Episodes

12.1—John E. Davis tells of his disillusionment after traveling to Salt Lake City and back

12.2—Dan Jones debates with Andrew Balfour Hepburn and Rev. Short

12.3—The Edinburgh Review prints six installments about “Mormonism”

12.4—Dan Jones exposes an exposé in sixteen pages

Salient Events

• 12 January 1855. The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian prints a 7 November 1854 letter from John E. Davis to his friend Charles Vachell, the mayor of Cardiff. At the time he wrote the letter, Davis was in San Francisco on his way back to Wales after some frustrating and disappointing months in Utah as a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He states that he looks forward to revealing the reasons for his negative experience. Upon his return to Cardiff, Davis proceeds to carrying out his intent with lectures, newspaper articles, and also a 48-page pamphlet, which he published in May 1856, titled Mormonism Unveiled; or a Peep into the Principles & Practices of the Latter-day Saints.[1] Also see Episode 12.1.
• 20 January 1855. The Wales statistical report in Zion’s Trumpet for the final six months of 1854 shows the total number of members at the time was 4,240. Also mentioned are 309 excommunications, 36 deaths, and 74 emigrants.

• 28 January 1855. This issue of Zion’s Trumpet announces that the Guide to Zion is off the press and available in sufficient quantity for that year’s emigrants. The sixteen pages include twelve headings that have detailed amounts of advice and counsel regarding journeying to and integrating into the Saints’ community in the Salt Lake Valley.[2] Under the first heading, “Preparation of Emigrants before Departing from Wales,” are three general instructions:
• First, pay your rightful debts to everyone.
• Second, strive to be free in your consciences by warning all your fellowmen you can.
• Third, search for history, names, births, marriages, and deaths of your ancestors as far as you can.

Other headings include the following:

• Female preparations for this class
• Household furniture, etc.
• To those who are going with the £13 company
• To the “Emigrating Society” class
• To various craftsmen
• General advice while in Liverpool
• General counsel on the sea
• What things to buy in St. Louis
• Choosing horned animals
• Instructions for driving oxen
• Directions to camp, watch, etc.

Jones’s “Instructions for driving oxen” occupy four pages in this sixteen-page pamphlet. Here is a brief, entertaining segment:

Hold the yoke with the left hand, and the bow in the right hand, and then go to the furthest ox first, very quietly, saying, sook, sook, until you get the bow around his neck and the yoke on his shoulders; and if he moves or treads on your toes, it is better for you to bite your tongue than scream at that time, as you do not know when you will have such a chance again.

• 9 February 1855. In this issue of the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, the writer reports that someone by the name of Hepburn had been presenting a series of lectures at the Temperance Hall “Upon the Horrid Doctrines of the so-called Latter-day Saints.” Andrew Balfour Hepburn had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scotland over a decade earlier, but he had left the Church after ten months and began lecturing against its doctrines and practices. This newspaper article appears to be the first indication that Hepburn had made his way down to Wales. In addition to giving lectures, Hepburn also challenged Dan Jones to a public debate.  Jones’s refusal in the April 14 issue of Zion’s Trumpet to “wrangle with the corrupt man” is puzzling, since during his first mission, he was often the one to invite others to debate the teachings of the Latter-day Saints. However, he also explains that the main reason for his refusal was that he was following “the counsel of our head President in the matter.”[3] While in Swansea, Hepburn collaborated with the Reverend Charles Short to publish in English a 48-page pamphlet entitled Mormonism Exploded; or, the Religion of the Latter-day Saints Proved to Be a System of Imposture, Blasphemy, and Immorality.[4] See Episode 12.2.
• 17 April 1855. The Chimborazo departs from Liverpool with 446 Latter-day Saint emigrants on board, over two hundred of them Welsh. The leader of the Welsh emigrants was Thomas Jeremy, who had been released as first counselor to Dan Jones after just over a year of service. Also with Jeremy were three members of Rev. J. Jones’s family—the reverend’s wife Jane (listed, incorrectly, as a widow on the shipping list) and their two daughters, Sarah, age twenty-two, and Elizabeth, age twenty. These three had been baptized a year earlier in Swansea by Dan Jones, the brother-in-law to Jane and uncle to Sarah and Elizabeth (see Chapter 11). Instead of crossing the plains to Utah, however, the three women traveled to Ohio to join Rev. J. Jones there. He had left Wales earlier, possibly to escape the results of some business dealings that had gone awry. Although Jane was not a widow during the crossing of the Chimborazo, she became one on 18 November 1856, when the reverend died in Cincinnati. A brief obituary has the following information:

Lately in Cincinnati, North America, John Jones [of] “Llangollen.” Mr. Jones left two beautiful and faithful daughters to mourn his loss; also, a grieving widow who rightfully and naturally feels devastated. The three of them, had the welcome opportunity with every consideration of watching death pull down a house of dust. And it is very likely that two of the sons, also somewhere, would be glad to have the same opportunity. Whether they are in Wales or in this country, no one here knows except for the family members themselves. What the reason may be for this secrecy is not known. The two daughters are carrying forward the millinery business which provides a comfortable living for them and their mother.[5]

• June 1855. The first of six installments entitled “Mormonism” appears in Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist). All six are translated from the English-language periodical the Edinburgh Review. The only installment to have any content related to events in Wales is the one printed in the November issue, in which a battle between Dan Jones and the evil spirits is mentioned. In a 6 January 1849 letter to his leader, Orson Pratt, Jones describes his conversation with these unwanted visitors, who had appeared at a conference held a few days earlier at the White Lion Inn in Merthyr Tydfil. See Episode 12.3.
• 21 July 1855. This issue of Zion’s Trumpet announces that Dewi Elfed Jones has been mishandling Church funds. (As a point of interest, the former Baptist minister had been confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by William S. Phillips while Jones was seated in the special minister’s seat in his own chapel.) See Episode 8.2.
• 27 October 1855. The first part of a two-part article by Dan Jones appears in Zion’s Trumpet, discussing a novel entitled Female Life Among the Mormons; a Narrative of Many Years’ Personal Experience by the Wife of a Mormon Elder, Recently from Utah.[6] Segments of this novel, translated into Welsh, had recently appeared in several issues of Yr Amserau (The Times), issues that unfortunately are now nonextant. As Jones critiques these novel segments, he employs some of his greatest outrage ever. At the outset of his article, he writes:

• Even though we have read everything that we could lay our hands on of the filth of the scum of authors and editors in every language we understand for over a dozen years, having to hold our nose tightly many times, while we analyzed the malodorous entrails of their anti-Mormon bug bears searching for a crumb of truth, we confess that this dirty bag is the filthiest of all.[7]

After discussing and discrediting many of “the endless stream of lies” in the novel, Jones concludes:

The editor of the Times proves himself totally unfit to edit any publication, and unworthy of the trust of the public by lowering himself with this shameless stream of lies, and not a single man or woman who possesses a grain of true religion will ever believe him again, we should think, whenever he delivers his opinion about any religion of his fellowmen.[8]

Eighteen months later, four additional segments of Female Life were printed in Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor) in March, April, May, and June 1857. No response appeared in the 1857 Zion’s Trumpet, which by then was under the editorship of Daniel Daniels. See Episode 12.4 and Episode 14.1.

Commentary

1855: 5 January, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 8 (1,630 words). “Mormonism.”

Taken from the Chicago Tribune, this unsigned letter is from a person who had become a Latter-day Saint four years earlier and had been living in Salt Lake City for eighteen months. The writer addresses a friend who had opposed his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He tells of the many positive aspects of the Latter-day Saint society in Salt Lake City and even defends the practice of plural marriage as he describes his own experience with three wives. He describes several of the advantages:

In Deseret there are no libertines, with their paramours, no houses of prostitution, no cases of seduction, or those which disturb the peace of families in the States, under your laws. Here, every woman can have what God intended she should—a husband—and every man that wants to, may have a wife. And the woman that is the wife of a man who has one or more other wives, is more fortunate than if she were the only one, for in case of plurality the duties of the house are divided.

1855: 6 January, The Silurian, p. 3 (25 words).

John Mear, aged 54, Mormon preacher, was charged with stealing a pair of shoes, the property of William Taylor, at Builth, on the 7th December.

