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Catechism for children

Jaques, John. Catechism for children, exhibiting the prominent doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By Elder John Jaques. Liverpool, Published by F.D. Richards, 15, Wilton Street. London, For sale at the L.D.S. Book Depot, 35, Jewin-St., City. And by all booksellers, 1854.
iv, [5]-84 p. 17 cm.

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John Jaques, an English convert of 1845, announced his intention, in the Millennial Star of November 19, 1853, to write a catechism for teaching children the doctrines of Mormonism and, beginning in that issue, he serially published fourteen chapters in the Star. In February 1854 the serial publication stopped, apparently because Jaques decided to publish the catechism directly as a book. Five months later Catechism for Children came off the press. The book itself consists of a series of questions and answers arranged in eighteen chapters according to subject. Accompanying many of the answers are supporting passages from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.

Catechism for Children is the first broadly distributed LDS children’s book. Its importance, however, goes beyond this bibliographical footnote: for by claiming to list the doctrines of Mormonism, it, along with three or four other books of the period, helped to standardize Mormon theology.

Before the close of the century, Catechism for Children went through ten editions in English, totaling thirty-five thousand copies. It was also translated into Danish, Dutch, German, Hawaiian, and Swedish.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 44, p. [32].

Used by permission of the authors.

Circular. Beloved Brethren. Having been appointed a mission to visit the Church of England

Hyde, Orson, and John Taylor. Circular. Beloved Brethren, Having been appointed a mission to visit the Church of England. Orson Hyde. John Taylor. Liverpool, Oct. 3rd, 1846. [Liverpool, 1846]
Broadside 20.5 x 13 cm.

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Orson Hyde’s and John Taylor’s Circular is the final piece dealing with the British and American Commercial Joint Stock Company (see The British and American Commercial Joint Stock Company in this digital collection).

Issued the day they reached Liverpool, it calls for a general conference in Manchester on Saturday, October 17, and it advises the Saints to invest “no more for the present” in the Joint Stock Company, “an Institution wholly independent of the church.” The Millennial Star for October 15, 1846, (see this digital collection) reprints the circular, with the change of one word and a number of changes in punctuation and capitalization.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 312, p. 351.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Circular the second … “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” in the eastern states

Little, Jesse Carter. Circular the second, published by elder J. C. Little, president of the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” in the eastern states, Philadelphia, May 15th, 1846 [Philadelphia? 1846?]
8 pp. 24 cm.

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Jesse C. Little remained in Philadelphia from the time of the conference there on May 13-14 until he left for Washington on May 20. He reports that on May 16 he “bargained for the printing” of Circular the Second, so it seems clear that he had it printed in Philadelphia. This is consistent with its typography, which differs from that of the first and third circulars (see this digital collection for the third circular). Most of the Circular the Second reports resolutions passed at each of the four conferences Little called in his first circular at Peterborough, May 2-3; Boston, May 6; New York, May 9-10; and Philadelphia, May 13-14. In each case these resolutions sustain the Twelve as the leaders of the Church and Little as the presiding authority in the East, and dedicate the time and means of those in the eastern branches to the move west.

In his epistle “To the Saints Scattered Abroad in the Eastern Lands” which follows the resolutions, Little calls W.I. Appleby to assist him, and he assigns certain elders to local positions of leadership. He remarks that he will visit Washington in a few days to try to get some assistance from the federal government for the move west. He mentions the war with Mexico and urges the Saints to express only loyalty to the United States. Referring to his plan to sail to San Francisco in September, he requests those with means to send what funds they can as soon as possible so that he can charter a ship, and he asks those who are unable to pay the passage to send in their names so he will know how much assistance they will require.

Little left for Washington on May 20, armed with letters of introduction to various members of the Polk administration, one from Thomas L. Kane, whom he met at the conference in Philadelphia. Two days later, in Washington, he called on Amos Kendall, a former postmaster general, and that evening he was introduced to President Polk. The next day he talked about the Mormon emigration with Kendall, who thought that there might be some chance of enlisting one thousand Mormon men into the U.S. army and marching them to California, and on the 26th he learned that Kendal had presented this idea to Polk.

During the next five days, however, Little received no word from the president; so on June 1 he sent him a long letter in which he asked for assistance to move the Saints west and declared that should help not come from the United States he was determined to get it from some other country. Polk met with his cabinet on June 2 and authorized Col. Stephen W. Kearny, who was to lead the expedition to California, “to receive into serve as volunteers a few hundred of the Mormons who are now on their way to California, with a view to conciliate them, attach them to our country, & prevent them from taking part against us.”

The following day the secretary of war issued an order to Kearny to muster into service a number of the Mormons not to exceed one-third of his force, to be paid as other volunteers and allowed to choose their own officers. Little tarried in Washington until June 9 and then headed for the Mormon camps in Iowa, reaching them four weeks later, in time to reassure the Saints that the call for volunteers then being made by Capt. James Allen was legitimate. On July 21, in company with the departing Mormon Battalion, he left Council Bluffs for the eastern states, to resume his duties as presiding elder. It has been estimated that the pay and allowances of the Battalion, much of which was sent back to the Church leaders, totaled more than the $50,000 Little had hoped to get from the federal government.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Circular of the High Council

A circular of the high council. To the members of the Church of Jesus Christ op [sic] Latter Day Saints, and to all whom it may concern: greeting. Done in Council at the City of Nauvoo, on the 20th day of January, 1846. Samuel Bent, James Allred, George W. Harris, William Huntington, Henry G. Sherwood, Alpheus Cutler, Newel Knight, Lewis D. Wilson, Ezra T. Benson, David Fullmer, Thomas Grover, Aaron Johnson. [Nauvoo, 1846]
Broadside 31 x 24 cm.

