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 funeal, and gave it in charge to a man named Thomas;