1855: 19 January, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 6, Item 1 (80 words).

A military governor has been appointed over the Mormons. Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, of the United States army, has received the appointment, with the understanding however that he shall leave the army. It is doubtful (says a letter from New York) whether he will accept the appointment on such terms. The Mormons are strong enough to give this country great trouble and will, no doubt, do so. The men are well drilled, and having bold determined leaders, will be put down with difficulty.

1855: 20 January, North Wales Chronicle, p. 3 (80 words). “The Mormonites.”

The same article as in the Monmouthshire Merlin for 19 January 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 19 January, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 6, Item 2 (25 words).

Some shameless missionaries of the Mormons are laboring most sedulously amongst the ignorant populations of several districts in Gloucestershire, particularly urging their brutal doctrines of polygamy.

Epsiode 12.1

Start: John E. Davis tells of his disillusionment after traveling to Salt Lake City and back

1855: 12 January, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 3 (275 words). “The Mormons and Their Disciples.”

The editor received a request from C. Vachell that a letter be printed in his newspaper. The letter is from John E. Davis (not to be confused with John S. Davis, the one-time editor of Zion’s Trumpet). John E. Davis was a former resident of Cardiff who was on his way back home after a negative experience in Salt Lake City. Here is the letter:

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

1855: 13 January, The Silurian, p. 3 (275 words). “The Mormons.”

This is the same letter that appears in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian for 12 January 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 19 January, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 3 (90 words). “To the Editor of the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian.”

Sir—Having observed a letter in your last, sent to Mr. C. Vachell, from one John [E.] Davis, late of Herbert Street, Cardiff, containing charges derogatory to the character of the Mormons in the Great Salt Lake Valley, I shall be prepared next week to bring forward facts to disprove the assertions contained in the said letter, and beg the public will suspend their judgment in the meantime. I remain, Sir, yours most respectfully, Samuel Evans. 6, Great Frederick Street, Cardiff, January 17th, 1855.

1855: 26 January, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 3 (530 words). “Mormons and Their Disciples.”

As promised the week before, Samuel Evans presents his letter to the public in order to “bring forward facts to disprove the assertions” made in the John E. Davis letter. Evans first addresses Davis’s assertion that in Utah “all letters were opened by the Mormon authorities previous to their being sent away” by pointing out the absurdity of such a claim, since there were forty thousand inhabitants in Utah at the time, with elected officials who were “under the control and supervision of the United States’ authorities.” Next, Evans responds to Davis’s assertion that “he did not find Mormonism as it was represented in England” by quoting three other former Cardiff residents who had gone to Salt Lake City. The first, John Lewis, had written the following to his aged parent: “Utah is the best place in the world for those that will keep in the Commandments of God.” The next, James Ellis, had written, “Utah is a place where the people are taught how to live, and where children see no bad habits, but are taught righteously and in the fear of the Lord.” Thirdly, Mrs. Hannah Thomas had written, “When we arrived here there were hundreds that were ready to greet us as brothers and sisters in the new and everlasting covenant.”

1855: 27 January, The Silurian, p. 3 (595 words). “To the Editor of the Silurian.”

This version of Samuel Evans’s response to John E. Davis is very similar to the letter which appears in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian for 26 January 1855 (see previous entry); however, there are numerous spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. These are reflected in the transcription in Appendix D.

The editor of the Silurian also includes a brief note following Evans’s letter:

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

1856: 16 February, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 5 (1,975 words). “The Cardiff Mormonites.”

A second letter from John E. Davis is reprinted here alongside a lengthy article with general information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, more specifically, the establishment and growth of the Latter-day Saints in Cardiff. Here is the letter:

Sir—after a boisterous passage of nearly fifteen months, thank God I have arrived safe in England, by the ship William (Captain McPhea). My object in sending this note is, in the first place, because I consider it my duty from the favors you have bestowed on me previously. Secondly, knowing it is about the time that parties leave Wales for the Mormon country, I wish you to caution them against any false delusion they might be laboring under. I have lived amongst them nine months, and the supposed Zion I found to be a city of the Sultan. Virtue or good deeds are never placed in the balance of justice. Should this caution be insufficient, be kind enough to tell them to take care of their money, as it is very scarce in Salt Lake Valley. Laboring men, if they can get employment, which is difficult, cannot get money except under peculiar circumstances, but must take anything their employers think proper to give—say, flour, potatoes, lumber, etc. I myself have lived for weeks on bread and potatoes only, at the same time fully employed, and can state without fear of contradiction that many others have done the same. I hope, if it please God, soon to be in Cardiff, and shall then be able to fully explain to you and others the false delusions thousands have labored under. Hundreds at this present moment would leave this talked-of Zion, but are without means to do so. I left, myself, in the dead of the night, and travelled on foot 1400 miles, at times with great privations. Nothing but Divine Providence has brought me here, and I will explain to the world the supposed Zion. My eye-sight is no better after the Mormon Prophet laying hands on me. I am waiting here to see Doctor Alexander, whom I trust will relieve me.

I remain, Sir, your humble Servant,

John Davis

C. Vachell, Esq., Crockherbtown, Cardiff

P.S.—Sir, I beg to add that I lived under your brother, 12, Herbert-street, Cardiff.

1856: 23 February, Monmouth Merlin, p. 3 (370 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

The editor of the Monmouthshire Merlin described the text as “a copy of a letter received by the Mayor of Cardiff, from an inhabitant of the town, who emigrated to the city of Utah, in the great Salt Lake Valley, and which we have been kindly permitted to publish.” After this brief introduction, the editor prints the same letter (by John E. Davis to C. Vachell) as appeared the previous week in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian for 16 February 1856 (see previous entry).

1856: 1 March, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 7 (410 words). “Cardiff. Mormon Delusions.”

This is the same letter as quoted in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian for 16 February 1856 (see previous entry).

1856: Mormonism Unveiled; or a Peep into the Principles & Practices of the Latter-day Saints, pamphlet, 48 pages [9]

The author states his purpose in the preface:

The following pages are intended to shew [sic] the detestable proceedings of the Disciples of Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect of the Mormons, and the delusion and sufferings of the victims of the leaders of these self-styled Latter-day Saints, at the city of the Salt Lake, Utah. They are not written with an attempt at language, but with a view to depict faithfully what the writer saw and heard, during a nine months’ residence among them. It is “a plain unvarnished tale” and the only object in its publication is, if possible, to deter others from being duped by the inducements held out by these specious deceivers; who have so far beguiled an immense number of unthinking, credulous, and enthusiastic people, as to been a bled to live in luxurious indolence on the earnings extorted from their infatuated followers, and to give full scope to their demoralizing and unprincipled propensities. It is unnecessary to make any further remarks, the facts speak plainly for themselves.

An article reviewing and quoting from the first edition of this pamphlet appears in the 24 May 1856 issue of the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian (see next entry).

1856: 24 May, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 8 (4,800 words). “A Visit to the Salt Lake by a Cardiff Resident.”

A very lengthy article in which the writer comments on and quotes from Mormonism Unveiled; or a Peep into the Principles & Practices of the Latter-day Saints, by John E. Davis. The writer introduces the topic thus: “A pamphlet was last week published by Mr. Hugh Bird, of Duke Street, in this town, containing ‘A short account of a journey from Cardiff to the Salt Lake,’ by John E. Davis, who has just returned from the Mormon settlement, and who, previous to his departure, resided at 12, Herbert Street, Cardiff.”

1856: 31 May, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 8 (515 words). “A Visit to the Salt Lake by a Cardiff Resident.”

The conclusion of the article from the previous week (see previous entry).

1858: 22 May, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 3 (375 words). “Lecture on Mormonism.