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Circular of the High Council is the first public announcement of the Mormons’ intention to establish a settlement in the Great Basin. Its first two paragraphs state that early in March “a company of pioneers, consisting mostly of young, hardy men, with some families” and outfitted with farming and milling equipment, seeds and grain, and a printing press will proceed west “until they find a good place to make a crop, in some good valley in the neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, where they will infringe upon no one, and be not likely to be infringed upon. Here we will make a resting place, until we can determine a place for a permanent location.”

By the end of 1845 the Mormons had familiarized themselves with the reports of Benjamin Bonneville, John C. Frémont, Charles Wilkes, and Lansford W. Hastings. During November and December the Times and Seasons (see this digital collection) spoke of the Pacific coast as the destination of the Saints, California, Oregon, or Vancouver. But uncertainty persisted as late as December 26, when Brigham Young wrote to Sam Brannan that “we have not determined to what place we shall go.” Circular of the High Council shows that by mid-January the Great Basin was being focused upon, at least as a temporary location.

The circular goes on to affirm the Mormons’ allegiance to the United States, and it declares that should hostilities break out over Oregon they would side with the United States. Undoubtedly this was written in response to rumors that the U.S. government would move to prevent the Saints from going west for fear they would align themselves with the British.

Parley Pratt bore some responsibility for organizing the pioneer company, and during December he was engaged in forming a list of one thousand men to make up the party. On January 11 and 13 the council of Fifty discussed an early start west, and on the 18th the Twelve met with the captains of emigrating companies in the attic of the temple to determine who could leave “should necessity compel our instant removal.” At another meeting in the temple on January 24, four days after Circular of the High Council was issued, Brigham Young reiterated his intention “to start a company of young men and some few families perhaps within a few weeks.”

Then on January 29 two incidents occurred which altered those plans: during the day state troops moved about Nauvoo with the intent, it was reported, of arresting some of the Mormon leaders; and Brigham Young received a letter from Sam Brannan repeating the rumor that the federal government intended to intercept the Saints as they moved west and confiscate their arms. Four days later a council of Church leaders agreed to begin the evacuation of Nauvoo immediately, and that afternoon Brigham Young informed the captains of hundreds and fifties of this decision. On February 4 the first wagons were ferried across the Mississippi, and on the 15th Brigham Young, Willard Richards, and George A. Smith crossed into Iowa.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Circular. Epistle to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints, in the eastern states

Little, Jesse Carter. Circular. Epistle to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in the eastern states, sent greetings: J.C. Little, President of the Eastern Churches. Peterborough, N.H., Nov. 12th, 1846. [Peterborough? 1846?]
8 pp. 22 cm.

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At the end of January 1846, Brigham Young called Jesse C. Little to preside over the church in the eastern states, to replace Sam Brannan, who was about to sail for San Francisco. Two months later, on the anniversary of the founding of the Church, Little issues his first circular to the eastern branches. His Circular the Second (see this digital collection), was issued on May 15th, 1846, and on November 12th, 1846, Jesse C. Little issued his third and last circular to the eastern Saints. In it he announces that the plan to sail to San Francisco, had been abandoned because of the expense, that the Saints should prepare to move to the west by land next spring, and that he plans to lead a company “over the mountains,” to start in March so they will reach Council Bluffs by the first of May.

The running parts of the wagons, he advises, can be gotten in St. Louis, shipped to Council Bluffs, and assembled there, for a cost of $50 to $60, plus shipping costs of $4 to $5. He then inserts “Bills of Particulars for Emigrants leaving this Government next Spring,” which is a modification of the outfit for a family of five recommended to the Council of Fifty in October 1845 in the New-Messenger Extra of Saturday December 13, 1845. The Twelve, Little continues, will furnish teams for the eastern Saints once they reach Council Bluffs.

Three days after Little drafted his circular, Brigham Young and the Twelve wrote to him to come to the Iowa camps early in the spring and join the pioneer company which would make the overland trip to the Rocky Mountains, and they suggested that he call W.I. Appleby to replace him as the presiding elder in the East. Two months later Little called Appleby to succeed him, and on April 19, 1847, he reached Winter Quarters, in time to join the pioneer trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Circular of the Twelve, and Trustees in Trust

Times and Seasons–Extra. Nauvoo, January 22, 1845. Circular of the Twelve, and trustees in trust. An epistle of the Twelve, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in all the world. Greeting: [Nauvoo, 1845]
Broadside 40 x 31 cm.

