1851

Episodes

8.1—Henry Wilkins writes a letter to his father in Wales and another to William Phillips

8.2—Baptist minister Dewi Elfed Jones joins the Saints, is excommunicated, and is reinstated

8.3—T�� Star of Gomer will not advertise LDS publications—the Star of Wales will

8.4—William Phillips defends the Church from attacks in six different periodicals

8.5—William Jones from Bethesda writes a pamphlet, and John S. Davis responds

Salient Events

11 January 1851—The first issue of the Welsh periodical Zion’s Trumpet comes off the press as a biweekly publication. Unlike the 1849 and 1850 volumes, the individual issues had no four-page printed wrappers, and the number of pages was reduced to sixteen.
22 February 1851—The first sixteen-page segment of the Welsh translation of the Doctrine and Covenants is sent out with the 22 February 1851 issue of Zion’s Trumpet. John S. Davis had “received counsel” to translate the Doctrine and Covenants into Welsh in August 1850, and his plan was to print the translation in signatures of sixteen pages and send them out with the biweekly issues of Zion’s Trumpet. The subscribers were to save all the signatures, and upon receiving the final signature, they could have all of them bound, thus having their own complete copy of this book of scripture. Perhaps to lighten the burden of producing thirty-two pages in print every two weeks—sixteen pages for the periodical and sixteen translated pages for the latest signature of the Doctrine and Covenants—Davis elected to include a segment of “Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs” for each of the first twelve weeks of his periodical (11 January through 14 June). Merely having an assistant set the type for a few pages of the 1822 Welsh translation of this Jewish work—part of the pseudepigrapha—was a much simpler task than for Davis to write or translate those pages.
4 March 1851—William Howells, the lay Baptist minister who three years earlier had walked from Aberdare to Merthyr Tydfil to request baptism after reading a pamphlet by Dan Jones, embarks with his family on The Olympus. In his 27 April 1851 report of the voyage to President Franklin D. Richards, Howells uses idyllic language to report the terrific storm that occurred the night of 22 March:

The evening shades of darkness caused all to retire to their berths, on each side of our extensive bedroom, about thirty yards long by eight wide, containing about 300 devotees of Morpheus [the Greek god of sleep], but this night he received little attention, for Boreas [the Greek god of the north wind and winter] by 10 p.m., caused, under a covering of darkness, one of his light artillery to go forth in sharp breezes, causing the rippling billows to increase into wild mountainous waves, that caused the ship to tremble, shake, crack, and rock from side to side, like a drunken man. The Saints being novices in sea life, the sight and circumstances were new to all. The raging and roaring of the boisterous elements, with the noise of falling and rolling tins and bottles caused not the least confusion or fear in the bosoms of those who have been truly likened to Mount Zion.[1]

Wilson G. Nowers, who had been baptized a member of the Church just two days before the departure of The Olympus, overheard the ship’s captain instruct Mr. Hamilton, the second mate:

You go to the captain of the Mormons and tell him from Captain Wilson that if the God of the Mormons can do anything to save the ship and the people, they had better be calling on Him to do so, for we are now sinking at the rate of a foot every hour; and if the storm continues, we shall all be at the bottom of the ocean before daylight.[2]

Nowers accompanied Hamilton to the lower deck and later wrote:

We made our way to Elder William Howell, who had charge of the company of Saints. Finding him in his bed we aroused him and delivered our message. In response he said, in a surprisingly calm tone, “Very well. You may tell Captain Wilson that we are not going to the bottom of the ocean, for we embarked from Liverpool on a voyage for New Orleans, and we will arrive safely in that port. Our God will protect us.” Mr. Hamilton returned to deliver the reply to Captain Wilson, but I remained with my brethren. The scene between decks can scarcely be described; all was confusion; trunks and packages that were not properly secured were rolling and sliding from one side to the other. Some of the passengers were crying, others praying, and again others trying to feel composed. President Howell arose, dressed himself, and called a few of the brethren (about 12, myself included) to his side, all of whom engaged in prayer, one after another, as directed by the President, who finally prayed himself. While he was still engaged in prayer, I noticed a material change in the motion of the ship; for instead of her rolling and pitching as she had been doing, she seemed to tremble as one suffering from the effects of a severe cold. Varied thoughts passed through my mind; I could not entertain the idea that the vessel was sinking, nor could I realize that the storm had so suddenly abated. At the close of the prayer of President Howell, all responded with a hearty Amen, and we arose from our position. President Howell then remarked, “You may all retire to your beds.” I returned to the deck to find that the storm had miraculously ceased; the wind had gone down, and the waves were stilled immediately round about the ship, while in the distance the billows were still raging. The vessel trembled and seemed to quiver at the effects of so sudden a change.[3]

Nowers ends his report with this comment: “During the voyage, fifty persons were baptized, including one baptism just prior to embarking and one after the arrival of the company at New Orleans.”[4] Sadly, William Howells died at Council Bluffs just six months after his arrival there.[5]

April 1851—The Baptist prints a letter from seventeen-year-old Henry Wilkins to his father, the Reverend James Wilkins, in which Henry outlines the negligent treatment he had received from his coreligionists since embarking with them on board the Joseph Badger on 17 October 1850. But the 17 May 1851 Zion’s Trumpet contains a letter in which young Henry Wilkins apologizes to William Phillips—the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales—for the earlier letter. See Episode 8.1.
27 April 1851—David Bevan “Dewi Elfed” Jones, the ordained Baptist minister in Aberaman, is baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Cynon River. Jones not only gave his heart and soul to his new religion but also presented to William Phillips the keys for Jones’s chapel, which he had raised funds to erect. Four years later, Jones was excommunicated for misuse of church funds and one year after this was reinstated. See Episode 8.2.
23 August 1851—The final of twenty signatures of the Doctrine and Covenants is sent out with this issue of Zion’s Trumpet. Since the first signature was sent out with the 22 February 1851 issue of John S. Davis’s periodical, it appears that more often than not, Davis was able to send out two signatures of the Doctrine and Covenants with each issue of Zion’s Trumpet—producing possibly as many as ninety-six published pages in a single month!
20 September 1851—The first signature of the Welsh translation of the Book of Mormon is sent out with this issue of Zion’s Trumpet. This first signature for the Book of Mormon came just four weeks after the final signature of the Welsh translation of the Doctrine and Covenants was sent out. Thirty-one weeks later, the final two signatures were sent out with the 17 April 1852 Zion’s Trumpet. Thus it appears that an average of two signatures of the Welsh Book of Mormon were sent out with each issue of Zion’s Trumpet. In John S. Davis’s foreword to the Welsh Book of Mormon, dated 6 April 1852 (probably in commemoration of the organization of the Church on that date twenty-two years earlier), Davis stated that the translation was “the best that could be done under disadvantages which the majority of translators do not labor under.” He explained that “perspicuity and plain language” had been sought more than “any kind of adornment.” Davis also declared to the antagonists of The Church of Jesus Christ in Wales, “Many of you have freely given your opinion of this book and condemned it without ever having seen it; but now after laboring so long under disadvantages, you can read it for yourselves and see whether your former opinions were correct.” Two interesting sidelights to the translation are preserved in a biographical sketch of Davis in Orson F. Whitney’s History of Utah: first, the entire translation was written with one quill pen; second, Samuel Evans, editor of the Star of Gomer (the Baptist periodical for which Davis had formerly worked), said that it was a “pity such valuable labor in producing so perfect a translation had been bestowed upon so worthless a work as the Book of Mormon.”[6] Davis’s foreword in Welsh and in English is posted on his profile on the Welsh Mormon History website.[7]
4 November 1851—Three men accost President William Phillips and Elder Lorenzo Snow in the middle of the night. After preaching to a large crowd in the Tredegar town hall, Phillips and Snow took their lodging in an eating house. They were not too concerned when they noticed that there was no lock on the door to their room, “not thinking anything bad would happen.” But during the night, three men entered their room, one with a lighted candle in his hand. They approached the bed, swearing at the two men in it. Phillips describes in the next issue of Zion’s Trumpet what the men did, after issuing many threats:

After that they began to drip the tallow of the candle on us, by slanting it above our heads, but we tried to hide our faces as best we could. Then they tried to set fire to the blankets, but failed completely. Brother Snow had a nightcap on his head, and they ordered him to take it off, which he did immediately, and then they tried to burn the nightcap in his hand, but they failed.[8]

The men tried to get Phillips and Snow out of bed, but the man with the candle “fell down and hit his back against the wall,” and the candle went out.

Then we sat up in the bed, and they were now vowing and swearing that they would kill us after lighting the candle. We feared lest they might harm us with a knife in the dark, but then we perceived that they had all gone out of our room.[9]

Leaning against the door, Phillips and Snow struggled to keep the men from re-entering the room. The commotion awoke the lady of the house, who then persuaded the men to come down to their own room. They did so, all the while swearing they would be back. Fortunately, they did not return. Phillips ended his account thus:

We thank God for saving us again this time: and we counsel all the elders, that if they sleep in such places, to make sure to lock the door of the room they sleep in; and if there is not a lock on it, let them sleep with one eye open.[10]

Commentary

1851: 11 January, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 14–17 (1,355 words). “The Nature of Miracles.” Addressed to “The Editor of the Star of Gomer.” This piece is the first part of an article written by John S. Davis that was originally published in the Star of Gomer in 1846.[11] The second part of this reprint is in the next issue of the 1851 Zion’s Trumpet.[12] Davis added a postscript explaining: “Since only a few of the Saints have seen the foregoing article of ours in the Star of Gomer, we thought that its publication in the Trumpet would be useful.” Another possible reason might have been Davis’s need for more time to translate the Doctrine and Covenants into Welsh. See Chapter 3 for further commentary.

