Below is an audio file of selected portions of the article recorded by Roger Browne. Click play below to listen. Captions associated with the illustrations in the text are not included in the recording.

In the midst of the corona virus pandemic and accompanying financial panic of 2020, the thoughts of many return to previous crises and how following the temporal and spiritual principles taught by the living prophets can save us from the very brink of destruction. During the financial collapse of 2008,[i] I was particularly impressed by a very optimistic talk by Brigham Young given in 1856, just after a plague far more serious than the Mormon crickets of 1848. [ii]

Even though we usually remember the cricket plague of 1848 where just barely enough of the Latter-day Saints’ crops were saved by the seagulls to get the more than 4,500 pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley through the winter, the most serious insect plague for the pioneers was the great grasshopper invasion of 1855, resulting in the loss of over 70% of the crops throughout the then extensively settled Utah Territory with more than 40,000 inhabitants by 1860. [iii] [iv] [v] [vi]

Mormon Crickets and Rocky Mountain Locusts

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>The flightless Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex) is “wingless species of shield-backed katydid in North America. It is responsible for the episode of the crickets and seagulls where the gulls did save enough of the pioneers’ crops so that the about 4,500 pioneers then in the Salt Lake valley did not starve to death during the winter of 1848.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><figcaption>Mormon crickets from Nevada in 2006.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>Seagulls to the rescue–Painted by Minerva Teichert.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>Seagull monument on Temple Square.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>The main pest by far in the 1855 attacks was the Rocky Mountain Locust, which is now extinct. Look at the footnote (paragraph above pictures) where it details the data on this grasshopper/locust that is believed to be the highest density of animals ever speculatively calculated, 12.5 trillion insects in 200,000 square miles (in 1875).</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><figcaption>Swarming Australian Plague Locusts on the move.</figcaption></figure>

Although the pioneers initially fought against the Mormon crickets in 1848, the grasshoppers (locusts) were by far the main ravenous pest. Here is one account of the clouds of grasshoppers that would fill the sky..

“Often the first approach of the grasshoppers was signaled when swarms of them appeared in the air overhead—-an awesome sight. Settlers described them as looking like a ‘heavy snowstorm’ or snowflakes and so numerous as to cover the sky and darken the sun. The Deseret News reported one massive appearance in which ‘the grasshoppers filled the sky for three miles deep, or as far as they could be seen without the aid of telescopes, and somewhat resembling a snow storm.”

Click here to see a video of swarming locusts in East Africa. [vii]

Heber C. Kimball’s Report

<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><figcaption>Heber C. Kimball, counselor to President Brigham Young in the First Presidency traveled the whole Utah territory to assess the damage by the grasshopper invasion.</figcaption></figure>

In 1855, Heber C. Kimball traveled through the Utah territory from Brigham City on the north to St. George in the south, and reported: “From this place south as far as we went, the grasshoppers have cut down the grain, and there is not fifty acres now standing of any kind of grain in Salt Lake Valley, and what is now standing, they are cutting it down as fast as possible. In Utah County the fields are pretty much desolate; in Juab Valley not a green spear of grain is to be seen, nor in Sanpete, nor in Fillmore.” [viii]

Entire Territory on the Verge of a Famine

In 1856, as Brigham Young delivered this address, the saints were praying that their new harvest would be able to keep them from starvation after the previous devastating year of grasshopper attacks.

The handcart companies were on their way to the valley starting in this year, including the ill-fated Willey and Martin handcart companies which started west late in the season.[ix]

If their crops in Utah failed or the hated hoppers returned again in force, the handcart pioneers might have arrived in the valley in the middle of a serious famine.

Brigham Young: Situation in Salt Lake valley in 1847-1848

Here is what Brigham Young said in the tabernacle on June 8, 1856:[x]

<figure class="aligncenter size-large"></figure>

“The first year that I came into this valley I had not flour enough to last my family until harvest, and that I had brought with me, and persons were coming to my house every day for bread. I had the blues about one day; I went down to the old fort, and by the time I got back to my house I was completely cured. I said to my wife, ‘Do not let a person come here for food and go away empty handed, for if you do we shall suffer before harvest; but if you give to every individual that comes we shall have enough to last us through.’ ”

“I have proven this many a time, and we have again proven it this year. I have plenty on hand, and shall have plenty, if I keep giving away. More than two hundred persons eat from my provisions every day, besides my own family and those who work for me.

“I intend to keep doing so, that my bread may hold out, for if I do not I shall come short. Do you believe that principle? I know it is true, because I have proven it so many times.”

Brigham Young’s tried and true formula for having plenty and prospering, enough and to spare:

“Do not let a person come for food and go away empty handed”

“I shall have plenty, if I keep giving away.”

Self-Reliant AND Generous

Brigham Young had been diligent in doing all that he could before he received these blessings where the Lord literally multiplied his food. His wagons were full of flour and his land planted as best he could. Also, in true pioneer spirit of thrift, industry and hatred of the dole, those in need who were able bodied would expect and be expected to work for what they received.

Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, declared in the April 1976 conference:

“I should like to address a few remarks to those who ask, “Do I share with my neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?” No, we don’t have to share–we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share! What would Jesus do? I could not possibly eat food and see my neighbors starving. And if you starve to death after sharing,’greater love hath no man than this .’ ” (John 15:13 )

Gladly Ministering

The Book of Mormon strongly emphasizes the importance of gladly ministering to the needy.

“And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as