Some three years following his return to Wales, John E. Davis continued to lecture against the people he was once aligned with and whom he learned to despise. This lecture took place on Friday evening, 21 May, at the Athenaeum in Llanelli and was reported on in the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald the day after. Davis’s principal focus in this lecture was the practice of plural marriage among the Latter-day Saints. The following exchange took place after the lecture concluded:

The Rev. D. Rees, in moving the thanks of the meeting to the chairman, remarked, that inasmuch as the Mormons believed in the plurality of wives, he should like to know their reason for not carrying out their principal in this country? Upon this Mr. David Davies, the president of the Llanelli District of Saints, arose and said that the law of God and that of Victoria did not agree on the point, and therefore they were prohibited in this country, from having more than one wife, but in Zion they would be enabled to give perfect obedience to God’s commandments. Mr. Rees maintained that if the saints were thoroughly convinced that a plurality of wives was taught in the Bible, they ought to act consistently with that principle in this country even if they were martyred for so doing. The saint in reply quoted a passage of Scripture, which as proceeding from ‘Satan” to our Savior, was anything but armor proof.

End: John E. Davis tells of his disillusionment after traveling to Salt Lake City and back

Episode 12.2

Start: Dan Jones debates with Andrew Balfour Hepburn and Rev. Charles Short

1855: 9 February, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 3 (240 words). “Mormonism.”

The writer reports that Andrew Balfour Hepburn had been presenting a series of lectures at the Temperance Hall “Upon the Horrid Doctrines of the so-called Latter-day Saints.” Here is a list of the topics:

1. The Origin of Joe Smith, the Yankee Smith, and his Book of Mormon proved unscriptural.
2. The money system, and how the people are robbed; three Baptisms for the Living and one for the Dead, and the price of each; the Peopling of other Worlds in Eternity.
3. The Casting out of 319 Devils from one woman; their Pretended Miracles proved False; their Unknown Tongue a Delusion.
4. The Election in Heaven between Jesus Christ and the Devil; the Origin of God and his Wives in Heaven; the Mysteries of the Mormon Temple in America.
5. The Seduction of Young Females from this Country to the Salt Lake Valley. To this lecture no females will be admitted.

The writer then comments:

This is a revolting catalogue of blasphemy and absurdity; and if Mr. Hepburn’s facts are authentic, he is doing good service to the cause of truth in unveiling this modern libel upon the name of religion. We are happy to find, however, that the delusion in this district is dying away, that the Saints are rapidly decreasing in number, and that Mormonism has lost its hold upon the minds of the people.

1855: 30 March, The Cambrian (1,020 words). “Lectures on Mormonism.”

The writer expresses alarm at the exodus of so many Welshmen to “the Salt Lakes of America” where “doctrines the most blasphemous are promulgated, and scenes the most atrocious perpetrated.” He then reports on the first of three lectures given recently at the Swansea Town Hall by Andrew Balfour Hepburn, a person who had spent ten months as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hepburn declared that it was “his duty to show that the creed of the Mormons was a bundle of lies and absurdities.” The author also reported:

The people of this country knew but little or nothing of Mormonism—they must go to America where Mormonism was rampant, to see its principles carried out—there young girls of the tender age of 11 years had been made prostitutes to those professing themselves the apostles of Jesus Christ.

The writer ended by promising his readers details of the second and third lectures in future issues of the Cambrian, but these have not been identified and may not have been published.

1855: 14 April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 113–19 (2,680 words). “‘Religious Persecution and Its Effect.”

Dan Jones responds to the attacks of Andrew Balfour Hepburn in a rather surprising manner, especially when compared to previous responses to previous opponents. Jones prefaces his new approach by quoting Paul as a reminder to his readers of what faithful followers of the Savior can expect:

All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.[10]

After three pages discussing persecution of the righteous all through the Christian era, Jones poses the question that he assumes his readers are asking at this point:

“If they are telling lies about you, why do you not go to their presence to prove them wrong?” says someone.[11]

He then answers the question by again quoting Paul:

Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, from such withdraw thyself.[12]

Finally, Jones comes to what is most likely his primary motivation for this new and uncharacteristic approach to dealing with Hepburn, whose name he has not yet even mentioned in his article:

You shall have more of our reasons for not lowering ourselves to wrangle with the corrupt man in our defense against the vilification, and we have pleasure in reporting that we act according to the counsel of our head President in the matter, and similar to the way we deal with him is the way all our Brethren have dealt with him in other places, but we know that so far the result of his lecturing here has been to open the eyes of honest men to search into our religion; every day we were told of some who had been to his lectures until they became sick of him, and believed that the Saints had true religion long before Reverends and laymen were seen to encourage such a character to falsely accuse the religion of their innocent neighbors.[13]

In the final paragraph of the article, Jones comes close to naming Hepburn but instead gives only the initial of his surname:

May our friend Mr. H----- (there! We came close to sullying our mouth by naming him, but we restrained!) well, we were about to say may he carry out his favorite task, as the prodigal of old carried husks to the pig trough, until he comes to possess humanity.[14]

1855: 28 April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 136–39 (1,280 words). “The Debate in Swansea.”

In this editorial, Dan Jones explains and defends his reasons for not dealing with Hepburn, again without mentioning his name.

We consider our religion too important and honorable to be derided by such a disreputable character as our challenger has proven to be, and before this, all reasonable men with whom we have conversed on the topic, without excepting his own chief supporters, have acknowledged that we have proceeded honorably and in wisdom for our religion by practicing silent contempt.[15]

Jones quotes from a handbill he had circulated around Swansea:

We would not dare to refuse to defend one and all of our principles in the face of one and all of the “Revered ministers of the gospel” in Swansea, who support the challenger, the Holy Scriptures according to the King James I translation; with our own authorized books to be the only standard, claiming the same right to test the assertions of our gainsayer according to the same standard.[16]

The handbill had prompted the Reverend Charles Short to challenge Jones to debate him on the following statements, which Jones includes for context:

1. Mormonism is false in its origin.
2. Blasphemous in its opinions.
3. Immoral in its practices.[17]

Here is Jones’s response:

We refused the above because of their lack of clarity, and because it was obvious to us that the purpose was to use the group of proofs which we refused to quarrel over previously, namely, the slime and false accusations of enemies.[18]

Prior to the printing of this article, but during the time that Jones was dealing with the opposition of Hepburn and Short, he was also assisting his counselor, Thomas Jeremy, in preparing a group of about two hundred Church members to travel on board the Troubador to Liverpool, from which point they would begin their journey to Salt Lake City. Jeremy was released from the Wales presidency and would travel with the group from Liverpool to Philadelphia and then on to join the main body of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. Jones was also to travel with the group to Liverpool. where he would take care of getting them on board the Chimborazo. After seeing the group off, he returned to Swansea and continue negotiations for an official debate with Short, which also took place before the printing of this article.

Jones describes the meeting he had with Short and his committee after arriving back in Swansea:

Upon our return, we met with Mr. Short and his Committee, Monday, April 23rd, and to our surprise we understood from Mr. Short that his messengers had informed him that we had promised to debate the aforementioned topics, and two of them, who were present, summoned the impudence to assert that they had understood as much! This caused a considerable change in things.[19]

Jones had prepared the following topics for the debate between him and Short, topics which Short’s four delegates had agreed to three weeks earlier prior to Jones’s departure for Liverpool:

1. Are faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins essential for salvation?
2. Are the preachers of the Baptists “ministers of the gospel?”
3. Are apostles and prophets, together with the gifts of the Holy Ghost essential to the existence of the church of Christ on the earth?
4. Are the doctrines, ordinances, and organization of the church of the Baptists in accordance with the New Testament plan?
5. Do the scriptures contain prophecies of the discovery of a sacred oracle, and are such fulfilled in the coming of the Book of Mormon?
6. Do the scriptures approve of polygamy?
7. The Trinity. Are the Father and Son separate persons?[20]

Jones describes Short’s reaction:

We read the following basic principles in the presence of Mr. Short, but he did not stay to hear them all; he went away in haste despite all we and his friends could do to persuade him to stay, away he went, and the last word we heard from him was, “Perhaps you wish to have the Urim and Thummim on your nose before you see!”[21]

Following Short’s abrupt departure, Jones continued to read the topics to the members of Short’s committee:

But it was in vain; after his exit, his Committee followed, saying they had no right to accept the offer. Two of us said definitely that we refused the first statements at the start, and offered further proofs of the same thing; despite all that, and although we informed them that we would proclaim all that to the world, they rushed out, leaving us in the room.[22]

Because Short refused to participate in a debate, Jones printed his plan of action in Zion’s Trumpet:

Lectures will be delivered on the topics offered as subjects for debate to our gainsayers, in the Saints Hall, Orange Road, Swansea, starting Friday night, April 27, 29, 30, May 1, 3, 6 and 7, beginning at half past seven in the evening, consecutively, as they are listed. Entrance by tickets 3c.each, or 1s. for all the lectures. Sunday sat 6 o’clock in the evening, free. [23]

1855: May, Mormonism Exploded; or, the Religion of the Latter-day Saints Proved to Be a System of Imposture, Blasphemy, and Immorality; with the Autobiography and Portrait of the Author, pamphlet, 48 pages. [24]

The author, Andrew Balfour Hepburn, was a weaver by trade and had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844 while living in Biggar, a small town located twenty-seven miles southwest of Edinburgh. Ten months after his baptism, he began presenting lectures against the Church. He claims in his autobiography that he had convinced many to leave the Church. In 1850, he went to England to continue his lectures, and in 1854, he was in Merthyr Tydfil, where he claims to have been “the means of rescuing six of the Mormon ‘saints’ from the errors of the church.” In Swansea, he was assisted by the Reverend Charles Short of the Mount Pleasant Baptist chapel in preparing and publishing this 48-page pamphlet.