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This epistle, dated in the broadside January 14, 1845, was actually composed by Brigham Young, John Taylor, Willard Richards, and Amasa Lyman at Taylor’s house the evening of January 11. It describes the progress on the Nauvoo Temple and urges those able-bodied men “who have it in their hearts to stretch forth this work with power” to come to Nauvoo for the summer and work on the building. It asks the branches to send whatever raw materials, livestock, manufactured goods, and money they can to help finance the project. By December, it reports, the temple should be sufficiently complete for the Saints to being using it.

Finishing the temple was an overriding concern of the Twelve. At the time they issued this epistle, they were also contemplating the possibility of moving from Nauvoo, and the revelation to Joseph Smith of January 19, 1841 (Doctrine and Covenants 124) mandated that they finish the temple enough so the Saints could participate in its ordinances before they evacuated the city. On March 15, 1845, for example, the Twelve decided to put all available help to work on the temple, which, within two days, increased the number of laborers by 105.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 254, p. 293.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Circular, to the whole Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Circular, to the whole Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. First meeting in the temple. [Nauvoo, 1845]
Broadside 42.5 x 30 cm.

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Two days after Hardin and his associates wrote to the Twelve that the anti-Mormons from Hancock and the nine surrounding counties had accepted the propositions outlined by Brigham Young on October 1, the Saints began a series of meetings in the Nauvoo Temple–an implicit statement that it was finished enough for them to consider evacuating Nauvoo. On Sunday October 5, they gathered for worship services in the main story, prepared with a temporary floor and seats. During the morning and afternoon meetings, the Twelve called the first companies which would make the westward trek in the spring. The next day they convened the general conference and here formally presented the proposition to move west to the Church membership. Thomas Bullock and William Clayton took minutes of these meetings. On October 11, for most of the day, Clayton met with the Twelve and others at John Taylor’s house and helped prepare Circular to the Whole Church “for the agents to take abroad with them.”

Circular to the Whole Church opens with some comments on the temple and a short outline of the October 5 meeting. This is followed by “Extract from the minutes of a general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, held in the House of the Lord in the City of Joseph, Oct. 6th, 7 & 8, 1845,” which is a summary of the October 6 meetings, which is a summary of the October 6 meetings only. At the end of this summary is the most important business of the conference: “On motion, it was unanimously resolved that this people move, en masse, to the West. On motion, it was unanimously resolved that we take all of the Saints with us to the extent of our ability, that is, our influence and property.”

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Collection of facts, relative to the course taken by Elder Sidney Rigdon

Grant, Jedediah Morgan. A collection of facts, relative to the course taken by Elder Sidney Rigdon, in the states of Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania. By Jedediah M. Grant, one of the Quorum of Seventies. Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, Printers, No. 56 North Third Street. 1844.
48 pp. 19 cm.

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Immediately after his excommunication on September 8, 1844, Sidney Rigdon returned to Pennyslvania and began to gather a following. Benjamin Winchester, who had been at odds with the Twelve for almost three years, aligned himself with Rigdon, and at the end of September rented a hall in Philadelphia and began to conduct meetings in his behalf. In October a Rigdonite congregation was formally organized in Philadelphia, and during the first week in November Rigdon himself delivered a set of lectures there promoting his claim to the leadership of the Church. This struggle for succession is reflected in the record of the Philadelphia branch, which lists the excommunications of a number of branch members who had defected to the Rigdonite faction during October and November. By the end of the year these defections seem to have subsided, and by the spring of 1847 the Rigdonite church had all but disintegrated.

Jedediah M. Grant, a member of the First Quorum of Seventy since February 1835, had presided over the Philadelphia branch from June 1843 to April 1844, and had resumed this position in July. In April 1854 he would be sustained as second counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency of the Church, a position he would hold until his death on December 1, 1856, at age forty.

Grant obviously composed A Collection of Facts in response to the disaffections in the Philadelphia branch. The Prophet of December 28, 1844, noted that it had just received copies and had them for sale at the office for 15¢ each. The following week it reported that Rigdon had brought suit against Grant over the tract. A year later the New York-Messenger offered A Collection of Facts at 12¢.

The pamphlet opens with the claim that Rigdon possessed, “a yawning disposition after imaginary things… combined with great ambition, and over anxiety to be leader.” It asserts that he was the guiding influence behind the spirit of speculation that swept Kirtland in 1836-37, and that his 1838 Fourth of July oration “was the main auxiliary that fanned into a flame the burning wrath of the mobocratic portion of the Missourians.” And it comments on Joseph Smith’s rejection of him as his counselor in October 1843. More than third is occupied with the report of Rigdon’s trial, reprinted, with omissions, from the Times and Seasons of September 15, October 1, and 15, 1844 (see this digital collection), or from The Prophet of November 16 and 23.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Collection of sacred hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1845

Adams, Charles Augustus. A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Selected and published by Charles A. Adams. Bellows Falls: Printed by S. M. Blake. 1845.
iv[5]-160 pp. 10.5 cm.

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Charles A. Adams remains an obscure figure. Born in Jaffrey, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, August 17, 1824, he was called in April 1844 to campaign for Joseph Smith in New Hampshire. At some point he labored in Peterborough, seven miles from his place of birth, so it would have been natural for him to have his hymnbook printed in Bellows Falls, thirty miles to the northwest. When the Saints went west, Adams remained in New England. In 1855 he married Sarah Holder in Lynn, Massachusetts; five years later he died.

