Printing House Square

New York LDS Newspapers and Pamphlets

Unlike today, 150 years ago New Yorkers published a weekly LDS newspaper. The Prophet, first of three LDS newspapers, was published every week from a printing press located at 68 Commercial Street and issued at 7 Spruce Street, right here in the city. The Prophet was succeeded by The New York Messenger and later, The Mormon.

The first issue of The Prophet was published May 24, 1844, by Parley P. Pratt and Orson Pratt, after which it was run by Samuel Brannan, presiding elder of the branch in Manhattan. The newspaper contained essays from Church leaders and members as well as general and Church-specific news, and official Church announcements. The audience was mostly LDS, and the paper was supported entirely by the subscription fees of its readers, which were one dollar a year.

By the middle of 1845, The Prophet had published 52 issues, but with the 53rd issue, published July 5th, the newspaper’s name changed to The New York Messenger, and the cost of an annual subscription was raised to two dollars. Publication ended early in 1846 when Brannan took the press to California with the group of Mormons he led on the ship Brooklyn. There the press was used for The California Star, a general newspaper.

It wasn’t until 1855 that a replacement newspaper was started. Elder John Taylor, president of the Eastern States Mission, started The Mormon in February 1855. Located near the buildings that housed the New York Herald and New York Tribune, The Mormon sought to unapologetically defend the Church and its doctrines.

However, in September 1857, Elder Taylor and the missionaries in the Eastern States Mission were recalled to Utah because of the Utah War, ending the publicaton of LDS newspapers in New York City.

Extent of New York City, 1857

• City extends to 59th Street.
• Construction on Central Park begins in 1857.
• New York has 10 to 15 daily newspapers throughout the 1840s and 1850s, including at least 6 major newspapers: the Sun, Post, Tribune, Herald, Observer and the Courier & Enquirer. The New York Times was started 18 August 1851.

In New York and U.S. History

• 1855 – Castle Clinton becomes New York City immigration station.
• Aug. 1857 – Financial panic of 1857 and runs on the banks. Subsequent depression improves just before the Civil War.
• 12 Apr. 1861 – Confederate forces fire on Ft. Sumpter, in South Carolina. Significant portion of U.S. troops are still stationed in Utah.
• 20 Aug. 1859 – First ever question & answer interview published: Horace Greely’s interview of Brigham Young in New York Tribune.

In LDS Church History

• August 1852 – Elder Orson Pratt publicly announces doctrine of plural marriage.
• 9 June 1856 – First handcart company leaves Iowa City, Iowa, for Utah.
• 13 May1857 – Elder Parley P. Pratt assassinated in Arkansas.
• 28 May 1857 – Acting on reports from non-Mormons, U.S. Pres. James Buchannan orders U.S. Army to Utah.
• 15 Sept. 1857 – Brigham Young puts Utah under martial law.
• 24 Feb. 1858 – Col. Thomas L. Kane brokers peaceful end to Utah War.

Further Reading

• Tiffany, Scott. LDS Newspapers of Nineteenth Century New York City. The New York LDS Historian. Winter 1999, Vol. 1 No. 2.
• Pratt, Parley P., The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book).
• Roberts, B. H. History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978).
• Roberts, B. H. Comprehensive History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978).
• Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).