before the official settlement of Great Salt Lake City an advanced exploration party of the original Mormon Immigrant Train explored the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Among the unusual features which they noted were great numbers of hot springs issuing from near the base of the mountains. This find was communicated to President Young and henceforth the Warm or Hot Springs became a favored recreation spot, a show place to which distinguished visitors were escorted in pomp.

   "From the very first this was a municipal undertaking. In 1848 Daniel Spencer, roadmaster, was authorized to levy a poll and property tax to defray the expense of certain projected public improvements, among which was the erection of a bath house at Warm Springs. The building so constructed consisted of a single chamber about 15 x 30 feet within which was a shallow pool fed directly from the natural spring. In 1865 the original structure was abandoned in favor of a more commodious plunge, south of the first location. At times it has been operated by private lease from the city, but in the main it has been conducted by the city officials as a public enterprise. One of the first services of the Salt Lake Street Railroad was to transport pleasure seekers by mule cars to and from this old resort which was so popular for many years.

   "In the early days of 1860 a group of ambitious men, realizing the value of this location, planted a grove of black locust trees that had been raised from seeds carried across the plains by pioneers. While the trees were young they required a great deal of care. When one of them died it was immediately replaced by another. In a few years an even grove of trees was growing with thick orchard-grass beneath. Because of the supposed healing qualities of the spring water, people came from miles around to go bathing and rest or play in the cool shade of the locust trees. Being situated on the main road that led to the productive northern counties, this little park also became a popular camping place for farmers, teamsters, and pioneers who were now coming into the city from the north." (Heart Throbs of the West, Kate B. Carter, Vol.5, pp.81-82.)

   "Now known as Wasatch Springs Plunge, and municipally operated. 'Warm springs' have been well known since Mormon entrance Into Salt Lake Valley in 1847. A 'Bath House' was opened here in 1850." (Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 3-4, July, Oct. 1941. Richard Thomas Ackley, "Across the Plains in 1858," p. 228.)

Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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