Adams’ marriage record gives his occupation as “music teacher.” Probably his hymnbook grew out of his musical background and perhaps includes some of his own compositions. The book contains 104 hymn texts, preceded by a preface which is taken from the 1835 hymnal, and followed by an index of first lines. Most of the songs came from two sources: seventy-three are from the 1841 Nauvoo hymnal; and twenty others are from the 1839 Elsworth book. Four songs do not seem to be in any other Mormon hymnbook. Adams’s book includes forty of the hymns in the 1835 hymnal and fifty-two of those in the 1840.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Collection of sacred hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1841

Smith, Emma. A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Selected by Emma Smith. Nauvoo, Ill: Printed by E. Robinson. 1841.
iv[5]-351 pp. 10.5 cm.

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By the summer of 1839 the Kirtland hymnbook, the 1835 Emma Smith hymnal (see this digital collection), was out of print. In July, just before the apostles left for their missions to England, Joseph Smith and the Twelve met to select hymns for a new book. Three months later the general conference in Nauvoo voted to publish a new edition of the hymns immediately. This decision was reaffirmed October 27 by the Nauvoo high council which directed Emma Smith to “select and publish a hymn-book for the use of the Church.” On December 29, 1839, the high council again voted to print 10,000 copies of the hymnbook. Ebenezer Robinson reported to the October 1840 conference that he was then making arrangements to print the hymns, and the following month he advertised for songs in the Times and Seasons (see this digital collection), “it is requested that all those who have been endowed with a poetical genius, whose muse has not been altogether idle, will feel enough interest in a work of this kind, to immediately forward all choice, newly composed, or revised hymns.”

By the middle of March 1841, the hymnal was out of press, and Robinson announced in the Times and Seasons of March 15 that copies would be bound in time for the April 6 conference. A year later Lucian R. Foster advertised the book in New York at 50¢ a copy. What the ultimate size of the edition was is unknown, but it was probably much smaller than the 10,000 ordered by the high council in December 1839. Robinson, it would seem, played the principal role in publishing the official hymnbook in 1841, just as W.W. Phelps had done in 1835. To what extent Emma Smith was involved is not known.

The 1841 hymnal retains the 1835 preface, and it includes the texts of 303 songs. Seventy-seven of the hymns are in the 1835 book, of which seventy-three are in the 1840 hymnal. Seventy-eight others are taken from the 1840 hymnal, five more are from the 1839 Elsworth hymnal (see this digital collection) and of the remaining 143 hymns, only ten are of Mormon authorship.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Collection of sacred hymns for the Church of Christ of the Latter Day Saints, 1839

Elsworth, Benjamin C. A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Selected and published by Benjamin C. Elsworth . Printed for the publisher: 1839.
iv[5]-152[i]-vii pp. 10.5 cm.

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Little is known about Benjamin C. Elsworth. On November 16, 1836, John E. Page ordained him a teacher at a conference in South Crosby, twenty-five miles north of Kingston, Canada, and fifteen months later he was chosen a member of the Second Quorum of Seventy. Elsworth reported on October 18, 1840, that he had been laboring in the vicinity of Oswego County, New York, and had baptized one hundred or so people during the preceding year. In April 1844 he was assigned to stump for Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign in New York. One year later he was excommunicated, apparently because he aligned himself with James J. Strang.

Elsworth was appointed to the office of apostle in the Strangite church in 1847 but was never ordained, and later that year Strang excommunicated him “for teaching and practicing the spiritual wife system.” The following year Elsworth joined another Strangite dissident Joseph Robinson in a new church in Franklin, Illinois, which apparently had a short life. At that point he seems to have dropped from sight, until 1871, when he was baptized into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on McKisick Island, ten miles down the Missouri River from Nebraska City, where he had been living for a number of years.

Since Elsworth is known to have been laboring in the vicinity of Oswego County, New York, during the latter part of 1839, it is likely he published his hymnal in that area. Elsworth’s hymnal is based almost totally on the Emma Smith 1835 (see this digital collection) and the 1838 David Rogers hymnal. Its preface is verbatim that of the 1835 Kirtland hymnbook. It contains the texts of 112 songs, and its first eighty-eight songs are those of the Rogers hymnal, in the same order. Seventeen others are taken from the 1835 hymnbook. Of the remaining seven hymns, four appear in the Messenger and Advocate. At the end are Index to Find Hymns, Under Different Heads and an index of first lines.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Collection of sacred hymns, for the use of the Latter day Saints, 1844

Little, Jesse Carter, and George Bryant Gardner. A collection of sacred hymns, for the use of the Latter Day Saints. Selected and published by J.C. Little and G. B. Gardner: Bellows Falls: Printed by Blake and Bailey. 1844.
80 pp. 14 cm.

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The Little-Gardner book is the first Mormon hymnbook with music. Exactly when or under what circumstances it was published is not clear. Little, a merchant, and Gardner, a musician, both lived in Peterborough, New Hampshire, thirty miles southeast of Bellows Falls, Vermont, and Little was the presiding elder there. So one might guess that they collaborated in publishing the book for the use of the large Mormon congregation in Peterborough.