Rev. Charles Short appeared as editor on the title page, as he assisted Hepburn in writing and publishing the pamphlet. Short also included a preface with his own statement on the pamphlet’s topic:

The purpose of the following little book is to give a clear, condensed, and popular exposition of the leading features of Mormonism. There is nothing precisely of this character already in existence, that I am aware of. The larger books already published on this subject, are too voluminous and expensive for circulation among the masses of the people; and the smaller ones are too meagre and incomplete, and some of them too ill-arranged, to give the reader a full and general idea of Mormonism. Besides, it is a growing system; its doctrine of a daily revelation is constantly adding something to an already accumulated heap of impostures, absurdities, and impieties. There is no apology needed, therefore, for this attempt to expose the origin and development of one of the most successful frauds of modern times.

He also explains his role in the production of the pamphlet:

Mr. Hepburn is not only in name, but in fact, the principal author of the following pages. He has supplied me with the books, materials, and references, and I have reduced them to the shape and order in which they appear. . . . My hope was, I should be able to comprise, in about fifty pages, all the most essential matter of the Mormon system; but this has proved to be impossible. Another part, of the same size and price as this, will follow almost immediately, and will contain, I hope, so complete a view and exposure of the system, as to prove an antidote to the virulent moral poison of Mormonism.

Evidence has yet to surface that a second part was ever published. One possible explanation is that the market for an English-language pamphlet costing sixpence was severely limited in the Principality of Wales, where monoglot Welshmen far outnumbered the bilinguals and even more those whose only language was English.

Following a nine-page autobiography of Hepburn are the following chapters:

1. Joe Smith’s Account of the Origin of the Book of Mormon
2. The Fraud Exposed
3. The Book of Mormon; Its Claims, Contradictions, and Absurdities
4. Smith as Prophet, Seer, and “Revelator”

For the first chapter, Short quotes briefly from the Millennial Star and from two publications of Orson Pratt. But in the other three chapters ,the quotes are from History of the Saints by John C. Bennett, the counselor to Joseph Smith who turned on the Church following his excommunication.

1855: 12 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 154–57 (1,170 words). “Counter Proofs of the ‘Anti-Mormon’ Accusations!!”

Unwilling to simply let the contention between him and Charles Short fade away, Dan Jones provides the complete text of a recently circulated handbill. Jones’s handbill fills three full pages of his periodical, offering his defense that he had not backed away from a debate with Short. He refers to three different issues of the Swansea Herald—April 5, April 11, and April 25—in which Short had presented his version of Jones’s unwillingness to debate him. Jones refutes these accusations and includes statements from various witnesses to support his position.

His opening statement is as follows:

Mr. Short has accused me of a lie, stating that I denied receiving his challenge to debate the three topics named by him. In response I offer the following testimonies from among several that I have by me.[25]

1855: 26 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 171–72 (450 words). “The Debate in Swansea.”

In this article, Dan Jones gives his final printed word concerning the altercation he and the Reverend Charles Short had engaged in over the past several weeks. For those who wished to have more information about his disagreement with Short, he suggests:

Let anyone who desires greater details concerning this matter have a look at our defense in the “Herald” for May 10th.[26]

Apparently, the same local newspaper—the Swansea Herald—that in three previous numbers had provided space for Short to present his position had also allowed Jones to present his.

Continuing in this article in his own periodical, Jones summarized the series of lectures he had announced in the 12 May issue (see previous entry):

The lectures that have been delivered in the Saints’ Hall here by us and our revered brethren Wheelock and Ross, concerning the principles about which our challenger refused to debate, have stimulated great interest in this place, and have caused hosts of people to search for the truth for themselves; and in fulfillment of the words of God that all things would work together for the good of those who love God, we are pleased to say that several people believe, and some have been baptized, and others promise to be baptized shortly; and far from the tales of our enemies disheartening the Saints, the effect is the complete opposite; the few who neglected their duties earlier, who were lukewarm, are more zealous, faithful and spiritual than before, and all indications promise very great success shortly for the work of our God. He who owns us and our dear religion that is being smeared will be glorified through it all—may our brothers and sisters pray with us.[27]

No further mention is made of Short or Hepburn in Zion’s Trumpet.

1855: 16 June, The Silurian, p. 2 (20 words). “Mormonism.”

We understand that Mr. Hepburn, the Anti-Mormon lecturer, will deliver an address tonight, (Friday) in the Cardiff Arms Park.

1855: 29 September, Merthyr Telegraph, p. 3 (90 words). “Tredegar. Mormonism.”

A course of four lectures has been delivered by Mr. P. Hepburn, of Scotland, during the past week in the Town Hall, at this place, upon the delinquencies of Mormonism. As the lecturer stated that he had himself belonged to that community he pretended to be well able to “shew up” their nefarious practices. For ourselves, we look with considerable suspicion on the sincerity of these ignorant and idle itinerant lecturers who foist themselves on the weaker portion of the public by pretending to be influenced by public good.

End: Dan Jones debates with Andrew Balfour Hepburn and Rev. Charles Short

1855: 10 February, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 10 (940 words). “The Mormons at Utah.”

A former resident of Manchester, who signs his name as “Tell Truth,” writes this letter, dated 30 November 1854, from Salt Lake City. Many people are mentioned in the letter, but no names are given. The writer presents his assessment of the state of affairs in Salt Lake City:

Things are as different here from what they are represented in England as darkness from light. People dare not say their souls are their own; in other words, they dare not give their opinion upon anything in opposition to what the authorities say. If they do, it is at the risk of their lives; in fact, I am writing this at the risk of my life, which would be forfeited if they found me out.

The writer paints a very negative picture of how the English are treated upon their arrival in Salt Lake City. He advises all English converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to stay in England. The letter, reprinted from the Manchester Guardian, bears few if any marks of authenticity.

1855: 16 February, The Cambrian (140 words). “The Mormonites.”

About the proselytizing efforts of the Latter-day Saints.

The emissaries of the Mormonites are most active in various parts of South Wales in spreading the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints, and among the laboring and ignorant population they are particularly zealous in urging the advisability of polygamy.

The writer laments that this religion has had success not only among the poorer classes but also among some of the “wealthier people” of South Wales.

1855: 17 February, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 10 (140 words). “The Mormonites in the West.”

For some time past there has been a small colony of Mormons in Taunton, and their practices have rendered them so offensive that they have on more than one occasion been attacked by mobs. These attacks have at last become so serious that the matter was brought before the magistrates a few days since. A large crown of persons, it appears, assembled round the meeting house of the Mormons, and broke the windows and did other damage, which rendered it necessary to call in the assistance of the police, when several of the offending parties were apprehended. The magistrate said that, however objectionable the doctrines of the Mormons might be—and no one felt stronger on the subject than himself—they must be protected by the law, and he therefore inflicted a small fine upon the offenders.

1855: 24 February, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 2 (140 words). “The Mormonites in the West.”

The same article as in the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald for 17 February 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: March, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 123 (50 words). “Mormonism Fails to Hold Light.”