1851: 18 January, The Silurian, p. 3 (125 words). “Mormon Emigration.” A report of the preparations being made “on a very extensive scale” for many Welsh Saints to leave in the spring for the Salt Lake Valley.

1851: 25 January, The Silurian,p. 1 (25 words). “C��ڴǰ��Ծ��.”

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

1851: 8 February, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 48–50 (850 words). “‘Nature of Miracles’ Again.” A reprint of an article that John S. Davis had published in the Star of Gomer in 1847,[13] as well as a response by “Meurig.”[14] See Chapter 3 for commentary.

1851: January, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 30 (280 words). “A Description of Joe Smith.” The writer gives a brief portrayal of Joseph Smith according to “a gentleman who recently visited the city of the Mormons.” The visitor had a brief interview with Joseph Smith during which the visitor placed a copy of the book of Psalms in Greek in Joseph’s hands and asked him to identify the language in which it was written. According to the visitor, Joseph responded that it was a dictionary in the Egyptian language. The writer tells the reader, “The book was Greek after all—which shows that poor Joe did not know any more about secrets of this nature than he knew about the carvings of the Egyptian pyramids.”

1851: January, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), pp. 44–45 (285 words). “Mormon Deceit.” This article is a brief report by “Gwilym ap Dewi” about Dafydd Jones, a Latter-day Saint who lived in the Abersychan area. Dafydd had injured his knee in a fall and was treated by a doctor. Some of his coreligionists convinced him to remove the medications applied by the doctor and to receive from them a blessing by the laying on of hands. The writer describes the result:

Their mistreatment brought inflammation and putrefaction; and the poor and superstitious creature died after a few days. Here is a warning again. The writer is truly sorry that any of his fellow countrymen are so illiterate, so lightheaded, and soft, and soulless as to accept being fooled and ridden by false louts which wander about the country to eat the bread of idleness, to take money from credulous fools, bringing distress, bad weather, and shame upon innocent families and making, also, religion into a subject of gossip for drunkards and atheists. There was an inquest on the dead man, but we have not heard the verdict.[15]

1851: February, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 66 (160 words). “Emigration of the Merthyr Mormons.” The writer laments that yet another group of “these lunatics” are making preparations to journey to “their imaginary heaven in California.” He declares:

They will be under the leadership of six of the most well-known from among their fanaticism and their foolishness, and who are now living comfortably in Aberdare! Can any of the prophets inform them how many of them will be dead on the sea, in New Orleans, or other places before reaching the end of the journey?

One of the six leaders mentioned above is William Howells, who was appointed the president of the company that crossed the sea on board the Olympus, which left Liverpool on 4 March 1851. In his 27 April 1851 letter sent from New Orleans to Franklin D. Richards, Howells reported that despite “the raging and roaring of the boisterous elements,” all the passengers survived except for two infants. He also mentioned the conversion and baptism of fifty souls from among the crew and other non-Latter-day Saint passengers.[16]

1851: February, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), pp. 59–60 (40 words). “Mormons.”

A Mormon preacher was taken up, recently, in Stanway, for stealing sheets, blankets, and other things. He had also charmed the wife of another man; and since the man got his wife back, he allowed the Mormon to go away unpunished.

1851: 21 February, The Cambrian (590 words). “Disgraceful Conduct of the Latter-day Saints at Ystradgynlais.” The writer tells of Mary Philips, “a member of this deluded sect,” who attempted to steal a large lump of coal. When Superintendent Vigors took Philips to the stationhouse, she told him that her brother was ill at home, and she was allowed to return home. The next morning, she filed a complaint “for attempt of rape against the officer in question.” When the case was heard a few days later, it was proved “that the complainant had on various other occasions threatened several other parties with [accusations of attempted] rape.” The writer concluded:

Such are the doings of this deluded sect in this neighborhood and how often do we read of their plunging one another to eternity by refusing medical aid when required. There are in this place about twenty of the Latter-day Saints, the greatest number of whom are of the lower order, and outcasts of other societies which are very well known to the inhabitants of the place.

1851: March, Y Drysorfa (The Treasury), p. 104 (420 words). “Latter-day Saints.” The writer expresses shock and concern that there are more than thirty thousand Latter-day Saints in Britain according to the Millennial Star. Especially troubling is the number of those in Wales—nearly five thousand. The writer reacts:

Is it possible for this to be true?—that there are nearly five thousand of these deceived ones in Wales? For the honor of our nation, we trust that this estimation is baseless.

He then relates the account of the baptism of a convert in the River Conwy. After the man was immersed, the officiator asked the convert whether he had seen the Holy Ghost upon coming up out of the water. Upon saying that he had not, the convert was immersed a second and then a third time.

By then, the poor creature, half dead, said that he had seen something but that he did not quite know what it was; and then the Rev. Mr. Deceiver assumed that he had witnessed the correct scene, and he went away.

The writer gives the solution to avoid being deceived by those who called themselves “Mormons”:

An ounce of common sense, not to mention anything further, is sufficient security against the influence of such evil tricks.

1851: 18 April, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (150 words). A reprint of a notice from “one of the newspapers published at the Mormon settlement on the Great Salt River”:

P. P. Pratt is intending to take his departure on the first of January 1851, and may be absent for some years on a foreign mission. This is, therefore, to inform his debtors that he frankly forgives all debts due to him, and calls upon all persons who have demands against him to present them for payment on or before the 25th of December next, or ever after hold their peace. . . . He would like to rest in peace, without having old debts to stare him in the face.

Episode 8.1

Start: Henry Wilkins writes a letter to his father in Wales and another to William Phillips

1851: April, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), pp. 127–28 (975 words). “The Disappointment of Mormonism.” The first part of this article is a 28 December 1850 letter from seventeen-year-old Henry Wilkins to his father, the Reverend James Wilkins, in which Wilkins outlines the negligent treatment he received from his coreligionists during the five-week voyage on the Joseph Badger from Liverpool to St. Louis, Missouri. He laments:

Oh! My dear father, if only I had listened to you and my dear brother James when I was with you in the little room where James worked; but that’s how it was—I was deceived by others.[17]

Following the letter is a note written by the boy’s father, in which he explains his reason for sending it to appear in the periodical:

If you judge that the above letter might prevent anyone from being deceived to go to California, or the earthly heaven of the Mormons, it is at your disposal.[18]

1851: 3 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 135–37 (1,200 words). “‘Disappointment of Mormonism’—Letter of Henry Wilkins.” John S. Davis, the editor of Zion’s Trumpet, had been well acquainted with Henry Wilkins before his departure about five months earlier. In this article, Davis expresses bewilderment at Wilkins’s letter while trying to explain the puzzling transformation the boy had undergone since his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints against his father’s wishes.

1851: 17 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 149–51 (830 words). “Henry Wilkins Again—Letter from Him to President William Phillips.” Only a few days after John S. Davis’s article appeared in the 3 May 1851 issue of Zion’s Trumpet, a letter dated 12 April 1851 and sent by Henry Wilkins from St. Louis reached the hands of his spiritual leader in Wales, President William Phillips. Davis was pleased to make this letter his lead article in the 17 May 1851 issue of Zion’s Trumpet for all to read Wilkins’s apology for the consternation his earlier letter had caused. Wilkins’s letter was prompted by one which he had received from Phillips on 8 April 1851 asking about the reasons behind the 28 December 1850 letter to Wilkins’s father. Wilkins explains:

Dear Brother Phillips, the reason for my writing, and calling you and others deceivers, was that I wrote it in my anger, and because I gave heed to all the old tales that I was hearing in this place, which I have proven completely false.[19]

Wilkins excitedly declares that he will be going to the Salt Lake Valley soon, as the driver for an elderly sister by the name of Mrs. George. Davis’s excitement is also evident in his ending comment:

The foregoing is an accurate copy of the letter; and if anyone doubts, he can see the original by calling at our office. President Phillips is exhorting the Rev. James Wilkins to publish the other letter in the Baptist, if he deems it well, so that the country can have further information concerning the “Mormon Disappointment.”[20]

There is no evidence that Henry’s letter of contrition ever appeared in the columns of the Baptist, but one can easily imagine Davis’s elation at having it on full display in the pages of Zion’s Trumpet.

End: Henry Wilkins writes a letter to his father in Wales and another to William Phillips

1851: May, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 162 (315 words). “Mormons.” The writer admits that although the “Mormon preachers” do not accept money for their work, they do have a way of being compensated:

But they have their way of taking spoils in the most cruel and merciless way, namely by going on the Sabbath to totally eat their neighbors out of house and home, in swarms of locusts together.

The writer gives three examples:

A “poor man in Ffynonddrain” slaughtered a pig to feed his “starving family,” and the preachers went there and devoured the pig.
A man called “Harry, the Tea, from Carmarthen” was living comfortably before he became a Saint, but his new coreligionists “were not long in eating up his living, so that he has gone very poor in his old age.”
A farmer near Abergwily converted to the new religion, “and the Saints are going there in plundering hordes, and in all likelihood it will not be long before the full corn crib of Blaencwm, both hay and corn, and the cattle and the pigs, and everything, in some way will be driven one after the other in a strong troop down the wide open mouth of the Saints.”

