Episodes

6.1—John S. Davis responds to “The Stranger” about the “Miracle of the Cudgel”

6.2—The first group of Welsh LDS emigrants causes a stir in the press

6.3—Five brief articles are written about the Reverend Rhys Morgan

6.4—John S. Davis responds to the Reverend D. Davis, an old friend of the family

6.5—The Reverend Thomas Price challenges John Pugh—John S. Davis intervenes

6.6—The Reverend O. Williams is questioned about the death of a “Mormon”

6.7—The story of Sarah Holder, Bayliss, and their baby is discussed in the press

6.8—Welsh Latter-day Saints arrive in Minersville, Pennsylvania

6.9—John Lloyd sets the record straight

Salient Events

• January 1849—When President Orson Pratt did not come from Liverpool for the year-end conference in Merthyr Tydfil, Dan Jones had no choice but to release himself and set apart his replacement, William Phillips. Because the long room in the White Lion Inn could not accommodate all who were in attendance, the long room in the nearby Railway Inn was used for the overflow. In his account of the conference, Dan Jones wrote that he spoke with his “whole strength for seven hours and a half, with but little cessation.” The reason he spoke for such a long period is because he went back and forth between the two assembly rooms, speaking at each one. The most salient feature of the simultaneous meetings was the conversation Jones had with the evil spirits that had possessed three of the females present.
• January 1849—John S. Davis assumes the editorship of Zion’s Trumpet. Whereas Dan Jones’s primary focus with Prophet of the Jubilee had been a vigorous defense of the Church from the attacks launched by Reverend W. R. Davies and others, John S. Davis included far fewer of such heated defenses and much more variety, with humor, poetry and the occasional reminder of proper etiquette for Church members. He also included a four-page printed wrapper for each issue of the 1849 and 1850 volumes.
• 28 January 1849—A small chapel built by the members in the Llanelli Branch is dedicated by Dan Jones. In a letter to Orson Pratt the following day, Jones wrote: “During each meeting, it was crowded to overflowing, notwithstanding public notices had been published in every other chapel here, prohibiting any of their members attending, upon the penalty of being ‘turned out of their synagogues.’” Before its demolition a few years ago, this chapel was the oldest standing building in the Church built by Latter-day Saints except for the Kirtland Temple.
• February 1849—Sixteen-year-old David John from Little Newcastle, Pembrokeshire, is baptized by Elder Daniel Williams. When he told his parents, both ardent Baptists, his father forbade him to attend Latter-day Saint meetings. When he sought advice from Elder Phillip Sykes, David was counseled to do as his father had told him until he came of age. A year later David’s father granted him permission to leave home on the condition that he stay away from the Latter-day Saints until he turned twenty-one. But by the time he reached that age, he had found his way into the Baptist College at Haverfordwest and was studying for the ministry. He even preached at the Beulah Chapel near his home, where his father shed tears of joy upon hearing his son’s sermons. Then on 28 January 1856, the night before his twenty-third birthday, David had a vision-filled dream in which an angel had an extensive conversation with him, explaining the reasons why he needed to realign himself with the Latter-day Saints. His doing so resulted in enormous resentment from his parents and his brother. He was disowned and disinherited, and when his father died seven weeks later, the neighbors placed the blame on David. At his father’s funeral, David was called a murderer by former friends and neighbors. But David John continued faithful to his new religion until his own death in Provo, Utah, in 1908. His five-volume journal, the best ever to be written by a Welsh convert, is posted on the Brigham Young University Library’s website.
• 26 February 1849—From Waterloo Dock in Liverpool, the first group of Welsh Latter-day Saint emigrants set sail on the Buena Vista. See Episode 6.2.
• 5 March 1849—The Hartley leaves Waterloo Dock in Liverpool with eighty-three passengers who, for lack of space, had not been able to depart a week earlier on the Buena Vista.
• 17 March 1849—Elias Morris is baptized by John Parry Jr. in the sea near Abergele, North Wales. Three years later, Morris was put in charge of the machinery for the Deseret Sugar Manufactory on board The Rockaway. On 20 February 1855 in Cedar City, Utah, he and his young wife were at the bedside of Morris’s younger brother, John, who lay dying. John’s final request was that Morris marry his soon-to-be widow, Mary Lois Walker Morris, who was also in the room. She indicated her willingness to do according to her husband’s dying wish, but it was more than a year later that she was emotionally able to honor the strange request. One of the eight children born to Elias and Mary Lois Morris was George Q. Morris, who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1954 to 1962.
• 17 May 1849—The surviving Buena Vista passengers arrive at Council Bluffs.
• 8 June 1849—The surviving Hartley passengers arrive at Council Bluffs. The number of those who died of cholera between New Orleans and Council Bluffs was at least sixty-seven—20 percent of all the Welsh passengers on the Buena Vista and the Hartley. This percentage is higher than that of the Martin and Willie handcart companies who, seven years later, would perish on the plains. On board the Hartley were William and Eleanor Owens and their seven children. Only twenty-four-year-old Cadwallader, twenty-year-old Margaret, and thirteen-year-old Owen would survive the cholera epidemic and reach Council Bluffs.
• July 1849—William Morgan is appointed by Dan Jones as president of the Welsh branch in Council Bluffs. Morgan’s branch was composed of 113 members who had left Liverpool on either the Buena Vista or the Hartley four months earlier. Soon after this tragedy, Dan Jones, along with eighty-one other Welsh pioneers, joined the George A. Smith Company to cross the plains to Salt Lake City.
• 1 September 1849—Reverend W. R. Davies dies of cholera in Merthyr Tydfil. Here is the notice that John S. Davis posted in the September 1849 Zion’s Trumpet: “Yes, it is true that the well-known Rev. W. R. Davies, from Dowlais, has died of cholera. He died having returned home, when it was thought that the illness had left the place.” Davis certainly maintained decorum in avoiding any further comment on the passing of the Saints’ most vociferous enemy in Wales.
• 26 October 1849—The George A. Smith Company, with its eighty-two Welsh pioneers, arrives in Salt Lake City. Of the Welsh who had left Liverpool on board the Buena Vista or the Hartley eight months earlier, only one-fourth of them continued on to Salt Lake City that same year. The others had either succumbed to cholera or had remained in St. Louis or Council Bluffs. With their melodious singing each night, the Welsh created a great sensation with their non-Welsh fellow travelers. And when Brigham Young greeted them in Salt Lake City, he asked Father John Parry to form a choir for the next Church conference in the bowery, a choir that evolved into the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
• 24 November 1849—Dan Jones leaves on the Southern Expedition. Jones was following the counsel given him by Brigham Young to travel with Parley P. Pratt in order to seek out the Welsh Indians, a group that, according to legend, had come to America centuries earlier under the leadership of a Prince Madoc. One of Jones’s most earnest desires was to convert these Welsh-speaking Indians to the restored gospel and take some of them back to Wales to preach to their compatriots. Not only was he unsuccessful in his search, but he also suffered great deprivations during the two months of travel. And it required a blessing from Parley P. Pratt to rid him of the snow blindness that afflicted him toward the end of the journey.

Commentary

1849: Cyfeiliornadau a Dichellion Saint y Dyddiau Diweddaf a Llyfr Mormon, yn cael eu dynoethi, gan y Parch W. J. Morrish (Heresies and Deceptions of the Latter-day Saints and the Book of Mormon, Exposed by the Rev. W. J. Morrish), pamphlet, 24 pages.

The title of this twenty-four-page pamphlet was modified from the two “letters” which Reverend W. J. Morrish had published in English several years earlier in Ledbury. (The first letter was entitled “The Latter-day Saints and the Book of Mormon. A Few Words of Warning from a Minister to his Flock,” and the second letter was entitled “The Latter-day Saints and the Book of Mormon. A Second Warning from a Minister to his Flock.”) The contents, however, are unaltered in the pamphlet’s Welsh translation. In the first letter, Morrish focuses mainly on the Book of Mormon and the theory that it was written by Solomon Spaulding, declaring that Joseph Smith simply forged Spaulding’s manuscript into the content for a book whose origin Smith claimed to be some plates of gold given him by an angel. In the second letter, Morrish writes the following:

Now I say you do not know the doctrines these people really teach, because they are too cunning to let you know the whole depth of the wickedness at once, lest you should be afraid to join them.

He then provides numerous quotes from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and explains what he judges to be the heresy in the doctrine contained in them. He assures his readers that no new revelation is needed for them to be saved.

1849: 13 January, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 1 (675 words). “The Land of Gold.”

An article about the gold rush in California. “But the worst feature at present is, that the Mormons—several thousand strong, and about 1,000 fighting men—claim the whole region!”