The writer reports with great satisfaction:

One of the Mormons in London, convinced of the errors of Mormonism, by one of the small pamphlets of the Treatise Society, was the means of convincing a hundred of his previous friends by the same means. They had to leave this neighborhood, Bermondsey Street.

The pamphlet mentioned has not been identified.

1855: 3 March, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 4 (40 words).

Mr. J. T. Hammack calls attention, through the Times, to the proceedings of the Mormons, who are striving to supply their harems in America with young women from England; and they appear to be but too successful.

1855: 10 March, The Silurian, p. 3 (120 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

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

1855: 7 April, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 6 (825 words). “Horrible Mormon Revelations.”

An 1854 letter from an unnamed “young lady” whose father resides in Islington. In 1852, she had crossed the plains with the “sugar company.” She tells how horrible the crossing was and also how horrible Salt Lake City and the people were.

On the 1st of June, 1854, we quitted the “City of Abominations,” for such it truly is to all intents and purposes, and arrived at this place, K——, on the 15th of August.

1855: 12 April, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 5 (200 words). “Railway Accident.”

On Sunday morning last, a number of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, left Blaenavon by rail,to attend a gathering of the sect at Newport. They had previously made arrangements with the railway company to have a special train from Newport in the evening, which was provided for them, and everything on their return journey went on very well until they arrived at Pontypool, where an extra carriage was attached to the train for the accommodation of some members of the Wesley an connection of some members of the Wesley an connection, who had been attending an anniversary of the Wesleyan Sunday School at Pontypool. With this addition, the train consisted of three carriages, and proceeded towards Blaenavon, but on arriving at the Varteg Incline, the cranks of the engine broke, and a delay of about half an hour occurred while a pilot engine was being sent for to Pontypool. Some of the Mormons assert that the engine broke down inconsequence of the addition which was made to the train at Pontypool, while others say it was done at the bidding of one of the elders, who had been called upon by an unbeliever to perform a miracle.

1855: 13 April, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (55 words). “The Mormons.”

A large number of these deluded people left Swansea, on Wednesday afternoon last, by the Blarney from Liverpool, en route to the Salt Lakes of America. The party seemed to consist chiefly of small farmers from Carmarthenshire and the neighborhood of Swansea, with their wives and daughters, many of the latter being apparently respectable females.

1855: 20 April, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (36 words).

Jersey. About 80 unfortunate people left this island by the Sir Francis Drake steamer last week for Plymouth thence to proceed across the Atlantic, on their way to the Mormon settlement on the “Great Salt Lake.”

1855: May, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 184 (815 words). “The Latter-day Saints.”

The writer, B. W., declares at the outset:

Perhaps there is no other current topic of such importance, in connection with the nation of the Welsh, as is Mormonism, whether they dwell in the hills of Wales or in the midst of the broad valleys of the United States is of no import; for it brings a special connection with the one and the other, and thus it merits the attention of the public in general.

The writer then states that the purpose of the article was to provide some warning to his fellow nation “lest they be deceived by the enticements of these false latter-day prophets.” He then presents his arguments against the practice of polygamy and issues an invitation to any of the Saints who “wish to reason on fair ground” to enter into a debate with him. And in the final paragraph, he gives his assessment of the lamentable situation of his fellow Welshmen who have gone to Salt Lake City:

If time permitted, we could comment on several other topics in connection with Mormonism. Nevertheless, my fellow nation can plainly see that the Salt Lake and environs are no paradise. No, there are thousands there this day who lament having been persuaded to leave the land of their birth and who wait fretfully to see the day dawn in which they will be able to escape the clutches of their cruel betrayers.

1855: May, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), pp. 222–24 (105 words).

Focuses on the scripture 1 Corinthians 15:29, which has to do with the baptism of the dead. The only connection the article has with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in a very sarcastic footnote:

Yesterday, as I was conversing with a friend about your questions, Mr. Crwt, I heard that the “Latter-day Saints” baptize for the dead. If that is true, it just adds to the list of amusing things. And that people, in a religious consideration, are not worthy of Christian commiseration, for they deny the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the only religious standard; therefore, they are beyond the boundary, in the same wilderness with the Muslims, Hindus, etc., and if they do not return, let them go to the Salt Lake Valley, or the valley of the other lake, to their own place.[28]

1855: 11 May, The Cambrian (345 words). “Pocket Picking in the Saints’ Hall, Orange Street.”

On Tuesday evening last Mr. Murray, French polisher, and his wife, were led by curiosity to enter the hall, perhaps being anxious to hear the peculiar tenets held and practiced by these fanatics. We know not whether the preacher was descanting upon the first great principle of human nature “protect thyself” (ergo thy pockets) or whether he was enforcing with equal warmth the commandment “Thou shalt not steal,” but true it is that after Mrs. Murray had been in the hall for about 20 minutes she discovered that her pocket had been picked of five shillings and a penny; thus proving that whilst Captain Dan Jones or one of his satellites was talking, one of his audience (setting at defiance every principle of morality or common honesty) was acting and leisurely helping himself to the contents of his neighbor’s pocket.

The writer sees this incident as a “literal translation” of the scripture in Matthew 21:13, which he quotes as “Ye have turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves.”

1855: June, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 240 (70 words). “Mormon Colony.”

A brief notice of the arrival of the ship the Siddons in Philadelphia. Unlike most articles with any mention of “Mormons,” this one has nothing negative about them. It even has a positive comment about the arrivals:

The ship Siddons reached Philadelphia lately, from Liverpool, with 425 Mormon immigrants on their journey, as evidenced by the directions on their chests, to “Salt Lake City.” They were composed of British families, English and Welsh, and they had a healthy look to them. We saw 250 of the same religion headed to the same place, after starting from Swansea, at the beginning of last April.

Episode 12.3

Start: The Edinburgh Review prints six installments about “Mormonism”

1855: June, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 170–74 (3,050 words). “Mormonism.”

This article, appearing in six parts, was originally printed in English in the Edinburg Review, then translated into Welsh to appear in the Baptist. The source and some further information appears in a footnote in this first installment:

The following observations on Mormonism are a Review on a great number of Mormon Books which appeared lately in the Edinburgh Review.[29]

1855: July, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 194–98 (3,255 words). “Mormonism,” the second installment.

1855: September, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 260–63 (2,250 words). “Mormonism,” the third installment.

1855: October, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 293–96 (3,030 words). “Mormonism,” the fourth installment.

1855: November, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 326–29 (2,840 words). “Mormonism,” the fifth installment.

This is the only installment that has any content that specifically relates to Wales—a modified quote from a 6 January 1849 letter of Dan Jones to Orson Pratt about evil spirits that caused a great commotion in a conference held a few days earlier in Merthyr Tydfil:

But there are scenes much more abominable taking place in the casting out of evil spirits. Daniel [sic] Jones, who at present is one of the three “Presidents of the Church in Wales,” describes the following event in which he was acting as conjurer: “All during this time the evil spirits were causing the greatest disturbance by calling out, ‘Old Captain, have you come to trouble us? Damned old Captain, we will hold you a battle.’ Many other expressions used would be indecent to utter and others useless, I suppose. Some spoke English through one that knew no English herself. Others spoke in tongues, praying for a reinforcement of evil spirits, and chiding some dreadfully by names, such as Borona, Menta, Philo. They swore that they would not depart, unless old Brigham Young would come from America to them.”[30]

1855: December, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 354–58 (3,360 words). “Mormonism,” the sixth installment.

At the end of this sixth installment is an indication that the series is to be continued in the next issue of the Baptist. A thorough search has failed to reveal any further installments.

End: The Edinburgh Review prints six installments about “Mormonism”

1855: 29 June, The Cambrian (42 words).

A brief report from the Swansea Petty Sessions records:

Monday (before J. T. Jenkins, Esq., Mayor) James George, horse jobber, of Norton; John Cutliffe, an Elder of the Latter-day Saints Church; [and others] were severally charged with drunken and disorderly conduct in the public streets and were each fined 5s. and costs.

1855: 2 June, North Wales Chronicle, p. 2 (170 words). “Mormons on Slavery.”

