Episodes

2.1—Three different writers report on the woman who drowned at her baptism

2.2—Response of the press in Wales to the Martyrdom

Salient Events

• 6 April 1837. The first Latter-day Saint missionaries set foot in England.
• 16 October 1840. Missionaries Henry Royle and Frederick Cook arrive in the border town of Overton, Flintshire, in North Wales. By 30 October they have a branch with thirty-two baptized members.
• “In the year 1840.” John Needham reports having organized “many branches of the church in Monmouth and in Wales.” See Needham’s claim to have been the first missionary to preach the gospel in South Wales on the Welsh Saints Project website.
• 6 April 1841. The Millennial Star reports 170 Church members in Wales. These were probably all in North Wales and were possibly the result of the proselytizing of Henry Royle, Frederick Cook, and James Burnham around the Overton, Flintshire, area. See the Welsh Saints Project.
• 10 May 1841. Dan Jones and two partners sign the enrollment document for the Ripple, one of the smallest steamboats on the Upper Mississippi. Just six months later the Ripple struck a rock and sank near New Boston, about sixty-five miles upriver from Nauvoo. During the summer of 1842 Dan Jones and his partner Levi Moffat built a new steamboat, the Maid of Iowa, on the Skunk River at Augusta, Iowa, located about seventeen miles north of Nauvoo, Illinois. It was while operating this steamboat on the Mississippi River that Jones became acquainted with Thomas Sharp’s newspaper, the Warsaw Signal, and the scurrilous reports about Joseph Smith and the Church he had founded.
• Fall/Winter 1842. William Henshaw, a Cornishman, is sent from Wolverhampton by Lorenzo Snow to Merthyr Tydfil. Henshaw spoke no Welsh, but his wife did. Initially, Elder Henshaw could share his message only with speakers of English. As bilingual Welshmen believed the message of the gospel, they were then able to communicate that message to monoglot Welshmen.
• 19 January 1843. Dan Jones is baptized in the Mississippi River. As the captain of the steamboat Maid of Iowa, he had noticed the articles in the Warsaw Signal by its editor, Thomas Sharp. Incredulous at how evil Joseph Smith and his religious doctrine were portrayed to be, Jones located some Latter-day Saint missionaries who taught him the beauties of the restored gospel. Upon believing the message, he received his baptism in the icy waters of the river he knew well, probably in the shadow of the Maid of Iowa, his home at the time. He became personally acquainted with Joseph Smith on 12 April 1843 when he docked his steamboat at Nauvoo, Illinois, with a group of English converts on board. Jones bonded with the Prophet almost immediately and was with him at Carthage Jail until just a few hours before the martyrdom. (See his biography, A Steamboat for an Eldership, at the Welsh Saints Project.)
• 19 February 1843. William Henshaw has his first baptisms: the William R. Davis family. Born in Carmarthenshire in 1805, William R. Davis had also lived in Bristol where he was surrounded by speakers of English. At the time he became acquainted with Henshaw, Davis had set up a tailor’s shop in Merthyr Tydfil. William and Rachel Davis went to the United States with Dan Jones on board the Buena Vista in February 1849. Their son George was serving a mission in Wales at that time. He died of cholera in July 1849.
• September 1844. William and Jane Perkins are baptized in Swansea. As a result of their conversion, William lost his job, and the family spent some time in the poor house. Decades later, their son Benjamin was the architect of the 1880 “Hole in the Rock Expedition” in Utah.
• 1 January 1845. Dan Jones and his wife Jane arrive in Liverpool, having crossed the ocean in company with Wilford Woodruff and his wife. Jones was assigned to North Wales where he had spent his formative years and where his parents and some of his siblings still lived. He failed to bring any family members, former teachers, or acquaintances into the gospel during what must have been a very frustrating year of proselytizing in the area where he had spent his youth.
• 6 April 1845. The clerk at a conference in Manchester reacts to the remarks of Dan Jones:

• We would here remark that we are utterly incapable of doing anything like justice to the address of Captain Jones, for though delivered while struggling with disease, such was its effect upon ourselves, and we believe upon others, that we ceased to write, in order to give way to the effect produced upon our feelings.[1]

• April 1845. Dan Jones publishes his first pamphlet in Wrexham. He relies heavily on Parley P. Pratt’s Voice of Warning.
• Mid-1845. In Rhosllanerchrugog, North Wales, Dan Jones baptizes Robert Evans, formerly a “gifted Campbellite preacher.” Evans remained faithful for several years until he went to Utah. He returned to Wales aligned with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1 June 1845. William Henshaw reports on a recent conference held in Merthyr Tydfil:

