1856-06-26-New York Herald-The Mormon Case

The Mormon Case

New York Herald, 26 June 1856, p. 2, Col. A

The Mormon Case

Supreme Court.

Before Ex-Judge Peabody, Referee.

Extraordinary Testimony--Plurality of Wives Among the Mormons--Forty-Nine For Brigham Young--Alleged Brutality of "The Latter Day Saints"--Alleged Cruelty of an English Husband.

June 24.--In the matter of the application of Samuel Jervis, of England, for the custody of his three children.--This case, the preliminary part of which has been already reported in the Herald of Saturday last, having been sent by Judge Clerke before a referee, was resumed. The parties in the first instance proceeded to Castle Garden, where Mr. Charles Edwards, counsel for the applicant, called Robert Murray, a witness, who deposed:--I am the Register of the emigrant depot, under the Commissioners of Emigration; it is a part of the regulations to keep a register of all emigrants (book produced); this is the register, and it is kept by me, in my own handwriting; I see there the names of emigrants who came out in the ship Thornton on her last voyage (counsel points out two men); I recognize these men as coming over in that ship; one is James Thomas (the brother of Mrs. Jervis, and the person who made the return to the habeas corpus, and who is a single man), and J. Reese (who is also a single man); the entry in the registry, as to Reese, runs thus:--Name of passengers, J. Reese; where from, England, number of family, three children; destination, Utah, cash means, none; general remarks, no conections in this country. As to Thomas--Name of passenger, J. Thomas; where from, England; wife; destination, Utah; cash means, $6.50; no connections in America. Witness continued:--I can speak with certainty as to the conduct of those emigrants who are connected with or going to the Mormons; I have come in contact with a large number of them; I consider the treatment of their children very brutal; I have seen a number of the children die, and no attention paid to them whatever, either before or after death; I saw a beautiful child, probably about four or five years old; it was in the agonies of death for a full day, and no person paid any attention to it whatever, until I called the attention of the President of the German Society to it, and a request was made to have the child taken to the sick room, but no attention was paid to it, until I had to call on our own men, and we removed it ourselves; the child died that night; on another occasion, last Christmas, a ship arrived from Liverpool with Mormon emigrants; a child, who had been a passenger among them, died at Castle Garden during the middle of the day; after death, one of the elders of the Mormons mounted a box or chair and addressed the emigrants thus:--"Brothers and sisters, all we can say about it is, that we shall have one pig less to feed;" I have fequently heard these men expressly say they had a plurality of women; they frequently tried to draw me into a discussion of the divine right of having plurality of women; I have come across some who told me how many wives they had; one man told me he had nineteen, and another told me he had seven.

Cross-examined--I have been connected with the emigrant establishment since its commencement, 1st August last; four ships with Mormons arrived within that time; my attention has not been particularly called to them until the service of the writ in this case; the ships from Liverpool had English, Scotch and Danes, and there were very few but what spoke English.

Bernard W. Gannon deposed:--I am a sergeant in the United States army, stationed on Governor's Island; I have been among the Mormons at Salt Lake City, utah Territory; was there for eight months; I have had occasion, during my being there, to observe their conduct towards children; I have never seen anything wrong as to the children within the Territory, but I have seen very bad conduct otherwise; for instance, I have known a brother to be married to his own sister; I knew Brigham Young to take her afterwards to his house, and he said he had married her himself, and that the time had not come for the brother and sister to become married, but it would come; the woman had got so far advanced in pregnancy by her brother, that Brigham Young sent her back to him; this man was sexton of the Temple; I have been introduced to Brigham Young and several of his wives at a party at Judge Kinney's; I believe Brigham Young had forty-nine wives when I was there; they would come to him in the evening to his office and stay with him, taking turn and turn about, and it is the general course throughout the Territory to have plurality of wives, and connection is had with them, and these women had children most of this time; I have seen in the house of a Mr. Crossline, Half-way House, E. T. City, this man and his three wives; he had a child by the last wife, and the other two wives used to take care of the child, while the other woman would take a yoke of oxen and probably have to cut a load of wood in the mountains, and return with it; women do the work of men, especially the lower classes; all seem to work for the elders; I knew seven of Elder Taylor's wives; I boarded with one of his wives; there is but little employment for children; they live very poorly, wretched; and the women live in dread as to the chance of leaving; we brought away eighty of the women, and could have taken hundreds, if we could have carried them; they were very anxious to get away; there may be six or seven wives; but the youngest has to wait on the others; I have seen women cutting wood and splitting it; we were, by the Mormons, called d__d Gentiles; and the women who washed for us were on that ????????????????, Brigham's daughter wished to leave, but it was almost impossible to leave, for if you attempted it you might have your throat cut, for there is no one to protect you; I know that a great many of the women desired to get away; I head Brigham Young say in the pulpit that the late President of the United States, Gen. Taylor, was a God d__d son of a b__h, and he knew he was rotten in hell; I saw a great deal of disunion; I knew a Mrs. Sweetlock, who had been married in England, and came among the Mormons with her husband, father and family; Sweetlock got married to two other women after he got into Salt Lake City; the women are not well treated; are generally depraved; indeed, harshly treated and oppressed by the men; are treated as the menials of the men; children could not get away if they wished; the doctrine is plurality of wives; I have head Brigham Young in the Tabernacle say he would have his own children marry one another, but the time was not come yet.