Brigham Young, the High Priest of the Mormons at the Great Salt Lake, has recently issued a manifesto, in which he replies to charges brought against the Mormons by the people of the United States. He states that the charge against the Mormons of being hostile to American slavery is a calumny. His words are: “The seed of Ham, which is the seed of Cain descending through Ham, will, according to the curse put upon him, serve his brethren, and be a ‘servant of servants’ to his fellow-creatures, until God removes the curse, and no power can hinder it. But the conduct of the whites towards the slaves will, in many cases, send both slave and master to hell. The blacks should be used like servants, and not like brutes; but they must serve. It is their privilege to live so as to enjoy many of the blessings which attend obedience to the first principles of the gospel, though they are not entitled to the priesthood.”

1855: July, Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (The Wesleyan Treasury), p. 251 (100 words). “Mormon Wife.”

A short time ago a lady in Frostburg, [Maryland, in] America, was taken up on the accusation of being in possession of five husbands, all them alive, but living in different parts of the country. When the Judge asked her the reason for such behavior, she said that the old things have gone by, and the rites have changed; “for,” said she, “in every age of the world men have had more than one wife, and from now on the women will have more than one husband; for in those days one woman will take hold of seven men.”[31]

The reporter of this information does not state that the woman was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the title implies that she was. Accuracy and responsible verification of the facts were generally not allowed to get in the way of casting the Latter-day Saints in a bad light at every opportunity in this and many other publications.

1855: 6 July, The Cambrian (90 words).

An “apology” from the editor that was requested with regard to the brief report given in the newspaper for the previous week:

We are requested by some three or four members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to contradict the statement made in our last to the effect that John Cutliffe, the man charged on Monday week with drunken and disorderly conduct in the public streets, belongs to the Church. As we wish to give fair play to everyone, we willingly recall our statement; but may add that some three or four police officers can testify that the defendant himself admitted whilst drunk that he did belong to this body.

1855: 21 July, Wrexham Advertiser, p. 4 (175 words).

An anonymous letter preceded by the following editor’s comment:

Ruthin. The following is an extract of a letter from a respectable man residing at St. Louis, Missouri, America, a native of Ruthin. It is hoped it will have the effect of cautioning others from being entrapped by the devices and snares of a hypocritical and deceiving set of pretenders who, from the tenor of this letter, add robbery and peculation to deceit and falsehood.

Here is the letter:

St. Louis 6th June, 1855. Dear Mother—I have a man and his wife just arrived here with the Mormons from Abergele; his name is Richard Morgan Stevens. They are cousins to Mr. Prichard, late gardener at Llanbedr Hall, near Ruthin. They came here in a very destitute condition. They had all their things taken from them by the Mormon ministers. There are hundreds of them about here in the same condition, and many dying for want of food and lodgings. They are acquainted with Edward Roberts’s two sons, of Borthy. They wish the truth of their condition to be made public in Wales, to prevent others from being deceived.

On the shipping list of the Chimborazo, which landed in Philadelphia on 21 May 1855, there is a couple from Abergele by the name of Richard Stephens (age 37), a tailor, and Anne Stephens (age 40). The writer may have confused the cities of St. Louis and Philadelphia.

1855: 18 July, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 3 (175 words).

The same letter as appears in the Wrexham Advertiser for 21 July 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 28 July, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 2 (600 words). “Mormonism as It Is.”

The account of a “Mrs. Parsons” in London who, along with her husband, had become a Latter-day Saint about ten years earlier. While her husband was off serving missions, Mrs. Parsons went with her two children to St. Louis where he later caught up with her. He went on ahead to Atchison, Kansas, where she later caught up with him. Upon learning that he had two other wives, Mrs. Parsons begged him to leave them and take care of her. When he refused to do so, she decided to take the children and leave. A “generous citizen” was kind enough to “secure a place for her in the Home of the Friendless, and provided a temporary retreat for her children.” This account is taken from the St. Louis News.

1855: August, Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (The Wesleyan Treasury), pp. 272–76 (3,890 words). “Mormonism, or the Tenets of the Latter-day Saints Exposed and Refuted.”

In his opening paragraph, the writer observes:

Mormonism has created quite a commotion in Wales during the last few years. A large number of our compatriots have fallen victim to this religious falsehood. Neither the pulpit nor the press have done their part to deliver our nation from the seductive doctrine of Joe Smith.[32]

He then refutes the general attitude of the English toward the Welsh and offers an explanation:

Some of the English accuse us of being ignorant as a nation, and extremely ready to accept every kind of heresy. But it was not in Wales that Mormonism had its start, rather in America, among the English; and from there it spread to England, and then to Wales.[33]

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Welsh had become a Nonconformist nation with regard to religion, the bulk of them having put aside the Anglican Church in favor of Nonconformity. This transformation may well have been the writer’s reason for saying, “It may be that we are as free from deadly heresy as any people.” But he then softens his stance a bit except for his exclusion of two camps:

The truth in its main points is believed and taught by all the denominations in general, except those who deny the divinity of Christ and the Mormons.[34]

The writer aligns himself with many other preachers and editors in Wales by classifying the “Mormons” with non-Christian heathens in general. He then declares what he believes to be the basic objection to the religion founded by Joseph Smith:

The immorality of the Mormons is in their behavior instead of in their standard works; but since continual revelation is going on, is it possible that some inspiration descends to teach immorality of the worst kind?[35]

The lengthy article that follows is presented under ten headings:

1. Opening observations
2. Rise of the Mormon deceit
3. The rapid spread of the Mormon deceit
4. Reasons for resisting Mormonism
5. Every man in his right senses must completely refuse the Book of Mormon
6. Internal and external proofs show that the Book of Mormon contains lies and heresies
7. Not one single book exists that co-testifies in favor of the Book of Mormon
8. We fully reject the Book of Mormon because Joseph Smith was a man of indecent morals
9. Joe Smith and his followers allow polygamy
10. Mormonism adds to the word of God

1855: August, Yr Eurgrawn (The Treasury), p. 284 (65 words).

A brief notice concerning the families of Brigham Young and his counselor Heber C. Kimball:

Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormons, is building two great and splendid houses next to the one he currently lives in, in Salt Lake City, to have space for his growing family. He is now rejoicing in the possession of from fifty to sixty wives, and from forty to fifty children. Elder Kimball, one of the Mormon apostles, has between sixty and seventy wives.

1855: 11 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 5 (12 words).

The Mormons at the Salt Lake are likely to suffer from famine.

1855: 11 August, Usk Observer, p. 6 (260 words).

“An officer belonging to Colonel Steptoe’s command, now stationed at Salt Lake City, in a letter to the Providence Journal,” writes of the condition of the Latter-day Saint women:

Their condition is infinitely worse than that of the slaves of the South. . . . Their case is peculiarly hard, separated by hundreds of miles of plain and dessert from the outside world brought here by false inducements, degraded and oppressed, with no hope of succor—they are in great, very great numbers, entirely disaffected. They abhor the very thought of polygamy, the very name of Mormonism. This is the simple truth.

1855: 15 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (87 words).

From Utah territory a week’s later advices have been received. The Mormons in the valley of the Great Salt Lake were anticipating a famine. All the crops were being devoured by insects, and flour was very scarce, at the price of six dollars per 100 lbs. A person, of the name of Young, who has commenced lectures among the Mormons, advises his brethren to take short excursions throughout the country. With their families. This Mormon acknowledges to the possession of ninety wives, and a multitude of children.

1855: 18 August, Wrexham Advertiser, p. 3 (36 words).

The Mormons in the valley of the Great Salt Lake are anticipating a famine. All the crops were being devoured by insects, and flour was very scarce at the price of 6 dollars per 100 lbs.

1855: 18 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (785 words). “Prospect of Famine amongst the Mormons.”

An article reprinted from the New York Herald about the dire circumstances faced by the residents of Utah. The writer predicts that “it is quite possible that the kingdom and the institution of Mormondom will be extinguished or expelled from our western territories within a few years, by causes and instruments which have never entered into the calculations of saints, philosophers, or politicians.” In this long article, the writer also presents considerable background and commentary on the practice of polygamy among the Latter-day Saints.

1855: 18 August, The Silurian, p. 7 (1,255 words).

This is the same article as appears in the Monmouthshire Merlin for the same date (see above entry), with three additional paragraphs.

