The Story of the First Welsh Mormon Emigration
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The Story of the First Welsh Mormon Em.kJration Ronald D. Dennis v UH.Iffie l WO in the Religious Studies Center Specialized Monograph Series Religious Studies Center Brigham Young University Copyright © 1987 by Religious Studies Center Brigham Young University All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 87-70665 ISBN 0-88494-628-2 First Printing, 1987 Produced and Distributed by BOOKCRAFf, INC. Salt Lake City, Utah Printed in the United States of America Contents Illustrations . 1x Preface. x1 Gather to Zion . 1 From Swansea to Liverpool . 7 On Board the Buena Vista . 16 Crossing of the Hartley . 31 From the Buena Vista to the Constitution- New Orleans to St. Louis . 36 Cholera on the Missouri River . 42 New Orleans to Council Bluffs- the Hartley Group ............................ 47 Council Bluffs-Off the Water at Last . 51 From Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City- 1849. 56 In the Valley . 65 From Council Bluffs to the Salt Lake Valley- 1852 ........................................ 69 Conclusion ..................................... 78 viii Contents Notes .......................................... 78 Appendix A: Alphabetized List of Buena Vista and Hartley Welsh Passengers . 82 Appendix B: Categorized Information on the Buena Vista Passengers . 86 Appendix C: Categorized Information on the Hartley Passengers . 9 2 Appendix D: Biographical Sketches . 106 Appendix E: Translated Documents (This section has its own Table of Contents) ...... 122 Works Cited .................................... 241 Illustrations The Hartley . 32 "New Orleans," by Frederick Piercy. 3 7 "St. Louis," by Frederick Piercy ................... 40 ''Council Bluffs Ferry,'' by Frederick Piercy . 52 "Devil' s Gate," by Frederick Piercy . 7 5 "Great Salt Lake City in 1853," by Frederick Piercy .. 76 David D. Bowen {H73) ........................... 94 Morgan David Bowen {H20). 94 William Clark (H40) ............................. 94 Daniel Daniels (BV128) . 94 Thomas Daniels (BV130) . 95 Ann David {H15) ............................... 95 Elizabeth David {H14) . 95 Emma David {H17) . 95 Hannah David {H16) . 96 Morgan David {H12) . 96 Rachel David {H18) . 96 George Davis (H68) .............................. 96 Thomas Davis, Jr. (H65). 97 Thomas Davis, Sr. (H62) . 97 Mary Evans (BV171) ............................. 97 Phoebe Evans (BV51) . 97 Margaret Francis (BV166) . 98 Sarah Giles (BV132) . 98 Morgan Hughes (BVlll) . 98 Sarah Jeremy (BV154) ............................ 98 Thomas Jeremy (BV153) .......................... 99 Dan Jones (BVl) . 99 X Illustrations Mary Jones (BV15).............................. 99 William Lewis (BV66) . 99 Thomas Mathias (BV133) ......................... 100 Edward Morgan (BV12) ........................... 100 William Morgan (BV10) .......................... 100 Isaac Nash (BV49) ............................... 100 Owen Owens (H48)... 101 Caleb Parry (BV216) ............................. 101 Catherine Parry (BV217) .......................... 101 John Parry (BV67) ............................... 101 David Peters (H33) .............................. 102 Lowry (Laura) Peters (H34) ........................ 102 Sarah Peters (H38) ............................... 102 John Davis Rees (BV226) ......................... 102 Mary Rees (BV227) .............................. 103 Owen Roberts (H3 7) ............................. 103 Benjamin Rowland (BV19) ........................ 103 Job Rowland (BV16) ............................. 103 Eliza Thomas (BV146) ............................ 104 Rees Thomas (BV99) ............................. 104 Samuel Thomas (BV145) ......................... 104 Jane Treharne (BV116) ........................... 104 Mary Treharne (BV115) ........................... 105 Sage Treharne (BV118) ........................... 105 Sarah Treharne (BV11 7) .......................... 105 William Treharne (BV119) ........................ 105 Preface Monday, 26 February 1849, was a day of great significance in the history of Welsh Mormons. On that day 249 of them set sail in the Buena Vista from Waterloo Dock in Liverpool, homeward to their "Zion." Actually, seventy-seven other Welsh converts to Mormonism had paid their passage to travel on the Buena Vista; these, however, had to wait until one week later to leave Britain when they left on board the Hartley, a ship which contained 161 English and Scottish converts as well. Although a few Welsh Mormons had gone to America on an individual basis after the introduction of the missionary effort into Wales in 1840, those who sailed on the Buena Vista and the Hartley constituted the first collective emigration from among the Welsh converts. The fondest wish of these ''first fruits'' was that their