| 460 CHAPTER 24.
1867.
ON January 17, 1867, Elder J. W. Gillen wrote from Salt Lake City, Utah, giving account of progress in Utah and Idaho.
On January 24 Elder A. H. Smith wrote of the situation on the Pacific coast as follows:-
"The work is gradually rising out of the mud and mire here in California, and I think the next conference minutes will show a more healthy appearance than as yet been presented in California for many days. I look forward in hopes of the blessings of God being poured out more copiously on the Pacific slope than ever yet. I do not expect so great a work here as some in their zeal anticipate. There might be a good work done throughout California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington Territory. provided there were elders enough to labor in these localities. There is now but one active elder in the field that is now on a mission except William and I. There are good men who hold the priesthood, but branches require presidents who are competent men."-The Saints' Herald, vol. 11, p. 77.
On February 5, 1867, Elder William Anderson wrote from San Bernardino, California, giving an account of the journey across the plains and their labors in California. In regard to San Bernardino and the people there who had formerly been united with the Utah Church and who had settled San Bernardino Valley when Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich established a colony there in 1851, but who refused to return to Utah when counseled to do so to meet Johnston's army in 1857, Elder Anderson writes as follows:-
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