Zion's Trumpet

ZION’s TRUMPET1852 Welsh Mormon Periodical ZION’s TRUMPET 1852 Welsh Mormon Periodical Translated and Edited by Ronald D. Dennis Published by the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in cooperation with Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City. http://rsc.byu.edu © 2013 by Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books Inc. Any uses of this material beyond those allowed by the exemptions in US copyright law, such as section 107, “Fair Use,” and section 108, “Library Copying,” require the written permission of the publisher, Religious Studies Center, 167 HGB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of Brigham Young University or the Religious Studies Center. DESERET BOOK is a registered trademark of Deseret Book Company. ISBN 978-0-8425-2829-0 Retail U.S. $25.99 Jacket art courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Jacket design by Jacob F. Frandsen. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zion’s trumpet : 1852 Welsh Mormon periodical / translated and edited by Ronald D. Dennis. pages cm Includes index. Translation of: Udgorn Seion, originally published in Welsh, 1852. Summary: The epic story of the early Welsh Mormons. This volume focuses on “facsimile translations,” or reproductions of early Welsh missionary texts and volumes of official Welsh Mormon periodicals during 1852. ISBN 978-0-8425-2829-0 (hard cover : alk. paper) 1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Periodicals. 2. Mormon Church—Periodicals. 3. Mormon press—Wales. 4. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—History—19th century—Sources. 5. Mormon Church—History—19th century—Sources. I. Dennis, Ronald D., 1940–, translator, editor. II. Udgorn Seion. English. BX8617.G7Z56 2012b 289.3’42909034—dc23 2012045293 Dedicated to the First Group of Welsh Mormon Emigrants Under the leadership of Captain Dan Jones, 334 Welsh Mor- mon emigrants gathered at Liverpool in mid-February 1849 to sail to America. Because of space limitations, only 249 of the 334 de- parted on the Buena Vista on February 26th; the remaining 85 left one week later on the Hartley. One in five of the 334 died of chol- era before reaching Council Bluffs, and the survivors faced many other difficulties because of their staggering losses. This volume of Zion’s Trumpet is dedicated to all those who were buried in hastily dug graves on the riverbanks and also to those who were left to mourn the sudden departure of their loved ones. Here are the names of a few of those who suffered some of the most severe losses (BV15 indicates passenger 15 on the Buena Vista, H131 indicates passenger 131 on the Hartley, and so on): Mary Jones (BV15, age 11) lost both parents Mary Meredith (H131, age 2) Daniel Meredith (H130, age 5) Margaret Meredith (H129, age 7) lost both parents Eliza Meredith (H128, age 10) Ann Meredith (H127, age 12) } Nathaniel Eames (H119, age 13) lost both parents and three siblings Owen Owens (H113, age 12) Margaret Owens (H110, age 19) lost both parents and four siblings Cadwallader Owens (H115, age 24) } Ann Francis (BV167, age 16) lost her father and three siblings Margaret Francis (BV166, age 48) lost her husband and three children Sarah Evans Jeremy (BV154, age 34) lost three children Mary Phillips (BV148, age 31) lost three children More detailed information about this first group of Mormon emigrants from Wales is available on the website welshmormon.byu.edu and in my book The Call of Zion: The Story of the First Welsh Mormon Emigration (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1987). Udgorn Seion, volume 4 (1852) CONTENTS List of Illustrations ........................xi Introduction ............................xiii Facsimile Translation Considerations ..........xvii Acknowledgments ........................ xxi Annotated Contents. xxiii TRANSLATIONS January–December ..................416 pages Index ................................lxxiii Udgorn Seion, vol. 4, no. 1, 10 January 1852 ILLUSTRATIONS Udgorn Seion, volume 4 (1852) .................vii Udgorn Seion vol. 4, no. 1. x John S. and Elizabeth Phillips Davis ............xii 1852 Udgorn Seion title page .......facing translation John S. and Elizabeth Phillips Davis INTRODUCTION “Our thoughts are beginning to lean more toward the Trumpet, since we intend to finish the translation [of the Book of Mormon], if we are alive and well, within about three months.” An over- burdened John Davis prints this comment in the 29 November 1851 issue of Zion’s Trumpet after having devoted nearly a full year to translating and publishing the entire Doctrine and Covenants and about half the Book of Mormon. In an apparent defense he also declares that the periodical “is not being neglected