• Dear Brother Ward. We held a conference in the Large Room, at Merthyr, according to appointment; the day was fine, and many of the Saints were present from a distance of twenty miles or more. One sister nearly seventy years of age walked forty-two miles. I spoke much on the object for which we were met, and exhorted them to continue in love and union, and the Spirit of the Lord would crown our labors with success. Elder Rees, and others, spoke on the organization of the church in an interesting manner; many strangers were present; and we feel that much good will be done here. We have baptized forty since the General Conference; the Lord is rolling on his work. This has been the best Conference held in South Wales, it lasted two days, and truly it was a time of rejoicing. The Saints are in good spirits, and are determined to spread the gospel, and very soon will many arise and cross the might deep to the Land of Zion. Yours truly, in the covenant of peace, William Henshaw.[2]

• Summer 1845. Dan Jones visits South Wales and is thrilled to meet other Welsh-speaking members of the Church for the first time.
• Late 1845. The Latter Saints, an anonymous twenty-four-page pamphlet, is published in Merthyr Tydfil, with contents of a general nature. It received no response from Dan Jones. (See Pamphlet 1 in Section 2.)
• Late 1845. The Deception of the Latter Saints Exposed, a thirty-two-page pamphlet by David Williams, is published in opposition to Dan Jones’s first pamphlet. (See Pamphlet 2 in Section 2.)
• 3 December 1845. Dan Jones prints four thousand copies of his second pamphlet, the Welsh translation of Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles, on his brother’s press in Rhydybont, Carmarthenshire.
• December 1845. Dan Jones moves to Merthyr Tydfil and becomes president of the Church in all of Wales. During the following three-year period, over three thousand converts were baptized.

Commentary

1838: 2 November, The Welshman, p. 4 (2,700 words).

Information about the beginnings of this new religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the United States. Mention is made of the first missionaries who arrived in Preston and began converting locals. The final paragraph has an account of the strife that existed between the Latter-day Saints and their enemies in Missouri.

1838: 24 November The Silurian, p. 1 (240 words).

General information about the origins of the Latter-day Saints and a mention of the rumor of Joseph Smith’s attempt to walk on water. The writer comments, “Of a truth, Mormonism is a superstition worthy to be classed with that of Johanna Southcott.”

1838: 22 December, The Silurian, p. 1 (150 words).

This article is taken from a piece in the St. Louis Republican about the Haun’s Mill massacre. The writer comments, “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?”

1839: 26 October, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (200 words).

A report of a visit of the Latter-day Saints to various places in Patterson, New Jersey, after which “they left the town for the woods, followed by about 500 factory girls, and held a bush meeting all that afternoon and night.”

1839: November, Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (Friend of the Old Country in America), pp. 325–27 (1,500 words).

In the town of Palmyra, in the northern part of the State of New York, an idiot, who, is said to have been born dumb, a few years ago suddenly announced that ‘one night’ he was visited by an angel who commanded him to rise from his bed and follow him.

Following this introduction, the writer presents his version of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

1840: 2 October, The Welshman, p. 2 (260 words).

There are at present in the neighborhood of Gateshead two ministers of a sect called ‘Latter-day Saints,’ who state that they have come out ‘without purse or scrip,’ as a voice of warning to the people.

This comment is followed by a description of the missionaries’ message.

1840: 21 November, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 4 (870 words). “The Mormonites or Latter-day Saints. (Abridged from the Cheltenham Free Press.)”

This article has five sections: “Their Origin,” “Their Proposed Object,” “Their Tenets,” “Their Book of Mormon,” and “Their Progress.” Nothing is said about Wales.

1841: January, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 6–8 (1,380 words).

The writer indicates concern about the presence of the Latter-day Saints in Cheshire and other places in England. The writer had looked at issues of the Millennial Star, as well as a copy of the Book of Mormon. He then presents a history of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

1841: February, Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 57 (160 words). “The Growth of Mormonism.”

This piece contains some statistics about the Saints, taken from the Times and Seasons.

1841: 29 May, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (225 words). “Mormonite Preacher.”

An account of a three-hour discussion held at the Temperance Hall in the town of Monmouth, between Mr. Cluer, a temperance lecturer, and Mr. Curtis, a “preacher among the Mormonites, or Latter-day Saints.” The writer declares Mr. Cluer the winner.

1841: 31 July, Monmouthshire Beacon,p. 3 (200 words). “The Mormonites.”

An account of the arrest of Joseph Smith and the evil nature of his followers.

1841: 14 August, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (140 words). “The Mormonites in America.”

This article recounts the latest arrest of Joseph Smith and erroneously reports that Martin Harris had been shot through the head.

1841: 21 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (200 words). “Mormons Again.”

The writer discusses the preaching of “Mr. Herringshaw” in Louth.

1841: 28 August, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (1,225 words). “The Latter-day Saint Swindle.”

