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Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Others, 9 March 1838

Source Note

, , and , Letter, Vinalhaven, Fox Islands, Hancock Co., ME, to , JS, , , and “Saints in Zion,” [, Caldwell Co., MO], 9 Mar. 1838. Featured version published in Elders’ Journal, July 1838, pp. 35–36. For more complete source information, see the source note for Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837.

Historical Introduction

On 9 March 1838, while proselytizing in , wrote a letter to , JS and his counselors in the , and the Saints in generally. As a member of the First of the , Woodruff was expected to travel, proselytize, organize of the church, and encourage church members to gather to in Missouri. At the time of the letter, Woodruff had been proselytizing in the northeastern for almost a year—most recently in the , about halfway along Maine’s coast in the middle of Penobscot Bay. In May 1837, within a few weeks after marrying Phebe Carter, he had departed on a mission “into the eastern country” with . Woodruff had a compelling desire to gather the house of Israel from “the islands of the sea,” as Isaiah had prophesied and as JS’s revelations had commanded. Later in life, Woodruff recounted that after feeling “impressed by the Spirit of God to take a mission to the Fox Islands,” he expressed his desire to and and they advised him to go. Woodruff preached in many places along the way to Maine, including Farmington, Connecticut, where he shared with his parents and family members the Mormon message of a restored gospel. While in Farmington, he was met by his wife, who traveled with him to Scarborough, Maine, to share the gospel with her parents and other family members. Then Woodruff left Phebe with her family and pressed on with Hale to the Fox Islands.
and were very successful proselytizing in the during August and September 1837, and in early October they organized a branch of the church there. The men then returned to Scarborough, where Hale determined to return home to while Wilford and Phebe Woodruff traveled to the Fox Islands so Wilford could continue his labors there. In January 1838, he received a new mission companion: , an from . In February, Woodruff returned to the mainland to preach in Bangor, Maine, and other towns along the way, accompanied by another Mormon elder named , while Ball continued preaching on the islands.
The church elders and new converts kept in contact with the gathered Saints through the church newspapers. The Elders’ Journal, the church’s new periodical, had been designed for this purpose. collected several subscriptions for the Elders’ Journal in the and mailed them to , who was in and completed the editorial work for the paper.
also corresponded occasionally with church members in and heard news as he traveled. While staying with a Latter-day Saint on the way to Bangor, Woodruff “heard that Kirtland was in difficulty,” a continuation of the dissent that Woodruff had witnessed before leaving on his mission. He learned of further trouble when he and returned from the mainland to the on 8 March and Phebe gave Wilford letters that had arrived during his absence. One of these letters, from an “Elder Robbins” in Kirtland, informed Woodruff that dissenters in Kirtland had caused great turmoil in the church, that the office had been “burned to the ground with all its contents,” that JS and had fled Kirtland for , and that “the faithful are to follow them for Kirtland will be scorged.”
The following day, discussed this troubling news with and . The three missionaries decided to write a letter to Bishop , the First Presidency, and the Saints in . Woodruff probably wrote the letter while at the home of Latter-day Saint Malatiah Luce on , where Woodruff was living at the time.
began his letter with a general address to “friends in the ” and then reported on proselytizing in the . In the middle of the letter, Woodruff explicitly addressed the members of the First Presidency and asked them to recommence the Elders’ Journal in . Woodruff expressed the missionaries’ dire need for church literature to help combat false information about the church that was being circulated in the region. Woodruff concluded by expressing loyalty to JS and the church and by admonishing the Saints in Missouri not to make the mistakes being made by church members in . The letter was apparently composed by Woodruff, who wrote in the first-person singular voice, but and signed the letter with him, indicating their agreement with the letter’s content. The original letter is apparently not extant, but the letter states that it was written on one page.
noted in his journal that on the following Wednesday he walked to the post office, presumably to mail this and other letters he had recently written. Woodruff’s letter made its way safely across half the continent, likely arriving in sometime in early or mid-April. Whenever Woodruff’s letter was received, it was probably read by or to JS. Sometime on or after 30 April 1838, wrote a reply to Woodruff on JS’s behalf, remarking that Woodruff’s letter arrived “some days, since.” Woodruff’s request for a church newspaper was fulfilled when JS and Marsh began publishing the Elders’ Journal in Far West in summer 1838. As the editor of the Elders’ Journal, JS may have reviewed Woodruff’s letter again when it was prepared for publication in the July issue.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Woodruff, Journal, 3 Jan. 1837; and Instruction on Priesthood, between ca. 1 Mar. and ca. 4 May 1835 [D&C 107:25].