Cross-examined--I was there in August, 1854, and remained eight months.

William H. Caemmerer--I am an examining physician at Castle Garden, and the Mormon emigrants have to pass my examination; I observe their children to be in a dirty and filthy state, and to remain so while in Castle Garden establishment; I have told them to wash the children, and they have not done so; in fact, though they may remain five or six days, they leave the place in the same dirty state they enter, and do not clean off even a spot; in one case a child died, but the parents had left without seeming to care about it, not seeming to care where or by whom it was buried; in another case I saw a child wrapped up, and observed it was about to die; I inquired for its mother, but she was nowhere to be found, and finally the child died; these Mormons give me more trouble than all the rest of the emigrants.

Robert Murray again called--I have examined the register, and find no other J. Reese or J. Thomas than the two I have spoken of.

The examination was then adjourned to the referee's office.

June 25.--The examination was resumed this morning, before the referee, at his office. The first witness called was Amelia Jervis, who being sworn and examined by Mr. Latsom, deposed:--My late residence was in England, Herefordshire; I left there on the 1st of May last, in company with my three children, and no one else; my brother was not with me from Hereford; I went to Ludlow and there met my brother; that is twenty-six miles from Hereford; he joined me in Ludlow and went to Shrewsbury, where we took the next train to Birkenhead, and from there crossed over to Liverpool; when I got to Shrewsbury I sent a telegraphic message to Liverpool to Mr. Reese, to obtain lodgings for me and my children, as I was a stranger there; I had known Mr. Reese three or four years; he had been in the habit of visiting our house; my husband was friendly to him; he never complained of his (Reese's) visits to our house; Mr. Jervis has lived between thirteen and fourteen years with me; I can safely say he has not even supported himself, nor given me any assistance. Q. If he ever gave you any money for the suport of your family, say how much? A. He has given me money at different times; sometimes a few shillings, and sometimes only a few coppers; he never has provided provisions for myself and family, as is ordinarily done by other husbands. Q. Give me an account of what clothing and other things he has provided for you and the children, and the history of your thirteen years' marriage? A. I had been married but three months when he commenced to beat me; he was constantly drunk; I was in business in a small way; he would come home and strike me and abuse me; he struck me three times; but his abuse is countless; when he beat me my father and brother lodged with us; they interfered, and he promised that he would not repeat it; they told him they would not have me abused; he never bought me a hat, bonnet, shawl or dress; he never bought me any article of clothing during the time I lived with him; after I was married I had to pay, out of my own earnings, debts that he had contracted prior to his marriage; I paid his tailor's bill, an eating house bill, and about thirteen shillings sterling for a public house bill; the eating house bill was from one pound to thirty shillings; the tailors bill was over £2; there were various other little things, but I don't remember the particulars; about four months after we were married the claims began to come in, and it took me a twelvemonth to make money to pay them; he has been drunk for a week at a time, and not sober a day; he was three-fourths of his time truck; he was looked upon as a regular drunkard, and was always cursing and searing. Q. Was he put in prison for being drunk? A. He was not put in prison for being drunk during the first twelve months of our marriage, but he was in prison twice since; once for being drunk and contempt of court, and once for being drunk and disorderly; I have had seven children by him the eldest is dead; I was married in January and confined in the following December; he was not sober at the birth of that child, nor at the birth or death of any of them, and did not contribute one farthing to the funeral expenses of any of those that died; my father took care of the funeral, and gave it in charge to a man named Thomas; Jervis went to the funeral, but was drunk; that was his condition while the body lay in the house; from the death up to the burial of the child he was drunk--part of the time helplessly drunk; the body was four days in the house; the next child was born on the 6th of June, 1844; that child is living; it is the little girl present (the eldest of the three children claimed by the father); between the death of the first child and the birth of the little girl he was continually drunk, and that was his character through life; he beat me during this time, and my father came and took a house for me, and said I should go live with him, and not live with my husband, to be ill treated; he was sober at the birth of the little girl, but during the day he got drunk; when we move dot my father's house, he (my father) loaned me money; I speculated and obtained a living; I sold butter, bran, &c.; I also had a bakehouse and baked fresh bread; my husband did nothing during that period towards my support; ?????????? with me; he would not be separated, though I ???????? lodgings for himself; he used to work ????? ???lay, but seldom worked a whole day; ?????? slept with me, but did not pay the ????????? ???ld it; my father bought the fur???  ??? ??ht one chair, but the top was off ????????? ????????? of furniture he ever bought;  ???????????? of clothing for the little girl but one handkerchief, for which he gave eightpence; he never provided food for her; he never paid my doctor's bills during my confinement; it was about eighteen months after the birth of that child that the next was born; that child is dead; it only lived two weeks; my husband's conduct was the same at the birth and death of that child; his work and labor never supported himself; sometimes he would give me a part and spend the rest in drink; he never gave me more than eight or nine shillings a week; the first twelve months was the worst; on an average he never gave me more than five shillings a week; he was formerly getting eighteen pence a day; he was lately getting sixteen shillings (sterling) a week; he gave me at the outside not more than one half what he earned; the other he spent in liquor; the support of the family--myself, children and him--cost twenty-five shillings (sterling) a week; I had to pay my house rent and taxes in addition to that; the twenty-five shillings includes fuel. [The witness gave similar testimony as to the character and conduct of her husband at the birth of her other children.] I do not recollect his state at the birth of Freddy (the little boy that is with her); he never bought anything for him but one pair of shoes, for which he gave 3s.; the next child died at nine months old; the father was quite drunk at the death of that one; I don't recollect was was his state at the funeral of that child, but I have noticed that always when there was any trouble in the house he got drunk; I paid the funeral expenses myself; the last one died at three months old; that was in September, 1855; he never provided anything whatever for that little child; he never provided any medicines nor paid a doctor's bill; he never, during the illness of all those children, got up at night to assist me; he never lost a night's rest with them during the whole of their illness; he was very cruel to his children, abused and threatened them, and called them names; he called them bloody ______; I trembled for fear he would put his threats into execution; he would up with his foot and kick them and strike them with his shut fist; he has been employed about eighteen months at sixteen shillings a week; he has attended to his business, and behaved better during that time than formerly; but he has frequently come home drunk three or four times a week; his moral character has been very bad during that time; I have had evidence of it in the shape of disease. [Here the witness went on to state that there were personal evidences of the husband's criminality, and that he provided medicine for himself and the witness.] I did not get any better, and I applied to a Dr. Thompson; my nurse advised me to send for the doctor; in February or March last the same thing occurred, and I remained so about two months; my health was very bad when I left my husband and went to Ludlow, and was then taking medicine; that circumstance, coupled with his ill treatment, was the immediate cause of my leaving him; I came to the United States under the protection of my brother; there were about eight or nine on board with whom I had been previously acquainted, and I got acquainted with ten or twenty more on board; the name of the ship was the Thornton, the captain's name was Collins; I heard the captain say there were between seven and eight hundred on board; I did not hear how many of them were Mormons; I should think they were the most part Mormons, but not wholly so; I always saw the passengers' behavior good; they were kind to each other, and particularly kind to the sick; the Mormons had a doctor with them; they were remarkably clean; the captain remarked that they were the cleanest set of people ever he met; my children were sea sick at first, but were healthy afterwards; the last time witness received the treatment already alluded to, my husband told me of it before I was aware; he said he was as he was before, and I got medicine from Dr. Lane; I came to the United States for the purpose of living here because I thought I could maintain myself here better than I could in England.

Q. Have you not been told that in the United States a man cannot tyranize over his wife as they do in England? A. Yes, sir, I have been told so, and I have read so; I can read, write and cypher; my husband can read but cannot write or cypher; my little girls can read; I sent them to school; not a free school; I paid sixpence a week for the girls, and for the other twopence; when I got on board the vessel in Liverpool I wrote a letter back to my husband, at Hereford, that I had emigrated with my three children, under the protection of my brother, to New York; I requested him to write to me, and meet me here, as I intended to take up my residence in New York; it is now my intention to take up my residence in New York city, and I intend to keep my children here; that was my object in leaving England; I have made application to a gentleman in this city to bind the eldest girl apprentice, and should have done so if she had not been taken in this matter; I would be well satisfied to bind her now.

Q. Is your husband fit or competent to have charge of these children?

A. No, sir; he is the least fit of any one I ever saw; I am not a member of the Mormon or Latter Day Saints Church; my husband has not expressed any desire for me to return to England; I do not know whether he has any means to pay the passage of myself and the children back to England. Q. Do you understand any other trade or profession but that of baking. A. I understand family nursing and midwifery; I have also learned to be a laundress; midwifery is generally practised by women in England; the doctors go with them for a few cases; they get information that way, and then the doctors recommend them.

The further examination of this witness was adjourned to Thursday, at 10 o'clock.