A Mormon Melting Pot: Ethnicity Acculturation in Cedar City, Utah, 1880-1915

• Main Author: Leigh, Vida
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 1990
• Subjects: Cedar City; Utah; Ethnic relations; Social conditions; Emigration; immigration; Religious aspects; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Ethnicity; Mormon Studies; Race and Ethnicity
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4874; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5873&context=etd

This thesis studies the ethnicity of the five ethnic groups found in Cedar City, Utah, during the 1880-to-1915 period. Those five groups were originally sent by Brigham Young to found the Iron Mission, as a two-fold project: (1) developing the iron mining industry, and (2) building a united community of Latter-day Saints.The demographics, kinship, ties, marriage patterns, occupations, wealth, and elites in church government and society have been examined in detail through US censuses, Iron county assessment records, marriage records, Cedar City municipal records, LDS church records, diaries, histories, and personal histories. By comparing all the ethnic groups within the community with each other, plus comparing them with groups in other communities in Utah and other US areas, the contribution of each group on the community can be measured, as can the impact of the environment and American Mormon church on the ethnic immigrants.All groups — American-born and foreign-born — developed a community united in its goals to build the kingdom and be mainstreamed into the American dream after Utah gained statehood in 1896.