The writer relates the negative experience that a Mr. and Mrs. Margretts had after leaving their home near Cheltenham and crossing the ocean to Nauvoo. After meeting Joseph Smith and other coreligionists in Nauvoo, they realized their error in leaving England and returned. The Margretts are very likely the Margaret [Margaretz] family (Thomas, age 46, farmer; Elizabeth, age 45; and their three children) whose names are on the shipping list for the Echo that left Liverpool on 16 Feb 1841 and arrived at New Orleans on 16 April 1841.

1841: 28 August, The Cambrian, p. 4 (230 words).

More about the disappointing experience of Thomas Margretts.

1841: 27 November, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 2 (60 words). “The Mormonite Fanatics.”

A large group of Latter-day Saints from Gloucester is on their way to Nauvoo.

1841: 27 November, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (60 words).

The same article appears in the Monmouthshire Beacon for 27 November 1841 (see previous entry).

1841: December, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), pp. 373–74 (1,210 words). “The Mormons.”

Disturbed at the success the Latter-day Saints continued to have in some parts of England, the editor wishes to expose the “disgraceful deceit they use to beguile the innocents into believing the most shameless superstitions ever proclaimed in a Christian country.” He does so by copying from the Monmouthshire Beacon the story of the Margretts family.[3]

1842: 19 August, The Welshman, p. 2 (35 words).

Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet, has quarreled with his two disciples, Rigdon and Bennett, and they threaten to expose his chicanery. How melancholy that so many emigrants should leave England to join these miserable fanatics!

1842: 20 August, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 1 (215 words). “Bankruptcy of the Mormon Impostors.”

The writer discusses the “vile scheme” of Joseph Smith and the “revolting immoralities practiced by the Mormon leaders.”

1842: 17 September, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (300 words). “Mormonism.”

A few lines about a young woman who left her home in Cheltenham on her way to join with the Latter-day Saints in America. Upon arriving in London, she sent a letter to her mother asking for forgiveness and some money to return home.

1842: October, Y Drysorfa (The Treasury), pp. 310–11 (780 words).

A reader asks the editor about the “religious tenets” of the Latter-day Saints. The editor responds that their history is “interwoven with everything that is loathsome, odious, and barbaric.” He then provides a long response to substantiate his assertion.

1842: November, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 351 (170 words).

The writer laments the “many thousands” who have left Britain to go to Nauvoo. One woman said that even if the ship sank, she would be taken “in the belly of some sea-monster” safely to Nauvoo.

1842: 23 December, The Welshman, p. 2 (155 words). “Mormonism.”

Some people in Kendal were “so infatuated by the dogmas of Mormonism as to refuse medical advice in cases of sickness.” The writer also adds some very negative lines about “Pontiff Joe Smith.”

1842: 24 December, The Silurian, p. 1 (190 words). “Mutiny.”

The writer reports the difficulties that arose between the leaders of the Latter-day Saints and Captain Pierce of the ship Henry, which had left Liverpool on 29 September 1842.

1843: 14 January, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (110 words).

The same article appears in the Welshman for 23 December 1842 (see previous entry), save for the final sentence.

1843: May 6, Unpublished letter by Rev. W. R. Davies.[4]

The Reverend W. R. Davies, an ordained Baptist minister for the Caersalem Chapel in Dowlais (almost contiguous with Merthyr Tydfil), was the most vociferous opponent of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales from May 1843 to September 1849, when he died of cholera. Elder William Henshaw had been sent from Wolverhampton by Elder Lorenzo Snow to preach the gospel in Merthyr Tydfil, the heartland of South Wales at that time. On 19 February 1843, a bilingual tailor by the name of William Rees Davis became the first to accept the gospel message from Henshaw. Three months later, in a letter dated 6 May 1843, the Reverend W. R. Davies wrote to his friend, William Jones, a draper living in Llanystumdwy, about Henshaw’s initial success of twelve convert baptisms. For context, one of the converts was a woman from the Reverend’s own congregation:

I am baptizing every month, and it is quite likely that it will continue so for a while at least, but I will tell you some news. There is a new sect here. “Latter-day Saints” they call themselves. They baptize as we do, and that at night. They profess they can do everything the apostles could – heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, speak in tongues, etc., etc. And the minister has been in the house with me, endeavoring to convince me. He is succeeding, and has baptized from 10 to 12 in the last three months. And he baptized one woman who was a member with us.

Davies then comments to his friend about the mode of baptism used by Henshaw:

What? you say. Will he rebaptize after the Baptist? He will, indeed. How so, when he baptizes by immersion? etc. Oh, because no authority had been obtained from Christ by anyone in the world but him and his brothers. The Holy Ghost has commanded him to go and preach in the same way as you order some man to strike an iron for you in order to forge a shoe for an old horse in the smithy. And he had, he said, been arguing that he was not qualified. But He commanded him to go immediately.

