With regard to its prolific output and in consideration of the penurious circumstances of both publishers and buyers, the nineteenth-century Welsh Mormon press is truly a remarkable phenomenon. It produced the full range of printed materials required by an organization such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

The Standard Works in their entirety (nearly 800 pages)

Four hymnals, the last of which contains 575 hymns

Record books and preaching licenses

Handbills and “tea party” programs

A 288-page scriptural defense of Mormonism

Nearly fifty doctrinal pamphlets

A dozen polemical pamphlets in defense of the LDS faith against the attacks of the opponents A history of the Church—the first comprehensive history of the

LDS church in any language The first Mormon tract in the French language Fifteen poems, one of which had at least four editions Several letters from fellow Mormons who had emigrated from

Wales to their Zion A periodical (under two titles) of sixteen years’ duration (weekly issues for nearly ten years).

It is more than just happenstance that the printing of Mormon materials in the Welsh language coincided with the surge in convert baptisms in Wales during the mid-nineteenth century. It would be hard to evaluate to what extent there existed a cause-and-effect relationship; however, many Welsh people who became Mormons gave credit for their conversion to being able to read about Mormonism in their own language. And William Howells praised Dan Jones’s rebuttal to the opposition of the Rev. E. Roberts (item 17) as the initial and most important factor in his decision to be baptized.

In March 1856, as he prepared to leave his native land for the last time, Dan Jones reported on his stewardship to Samuel W. Richards and made the following observation:

These pamphlets, under the blessing of God, have been influential assailants of the partition wall raised by priestcraft between the people and the truth, and have wiped away the stigma with which press and pulpit have so studiously attempted to bespatter our holy religion and the unblemished characters of its bravest advocates. (Millennial Star, 19 April 1856, p. 244).