1838 – 24 November, p. 1 – The Mormons.

A fanatical set of people, numbering about 2,000 with 1,000 fighting men, and calling themselves “Mormons,” have settled in a county of Missouri, where they are giving so much trouble to their neighbors, that the militia have been called out to keep them in order, or expel them from the state. A conflict has already taken place, in which several lives were lost on both sides, but the details of the action have not reached this city. These Mormons are a strange sect of fanatics. The sect was founded by one Joseph Smith, who a few years since gave out that he had a dream, in which it was told him to dig in a certain place, where he would find certain tablets, and two stones as clear as crystal, which were the Urim and Thummim. He dug, and of course he found them accordingly. He then dreamed that he could read everything relating to the true faith on the golden tablets, by looking through either of the two crystal stones. He therefore reads and promulgates what laws and prophecies he pleases—and his followers are fools enough to believe him. I am informed that he says he can give a complete account of sacred history during the period that elapsed between the annals of the Old Testament and those of the New. He teaches that our Savior appeared in America with several of his disciples, after he has ascended from Jerusalem; that this country was then well peopled, and all were Christians, and so remained for 400 years, when owing to the wickedness into which they had fallen, God destroyed them; and that the last who died buried the sacred golden tablets and Urim and Thummim, where they lay for 1,400 years, until an angel revealed them unto him, the said Joe Smith, in the dream I have related. He holds that he is a great prophet; that he teaches the only true religion; that all mankind will some day or other become Mormons; that the ancient remains of forts, towns, ruins, etc., left on this continent were left by former Mormons—the Christians of the 400 years; that he is gifted with the power of prophecy, and, when necessary, of working miracles. It is related of him that he once undertook that his catechumines should be baptized by an angel in a certain river. The baptism accordingly took place one summer’s evening: whereupon some young men, bent on a frolic, took the angel into custody, stripped the celestial being of white robes and wings, and lo and behold! the said angel was the veritable Joe Smith in disguise. On another occasion it is said that he undertook to walk across this holy river; but it was found that he had placed two ropes under the water, drawn from bank to bank; some wag cut the ropes during the performance of the pretended miracle, and had it not been for the timely interposition of a party who had stationed themselves favorably for the purpose, Joe Smith would at this moment have been in the land of spirits. These are tales which are told of this modern impostor, I know not how truly. The sketch of the Mormon superstition is, however, correct. I am given to understand that the Mormons are by no means immoral, and that their domestic laws are good. They build churches, have schools, a bank, and coin paper money among themselves. The exact cause of quarrel, beyond a silly fanaticism, between them and the other citizens of Missouri, has not yet transpired. Of a truth, Mormonism is a superstition worthy to be classed with that of Johanna Southcott, or the “strange tongues” of the late Rev. Mr. Irving. Philadelphia Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.

1838 – 22 December, p. 1 – (From the St. Louis Republican of the 12^th inst.) Further from the Mormons. The account of a bloody butchery of thirty-two Mormons on Splawns [Hauns] Creek, is fully confirmed. Two children were killed, we presume from accident. Considerable plunder—such as beds, hats, etc., were taken from the slaughtered. Not one of the assailants was killed or hurt. About the time of the surrender, a Mormon had his brains dashed out by a man who accused the Mormon of burning his house in Davis. We copy the above paragraphs from the Gazetete of Saturday evening. We are sorry to say that our own information corroborates the details. For the honor of the State, we could have wished that such savage enormities had not attended a controversy in itself disgraceful enough. Will the actors in the tragedy be suffered, by the Courts of that district, to go unpunished?

1842 – 24 December, p. 1 – Mutiny. The New Orleans Picayune of the 17^th inst. has the following: It will be recollected that the late English papers spoke of a party of one hundred and sixty-eight English Mormons being on their way out to this country, with the design of colonizing with Joe Smith, at Nauvoo. A letter from Captain Taylor, the boarding officer at the Belize, gives us the next notice of their whereabouts. Captain Taylor, in one of his cruises, on the 14^th inst., at the bar of the N. E. Pass, was hailed by Captain Pierce, of the ships Henry, on board of which the Mormons were. Capt. Taylor boarded the ship, when he was informed by Captain Pierce that the passengers were then, and had been, in a state of mutiny, from the time they were three days out from Liverpool. At the request of Captain Pierce, and on his affidavit, Captain Taylor made prisoners of the Rev. John Snyder and two others, whom Pierce pointed out as the ringleaders. Captain Taylor took the prisoners ashore with him. They have been since brought up to the city by the tow-boat Swan.

1843 – 23 December, p. 2 – Another life has been lost through the delusions of this strange sect. Robert Turner, a spring-knife cutler, of Sheffield, was a Mormon priest. On Sunday, the 19^th of November, he gave out that if any person felt thoroughly convinced of the religious principles which he professed and preached, and would attend early in the morning he would baptize them. Several persons met Turner, their preacher, in a meadow called “Fairy Meadow,” adjoining the river above Woodhouse Mill, and the party, after praying and singing, and being addressed by one of their preachers, from Sheffield, as to the absolute necessity of their being born of water and of the spirit, or else they could not enter the kingdom of heaven, several of their disciples proceeded at once to strip off all their clothes, and Turner plunged into the river, which was deep and considerably swollen by the late rains, followed by one William Bellamy, a collier, whom he baptized, and he got out safe; and then one Mathew Gregory went in, and the priest, after plunging him over head, to use the man’s own words, and nearly “clockening” him, he, with great difficulty, half drowned, much starved and frightened, scrambled out of the river and saved his life; but Turner, on leaving hold of Gregory, unfortunately slipped forward into the deep water, and the current running strong, he was carried away into the middle of the river, and soon sank to rise no more. Exertions were made to save the man without effect. His body was subsequently found, and at an inquest held upon it, a verdict of “Accidental death” was returned.

1843 – 30 December, p. 1 – Mormonism in Leicester. A Correspondent informs us that this strange sect has obtained a footing in this town, and meet on Saturdays and Tuesdays, near St. Nicholas’ Church, when the initiated members speak in the “unknown tongues.” After one has thus spoken, another brother interprets the mysterious language. Upwards of one hundred persons are said to have already joined the “Latter-day Saints.” They “take the sacrament” in common with other sects, baptize, lay hands, and believe the Book of Mormon to be equal in importance to the Mosaic Writings, or the New Testament. Leicester Chronicle.