Episode 6.1

Start: John S. Davis responds to “The Stranger” about the “Miracle of the Cudgel”

1849: January, Yr Haul (Sun), pp. 33–34 (1,135 words). “Miracle of the Cudgel.”

The author, who calls himself “The Stranger,” recounts the supposed happening of the lodger in Newport who pretended to be dead, an account slightly longer than that of the “Hater of Deceit” in the January 1849 Star of Gomer. He also gives evidence of having heard of the evil spirits that during the recent conference in Merthyr Tydfil had caused considerable confusion by possessing three women. John S. Davis related the incident in his report of the conference in his first issue of Zion’s Trumpet, but the account given by “The Stranger” differs noticeably:

One of their Apostles found out last Sunday that devils had entered seventeen of the Saints, and that they had fallen from grace; and that it will be a difficult job to get so many villains out of the men. It is also appropriate to note that the devils dragged the pure men to Bacchus and Venus; and there is great trouble in China, Merthyr [“China” at that time was a rough neighborhood in Merthyr Tydfil], because of it.

“The Stranger” praises “Davies from Dowlais” (the Baptist minister W. R. Davies) and “Iorwerth” from Rhymney (the Baptist minister Edward Roberts) for their efforts to “stand up for truth against the Mormon Bible.” He also commends the Reverend William Rowlands for his recent sermon at the Merthyr Tydfil parish church, in which Rowlands defended “the Scriptures against the Mormons Bible.” With his final paragraph, “The Stranger” describes how Rowlands disposed of the Mormon Bible:

Before the end of the sermon, a small book was seen being held up in the Minister’s hand; and after making it known that it was the Mormon Bible, which came up from the earth in America, he compared it with the beast John saw rising from the earth, since it spoke like a dragon, although it looked like a lamb. After the Minister had further proved that the Booklet could not be of divine authority, he said above it, “From the earth thou camest, and in the earth thou shalt be placed.” And down it went.

1849: April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 77–79 (870 words). “Miracle of the Cudgel—True or False?”

John S. Davis wrote a response to the article in The Sun, but The Sun’s editor refused to publish it. Consequently, Davis decided to provide space for it in the April issue of his own periodical. He begins the article by paying a compliment to the editor of The Sun for refusing to publish some of the stories against the Latter-day Saints that were “so unreasonable and contradictory.” With respect to the story which the editor did agree to publish, about the “three Apostles [who] were going to a nearby town,” Davis provides his own account:

They went to the door of a house in the town and asked for lodgings for one of the three; they obtained what they wanted; the stranger went to the bed betimes and slept through the night. The woman of the house, seeing him not getting up from his bed as late as ten o’clock in the morning, went to call the stranger to get up; but alas! the Saint was dead. The woman shook the lodger; but there was no life, not a breath in the Saint.

At this point, the other two “Apostles” knocked on the door and were informed that their friend was dead. They said they could perform a miracle and raise him from the dead. The man of the house had his wife bring him a cudgel.

He took hold of it, and started beating the dead man, shouting, “I’ll give him resurrection—the cudgel’s the thing.” Up shot the dead man from the grave of the bed, onto his feet, and was soon standing dressed, not in a shroud, but in his clothes and his right mind.

Davis points out that for miracles in the Bible the persons involved are named, and details associated with the miracles are given. He mockingly observes:

It is important for us to have greater knowledge of an even greater miracle which has happened as close to us as Newport. Is it not possible to obtain the names of the apostles, and the man of the house who so virtuously used the cudgel? And as for the woman, we ought to have her name with the testimony, so that we can be certain of the miracle. We should be informed as to the house, and how “recently” the miracle took place.

Davis also informs the editor of The Sun of a source that “gives an account of the beginning of the story in question, which was invented by seamen trying their skill in telling the best lie.” He adds that the story had come from America to England and that it had been in Wales for three years, “continually being improved, and becoming truer and newer every day.”

End: John S. Davis responds to “The Stranger” about the “Miracle of the Cudgel”

1849: 19 January, The Cambrian (90 words).

An account of the supposed thievery of a Latter-day Saint who asked permission to preach at the home of a laborer in the town of Neath. According to the article, the man in question received not only the opportunity of preaching but also food and lodging. However, the next morning he arose early and took “from the poor man’s larder sufficient food for several days.”

1849: 3 February, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 1 (350 words). “The California Gold Mines.”

This medium-sized article includes the following: “A party of Mormons had collected large quantities of gold in the neighborhood of the Salt Lake; while on the journey one of them lost a mule with 1,280 dollars’ worth of gold on its back. The animal being frightened ran off in the midst of a vast plain, and was irretrievably lost.”

1849: February, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 68 (255 words).

An account of two Latter-day Saint missionaries who selected a place near Cardiff to preach in the open air. The writer describes the missionaries as being of “the same lineage as the one of old who ‘went to and fro in the earth and walked up and down on it,’” a reference to Satan. The missionaries left in haste when an “old soldier” threatened them. Some children who witnessed the scene said among themselves, “What manner of man is this, that even the Latter-day Saints flee from him?”

1849: 3 February, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 2 (175 words). “The Mormons in Wales.”

A brief report of the Latter-day Saint conference held in Merthyr Tydfil on 31 December 1848 and on the following day and of a variety of statistics. It ends with this quote from the Swansea Herald:

The thousands of Mormons in Wales appear to have great affection for, and confidence in, Captain Dan Jones, who intends returning in February to the valley of the Salt Lake in California. About 360 saints intend emigrating with him.

1849: 17 February, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (55 words).

The fanatic Mormons, about 1,200 in number, first discovered the precious metal during their march, and are said to have extracted an immense quantity before it became known. Governor Mason, in his report of August last, says, from all he has learned he believes 13,000,000 dolls. worth had been extracted to that date.

1849: February, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 62, Item #1 (135 words). “The Mormons of Neath.”

A more elaborate version of the account of supposed thievery printed in the Cambrian for 19 January 1849.

1849: February, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 62, Item #2 (440 words). “The Mormons of Pontypridd.”

The account of “Dai the Blockhead,” a collier who suffered a mine accident and received a blessing of healing from his fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Little Morris,” the writer, portrays the event thus:

One of his fellow workers took him on his back to his home. Of course, a number of the brothers gathered around him soon, prohibiting the sending of any doctor to him. They rubbed Dai’s back well for a little while, while the rest of the brothers prayed; then they asked him whether his back was feeling better. He answered, “Yes, very much; but please, be gentle, brothers.” Having gone through the process, Dai said he could go to work the following day; but he did not go till the second day, having recovered completely!! I leave the above account to the attention and judgment of your numerous readers.

Despite the positive outcome for the injured collier, the writer continues:

But I can say without hesitation, that I have not seen, as far as I can say, without hesitation, that I have not seen, as far as impudence and shamefulness go, anyone equal to the Mormons of Pontypridd.

The writer then proceeds to tell a few other, in his opinion, nonsensical stories of converts to this strange religion. He ends with four lines of poetry in which he expresses the hope that all these “Servants of hell” leave Wales and go to California (which at this point in Wales referred to all of the western United States).

1849: 2 February, The Cambrian (135 words). “A Miracle in Prospect.”

This article has to do with “a preacher of the Latter-day Saints” in Newcastle who negotiated with a “certain party” to miraculously make his crooked legs straight in exchange for accommodation.

A large crowd collected to hear the preacher on Sunday who harangued his audience at considerable length. In the meantime, the kindly occupant is in daily expectation of getting up some fine morning with a pair of straight legs. We wish he may get ’em.

1849: 8 February, Yr Amserau (The Times) (460 words). “Defense of the Mormons.”

The writer of this defense, dated 2 February 1849, was Thomas Jeremy, a well-to-do farmer who had been baptized by Dan Jones almost three years earlier. His home in Llanybydder, named “Glantrenfawr,” was used as a meeting place until he emigrated, just a few weeks after sending this defense to the editor of The Times. Jeremy wrote the defense in response to some erroneous statements made by an anonymous writer in the 11 January 1849 issue of The Times (which is unfortunately not extant). After presenting his angry defense, Jeremy then bears his testimony:

I know that I have the true religion, which is disposed toward making everyone happy; therefore, let our false accuser repent, and call back his lying tales which he has told about us, so that he also may take hold of the one true religion.

1849: 9 February, The Cambrian (630 words). “Mormon Dishonesty.”