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    Woodruff, Journal, 30–31 May 1837.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    See Isaiah 11:11; and Revelation, 3 Nov. 1831 [D&C 133:8]. Woodruff frequently expressed his interest in proselytizing upon the “Islands of the sea.” (See Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 Sept. 1837; and Woodruff, Journal, 20 Aug. 1837; 3–5 Sept. 1837; 1 Oct. 1837; 15–16 Nov. 1837; 31 Dec. 1837; 26 Apr. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  4. [4]

    Woodruff, “Autobiography of Wilford Woodruff,” 11; “History of Wilford Woodruff,” 23–24, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.

    Woodruff, Wilford. “Autobiography of Wilford Woodruff.” Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine 3, no. 1 (Oct. 1883): 1–25.

    Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

  5. [5]

    Woodruff, Journal, 31 May 1837–13 Jan. 1838; Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 Sept. 1837; see also Thompson, “Wilford Woodruff’s Missions to the Fox Islands,” 97–117.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Thompson, Jason E. “‘The Lord Told Me to Go and I Went’: Wilford Woodruff’s Missions to the Fox Islands, 1837–38,” in Banner of the Gospel: Wilford Woodruff, edited by Alexander L. Baugh and Susan Easton Black, 97–148. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2010.

  6. [6]

    Woodruff was preaching on South Fox Island when Ball arrived on North Fox Island. By the time Woodruff returned to North Fox Island to meet his new mission companion, Ball had already baptized six people. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Jan. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  7. [7]

    Woodruff, Journal, 13 Feb.–8 Mar. 1838.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  8. [8]

    “Prospectus,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Sept. 1837, 3:571–572; see also Elders’ Journal, Oct. and Nov. 1837. When Woodruff received the first issue of the Elders’ Journal, he wrote in his journal that it “warmed my Soul.” When he and Ball received the second issue, Woodruff noted, “It did our souls good.” (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Dec. 1837 and 17 Jan. 1838.)

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  9. [9]

    See Woodruff, Journal, 20 Nov. and 31 Dec. 1837.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  10. [10]

    See, for example, Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 Sept. 1837; and Woodruff, Journal, 14 Feb. 1838.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  11. [11]

    Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. and 28 May 1837; 14 Feb. 1838.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  12. [12]

    Woodruff, Journal, 8 Mar. 1838. “Elder Robbins” is likely Lewis Robbins, a fellow member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Lewis Robbins was the only known Robbins in Kirtland during this time, as identified by Milton V. Backman in his extensive survey of local records. Robbins lived with Don Carlos Smith, to whom Woodruff had been writing and sending subscriptions for the Elders’ Journal. (Minutes and Blessings, 28 Feb.–1 Mar. 1835; Robbins, Autobiographical Sketch, 3–4; Backman, Profile, 59.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Robbins, Lewis. Autobiographical Sketch, ca. 1845. Typescript. CHL.

    Backman, Milton V., Jr., comp. A Profile of Latter-day Saints of Kirtland, Ohio, and Members of Zion’s Camp, 1830–1839: Vital Statistics and Sources. 2nd ed. Provo, UT: Department of Church History and Doctrine and Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1983.

