Mission Abruptly Ends in War

“There was other excitement for the Calls besides weddings. During April Conference, 1857, Church leaders called Anson Vasco on a mission to the Sandwich Islands, presently Hawaii. As his father had done before him, Anson Vasco made preparations for his family which now lived in Bountiful closer to parents and a supporting web of aunts and uncles and cousins. He and his wife Charlotte had two small children, Charlotte and Anson Vasco Jr. Charlotte was almost due to deliver her third child. Anson Vasco had also married Eliza Catherine Kent the previous November. The young husband and father said goodbye with hope in his heart, and no doubt, some concern. Then he left them and traveled to San Francisco. He was apparently waiting for ocean passage when Brigham Young sounded the alarm for all Saints and missionaries to come home to Salt Lake City because U.S. President James Buchanan had sent an army against the Mormons. …

“Anson Vasco came back in November to talk of troops marching toward Utah. Troubles had begun three years earlier when Brigham Young’s term of office as territorial governor was about to expire in 1854. … Anson (Call the first) wrote in his journal that Anson Vasco returned from his interrupted mission in November. He and Chester and Anson joined in the preparations against the army. Anson and Chester worked on fortifications in Echo Canyon for four weeks, whereas, Anson Vasco moved on to Fort Bridger for seven weeks to discover the movements of the enemy.”

Source: Anson Call and the Rocky Mountain Prophesy, p. 277-278, 281.