Letter from Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan H. Hale, 18 September 1837
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Source Note
and , Letter, Vinalhaven, Fox Islands, Hancock Co., ME, to JS and “the Church of Latter Day Saints,” , Geauga Co., OH, 18 Sept. 1837. Featured version published in “To Joseph Smith Jr. and the Church of Latter Day Saints,” Elders’ Journal of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Oct. 1837, 1–3. For more complete source information, see the source note for Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837.
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Historical Introduction
On 31 May 1837, , , and , all members of the of the , departed , Ohio, to preach in “the eastern country.” Over the next three and a half months, the men proselytized in communities in , , , , New Hampshire, and . Then in late August, Woodruff and Hale made their way to the , an archipelago off the coast of southern Maine, where they preached, , and eventually established a small of the . On 18 September 1837, the pair sent a letter to JS and the church reporting on their travels and missionary efforts. The letter was published in the October 1837 issue of the Elders’ Journal., , and set off for their eastern mission amid social and economic turmoil in and two weeks before and others departed on a mission to . In a reminiscent account published two decades later, Woodruff recalled that he had “felt impressed to go out upon a mission; the Spirit was upon me, and lead me to go to ; it was a country I had never visited. I named my feelings upon the subject to Kimball, and others; they encouraged me to go.” Woodruff’s desire to preach in the Fox Islands may have been related to an blessing given to him by in January 1837, in which Woodruff was told that he would preach “to the inhabitants upon the Islands of the Sea.” Woodruff recounted that he handpicked Hale to accompany him. Unlike Woodruff, Hale—who was baptized in 1834 and had presided over a branch of the church in Dover, New Hampshire—had firsthand knowledge of the Fox Islands.The missionaries’ indirect course to was likely influenced by their desire to preach to and visit with family members scattered throughout the region. As they trekked across in early June, for example, stopped in his former home of Richland, where he reunited with his two older brothers, Azmon and Thompson. While preaching near his childhood home in Farmington, Connecticut, Woodruff visited his younger sister, Eunice, and his father, Aphek; he also baptized members of his extended family. In July, and Woodruff preached near Hale’s childhood home of Bradford, Massachusetts, where Hale visited with members of his extended family; was also from the area and visited family there. Phebe Carter Woodruff, who had married Wilford in April 1837, joined the missionaries in Bradford as well, and in early August she accompanied her husband to her hometown of Scarborough, Maine, where Woodruff preached and spent two weeks becoming acquainted with his new bride’s family.The letter to JS and the church briefly summarized the missionaries’ three-month journey to , but most of the communication was devoted to and ’s activities on the . Rising from southern Maine’s Penobscot Bay, the Fox Island archipelago—comprising two larger islands and dozens of smaller islets—is situated twelve miles off the coast of Rockland. North Fox Island, known today as North Haven, exhibits a relatively flat topography that during the mid-1830s was sparsely wooded and largely dominated by open pastures and farmland. Characterized by its granite-covered hills, rocky shoreline, and woods of pine, fir, and spruce, South Fox Island (or Vinalhaven today) was not as suitable for agriculture; early nineteenth-century residents of this island instead made a living through logging, shipbuilding, and fishing. During Woodruff and Hale’s time there, the islands were collectively known as Vinalhaven Township.On 18 August, and departed Scarborough, Maine, “for the purpose of visiting the Islands of the Sea.” After obtaining passage on a small sloop that launched from Owls Head, near Rockland, on 19 August, they arrived on the north island at two o’clock the next morning. Later that day, the two men attended a Sunday service at the island’s lone Baptist church, where they became acquainted with the minister, Gideon Newton. Newton initially welcomed the two preachers into his home and allowed them to use the meetinghouse to preach their message. Woodruff and Hale preached in various locations during their first two weeks on the north island, including in the Baptist meetinghouse, local schoolhouses, and private residences, and they apparently gained influence among the local inhabitants. As the island’s residents began to embrace their message, however, Newton’s attitude toward Woodruff and Hale soured. According to the missionaries’ journals, the minister’s congregation shrunk substantially by late August, and he organized a campaign to stem the Mormon preachers’ influence in the islands. In early September, Newton enlisted the help of the south island’s Methodist minister, a Mr. Douglass, to, as Woodruff put it, “come over and help him put down ‘Mormonism.’” Newton later traveled to the mainland to recruit two more ministers to aid in that endeavor. In a letter printed in a local Baptist publication, Newton recounted that the ministers then held a series of revival meetings on the north island, during which some of the residents “who stood aloof from hearing the Mormons” eventually “obtained a hope” and were baptized into the Baptist congregation.Despite this opposition, and continued to preach and baptize on both the north and the south island. The men addressed a large congregation on the north island in early September, after which Justus Eames and his wife, Betsy, became the first residents of Vinalhaven to be baptized into the church. On 4 September, the two missionaries boarded a sailboat, crossed the narrow channel separating the two largest islands, and preached to an attentive crowd in one of the local schoolhouses. Woodruff and Hale preached to audiences on the south island for five days before returning to the north island. According to their journals, the pair had preached twenty-five sermons on the by 10 September. In response to the impassioned speech that the Methodist preacher Douglass gave on the north island on 11 September, Woodruff prepared and delivered a two-and-a-half-hour sermon at the Baptist church, attended by a large congregation of people from both islands. In just over one week, 10–17 September, Woodruff and Hale led six more of the islands’ residents “into the waters of Baptism.”