With respect to the doctrine preached by Henshaw, Davies writes:

He is half threatening that the end of the world will be in a year’s time. But he preaches that Christ will come on the earth to reign in forty years’ time and that they will be the only men who will reign with him. Which do you think? Will it be he and his company or the Sandemanians who will be higher in authority? Well, you ask, what sort of man is he? Well, he is an ignorant little English-speaking collier. One of his disciples was telling me this the other day: “Well, Davies, laugh as much as you like. I believe the thing I saw. I believe, yes, I believe my own eyes before believing anyone else. I saw someone come to him with a large swelling in his limb. He put his hand on the swelling, and it immediately went down under his hand. And he was completely cured.”

Davies mentions in jest an apparent ailment his friend suffered from, followed by his invitation to Henshaw to go with him to heal a neighbor:

It will be a good thing for you to bring your arm to him, if it is not better. But he absolutely refused to come with me to cure the cancer of a man who lived near our house. Yet he is successful despite deceiving some, as you see. And it is possible that he will get some more fools to believe him. It is easier for a man to believe anything but the truth, be it as foolish as the babbling of children. Which do you prefer, Quick or Hobgoblin’s Hole? Understand that “Hobgoblin’s Hole” is the name of the place where Quick lives. Is it not a very heavenly name? May a blessing be on the Quick and the Hobgoblin.

1843: 15 August, North Wales Chronicle, p. 4 (210 words). “The Mormons in America.”

Taken from the St. Louis Republican piece about the latest arrest of Joseph Smith and the rescue by his followers. It says in part, “The Mormons have conducted the false prophet to Nauvoo, where they will strengthen their military position, and wait the action of the state authorities.”

1843: December, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), pp. 370–71 (890 words). “A Letter from America.”

The editor reprints a 26 July 1843 letter from John Griffiths, son of the Reverend Samuel Griffiths of Horeb Chapel in Llandysul. There is no editorial comment to the letter. It is simply John Griffiths’s account of his travels to Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. Because he heard talk when he was back home in Llandysul of there being Welsh Indians around the Missouri River, he listened carefully to a group of Native Americans he encountered as he traveled from St. Louis along the Missouri River. But he was disappointed that they spoke neither Welsh nor English. According to legend, the “Welsh Indians” were the descendants of a Prince Madoc and his group of Welsh who sailed away from Wales in 1170. They ended up off the coast of what is now South Carolina. Failing to achieve their objective of establishing a Welsh colony in America, they eventually adopted the ways of the Native Americans and became a separate, Welsh-speaking tribe. Griffiths also mentions his brief encounter with Dan Jones: “Captain Jones, the brother of Rev. Jones, Rhydybont, offered to take me on his vessel, 150 miles upriver and along the Des Moines River, but I didn’t go.” The “Rev. Jones, Rhydybont” is John Jones, the older brother of Dan Jones, who had recently been ordained a Congregationalist minister in Rhydybont, a village about ten miles northeast of John Griffiths’s hometown of Llandysul. The press owned by Rev. Jones in Rhydybont would later be used between 1846 and 1849 to print nearly all of Dan Jones’s publications in defense of his new beliefs. The “vessel” referred to is the Maid of Iowa, a small steamboat that Dan Jones and his partner, Levi Moffat, had built a year earlier near Augusta, Iowa, about twenty miles northeast of Nauvoo, Illinois. In his letter, Griffiths mentions nothing about Dan Jones’s recent affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an affiliation that Jones had established by receiving his baptism in the Mississippi River only six months earlier. Griffiths did, however, mention his visit to Nauvoo and the nearly twenty-five thousand followers of Joseph Smith who lived there. He also tells of Joseph Smith’s failure to walk on water because “some rascal” had removed one of the benches arranged about a foot beneath the water’s surface so Smith could show the gathered crowd a miracle.

1843: 23 December, The Silurian, p. 2 (270 words). “The Mormonites.”

An account as to how Robert Turner of Sheffield, who was a spring-knife cutler and also an LDS priest, drowned during a baptism.

1843: 30 December, The Silurian, p. 1 (95 words). “Mormonism in Leicester.”

The writer reports on the Church’s progress in Leicester as well as accounts of speaking in unknown tongues and other characteristics of this new religion.

Episode 2.1

Start: Three different writers report on the woman who drowned at her baptism

1844: January, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 31 (235 words). “Remarkable Superstition.”