1846 – 17 October, p. 1 – The Mormon troubles in Illinois had assumed a most threatening aspect. The anti-Mormons had assembled to the number of 1,200 men, armed with several field pieces, and were on the point of marching against Nauvoo, with the intention of throwing red hot balls into the city, and determined to drive the sect from the spot. The Mormons on the other hand, had fortified their celebrated Temple, and, also armed with a few pieces of artillery, were resolutely determined to repel the imminent attack. A battle was fully anticipated by the citizens of St. Louis.

1850 – 5 January, p. 1 – Travelers from the Mormon settlements of Deseret (Salt Lake) say that money and gold dust are very abundant, that the people have agreed upon a constitution for their new state, and have established a mint for Mormon coinage. The crops were unusually abundant.

1851 – 18 January, p. 3 – Mormon Emigration. We hear that preparations on a very extensive scale are in progress throughout this place and neighborhood to forward a large body of this sect to the Valley of the Salt Lake, or, as they call it, the State of Utah, in the forthcoming spring. The accounts from those who have are very cheering, and speak most highly of the fineness of the climate and the fertility of the land. The party will be under the guidance of some half-dozen very respectable tradesmen of good character from Aberdare and other places, who are about disposing of their worldly goods for this sole purpose. The company will amount to many thousands and two or three vessels are to be chartered at Liverpool for their use.

1851 – 25 January, p. 1 – I observe also that gold abounds in the Mormon country. Eleven persons arrived at St. Louis on Saturday, from Salt Lake City, with 80,000 dollars.

1851 – 28 June, p. 1 – The Mormons of Salt Lake City propose to construct a railroad from the Salt Lake to San Francisco, and this proposition is highly favored by capitalists and leading men in San Francisco. The Mormons, though a fanatical, are really a wonderful people for indomitable energy, industry, and perseverance. Already they form quite a powerful nation in the very center of savage tribes, and their metropolis contains 25,000 souls.

1851 – 27 September, p. 2 – The Mormons. The Mormons have reoccupied their old station Carson Valley, and in much larger numbers, and intend making a permanent settlement there. It is their desire to occupy the whole of it, and in their hands it will become extremely valuable, as it is the only place fit for a settlement between their possessions in the Great Salt Lake Valley and California. The whole valley is well watered and covered with the most luxuriant grass. By the term “valley” is meant that portion which is susceptible of cultivation, lying at the base of the mountain, and is about twenty-five miles long, by five to fifteen in breadth. The Mormons have extended their settlements among the base of the mountains, northward, and facing the Great Salt Lake, ninety miles, nearly to Bear River ferry. They are fast taking up all the good land in the valley. They are generally satisfied with a small tract each, say from forty to one hundred acres. They are a very industrious people, and their improvements are good and substantial. Their houses are small and neat, being built of adobes made of blue clay. They have mills in the mountain canyons, and make fair lumber, which is sold in the city at 50 dollars per thousand feet. The Mormons are engaged building a railroad to the mountain, some seven or eight miles, on which to transport the materials for their great temple. The city covers a great deal of ground, and is probably the most rural city in the world, each man being allowed one-and-a-quarter acres for his residence and garden. A late census taken by themselves makes the population of the city and adjoining settlements, 18,000. New York Tribune.

1852 – 31 January, p. 1 – Mormon Immoralities in America. The report of the Judge of the Utah territory, relative to the proceedings of the Mormons, is full of disgusting details of the debauchery carried on by the leading members of the sect. It should be perused by the numerous parties who even at the present time are emigrating from Great Britain to join them. The following is an extract from the report: “We deem it our duty to state, in this official communication, that polygamy, or ‘plurality of wives, is openly avowed and practiced in the territory, under the sanction and in obedience to the direct commands of the church.’ So universal is this practice, that very few, if any, leading men in that community can be found who have not more than one wife each, which creates the monopoly, and which was peculiarly hard upon the officers sent to reside there. The prominent men in the church, whose example in all things it is the ambition of the more humble to imitate, have each many wives, some of them we are credibly informed and believe, as many as twenty or thirty, and Brigham Young, the governor, even a great number. It is not uncommon to find two or more sisters married to the same man. This practice regarded and punished as a high and revolting crime in all civilized countries, would of course, never be made a statutory offence by a Mormon legislature; and if a crim at common law, the court would be powerless to correct the evil with Mormon juries. The city of Great Salt Lake is an important point in the overland route to Oregon and California for the emigrant to replenish his stores, or to winter if overtaken by the advance of the season; but the intimidation which is produced by the denunciations and conduct of the Mormon church and people upon the citizens of the United States passing through or engaged in business there, is such as to induce the emigrant to avoid, if possible, and the resident to submit without a murmur. No man dares open his mouth in opposition to their lawless exactions, without feeling their effects upon his liberty, his business or his life. And thus upon the soil of the United States, and under the broad folds of its stars and stripes, which protect the citizen in his rights in every part of the civilized world, there is a spot where he dare not exercise the liberty of a freeman. We are told that many of the ‘Gentiles’ (as all are called there who are not members of the Mormon church and have only one wife) have been sentenced for trivial offences to two, five, and ten years of labor upon the public highways, with ball and chain to their legs with no shelter at night but caverns dug in the earth with their own hands. We have seen one of these highways, cutout of the side of the mountain, and the caverns far down at the base; but the approach of the federal officers, was the signal for the release and banishment of these convicts from the territory into Texas.”

The New York National Police Gazette contains a mass of disgusting details relative to the proceedings of this sect at the Salt Lake. A correspondent of that paper, writing from Utah, says: “The pluralist wife system is in full vogue here. Governor Young is said to have 90 wives. He drove along the streets a few days ago with 16 of them in a long carriage, 14 of them having each an infant at her bosom. It is said that Heber C. Kimball, one of the Triuno Council, and the second person in the Trinity, has almost an equal number, and among them are a mother and her two daughters. Each man can have as many wives as he can maintain, that is, after the women have been picked and culled by the head men. Whole pages might be filled with the surprising and disgusting details of the state of affairs here.” It is a lamentable fact, at the present time, numbers of people are leaving Great Britain to join the Mormons, notwithstanding the disclosures that are so constantly being made.