This article contains a letter from a reader in Tipton, Staffordshire, in which he condemns the preacher who was portrayed in the 19 January issue of The Cambrian as stealing food from the poor man who had extended him hospitality. The writer then repeats stories from “Mr. Caswall” about numerous robberies from a “respectable gentleman residing at Montrose,” allegedly committed by the Latter-day Saints during a three-year period, and then includes the following comment about Joseph Smith:

The prophet Joe Smith, alluding to these robberies in a sermon said that he “did not care how much was taken” from the gentleman in question, and added the following words: “The world owes me a good living; if I cannot get it otherwise, I will steal it and catch me at it if you can.”

1849: 16 February, The Cambrian, Item #1 (345 words). “To the Editor of the Cambrian.”

In this, the first of four articles in the 16 February 1849 issue of The Cambrian, a reader—“H. J.” of Maesteg—responds to the article entitled “Mormon Dishonesty” printed in the previous issue. He declares that “R. L.,” the writer of that article, “seemed to be in a spirit of inaccurate obscurity, inverting false conclusions from mere mock statements, without a shadow of truth pertaining to them.” “H. J.” also states that he had made “diligent enquiries at Neath” concerning the Latter-day Saint preacher who purportedly stole food from a poor man and declares: “I could not even be informed that a Latter-day Saint had preached in any house there on the Sunday in question.” “H. J.” further denounces “R. L.” for concluding that the actions of one individual “reflected on the common honesty” of all the nearly seven-hundred thousand Latter-day Saints in the world (a gross overestimation on the author’s part). Furthermore, since the accusation is not true,

the conclusion he invents is still more notorious and proves that the various base accusations of “stealth” which he endeavors to establish against these people, have emanated from similar falsifiable sources.

The foregoing is a rare example of someone in Wales other than Dan Jones and John S. Davis coming to the defense of the Latter-day Saints in the press.

1849: 16 February, The Cambrian, Item #2 (95 words). “Mormonism at Woolwich.”

The second of the four articles and consists of only a few lines giving the alarming report of a “considerable number of disciples” of the Latter-day Saints being “immersed in the Thames.” The writer reports that a “Dr. Carlisle” had recently delivered two lectures “containing an exposition and argumentative refutation of Mormons” and that “many waverers” had “returned to the “good old way.”

Episode 6.2

Start: The first group of Welsh LDS emigrants causes a stir in the press

1849: 20 January, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 3 (125 words). “Merthyr and Neighborhood. California.”

The gold seeking mania has at last invaded the mountains of Wales; and the general desire to get suddenly rich has been well applied in the service of religious fanaticism. In consequence large numbers of the operatives of this district are preparing to visit California for the double purpose of obtaining gold in abundance, and of settling in the Canaan of the Mormon prophet.

This piece most likely has reference to the group of Latter-day Saints who were preparing to gather in Swansea to take the steamer Troubador to Liverpool to begin their voyage to the United States.

1849: 27 January, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 4 (125 words). “Emigration to California.”

Other than minor differences in punctuation, the opening of this article is identical to the text that appears in the 20 January Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian.

1849: 16 February, The Cambrian, Item #3 (140 words). “The Saints and their New Jerusalem.”

This is a brief report of the departure of “these misguided men” who had “commenced their expedition to California,” having left Merthyr Tydfil on Monday, 12 February 1849. The writer says that the men’s intention is not to “proceed to the gold district,” but that they will “march in detachments”:

One detachment will proceed to a depot where everything has been provided for them. They will there sow wheat, set potatoes, and put everything in process for yielding a plentiful harvest to the next detachment; who will reap the labors of the others, and confer the same themselves on those succeeding them.

1849: 16 February, The Cambrian, Item #4 (540 words). “Emigration to California.”

This piece contains a detailed description of the arrival of a large number of Welsh people in Swansea on 13 February 1849, nearly all of them Latter-day Saints. Their intent was to take the Troubadour steamer to Liverpool, “where a ship is in readiness to transport them next week to the glittering regions of California.” Mention is made of the arrival of Dan Jones:

He entered the town amidst the gaze of hundreds of spectators, and in the evening he delivered his valedictory address at the Trades Hall to a numerous audience, the majority of whom were led by curiosity to hear his doctrines which are quite novel in this town.

A description is given of the composition of the large group:

Amongst the number who came here were several aged men varying from 70 to 90 years of age and whose “hoary locks” not only proclaimed their “lengthened years” but render it very improbable they will live to see America; yet so deluded are the poor and simple saints that they believe that everyone amongst them, however infirm and old they may be, will as surely land in California safely as they started from Wales. Their faith is most extraordinary.

Contrary to this dire prediction, all of the men did indeed live to “see America.” Two women, however, were buried at sea during the voyage. And cholera, mostly along the Missouri River, would eventually claim as its victims one in five of the group.

1849: February, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), pp. 53–54 (275 words).

This piece continues the discussion of California and the gold rush. The writer comments on the reaction of the “Mormons” to the fever for gold:

It is said that the Mormons have gotten hold of an abundance of gold near the Salt Lake. All the Mormons are leaving California to search for gold on the shores of the Salt Lake. It is said that by the 1st of March in New York, they will have received about three million dollars, and from then on they will receive one million each month. Such an abundance of gold is certain to lower the worth of gold throughout the world. What effect will this have on the financial situation of England?

1849: 16 February, The Principality, p. 5, Item #1 (150 words). “Swansea. Mormonites. Emigration to California.”

This is a brief report of the large number of Latter-day Saints who arrived in Swansea to take the Troubador steamer for Liverpool.

They do not go in quest of gold, but for the purpose of cultivating the land. This extraordinary expedition formed the general topic of discussion and conversation amongst all classes during the whole day. Capt. Jones is among them. He delivered a kind of valedictory discourse to his disciples at the Trades Hall in the evening.

1849: 16 February, The Principality, p. 5, Item #2 (60 words). “Merthyr. Mormonites.”

Many scores if not hundreds of this sect left this town and neighborhood the beginning of this week for the far-famed region of California. Some widows who have buried their husbands here have taken their clothes with them, expecting to meet them in that distant country! Do we really live in the 19th century?

1849: March, Y Drysorfa (The Treasury), p. 96 (60 words).

Same as the Principality for 16 February 1849.

1849: March, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 97 (120 words). “New Heaven.”

The writer comments about the widows taking the clothes of their deceased husbands as reported in the 16 February Principality (see preceding entry). He expresses sarcastically, “I hope they have a fair wind to go sufficiently far from here.”

1849: March, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 94 (375 words). “Departure of the Mormons.”

Also about the large group of Latter-day Saints that gathered in Swansea to take a steamer to Liverpool where they would set sail for America. The writer comments:

Even though the fools promise themselves heavenly bliss in California, yet we think, in all conscience, that it would be nearly as well for them to go straight to hell.

The writer expresses his mixed feelings:

Some spirit impels us to say, “Thank goodness, to be rid of so many fools from Wales.” But at the same time, we feel sad because so many of our compatriots are being enticed to destruction by these cheats.

The writer also mentions that “one woman from Carmarthen was paying the transport costs of forty” of the group. This has reference to Elizabeth Lewis, who used her share of the sale of the “White Lion” in Kidwelly to help a large number of the emigrants to make the journey.

1849: March, Yr Haul (The Sun), p. 103 (50 words). “California.”

A brief comment about all the people who are going to California:

Men by the thousands are going toward California to search for gold; and good gracious, it is said that scores, if not hundreds, of people of our country have been charmed by the Mormons to sell their possessions and have already started off toward that land!

1849: April, Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (The Wesleyan Treasury), p. 127, Item #1 (85 words).

It is said that a newspaper is being published in this distant land, on yellow paper, a sign of the gold that can be obtained there.

1849: April, Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (The Wesleyan Treasury), p. 127, Item #2 (85 words). “California Again.”

The “Latter-day Saints” are gathering by the hundreds to California, “the land of gold,” from several parts of our country. If the day of judgment is as close as one of their preachers in Swansea said before departing, it is hardly worthwhile for him [the aforementioned preacher] and his brethren to go so far.

1849: April, Yr Haul (The Sun), p. 135 (60 words).

The writer refers to California as “the land of gold, and the paradise of the Mormons.” According to him, murders and pillaging are rampant there, and no inquiry is made into them.

1849: April, Y Cyfaill yr Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), pp. 123–24 (605 words). “Mormons in Wales.”

In the first paragraph of this article, the writer cites the statistics given by Dan Jones at the Merthyr Tydfil conference of 31 December 1848 and 1 January 1849. These statistics appear to be taken from Jones’s 6 January 1849 letter to Orson Pratt that was printed in The Millennial Star. The writer observes:

California fever has heated them up and has captivated them, and it is likely that thousands of them are on their way there by now.

