Benjamin Brown's Provisions Supplied as Foretold During Salt Lake Valley Settlement

“Kimball stood up in the congregation of the Saints, and prophesied that 'in a short time' we should be able to buy articles of clothing, and utensils, cheaper in the valley than we could purchase them in the states. Information of the great discovery of gold in California had reached the states, and large companies were formed for the purpose of supplying the gold diggers with food and clothing, and implements of every kind for digging, etc. Numbers of substantial wagons were prepared, stored with wholesale quantities of clothing of every kind; spades, picks, shovels, and chests of carpenters' tools, were also provided to overflowing, and, to complete the list, tea, coffee, sugar, flour, fruits, etc., on the same scale. Here was a 'fix'–the companies were too far from the states to take their goods back, and they would not pay to carry them through, and when to this was added the fact, that the companies were half crazy to leave trading, and turn gold diggers themselves, it will easily be seen how naturally the difficulty solved itself into the decision which they actually came to–'Oh here are these Mormons, let us sell the goods to them.' Accordingly they brought them into the valley, and disposed of them for just what could be got–provisions, wagons, clothes, tools, almost for the taking away, at least half the price for which the goods could have been purchased in the states.”

— Benjamin Brown, Testimonies for the Truth