1851: 16 May, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (120 words). “Emigration from South Wales.”

A large number of the best and most efficient workmen connected with the mining and iron districts of Rhymney, Blaenavon, and Blaina are about to leave this country in the course of a very few weeks, intending to embark as emigrants for the United States.

The writer further reports:

Vessels are continually sailing from the various ports in South Wales with emigrants, and ere long a large body of Latter-day Saints will find their way, for the purpose of emigrating to the great Mormon city or settlement on the banks of the Great Salt Water Lake.

Episode 8.2

Start: Baptist minister Dewi Elfed Jones joins the Saints, is excommunicated, and is reinstated

David Bevan Jones, the ordained Baptist minister in Aberaman and better known by his nom de plume “Dewi Elfed Jones,” was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Cynon River on 27 April 1851. Following his baptism and that of four of his congregants, Jones led his new leader, William Phillips, and a large group of his new coreligionists to his chapel in Aberaman. There, he and the other four received their confirmation by the laying on of hands. Although baptism by immersion was practiced by both the Baptists and the Church of Jesus Christ, only the latter had as part of its doctrine the laying on of hands to impart the gift of the Holy Ghost. And it was this difference that had motivated Jones to part company with the Baptists.

Jones not only gave his heart and soul to his new religion but also presented to Phillips the keys to “his” chapel, a building for which Jones had raised funds to erect. And for a brief time after, the Gwawr Chapel in Aberaman was used as a meetinghouse for the Church of Jesus Christ. The courts, however, disagreed with Jones’s claim of ownership, and by September of 1851, the chapel was again a Baptist chapel.

Jones and David Rees, the assistant preacher at the Gwawr Chapel, were assigned by their new leaders to preach in various places in South Wales. Crowds gathered to witness two former Baptist preachers praising Joseph Smith and the doctrine of the gospel that had been restored through him.

1851: 17 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 162–63 (190 words). “The Voice of ‘Zion’s Trumpet.’” Within three weeks following his baptism, Dewi Elfed Jones published a poem in Zion’s Trumpet. Here is the first of four stanzas in praise of the Latter-day Saint periodical:

Come, come to the escape,

Flee to the refuge, hasten quickly

From the ugly oppression of Babylonia,

The day of its destruction is drawing nigh.

See! thou canst be delivered from thine enemies,

Stand bravely in thy part;

Yonder on the lovely mount Zion

Thou canst rejoice in a while.

1851: 14 May, Yr Amserau (The Times). In this nonextant issue of the Times, a Welsh-language newspaper published in Liverpool, a writer gives the account of “a minister with the Baptists in Aberdare becoming one of the saints.” When the Reverend Thomas Price, the Baptist minister in Aberdare, saw this article, he immediately wrote a letter to the editor of the Times to correct the mistake: it was the Baptist minister in Aberaman, a town about two miles to the southeast of Aberdare, who had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The letter of correction appears in the 28 May 1851 issue of the Times (see next entry).

1851: 28 May, Yr Amserau (The Times) (685 words). “‘Latter-day Saints’ in Aberdare.” This piece is the letter of correction from the Reverend Thomas Price, the Baptist minister in the town of Aberdare, who was erroneously reported in the 14 May 1851 issue of the Times as having converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a short time before. Price clarifies that the minister who had converted to the faith known as the “Latter-day Saints” was in reality Dewi Elfed Jones and that Jones’s chapel was in the town of Aberaman, not Aberdare. Price emphatically states his feelings about ever being associated with the hated Latter-day Saints:

I can assure you that for the Baptists of Aberdare it would be just as well to be linked with the sons of perdition, as to acknowledge the slightest relationship with the godless, unprincipled, disreputable, uneducated, worthless, lying, blasphemous, presumptuous, hateful, satanic wretches called “Latter-day Saints.”

Upon seeing Price’s article in the 28 May 1851 issue of The Times, Jones immediately wrote a response and sent it to the editor of the Times.

1851: 18 June, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 2, Item #1 (70 words). In response to this possible debate, the 18 June 1851 issue of the Times only included a few explanatory lines, to justify why Jones’s article was not being printed. The full text is as follows:

That the Review of the Saint “Dewi Elfed Jones” on the letter of the Reverend T. Price, Aberdare, is already in print, as evidenced by the copy sent to me, is sufficient reason for us to refuse space for it in the Times; also its contents are such as to put before us the necessity of opening up a debate that would provide perfect boredom to our readers.

The “Review” which the editor declared to be “already in print” had appeared in the 14 June 1851 issue of Zion’s Trumpet (see next entry).[21]

1851: 14 June, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 184–86 (1,280 words). “To the Editor of the ‘Times.’” This is Dewi Elfed Jones’s response. Thomas Price, in his letter, had expressed outrage that Jones and David Rees, Jones’s assistant minister, had received baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jones responds:

It is also true that T. Price, because of this [our baptism], is incandescent with rage, frothing at the mouth, and spouting curses against the Saints until his reverend corpus is about to break and fall to shreds. No doubt his vessel will soon be so full of malice for the Saints that he will explode and his loathsome parts become as tiny fragments. Well, the sooner the better, then! His murderous blast will have no more effect on the Saints than the barking of a dog at the moon.[22]

Jones then presents four objectives that the Reverend Thomas Price had in sending his letter to the Times:

To obscure the truth that Dewi Elfed Jones and David Rees, together with many other Baptists “have turned away from the Baptists” and joined the Latter-day Saints.
To blacken the character of Dewi Elfed Jones.
To claim the membership of the Gwawr Chapel as his own.
To pour forth the profane reservoir of his heart upon the Saints.

Jones also poses eight very pointed questions to his former colleague and invites him to answer, which, judging from an apparent lack of response, Price elected never to do.

1851: 14 June, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 194 (330 words). “Condition of the Church in Monmouthshire.” This 6 June 1851 letter from Thomas Giles provides evidence that the conversion of Dewi Elfed Jones and David Rees had a major impact on the level of interest among members of their new religion as well as on others:

The following Sunday, the hall of the Belle Vue Inn between Victoria and Penycae was opened, where Elders Dewi Elfed Jones and David Rees had an opportunity to give their testimony to hundreds of people. The hall was overflowing with listeners in the morning, and many were unable to get in. At two, it was decided to preach at the window, so that those inside, as well as those outside, could hear; there were between a thousand and fifteen hundred listening, and many more by six.

1851: 15 November, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 369–72 (730 words). “Groans of the Reverends.” In addition to preaching his newfound gospel, Dewi Elfed Jones also attracted attention to the Church’s doctrine by composing clever verses of poetry to ridicule what he considered the futile efforts of his former colleagues of the cloth to combat the Latter-day Saints. In this issue of Zion’s Trumpet, he does so with a poem of twenty-one 4-line stanzas. He mockingly indicates that it is to be sung to the tune of “Sectarianism in Danger.” Here are the first stanza and the chorus:

Wales, Wales, awake soon,

Lift thy voice, and do not slumber;

Come in strength and endless energy,

To vanquish all the Mormons.

Oh, how sad is our heart;

The Saints of this age,

And their influence must be overcome.

Oh, how sad is our heart.

1852: 8 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 146 (285 words). “Eisteddfod of the Saints.” A brief report of an eisteddfod, which is a meeting for competitions or presentations of oratory, recitation, and singing. The eisteddfod was held in Merthyr Tydfil and presided over by Dewi Elfed Jones. John S. Davis writes that he had “the honor of presenting President [William] Phillips with a handsome copy of the Book of Mormon in the Welsh language, which had a moving effect on all of those present.”

1852: 30 October, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 347 (45 words). “Minutes of a Special General Conference of the Church in Wales, which was held in Merthyr, October 4, 1852.” Among the many items of business transacted at this conference was the following:

President Phillips proposed, and seconded by President Davis, that Brother Dewi Elfed Jones meet with Brothers Davis and Morris to learn from them the way to keep accounts of the books, so that he can show that to those conferences and branches where he goes. Carried.

Being involved in handling money and keeping accounts is what eventually led to Jones’s excommunication in July 1855.

1853: 26 March, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 209–12 (930 words). “Sectarianism Ensnared.” After his conversion to Mormonism in April 1851, the ex–Baptist minister Dewi Elfed Jones became openly critical of his former colleagues. He introduces this lengthy poem with a brief explanation that his poetic gift was stirred by the comment of “one of the chief Reverends of Glamorganshire” that “the kingdom of heaven is within us.” Jones then presents a “Reverendish Exhibition” featuring the minister on an imaginary tour throughout Great Britain, giving angry speeches about the Mormons. The poem consists of thirty-three 4-line stanzas, each of which is followed by a 2-line chorus. Nineteen of the stanzas are in this issue of Zion’s Trumpet, and the remaining fourteen appear in the following issue. Here are the twenty-second stanza and the chorus as an example:

O surprise of surprises, a truly remarkable sight,

That the reverend has such a huge belly,

That is full of everything imaginable;

What a wonder that he is able to take care of his stomach.

On seeing something like this, who can blame the Mormon

For laughing ha, ha, ha! at the Reverends?