The writer then quotes a sizeable portion of the 16 February 1849 article from the Cambrian about the departure of the Latter-day Saints from Swansea on the Troubadour. He also quotes from the Swansea Herald: “Three hundred great ships could scarcely transport the hosts of ‘saints’ who are now desirous of emigrating from the isle of Britain.” And, finally, he quotes the brief article from the Principality for 16 February 1849 about the widows taking their deceased husbands’ clothes and “expecting to meet them in that distant land.” He then observes:

These facts do much more to prove the darkness and gullibility of the Welsh nation than all the reports of the Blue Books of the Commissioners of the Government.

The “Blue Books” were the published findings of three English commissioners who were sent to Wales to create a government report about the state of education in the Principality. The published results in 1847 of their conclusions included comments such as the following:

The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects. It is the language of the Cymri, and anterior to that of the ancient Britons. It dissevers the people from intercourse which would greatly advance their civilization, and bars the access of improving knowledge to their minds. As a proof of this, there is no Welsh literature worthy of the name.

They were also highly critical of what they saw as the poor moral and religious attitude of Welsh people, especially the women:

They learn anything but delicacy of thought and feeling and when they grow to womanhood and marry, they know next to nothing of the management of a house. As wives they are most slovenly and improvident, and as mothers, ignorant, and injudicious.

Not one of the English commissioners could speak or understand the Welsh language, and consequently, they were able to communicate with only a very small percentage of the population of the Principality of Wales. Their report caused an immediate and lasting anger toward the English for disparaging the Welsh. So to accuse The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its followers of being the greater cause of “darkness and gullibility” among the Welsh than the recently published “Blue Books” was a very serious statement indeed.

1849: April, Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd (The American Messenger), p. 120 (95 words).

About the proposed “New Temple of the Mormons” to be built “near Salt Lake, in California.” The report that the temple would be “600 feet high” and that it would be seen “from over 80 miles away” gives new dimensions to the frequent exaggerations made concerning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the nineteenth century. At its dedication in 1893, the highest spire of the Salt Lake Temple was only 210 feet high.

1849: June, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregational Treasury), p. 181 (180 words). “Farewell to the Saints.”

In this six-stanza poem, the composer is essentially saying “good riddance” to the Saints. He maintains that their real motivation for leaving Wales was to get rich in the gold fields. The Reverend W. R. Davies composed the poem under the name “T. ab Ieuan,” one of several noms de plume. Here is the final stanza:

Farewell to your dreadful deceit,

Your people have gone over the sea,

According to your wish; your desire is great,

To collect poor earthly wealth.

1848: December, Prophwyd y Jubili (Prophet of the Jubilee), p. 186 (230 words). “The Saints’ Farewell.”

A poem of three twelve-line stanzas composed by John S. Davis. It is obviously intended for the emigrating Saints to sing to the well-wishers on the dock as the departing ship is towed out to sea. Ironically, it would be another five years before the composer himself would be able to sing it on board a departing ship. Here is the final stanza:

Let us also bid farewell

To the Saints for a short while,

Until we see them all at home:

Our farewell is long

To them that deny the truth,

For they are not of the family of Heaven.

Let us go singing across the sea,

Without one fear in our hearts;

God by his kindness shall watch the vessel

As it rides the wave;

And may the Saints throughout this island,

Be also in His care.

1848: December, Prophwyd y Jubili (Prophet of the Jubilee), p. 190–91 (225 words). “Who Will Go?”

A poem of six eight-line stanzas by “Noah.” The composer, Noah Roberts Jones, extends a challenge intermixed with an invitation for “all supporters of dear Jesus” to accept the gospel message. He and his wife, Esther, had buried three of their four children in Wales before leaving on the Buena Vista in 1849. Their twelve-year-old daughter, Mary, accompanied them on the voyage to America. While headed for Council Bluffs on the Highland Mary on the Missouri River, Esther fell victim to the cholera that also claimed many other lives among the Welsh immigrants. Noah composed a poem of four nine-line stanzas to express his grief and sent it to his family back in Wales along with two other poems, including “Who Will Go?” John S. Davis published the grief poem under the title “Lament of the Emigrant,” along with the other two. Here is the first stanza:

My dear friends in the environs of Wales,

Kindly hear my lament in verse;

Lamenting still am I in sorrow

Over the loss of my dear Esther,

Whom I loved as my own soul

While she was mind;

But God called for my maiden;

Only He knows why;

She had to depart, though against my will.

1850: Cyfarwyddiadau i’r Ymfudwyr tua Dinas y Llyn Halen (Directions to the Emigrants Bound for Salt Lake City), pamphlet, 12 pages.

Included in this twelve-page pamphlet is a poem of four four-line stanzas entitled “Verses,” composed by “Gwilym Ddu,” the nom de plume of William Lewis, who sailed on the Buena Vista in 1849. Lewis, together with all the Welsh Latter-day Saints, was well aware of the following dire prophecy of Samuel Evans, the editor of Star of Gomer:

Having got enough money to get a ship or ships to voyage to California, their Leader will sail to Cuba and sell them as slaves, every man jack of them. That would serve them right for having so little respect for Christ’s book as to give it up for the Book of Mormon.

In his poem, Lewis responds to the prophecy:

Some of the sectarians insist,—that to sell us

In shame, like animals,

Across the sea, our leaders would do:

Such was the group’s cry.

“The Captain,” they say, “enticed,—in the area

Of Merthyr, a vast number of Wales’s children,

That they might be sold,—

Yes, a shipful from among the host.”

Oh! blind men, poor souls,—if they continue

In their course of an angry disposition,

When the judgment and the plague come upon them,

Their false tales will be as the wind.

Our Moses and mighty chief—is Jones,

Our supreme and heavenly teacher;

Full of the energy of holy wisdom

To lead us into the land of praise.

End: The first group of Welsh LDS emigrants causes a stir in the press

1849: 3 March, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (540 words). “Pontypool. More Mormon Miracles Just Out.”

The writer gives an account of two “Mormon” miracles and then explains how they had been staged to hoodwink the observers. The first miracle was that of a poor woman being offered miraculous money if she “joined their community.” She agreed, and soon afterwards her cat came in “with a bag of money round its neck.” The second miracle occurred when a Latter-day Saint missionary healed a growth on a man’s back, but it allegedly turned out to be staged ahead of time.

1849: March, Yr Eglwysydd (The Churchman), pp. 73–75 (1,040 words). “Mormonism.”

William Morris, the editor of the Churchman, is most likely the writer of this article. He does not present any particular events casting the Church in a bad light in order to substantiate his labelling of it as heresy. He clarifies his basic position:

We do not wish to waste the time of our readers in disproving the false doctrines of this sect. As someone said about Catholicism, so say we about these people, that the best book ever written against them is the Bible. Mormonism cannot stand in the light of the good book. And Mormonism understands this; that is why they insist on having another Bible, and another guide besides the word of God.

Morris expresses dismay that any of his compatriots would be deceived by the “false prophets,” and then discusses several scriptures that warn against the “nonsense” of the Latter-day Saint deceivers.

1849: 2 March, The Cambrian (50 words).

The Mormons or Latter-day Saints are making some progress in Neath, more particularly in the locality of ‘The Green’ where they have several followers; on Sunday week two young women underwent the rite of baptism by immersion in Neath Canal, which was performed by one of the brethren.

1849: 9 March, The Cambrian (115 words).

A brief report of the progress made by the Latter-day Saints, “notwithstanding the extravagant doctrines they expound.” At one of their open-air meetings, which were “numerously attended, but far from being decorously conducted,” the following happened:

A scene of the greatest uproar and confusion occurred in consequence of a Mr. David, the preacher on the occasion, challenging a discussion, Mr. Short, tailor, opposing; the affair was of so ludicrous a character that many of the bystanders assailed the disputants with cries of “Bravo, Short,” “Well done, Short,” “Go it, Davies,” etc, etc.

Episode 6.3

Start: Five brief articles are written about the Reverend Rhys Morgan

1849: 16 March, The Cambrian (320 words). “Aberavon, Mormonism or the Latter-day Saints.”

A lecture by Reverend Rhys Morgan, a Baptist minister, was scheduled in the town hall in Aberavon. But so many people showed up that the meeting had to be held in the Baptist chapel.

He [Morgan], in a very solemn and impressive manner urged upon the audience to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Mormonism, its absurdity and its delusive tendency. The lecturer also expressed as opinion that if his audience did thus, the doctrine of “the new lights” would be treated in its true light.

The writer ends his article with the following comment:

It is rumored that great apostle of the saints has been sent for to reply. I think really they had better pause, for assuredly the best shots are yet in the locker.

