Zion's Trumpet 1851.Indb

ZION’s TRUMPET 1851 Welsh Mormon Periodical ZION’s TRUMPET 1851 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 © 2011 by Brigham Young University. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books Any uses of this material beyond those allowed by the exemptions in U.S. 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 Retail U.S. Jacket art courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Jacket design by Jacob F. Frandsen Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dedicated to William S. Phillips “A sterling and tried man” When Captain Dan Jones arrived in Merthyr Tydfil in Decem- ber 1845 to preside over all the missionary work in Wales, William S. Phillips had already been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years. His baptism on 17 December 1843 made him the fiftieth person to convert to Mormonism in Merthyr Tydfil, and he became part of the member-missionary effort that would add many more adepts in that area during the next nine years.1 Dan Jones showed his confidence in William Phillips at a 12 July 1846 conference held in Merthyr Tydfil by calling him to serve as the treasurer of the newly formed Missionary Society for all of Wales.2 Soon afterwards Phillips was called to serve as the President of the Merthyr Tydfil Branch, the largest branch of the Church not just in Wales but in all of Britain as its membership climbed to over seven hundred members.3 On 3 October 1847 Phillips was called to be President of the Monmouthshire Conference, this in addition to his other respon- sibilities.4 Thus, in early 1849, as Dan Jones prepared to journey to Utah at the end of his first mission to Wales, it is not surprising that he called thirty-four-year-old William Phillips as his replace- ment. In his report to Orson Pratt, Jones described Phillips as “a sterling and tried man.”5 During the next five years as the leader of the Latter-day Saints in Wales, Phillips gave further evidence of the accuracy of Jones’s epithet. He was tireless in his efforts to build the kingdom—he traveled constantly, held conferences, gave sermons, instructed the Saints, coordinated the emigration of numerous Welsh converts, and was a regular contributor to Zion’s Trumpet. He baptized an ordained Baptist minister who, after being confirmed in his own chapel, presented the chapel key to Phillips and declared it to be Mormon property as of that moment.6 He received personal let- ters from Elder John Taylor7 and shared a frightening experience with Elder Lorenzo Snow in the town of Tredegar when they received night visitors in their hotel room who were bent on doing them serious harm.8 Following ten years of faithful service in various Church call- ings in Wales, William S. Phillips, the “sterling and tried man,” received permission to take his wife and children to Utah. Traveling with him was his new son-in-law, Richard Vaughan Morris, who had served as a full-time missionary under Phillips for three years.9 Notes 1 A list of baptisms during 1843–44 in Penydarren, Wales, prepared by Edward Roberts. LDS Church Historian’s Library, LR 122087. 2 Prophet of the Jubilee, Vol. 1 (1846), p. 55. 3 Prophet of the Jubilee, Vol. 3 (1848), p. 9. 4 Prophet of the Jubilee, Vol. 2 (1847), p. 179. 5 Millennial Star, Vol. 11 (1849), p. 40. 6 Udgorn Seion, Vol. 3 (1851), p. 141. 7 Udgorn Seion, Vol. 2 (1850), p. 339–40; Vol. 3 (1851), p. 395–99. 8 Udgorn Seion, Vol. 3 (1851), p. 366-69. 9 Many entries concerning William Phillips are in Richard Vaughan Morris’s missionary journal, a transcription of which is posted on http://welshmormonhistory.org. Further information about William Phillips is also posted on this website. Udgorn Seion, volume 3 (1851) CONTENTS List of Illustrations. .xi Introduction. .xiii Facsimile Translation Considerations. .xvii Acknowledgments . xxi Annotated Contents. xxiii TRANSLATIONS January–December . .416 pages Index . .lxxxi Udgorn Seion, vol. 3, no. 1, 11 January 1851. ILLUSTRATIONS William S. Phillips. .v Udgorn Seion, volume 3 (1851). .viii Udgorn Seion vol. 3, no. 1. .x John S. and Elizabeth Phillips Davis. .xii 1851 Udgorn Seion title page . facing translation John S. and Elizabeth Phillips Davis INTRODUCTION In January 1849, twenty-six-year-old John S. Davis was given full responsibility for the publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wales. His calling was to fill the shoes of Captain Dan Jones, his predecessor, who was about to take a group of more than three hundred Welsh Mormon converts to America. It was while setting type for some of Dan Jones’s publications only three years earlier that John S. Davis had converted to Mormonism. Davis published the first two volumes ofUdgorn Seion in monthly issues, each one having a four-page printed wrapper. For this third volume, however, Davis decided to increase the frequency to twice monthly, decrease the number of pages per issue to sixteen, and eliminate the wrapper. Davis was also assigned the task of translating and publishing the Doctrine and Covenants in Welsh, the first non-English ver- sion of this book of Latter-day Saint scripture. He carried out this assignment by distributing sixteen-page signatures of his translation along with the bimonthly issues of Udgorn Seion. The first signature of Doctrine and Covenants was sent out with the 22 Febru- ary 1851 issue of the periodical; the twentieth and final signature was distributed twenty-seven weeks later with the 23 August 1851 Udgorn Seion. xiv INTRODUCTION The completion of the Welsh translation of the Doctrine Cov- enants was also the beginning of the Welsh translation of the Book of Mormon. Davis sent out the first signature of the Book of Mor- mon with the 20 September 1851 Zion’s Trumpet and the final signature with the 17 April 1852 issue. Thus during the entire year of 1851 Davis served two masters—that of the bimonthly periodical and that of the translation and publication of Mormon scripture. Compared to the first two volumes of Udgorn Seion, this third volume contains relatively few writings of its editor. Davis’s printing of the 1822 Welsh translation of the early Jewish work “Testa- ments of the Twelve Patriarchs” in the first fourteen issues of his 1851 periodical may well have been a convenient “filler” to allow him to devote more of his time and effort to the task of translating and publishing the Doctrine and Covenants. The reprinting of “The Nature of Miracles,” an article by Davis published four years earlier in a Baptist periodical, the inclusion of Dan Jones’s lengthy account of the “Southern Expedition,” and Jones’s previously un- published and incomplete writings on the “Coming of the Son of Man” could possibly be classified as “filler” as well. In the 29 November issue of this year’s periodical (p. 385), Da- vis admits to being somewhat overwhelmed with his two major tasks, but he also declares that Udgorn Seion “is not being neglected at present, for in it there are many very interesting things.” He also declares that when he has more time he promises to “make it much more worthy of being received by writing more ourselves.” Davis’s response to a twenty-four-page anti-Mormon treatise by a William Jones from North Wales constitutes a significant break from printing borrowed writings. The first of two parts of Davis’s review appears in the 6 September Udgorn Seion, two weeks following the distribution of the last signature of his translation of the Doctrine and Covenants and two weeks prior to the distribution of the first signature of his translation of the Book of Mormon. As with the English translations of the two preceding volumes of Udgorn Seion, this 1851 volume is being published in a “facsimile translation” format to provide the reader with something of INTRODUCTION xv the appearance and flavor of the original Welsh publication. For John S. Davis to have produced the twenty-six issues of this periodical during 1851 constitutes a respectable accomplishment; for him to have also concurrently translated and published the entire Doctrine and Covenants and half the Book of Mormon in Welsh is mind-boggling. 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. 2. Leading and point size. Whatever variations occur in the space between lines and print size in the original are imitated in the translation. 3. Pagination. The content of each translated page may vary by as much as four or five lines from the content of the Welsh original; all major and minor headings are on the same page as the original. 4. Paragraphs and sentences. The tendency of nineteenth- century writers was to use fewer paragraph breaks and much lon- ger sentences than might seem appropriate today.

Load more