Jesse C. Little was born in Belmont, Maine, September 26, 1815. Early in his life he moved with his family to Peterborough, where he eventually married and owned a store. In April 1839 he converted to Mormonism, and by October 1844 he was the presiding elder in Peterborough. Six months later, Parley Pratt ordained him a high priest and called him to lead the Church in New Hampshire. The following year, as presiding elder in the eastern United States, he negotiated the call of the Mormon Battalion with President Polk (see Circular the Second, and in this digital collection Circular. Epistle to the Church…in the Eastern States). In the spring of 1847 he left his wife and children in Peterborough, joined the pioneer company, and entered the Great Salt Lake Valley that July; then he returned to the east in the fall to resume the leadership of the church in the eastern states. In 1852 he and his family immigrated to Utah. For eighteen years he served as second counselor to Edward Hunter, the presiding bishop. He died in Salt Lake City in 1893 after a lingering illness.

George B. Gardner was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, April 4, 1813. In 1841 he moved to Peterborough, and in November of that year was converted to Mormonism by Eli P. Maginn. John E. Page ordained him an elder in February 1843, and from time to time during the next two and a half years, he labored as a missionary in the neighboring towns. In September 1845 he moved to Nauvoo, and fourteen months later settled with the Saints at Winter Quarters, where he lived until he made the trek to Utah in 1850. For fifteen years he lived in southern Utah and then for twenty years in northern Arizona, where he died in 1898. Gardner remarks in his autobiography that he led choirs and taught singing throughout his years in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

Their book contains forty-eight numbered songs, followed by an index of first lines. Tunes and bass lines accompany the texts of the first thirty-one hymns; only the texts are included for the last seventeen. Three are specifically identified as composed by Mary Judd Page, nos. 40, 42-43, and three are identified as composed by W. W. Phelps, nos. 45-47. The songs came from two sources, thirty-eighty from the 1841 Nauvoo hymnal with selections by Emma Smith (see this digital collection), twenty-seven from the John Edward Page and John Cairns 1841 hymnal; seventeen are common to both.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Collection of sacred hymns for the Church, 1835

Smith, Emma. A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Selected by Emma Smith. Kirtland, Ohio, Printed by F.G. Williams & Co., 1835.
iv, [5]-121, v p. 12 cm.

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In response to a revelation to Joseph Smith in July 1830 (D&C 25), Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, was directed to collect hymns to be used in the worship services of the new church. Ten months after this revelation, W. W. Phelps was subsequently directed to revise and print the hymns that Emma Smith had selected. The printing of the Book of Commandments, the destruction of the Independence, Missouri press, and the printing of the Doctrine and Covenants delayed the publication of the hymns for more than four years. Finally, in September 1835, Phelps turned his attention to the hymnal, and by February 1836, the printing was completed.

The text of ninety hymns, without musical notations, are contained in this first Mormon hymnal. Most were borrowed from the Baptists or the Campbellites. The predominance of Baptist hymns among those borrowed, suggests the hymnal was probably based on a Baptist book, possibly one in use by the Campbellites. The hymnal contains at least 33 hymns of Mormon authorship, twenty-six by Phelps himself, three by Parley P. Pratt, one by Thomas B. Marsh and Parley Pratt, and one each by Eliza R. Snow, Edward Partridge, and Philo Dibble. However, a third of the borrowed texts were partially rewritten to reflect the doctrines of the Restoration

Used by permission of the authors.

Collection of sacred hymns, adapted to the faith and views of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1843

Hardy, John. A collection of sacred hymns, adapted to the faith and views of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Compiled by John Hardy. Boston: Dow & Jackson’s Press, 1843.
160 pp. 11.5 cm.

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John Hardy presided over the Boston branch of the Church from February 1843 to October 1844. In the preface to his hymnal he states that his only object in publishing the book was “to meet the immediate and urgent demand for hymn books by the branch in this city.” Hardy was a composer of hymns himself; three of his songs, for example, appear in The Prophet for June 29, August 31, and September 21, 1844. One might guess, therefore, that a second object in publishing his book was to include some of his own compositions.

Hardy’s hymnbook contains the texts of 155 numbered hymns, followed by an index of first lines. Eighty-six of the hymns came from the Nauvoo hymnal, which include twenty-three in the 1835 Emma Smith hymnal and thirty-eight in the 1840 Manchester, England hymnal (see this digital collection for both of these hymnals A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints and A collection of sacred hymns : for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe). Seven of the songs can be identified which are by Mormon authors, including Austin Cowles, Parley Pratt, Joel H. Johnson, and Gustavus Hills. Some of the hymns are undoubtedly Hardy’s.

Two songs in hardy’s book, Johnson’s “The Glorious Gospel Light Has Shown” and the hymn “Come Thou Glorious Day of Promise,” were added to the official LDS hymnal in 1847 and 1851, respectively, and have remained in it to the present. One other song introduced by Hardy, Thomas Kelly’s “Men of God Go Take Your Stations,” also had a long life in the official hymnal.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, in Europe, 1840

A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Europe. Selected by Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor. Published by order of a general conference, and for sale at 149, Oldham Road, Manchester, and by agents throughout England. Manchester, Printed by W. R. Thomas, Spring Gardens, 1840.
324, [12]p. 11 cm.