A woman in Chester reportedly was forced by her husband to be baptized by the Latter-day Saints. The person performing the baptism lost his grip on the woman, and she went down the river and drowned. The writer describes the reaction of the woman’s husband:

The husband went home unconcerned, and he said that it was God’s will that she drowned, and that it was caused because of the weakness of her faith, but that he was certain that she was in glory.

Her husband and the person that attempted to perform the baptism were taken to the Chester jail and charged with manslaughter.

1844: January, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), p. 32 (250 words). “Drowning by Immersion.”

A woman in Chester drowned at her baptism. The writer of this article adds some information about the woman’s reason for accepting baptism:

Her husband practically drove her insane with his insistence and tormenting that she needed to “obey;” a very frequent word in the vocabulary of the immersers according to all the locals. He told her that unless she obeyed, “she would never have peace with him.”

1844: April, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), pp. 116–17 (650 words). “Remarkable Superstition.”

The writer responds to the January issue of The Instructor and uses the same title: “Remarkable Superstition.” He expresses bewilderment as to why the previous writer would use such a title:

I was unable to discern what the writer was thinking when he called this Remarkable Superstition. Immersing is what the Mormons were doing, and immersing is what the Baptists, or the Immersers, do; what, therefore, is any more superstitious in the one than in the other?

He concludes that they are both wrong and that the proper mode of baptism is by aspersion.

End: Three different writers report on the woman who drowned at her baptism

1844: March, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 99–100 (670 words). “A Strange Birth among the Saints.”

This article is signed “Tobit by the Bridge,” one of the several noms de plume used by the Baptist minister W. R. Davies in Dowlais. His introduction to this article is indicative of his basic position regarding members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

The foolish and mad men who call themselves “Latter-day Saints” have arrived in Pendaran. They profess to work miracles, to prophesy, to speak in unknown tongues, yea, in a word to do everything which the apostles did. I am sorry to say that a number of the dregs of society are now believers. They baptize at night, and those receiving baptism must undress for them and go to the water stark naked!

Davies then gives an account of the attempted healing of a woman by the laying on of hands. It turns out that the woman, a recent convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was actually giving birth. Since the first man to lay his hands on her to give her a blessing was unsuccessful in relieving the woman of her pain, a second brother whom Davies calls the “Chief Apostle” was sent for. This is most likely a sarcastic reference to William Henshaw, the leader of the Church in Merthyr Tydfil. Henshaw came and gave the woman a blessing, but she got worse. Finally, it was discovered that the woman had given birth, and the child had died in the bed. Davies concludes the article with some very harsh observations about the new sect:

This will serve to show to our race what kind of animals the Latter-day Saints are. All the Saints are the chief fools around. They say they are all going before long to Joe Smith in America—that the second Zion is being built now, and that it will be heaven on earth for them before long. I shall give more of their story to you when I get a chance, if I think it will serve some purpose. I did not think there were men so stupid in Wales to believe such a heap of nonsense and presumption.

1844: April, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 123–24 (1,525 words). “A Strange Account of the Latter-day Saints.”

In this issue of the Baptist, W. R. Davies (again with the nom de plume of “Tobit by the Bridge”) presents an account of several failed attempts on the part of the Latter-day Saints to proselytize the Welsh who lived in and around Merthyr Tydfil. Among those gathered to hear them were Dafydd Oliver, a member of the Sion Baptist congregation, and James Wilkins, a Baptist minister. After the missionary finished his presentation, Oliver asked him for a clarification of one of his assertions, “which led to a heated and fierce debate.” According to Davies, “the infallible one had to admit in the presence of those present that he had misworded the subject, that he had intended otherwise, etc.” At this point, Davies says:

[Oliver] took hold of him with invincible strength, showing him to be a satanic and presumptuous wretch, trying to blind a few of the weak-headed fools who followed him into believing that he was speaking infallibly and was a recipient of visions and revelations directly from God, when he was forced to confess before them all that he was confused like a wild bull in a snare, and he had to fall from his fallibility to his shame and arrogance.

Two more meetings of the debate took place in which Oliver, according to Davies, “gained a clear victory.” And at the end of the third debate, James Wilkins asked for permission to speak, and, again according to Davies, “he showed their stupidity and arrogance, which, as he observed, was clear to everyone, and that they would not come ever again to disturb the camp of the Saints, as they were beneath the notice of every man of common sense, etc.”

After failures in several other places while debating with the Baptists, the Latter-day Saints arranged for a series of debates with the Independents of the Bethesda Chapel near Merthyr Tydfil. Davies says, “An intelligent and gifted young man who was a member in Bethesda, a deacon in the Sunday School and a warrior from his youth, was selected to chase the Saints from their boundaries.” Davies reports that the first debate was about miracles and that the Independents “appeared victorious in the eyes of the public.” But the topic for the second debate was baptism, and “the sprinklers were slain forthwith.” As for the representative for the Independents, “he fell silent, and what’s more he went of his own free will with the Saints from the scene of the debate to the river and was baptized!” The irony was that among the listeners of the debate was the father of the “intelligent and gifted young man.” But within a few days following the debate, the father was baptized along with another of his sons and his daughter.