1849: 16 March, The Principality, p. 5 (140 words). “Aberavon. Mormonism or the Religion of the Latter-day Saints.”

Another report of the lecture by Reverend Rhys Morgan. The parenthetical note at the end reads:

(Another correspondent, who sent a notice of the meeting, says that the “Great Apostle” has been sent for to reply to Mr. Morgan’s lecture.)

1849: April, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 128 (112 words). “The Mormons.”

A brief report—taken from The Principality—of the 14 March lecture given at the Baptist chapel by the Baptist minister Rhys Morgan “on the rise and increase of these simpletons.” That the meeting was chaired by an Anglican vicar is an indication of the harmony that existed between chapel and church when opposing their common enemy.

1849: April, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 120 (265 words). “Mormonism.”

This is also a report of the Rhys Morgan lecture but with greater details than those of the Cambrian or the Baptist.

It is thought that about 1,500 were present, and in their midst, several Saints and Mormon Doctors. It was proposed and seconded “that the meeting’s thanks be given to the Chairman for his noble manner of presiding,” and also “to the Lecturer, for his skillful and excellent manner of delivering to our ears the history of the latter-day false religious deceivers,” with which the whole audience (except for the Saints) agreed by a show of hands. I think that this Lecture will be a death blow to the Saints in the Aberavon area. May it so be, says A Lover of the Truth, Aberavon.

The following request is made at the end of the article:

We would be grateful to our friend Lleurwg [the nom de plume of the lecturer and Welsh for “Hirwaun,” a town adjacent to Aberdare], if we might publish this Lecture, for the benefit of the Saints in other parts.

1849: 6 April, The Cambrian (330 words).

No pamphlet containing Morgan’s lecture has yet surfaced, but he did make his presentation a second time on March 30 in the town hall of Neath, a town just over seven miles northwest of Aberavon. A report of that lecture is given in this issue of the Cambrian. The writer describes the presentation:

Mr. Morgan in a long eloquent speech delivered in Welsh, which was listened to with the greatest attention, and repeatedly cheered by the assembled hundreds, traced the rise and progress of Mormonism, their first settling in America, their disgusting manners and customs while there, the lives of their principle leaders, the fearful extent to which they carried their pernicious doctrine, until the United States government was compelled to interfere, and exterminate or rather expel them from their stronghold, Nauvoo, which was finally done after a protracted siege and great slaughter, a few years ago.

End: Five brief articles are written about the Reverend Rhys Morgan

Episode 6.4

Start: John S. Davis responds to the Reverend D. Davis, an old friend of the family

1849: April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 71–76 (2,540 words). “The Rev. D. Davis, Panteg, and Mormonism.”

At the writing of this article, John S. Davis was twenty-six years old, still single, and had been a Latter-day Saint for three years. During most of that time, he had worked closely with Dan Jones in preparing and printing the Prophet of the Jubilee, twenty-eight issues of which had come off the press at Rhydybont, near the market town of Llanybydder in Carmarthenshire. Sometime before November 1848, Davis had purchased a press of his own and had set it up in Carmarthen. It was on this press that the final two issues (November and December 1848) of Prophet of the Jubilee were printed, and Davis’s name is given as the printer. As of January 1849, the name of the periodical became Zion’s Trumpet, and the first two issues (January and February 1849) were printed on Davis’s press in Carmarthen. He had just finished printing the February 1849 issue when the Reverend D. Davis, Panteg, called on him at the printing office. That John Davis had known this Independent minister for many years is made evident in a comment in this article, which he addressed to the reverend, about his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

After reading through the scriptures, I believed the new doctrine, and I received my baptism ‘for the remission of sins.’ I had been taught by you and by others, that “I should prove all things, and hold fast that which was good.”

During his visit, the reverend requested a copy of the latest issue of Davis’s periodical. Upon receiving it, the reverend asked, “What if I do not agree with some things that are in it, and choose to make some comments about them, where can I publish them?” Davis told him he would have the Trumpet at his service. About a week later the reverend returned, and Davis asked him what he thought of the new publication. Here is Davis’s account of the reverend’s answer:

He answered that he felt very sorry for us, that we were publishing such foolishness, because everything in it is devoid of reason and scripture, etc., degrading our modest gift as lower than was appropriate for a man of his advantages.

Apparently, the two engaged in some rather heated debate. Davis writes:

The discussions we had between us are too long for us to think of relating here; but we were after him like a greyhound from one place to the other, until he was forced to escape to the wilderness of the devil to seek a sign from us, to prove we were of God. We said to him at that time, that he imitated Mr. Devil extremely well. We are sorry to say that Mr. Davis was more excited than we wished him to be.

Davis “begged him [the reverend] earnestly” to write to the Trumpet and explain his disagreements. The reverend refused. Davis writes:

He continued to say that he would not write, and that we could give him no sign; otherwise, we would have given it to him right then and there. When we saw that he would not write anything, we told him that we would do that for him; and this we do now.

Davis then inserts a long letter, dated 1 March 1848, which he had written to the Reverend D. Davis over a year earlier. Davis explains:

Rev. Sir—I am writing to you, since I do not have the opportunity of speaking to you. I used to have a high opinion of you and tended to think that you had some opinion of me as well. At that time, I was one of the world, not having joined any kind of religion, and it appeared that you had love toward me. You were Christians, and I was one of the subjects of the kingdom of darkness; despite that we were like friends.

Davis tells of his discovery of religion:

After this quiet period, somehow I found a religion, a religion which is ‘spoken against everywhere’; it is called Mormonism by some, and Satanism by others.

He also tells of his desire to share his new religion with others:

I was eager for my neighbors to hear my religion, but I failed to understand how I should preach it to them; but at last, a tenant moved from an old house my father owned, and I took the liberty, without asking anyone, to preach there. Men came to hear me. My father is a member of a certain chapel, and he was greatly condemned by the minister for giving a place for his son to speak his mind!!! Now, such a minister, perhaps, is one of the Independents, and I wish to ask you if you know who he is?

That the minister in question was the Reverend D. Davis, Panteg, is confirmed by a brief letter in English he had sent to John S. Davis a few days later:

Dear Sir—I happened to tell your father, that I was afraid his character would suffer by allowing you and your people to meet at the vacant house by Tannerdy. I did it entirely for his sake. Nothing to me. Whenever you are ready to prove to me that you get extraordinary supplies, or that you have studied a sermon, I shall be most happy to introduce your case to the friends at Penuel. Yours, D. Davis, Panteg.

Davis responded immediately, asking the reverend how he can ever prove that he has “studied a sermon” or that he has gotten “extraordinary supplies” so that he can be allowed to preach at the Penuel chapel.

I do not know how to understand this properly: perhaps some of the words are to be taken figuratively or spiritually. How am I to prove that I get “extraordinary supplies” without your hearing me speak spontaneously? and how can you hear that, before introducing my case to the friends at Penuel? If it is possible, how? Also, how can I prove to you that I have studied a sermon, before doing so? After doing so, it is easy to prove. But, if I do study a sermon, how can I then prove to you the “extraordinary supplies?”

Davis ends this letter to the reverend with a bit of sarcasm:

Now, since I cannot prove the foregoing things, without having the opportunity, I humbly ask you to do your best by me, as a man of influence, to allow me to preach in one of your chapels. I sincerely hope to hear from you soon.

There is no evidence Davis was ever able to preach a sermon at the Penuel chapel.

End: John S. Davis responds to the Reverend D. Davis, an old friend of the family

1849: 13 April, The Cambrian (190 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

In this short article, three of these “deluded but devoted men” visited the neighborhood of Mumbles and Sketty. After describing them as “very illiterate persons,” the writer gives his impression of the discourse given by one of them:

Having heard a portion of the leader’s discourse we perceived that his whole mind was enveloped in fanaticism. He avowed himself with much emphasis to be endowed with the Holy Ghost—that he knew it—and that those who worshipped in churches and chapels did not possess it for if they did they would be endowed with the same miraculous power as they apostles of old possessed; of healing the sick, etc., etc. He averred that the Latter-day Saints did possess that power.

1849: April, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 116 (400 words). “Beware of False Teachers.”

In addition to the report of the Rhys Morgan lecture on p. 120 of this issue of Star of Gomer (see preceding entry in this chapter), the issue includes this poem of sixteen four-line stanzas, entitled “Beware of False Teachers,” by “James” of Glan Camlas. Referring to the servants of the devil who wish to deceive the children of God, the poet writes:

When they fail in their deception

In rash enchantment and sickness,

They welcome the refuse of the world,

And call them all “Saints.”