  13. [13]

    Woodruff, Journal, 8–15 Mar. 1838. Woodruff had stayed with Luce before. Luce owned several pieces of property on North Fox Island. He may have been living along the stream between Fresh Pond and North Harbor. (Woodruff, Journal, 26 and 29 Aug. 1837; Hancock Co., ME, Deeds, 1791–1861, vol. 67, p. 101, 12 Apr. 1838, microfilm 10,980; Waldo Co., ME, Record of Deeds, 1828–1896, vol. 47, p. 445, 7 Sept. 1838, microfilm 12,373, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; see also Wells, Provisional Report upon the Water-Power of Maine, 227; Woodruff, Journal, 13 Aug. 1838; and Chace et al., Map of Waldo County, Maine [Portland, ME: J. Chace Jr., 1859].)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Wells, Walter. Provisional Report upon the Water-Power of Maine. Augusta, ME: Stevens and Sayward, 1868.

    Chace, J., D. Kelsey, D. H. Davidson, and W. H. Rease. Map of Waldo County, Maine. Portland, ME: J. Chace Jr., 1859. Copy at the Library of Congress.

  14. [14]

    Woodruff, Journal, 10–14 Mar. 1838. Notes in Woodruff’s journal indicate that the post office, located in John Kent’s store, was in the hamlet of North Haven on the south side of North Fox Island. However, the post office was possibly on the southeast side of the island, where an 1859 map of Waldo County shows two Kent domiciles at Kent’s Cove. In September 1837, Woodruff “walked to the Post Office. Took a sail boat to cross to South fox Island.” In February 1838, he “walked to Mr Kents crossed the thoroughfare,” the channel between North Fox Island and South Fox Island. On 5 April, Woodruff walked “to Mr John Kents store & Post Office” to receive mail. (Woodruff, Journal, 4 Sept. 1837; 13 Feb. and 5 Apr. 1838; Chace et al., Map of Waldo County, Maine [Portland, ME: J. Chace Jr., 1859].)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Chace, J., D. Kelsey, D. H. Davidson, and W. H. Rease. Map of Waldo County, Maine. Portland, ME: J. Chace Jr., 1859. Copy at the Library of Congress.

  15. [15]

    In the summer, a letter from Marsh reached Woodruff in less than four weeks, suggesting that the 9 March letter from Woodruff traveled at about the same speed. Marsh’s 14 July letter was postmarked 15 July 1838 in Far West and was directed to Woodruff in Vinalhaven, Maine. Woodruff, who had been absent from the Fox Islands for several weeks, returned to Vinalhaven on 7 August and noted that he received Marsh’s 14 July letter from a local member on 9 August. (Thomas B. Marsh, Far West, MO, to Wilford Woodruff, Vinalhaven, ME, 14 July 1838, Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, CHL; Woodruff, Journal, 7 and 9 Aug. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  16. [16]

    Letter to Wilford Woodruff, ca. 18 June 1838. Marsh’s letter bears an 18 June 1838 postmark.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Others, 9 March 1838
Elders’ Journal, July 1838