1853: 23 April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 273 (1,130 words). “The Presidency of the Saints in Wales.” A poem of seventeen 8-line stanzas with a final 4-line stanza by Dewi Elfed Jones. The poem praises the Latter-day Saint leaders in Wales, the Welsh translations of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, the periodical Zion’s Trumpet, and the presence of the Church in Wales in general. The fourth stanza is filled with praise for William Phillips, John S. Davis, Dan Jones, Thomas Jeremy, and Daniel Daniels:

A period of joy has descended on Wales,

With vibrant Apostles of strength in our midst;

Her own sons, ordained, are thereby at hand

And thousands rejoice in receiving their news;

To Phillips and Davis and Jones we make hail

While Zion is clothed in a matchless array;

And blessings like dewdrops on meadows of green

On Jeremy and Daniels pour forth their refrain.

Jones’s poetic gift was also a great benefit to John S. Davis in regard to the hymnal Davis published toward the end of 1852. Of the 575 hymns, 57 were attributed to Jones.[23]

1853: 14 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 321–24 (1,025 words). “Conversation among a Member, a Reverend, a Vicar, and a Saint.” A poem of seven 22-line stanzas by Dewi Elfed Jones. The Member represents all religious people in Wales who realize the need to flee from their current religion and join with the Saints for deliverance. The Reverend represents the various Nonconformist sects in Wales, all of which see the Saints as the vile enemy of truth. The Vicar represents the Anglican Church, which was once powerful in Wales, but gave way to the Nonconformists. The Saint represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose goal it is to rescue the people from the clutches of false religion. In the first stanza, the Member agonizes over his decision to seek refuge with the Saints. In the second stanza, the Reverend points out how foolish the Member would be to relinquish his safe place with the Nonconformists to join with the wicked Saints. In the third stanza, the Member declares that the false teachers of Nonconformity offer him nothing that can cleanse his life. In the fourth stanza, the Reverend admits that Mormonism is unassailable and that it has brought him down. In the fifth stanza, the Vicar berates the Reverend for his weak stance against the Mormons and declares his intent to persist in his efforts to combat Mormonism, although he recognizes that deceit and treachery are the foundations of the Anglican Church. In the sixth and seventh stanzas, the Saint tells the Reverend and the Vicar that their efforts to destroy Mormonism are futile and that the Saints will emerge triumphant on Mount Zion. As a sample of this poem, here is the fifth stanza:

A Vicar.

Oh, fie, reverend, what a weak and infirm,

And irritable one is your cry;

We priests are sorry that the Mormons

See our deceit and treachery.

I’ll staunchly fire paper bullets

Through the fortress of their rampart;

With my rush sword I’ll put an end

To their fate forthwith;

With my strong arm now, as weighty as a great feather,

I’ll pursue the Saints, children of Heaven,

And drive like some giant;

Through the power of Our Father and the Common Prayer,

I shall be the Vicar,

With my thin palms in the mighty sides

Of the Saints night and day:

To the beast I’ll give a share of the product of my weak soul,

To the god of the darkness the banner can rise

As high as the church belltower.

In pain and anguish the Vicar of Merthyr,

Has a headache which persists;

Like a clumsy boar I shall once more

Root around Aberdare.

1853: 2 July 1853, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 16–19 (1,430 words). “To the Ministers of the Baptists.” Here is how Dewi Elfed Jones begins his lengthy appeal to his former Baptist colleagues:

Beloved—After my postponement for a lengthy season, here I am again humbly summoning back your attention to the cause of my departure from your association.[24]

He then declares that he had sent private letters to some of the ministers in an attempt to clarify his reasons for having left the Baptists to join with the Latter-day Saints. He wanted to avoid negative reactions, such as this one, from former Baptist friends:

Dewi, Dewi! O! Jones, Jones! how about that; well, well; good heavens, dear me, what has bewitched you, indeed despite that, to leave your dear old religion, the religion that as a young lad you professed zealously and diligently, and join with those weak-minded creatures, the old Latter-day Saints?[25]

Several similar comments follow. Apparently, Jones’s explanation for having left the Baptists was denied publication in the Baptist and the Star of Gomer. Consequently, Jones decided to have the appeal published in Zion’s Trumpet in order to reach at least some of those who were concerned about his dramatic departure from their midst.

1853: 10 September, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 177–78 (240 words). “The Poet’s Longing for Zion.” A poem of eight 4-line stanzas in which Dewi Elfed Jones expresses his desire to leave Wales and make the journey to Salt Lake City. Here are the first and last stanzas:

Every night and day I long

To be set free from Babel,

And receive my worthy endowment,

Within the holy Temple of God.

O hasten, hasten the break of dawn,

To set me free from the great affliction,

For the profound peace of long duration,

After finishing the work of my Heavenly Father.

1853: 29 October, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 277–87 (4,400 words). “To the Reverends of the Baptists Again—Their accusations against Dewi Elfed Jones and his congregation, clarified.” Although Dewi Elfed Jones, since his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had sent accounts of his reasons for leaving his post as a Baptist minister to his former colleagues with requests that the accounts be printed in the Baptist publications, they had all been refused. Consequently, he turned to John S. Davis with a request that they be allowed to appear in Zion’s Trumpet.

Jones administered baptism by immersion, as did all the other Baptist ministers in Wales. But as a Latter-day Saint, he also administered the laying on of hands, a practice that most of his ex-colleagues rejected and even condemned as heretical. In his defense, Jones explains in a footnote the right that each Baptist minister had to some degree of flexibility within his own congregation:

Every church has the inherent right to judge for itself about its circumstances and its discipline, in line with the rule of the Baptists’ Profession of Faith, and no minister has the right to sit in judgment on the doctrine of another.

The Reverend Thomas Price, however, called for a meeting of his fellow Baptist ministers in Glamorganshire on 5 November 1850 to challenge Jones’s well-known practice of the laying on of hands and to invite Jones to the meeting to explain and defend himself. A note was sent to Jones requesting his presence at a meeting the following day at ten o’clock. He immediately responded in writing to the invitation, saying that he would be there. According to Jones’s letter to Davis, the Baptist reverends had drawn up a list of accusations against their colleague and had determined that if he acknowledged guilt with respect to even one of them that he was to be excommunicated [from the Baptists].

During the meeting the following day, the list of accusations was read out loud. Jones’s request for the paper in order to make a copy of it was denied. Jones describes in his letter the ensuing scene:

They asked me if I admitted some of them. I replied that I admitted most of them, but not all of them. “That is enough,” said one of them. “Just admitting one is enough to condemn you.” Things had got quite rowdy by now, and I asked permission to defend my principles. And then the chairman, D. Jones, Cardiff, sat, with his hands stretched out above the table, and his little face as white as the wall, and in his childish voice said, “Prevent the man from speaking, prevent the man from saying a word!!!!” I told him very kindly, that that was beneficial for him, and them, because I knew they were all incapable of disproving my principles.[26]

Jones’s repeated requests to speak to the assembly in his own defense were vehemently denied. He describes his exit from the meeting:

In the middle of them I raised my hand as testimony that I was leaving them; and I said, “O evil and perverse men, let my soul never ever come into your fellowship. What I have preached will stay with you, so that you will not be free of it while you live; and I shall preach even in front of the doors of your houses, and I shall not cease to preach the truth even if I had to die because of it.”[27]

The others reacted by shouting, “Throw him out, go to fetch the police to throw him out,” and “Out with him.” And as he left, Jones asked the assembly, “Is there ‘crucify him, crucify him’ too?”

The rogue ex–Baptist minister added the following postscript in this long letter to Davis:

The account of the cruelties which were visited upon me, from this time until many months after I joined the Saints, shall appear in a future issue, if you can spare the room for it.[28]

Davis was the editor of Zion’s Trumpet for only another two months, during which time nothing further from Jones was printed. Nor is there any additional information about Jones’s tête-à-tête with his former colleagues in any issue of Zion’s Trumpet during all of 1854 and 1855 (after Dan Jones had reassumed editorship of the periodical). However, Dewi Elfed Jones did write more on other topics.

1853: 31 December, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 427–31 (1,520 words). “Selections from ‘History of Henry the Eighth.’” Dewi Elfed Jones addressed this article “To the Priests, or the Reverends of the Surplice.” The “surplice” refers to the loose white linen vestment worn over a cassock by members of the clergy. Since, he points out, the vicars of the Church of England had often criticized Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it would be fitting for them also to revisit the history of the first head of the Church of England, Henry VIII, and compare the two. After itemizing numerous atrocities committed by this king, Jones points out the following:

Inasmuch as Henry left in his will six hundred pounds to the Priests, for praying his soul out of purgatory, they no doubt have much more than a full task ahead of them, even if they work very hard at it. It will be time enough for them to begin deriding and trying to disgrace the Prophet Joseph Smith, or any other of the authorized servants of God, after they have gotten Henry the Eighth, father of their freedom, out of purgatory.[29]

He then closes his article by issuing an invitation to all the Anglican priests to free themselves “from the yoke of captivity and join with the Latter-day Saints.”

1854: 14 January, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 36 (90 words). “About Zion.” One of several poems by Dewi Elfed Jones in which he expresses his strong desire to gather with his family to Salt Lake City.

Great the roar of the sea each second—By day and night,

Fierce the swift and fiery lightning—By day and night.

Great the poet’s constant love,

For his faithful blue-eyed sweetheart—

Greater is my longing for Zion—By day and night.

Land of the Temple I would go to—By day and night,

Where the sacraments are ministered—By day and night:

Land of the best happy family,

Land of healthful water and meadows,

Land I sing to every day—By day and night.

1854: 29 July, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 447 (27 words). A notice of Dewi Elfed Jones’s new assignment:

Elder Dewi Elfed Jones, of the Presidency of the Llanelli Conference, has been assigned as President of the West Glamorgan Conference, with A. L. Jones as Scribe.

