Despite these persecutions. the Mormons managed to perform two highly impressive accomplishments in the latter half of the last century. They arranged to bring thousands of converts from various European countries to their intermountain empire. Some of these immigrants formed the valorous handcart companies. which. without the aid of horses or oxen. pulled their possessions across the plains. Many of these immigrants were Scandinavian. they quickly learned English and were assimilated into the community without the hardships endured by many nonEnglishspeaking immigrants to other parts of our country. No immigration to America was better organized than that of these Mormon converts coming to their mountain Zion. In addition to assimilating and arranging transportation for these immigrants. the Mormon Church directed one of the greatest colonizing efforts in American history. The Mormons settled much of the mountain West. bringing civilization to some places where few other men would have had the will to go. The Mormons were the first AngloSaxon people to practice extensive irrigation. they made many semiarid regions of the West green and lush with irrigated crops.
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immigration immigrants