Contemporary records for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints indicate that the name of the debater who went from the debate to the river to be baptized into the Church he had initially opposed was Abel Evans. From that time forth, Abel served as an extremely effective missionary for his new religion until 1850, when he left Wales to join with the main body of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. On the ship he met Mary Jones, a convert from Llangynog, Carmarthenshire, and they were married in St. Louis. He was thirty-eight years old and she was twenty-three. They settled in Lehi, Utah, about thirty miles south of Salt Lake City. In 1865, Abel was called to return to Wales as a missionary. Eighteen months later, he was helping some Welsh converts to get ready to sail to America when he contracted a serious illness and died. He left three widows and fifteen children in Lehi. He was buried in the Cefncoedycymmer Cemetery, about two miles from the scene of the life-changing debate he had had twenty-two years earlier while representing the Independents.[5]

1844: April, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 124 (500 words). “The Saints Still.”

This much shorter account immediately follows the account of the debate that ended in the baptism of Abel Evans. The author of this account gives his nom de plume as simply “I” from Abersychan, but it could well be the Reverend W. R. Davies, hiding behind one of several noms de plume he used before his real identity was brought forth by Dan Jones nearly two years later. This report presents the brief story of “two nice boys” who were baptized by the Latter-day Saints in Abersychan. The first is quoted as having received baptism to see if was true “that they can give sight to the blind.” The second boy, William, according to the reporter, had been persuaded by his brother George to be baptized. Two days following William’s baptism “a disease broke out on his knee.” He appeared to be healed after receiving the laying on of hands from two of his new brethren in the Church, but a short time later his condition worsened to the point of being near death. The reporter’s conclusion: “What this shows is that they are nothing but heretics, wolves, false prophets and deceivers. William is unable to work until now, but he thinks that he will be totally healed when the prophet Henshaw comes to this area; this story I shall yet transmit to you.”

1844: May, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 160 (260 words). “The Saints Again.”

The reporter who wrote “A Strange Account of the Latter-day Saints” in the April issue of this periodical fulfills his promise of providing an update as follows: “Oil was given to him by the Saints for the purpose of making the leg whole, but it did not appear to have any healing effect until the great prophet placed his hand on it; but it appears that neither the oil nor anything else the Saints did had left any effect.” The last the reporter saw of William, his leg “was bigger than the leg of his trousers,” with no sign of reverting back to his former place with the Wesleyans.

1844: June, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 196 (440 words). “The Saints Again, Again.”

W. R. Davies, using yet another nom de plume—“T. ab Ieuan”—tells of a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was about to give birth. She called for the elders of her church to give her a blessing. They came, but, according to Davies, their “benevolent hands” and their “gibberish” had no beneficent effect on her. The midwife who was present was not allowed to assist in the birth. A doctor at the door was turned away, and the expectant mother was “three hours without being released any longer than appropriate.” Finally, the doctor was invited back and was able to save the mother and her child. Davies’s conclusion: “We see that there is nothing but nonsense, along with trickery of the worst kind, that are associated with this group.”

1844: June, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 192–93 (1,350 words). “The Source of the Bible.”

Someone who calls himself “R. P. D.” heard from a friend in Ohio, and he wished to relay the odd things his friend has sent him about the Latter-day Saints. The writer states that it was actually someone by the name of Solomon Spaulding who wrote the Book of Mormon and not Joseph Smith. He also quotes two ordinances approved by the City Council of Nauvoo. The first one states that anyone coming to the city to arrest Joseph Smith shall himself be arrested and put in jail. And the second ordinance gives to Joseph Smith a license to “sell or give spirits of any quantity he in his wisdom shall judge to be for the health, comfort, or convenience of such travelers, or other persons as shall visit his house from time to time.”

1844: July, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 213–15 (1,350 words).

The same article that appeared in The Baptist for June 1844, p. 192–93.

1844: July, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 220–21 (1,165 words). “Epistle from an Apostle.”