“A. L. Jones” is Aneurin L. Jones, the adult son of Jones. One year from this time, Jones would be excommunicated for embezzlement. No mention is made in Zion’s Trumpet about any action taken against the son.

1854: 4 November, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 559–61 (830 words). “West Glamorgan Conference Eisteddfod.” As mentioned in a previous entry,[30] the eisteddfod is a longstanding tradition in Wales, a meeting in which people are invited to enter various competitions involving poetry, singing, recitation, and the like. With the permission of the Church presidency in Wales, Dewi Elfed Jones had organized an eisteddfod to be held on Christmas Day. In this invitation for competitors, he presented the topics and prizes and other details of the event.

1855: 21 July, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 233–35 (945 words). “To the Presidents of Conferences and Branches.” Dan Jones begins this very solemn missive by calling the attention of all leaders serving under him to the vital importance of keeping “correct and clear accounts . . . of the Saints’ contributions.” Concerning those who violate the trust placed in them in this regard, Jones has this to say:

If anyone sells himself into such sinfulness, we will not consider excommunication out of the church of God a punishment equal to the transgression until the last farthing is repaid.

Whether Jones repaid “the last farthing” before his own reinstatement less than a year later is not clear from the Zion’s Trumpet articles about his case.

1855: 21 July, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 235–37 (1,580 words). “Warning to the Saints!” In this letter to Dan Jones, his counselor Daniel Daniels tells of Dewi Elfed Jones’s reaction to his recent excommunication:

I received a letter from Dewi Elfed Jones, while in Monmouthshire, complaining that he had been excommunicated from the church unjustly because of your animosity toward him, and trying to prove that he is not a debtor to the Offices, or to the Conference, except for a few pounds. I understand that he is also busy writing letters to various places, and I have seen some of them, full of lies known to me, trying to justify himself for that which I know him to be guilty of.[31]

In his letter, Daniels provides considerable detail about Jones’s embezzlement of Church funds. Following Daniels’s letter is a brief note confirming the accuracy of Daniels’s assessment, signed by Emrys Davies and William Richards, former counselors to Dewi Elfed Jones. Two other faithful brothers, Thomas Harries and William Lewis, also confirmed the accuracy of the missing amounts of money, and made the following observation regarding the relationship Dan Jones had with Dewi Elfed Jones:

We know that President [Dan] Jones has dealt lovingly with him, and that he has done his best to restore him from his perversity, and that he has administered an overabundance of mercy to him, and that in every circumstance he has received hatred in return; and we know that D. E. Jones bears animosity toward President Jones, and that he has said much to injure his character in his absence for some time.[32]

A scathing letter about Dewi Elfed Jones, written by Franklin D. Richards to Dan Jones, follows the letters. Richards enclosed a letter he had received from Dewi Elfed Jones along with the one Richards sent to Dan Jones with the following explanation:

So that you may know the spirit of the man through his own speech, and that you will be better prepared to deal with him.[33]

Dan Jones adds his own brief reflection following the letters he had received on the matter:

It is not a pleasure, but rather a grievous duty to publish the foregoing, yes, a duty forced upon us by Dewi Elfed Jones himself, by his having written letters to different places, several of which are sent to us by their recipients, loathing his malicious assertions to hide his sins by vilifying the innocent. The foregoing illumination of places where he has written in contradiction of the truth is required, and it is fair for the Saints to have the other side of the matter as he has given them the first side himself. Defending the truth against falsehood is the duty of every philanthropist, and here is the attempt of your editor.[34]

1856: 10 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 156–57 (390 words). “Letter of Reconciliation to President Daniel Daniels.” Dewi Elfed Jones begins this 3 May 1856 letter by recalling a recent conversation with Dan Jones and other leaders:

As you know, there was a loving and reconciling conversation that took place between me and President Jones a little before his departure, where you, President Thomas Harris, and others were present; for such an opportunity I greatly rejoice.

He then issues profuse apologies for his “awful offenses” and requests “clemency and forgiveness.” His final statement includes his wish to “be delivered quickly out of Babylon to the land of ‘Zion,’” a wish that would not be fulfilled for another four years.

1856: 10 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 157–59 (395 words). “Hymn of Tribulation.” A poem of eight 8-line stanzas by Dewi Elfed Jones in which he expresses the great anguish he suffered after being excommunicated from the Church a little less than a year earlier.

1856: 10 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 159 (200 words). “To President Daniels.” Thomas Harris, President of the West Glamorgan Conference, wrote this 8 May 1856 letter to Daniel Daniels in support of Dewi Elfed Jones and his desire to be accepted back into the Church.

1856: 10 May, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 160 (320 words). “Response of President Daniels.” In this response, Daniel Daniels endorses wholeheartedly the acceptance of Dewi Elfed Jones back into the Church.

I recommend him from my heart to the attention, goodwill, and trust of the Saints and pray for him while burying all that was, without further mention of it, so that we may be of one heart in supplicating in his behalf, that he shall have the strength to redouble his diligence until the gap caused during the time we have lost is fully made up.

1856: 24 May, Udgorn Seioni (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 173–76 (700 words). “Hymn of Tribulation.” The second part of the poem published in the 10 May 1856 Zion’s Trumpet. In the first part (see previous entry), Dewi Elfed Jones expressed his discouragement at being out of the Church for nearly a year. In a brief introduction to this second part, he asks permission of the reader to sing “Welcome Rejoicing.” This second poem consists of fourteen 8-line stanzas.

1856: 19 July, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 240 (80 words). An announcement that Elders John Jones and Dewi Elfed Jones have been appointed as traveling elders.

1856: 16 August, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 271–72 (165 words). “To Zion.” A poem, dated 1853, of three 10-line stanzas by Aneurin L. Jones, the son of Dewi Elfed Jones. There is no evidence that Aneurin ever emigrated.

1856: 22 November, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 378–80 (990 words). “Editors of the Hero Repelling the Truth, and the Truth Repelling the Editors of the Hero.” Dewi Elfed Jones explains that he was prompted to write to the editor of Zion’s Trumpet because of some letters that had appeared recently in the periodical the Welsh Hero.[35] Dewi Elfed refers to the authors of the letters as “half Saints at some time,” suggesting that they were apostate Mormons. He chides the editors of the periodical, saying that they had decided not to print his response to the erroneous information about the Mormons in their periodical for fear that “the honest and the sincere [would] have a fair chance of judging the fanatical partisanship of the Hero and its editors, and become enlightened about their made-up, distorted and impudent lies about the Latter-day Saints.” He mockingly refers to Thomas Price, a Baptist minister, as “his immersive reverence from Aberdare” and to Price’s coeditor of the periodical, a Congregational minister, as “his sprinkling reverence from Aberaman.” Price was the person who had taken issue with Jones’s unprecedented decision five years earlier to present the key to and ownership of the Gwawr Baptist Chapel in Aberaman to William Phillips, the leader of the Church in Wales. In a legal battle the courts had decided, despite Jones’s fundraising campaign to build the chapel, that it would remain in the hands of the Baptists.

1857: 25 April, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 129–32 (1,780 words). “A Looking Glass of Local Manufacture.” A letter, dated 8 April 1857, written by Dewi Elfed Jones to Daniel Daniels. Jones’s letter is very similar in tone and content to Parley P. Pratt’s “A Looking Glass, in which to examine ourselves, to see whether we be in the faith,” the lead article in a previous issue of Zion’s Trumpet (11 April 1857). Whereas Pratt wrote about the Reformation as it applies to Church members in general, Jones directed his observations specifically at the members of the Church in Wales.

1857: 13 June, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet) p. 200. Aneurin L. Jones is mentioned as being the scribe to President Abednego S. Williams, evidence that this son of Dewi Elfed Jones was in full fellowship in the Church at this time.

1857: 27 June, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 224 (190 words). “Verses.” This poem by Dewi Elfed Jones consists of six 4-line stanzas and is dated 31 May 1857. It is an elegy for his infant grandson, David John Griffiths, son of Daniel and Anna Griffiths. The death date is given as 29 April 1857.

The volumes of Zion’s Trumpet for 1858, 1859, and 1860 are nonextant, but one would expect that Dewi Elfed Jones would have contributed poetry and articles to all of them until his departure for America on 11 May 1860 aboard the William Tapscott. In early August 1862, he and his wife Hannah, together with their eighteen-year-old son, Daniel, and fourteen-year-old daughter, Eleanor, journeyed across the plains with the Henry W. Miller Company. Jones’s death in Logan, Utah, on 18 June 1863 meant that he spent only about eight months in the Zion he had dreamed of and written poetry about during the previous decade.[36]

End: Baptist minister Dewi Elfed Jones joins the Saints, is excommunicated, and is reinstated

1851: 7 June, North Wales Chronicle, p. 5, Item 1 (195 words). “Latter-day Saints.” A report of a conference held in London at the Freemasons’ Tavern on Great Queen Street. The writer presents a very favorable account of the events:

The proceedings were of a singular nature, commencing with a procession of the “twelve apostles,” or “fathers in Israel,” accompanied by “presidents of branches,” by a number of young women dressed in white, and by twelve young men wearing large blue scarfs, and carrying a Bible in the right hand, and a “Book of Mormon” in the left.

The writer also presents several statistics regarding the growth of the Church in the United Kingdom.