at present, for in it there are many very interesting things” (Zion’s Trumpet 3 [29 November 1851]: 384). He then promises that when he has more time he will “make it more worthy of being received by writing more ourselves.” Davis’s good intentions to write more for Zion’s Trumpet were not realized, however; instead his contributions to the periodical went from 45 pages in 1851 to only 25 pages in 1852. And his reliance on other printed sources such as the Millennial Star and the Deseret News went from 175 pages to 265 pages, or an increase of 22 percent. Davis acknowledges in his foreword to the 1852 volume of Zion’s Trumpet, dated 22 December 1852, that his “observations as Editor have been infrequent,” but he hastens to add that his “publication is filled with the best things under heaven, even the words of the head of the Church.” Furthermore, he declares the 1852 Zion’s Trumpet to be “the best volume yet.” The following table shows the contents of the two volumes in contrast: xiv INTRODUCTION Zion’s Trumpet Vol. Year Total Pages by % Pages from % Pages from % pages Davis other printed letters, poems, sources articles, etc. 3 1851 416 45 11 175 42 196 47 4 1852 416 25 6 265 64 126 30 Although Davis had hoped to finish the Welsh translation and publication of the Book of Mormon by about the end of February 1852, the last segment would not come off the press until mid- April. But when the project was nearing completion, the Rever- end J. Jones, Llangollen, Dan Jones’s brother and Davis’s former boss, had begun to lecture in various places in South Wales against Mormonism. Davis decided to use the time he had intended for writing more for Zion’s Trumpet to instead answer the charges of the Reverend J. Jones. The eventual result was a series of six treatises on miracles that were published apart from the periodical during May, June, and July. Upon completing the series of treatises, Davis’s attention was again diverted from his periodical to translating and publishing the Pearl of Great Price, a task he completed in early September 1852. And then his focus shifted to putting together a definitive Welsh Mormon hymnal—a collection of 575 hymns that would include those from his 1849 hymnal and most of those from Dan Jones’s 1846 hymnal. He published this new hymnal one month before the end of 1852. Thus the good intentions he had expressed one year earlier—to write more for Zion’s Trumpet after completing the Book of Mormon translation—were redirected to three other major and very time-consuming projects. If John Davis was at the point of exhaustion at the end of such a busy year, he gives no indication of it in his enthusiastic announcement of a weekly appearance of Zion’s Trumpet for the coming year in the 11 December 1852 issue, p. 400. He pleads with his subscribers to assist him in widening the circulation of the INTRODUCTION xv periodical to enable him to “put much more in the Trumpet than it contains at present.” As he embarked on his final year as editor ofZion’s Trumpet, John Davis was but thirty years old. He had converted to Mormonism only six years earlier while in the employ of the Reverend J. Jones, Llangollen. The Reverend Jones had permitted his younger brother Dan to print Mormon materials on the press he operated in the small village of Rhydybont, near Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire. As the young John Davis set the type for these publications and as he conversed with Captain Dan Jones, their author, he became con- vinced of the truth of the Mormon message and accepted baptism on 19 April 1846. This new convert brought with him seven years’ training as an apprentice printer, several years’ experience work- ing as a printer, expertise in both Welsh and English, a poetic gift, and a growing knowledge and conviction of his new religion. No other Mormon convert in Wales had credentials superior to those of John Davis to step into the shoes of Dan Jones at the outset of 1849 as editor of the Church periodical, as one who could defend the doctrine in polemics, as one who could render a superb translation of the Mormon scriptures, and as one who could assemble a hymnal of 575 hymns, a great many of them of his own composi- tion. John Davis was, indeed, a godsend in this regard. As with the English translations of the three preceding volumes of Zion’s Trumpet, this 1852 volume is published in a “facsimile translation” format to provide the reader with something of the appearance and flavor of the original Welsh publication. Ronald D. Dennis FACSIMILE TRANSLATION CONSIDERATIONS 1. Size. The size of the page and the print of the original has been enlarged by about 30 percent to facilitate reading.

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