In his final stanza, the poet looks forward to the day when the “Saints” are eliminated:

Farewell to the false prophets for now,

Farewell to deception for a longer time;

Farewell to the corrupting of the Lamb’s family,

Weeping in eternal pain.

1849: April, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), p. 120 (340 words).

An article about the Reverend J. Jones, Dan Jones’s older brother, and his recent move from Rhydybont to Merthyr Tydfil. The Reverend Jones’s willingness to print his brother’s periodical and his pamphlets was widely opposed, and his press was even labeled the “prostitute press” by one Dafydd Lewis in the Star of Gomer. With such a negative reputation, it is surprising that the writer of the article includes information about the rather large sums of money raised by J. Jones’s neighbors to help with his move. Even the local Anglican vicar donated £2. Included also is a statement of appreciation from the reverend’s deacons.

Episode 6.5

Start: The Reverend Thomas Price challenges John Pugh—John S. Davis intervenes

1849: April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 80–81 (530 words). “To the Rev. Thos. Price, Aberdare.”

John S. Davis directs his comments to Reverend Thomas Price, the Baptist minister in Aberdare, a town about seven miles to the west of Merthyr Tydfil. He begins:

We saw recently a letter from you, to our brother John Pugh from Aberdare, inviting him to come to debate with the “public voices” of the Saints in Wales, about the main principles of our religion.

Davis writes that he had advised John Pugh “to leave such a public debate alone,” the reason being that “it would only create ill feelings among people, and cause the light to be dimmer than ever before.” As a preferable alternative, Davis suggested a written debate and even offered his periodical as a “field for the battle.” He received a response from Price in time to publish it in the May issue of Zion’s Trumpet (see next entry).

1849: May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 99–101 (1,305 words). “Mr. John Pugh and Thomas Price, Aberdare. To the Editor of Zion’s Trumpet.”

Dated 9 May 1849, this is Rev. Thomas Price’s response to John S. Davis’s letter in the April issue (see preceding entry). He begins by correcting Davis’s implication that Price was “inviting” John Pugh to debate. He declares:

I would never consider extending an invitation to debate John Pugh, or any other man of similar character.

Price insists that it was John Pugh who extended a “challenge” to him for a debate. Price mockingly describes his fearful reaction at receiving Pugh’s challenge:

It would have been terrible had I died of fright on the day of battle, and had my poor wife had to press charges of manslaughter against Pugh and his challenge.

Price then specifies his requirements for a “public debate” to take place in the columns of Zion’s Trumpet. The first requirement Price demands is for Pugh’s letter to him and his response to Pugh be printed in Zion’s Trumpet. Davis responds to Price’s demands in a postscript following Price’s letter to him:

We have reason to be silent from now on about our brother J. Pugh, since his course recently ended in death.

Davis again extends his offer to debate Price in writing by using his periodical. Apparently, Price did not pursue the debate, since nothing resembling an exchange of ideas between him and Davis ever appeared in Zion’s Trumpet. This John Pugh may be the same John Pugh who died in a mining accident.

End: The Reverend Thomas Price challenges John Pugh—John S. Davis intervenes

Episode 6.6

Start: The Reverend O. Williams is questioned about the death of a “Mormon”

1849: May, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 149 (295 words). “To the Rev. O. Williams, Trefforest,” by “Small Iota.”

The other day, word came to this neighborhood that a man in the Trefforest area was tormented to death by the people who call themselves Latter-day Saints by giving him and causing him to take some kind of oil, until he died.

“Small Iota” then asks the following four questions:

1. Was the man who “belonged to the Saints” buried in the neighborhood lately?
2. Is it true that the man was forced to take too much oil until he suffocated?
3. Are there proofs that on the evening the man died that the Saints carried him three times to the stream?
4. Why has there not been an inquest?

1849: July, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 214 (335 words). “Answer to the Questions of ‘Small Iota.’”

Here is part of the statement offered by the Reverend O. Williams:

Since the topic you have under scrutiny is related to those men who call themselves “Latter-day Saints,” remember that it is very difficult to give a complete disclosure of that which is done by them, since there is no one of any prominence that has anything to do with their deeds, only obscurity and secrecy.

With respect to the deceased, Williams confirms that he had died and that he was buried on Sunday, but that Williams himself did not know how much oil was given to him or to what extent that may have affected his life. One can imagine that Williams’s response may not have been entirely satisfactory to “Small Iota,” who was very likely a Latter-day Saint himself.

End: The Reverend O. Williams is questioned about the death of a “Mormon”

Episode 6.7

Start: The story of Sarah Holder, Bayliss, and their baby is discussed in the press

1849: May, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), pp. 153–54 (715 words). “Superstition of the Saints.”

This article contains the account of Sarah Holder, a young woman who lived in Cheltenham. A man by the name of Bayliss convinced Sarah to live with him, his wife, and their three children. Later a child was born to Sarah and Bayliss, which they claimed had lived for a time after its birth. After the child died, they placed it in a box and kept it in the house. During the trial that was held for them, a doctor testified that the child had been stillborn. Bayliss “insisted on taking it [the child’s body] into his possession,” but the child was taken from him by force. “Then the scoundrel raised up his hands, and asked for God’s protection in the ‘martyrdom’ he was suffering.” The writer of the Star of Gomer article issues a challenge to the editor of “the Star of the Saints,” an alternate title for Zion’s Trumpet, to explain the story of Sarah Holder and Bayliss, who the writer alleged to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1849: May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), wrapper, p. 2 (160 words). “To the Editor of the Star of Gomer.”

A letter from T. Brown, Bedford, to John S. Davis about the Sarah Holder story is as follows:

To the Editor of the Star of Gomer. In response to what he asked us, in his May issue, about “Superstition of the Saints,” we publish the following for him from the Weekly Times: “Sir, in your useful paper for the 1st of April, there appeared an account of a preacher by the name of Bayliss, who lived in Cheltenham, seducing a woman named Holder, both, it seems, professing to be members of the church of the Latter-day Saints. Permit me to say that neither of them is a member of that church. She has never been a member; he was once a member, but he was excommunicated for misbehavior two years ago, from which time he has opposed, and spoken against the Saints, who consider the recent shameful deed a crime against all laws, human and divine. By placing this in the columns of your paper, you fulfill a righteous act, and you satisfy, yours respectfully, T. Brown. Bedford, April 7, 1849.

End: The story of Sarah Holder, Bayliss, and their baby is discussed in the press

1849: May, Y Tyst Apostolaidd (The Apostolic Witness), p. 117 (570 words). “Questions and Answers.”

Someone who calls himself “Tychicus” presents to the editor a list of six questions he would like answered. Essentially, “Tychicus” is asking the editor to explain his reasons for persecuting the Latter-day Saints and for referring to them as “Satanists” and other bad names. The editor refuses to go into detail with his answer and tells “Tychicus” that he will have to be satisfied with a general comment. In his own defense, the editor explains that his original intention was “not to say a word about the folk who call themselves ‘Saints,’” but that his readers had “insisted on some discussion of them to our considerable displeasure.” Furthermore, he points out that Christ had called Peter “Satan” and that “we have not heard that he corrupted anyone’s morals by so doing.”

After suggesting that his correspondent did not understand the meaning of “persecution,” the editor proceeds to explain that the word does not mean “telling the truth about men.” He declares that the Latter-day Saints “ought to be exposed as religious deceivers, but they should not be persecuted, that is, to deprive them of their freedom.” In some cryptic language at the end of his response, the editor refers to “Quick”—probably the Baptist minister W. R. Davies of Dowlais, who had written extensively using a variety of noms de plume, “Quick” being one of them. The editor also refers to the “Cap.”—undoubtedly a reference to Captain Dan Jones. One has cause to wonder if “Tychicus” was actually the editor himself, who had submitted the questions in order to provide himself with the opportunity to continue his attacks against the Latter-day Saints in his answers.

1849: 11 May, The Cambrian (290 words). “Freaks of the Latter-day Saints.”

The word “freaks” in the title of this article appears to indicate odd happenings to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales. This article tells of “one of them” who sprained his ankle at the Trades Hall in Swansea recently. The writer tells of the “operation” performed on him by his co-religionists:

His bandages were torn off, his foot exposed and his body prostrate on the ground for three mortal hours. Mighty and loud were the holy invocations made during this long interval but unfortunately for the patient to no effect.

The patient’s wife eventually intervened and arranged for medical aid for her husband. The writer observes:

This circumstance we hear has since had its salutary effect and has shaken the man’s faith most materially in the miraculous part of the Latter-day Saints’ powers, at least.