1851: 7 June, North Wales Chronicle, p. 5, Item 2 (105 words). “Spread of Mormonism.” Reprinted from the Liverpool Journal. In addition to comments regarding the growth of the Latter-day Saints in Britain, the writer makes this rather strange comment:

It is not generally known that the Mormons use the arguments found in the books of Roman Catholic controversy, and are now making incredibly large purchases of these books.

1851: 24 July, North Wales Chronicle, p. 2 (27 words).

Some new revelations to the Mormon Church are announced; the portion of the golden plates withheld from Joe Smith having been exhibited mysteriously to Elder Orson Hyde.

1851: 21 June, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 4 (15 words).

A soldier, at Roscommon, says that Mormonism is spreading among the soldiers of his regiment.

1851: 21 June, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (60 words).

From the Great Salt Lake it is stated that the Mormons had sent out two new colonies, one to Lower-end Basin, the other to Lower California. The General Assembly of the Church for the State of Deseret had transferred all their powers to the territorial Government, and Governor Young was awaiting the arrival of the territorial officers to organize the Government.

1851: June, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), p. 287 (85 words). “Mormonism and Polygamy.” A brief quote from the Christian Chronicle that the approximately ten thousand “Mormons” who had settled on the shores of the “Salt Lake” were in a “deplorable and barbaric condition.” The writer further points out:

The thing called “spiritual marriage” is a secret point of doctrine—it appears that it is the belief of this uncivilized people; and on the validity of that corrupt point of doctrine the union of the two sexes carries on by the same rule as the animals have.

1851: June, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), pp. 176–77 (400 words). “Observations on the Catholic Religion and the Religion of the Bible.” This is a lengthy article by “Eta Delta,” the nomdeplume used by the Reverend Evan Davies. For most of the article, Davies focuses on the Catholic religion and its deficiencies. But in the final segment, he declares that Catholicism, despite all its faults, is “a thousand times superior to Mormonism.” Here is his description of the Latter-day Saints:

The most worthless men—too lazy to work, the most uneducated, the most impudent and arrogant, going across the country, and lying, promising to work miracles, and claiming that if only they can immerse men, they will be reborn after coming out of the water and will receive visions from heaven, etc.[37]

The following is his call to arms:

And, as Nonconformists in Wales, are we overly lazy, and too ready to amuse one another, or debate one another, for meaningless things, instead of opposing the sins of the age, and work together in the kingdom of Christ? And to be sure, there ought to be a great deal more concern, counseling together, feeling, and keeping vigil, and praying, with a keen eye on raising up preachers, choosing students, and ministers.[38]

1851: 18 June, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 2, Item #2 (1,025). “Mormon Festival.” This lengthy article has to do with a 2 March 1851 meeting held at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London with over a thousand people in attendance. Other than labelling those gathered as “deceitful wretches,” the detailed account does not describe anything negative about the events of that evening.

1851: 18 June, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 2, Item #3 (320 words). “The Saints in Llanrwst.” Someone using the nom de plume “A Humble One” tells of three men “under the name of Saints” who two weeks earlier had come to Llanrwst to preach. He describes the first one to preach as being “so destitute of effectiveness on the crowd, in a spiritual way, as if he had been a soldier facing his enemies with a wooden sword.” About the second one he declares: “If some of this kind were to come to enlighten the country, it would be the blind leading the blind.” And because the third one was a “first-rate shouter,” the writer “could not stand his howling” and went away.

1851: 28 June, The Silurian,p. 1 (70 words).

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

1851: 19 July, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (90 words). “Sanguinary Fanaticism of the Mormons.” A report of the brutal murder of Thomas Bennett at Beaver Island. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints once again was blamed for the deeds of one of the apostate groups.

1851: 1 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 2 (85 words). “Acquittal of the Mormons in Michigan.” This article is about the trial of James J. Strang on an indictment for obstructing the United States mail.

1851: 1 August, Monmouthshire Merlin, p. 3 (155 words). “A Mormon Prophet.” John Price, a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was summoned before the magistrates at Pembroke “to show cause why he should not be adjudged to be the father of the illegitimate child of Eliza Lewis, a single young woman, a member of his congregation.”

1851: August, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 258 (190 words). “Virtue of the Saints.” The writer gives an account of “two Saints [who] were brought up on the suspicion that they had stolen a blanket, one of which is a preacher, if not an apostle, with the Saints.” According to the writer, the two Saints had spent the night with two prostitutes in Merthyr Tydfil. When the men awoke the next morning, they discovered that the two women had taken six shillings that were hidden in one of the men’s shoes, whereupon the men “took possession of the blanket.”

They were obliged to return the blanket and go on their way. They had been in an important conference the previous day with their brethren. How long will the innocents of Wales continue to be hoodwinked by these dreadful knaves?

It is difficult to determine whether such stories were based on facts. The absence of names and details leads one to wonder.

Episode 8.3

Start: The Star of Gomer will not advertise LDS publications—the Star of Wales will

1851: 9 August, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), p. 259 (285 words). “Prejudice of the Star of Gomer.” In this article, the editor of Zion’s Trumpet, John S. Davis, pokes fun at the editor of the periodical for which Davis had worked a few years before. Upon reading on the wrapper of the Star of Gomer that the Baptist periodical was willing to publish “every kind of notice,” Davis decided to send a list of thirty-one Latter-day Saint publications to be advertised. This list consisted of his own publications as well as those of his predecessor, Dan Jones. Davis reports:

But the Star will not advertise the books of the Saints, despite being paid in advance. “No,” says the Rev. D. Ll. Isaac, in his letter to us, “it is not appropriate for us to do so.” He said that he would be glad to please us, but that it was not appropriate to advertise the books of the Saints in the Star. Why not, Mr. Isaac? Are you afraid for the world to see them and afterwards see your deceit? Is there a reason for the Rev. D. Ll. Isaac, such a great scholar, to be afraid to advertise a few of the books for the Saints? Does he have some “goddess” in danger, or is he rather scorning us? No, not scorning, for he says that he would like to please us, but it would not be appropriate to do that! The religion of Mr. Isaac must be in danger were he to advertise the books of the Saints, and thus he had best not; and with that we shall leave him in peace now with regard to this matter.

1851: 13 August, Seren Cymru (Star of Wales), p. 1 (40 words). In this, the first issue of the first volume of the newspaper Star of Wales, a brief notice appears on the first page:

To Printers: John Davis, Printer, Georgetown, Merthyr, wishes to advertise that he has a CALEDONIAN PRINTING PRESS, Double Power, Super Royal, for sale at a low price. It is guaranteed to work well, as well as if it were new.

Davis was offering his Caledonian printing press for sale because he had recently purchased a new “Columbian Printing Press, super royal,” on which he intended to print the signatures of his Welsh translation of the Book of Mormon.[39]

In his prospectus for this endeavor, Davis had announced:

The entire book will be printed with completely new letters, and on good paper, and each signature will contain more reading than the signatures of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.[40]

1851: 30 August, Seren Cymru (Star of Wales), p. 1. On the first page of this second issue of the first volume of the newspaper Star of Wales is a list of Latter-day Saint publications for sale.

1852: 8 July, Seren Cymru (Star of Wales), p. 1. Another list of Latter-day Saint publications appears in this issue of Star of Wales. Not all the issues of this newspaper are extant; thus, it is possible that other lists may also have been published.

End: The Star of Gomer will not advertise LDS publications—the Star of Wales will

1851: 23 August, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (2,340 words). “The Mormons—Their Creed and Their Kingdom.” A very long article from the National Illustrated Library. The article has basic information about the beginnings of the Church, borrowed from a variety of sources.

1851: 30 August, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 6 (2,340 words). “The Mormons—Their Creed and their Kingdom.” This article is the same as the 23 August article in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian.[41]

1851: September, Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), p. 290 (220 words). “The Domestic Gentleness of the Saints.” The writer tells of a woman who was “seriously ill” and wished for her husband to come home from work and send for a doctor. The husband refused to leave his work and declared that his wife “had refused to believe.” He was sent for a second time, and again he refused to return home. One of the neighbors, however, decided to act:

But seeing the woman about to give up the ghost, one of the neighbors ran to call the doctor who came at once and testified that if the woman had been another ten minutes without help, she would have died. It seems from the above fact that there is something in Joe Smith’s religion which dries up the warm feelings of the human nature and tends to confuse families and make them unhappy. May all the young girls of the Principality be saved from such devilish wolves.

1851: 6 September, Monmouthshire Beacon, p.3 (216 words). “Fruits of Mormonism.”

This report provides a few details about the criminal trial of “Strong” (James Strang) for such crimes as “interrupting, forcibly, the United Statemail; passing counterfeit money; and murder.” The article says, “For want of proof they were finally acquitted.”

1851: 27 September, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p. 4 (105 words). A meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid Society at the town hall in Cardiff. At the meeting, the bishop spoke about something that he had found in a journal published in Cardiff.

In the same journal he had subsequently seen a history of Mormonism. They knew what Mormonism was—that strange infatuation which had spread in this country within a few years to an almost incredible extent. The article contained a statistical account of the number of Mormons. The meeting would hear with horror and deep regret that there were calculated to be 4,342 of those unhappy people who had embraced this delusion in Wales—South Wales principally (hear, hear). He wished to appeal to other evidence; and he was sure the meeting would see it was disinterested as far as concerned the questions between the Church and Dissent.

1851: 27 September, The Silurian, p. 2 (285 words). “The Mormons.”