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At the conference where it was agreed to publish the Millennial Star, the Twelve also resolved to publish a hymnal for the use of the British Saints. Brigham Young, Parley Pratt, and John Taylor were designated to pick the hymns and see the book through the press. On May 27, 1840, Young, Pratt, and Taylor, assisted by William Clayton–a British convert who, in 1846, would write “Come, Come Ye Saints”–began selecting the hymns. A month later the manuscript was ready for the printer, and by the second week in July, 3000 copies were off the press.

This first British hymnal kept 78 hymns from Emma Smith’s 1835 hymnal and added 193 others. Forty-four of the new hymns were by Parley Pratt; seventeen were taken from Parley Pratt’s Millennium and Other Poems.

Although the hymnal was intended for the Church in Great Britain, it became the basis of all the official LDS hymnals during the rest of the nineteenth century. The immense number of converts from the British Isles, combined with the expense of book publishing in the Great Basin, caused thirteen editions to be published in England before a hymnal was finally printed in Salt Lake City in 1871. Thereafter British and Salt Lake hymnals continued to be published as part of the same series until 1912, when the LDS Church adopted the Latter-day Saints’ Psalmody.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 15, p. [14-15].

Used by permission of the authors.

Collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, in Europe, 1844

A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe. Selected by Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor. Fourth edition. Liverpool: Published and sold by R. Hedlock and T. Ward, 36, Chapel Street, and by the agents throughout England. 1844.
336 pp. 10.5 cm.

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In October 1844, the Millennial Star (see this digital collection) reported that the third European edition of the hymnbook was out of print and a new edition was then in press, which would “be forwarded and completed with the greatest possible dispatch.” It seems, however, that this book was not finished until after the first of the year. Wilford Woodruff, who arrived in England on January 3, 1845, remarks in his journal that, “during AD 1845 I Published … in Liverpool England … 3,000 copies of the Hymn Book.” The Star of August 15, 1851 (see this digital collection) also notes that a fourth edition of 3,000 was published in 1845.

This edition, printed in a larger run, did not sell out as quickly as the two preceding ones. At the end of 1845, 2,166 copies remained unsold in the Millennial Star office, and the office still owed Mr. Fazakerly £24 3s. 7d. for binding them. In November 1846 the Star advertised the hymnal for 1s. 9d., and six weeks later it reduced the price to 1s. 6d. retail and 1s. 3d. wholesale. By the following April the book was out of print.

Other than a few minor spelling changes and a different numbering of the songs, the fourth edition is essentially a line-for-line reprint of the third edition. It includes the same 272 hymn texts, in the same sequence. An index of first lines is at the end.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University

Conclusion of Elder Rigdon’s trial: Supplement to the Millennial Star

Supplement to the Millennial Star: December; 1844. Conclusion of Elder Rigdon’s trial. [Caption title] [At end:] Liverpool: Edited and published by Thomas Ward, 36, Chapel-Street. James and Woodburn, Printers, 39, South Castle-Street. [1844]
8 pp. 22.5 cm.

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Sidney Rigdon arrived in Nauvoo from Pittsburgh on August 3, 1844, and immediately began to promote himself as Joseph Smith’s successor. Five days later, the Nauvoo Saints, with only a few exceptions, voted to sustain the leadership of the Twelve. But Rigdon continued to press his claim to succession, and on September 8, eight members of the Twelve, the senior bishop Newel K. Whitney, and a special high council deliberated over his actions and then excommunicated him. Rigdon returned to Pittsburgh with a few followers and set up his own church, and in October he issued the first number of his church’s new periodical, the Messenger and Advocate.

Rigdon’s September 8 “trial” is reported in detail in the Times and Seasons of September 15, October 1 and 15, 1844 (see this digital collection). The first installment of this report in the Times and Seasons is reprinted in the Millennial Star for December 1844 (see this digital collection). The third installment is included in the December 1844 supplement. This also contains extracts from The Prophet of November 2, both supporting the leadership of the Twelve. Three notices are at the end, the third asserting that “no individuals professing to come from America, or elsewhere, [will] be permitted to preach, unless they bring legal credentials from the presidency in Liverpool.” The supplement is routinely bound with the fifth volume of the Star.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Compendium of the faith and doctrines of the Church

Richards, Franklin Dewey. A compendium of the faith and doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Compiled from the Bible; and also from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and other publications of the church. With an appendix. By Franklin D. Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles of said church. Liverpool, Published by Orson Pratt, 42, Islington. London, L.D.S. Book Depot, 35 Jewin Street, City, 1857.
viii, 243 p. 16 cm.

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Franklin D. Richards’ Compendium approached the ultimate step in the standardization of Mormon theology. It is a compilation of references supporting the various LDS doctrines. Arranged under forty-seven doctrinal headings, it reprints passages bearing on each of these topics from the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Journal of Discourses, Pearl of Great Price, and the “History of Joseph Smith,” which was then being published serially in the Deseret News and Millennial Star. In addition, it includes references to The Seer, Orson Pratt’s two series of pamphlets, Spencer’s Letters, Key to Theology, and others. Actually Compendium was the second such LDS book, but in the range of its references and the breadth of its topics, it went far beyond its predecessor, Benjamin Winchester’s Synopsis of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia, 1842).