Episode 6.8

Start: Welsh Latter-day Saints arrive in Minersville, Pennsylvania

1849: May, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), pp. 150–51 (345 words). “Mormonism in Minersville.”

The writer of this article tells of the group of Latter-day Saints in this Pennsylvania mining town who were desirous of going “with all haste” to their “New Jerusalem in Upper California.” And to accomplish their desire, they were putting considerable pressure on one among them who was “unburdened with an oversupply of sense” but who had “a bit of this world’s goods,” to help finance the journey they all wished to make. The writer describes the plight of this man:

It is now said that these Mormons have some “drops,” to give to those who listen to them for the purpose of driving out the evil spirit from them, and that the aforementioned man received an overdose which instead of driving out the evil spirit drove out the little remaining sense he had; and it almost drove out his breath of life.

The writer ends his article with the following assertion:

It is worthy of note that it is from among the “Baptized” Brethren, almost without exception, that the Mormon converts are obtained here; and it is also my understanding that it is the same in Wales and every other place where their odious and heretical doctrines flourish.

1849: 8 June, The Principality, p. 6 (25 words).

An American correspondent of Le Populaire asserts that the Mormons by the extraordinary ardor of their proselytism, are making rapid, unceasing, and considerable progress.

1849: June, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 181 (340 words).

Although it is true that many of the converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came from among the Baptists, or the “Baptized” Brethren, as the writer of the article in the May issue of this periodical calls them, there were also many who did not. “Phi.,” also from Minersville, takes exception to the article by “A Miner” in the previous issue:

Let “Miner” take note that not one single member from the “Baptized” brethren, or from any other denomination, here, in Wales, or any other place, has gone to them.

“Miner” then challenges “Phi.” to offer evidence of his assertion:

Now, I ask “Miner” how he can prove that it is from the “Baptized” brethren, almost without exception, that the Mormon converts are obtained, here and in Wales, and every other place? I wait, in anticipation that he will reward us with facts, and not fiction, in your next issue.

It appears that “Phi.” had to wait in vain, as apparently no response from “Miner” ever appeared in the following issue or any other.

Among the Latter-day Saints in Minersville were some Welsh converts. One of these was Thomas M. Richards, who gave credit for his 1846 conversion to Dan Jones. Richards was so anxious to gather with the body of the Saints in America that he left Wales in early 1847 and went as far as Minersville, Pennsylvania. He sent a letter with news from Minersville to Dan Jones dated 15 July 1847, one to John Davis in 1849, one to John Davis later in 1849, one to Dan Jones dated 1 May 1854, and one to Dan Jones dated 20 November 1854.

End: Welsh Latter-day Saints arrive in Minersville, Pennsylvania

1849: June, Y Tyst Apostolaidd (The Apostolic Witness), p. 145 (140 words).

The writer tells of Reverend W. R. Davies giving a sermon and then performing nine baptisms. In the final lines, the writer is obviously very pleased to welcome back one who had spent some time among the Latter-day Saints:

One of the baptized had been blinded and ensnared some time ago by the followers of Joe Smith, and had been baptized to those loathsome and devilish doctrines; but we believe that such a baptism was nothing more than the play of children, or an impudent joke of the things of God; in our view it was nothing but sinful frivolousness. This is the second to be baptized here lately from this deluded household.

Episode 6.9

Start: John Lloyd sets the record straight

1849: 8 June, The Cambrian (60 words). “An Ex-Latter-day Saint.”

On Sunday week a most excellent and impressive sermon was preached at the house of Mr. David Jones of Cwmguedd, Ystradgunlais, by the Rev. John Lloyd (alias John the Blacksmith) late a Latter-day Saint, to a large and respectable congregation from the verse, “O ye, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

1849: 22 June, The Cambrian (100 words). “To the Editor of The Cambrian.”

An angry John Lloyd declares to the editor that the brief article of the 8 June issue was totally false:

Sir. Having seen a paragraph in your Cambrian of the week before last, stating that “the Rev. John Lloyd (alias John the Blacksmith), had been preaching at a house at Cwmguedd, etc.” I beg to state that the whole is a direct falsehood, probably the weak invention of some wiseacre of this neighborhood, to make dupes of the public. By giving insertion to this in your next Cambrian, or by using some other means of contradicting the statement alluded to, you will greatly oblige.

Your humble servant, John Lloyd, Ystradgunlais, June 18th 1849.

Precisely what had triggered such indignation on the part of John Lloyd is unclear.

End: John Lloyd sets the record straight

1849: 16 July, Hanes Chwech o Benboethiaid Crefyddol: Sef, Joseph Smith, Mahomet, Richard Brothers, Jemimah Wilson, Ann Lee, and Joanna Southcotte (History of Six Religious Fanatics: Namely, Joseph Smith, Muhammed, Richard Brothers, Jemimah Wilson, Ann Lee, and Joanna Southcott), pamphlet, 24 pages.

In the foreword to this pamphlet, the author, Evan Lewis, declares:

Since the deceitful Mormons suppose their honorable prophet to be someone great, I have put him alongside his brothers and sisters, so that they and all who read the book can see the similarity between the one and the other.

Only the first five pages of this pamphlet are focused on Joseph Smith, and these are simply quoted from Joseph Smith’s account of his first vision and the initial spread of the Church he founded.

1849: 7 July, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (160 words). “Mormonist Miracles.”

A follower of the “notorious Joseph Smith” claimed that “‘on a true believer, poison would have no effect.’” Some of his listeners presented him with some prussic acid and urged him to take some. A policeman intervened and rescued him.

1849: 21 July, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (65 words).

A brief account of the Latter-day Saint preacher claiming that “a true believer might swallow poison with impunity.”

1849: 21 July, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (65 words).

Yet another brief report of “a Mormon orator” who claimed that poison would have no effect on a true believer.

1849: July, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 226 (185 words). “The Saints in a Dilemma.”

John Pugh, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had been burned in the Gwerfa coal works in Aberdare, along with several other workers. According to this article, Pugh’s religious leader advised him not to receive treatment from the doctor but rather to rely on his faith along with a blessing from an “apostle,” the title given sarcastically by enemies of the Latter-day Saints to their leaders even though there were no apostles in Wales at that time. The writer concludes:

The jurors were very close to returning a verdict of manslaughter against the apostle, and the coroner warned him to be careful in the future not to pretend to have the ability to cure through miracles; but the apostle placed all the blame on the faith of John Pugh, and he claimed that had his skin and his bones been removed from his arm, he would have mended like putting one hand in the other.

1849: July, Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd (The American Messenger), p. 212 (440 words).

Two poems appear here, the first by “Eiddil” from Minersville, and the second by “David from Monmouth,” who was also from Minersville. The first consists of forty eight lines. Here is the first stanza:

Through the mirror, I shall examine the Saints,

The latest chaff of the scoundrel* *Joe Smith

Their contemptible beliefs I declare

To be a great darkness in our Lord’s world.

And here is the final stanza:

From my heart I desire—that you should not go

Dear ones, to join

The saints of sins, while there is

In you a soul uniting.

The second poem consists of sixteen lines. Here is the first stanza:

I sing, I offer to give advice—to the saints

To pause a while;

And my prayer today to God:

Open the eyes of the unbelievers.

1849: July, Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd (The American Messenger), p. 223 (215 words). “Mormon Miracle.”

This is a brief account of the futile efforts of the Latter-day Saints in Ystradgynlais to keep a baby alive. The writer concludes:

A miracle failed to be worked through grace and without grace. To the great disappointment of the simpletons, they had to put the child in “the pre-appointed house of all men.”

1849: August, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 248 (280 words). “A Religious Success.”

This is yet another attack by Rev. W. R. Davies on those whom he called the “Latter-day Satanists.” Writing as “T. ab Ieuan,” he tells of a conversation he had had with a fellow minister about the effect of the cholera epidemic on the growth of the Baptists and other Nonconformists as compared with the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His friend commented:

Yes, there isn’t so much talk of progress among the “Saints” in a situation like this. When the world was lighthearted and carefree, they got their share like others, but when the cause of the soul becomes serious over and above the mind, there is not so much to attract people to them.

Davies concludes with a few observations that encapsulate the abiding hatred and the barrage of venom he had unleashed about William Henshaw and Dan Jones and their religion over the previous six years:

The above comment of the respectable minister Mr. Williams is completely true, and so it is easy enough to conclude that Tomfoolery and Mormonism are completely synonymous things. Also, Mr. Gomer, it is only everyone’s refuse and rubbish that are aborted by other denominations who join the family of Joe Smith, while it is the other denominations that win men of blameless character. Let not one of them say that they get anyone except those who could be spared with the greatest cheerfulness.