This article contains several bits of information taken from the New York Tribune about the settling of Salt Lake City. The article is very positive in every comment about how industrious and well-organized the settlers are. John S. Davis was so impressed with this article that he elected to publish it in his own periodical for 18 October 1851.[42] Davis also adds:

We can observe that there is no one in America, where they know best, who dares to say that the Mormons are lazy and idle men, as the occasional ignorant man in Wales suggests. If there are some here who do not work with their hands, they are not lazy, rather they are diligent in the work of God.

Episode 8.4

Start: William Phillips defends the Church from attacks in six different periodicals

1851: 20 August, The Swansea Herald. “The Saints.”[43] This is a paragraph from a letter received by “L. John” from his brother “E. J.” who had recently been in Utah. The paragraph is copied in the September issue of The Revivalist.[44]

1851: September, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), p. 290 (155 words). “The Saints.” This brief paragraph is taken from the above-mentioned 20 August 1851 issue of the Swansea Herald (nonextant). It is partly paraphrased and partly quoted in The Revivalist:

I am sorry that so many of my compatriots are being deceived by hypocrites and allow themselves to become fools and voracious oppressors. The closest market is 1,000 miles from Salt Lake, and the way is such that I would not wish for anyone to travel it except such a rascal as Captain D. J., who succeeded in getting a number of Welsh to go out with him, who are now far worse off than prisoners. Among them is a respectable woman from Carmarthenshire, who sold her belongings, and who left her husband at home without a penny, going with D.J., and is now his concubine, or what is called a “spiritual wife.” The president has twenty-five such women in his home. I saw these things for myself.

1851: September, Seren Gomer (Star of Gomer), pp. 427–28 (410 words). “A Letter from America.” L. John wrote a letter to the editor of the Star of Gomer, explaining that he had sent the brief article on “Mormonism and Polygamy” that was printed in the June issue of the Star of Gomer to his brother in America.[45] L. John then quotes a paragraph from his brother’s letter. Part of the letter is an account of E. J.’s disillusionment with his “journey to the gold country” along with his visit to Salt Lake City. E. J. makes the following observation about the Latter-day Saints:

I went on my way past the valley of the Great Salt Lake, into the midst of the Latter-day Saints; and it is surprising that anyone from Wales is so dimwitted as to be led to destruction by a mob of unprincipled and wicked scoundrels, who don the mantle of religion in order to deceive the ignorant. They are not, those who were bewitched to go over, any better than slaves.

Furthermore, he notes:

In their midst there is a quite respectable woman from Carmarthenshire—she left her husband and went with the Captain D. J. and she is at present a * * * [censored in original] to him.

1851: 15 October, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 2 (875 words). “The Mormons.” A letter written by William Phillips, the leader of the Latter-day Saints in Wales, to the editor of the Times. Phillips makes a fervent appeal to the editor:

Be so honest as to receive a defense as well as accusations relating to the Latter-day Saints, by providing space for the following.

Phillips may also have sent his letter of defense to the Revivalist and the Star of Gomer, but only the Times elected to publish the defense—a curious incident, since there is no evidence the accusations were ever published in the Times. Phillips identifies the supposed “spiritual wife” of Dan Jones as Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis from Kidwelly:

We think that the “spiritual wife” is Mrs. Lewis, formerly from Kidwelly, who emigrated at the same time as Capt. Jones, leaving her husband and her sister behind to settle some legal matters, which were still unfinished at the time of the emigration; and since Mrs. Lewis had arranged for space on a ship for her family, and to prepare everything, her husband and her sister agreed to remain behind until the next emigration, in order to receive some other money that was coming to them. Her husband and her sister ended up emigrating with the first ship after her; and we understand that they have joined with the family in the Valley.[46]

Phillips then presents several quotes from the Doctrine and Covenants as evidence that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not practice polygamy. He concludes:

Polygamy is something that is not tolerated in the church, and neither the president nor anyone else is to practice it. It is contrary to the confession of our faith. I have been in this church for eight years, and I have never heard such a teaching, and it is a pity that we are wrongly treated, and we are determined not to suffer more.[47]

He then gives a stern rebuke to the editor:

We have respect for you and your publication, as long as it contains truth, but the lies that are in it are repugnant to us, and we counsel you to prevent such writings of your correspondents lest you yourself receive grief because of them.

The editor responded with a note at the end of Phillips’s article:

There we are being “so honest” as to provide space for the above letter; and in our next issue we shall give the historical account of the beginning of the Mormons, taken from the <i>Welsh Woman</i> for the current month. Also, we intend to give translations from time to time of the principles of these men, for the purpose of exposing their frightful heresies. It is pointless for Mr. Phillips to think of frightening the editors with his empty threats; they know perfectly well concerning their rights, and they will defend the freedom of the press to publish facts, and pass judgment on them as well.

1851: October, Y Gymraes (The Welsh Woman), pp. 300–7 (3,985 words). “The Mormons.” This very long article has general information about the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On page 304 of the article, the writer, using the nom de plume “Eta Delta,” includes the quote from the 20 August 1851 issue of the Swansea Herald. In the rest of the article, entitled “Liars and Deceivers of the Latter Days,” he lists seven disagreements he has regarding this new religion:

Joseph Smith was “an evil, lazy, and lying man” and not a prophet.
The Book of Mormon is not scripture.
God does not reveal anything new to the Latter-day Saint prophet.
It is blasphemous for them to assume titles such as apostles, prophets, elders, etc.
They do not have spiritual gifts.
Baptism by immersion is not indispensably necessary.
Not only “Mormons” will be with Christ during the Millennium.

At the end of the article is this comment from “I. G.”:

We have provided space for the above article at the request of the Author, but we completely reject his views on state and religious freedom.—I. G.

The segment entitled “Liars and Deceivers of the Latter Days” is also in the November issue of the iInstructor [48] and in the December issue of the Revivalist.[49]

1851: 18 October, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 333–34 (465 words). “The ‘Welsh Woman’ and the Mormons.” John S. Davis presents his opinion about the lengthy article that had recently appeared in the Welsh Woman about Dan Jones and his “spiritual wife”:

She repeats what other people say, who have been proven false many times. We do not have patience at present to answer the tales the Welsh Woman tells us; let her read the various treatises, in Welsh and English, published by the Mormons, in order to know otherwise.[50]

Davis declares firmly that Jones had no such thing as a “spiritual wife”; however, the accusation was true. And just over a year later, on 1 January 1853, Davis would publish in his Welsh periodical for the same declaration about the reality of plural marriage that was published on that same date in English in the Millennial Star.

1851: 22 October, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 1 (1,365 words). “The Mormons.” The editor makes good on his promise in the previous issue (15 October 1851) to publish “the historical account of the beginning of the Mormons, taken from the Welsh Woman for the current month.” The Times has in this issue a large portion of the Welsh Woman article.

1851: 29 October, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 1 (1,055 words). “The Mormons.” This issue of the Times contains another large portion of the Welsh Woman article.

1851: November, Y Dysgedydd (The Instructor), pp. 341–42 (1,480 words). “Liars and Deceivers of the Latter Days.” This article is also in the October 1851 issue of the Welsh Woman[51] and in the December 1851 issue of the Revivalist.[52]

1851: December, Y Diwygiwr (The Revivalist), pp. 298–300 (1,460 words). “Liars and Deceivers of the Latter Days.” This article is also in the October 1851 issue of the Welsh Woman[53] and in the November 1851 issue of the Instructor.[54]

End: William Phillips defends the Church against attacks from six different periodicals

Episode 8.5

Start: William Jones from Bethesda writes a pamphlet, and John S. Davis responds

1851: Egwyddorion Saint y Dyddiau Diweddaf yn cael eu pwyso yn nghlorianau rhesymau ac ysgrythyrau (Principles of the Latter-day Saints weighed on the scales of reasons and scriptures), pamphlet, 24 pages. William Jones begins with this statement concerning the opinions of the Latter-day Saints:

The remarks made in these pages are intended to review only a few of the weak-headed opinions of the Mormons, who call themselves Latter-day Saints, for they are too numerous, and too full of inconsistency.

With respect to their doctrines, he adds:

Their doctrines are an interwoven mixture of reckless, destructive heresies, if one looks at them in the simplicity of the gospel.

He presents a list of eight of the Latter-day Saint beliefs with which he takes issue:

They believe that the true church left the earth following the apostolic age.
They believe God revealed the gospel to Joseph Smith and authorized him to reestablish the Christian church on earth.
They claim that they have the same commission that the apostles received from Jesus Christ.
They claim to have the same qualifications to make a Bible as the apostles and the holy prophets had.
They believe that there is to be a trial situation after death, and that all who were in the world from the apostolic age to the time the gospel was revealed to Joseph Smith will be subject to it, and that salvation will be offered to them, through the preaching of the gospel in Paradise.
They believe that the day of judgment will last a thousand years.
They believe there are two heavens, quite apart from the firmament and the starry heavens.
They believe, after they have gone to California, that Jesus Christ will come to meet them, and that they shall reign with him for 1,000 years, when everyone else will be destroyed.[55]

Regarding the Book of Mormon, Jones writes:

I shall not comment on the deceit of the Book of Mormon; its fate to my mind is like the Mohammed’s Koran. Humanity should blush because of it and deny its relationship with it; let it be buried in the land of its birth, and let its memory to go a vortex of perdition.[56]

Jones then presents numerous scriptures along with his own explanations in refuting the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints. Nowhere in his pamphlet does he simply resort to name-calling or vicious language in describing how awful they are.

