1840-09-26-Niles National Register-The Mormons
The Mormons
Niles' National Register, v9 n4, 26 September 1840, p. 51.
The Mormons. A keel-boat arrived in this city on Sunday last, with about thirty Mormons. We understand they belong to a party of thirty-nine, who left the vicinity of Preston, England, about two months since; although the company separated at Pittsburg, they are all destined for the head quarters of the Mormons, at Nauvoo, adjoining Commerce, Illinois. These were all good looking farmers and mechanics; and we are told that another party is on the way from England, destined to the same point.
This sect is rapidly on the increase. Their church in England comprises between 2,000 and 3,000 memebers, mostly in Lancashire; they have also regularly organized societies in Liverpool, Edinburg, Birmingham, Manchester, &c. About 100 Methodist preachers in England have embraced this faith. In this country, there are about 2,800 at Nauvoo, Illinois, and about 2,000 in Lee county, in Iowa, on the opposite side of the Missssippi. They have churchest in Quincy, Springfield, Jacksonville, and various other parts of Illinois. There is a church of about 100 members at Dayton, Ohio, and they intend to establish one in this city shortly—eight persons were baptized by them, in the river, in front of this city, last Sunday and Monday. With the exception of Missouri, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, they have regularly organized churches in every state of the union; those at Philadelphia and New York comprise each about 300 members. They publish a monthly journal in Manchester, England, and another at Nauvoo, Illinois. The inhuman persecutions suffered in Missouri, in the winter and spring of 1839, were a disgrace to the state and to the benevolent spirit of the age. "To their own Master they stand or fall."
- [Cincinnati Chronicle, of Aug. 26.