These would be the Reverend’s final published words about the religion he so deeply abhorred and despised. On 1 September 1849, he fell fatally ill of the cholera then rampant in Wales.

1849: August, Y Tyst Apostolaidd (The Apostolic Witness), p. 192 (235 words). “The Socinians and the Mormons in Dowlais and Merthyr.”

In the eyes of their opponents, the Latter-day Saints were “Satanists” and thus did not accept the divinity of Christ, much like the Socinians. According to the writer, both groups were having great difficulty in getting people to listen to their messages and “have dwindled in these places to the point that they are beneath notice.”

1849: 10 August, The Cambrian, Item #1(85 words). “A Scene at Trades Hall.”

The Latter-day Saints were holding a meeting at this hall when “a Reverend gentleman . . . thought it no harm to question the parties.” The resulting confusion led to the intruder’s being “most unceremoniously ejected minus of every button on his coat.”

1849: 10 August, The Cambrian, Item #2(80 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

A few lines about an evening outdoor meeting of the Latter-day Saints. Because of the calm weather, the “uncouth strains of the preacher were heard at a long distance and afforded a fertile theme for the rude jests and pleasantries of many who were amongst the large number assembled, waiting the return of the excursionists from Ilfracombe and Lynton.”

1849: 15 September, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 6 (23 words).

A Mormon settlement has been formed on the Beaver Islands, in Lake Michigan. The population is already about five hundred, and rapidly increasing.

1849: September, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 289 (315 words). “The Mormons in California.”

Referring to the title, the writer states that “these religious fanatics have now come to the field against [US] President [Zachary] Taylor.” He then quotes Samuel S. Snow as he rages against Taylor for declaring “a day of fasting, humility, and prayer” to “beseech God to turn away . . . the contagious scourge of cholera.” Snow, who claims to be “the Prime Minister of Jesus Christ, declares: ‘May God hasten the war, the famine, and the plague, and the destruction of all those who are wicked!’” That Snow was a “Millerite” and not a “Mormon” did not deter the editor of The Revivalist from making this incident into an attack on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1849: October, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 319 (315 words). “The Deceit of the Mormons.”

This is the story of eighty-two-year-old Elinor Rees. The Latter-day Saints purportedly promised her that if she accepted baptism from them, “not only would they assure her eternal life, but they would restore to her the use of her eyes, and she would be restored to health, and she would not have to fear the cholera.” But just a few days after her baptism, she died of cholera. The writer concludes:

It is obvious that increasing their number is the Mormons’ only endeavor, and they do not care what deceit or what lies are told by them in order to achieve their end, and they care not what characters, be they thieves, or whores, or drunkards, and completely unconverted and unrepentant ones at that, they get into their communion.

1849: 13 November, North Wales Chronicle, p. 4 (37 words).

It was generally considered that the application of the Mormons for the admission of their territory as a distinct State into the Union, under the title of the State of Deseret, would not be entertained by Congress.

1849: 16 November, The Principality, p. 5 (165 words). “A Mormonitish Feast.”

A report of a dinner at the house of Thomas Lewis of Blaendare, a Latter-day Saint. A group of his co-religionists gathered at his house, and “Mr. John Barleycorn became a great favorite among all the company.” And the “strange affair” with dances and bagpipes did not break up “till the dawn of the day, . . . when most of the male and female members had some difficulty in finding their way home.”

1849: 23 November, The Principality, p. 6 (1,165 words). “The New Mormon State.”

A fairly long article from the Daily News which outlines the progress of the Church in Britain. The writer says of Joseph Smith:

He drank, swore, and swindled; drove about with a lumbering wagon in a broad-brimmed hat, cracking his whip, like a courier, and could scarcely stutter an intelligible address to extort the dollars of his followers.

1849: 23 November, The Principality, p. 7 (25 words).

The Shrewsbury Journal notices the drowning of a Mormon “elder” whilst performing the ceremony of immersing a female convert. The latter narrowly escaped with life.

1849: November, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 351 (125 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

George Thomas in Haverfordwest died from cholera after receiving baptism from his brother John. After a postmortem examination was conducted, the verdict of the jurors was “that his death had been hastened by being immersed in water at his own request.” The writer concludes: “When will this people gain a little wisdom, I wonder!”

1849: November, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 350 (230 words). “Death of a Man by Baptism.”

This is a report of the death of George Thomas in Haverfordwest. This writer quotes the verdict:

That the deceased died of cholera, and that his death was brought about by his being immersed in cold water, by John Thomas, at his own request. . . . This verdict, especially the final phrase “at his own request,” is what saved this group, once again, from being taken up and put on trial for manslaughter.

1849: November, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 352 (100 words). “Haverfordwest.”

This is yet another brief report about the death of George Thomas as a result of being baptized by immersion and adds nothing new to what the Baptist and the Star of Gomer articles contain.

1849: November, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 351 (145 words). “Mormonism in Llangadog.”

Someone, perhaps the editor, tells of a recent experience:

One Sunday morning recently when I happened to be taking a stroll, Ben the Sausage had placed his fat body by the wall, and was shouting out his ungodly chatter, without so much as a man listening to him.

The writer observes that poor Ben would probably not be preaching in Llangadog ever again because the people there “would not listen to one of the followers of Joe Smith, the murderer.” He then makes a prediction:

In the next issue a specimen will be given of two sermons preached recently near the Amman iron works, so that the country may discover their presumption and their ungodliness.

No such sermons appear in the next issue of the Congregationalist Treasury.

1849: November, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 340 (185 words). “Verses to Mormonism.”

This poem was composed by “the late J. W. Hughes.” The first of the six four-line stanzas sets the stage for the other five:

Of all people, and of all pains—I never saw

A worse one than Saintism;

Mormonism is a wall of peat,

Dung of the age, it has gone to nothing.

The remaining five stanzas contain disparaging observations about Joseph Smith, false doctrine, and miracles. Hughes gives his assurance that he will become a Saint if an adept of Smith’s religion can raise someone from the dead.

1849: 24 November, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (38 words).

Another person has fallen a victim to Mormon baptism. An elder named Lloyd had just immersed a woman in the Severn at Shrewsbury last week, when his foot slipped, and he fell into the river and was drowned.

1849: 15 December, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (50 words).

The Mormons of Deseret (Salt Lake), indulge in polygamy, and hold the doctrine that a man may have as many wives as he can support. It is said that some of the old men there have 20 wives, but that few of the young men have more than five.

1849: 18 December, North Wales Chronicle, p. 2 (50 words).

The same few lines that were printed in the Monmouthshire Merlin for 15 December.

1849: December, Y Drysorfa (The Treasury), pp. 397–98 (540 words). “Latter-day Saints.”

This article adds a few more details to the incident described in The Principality (16 November, p. 5, see previous entry in this chapter) and ends with this sarcastic observation: “This is an example of the saintliness of the ‘Saints.’”

1849: December, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 378 (165 words). “The Drowning of a Mormon Preacher.”

This account is taken from a newspaper in Shrewsbury. A small group of Latter-day Saints had gathered at the river for the baptism of a convert named Ann Griffiths. A brother named Thomas Lloyd took her into the river, baptized her, and then went under water while trying to come out. The woman was rescued, but the brother drowned. Unlike most articles about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this one has only one negative phrase referring to the Church, calling it a “deluded sect.”

1849: December, Y Drysorfa (The Treasury), pp. 397–98 (540 words). “Latter-day Saints.”

This writer of this article quotes from the New York Tribune and the Millennial Star about the progress of the Latter-day Saints in Wales. He also mentions the article from The Principality (16 November, p. 5) and the “happy evening” at the house of Mr. Thomas Lewis and quotes from the Shrewsbury Journal about the drowning of Thomas Lloyd( as related also in the Star of Gomer for December 1849, p. 378).

1849: December, Y Drysorfa Gynnulleidfaol (The Congregationalist Treasury), p. 376 (150 words). “The Saints.”

This article is reprinted from the October 17 New York Tribune. Given the positive nature of its contents and the phraseology, the New York Tribune article is likely to have been written by a Latter-day Saint. Here is a sample:

From the time Captain Jones left Wales, over 800 have been baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ, and the sick have been healed through the power of faith, and many believe.

The writer of the New York Tribune article refers to reports given in the Millennial Star that cholera had been cured, the mute had been made to speak, and many miracles had been wrought. The writer for The Congregationalist Treasury ends with a statement of surprise, as if to say, “This doesn’t sound like the Latter-day Saints that we know in Britain.” Here is the statement:

No one this side of the Atlantic had any idea that such wonders as these were to be seen in “the old country.”