1852 – 14 February, p. 4 – Priest Drowned at a Baptism in the Trent. Mormon Priest Drowned at a Baptism in the Trent.—Beeston has been in a state of excitement during the past week, in consequence of a case of drowning in the Trent, in the vicinity of that village, which furnishes another instance of the evil influences of the Mormon delusion. One of these fanatics, a tailor by trade, named William Barnes, aged 22 years, had determined to proceed to the American settlements of the sect in a few days. Being a priest, he preached a farewell discourse in the place of meeting at Beeston, on the evening of Thursday last. At the conclusion of the sermon, and as he was leaving the room, he was accosted by a young woman, named Elizabeth Jackson, who lives within a few yards of the house occupied by the parents of Barnes. The young woman asked him when he meant to baptise her, to which he replied that he would do so in a few days. She expressed her anxious desire that it should be done that night, and in the Trent; for, with the rest of the “saints” in the village, she looked up to Barnes with the utmost veneration and respect—the poor man having been elevated by his fanatical fellow-Mormons to the rank of an “angel.” She was afraid that something might occur to prevent her being baptised by Barnes before he left, and she pleaded so earnestly that it might be as she wished that the “priest” at length acquiesced. It was nearly half-past ten o’clock when he set out for the Trent, accompanied by the girl Jackson, and her sister, two men named respectively Blackburne and Fox, and also a sister of his own. In all the company consisted of six individuals. They had to walk about a mile and a half, and, it is said that by the way Barnes told his companions how low spirited he was; how he had of late been troubled with dark dreams, foreboding evil to come; how he thought he should be drowned, and how he asked those around him to pray for his safety. On reaching the river, it was found to be six feet above the ordinary level, the current over-flowing the banks and flowing onwards with immense rapidity. The poor tailor who was to officiate, made no remark anent the flooded stream, neither did any of his companions. He undressed himself to his shirt and trousers, and leisurely walked in, proceeding slowly backwards as if searching for a footing in the bed of the stream, and stating to those on the bank, that he would call upon the girl Jackson when all was ready. No sooner had he uttered these words, than he suddenly fell backwards into ten or twelve feet of water. The spot he choosed for the baptism is only a short distance below the weir near Beeston Ryelands, where the current is deep and strong, and where a dangerous eddy exists. When Barnes went down, his friends at first were disposed to think that he was merely ducking for the purpose taking off the strange sensation consequent on entering the water. It soon appeared, however, that such was not the case, and Fox, who is a capital swimmer, immediately jumped in to the rescue. Barnes at once caught hold of him, and they were both being dragged down, when, with a desperate struggle, Fox released himself from the grasp of the drowning man, and managed to swim ashore. When he reached the bank he fell down exhausted and insensible. The unfortunate wretch Barnes, was swept away by the current, and his body has not been recovered.—Nottingham Journal.

1852 – 3 April, p. 4 – The Mormons in America. The Swansea Herald publishes a letter just received from a Welsh miner, named Evan Powell [Howell], who embarked last year, with his wife and family, to join the Mormons in America. It is dated St. Louis, Dec. 7. The deluded victim says: “Myself, together with my wife and child have been ill here for five months, and now I am somewhat better, but I have lost all my comforts, for I have buried both wife and child in the same grave in Illinois. I am now living at Missouri. It is very unhealthy here, and I beg of you to use all your influence to persuade my friends to stay where they are, rather than suffer themselves to be blindfolded into such a system of roguery and plunder as Mormonism. It is nothing but a mere humbug—I have found it to my heart’s sorrow. It would have been better for us not to have been born than to have come here to be Mormons. They will take all from you at home, and starve you when you come here, if they have the chance, and take your wives from you. Their chief, Brigham Young, has 24 wives, and 19 of them have infants at their breast at present, and those lower in office than he have a smaller number, in proportion to their office, according to their station. Some have fourteen, some seven, and others different numbers. And now they are trying their best to insult the officers of the United States, who have left their places and have gone to Washington, and as Congress is now sitting, we shall hear what they will do. The Mormons are very unkind one to another. I had to dig my wife’s grave myself. She had a decent burial, but the Mormons did not put their hands to help at all. The men who gave them so much money had promises of land and everything else when they reached here, but they have been left to die in the workhouse. I wish to tell you also that the Sabbath is not more regarded here than any other day. There is gaming of every description here on the Sabbath—such as horse-racing, rolling the ten pins, playing cards, etc.; and the leaders of the Mormons indulge in these to a great extent, together with dancing, swearing, and everything else that is beyond decency.”

1852 – 24 April, p. 4 – Item #1 – A Mormon Miracle. A boilermaker, who was a Mormonite, met with an accident from the nut of a screw, which flew off while he was at work, and struck him on the eye with such force as to destroy the pupil. The man was recommended to go to Dr. Neill, the eminent oculist, at the eye institution, Mount Pleasant; but being a good Mormon, he preferred to go to the elders for the laying on of hands, etc., that his sight might be restored. The elders saw the difficulty, and consulted together, when one of them with a strong Yankee accent said, “Wall, have you employers?” “Yes,” was the answer. “Wall, what did they tell you to do?” Answer – “They advised me to go to Dr. Neill.” Very wall, (said the elder), do you go to the Dr. Neill, and whatever he does we will bless, and God will bless it too.” The man accordingly went to Dr. Neill, but whether the pupil of his eye was restored or not, he got his vision in another way, and saw enough of Mormonism to leave it. Liverpool Courier.

1852 – 24 April, p. 4 – Item #2 – The Mormon Bible. In a discussion at Carlisle, last week, between a Mormonite leader and a lecturer named Porter, the latter read some choice extracts from the Mormon Bible. For example the Almighty Being is there represented as telling the people to make barges, in which men, women, children, and cattle were to cross the great Atlantic: “These barges were built after a manner that they were exceeding tight, even that they would hold water like a dish—and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish—and the sides was tight like unto a dish—and the ends thereof were peaked—and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish—and the length thereof was the length of a tree—and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared, behold thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof—and also in the bottom thereof—(laughter)—and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole thereof and receive air; and if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold ye shall stop the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood.” (Roars of laughter.)

