1858-03-11-Underwriter

Autobiography and Diaries of John Lyman Smith

Smith, John Lyman, 1828-1898. Autobiography and diaries 1846-1895. [LDS Church Archives, Ms 2072, vol. 2, pp. 189-203, 216; Acc. #27 179]

Wednesday 10. at 8:00 a.m. got a pilot on board, 2 hours took a tug landed at Castle Garden at 4:30, [-] pay $3.33 daily. Stopped at Walker's Hotel. Thursday 11. Spent the whole day looking for T.B.H. [POSSIBLY Stenhouse] & S.W. Richards . Found them at 3 p.m. Went to Crystal Minstrels in evening. Found O. Horsenbach & J.J. Ruban. [p.200] Fri. 12. Saw a lot of emigrants [-] of west at the York & Erie Station. Spent most of the day with Octave & Ruban. Went to Williamsburg & saw Octave's aunt. Sat. 13. B. Snow left for Boston. I left for Burlington, Iowa.

Diaries of Eli Harvey Peirce

Peirce, Eli Harvey. Diaries, (1857-1858). Vol. 1 pp. 140-81

March 10 - Wednesday. Captain of ship wakened us all up at daylight & told us that there was land in sight. Many of us jumped up with joyful hearts to behold the land of America. We saw the land off at a great distance, resembling very much like a cloud. It is a very beautiful fine morning. The sky is very clear & the weather is pleasant. At sunrise we could behold the land very distinctly. It seemed very good to behold land once more as we had not seen any land for the last 45 days. About 1/2 an our after sunrise we received a pilot on board ship. 10 o'clock a.m. we had a steam tugboat hitched to us to take the ship into New York Harbor. Plenty of land now in sight. We arrived in New York [p. 171] Harbor near to New York City. About 3 o'clock p.m. there then came a steamboat from New York City to our ship after the passengers. We then all got on board & went to shore. Landed at New York about half past 3 p.m. We were all very glad to set our feet upon land once more. My brother Thomas went & took our abode at Mr. Lovejoy's Hotel in company with Elders Wilkins & Margetts, after eating a very hearty & sumptuous supper, we sat down & spent the evening in reading newspaper stories concerning the Mormons in Salt Lake & the Mormon war &c. & then we retired to bed to take our rest upon land once more. [p. 172]

March 11 - Thursday. Beautiful morning. Rested very well through the night. After breakfast we went down to 117 John Street to see President Samuel W. Richards, as we understood that he was there along with President Appleby & Sternhouse. When we arrived at the place we was very happy to find them all enjoying very good health with the exceptions of President Appleby who was not very well in body but well in spirits. We tarried here with them for about 3 hours with several more of our elders, President Richards gave us our orders & instructions &c. We all then departed & went our way, my brother Thomas & myself took train & went to Philadelphia, 150 miles, among our relations to raise means if possible to assist us on our way [p. 173] home to the valley.

Arrival of the Mormon Missionaries

New York Times, 11 March 1858 p. 1 col. 6

See also

• When attention was bad: Returning Missionaries in Manhattan, 1858 by Kent Larsen. Mormons in New York City, 22 January 2013.