three thousand brothers and sisters in the faith who remained in Wales would soon join them in the Salt Lake Valley, where they would live in peace and harmony far from the animosity and persecution which they had received from their nonbeliev ing compatriots. They desperately wanted their sea voyage and their land trek to be perfect in every way so that their success would offer encouragement to the others to follow after them. Thus the letters sent back to Wales by Church leaders were without exception enthusiastic and optimistic, almost to the point of being suspect. Captain Dan Jones, author of most of the letters concerning the migration, made even the funeral held at sea sound attractive. Hardships were minimized and conflicts were brushed aside while the primary focus was placed on the positive, adventurous, and spiritual aspects of the journey. Jones's letters, together with those of Thomas Jeremy and William Morgan, offer extensive documentation of the crossing of the Buena Vista and the Hartley, among the best xii Preface of any crossing of Mormon emigrants from Great Britain; but these letters have been almost totally ignored by Mormon historians. Because the writers penned them in Welsh, the letters and other extensive writings were rendered mute to all but the Welsh-speaking historian, a rare breed in this country. What began for me as a casual interest in my own Welsh Mormon ancestors eventually developed into a fascination for the history of the Welsh Mormons in general. Overcoming the language obstacle was a far greater task than I had originally thought, but the reward of being able to inject life into the once meaningless pages amply justified the effort. My objective in this book is to present a detailed account of these ''sons of Gomer,'' inhabitants of the hills of Cambria, from the time they made the decision to seek rest in Zion's chambers until they marched proudly into the Salt Lake Valley. Appendix A contains an alphabetized list of all 326 Welsh emigrants on board the Buena Vista and the Hartley. Appendixes B and C combine passenger list information about the emigrants with information gleaned from numerous other sources. Appendix D is a series of biographical sketches of many of the emigrants. Appendix E contains English translations of the complete texts of thirty items originally written in Welsh-twenty-three letters, four poems, and three periodical articles-all dealing directly with the 1849 crossing. A separate table of contents for Appendix E lists the reference number under which the entire text may be found, indicated following the quotation by TD (for Translated Documents). "TD7," for example, would mean that item 7 of Appendix E is the full text of Dan Jones's 28 April1849letter to John Davis. Other quota tions from Welsh to English from documents for which the entire text is not provided are indicated by the abbreviation trans. All translations are mine. I would like to thank D. L. Davies, Cwmaman, Wales, for offering valuable suggestions. I also wish to express apprecia tion to Linda Hunter Adams of the College of Humanities Publications Center at BYU for her help and editorial skills. Gather to Zion The first Mormon missionaries assigned to Wales were Henry Royle and Frederick Cook, who began to proselyte in North Wales in October 1840. Some months earlier others had been preaching in the English counties which border Wales. These missionaries could well have gone into some of the Welsh villages for a street meeting or two. The first missionary assigned to the heartland of Wales was William Henshaw. He went directly to cosmopolitan Merthyr Tydfil, a burgeoning town which had recently become the industrial center of Wales. With no knowledge of the Welsh language, Henshaw had to proclaim his message in English and hope some would understand. On 19 February 1843 he baptized his first converts, the William Davis family. During the following three years, Henshaw established several branches in Glamorgan and Monmouth, branches with a membership totaling nearly five hundred members. In December 1845 Captain Dan Jones was called to preside over all Welsh Mormons. He went down to Merthyr Tydfil after having spent the previous year in an unproductive North Wales. For the next decade this feisty and somewhat flamboyant mariner, having exchanged a ship's deck for a preacher's pulpit, would be the central figure of Welsh Mormondom. Born in North Wales in 1810, DanJones went to sea at age seventeen and for the following ten years spent most of his life away from Wales. Shortly after he married Jane Melling in 183 7 he took her to America, where he became an American citizen and operated a steamboat on the Mississippi River. It was while he was captain of the little steamer Maid of Iowa that he first heard of the Mormons. Incredulous at the