1852 – 5 June, p. 1 – Mormon “Fashions.” The Deseret News of the 10^th of January (says the Church and State Gazette) contains the following items of intelligence: Newest Fashions. – We understand that one of the ladies of Utah appeared in the public assembly last Sabbath, clad in a buckskin sack beautifully ornamented with the same material. The exhibition we have everywhere heard spoken of in the highest praise, and we only wish that it had been our wife who had set this noble example. Home Manufacture in Earnest. – Captain David Evans, representative from Utah county, has made his appearance in the Representatives’ Hall clad in his own family manufactured habiliments, worthy the imitation of a nabob. We understand his wife cut and made his garments, as well as spun and wove the cloth. Mrs. Evans is worthy to stand by the side of the lady in the buckskin sack.

1852 – 17 July, p. 4 – “Extraordinary and Miraculous Escape” – Extraordinary and Miraculous Escape of Four Hundred Latter-day Saints

On Monday evening last a large meeting of the Latter-day Saints took place at their hall, near the Sunderland Inn, and it is said some 400 were present.

The Latter-day Saints, or Mormonites, have of late years so greatly increased in the colliery districts in the neighbourhood of this place that an organised body now exists here, with elders and prophets at their head, and a regularly constituted government to direct their spiritual and temporal affairs.

Annually these people hold a conference, at which the chiefs of the body assemble, and communications with their bretheren in other quarters are made.

This year some of the elders who had been in the camp on the borders of the Great Salt Lake were expected at the Newport conference, and preparations on an extensive scale for their reception, and for the general celebration of the festival, were being carried out. It was also expected, or ambiguously hinted, that miracles would be performed; and the credulous people, ever ready to follow any “newfangled doctrine,” gave ear thereto as believers.

Monday evening, after the conclusion of one of the services, the brethren, the saints, and the elders assembled together in a large building known as the Sunderland-hall, where it was intended to celebrate the occasion by a tea festival on a great scale.

About four hundred persons, (men, women, and children) were sitting down, after a blessing had been invoked by the elders, and a pleasant festivity was anticipated. Suddenly a creaking noise was heard, followed by a sound like a crash of thunder, and immediately the lofty ceiling of exactly one-half the hall, divided in the centre of a large beam, fell almost flat upon the multitude below.

A terrific shrieking, and screaming, and groaning ensued. The residents in the neighbourhood, apprehending some frightful casualty, rushed out of their houses, and were almost paralysed by the continued screams and groans. Presently the windows were burst out, and the affrighted Mormons appeared, terrified, screaming for help, while some actually flung themselves into the street; and others, clinging to the sills and frames, made those below shudder at their anticipated death or frightful mutilation.

A scene of indescribable horror ensued. The crowd of spectators rushed towards the door of the hall, which they burst in, as well as they were able from the mass of rubbish, etc., that had fallen inside; and here the spectacle was frightful in the extreme. The people were huddled together in crowds beneath the tea-tables—some crowding to the windows—some rushing towards the doors—as many struggling to extricate themselves from the heaps of broken rafters, lime, etc., among which they were embedded. Assistance was rendered; and after much difficulty the unfortunate Mormonites were extricated from their perilous condition.

It is most remarkable that not a single Latter day Saint received any injury from this accident, although the ceiling was heavy, and was quite one-half of the ceiling of the whole hall, while attached thereto were the heavy pieces of timber which had previously supported it. It is also singular that the portion of the ceiling beneath which the “elders” or “prophets” sat was perfectly uninjured and sound.

Nothing less than a miracle is supposed by the infatuated Latter-day Saints to have preserved so large a number of persons from the fate of death, which appeared so inevitable; and a great reaction in their favour will be the result among the half-converted disciples of Joe Smith who abound in this quarter.

One of the preachers said it was a visitation from their Lord; and after the tables had been cleared, those who had courage adjoined to the Club-room, at the William the 4th Inn, where the evening was spent very agreeably, and the remainder of the evening’s services was devoted to thanksgiving for the miracle which had been performed by the elders in favour of the true believers.

1852 – 11 September, p. 3 - The Latter-day Saints are prosecuting the propagation of their peculiar notions with characteristic industry; and, it would seem, with no want of success. Among us in Wales they have obtained not a few converts. We observe that they are now laboring energetically in spreading their doctrines in Norway and Sweden; that they have prepared an edition, in German, of the Book of Mormon; and that they have established a weekly newspaper in Hamburg, for the better advocacy of Latter-day Saintism among the dreamy Germans.

1852 – 30 October, p. 4 – The Settlement of the Mormons on the Great Salt Lake

Among the teeming events of the present era, one of the most remarkable in the formation of a State by a peculiar people, in the far interior of America, which has assumed the name of Des-er-ét,—a mystic word, taken from the Book of Mormon, signifying the Land of the Honey-Bee. Its present capital and principal settlement is in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. In this and contiguous vales are the gardens of the mountains, in which the bee and its fostering companion, man, have lately been colonised and from which neither will carry away the stores gathered into the domestic hive. Industrious alike, the sweet bounties of Providence are collected, to be luxuriated upon at home, in all the freedom of their being and constitution of their nature. This valley is situated midway between the States of the great Mississippi, and the golden empire rising to life and influence on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It is isolated from habitable grounds; having inhospitable tracts to the north and south, and the untimbered slope of the Rocky Mountains, nearly a thousand miles wide, on the east, and nearly a thousand miles of arid salt deserts on the west, broken up by frequent ridges of sterile mountains. This fertile tract, therefore, presents itself to us with varied associations, an object of curious contemplation. The Mormon settlements are in that remarkable depression styled The Great Basin—a region embraced in the Rocky Mountain land out of which no waters flow.

