The Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF) was a 19th-century program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) that provided economic assistance to emigrants seeking to join the main church community in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding regions. The fund concept was launched in 1849, two years after the first Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah. In September 1850, based on proposals made in the church's general conference, the provisional government of the State of Deseret formally incorporated the fund as the Perpetual Emigrating Company. Ultimately the fund and corporation operated under the name Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEFC).
Fund practices and operations
thumb|alt=Brick ranch house with red trim|Parts of the historic ranch house on [[Antelope Island date to when the ranch served to help support the PEF]]
The PEF used a combination of church resources and private contributions to provide initial aid for impoverished church members as they moved west. The ordinance incorporating the PEF set aside Antelope Island and Stansbury Island, two islands in the Great Salt Lake, for the company's exclusive use. Recipients would sign a promissory note to reimburse the company for their costs, and were often permitted to satisfy their obligation with commodities or labor in addition to cash. Over the life of the program, nearly 30,000 individuals received assistance, primarily with travel arrangements and outfitting.
As the funding was never able to support all who might need assistance, priority was given to longstanding church members and those with useful skills needed in the Western frontier environment. The earlier growth of the LDS Church in Britain meant that a higher percentage of British members received PEF assistance than emigrants coming from elsewhere (primarily Scandinavia). Those who had relatives already in Utah were more likely to receive support, and donors to the PEF could also designate recipients with their contribution.
Innovations and evolution of emigrant travel
Efforts to ease the journey for the emigrants and make the program less expensive for them and the church continued over the PEF's lifetime. Initially the emigration route followed a pattern from when the church was headquartered at Nauvoo, Illinois, traveling almost entirely by ship, usually to land at New Orleans and then take river steamboats up the Mississippi. Alternatives were sought, however, when this route became perceived as unhealthy with the arrival of cholera outbreaks in the late 1840s. At one point, church leadership believed that members in Europe should be advised to wait until a potential canal was built through Panama or Nicaragua, so they could land in California and avoid the difficult overland journey to Utah from the east. However, as the canal projects failed to move forward, this approach to the voyage never developed. By 1854, church President Brigham Young was directing Franklin D. Richards, who had taken over from his brother Samuel leading the church in Britain, to send emigrants to Atlantic seaboard ports instead, there to taken trains as far west as they could go before joining wagon companies the rest of the way.
thumb|left|alt=Black-and-white photograph of a man with thin hair and a beard in a suit and tie, with a stern expression|[[John R. Murdock (Mormon)|John R. Murdock led multiple down-and-back companies in the 1860s]]
A few more handcart companies followed in subsequent years, the last in 1860 as the final emigration stage reverted to wagon trains. Instead, Brigham Young began promoting the idea of sending teams from Utah with cattle and wagons to meet the emigrants across the plains. By drawing on available resources, it would reduce the challenges and costs of outfitting each group separately, and the wagons could carry the necessary gear and supplies while the majority of travelers walked alongside. Young also suggested that with Utah still having few merchants, existing residents might arrange to have team leaders obtain goods for them back East and bring those items back more cheaply than they could otherwise be obtained. These teams became known as "down-and-back companies" based on their journey "down" to the Missouri River gathering point and back to Utah, and contributed significantly in facilitating the larger emigrant groups organized through the PEF over the course of the decade.
For those coming from Europe, the place of departure was typically Liverpool, except for a handful of parties from the continent who sailed to America directly from Hamburg. Church agents engaged sailing vessels almost exclusively for the transatlantic crossing until 1868, to keep fares as low as possible (whether paid by the individual or the PEF). By this time, the majority of overseas immigration to the US had already shifted to steamships, and the church followed suit in developing a relationship with the Guion Line to carry its emigrants as steerage passengers. The shift to a quicker, more reliable crossing by steam was in part connected to a separate concession from the Union Pacific Railroad, which offered free railroad fare from Omaha for able-bodied men who could help build the roadbed for its portion of the first transcontinental railroad. However, church bishops who oversaw PEF repayments were directed that collection should be "consistent with the ability of the debtors to pay, without distressing the poor, the widow, the aged, or the infirm." As part of the jubilee celebration of the 50th year since the church's organization, its soon-to-be President John Taylor announced a goal to forgive half the amount. With instructions to identify those too poor to pay, church bishops managed in the end to forgive $337,000 of obligations to the PEF during the year. Subsequent sessions of Congress repeatedly considered bills to disincorporate both the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company on the grounds that it fostered the practice. The disincorporation finally took effect when the Edmunds-Tucker Act was enacted in 1887.
The church was ultimately allowed to continue operating and its assets were released in 1893 after a manifesto officially discontinuing the practice of polygamy, but the PEFC was never reinstated. At the conclusion of court proceedings to dissolve it, the receiver took possession of $417,968.50 in net assets, nearly all uncollectable promissory notes of no value.