Page 35

Vinalhaven, Fox Islands, Me.
March 9th, 1838.
, and Joseph Smith jr., , , and the Saints in , Greeting:
Dear friends in the ;
I, , sit down to inform you, that I have just heard, correctly, of the deplorable state of things in , and I have this day held a with and , who are now with me upon these , and we resolved to address a few lines to you concerning our feelings, and set before you a brief account of things with us, and the course we intend to pursue. I have labored principally alone upon these , since left last fall, and the work of the Lord has prospered in my hands, or in other words, the Lord has worked with me during the winter. Elder has been with me for a number of weeks past upon the . There is rising of 40 members in the on these , and they are strong in the faith. I returned last evening from a mission in company with Elder . we have been visiting the most notable cities and vilages in the eastern country, and delivering unto them the word of God.
We preached in their City Halls, Chapels, School houses, dwellings &c., in such places as Camden, Belfast, Northport, Frankfort, Hampden and the City of Bangor. Doors were open in all of these places, and many others I might mention, and the people heard with profound attention; and many are believing. I never saw more doors open for doing good, than at the present time in the State of : But the Devil is stired up against me here on the .
One Methodist priest has applied several times for a warrant to take me, but the Officers, as yet, will not grant him any, for he cannot bring any accusation against me in truth or justice.
The most trouble I now have, is the stopping the papers. I have forwarded about 30 subscribers with the money, and now the is burnt down, and our enemies roar in the midst of the congregations, and they set up these ensigns for signs.
I expect the report of these things will come like a clap of thunder in the ears of the Saints upon these and else where. They do not know it yet, but are wondering why these papers do not come. We have appointed a time to meet the church, and we shall lay all these things before them and trust in God for wisdom to direct us. The Elders that are with me are expecting to go to their homes, and I shall be left to fight the battles alone. Brethren, pray for me out of Zion, for I have a load to bear; but in the name of Elijah’s God, I am determined to stand at my post. I feel as though the time of Jacob’s trouble had began, but I know God will deliver him out of it, and fulfil his word.
We are advising the Saints of God to go from this country to , as soon as they can. I suppose this is right: many are preparing to go the following season.
Now we say to the Presidency of the church in ; we do not expect to counsel you, nor any one there, let God be your counsellors. But we ask, can it not be consistent with the will of God and your feelings and circumstances, to soon publish the Elders’ Journal from , that we may have one weapon, to cut away some of the deep gloom, that will be cast upon the minds of thousands of the Saints, by wicked men and devils, and false brethren. The traveling Elders feel the wait of these things, equally, if not more than those who are in ; for we are naked targets to the press and tongue, as we pass through the midst of the Gentiles. O my God! have mercy and support us, I pray, through the toils that are to come, that our garments may be washed white in the blood of the Lamb! for it is through tribulation that we inherit the blessing and overcome.
Could the Elders’ Journal be continued, it would be great relief to the feelings of all the faithful; for while our enemies are publishing against us, even in , we should also know what God is doing for his Saints.
Brethren, we pray you to consider this last clause, not for our sake alone, but for the sake of all the faithful that are scattered abroad. We do not make these remarks because we have any lack of confidence in you,—No, God forbid, we believe you have done, and will do all that lies in your power for [p. 35]
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Editorial Title
Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Others, 9 March 1838
ID #
380
Total Pages
2
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JSP, D6:31–39
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Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Revelation, 16 Apr. 1830 [D&C 22:1].

  2. [2]

    Woodruff, Ball, and Townsend may have met in the home of fellow Latter-day Saint Malatiah Luce. (See Woodruff, Journal, 8–15 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  3. [3]

    Hale, Woodruff’s principal mission companion, returned to Kirtland in October 1837. (Woodruff, Journal, 31 May 1837; 19 Aug. 1837; 1 and 9 Oct. 1837.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  4. [4]

    Ball joined Woodruff on North Fox Island on 13 January 1838. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Jan. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  5. [5]

    In September 1837, Woodruff wrote, “Although we have not baptized but few on these Islands, yet there is hundreds believing and many are almost ready to enter into the kingdom.” By the time Woodruff left in late April 1838, he had organized two branches of the church, one on each island, and each branch had about fifty members. (Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 Sept. 1837; Woodruff, Journal, 28 Apr. 1838; Wilford Woodruff, Scarborough, ME, to Asahel Woodruff, Terre Haute, IN, 2 May 1838, Wilford Woodruff Collection, CHL.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. CHL. MS 19509.