This Grand Basin is a high level, about four thousand feet above the ocean—“a desert in character, with some fertile strips flanking the bases of the highest ridges.” It is “about five hundred miles in diameter either way; and in the eastern part the Mormons have settled,” on the banks of a river named the Jordan, which flows out of the Great Salt Lake. The resources of the country are very great; and both Capt. Stanbury and Lieut. Gunnison anticipate that it will one day contain a large and powerful nation. The settlement of this distant and promising region of Central America is, perhaps, the fact of most general interest in the history of that strange vagary of the human intellect—Mormonism. With the origin of this singular attempt at the invention of a new religion, and with the main facts of the career of its founder, the celebrated Joe Smith, our readers are generally acquainted; the following extract from Captain Stansbury’s work gives a sufficient recapitulation of those successive migrations of the Mormonites as a community which led to their colonisation of the basin of the Great Salt Lake of Utah:—

The origin of this new religious sect in our country is well known, and, therefore, it will only be necessary to avert to it very briefly. It was first organised in 1830, under the auspices of Joseph Smith, the founder; and, after a temporary residence in Kirtland, Ohio, was removed to Jackson county, Missouri, where, by divine revelation, “the saints” were directed to build a magnificent temple, the pattern of which was to be revealed from on high. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid, but the builders were eventually driven from the State by an armed mob. They next removed to Illinois, where, upon the bank of the Mississippi, they built a flourishing city, which they called Nauvoo. They lived here until 1844, when they became obnoxious to the inhabitants of that State also, and were finally attacked by an enraged multitude, and their prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum, murdered in the gaol of Carthage. During the year 1845, these persecutions continued; and threats of greater outrages being held out, the Mormons found their situation no longer tolerable withing the boundaries of that State, and at length, in a solemn council, determined to abandon their homes in their city of Nauvoo, and to seek, in the wilds of the Western wilderness, a spot remote from the habitations of men, where, secure from lawless violence, they might worship according to the rights of the new religion they had introduced. * * * * The Mormons having resolved to emigrate, preparations for the journey were immediately commenced, by hastily, and at much sacrifice, exchanging such property as they could dispose of for animals, waggons, and breadstuffs; and in the beginning of February, 1846, a large proportion of the community crossed the Mississippi from Nauvoo, and formed a rendezvous near Montrose, in Iowa. Here they remained, exposed to intense cold and deep snows, until March, when, being joined by several hundred waggons and a large number of women and children, they organised their company under the guidance of Brigham Young, president of the church, and successor of Joseph Smith their founder and seer. In their progress westward, through the northern part of Missouri, they were again driven from that State, by violent threats, into the southern borders of Iowa, whence, after much hardship and suffering, they reached, in the course of the summer, the banks of the Missouri, beyond the limits of the States. Here they enclosed land and planted crops, leaving some of their number to reap the fruits, which were to be applied to the sustenance of other companies, that were to follow as soon as they should be able to provide the means. They were about crossing the river to pursue, their journey westward, when an officer of the United States Government presented himself, with a requisition for five hundred men to serve, in the war with Mexico. This demand, though sudden and unexpected, was promptly and patriotically complied with, but in consequence, the expedition was broken up for the season. Those that remained, being principally old men, women, and children, prepared to pass the winter in the wilds of an Indian country, by cutting hay and erecting log and sod huts, and digging as many caves as time allowed and their strength enabled them. During this winter, owing to the great privations incident to such a life, and to the want, in many instances, of the most common necessaries great numbers sickened and died; their cattle, too, were stolen by the Indians, or perished by starvation. In the succeeding spring of 1847, the people were again organised for their journey; and on the eighth of April, a pioneer company, consisting of one hundred and forty-three men, seventy-two waggons, and one hundred and seventy-five head of horses, mules, and oxen, with rations for six months, agricultural implements and seed-grain, manfully set out in search of a home beyond the Rocky Mountains. Pursuing their route up the left bank of the Platte, crossing at Fort Laramie, and passing over the mountains at the South Pass, the advanced guard at length reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake, on the 21st of July. On the 24th, the presidency and the main body arrived. A piece of ground was selected, consecrated by prayer, broken up, and planted; and thus, in 1847, was formed the nucleus of what, in 1850, was admitted as a Territory of the Union.—An Expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

1852 – 4 December, p. 4 – Lieutenant Gunnison, the associate of Captain Stansbury in the U. S. government survey of the Great Salt Lake, says that the contemplation of plurality is highly distasteful to the young Mormon ladies of any independence of feeling. The subject was placed before one in its real practical light, and the reply was most decided and prompt against such an arrangement. Asked if she could consent to become Mrs. Blank, No. 20 or No. 40; or if now in youthful life she was espoused to one of her choice, and who was all the world to her; and then, though ranking No. 1, when the first blush of beauty had departed, she could be contented to have the husband call at her domicile after several weeks’ absence, and say, “I am really glad to see you, dearest, and how delighted it would make me to spend an hour here, but—and, by the way, have you seen my last bride, No. 17?—how sweet a girl she is—really, I’m sorry to leave you so soon;” –the subject was cut short by the reply, “No, sir, I’d die first.”

1853 – 8 January, p. 4 – Three hundred Mormons, from Norway and Denmark, arrived per Lion, from Hamburg, on Tuesday night, and were forwarded by Mr. R. J. Cortis, the agent, to Liverpool, en route for New Orleans and the Salt Lake. Two missionaries from America have converted 2,000 persons; the remaining 1,700 follow in the spring. Eastern Counties Herald.

1853 – 12 February, p. 3 – Among the numerous party that has, within the last few days, left this neighborhood for the Mormon settlement, at the Salt Lake, is an old woman, 81 years of age, who is firmly impressed with the belief that she will not only reach the promised land in safety, but she will also become a young woman again. Her husband is a poor blind pauper, residing at Dyffryn, near St. Nicholas.

1853 – 26 February, p. 2 – About sixty Mormons (men, women, and children) lately living in Newport and Pontypool, having made up their minds to proceed to the land of promise, and join the camp in the precincts of the Salt Lake, this week left Newport per rail for Liverpool, there to embark for the territory henceforward to be their home. Among the party from this town, is a respectable widow, who has nearly run out the allotted span of human existence; and she has expressed a firm conviction, that her husband, though long since place in a Cambrian grave, will be restored alive to her among the prophets and elders, to whom she is progressing.

1853 – 15 October, p. 2 – Mormonism is increasing rather than diminishing in those districts of South Wales where it has established itself, and of late it has received an accession of strength in several persons of the middle class. A well-known Welsh lecturer, named Robert Parry, better known by his appellation of “Robin Ddu,” has recently joined the ranks, and is now holding forth to the deluded people. An exodus has taken place during the summer, and numbers have found their way over to the Salt Lake. Large bodies of these misguided people have left Glamorganshire, Carmarthenshire, and the hill country of Monmouth for America, and numbers will leave next spring.

