Pioneer Badge

The following few paragraphs were typed on a small piece of paper by Grandma (Catherine Beckstead) Eldredge to me shortly after Grandpa Eldredge’s death back in 1979. This note accompanied a 112 year old gold pioneer badge that I keep and cherish today...

"Frederick Baker Eldredge was born Nov. 17, 1845 in Dennis, Massachusetts, the son of Elnathan and Ruth Baker Eldredge. When he was almost two years old he came to Utah with his parents in the A. O. Smoot’s 100,George B. Wallace’s 50, and Samuel Rolfe’s 10. They arrived in the Valley of the Salt lake, Sept. 25, 1847. He had two older brothers at the time—Elnathan and Joseph Underwood Eldredge...Fifty years later in July, 1897, all of the then living pioneers who h
ad arrived in the Valley in 1847 were honored. Each of them received a beautiful pioneer badge. Grandfather greatly prized this badge. Grandmother wore it on special occasions after his death. It was finally presented to their oldest son, Frederick Elnathan eldredge. Then Fred Eldredge presented it to his oldest son, Asahel Frederick Eldredge. This badge has always been special to the family. Those who have possessed it have really treasured it and honored the pioneers."

Here is a portrait of Frederick B. Eldredge's family. My great grandfather Frederick Elnathan Eldredge is sitting to the far left.

Commissioned by the Jubilee Committee in 1897, these gold pins were created by Tiffany & Company of New York at a cost of $10 each and were presented to the surviving pioneers of 1847 by Gov. Heber M. Wells.

Surrounding the central portrait of Brigham Young in the center of the badge are four bees, a beehive, a locomotive with the date 1897, a pony express rider, and a covered wagon with the date 1847. In enamel around the edge reads “Utah Semi-Centennial / Pioneer Jubilee.” On the back of the badge, notice the inscription with the name "Frederick Baker Eldredge".

A Celebration Beyond the Imagination : 1897 Pioneer Jubilee
Taken from the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers website

Letterhead used for the Pioneer Jubilee (click for enlarged picture)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Brigham Young's wagon into the Salt Lake Valley, the Semi-Centennial Commission planned to host a spectacular four-day celebration to honor the surviving pioneers. Only one year after Utah's statehood, organizers wanted the Pioneer Jubilee to be “the biggest celebration in the country since the 1893 World’s Fair” and the largest event yet to be seen west of the Mississippi. Over $60,000 was raised in private and public funds in preparations for the Jubilee. Advertised and recognized on a national level (over ten other states contributed funds), the Jubilee served the dual purpose of showing the great advancement of the area in 50 years as well as demonstrating 1847 as the significant founding date of Utah (rather than 1896 statehood). Emphasizing the arrival of Brigham Young in the Territory overshadowed the entrance of Utah into the Union, a milestone that did not occur without significant tension between the federal government and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (L.D.S. or Mormons).

In the tradition of pageantry of the 1890s, patriotic themes loom large in the Jubilee: flags, eagles, stars, and stripes can be seen throughout the decorations and souvenirs from the event. The Jubilee, however, has another, parallel set of images in its pageantry: those related to the settling of the area by members of the L.D.S. Church. Beehives and bees for industriousness, sea gulls, Brigham Young, and other significantly Mormon symbols permeate the event. This joint demonstration of patriotism and singularity makes Utah's celebration stand out like no other in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

Photo of all the pioneers still living in 1897 who came into the Salt Lake Valley fifty years earlier.
Can you find Frederick Baker Eldridge? (click for enlarged picture)

“ Salt Lake City has perhaps never before been so packed with enthusiastic sightseers. The streets cease to be streets about the time when parade begins – they are rivers of humanity in which the people surge to and fro, here moving rapidly for a stretch in ripples of anticipation toward some happening a block or two away, there forming a whirlpool which moves round and round some striking object of interest … “it is not a time to call up the sagebrush waste, the slinking coyote, the ox team, the dug out and log cabin filled with weather-beaten, sun-burned immigrants dressed in nameless costumes. The eye and the car are full of the present. It is a pageant that people have come to witness, a pageant that bridges the past and the present and is a prophecy of the future.” -- Deseret Evening News (July 21, 1897)

Learn more about this grand event and view more pictures and artifacts (including a much larger version of the pioneer group picture above) by logging onto the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers website: http://www.dupinternational.org/jubilee/main.htm