  6. [6]

    Woodruff had been traveling with Townsend since 15 February 1838. (Woodruff, Journal, 15 Feb.–8 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  7. [7]

    Camden lay just across Penobscot Bay from the Fox Islands. Northport and Belfast lay farther north along the west side of the bay. Frankfort, Hampden, and Bangor were situated along the Penobscot River. Woodruff’s journal records his travels through various municipalities in Maine on the way to the sizable city of Bangor. Along the way there and back, Woodruff took small detours to preach in Searsmont and on the Isle au Haut. Woodruff wrote of preaching in the city hall in Bangor; in the Universalist chapel in Hampden; in schoolhouses in Camden, Searsmont, Belfast, Northport, Frankfort, Hampden, and the Isle au Haut; and at a “Mr. Bailey’s” in Searsmont. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Feb.–8 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  8. [8]

    Woodruff was on North Fox Island at this time. (Woodruff, Journal, 8–9 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  9. [9]

    Woodruff wrote that North Fox Island had “a Baptist church & meeting house,” while South Fox Island had “a small branch of the methodist church & a priest.” Woodruff contended several times with “Mr William Douglass the Methodist Priest” from South Fox Island. When Woodruff began converting Baptists on North Fox Island, the Baptist minister, Gideon Newton, invited Douglass to preach there. Douglass preached against Mormonism, and Woodruff rebutted him. Woodruff later wrote, “I then followed Mr Douglass to his own Island, and commenced preaching to his Church, and Baptized a good share of his members.” Woodruff also wrote that while he preached on South Fox Island, “the people came out by hundreds, to hear and filled the schoolhouses to overflowing.” A late nineteenth-century local history of South Fox Island stated that the Mormon religion had “held sway for several years, during which time a number of the leading members of the hitherto prevailing faith were converted to its ranks.” In January, Douglass had swayed some of Woodruff’s converts, but Woodruff reclaimed them and had what he called a “serious interview” with Douglass. (Woodruff, Journal, 20 Aug. 1837; 11, 17, and 30 Sept. 1837; 28 Dec. 1837; 29 Jan.–1 Feb. 1838; Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 Sept. 1837; “History of Wilford Woodruff,” 27, Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL; Brief Historical Sketch of the Town of Vinalhaven, 59–60.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.

    A Brief Historical Sketch of the Town of Vinalhaven, from Its Earliest Known Settlement: Prepared by Order of the Town on the Occasion of Its One Hundredth Anniversary. Rockland, ME: By the authors, 1889.

  10. [10]

    Woodruff had sent in subscriptions to the church newspaper, the Elders’ Journal. On the night of 15–16 January, the building in Kirtland where the church printed the Elders’ Journal was burned to the ground with all its contents. JS and many other Latter-day Saints assumed that dissenters in Kirtland had set the fire. Dissenter Warren Parrish alleged that the building was burned down at the command of JS. Decades later, devout Latter-day Saint Benjamin F. Johnson recounted that Lyman Sherman, another loyal Saint living in Kirtland, set fire to the building after it had fallen into the hands of dissenters. (Woodruff, Journal, 20 Nov. and 31 Dec. 1837; 3 Jan. and 6 Feb. 1838; John Smith and Don Carlos Smith, Kirtland Mills, OH, to George A. Smith, Shinnston, VA, 15–18 Jan. 1838, George Albert Smith, Papers, CHL; Letter to the Presidency in Kirtland, 29 Mar. 1838; Warren Parrish, Kirtland, OH, 5 Feb. 1838, Letter to the Editor, Painesville [OH] Republican, 15 Feb. 1838, [3]; Johnson, “A Life Review,” 24.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Smith, George Albert. Papers, 1834–1877. CHL. MS 1322.

    Painesville Republican. Painesville, OH. 1836–1841.

    Johnson, Benjamin Franklin. “A Life Review,” after 1893. Benjamin Franklin Johnson, Papers, 1852–1911. CHL. MS 1289 box 1, fd. 1.

  11. [11]

    Organized opposition on the islands and the mainland came primarily from the Baptists. (Thompson, “Wilford Woodruff’s Missions to the Fox Islands,” 108–114.)