1855: 18 August, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 10 (90 words). “Mormon Emigration.”

From a statement contained in the weekly organ of these fanatical people, and which now openly espouses the principle of polygamy, it seems that in the half-year between November 1854 and April 1855, the number of Mormonites who left the port of Liverpool for the United States, en route for the Salt Lake, was 3,626, of whom 2,291 were English, 401 Scotch, 287 Welsh, etc. The total number of the Scandinavian mission is said to have been 533, of whom 409 were Danes, 71 Swedes, and 53 Norwegians.

1855: 18 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 6 (205 words). “California.”

The writer begins his article with information about Colonel Steptoe’s arrival in California with his troops and the preparations being made by the Latter-day Saints to fortify their city. He observes:

These wretches are the very scum and refuse of the earth, and the Government ought to burn the town about their ears.

He also comments about the arrival of Orson Hyde “accompanied by fifteen wives!”

1855: 18 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 5 (105 words). “Progress of Mormonism.”

Twenty-five years ago, the “Prophet” Joseph Smith organized the Mormon Church with six members. At the present time, the Church in Utah Territory contains three presidents, seven apostles, 2026 “seventies,” 715 high priests, 994 elders, 514 priests, 471 teachers, 227 deacons besides the usual ratio of persons in training for the ministry, but not yet ordained, and 489 missionaries abroad. During the six months ending with the beginning of April last, 965 children were born in the territory of Utah, 278 persons died, 479 were baptized in the Mormon faith, and 86 were excommunicated from the Church. [Reprinted from] New York Paper.

1855: 18 August, North Wales Chronicle, p. 6, Item 1 (105 words). “Progress of Mormonism.”

This is the exact same article as appeared in the Monmouthshire Merlin for the same date (see previous entry).

1855: 18 August, North Wales Chronicle, p. 6, Item 2 (230 words). “The Mormons Again.”

The Mormons in the valley of the Great Salt Lake were anticipating a famine. The crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts devoured everything in the fields and gardens, and, in spite of active and unceasing efforts to counteract their deprecations, there was little hope of the crops arriving at maturity. Add to this calamity the ravages of the Indians—who seem to have again broken from the control of the whites—and it will be admitted that the Latter-day Saints are in a bad way; to say nothing of flour selling at six dollars per hundred, and very scarce at that price. In view of this state of things, Brigham Young, who had just returned from a jaunt through the country, delivered an address, wherein he advised the faithful to take short excursions with their families, taking care, however, to leave the babies at home. Young acknowledges to the possession of ninety wives, and of children a multitude, and he believes it would promote their health and cheer them up to camp out. The ravages of the insects and the total destruction of the crops suggest the probability of the Mormons abandoning their settlements at the Great Salt Lake City. Supplies cannot be procured nearer than San Bernardino, which is 800 miles distant, and the excursions recommended by the governor may be but the preliminary to a general movement.

1855: 25 August, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (230 words). “Progress of Mormonism.”

This is the same article that appeared a week earlier under the same title in the Monmouthshire Merlin.[36]

1855: September, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 287–88 (1,060 words). “The Likely Destruction of the Mormons.”

A detailed description of the predicted doom of the Latter-day Saints in Utah and elsewhere. The opening paragraph sets the stage:

According to the latest accounts which have come to us from Utah, it is quite likely that the Mormon kingdom and settlement will be utterly destroyed, or they will be exiled from our western territories within a very few years, by causes and means which have never before come to the imagination of saints, philosophers, or rulers.[37]

The writer then explains that grasshoppers and crickets have devasted the recent crops, leaving the land desolate, and that despite the intervention of the seagulls, the future looks bleak. Here is his final statement:

Consequently, being cut off from receiving any outside assistance or deliverance, there is but one choice left for the Mormons, after the destruction of their crops over one harvest, but to emigrate to look for bread, or to starve to death if they do not.[38]

1855: September, Yr Eurgrawn (The Treasury), pp. 319–20 (310 words). “Heinousness of Mormonism.”

This article, taken from the Cambridge Chronicle, contains the Welsh translation of a letter sent from Salt Lake City by a “woman who had embraced Mormon deceit and had gone to the abode of Mormonism in America.” The letter contains no specific details and bears all the markings of a fictitious creation. Here is a sample of its contents:

You dare not speak your mind; you are surrounded by spies who carry every word that may resemble dissatisfaction; you do not know whom you can trust; in short, you distrust everyone, and everyone distrusts you. A human life is of no worth here; cutting throats is spoken of with as little concern as cutting fingernails; truly, if it is thought that you are separating yourself from their principles, it is considered a kindness to kill you, so that your soul will be saved.[39]

The supposed writer declares her fear and a plea:

Here I have become so fearful that I cannot take pleasure in anything; in the midst of all the wickedness and evil that are here, my every wish is for life to cease. Think of me, and pray for me.[40]

1855: September, Yr Haul (The Sun), p. 299, Item 1 (75 words). “The Mormons.”

The impending famine in the Salt Lake Valley:

The New York Herald says that the Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley are being threatened with a frightful famine. It appears that crickets, locusts, and grasshoppers have destroyed and are destroying the country’s entire crop. It is said that the Mormon settlement there will be completely broken, and in all likelihood, thousands will starve to death. What will Brigham Young do with his wives? It is said that he has about ninety of them.

1855: September, Yr Haul (Sun), p. 299, Item 2 (60 words). “Success of Mormonism.”

Twenty-five years after the thing called the Mormon Church was formed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, presently there are 3 main officials in the territory of Utah; 7 apostles; 2026 seventies; 715 high priests; 994 elders; 514 priests; 471 teachers; 227 deacons; and 48 missionaries in various countries. Is it not very strange that this strange deceit has succeeded?

1855: 1 September, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 2 (95 words). “Explosion of Fire Damp.”

We regret to state that on Monday morning, at nine o’clock, a fearful explosion of fire damp took place in the New Colliery, at this place, by which five men were dreadfully burnt. It is supposed that the ignition took place through one of the men having secured the gauze of his lamp too loosely. Three of the unfortunate men are Mormons, and rumors are rife of the cures which the “Mormon oil,” administered by the “Elders,” will produce in this lamentable case. The men were all much injured.

1855: 8 September, North Wales Chronicle, p. 6 (35 words). “A Mormon ‘Saint’ and his Wives.”

Orson Hyde, one of the Mormon saints, was lately in St. Louis, for the purpose, it is said, of marrying twelve more wives, to whom he is affianced!

1855: 15 September, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 6 (35 words).

The same article as appeared in the North Wales Chronicle for 8 September 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 15 September, North Wales Chronicle, p. 6 (40 words).

News from Great Salt Lake City to the 1st of July has come to hand. The grasshoppers had destroyed the third crop of grain, and starvation or an abandonment of the settlements were the alternatives presented to the Mormons.

1855: 15 September, Merthyr Telegraph, p. 4 (40 words).

The same article as appears in the North Wales Chronicle for the same date (see previous entry).

1855: 22 September, The Silurian, p. 2 (65 words).

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

1855: 29 September, The Silurian, p. 5 (65 words).

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

1855: 29 September, Merthyr Telegraph p. 2 (65 words). “Chapel Anniversary.”

The same information as appears in The Silurian for 29 September 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: October, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), p. 404 (100 words). “The Mormons.”

The Mormons in Salt Lake City are afflicted greatly by locusts, crickets, and a kind of destructive fleas. This is the third year that the locusts have destroyed their crops. At present the land of promise is not before the Mormons; rather they must starve or flee for their lives. Can it be that the senseless and deceitful wretches will come to see their error when the famine comes upon them? Until now they have scorned reason and the gospel; but it is likely that the locusts will bring the wisest of them to their senses.

1855: 6 October, North Wales Chronicle, p. 7 (240 words). “Revolt of the Mormon Wives.”