Richards composed this book during his third term as president of the British Mission, and he put it to press a month before he returned to Utah in July 1856. His successor, Orson Pratt, then supervised the printing and binding, which were completed in February 1857.

Used by permission of the authors.

Constitution of the State of Deseret

Constitution of the State of Deseret, with the journal of the convention which formed it, and the proceedings of the legislature consequent thereon. Kanesville, [Iowa], Published by Orson Hyde,1849. 16p. 23 cm.

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On May 4, 1849, John M. Bernhisel left Great Salt Lake City for Washington D.C. with a petition for a territorial government in the Great Basin. About the first of July, a shift occurred in the thinking of the Church leaders toward statehood rather than territorial status. And during the first three weeks of July, they drafted a constitution for a proposed state of Deseret and a memorial to Congress requesting admission into the Union. On July 27, 1849, Almon W. Babbitt left for Washington with the manuscript of the constitution and memorial, expecting to stop in Kanesville, Iowa, where the constitution was to be printed. The year before Orson Hyde had purchased a press from the Cincinnati Type Foundry and had set up a printing office in Kanesville; and on February 7, 1849, he published the first number of a semimonthly newspaper, The Frontier Guardian which for sixteen months was the only Mormon newspaper printed in the United States. Babbitt reached Kanesville on September 3 and Constitution of the State of Deseret was printed shortly thereafter.

It is an interesting book—the founding document of government in the Intermountain West—and a bit perplexing. It reports a constitutional convention on March 5-10, 1849, and an organizing session of the legislature, July 2-9, both of which did not occur. Congress, of course, would not have considered an application for statehood that had not been produced by a constituent convention and ratified by popular election; so Constitution of the State of Deseret was also a public relations piece designed to show that the democratic processes were alive and well in Deseret. The constitution itself was derived from the Iowa constitution of 1846, with a few significant changes.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 32, p. [25].

Used by permission of the authors.

Correct account of the murder of Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith

DANIELS, William M. A correct account of the murder of Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith, at Carthage, on the 27th day of June, 1844; by Wm. M. Daniels, an eye witness. Nauvoo, Ill., Published by John Taylor, for the proprietor,1845. [1]-14, [4],15-24 pp. 23 cm.

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William M. Daniels came in contact with the anti Mormons ten days before the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and remained with them for reasons not satisfactorily explained in his pamphlet or at the trial of those accused of the murders. Seven days after the assassination he came to Nauvoo and swore out a straightforward affidavit outlining what he had seen. The following day he told his story to Governor Ford. He was the key witness before the grand jury that indicted nine men for the murders in October 1844, and he was the prosecution’s star witness at the trial of Levi Williams, Thomas Sharp, Mark Aldrich, Jacob C. Davis, and William N. Grover for the murder of Joseph Smith, May 21 30, 1845. Unfortunately, A Correct Account came out three weeks before the trial, in time for the defense to use it to discredit Daniels’s testimony.

A Correct Account was actually written and published by Lyman O. Littlefield, a hand in the Times and Seasons shop to whom Daniels repeatedly told his story. This Daniels admitted at the trial and Littlefield acknowledged in his books The Martyrs (Salt Lake City, 1882), p. 71, and Reminiscences of Latter day Saints (Logan, 1888), p. 172. Littlefield first approached the Quincy Whig about printing the pamphlet, even though he was employed at the Times and Seasons. A hand in the Quincy Herald shop supplied a copy of the manuscript to Thomas Sharp, who published this early version, along with suitable editorial comments, in the Warsaw Signal of December 25, 1844. One might guess that, early on, Littlefield wanted A Correct Account to appear to be a non Mormon production. The pamphlet was first advertised in the Nauvoo Neighbor of April 30 and in the Neighbor the next two weeks. On May 7 Daniels took out a copyright in the district court. Littlefield ran a notice in the Neighbor, June 4 18, repudiating two fifty dollar notes he had given to Daniels as he had “not had value received” -probably a reference to Daniels’s performance at the trial which discredited the book and jeopardized its sale.

A Correct Account describes Daniel’s movements with the anti-Mormons and the events surrounding the assassination, and it identifies the leading participants. It is marred, however, by a fantastic story of a flash of light from the heavens that dispersed the mob after Joseph Smith had been shot by the well-curb outside Carthage Jail. Early in his testimony at the trial Daniels stood by the story of the light; later he claimed that certain details were Littlefield’s embellishments. The defense, of course, made the most of these discrepancies, and ultimately the prosecution excluded his testimony, all but guaranteeing that Sharp, Williams and the others would be acquitted.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.

Correspondence between the Rev. W. Crowel, A.M., and O. Spencer, B.A.

SPENCER, Orson. Correspondence between the Rev. W. Crowel [sic], A.M., and O. Spencer, B.A. R. Liverpool, R. James, Printer, [1847] 12,4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 pp. 22 cm.