1851: 6 September, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 282–87 (2,435 words). “Principles of the Latter-day Saints weighed on the scales of reasons and scriptures—by William Jones, Bethesda.” A reprint of William Jones’s pamphlet (see previous entry). John S. Davis, the editor of Zion’s Trumpet, writes at the outset:

One of the brethren in the North has been kind enough to send the above booklet for us to review, which we shall do with pleasure. It contains twenty-four pages, and we must confess that it is somewhat more genteel than many that preceded it in discussing the Saints.[57]

Davis is equally “genteel” in countering each of Jones’s numerous claims and explanations, something Davis does in this issue of Zion’s Trumpet as well as in the following issue.[58] Shortly thereafter, he had his two articles printed as a separate pamphlet.[59]

1851: 20 September, Udgorn Seion (Zion’s Trumpet), pp. 293–303 (4,740 words). “Principles of the Latter-day Saints weighed on the scales of reasons and scriptures—by William Jones, Bethesda.” The conclusion of John Davis’s response to William Jones.

End: William Jones from Bethesda writes a pamphlet, and John S. Davis responds

1851: 1 October, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 3 (570 words). “Brotherly Love of the Mormons in Merthyr Tydfil.” David Jones, a resident of Merthyr who lived on Tramroad, was able to observe “the cruel treatment the Latter-day Saints [gave] to one of their brethren,” a tailor who lived “to the side of Tramroad, near Twynyrodyn.” The writer explains that when the tailor first became ill, he received regular visits from his coreligionists, but such attention eventually diminished and even turned into cruelty, leaving the poor man destitute. The writer concludes:

Now he has been given notice by the landlady, also a Mormon, to vacate the house; and he lives at present only through the mercy of the neighbors, without a single Mormon to give him so much as a drop of water. I hope this will be a warning, lest anyone be so foolish as to trust the mercy of these ungodly and arrogant deceivers, those who are known quite appropriately as the Latter-day Satanists.

No response to the account of David Jones is to be found in Zion’s Trumpet.

1851: October, Y Cyfaill o’r Hen Wlad yn America (The Friend of the Old Country in America), p. 320 (60 words). “Mormonism.” These few lines are to inform that “Mormonism these days is as different from anything taught or ordained by the Prophet Smith as are Mohammedism and Christianity.”

1851: 16 October, Seren Cymru (Star of Wales), p. 5 (235 words). “Llanidloes.” Someone who calls himself “Meurig Idloes” reports:

Some of the sect called “Mormons” or “Latter-day Saints” have been coming over the last several months. They hold their meetings weekly and on the Sabbath under the old Hall, continuing faithfully and assiduously to offer their Mormon balderdash to the people; but it appears that the Llanidloesians are not so weak-minded and insipid as to receive their despicable rubbish into their minds.

The writer declares that this new religion has but little hope for success in Llanidloes.

1851: 8 November, Monmouthshire Beacon, p. 3 (110 words). An article taken from the Arbroath Guide, published in Scotland, about “the Mormonite way of paying old debts.” The article claims that “a Mormon preacher” excused himself from paying a debt since he “took with him neither purse or scrip.”

1851: 21 November, The Cambrian (55 words). “Cwmtwrch.” A few lines about a lecture on the “Errors of Mormonism”:

A lecture on the Errors of Mormonism was delivered at the Baptist Chapel Cwmtwrch on last Wednesday evening, by the Rev. J. Rhys Morgan of Aberavon. The chapel was crowded on the occasion. Admission tickets were 6d. each, the profits to be devoted to the funds for the education of young men intended for the Ministry.

1851: 29 November, Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, p.3 (620words).

In an article about “State Education,” the writer discusses the topic of national education. He asserts that the Church (i.e., the Anglican Church) “sup and doing” but that “Dissent the Nonconformists fold sup its arms, and thinks it enough to care for the souls of the adults, without troubling itself with the education of children.” He continues:

Whatever the establishment may be doing at Lampeter or elsewhere, the fact is patent here, that the only religious bodies increasing in strength in Merthyr are the Church—and its religious antipode—Mormonism.

He draws the following conclusion:

The progress of Mormon worship, which Dissenting preachers rail at but do not understand, is in truth the result of their indifference to day school tuition.

1851: 17 December, Yr Amserau (The Times), p. 3 (125 words). “The Latter-day Saints.” This is a poem of four 4-line stanzas by Dafydd Williams, Holyhead. Here are the first and fourth stanzas:

It is readily seen that a putrid plague,

Is the spirit of the wandering Saints;

It is the followers of <i>Smith</i>, the son of the black devil,

Who seek to deceive our dear nation.

Their principles are filled

With the stench of hell, that is their gift;

If they cannot truly repent,

Before long, their place will be hell.

1851: December, Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd (The Wesleyan Treasury), pp. 368–70 (1,580 words). “The Mormons or Latter-day Saints.” This article is basically an overview of the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Book of Mormon, and the resettling of Church members in Utah. The information in the article is taken from the National Illustrated Library.[60] The only information the article presents about the Latter-day Saints in Wales is the following opinion about Zion’s Trumpet (here called by its subtitle, Star of the Saints):

There is a publication pertaining to this sect, which is printed in Merthyr Tydfil, under the title “Star of the Saints,” full of the most offensive, ungodly, and presumptuous views we have ever seen or heard.

Notes

[1] Millennial Star 13 (1852): 188.

[2] Wilson G. Nowers, “Reminiscences,” Church Emigration Book, vol. 2 (1850–54), 1–7.

[3] Nowers, “Reminiscences.”

[4] Nowers, “Reminiscences.”

[5] Nower’s profile on the Welsh Mormon History website can be found at http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Immigrant_View.aspx?id=635

[6] Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon, 1904), 4:352.

[7] This profile can be found at http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Immigrant_View.aspx?id=2958

[8]Zion’s Trumpet, 15 November 1851, 366.

[9] Ibid., 367.

[10] Ibid., 369.

[11] Star of Gomer, October 1846, 301–3.

[12] Zion’s Trumpet, 25 January 1851, 32–35.

[13] Star of Gomer, January 1847, 16–17.

[14]Star of Gomer, December 1846, 378.

[15] Star of Gomer, January 1851, 44–45.

[16] The William Howells profile from the Welsh Mormon History website and the New Era article can be found at https://www.lds.org/study/new-era/1978/07/atlantic-crossing-on-the-ship-olympus?lang=eng

[17] The Baptist, April 1851, 127.

[18] Ibid., 128.

[19] Zion’s Trumpet, May 1851, 149.

[20] Ibid., 151.

[21] Zion’s Trumpet, June 1851, 184–86.

[22] Ibid., 184.

[23] See Welsh Mormon Writings, 159–62.

[24] Zion’s Trumpet, July 1853, 16.

[25] Ibid., 17.

[26] Zion’s Trumpet, October 1853, 284.

[27] Ibid., 286.

[28] Ibid., 287.

[29] Zion’s Trumpet, December 1853, 431.

[30]Zion’s Trumpet, 8 May 1852, 146.

[31] Zion’s Trumpet, July 1855, 235.

[32] Ibid., 237.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid., 238.

[35] This particular issue of Y Gwron Cymreig (The Welsh Hero) has yet to be identified.

[36] For further biographical information about Dewi Elfed Jones, see D. L. Davies, “From a Seion of Lands to the Land of Zion: The Life of David Bevan Jones,” in Mormons in Early Victorian Britain, ed. Richard L. Jensen and Malcolm R. Thorp (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), 118–41. A larger history is posted on the Welsh Mormon History website at http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Resource_Info.aspx?id=3320.

[37] The Revivalist, June 1851, 177.

[38] Ibid.

[39] See Document 4432 in the LDS Church archives.

[40] Welsh Mormon Writings, item 58.

[41] Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, August 1851, 4.

[42] Zion’s Trumpet, October 1851, 332–33.

[43] This issue of The Swansea Herald is nonextant.

[44] The Revivalist, September 1851, 290.

[45] Star of Gomer, June 1851, 287.

[46] After crossing the sea and the plains in the same company, Elizabeth Lewis and Dan Jones were married by Brigham Young in November 1849.

[47] The practice of polygamy was officially acknowledged to the Welsh in Britain in the 1 January 1853 issue of Zion’s Trumpet and to all English speakers in Britain in the 1 January 1853 issue of the Millennial Star.

[48] The Instructor, November 1851, 341–42.

[49] The Revivalist, December 1851, 298–300.

[50] Zion’s Trumpet, October 1851, 333.

[51] The Welsh Woman, October 1851, 304–7,

[52] The Revivalist, December 1851, 298–300.

[53] The Welsh Woman, October 1851, 304–7.

[54] The Instructor, November 1851, 341–42.

[55] William Jones, Principles of the Latter-day Saints weighed on the scales of reasons and the scriptures, 1851, 5–6.

[56] Ibid., 6.

[57] Zion’s Trumpet, September 1851, 282.

[58] Zion’s Trumpet, 20 September 1851, 293–303.

[59] See Defending the Faith: Early Welsh Missionary Publications, item D20, for a facsimile translation.

[60] The Mormons; or Latter-Day Saints. With Memoirs of the Life and Death of Joseph Smith, the American ‘Mahomet.’ Illustrated with forty engravings. London: Office of the National Illustrated Library, 326.

�鶹��ý

On Trial in the Welsh Press

Latter-day Saint Missionaries Declare and Defend the Faith, 1840–1860

Ronald D. Dennis, Editor

1851

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