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.