This is one of the most curious articles in opposition to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever to appear in the Welsh press. Entitled “Epistle from an Apostle,” it purports to be a letter from George Rees, “an Apostle of the Saints in Abersychan” to “our dear brother Saint John Thomas, Merthyr Tydfil.” Early LDS records show the baptism for a George Rees on 30 August 1843 in the Rhymney Branch and the baptism for a John Thomas on 18 February 1844 in the Penydaren Branch near Merthyr Tydfil, the only persons by those names for these records dating from 19 February 1843 to 20 April 1844.[6]

The author of the letter describes William Henshaw, the leader of all the converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Wales, as a man “similar to the Apostle Paul in so many ways”:

1. He is a former deist
2. He was put in jail (in Cardiff)
3. He was held by state authorities (in Newport during the Chartist riots)
4. He is able to cast out devils
5. He can work mighty miracles

The author, speaking on behalf of “a few of the Abersychan Saints” commands John Thomas to lead his brethren on a mission to the Zion Baptist Chapel in Merthyr Tydfil. He tells them to go to their “old deceitful, ungodly, and hypocritical brethren. . . at the time of the largest public meeting” to “leave them without excuse at the coming judgment” by working “a miracle on the old sinner who is there under the name of minister” by giving him “a new knee, as the apostle did for the lame man at the gate of the temple.” Also, John Thomas is commanded to “let brother Abel [Evans] walk to Bethesda [Chapel], where he was once under the name of member, and . . . give an arm to that accursed minister.” The writer adds that by performing these miracles “our religion will be established forever in Merthyr, and the gates of hell will never be able to move them.” The writer also adds, “We must truly show our miracles, for otherwise we will be shameful to the world.” In the postscript to the letter, the author writes, “Since we are not sure how to direct this so you will be sure to receive it, we are sending it in care of the evil and accursed man, James Wilkins, since we know that he lives near you.”

In a separate letter printed immediately following the foregoing letter, the Reverend James Wilkins of the Zion Baptist Chapel of Merthyr Tydfil writes, “I received the foregoing epistle through the post on the 25th of May without any stamp on it, neither had there ever been one. It was addressed to my care to give it to John Thomas.” Not knowing to which of the men by the name of John Thomas in his neighborhood he should deliver the letter, he looked at it and saw the words “Apostle” and “Saints” and “miracles.” He then knew to which John Thomas he should go with the letter. He then went to John Thomas’s house and found him in bed with a very repentant attitude “for ever having been so foolish as to have been ensnared and bewildered” by the Latter-day Saints. Wilkins then offers the letter to the editor of Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist) to be printed.

At the time the Reverend James Wilkins sent his letter of explanation along with the “Epistle,” which was very likely of his own composition, he had an eleven-year-old son named Henry. Six years later, Wilkins would disown Henry for converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Apparently, the Reverend gave his permission for his son to emigrate with a group of the Saints, for Henry’s name is on the passenger list of the Joseph Badger which left Liverpool on 17 October 1850 and arrived in New Orleans on 23 November 1850. From St. Louis, Henry wrote a letter to his father in which Henry expressed regret for ever having left home. He claimed that he was treated poorly by those he at one time trusted. His father sent Henry’s letter to be printed in the April 1851 issue of Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist)[7] as evidence that those of his son’s new faith were not the saintly Christians they pretended to be. John S. Davis, the editor of Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), responded to Henry Wilkins’s report of being deceived by members of his new faith.[8] In the very next issue of Udgorn Seion,[9] Davis printed Henry’s letter of apology to William Phillips, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales. The repentant lad said he had written the letter to his father in a moment of anger and because he “gave heed to all the old tales that [he] was hearing in this place.” He also said he had plans to continue on to the Salt Lake Valley so that he could “gain a greater knowledge of the law, and receive [his] endowment.” Phillips expressed hope that this recent letter from the Reverend Wilkins’s son would be printed in The Baptist, “so that the country [could] have further information concerning the ‘Mormon Disappointment,’” the title given to Henry’s first letter.

Episode 2.2

Start: Response of the press in Wales to the martyrdom

1844: August, Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd (The American Messenger), p. 249 (500 words). “Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Has Been Killed.”

A one-sided article describing the events that led to the martyrdom:

This corrupt man, who deceived many by his evil tricks and lies, has now met with his death by murder.

1844: 3 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (15 words).

Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, has been shot dead, in an attempt to escape from custody.

1844: 17 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 1 (485 words). “Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet.”

After giving some background information about Joseph Smith and the history of the Church he founded, the writer expresses his admiration: “The Mormons, greatly to their credit, submit to the loss of their leaders in silence. Not the slightest disturbance has occurred.”

1844: September 1844, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 293–94 (220 words). “The Mormons, or the Latter-day Saints.”

The writer explains what he believes caused the death of Joseph Smith:

Because one of the saints tried to rush the jail, which angered the guards who were restraining him, he fired a rifle at one of them and injured him; then a general commotion around the jail followed. At that time, Joe and his friends began to shoot, (they had secretly obtained some handguns), and they tried to escape through the window of the jail, when all the guards turned their rifles on them, and it is said that Joe received a hundred bullets in his body, and his brother several, until the two of them were corpses on the floor.