1853 – 12 November, p. 4 – [See Chapter 10 for the commentary of this long and very sarcastic letter dated 25 October 1853 and written by David Rees, editor of the Congregationalist periodical The Revivalist, directed to the Anglican bishop of Llandaff.]

1854 – 4 February, p. 2 – Emigration of Mormons. About 300 of these infatuated people, disciples of Joe Smith, known by the title of Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, from this neighborhood and Merthyr, left Cardiff, on Friday evening, by South Wales Railway for Liverpool, from which port they intended to sail on Wednesday last, in several ships, for the Salt Lake.

1854 – 18 February, p. 3 – In a tract distributed by the Mormon preachers, the following question and answer occur.—“What shall be the reward of those who have forsaken their wives for righteousness’ sake?—A hundred-fold of wives here and wives everlasting hereafter.”

1854 – 29 April, p. 2 – The new number of the Edinburgh Review has a good long article on those strange people the Mormons. It appears they have had more converts in England than elsewhere, and that the places in which they have gained the greatest number have been Manchester and Merthyr Tydfil. The reviewer shows it is not want of education that makes men Mormons, and also hints that many victims of this imposture might have been saved had our popular teachers taught their hearers to draw the line of separation between the religion of the Old Testament and that of the new. There is some truth in these remarks, and the whole article is well worthy perusal.

1854 – 3 June, p. 2 – One of the most interesting examinations, last week, was that of one of the great guns of the Mormonites, before a private Committee on Emigration in the House of Commons. The reader probably knows the Mormons have a complete organization of their own in the United Kingdom. The gentleman examined was one of the highest authority amongst them. His eminence, the gentleman alluded to, Mr. Samuel Richards, is a middle-aged man, of rather agreeable appearance, dressed very much like a priest, well shaven, and with black curly hair, rolling over the collar of his coat. He has a slight dash of the Yankee in his language. His situation here is a responsible one: he is the supreme ruler of the Mormons in this land, and includes amongst his duties that of superintending the emigration of Mormons from Liverpool. He stated that in the first three months of every year, some 2,600 emigrants leave Liverpool for Utah city—Great Salt Lake—in ships provided for them by Mr. Richards. The arrangements are a reproach to many shipowners and companies of greater pretensions. In one ship there are never more than five hundred persons. The regular dietary for steerage passengers always includes meat; and the emigrants, during their whole voyage, are under the care of a President, who sees that their temporal wants are properly supplied. When New Orleans is reached, the emigrants are received by another agent, who returns a report to Mr. Richards of the state in which they are found. The average cost of the passage of each emigrant to New Orleans is £3 12s. 6d.; and then comes the journey to Utah, which usually costs £20 more. Of the 2,600 who have emigrated this year, only a score are Irish. The mass are converted from the Dissenting sects of Wales and England. In answer to questions from Mr. Frederick Peel, Mr. Richards stated that the great end of the Mormonites is to establish an immense kingdom near the Great Salt Lake, and that thither it is the wish of the Superiors that all the streams should converge. Utah is their Canaan—their land of promise, flowing with milk and honey—their abiding city. Mr. Richards gave his evidence in a straight-forward manner, and earned and received the thanks of the committee in consequence. The impression seemed to be, that however objectionable Mormonism may be, still there was one thing they did decently and well, and that is carry their converts decently, and properly, and healthfully across the Atlantic. It is a pity only Mormonites may go out in these Mormon ships.

1854 – 24 June, p. 3 – The death of Clarissa, wife of John Smith, and mother of the Mormon imposter Joe Smith, is announced by the Deseret News. She was aged 63.

1854 – 23 September, p. 4 – A Visit to a Mormon Prophet. Mr. Caswall, an American clergyman, visited Nauvoo about this time, and gives the following curious account of his interview with Joseph Smith:—"Smith is a coarse plebian person in aspect, and his countenance exhibits a curious mixture of the knave and the clown. His hands are large and awkward and on one of his fingers he wears a massive gold ring. He has a downcast look, and possesses none of that open and straightforward expression which generally characterizes an honest man. His language is uncouth and ungrammatical, indicating very confused notions of syntactical concords. Wen an ancient Greek manuscript of the Psalms was exhibited to him as a test of his scholarship, he boldly pronounced it to be a ‘Dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics.’ Pointing to the capital letters at the commencement of each verse, he said, ‘Them figures is Egyptian hieroglyphics, and them which follows is the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, written in the reformed Egyptian language. Them characters is like the letters that was engraved on the golden plates.’ He afterwards proceeded to show his papyrus, and to explain the inscriptions; but probably suspecting that the author designed to entrap him, he suddenly left the apartment, leaped into his light wagon, and drove away as fast as possible. The author could not properly avoid expressing his opinion of the prophet to the assembled Mormons; and was engaged for several hours in a sharp controversy with various eminent dignitaries. As the City Council had passed an ordinance, under which any stranger in Nauvoo speaking disrespectfully of the prophet might be arrested and imprisoned without process, the author deemed himself happy in leaving Nauvoo unmolested, after plainly declaring to the Mormons that were the dupes of a base and blaspheming impostor. During a visit of three days, he had an opportunity of attending their Sunday services, which were held in a grove adjoining the unfinished temple. About two thousand persons were present, and the appearance of the congregation was quite respectable . . .

It is inexplicable how anyone who had ever looked at Joseph’s portrait, could imagine him to have been by possibility an honest man. Never did we see a face on which the hand of Heaven had more legibly written rascal. That self-complacent simper, that sensual mouth, that leer of vulgar cunning, tell us at one glance the character of their owner. Success, the criterion of fools, has caused many who ridicule his creed to magnify his intellect. Yet we can discover in his career no proof of conspicuous ability. Even the plan of his imposture was nothing original nor ingenious. It may be said that, without great intellectual power, he could not have subjected so many thousands to his will, nor formed them into so flourishing a commonwealth. But it must be remembered, that when subjects are firmly persuaded of the divinity of their sovereign, government becomes an easy task. Even with such advantages, Smith’s administration was by no means successful. He was constantly involved in difficulties which better management would have avoided, and which the policy of his successor has overcome. We are inclined to believe that the sagacity shown in the construction of his ecclesiastical system, belonged rather to his lieutenants than to himself; and that his chief, if not his only talent, was his gigantic impudence. This was the rock whereon he built his church; and his success proves how little ingenuity is needed to deceive mankind. [William John Conybeare, "Mormonism," Edinburgh Review 202 (April 1854): 338.]