While the Government troops were at the holy city of Great Salt Lake, these soldiers appropriated every opportunity to take the wives and daughters of the saints out walking and riding—especially sleigh-riding—and the havoc which they thus made among the beauties of the principality may be partly conjectured from the announcement that they carried off with them an indefinite number of the Mormons fair ones, “for better or for worse”—“sink or swim, survive or perish”—en route for California. This is momentous news, and very significant withal. It shows that the Mormon women are ripe for rebellion, and that a detachment of the regular army is a greater terror to the patriarchs of the Mormon Jerusalem than Indians, or drought, or grasshoppers. It indicates the way, too, for the extinction of the peculiar institutions of Utah. The astonishing results of the expedition of Colonel Steptoe in this view do most distinctly suggest the future policy of the Government touching this next of Mormons. It is to send out to the Great Salt Lake a fresh detachment of young and good-looking soldiers, and at the end of two or three months order them off to California, and replace them by a new detachment at Salt Lake City, and so on, till those Turks of the desert are reduced by feminine desertions to the standard Christian regulation of one wife apiece. [Reprinted from the] New York Herald.

1855: 6 October, Wrexham Advertiser, p. 2 (240 words).

This is the same article as appears in the North Wales Chronicle for 6 October 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 27 October, North Wales Chronicle, p.6 (530 words). “Mormonism at the Salt Lake.”

A letter, reprinted from the Edinburgh News two weeks before, written by “a Mormonite” who signs himself “One of the Deluded.” He tells of his extremely negative experience in making the journey to Salt Lake City: all his belongings were taken from him, Brigham Young would do nothing for him, he was threatened by the “destroying angels,” thousands would gladly make their escape if they could, and women are terribly degraded.

1855: 17 November, North Wales Chronicle, p. 5 (95 words). “A Desperate Mormon.”

I have never yet talked so rough in these mountains as I did in the United States when they killed Joseph (Smith). I there said boldly and aloud, “If ever a man should lay his hands on me, and say, on account of my religion, ‘You are my prisoner,’ the Lord Almighty helping me, I would send that man to eternity.” I feel so now. Let mobbers keep their hands off me, or I will send them where they belong. I am always prepared for such an emergency. —Brigham Young.

1855: 8 December, North Wales Chronicle, p. 4 (1,340 words). “The Mormons.”

A long article from the New York Herald that presents many details about Salt Lake City.

Episode 12.4

Start: Dan Jones exposes an exposé in sixteen pages

1855: pre-October, Yr Amserau (The Times), nonextant.

Sometime before 27 October 1855, a Welsh translation of segments of an 1855 anonymous novel about polygamy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeared in the Times. Unfortunately, the issues of The Times containing these segments are missing from the National Library of Wales’s newspaper collection, and research has failed to unearth them elsewhere. The novel in question is Female Life Among the Mormons; a Narrative of Many Years’ Personal Experience by the Wife of a Mormon Elder, recently from Utah, published by J. C. Derby in New York in 1855. The Times’s printing of the segments evidently came to the attention of Dan Jones, who unleashed a vitriolic critique of them in two separate issues of Zion’s Trumpet—a critique that began on 27 October 1855 and extends to 10 November 1855 (see next entries).

1855: 27 October, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 337–44 (3,460 words). “The Times with Its Carcass in Its Mouth!” Part 1.

Jones states angrily at the outset of his article:

Even though we have read everything that we could lay our hands on of the filth of the scum of authors and editors in every language we understand for over a dozen years, having to hold our nose tightly many times, while we analyzed the malodorous entrails of their anti-Mormon bug bears searching for a crumb of truth, we confess that this dirty bag is the filthiest of all.[41]

He declares the book to be “entirely fictitious”[42] and points out numerous historical inaccuracies in support of his position. Here are a few assertions made by Female Life’s author with which Jones takes issue and provides corrections:

1. Joseph Smith is killed while riding horseback with a woman behind him—he was assassinated while in prison.
2. Joseph Smith is described as having “piercing black eyes”—he had light-colored eyes.
3. The Saints traveled to Nauvoo from New York—it was from Missouri.
4. It was one month after the Martyrdom that the Saints left Nauvoo—it was in fact two years.

1855: 10 November, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 353–61 (3,730 words). “The Times with Its Carcass in Its Mouth!” Part 2.

After sixteen pages of outrage across two issues, Jones concludes:

The editor of the Times proves himself totally unfit to edit any publication and unworthy of the trust of the public by lowering himself with this shameless stream of lies, and not a single man or woman who possesses a grain of true religion will ever believe him again, we should think, whenever he delivers his opinion about any religion of his fellowmen.[43]

End: Dan Jones exposes an exposé in sixteen pages

1855: 3 November, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 6 (530 words). “Mormonism at the Salt Lake.”

The same article as appeared in the North Wales Chronicle for 27 October 1855 (see previous entry).

1855: 1 December, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 6 (315 words). “Disturbance of a Mormon Congregation.”

A Worcester Chronicle account of a Latter-day Saint meeting in Worcester about polygamy. When discussion was invited from those in attendance, many questions were asked that prompted the leader to have the gathering “take shelter in a hymn.”

This, however, was not allowed by the audience, who drowned the music with shouts, stamps, cat-calls, hisses, and the firing of a cracker, which reprehensible proceeding filled the female portion of the audience with alarm. Shortly after this, and when order had been somewhat restored, the gas was suddenly turned out, and then arose a din almost deafening. A rush was made for the door, a very narrow aperture, causing the upsetting of benches and forms, and this, together with shrieks and screams of women, who were being terribly crushed, and some of whom had little children in their arms; and the cries of boys and girls, and shouts for candles, completed a scene such as might be fit for Pandemonium, but not at all to be expected in a licensed place of worship.

The sequel to all of the above is also included:

On Tuesday, at the meeting of the town council, Mr. Watkins called attention to “a nest of infamy” in Carden Street, where the Latter-day Saints assembled and promulgated doctrines more calculated to injure the morals of the rising generation than anything since the creation of the world. The mayor said he could not interfere in matters of opinion.

1855: 1 December, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 10 (50 words). “Renewed Disturbance of a Mormon Congregation at Worcester.”

This is the same article, with only a few differences, as appeared in the Monmouthshire Merlin for 1 December 1855, p. 6.

1855: 29 December, Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, p. 3 (50 words). “The Mormonites.”

At the forthcoming Dover sessions the question will be brought forward for the Recorder’s decision, whether Mormonites are protestant dissenters. This arises from the charge recently preferred against a young man for disturbing public worship in a Mormonite meeting house, when the magistrates held the offender to bail.

Notes

[1] This English-language pamphlet is available online at https://archive.org/details/mormonismunveile00davi/mode/2up.

[2] For the English translation of this pamphlet see Defending the Faith: Early Welsh Missionary Publications, Item J27.

[3] Zion’s Trumpet, 14 April 1855, 116.

[4] Hepburn’s pamphlet is posted at https://archive.org/details/mormonismexplode00hepb/mode/2up.

[5] Revivalist, 22 January 1857, 31.

[6] Zion’s Trumpet, 27 October 1855, 337–44, 353–61.

[7] Ibid., 337, emphasis in original.

[8] Ibid., 360.

[9] The second edition of this is available online at https://archive.org/details/mormonismunveile00davi/mode/2up.

[10] 2 Timothy 3:12, in Zion’s Trumpet, 14 April 1855, 113.

[11] Ibid., 116.

[12] 1 Timothy 6:5, in ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid., 119.

[15] Zion’s Trumpet, 28 April 1855, 136–37, emphasis in original.

[16] Ibid., 137.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid., 138.

[23] Ibid., 139.

[24] It is available at https://archive.org/details/mormonismexplode00hepb/mode/2up.

[25] Zion’s Trumpet, 12 May 1855, 154.

[26] Zion’s Trumpet, 26 May 1855, 172.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Star of Gomer, May 1855, 223.

[29] Baptist, June 1855, 170.

[30] Baptist, November 1855, 329. See also Dan Jones to Orson Pratt, 6 January 1849, Millennial Star 11:39.

[31] See Isaiah 4:1.

[32] Wesleyan Treasury, August 1855, 272.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Monmouthshire Merlin, 18 August 1855, 5.

[37] Baptist, September 1855, 287.

[38] Ibid., 288.

[39] Treasury, September 1855, 319–20.

[40] Ibid., 320.

[41] Zion’s Trumpet, 27 October 1855, 337.

[42] Ibid., 341.

[43] Zion’s Trumpet, 10 November 1855, 360.