    Thompson, Jason E. “‘The Lord Told Me to Go and I Went’: Wilford Woodruff’s Missions to the Fox Islands, 1837–38,” in Banner of the Gospel: Wilford Woodruff, edited by Alexander L. Baugh and Susan Easton Black, 97–148. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2010.

  12. [12]

    See Psalm 74:4.

  13. [13]

    Three days later, on the evening of 12 March 1838, Woodruff met with Latter-day Saints at the home of Malatiah Luce to “lay before them the situation of the church in Kirtland.” Woodruff wrote that they “had a good meeting & these things did not move the faith of the Saints.” (Woodruff, Journal, 12 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  14. [14]

    Woodruff wrote in his journal that on 21 March 1838, Ball left North Fox Island “to return to his friends in the city of Boston.” Ball was originally from Boston or Cambridge and still had family there, though he had moved to the Kirtland area. Townsend was from Buxton, Maine, where he lived with his wife and children. By 21 March, Townsend had already left and would not return until 11 April. As Woodruff noted in his diary, “I am now left to labour again alone upon these Islands.” (Woodruff, Journal, 21 Mar. and 11 Apr. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  15. [15]

    See Jeremiah 30:7.

  16. [16]

    The letter Woodruff had just received from an Elder Robbins in Kirtland informed him that JS and Sidney Rigdon had departed Kirtland for Far West. (Woodruff, Journal, 8 Mar. 1838.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  17. [17]

    The first two issues of the Elders’ Journal, dated October and November 1837, were published in Kirtland, with JS as the editor. Following JS’s departure from Kirtland in January 1838 and the destruction of the printing office shortly thereafter, publishing operations ceased. An 1831 revelation designated Missouri as “the land of Zion” and commanded that William W. Phelps move to Independence, Missouri, to be a printer for the church. A year later, Phelps and others established a printing operation and began publishing a newspaper, The Evening and the Morning Star. When a mob razed the Mormon print shop, the Mormons continued the Star in Kirtland. In 1834, the Star was replaced by the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, which in turn was replaced in 1837 by the Elders’ Journal. Because the print shop in Kirtland had burned down and JS, the editor of the Elders’ Journal, was moving to Missouri, Woodruff proposed that the church once again establish a newspaper in “the land of Zion.” (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:32–34, 47–49, 72–74; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57].)

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  18. [18]

    Latter-day Saints considered the vast majority of white Americans to be “Gentiles,” or non-Israelites. However, Woodruff, like other Latter-day Saints, considered himself a descendant of Israel through Israel’s son Joseph and through Joseph’s son Ephraim. Woodruff had received a patriarchal blessing that identified him as a descendant of Joseph and “of the Blood of Ephraim.” Woodruff believed that his mission was “to search out the Blood of Ephraim & gather him from these Islands.” (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., i; “Israel Will Be Gathered,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1833, [5]; Revelation, Sept. 1830–B [D&C 28:8–9, 14]; Woodruff, Journal, 15 Apr. and 5 Sept. 1837; see also Woodruff, Journal, 20 Aug. and 28 Sept. 1837.)

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  19. [19]

    See Revelation 7:14; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 27, 259, 321, 567 [1 Nephi 12:10–11; Alma 13:11; 34:36; Ether 13:10].

  20. [20]

    See Revelation, 1 Aug. 1831 [D&C 58:4]; and Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103:12–13].

  21. [21]

    In 1837 Warren A. Cowdery, who edited the LDS Messenger and Advocate in Kirtland, used the paper to critique the officers of the Kirtland Safety Society (including JS and Sidney Rigdon) for their mismanagement of the failed financial institution. In the month before Woodruff wrote this letter, Warren Parrish attacked JS and the church in one of the newspapers in nearby Painesville, Ohio. (Editorial, LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1837, 3:535–541; Warren Parrish, Kirtland, OH, 5 Feb. 1838, Letter to the Editor, Painesville [OH] Republican, 15 Feb. 1838, [3].)

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

    Painesville Republican. Painesville, OH. 1836–1841.

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