1854 – 2 December, p. 4 – A Luckless Mormon Journey. A letter from Berlin of the 20^th says: “At the commencement of the present year the king of Prussia procured through his Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, and through the Chevalier Bunsen, at that time minister at London, a complete collection of all the publications concerning the Mormons in the United States and in England. The Mormons considered this measure as likely to be favorable to the propagation of their religion in Prussia, and, in consequence, they determined on sending to Berlin a deputation to compliment his Majesty. This deputation arrived, a few days ago, by the railway from Stettin; but no sooner had the persons composing it quitted the carriages, than a detachment of soldiers who were in waiting at the station, marched them off to the director of police. That functionary subjected them to a lengthened interrogatory—after which they received orders to leave Berlin in twenty-four hours. The next morning, they left the capital.”

1855 – 13 January, p. 3 – The Mormons. To the Editor of the Silurian. Sir—As the agents of the Mormons are very active in deluding the working classes, perhaps you will allow the accompanying letter to be inserted in your paper: I have just received it from a person, late of this town, who writes from San Francisco. It appears no account can reach us from the “City of the Salt Lake,” but such as are approved of by the authorities there, and shews the bondage in which the people are held. I am, Sir, yours obediently, C. VACHELL. Cardiff, Jan 10, 1855.

“San Francisco, Nov. 7^th, 1854. Sir—I have taken the liberty of sending this note to you, hoping you may not think me too presumptuous in sending to you. I have crossed the continent of North America to Salt Lake; and I did not find Mormonism as it was represented in England. I thought of sending to you from Salt Lake, but all letters were opened by the Mormon authorities previous to their being sent away. I have enjoyed excellent health for a man of my years, considering the many difficulties I have to contend with. I return you my sincere thanks for the many favors I have received from your hands. I am sorry to say my sight is no better than when I left. I am coming to England in the ship ‘William.’ We are going to bring home guano from Pero. I expect to be in England about May, if God spares me so long. I remain, yours respectfully, John Davis, Late from No. 12, Herbert Street, Cardiff.”

1855 – 27 January, p. 3 – [Note: This transcription reflects all the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors as they appear in The Silurian, but which do not appear in the same letter from Samuel Evans as printed in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian one day earlier on 26 January 1855, p. 3.]

To the Editor of the Silurian. Sir, In your paper of January 12^th, a letter appeared from one John Davis late of Herbert Street Cardiff but inserted at the request of Mr. C. Vachall in Reference to Mormonism. In which two distinct charges are made First that he did [not] find Mormonism in Great Salt Lake as it was represented in England secondly, that the reason why he did not send home from there was that all letters was opened by the Mormon Authoritys previous to their being sent away. Now I wish to inform the public upon this last statement in particular. Utah a Mormon Settlement in America containing a population of somewhere about 40,000 inhabitants and that all officers is elected by Congress. The Post Office Included which is under the Controul and Supervision of the United States Authorities and to open a letter there would be held as Criminal as in this Country and when the population of Utah is Considered such a preceding would involve an immence amount of time and trouble. When they have no wish to conceal from the Public their Habits, Customs form of Government or Religion in proff of this see the American Journals which contains almost weekly something concerning this peculiar people. The Times newspaper lately has published some strange stories about them and nothing in their favour written by a Correspondant in Great Salt Lake City. Peraps it would be well to ask them how their letters came safe to hand but enough on that head I am prepared to produce ten witnesses to on of John Davis or any one else to prove his statement incorrect With respect to the other charge that he did not find Mormonism as it was preached in England – I do not know what he expected to find there but this I know that Mormonism is carried out there in more perfection than is possible here. The People been taught in Righteousness and Virtue According to the pattern laid down in the old and new testament In proff of this—John Lewis late of But St in a letter to his aged parent says – Utah is the best place in the world for those that will keep the Commandments of God. James Ellis late of Tredegar St writes thus Utah is a place where the people is taught how to live and where the children sees no bad habits but are taught Righteously and in the fear of the Lord Mrs Hannah Thomas in a letter to Mrs. C. Vachell says when we arrive here there was hundreds to greet us as brothers and sisters in the New and Everlosting Covenant also in Conclusion she says. I do find this to be work of the Lord and of a Truth. I will now leave it with the Public. The Parties letters I have Quoted from is well known in Cardiff and their testimoneys would be taken in any court of Justice by Inserting the above letter you will greatly oblidge Yours most respectfully. Samuel Evans 6 Gt Frederick St Cardiff

Jan. 23^rd 1855

[The editor of The Silurian attaches a brief note following Evans’s letter:]

Believing that discussion always serves the cause of truth, we readily insert the letter of Mr. Evans, but he does not appear to comprehend that the public must naturally attach greater weight to the evidence of a man who has witnessed what he testifies, than to the statements of one, who, writing from Cardiff, professes to give an account of the state of affairs at a distance of more than five thousand miles. Editor.

1855 – 10 March, p. 3 – The Latter-day Saints—A considerable number of people assembled on the beach, opposite the Traveler’s Rest, on Sunday morning last for the purpose of witnessing the somewhat novel spectacle of baptism by immersion in the sea, conducted by some of the elders of the Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. The ceremony, by a singular freak, did not take place when the tide was at its height, but the converts, by way, we presume, of testing their faith, had to wade through the mud to the water, which had receded as far as the weirs at low water mark. After several persons had been immersed, addresses were delivered to the assembled crowd, in support of the doctrines and tenets of this peculiar sect.

1855 – 16 June, p. 2 – Mormonism—We understand that Mr. Hepburn, the Anti-Mormon lecturer, will deliver an address tonight, (Friday) in the Cardiff Arms Park.

1855 – 18 August, p. 7 – The Mormons. (From the New York Herald) According to our last advices from Utah it is quite possible that the kingdom and the institution of Mormondom will be extinguished or expelled from our western territories within a few years, by causes and instrument which have never entered into the calculations of saints, philosophers, or politicians. Grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts threaten to do the work which has confounded our statesmen who believe in the supremacy of “squatter sovereignty,” and those who maintain the supremacy of Congress over the territories.