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Orson Spencer labored twelve years in the Baptist ministry before converting to Mormonism in 1841. The following year William Crowell, an acquaintance and the editor of the Baptist Christian Watchman, wrote to him, inquiring about his new religion. Crowell’s letter and Spencer’s response were printed in the Times and Seasons of January 2, 1843, and in the Millennial Star that June and July. At the time he wrote this letter, Spencer later reported, Joseph and Hyrum Smith urged him to “exhibit a full reply and exposition of the faith and doctrines of the Saints, being assured by them that the letter would do more good than a preacher.”

Spencer arrived at Liverpool on January 23, 1847, to assume the presidency of the British Mission. In May he began a series of eleven additional letters to Crowell, which he printed in the Star and simultaneously issued in individual tracts. The following January, he published the twelve letters with two others in hardback under the title Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints -the first of the major works, which synthesizes Mormon theology and hence is one of Mormonism’s most important books. Before the close of the century, Spencer’s Letter’s went through six more editions.

The first tract in the series includes Crowell’s letter and Spencer’s initial response. It is in twelve pages and has the caption title Correspondence Between the Rev. W. Crowel [sic], A.M., and O. Spencer, B.A. Each of the other eleven tracts in the series is in four pages, individually paginated, and bears the caption title Letters by Orson Spencer, A.B. in Reply to the Rev. William Crowel [sic], A.M. Editor of the Christian Watchman, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., which is followed by Letter, the appropriate roman numeral and a subtitle giving the topic of the letter.

Crowell’s letter, dated at Boston, October 21, 1842, asks Spencer about his new religion, the character, personality, and religious views of Joseph Smith, the nature of the Latter day Saint worship, and the features of Nauvoo. In his response, dated at Nauvoo, November 17, 1842, Spencer talks about his conversion to Mormonism and remarks that John Lloyd Stephen’s Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan influenced his belief in the Book of Mormon. He asserts that the character and conduct of Joseph Smith are misunderstood because prejudice precludes a fair hearing, comments on the persecution of the Saints, and includes a brief outline of basic beliefs. He writes that Joseph Smith is “an upright man,” that he is “eminently scriptural,” and that he claims to be inspired. On the Sabbath, he reports, “some person usually preaches a sermon after prayer and singing, and perhaps reading some scripture.”

Spencer’s second letter, subtitled “Immediate Revelation,” is dated at Liverpool, May 15, 1847. Here he argues that the spirit of revelation, which is the Spirit of God, is requisite for one to partake of the gospel of salvation, and that the Spirit was sent into the world to acquaint mankind with Jesus Christ. His third letter, “On Faith,” dated June 1, 1847, asserts that no man knows God without “the faith of immediate revelation,” that God’s will is revealed to faith, and that the Latter day Saints “contend for the faith of miracles in [their] own day.” Letter four, “On Water Baptism,” June 14, 1847, centers on John 3:5, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God.” Water baptism, it argues, is for the remission of sins and necessarily precedes the birth of the Spirit, that is, the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The fifth letter, “The Gift of the Holy Ghost,” is dated in the tract, June 29, 1842 [i.e., 1847]. It describes the Holy Ghost as “an unembodied personage,” the view now held by the Church (D&C 130:22). The Holy Ghost’s presence as a witness, the letter contends, invariably follows the laying on of hands. The Holy Ghost reveals God’s purposes and enables the believer to work certain miracles such as healing the sick and speaking in new tongues. The theme of letter six, “Apostasy of the Primitive Church,” July 12, 1847, is that modern Christendom “possesses such a faint resemblance to that system of faith established by Jesus Christ and his apostles, that it cannot be called a likeness, or a copy, or even an imitation.” Letter seven, “The Re establishment of an Apostolic Church,” August 28, 1847, maintains that the scriptures predict that Christ’s true church would be re established by the visitation of an angel to a young man and would involve a book, which the letter contends is the Book of Mormon.

Letter eight, “The True and Living God,” September 13, 1847, argues that God is a corporeal, anthropomorphic being, whose “holy dwelling place, is literal, local[,] real and to its occupants, it is visible and tangible.” Spencer’s ninth letter, “The Priesthood,” September 30, 1847, defines the priesthood to be “that order of author[it]ative intelligences by which God regulates, controls, enlightens, blesses or curses, saves or condemns all beings,” and maintains that by it God establishes his divine government upon the earth. The central idea in letter ten, “On Gathering,” October 13, 1847, are: “Before there can be anything like a true, godlike, peaceful millennium, a separation must take place between the righteous and the disobedient;” and “The righteous are being withdrawn apart in order that the Almighty may stretch out his chastening hand, and inflict sore judgment upon rebellious nations.” Spencer’s eleventh letter, “The Latter day Judgments,” October 28, 1847, declares that “the gospel must first be preached, and then the judgments will follow in quick succession;” that because Joseph and Hyrum Smith were slain at Carthage, “the sword shall waste the blood of the nations;” that religions which are not based on immediate revelation “will not, cannot, and shall not stand.” The twelfth letter, “On the Restitution of All Things,” November 14, 1847, asserts that at the time of restitution the earth “will undergo an important change” and “all things that are now wrong will be set right,” and death will cease. The righteous, it continues, will be reinstated on the earth, will “multiply upon it, and build cities and temples,” while the wicked “lie unnoticed” for a thousand years until the final judgment.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.