1844: September, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 287 (90 words).

We are informed from this country that Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, and Hyrum his brother, have been murdered by the inhabitants of Illinois, who were very angry at them because of the corrupt works they were carrying on in Nauvoo, the place where they had settled. Another brother of the deceivers has been appointed as prophet in his place, and is to be the leader of the Mormon sect. We intend to give a full history of this deceiver and his sect, in a future issue.

1844: 7 September, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 2 (385 words). “Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet.”

After presenting a brief history of the background of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the writer quotes from the New York Express:

The Mormons, greatly to their credit, submit to the loss of their leaders in silence. Not the slightest disturbance has occurred. The prophet and his brother were buried, yesterday, without parade, and in secrecy.

1844: 28 September, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 4 (40 words).

Emma, Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet’s wife, has had the box in which the dead body of Joe was carried from Carthage to Nauvoo, sawed into suitable strips for walking canes, and has sold them to the faithful as mementos of the prophet.

1844: 12 October, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 4 (30 words).

Notwithstanding the death of the Mormon leader, Joe Smith, a number of dupes of this strange delusion left Lancashire for Nauvoo, the headquarters of the sect, last month.

End: Response of the press in Wales to the martyrdom

1844: 21 September, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (160 words). “Mormonism.”

A few Latter-day Saints fell into a “dark and dirty pit” as they were walking at night from Rhymney to Dowlais. One man dislocated his arm, and their “holy prophet,” presumably William Henshaw, broke his leg.

1844: November, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), p. 339–40 (815 words). “Fraud of the Book of Mormon.”

The writer expresses concern at the spread of this new religion in Britain and gives some background on Joseph Smith and the gold plates he obtained.

1844: November, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 327–31 (3,960 words). “History of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.”

The text is largely borrowed from Eber D. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed [sic] and other such sources.

1844: December, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 381 (175 words). “Diverse Opinions about Millenarianism.”

Various opinions as to when the Millennium will begin. “Some prophets from America frighten ordinary folk by asserting that the millennium and Christ’s personal reign are to begin before the end of this year; and they prove their imaginings from Joe Smith’s Mormon book.”

1845: January, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 24 (80 words). “The Mormons.”

The author addresses the question of who will be the successor to Joseph Smith.

1845: 6 April, Millennial Star, p. 167 (29 words).

Merthyr Tydville Conference—Represented by elder William Henshaw, including 12 branches, containing 316 members, 7 elders, 10 priests, 7 teachers, 4 deacons; baptized since last general conference, 195.

It is astonishing that a Cornishman who spoke no Welsh and had no use of a press or printed materials in Welsh could in just over two years have over three hundred converts.

1845: November, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 351 (35 words).

Frightful persecution is being carried out against the Mormons; and it is likely that that people will be driven out of the country, and the building of their New Jerusalem will come to an end.

1845: November, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 356 (120 words).

A cobbler asked a Latter-day Saint, who had prophesied the world would end in a week, why he was ordering a new pair of shoes.

1845: 1 November, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (55 words).

The Mormon troubles had subsided, but not until an effectual demonstration had been made by the local authorities, who were prepared to put them down by force, by the strong arm of the law. Lynch law, according to the papers, had been put into requisition in the case of some Mormons near St. Louisville.

1845: 18 November, North Wales Chronicle, p. 3 (15 words).

The Mormon difficulties have been arranged, the sect having agreed to emigrate next spring.

1845: 13 December, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 4 (330 words).

A report of the troubles of the Church in Nauvoo, especially determining Joseph Smith’s successor.

1845: 20 December, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (105 words).

A Latter-day Saint in Girvan, Scotland, received the gift of tongues, “alarming the whole neighborhood with the most unearthly screams and jabbering—a most decidedly unknown tongue. This she has continued to mutter, only for her own private benefit, ever since. We could recommend a lunatic asylum for such prophetesses.”

1845: 26 December, The Welshman, p. 4 (25 words).

The Mormons have resolved to remove to the Bay of San Francisco, in California, in the spring, and have already commenced selling their property at Nauvoo.

Notes

[1] Millennial Star, Vol. 5:170. [need day month year]

[2] Millennial Star 1 July 1845, p. 128.

[3] Monmouthshire Beacon, 28 August 1841, 3.

[4] National Library of Wales, Cwrtmawr Collection, 71E (2).

[5] A full-length biography—Indefatigable Veteran: History and Biography of Abel Evans, a Welsh Mormon Elder—is available on the website Welsh Mormon History at http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Resources/pdf/21184.pdf.

[6] Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[7] The Baptist, April 1851, 127–28.

[8] Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), 17 May 1851, 149–51.

[9] Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), 17 May 1851, 149–51.