The intelligence represents the crops of the Utah people over all that vast region—a limited district here and there only excepted—as in process of absolute extirpation by grasshoppers and crickets, and that a new ally, in the shape of locust, was appearing in some localities to aid in the work of famine. The poor Mormons were naturally alarmed and bewildered at the fearful prospect before them; for with the consumption of their crops by those voracious insects, rising out of the ground in swarms, and eating up every green thing within their reach, there can be no other alternative to the saints than starvation, or a rapid exodus to some more favored region of the world, among the waste places of some other continent, or the unappropriated islands of the sea.

The history of the Mormons is the living wonder of these latter times. In their origin, in their absurdities, and abominations of their religious faith, in their persecutions from place to place, and their rapid multiplication by reinforcements from all parts of the civilized world, and in their astonishing perseverance, industry, and success—the creed, the prophet, and the followers of Mormondom, are, in many respects, without a parallel in the history of religious delusions. Certainly, the most extraordinary anomaly of modern times is the kingdom of the Mormon chief—an imperium in imperio—an establishment of polygamy of the epoch of Jacob and Esau in the midst of the institution of the highest civilization of the nineteenth century of the Christian dispensation. The causes, too, which threaten the extinction or expulsion of these Mormons from our continent will be regarded by many as scarcely less than miraculous, though perfectly natural.

In 1844, Colonel Fremont, as the first recorded white man who had ever penetrated to the fabulous Salt Lake, gave us the first information of that terra incognita of the Great Desert Basin. By reference to his reports of that, and all his subsequent explorations, and upon referring to the reports of all other travelers, official and non-official in that region from that day to this, it will be seen that these crickets and grasshoppers are among the fixed natural institutions of Utah. From time immemorial, the native Indians have been accustomed to regard them as part of their subsistence. They make cakes of grasshoppers and crickets. They drive them into trenches with a hot fire at the bottom, where their wings and legs are burnt off, and they are roasted after the fashion of the locusts of Africa. These American insects thus bear the same relation and serve the same purposes to the wild native tribes, as the locusts of the deserts of Asia and Africa in their respective localities. They are a bar to the cultivation of the soil; they exist where there is no soil for cultivation, and where animal life is limited to insects and reptiles, and they are all eaten from necessity. The Utah grasshopper is the African locust of a smaller size, and the digger Indian is but a lower type of the desert Arab.

The forced exodus of the Mormons from Illinois, and their long and dreadful journey to the Great Salt Lake, took place in 1846, and our readers will remember that their first crops, upon which the advanced guards of the colony and the main body of the community in the rear depended for the ensuing winter, were assailed by the crickets—great goggle-eyed, crook-legged, bottle-bodied monsters—eating the green fields to the ground, and leaving a track behind them as blank as if wasted by fire. It will also be remembered that when the saints were in despair these crickets were discovered by the little white gulls which breed among the islands of the lake, and that they came out from those islands every morning, and kept up the war upon the crickets during the day, and from day to day, “from morn till dewy eve,” until the crickets were destroyed, and the crops were saved. The saints looked upon these little gulls as a miraculous interposition for their deliverance, and they could scarcely regard them in any other light.

Since that day the Mormons have been troubled but little with crickets or grasshoppers. On the other hand, they have had a succession of bountiful crops; they have multiplied by immigration and reproduction beyond all precedent; they have established flourishing branches of the parent colony in all the oases of the great desert basin, over an immense area. Yet they are isolated by dreary wastes and frightful and desolate mountains 1,000 miles from the frontier white settlements on the east, and from 500 to 800 miles from the whites of California, while on the north and on the south they are flanked by an illimitable wilderness of volcanic mountains and sandy deserts. Thus cut off and inaccessible to outside relief, there can be no other alternative to the Mormons, with the destruction of their crops of a single season, than a large emigration in search of bread, or starvation if they refused to move. There is no security against the return of these crickets and grasshoppers in still larger swarms next year; and in the even of such a calamity the second time, the extinguishment of Mormondom must inevitably follow. Neither the government nor private charity in the States can subsist for a single winter a community of 50,000 people, removed from 600 to 1,000 miles from any extraneous supplies, and any available means of transportation.

Thus it will be seen that the ravages of these grasshoppers and crickets in Utah involve contingencies of life and death to the Mormons—removal or starvation, and considerations of the highest importance to the whole American people, and our enlightened and Christian institutions. Mormondom is to us a living stigma and a reproach; and yet it appears the government cannot reach it. It is squatter sovereignty carried to licentiousness; but still it is squatter sovereignty. It claims to be a religion, and ours is a country of religious liberty, especially in the territories. If, therefore, this unexpected calamity which has fallen upon the Mormons should result in driving them beyond the seas, or in breaking up their organization, and in dispersing its members among our own people, subject to the laws and usages of American society, the result will be a general and permanent good, at the expense of a temporary and local misfortune.

Meantime, if their crops of the present year should be destroyed, let the Mormons who would not perish prepare for emigration; and let their Prophet make up his mind to disband his society, and recommend its dispersion and fusion among our people, subject to the laws and restraints which govern them; or order the necessary steps for a general exodus to some of the South Sea Islands, where the earth and the skies are more bountiful, and where the saints will cease to be a reproach and a nuisance to their neighbors.

1855 – 22 September, p. 2 – A young man, named John Dudman, of Bath, aged 20, Mormon preacher, who had for several days been in the neighborhood of Plymouth, propagating the doctrines of the notorious Joe Smith, has been accidentally drowned in the River Lynher, whilst in the act of bathing. Deceased was accompanied to the river by a person named Gartrell, whom he urged to bathe with him.

1855 – 29 September, p. 5 – Coedycymmer—The first anniversary of the Baptist Chapel, at this place, took place on Sunday last, when the Revs. J. Evans, Abercannaid, R. Roberts, Tabernacle E. Evans, Caersalem, J. Lloyd, Ebenezer, and J. Jones, Zion, delivered highly appropriate sermons on the occasion. On Monday evening, the latter gentleman delivered a lecture on “Mormonism,” which made such havoc in that congregation, the Rev. R. Jenkyn presiding.