Footnotes
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1
Woodruff, Journal, 30–31 May 1837.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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2
Holmes traveled with Woodruff and Hale as far as Connecticut before joining another companion to preach in a different region. He later rejoined Woodruff and Hale near his hometown of Rowley, Massachusetts. (Alexander, Things in Heaven and Earth, 57–58, 66; Woodruff, Journal, 23 July 1837.)
Alexander, Thomas G. Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1991.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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3
Letter from Abel Lamb and Others, ca. 28 May 1837; Recommendation for Heber C. Kimball, between 2 and 13 June 1837.
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4
“History of Wilford Woodruff,” Deseret News, 14 July 1858, 86.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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5
Woodruff, Journal, 3 Jan. 1837.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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6
Wilford Woodruff, “Discourse,” 19 Oct. 1896, Deseret Weekly, 7 Nov. 1896, 643.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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7
An entry in Hale’s journal briefly refers to a trip he made to the Fox Islands in September 1834 to purchase a “vessel load of sheep.” (Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 3.)
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
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8
Woodruff had been largely estranged from his brother Azmon since he left New York to participate in the Camp of Israel expedition in 1834. Azmon had been baptized but left the church shortly after Wilford departed for Missouri. The brothers exchanged letters in the years to follow, but Wilford’s enthusiasm for and devotion to his new faith appears to have only widened the gulf between them. When he arrived in Richland around 4 June 1837, he noted in his journal that he “found sumthing of a colness manifest toward me and my brethren because of our religion from my Brothers household especially from Elizabeth my Brothers wife.” Though Wilford was invited to eat with Azmon and his family, he was not invited to stay with them, so he boarded with a former neighbor. (Alexander, Things in Heaven and Earth, 32–33, 56–57; Woodruff, Journal, 31 Dec. 1833 and 4 June 1837.)
Alexander, Thomas G. Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1991.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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9
Woodruff, Journal, 28 June–12 July 1837.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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10
In the nine days he preached near Bradford (today part of Groveland and Haverhill) in July, Hale met with his sisters, his mother, his cousins, and the family of his wife, Olive Boynton Hale. Hale’s journal entries do not indicate whether any of them joined the church during the 1837 mission. (Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 23–25.)
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
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11
Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 25–27. On 13 April 1837 in Kirtland, Frederick G. Williams married Woodruff and Phebe Carter, a twenty-eight-year-old convert. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Apr. 1837; Crocheron, Representative Women of Deseret, 35–36.)
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Crocheron, Augusta Joyce. Representative Women of Deseret, a Book of Biographical Sketches, to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Same Title. Salt Lake City: J. C. Graham, 1884.
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12
Brief Historical Sketch of the Town of Vinalhaven, 12–13, 28; Coolidge and Mansfield, History and Description of New England, 236, 334.
A Brief Historical Sketch of the Town of Vinalhaven, from Its Earliest Known Settlement: Prepared by Order of the Town on the Occasion of Its One Hundredth Anniversary. Rockland, ME: By the authors, 1889.
Coolidge, A. J., and J. B. Mansfield. A History and Description of New England, General and Local. Vol. 1, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Boston: Austin J. Coolidge, 1859.
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13
Woodruff, Journal, 18 Aug. 1837.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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14
Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 28–29; Woodruff, Journal, 18 Aug. 1837. Hale observed that “the people on the North Island are mostly Baptist Calvinist order the south island are mostly Methodist.” (Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 29.)
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
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15
Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 28–29; Woodruff, Journal, 20 Aug. 1837; “History of Wilford Woodruff,” Deseret News, 21 July 1858, 89.
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
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16
Woodruff, Journal, 20 Aug.–3 Sept. 1837; Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 28–35. In a letter printed in Zion’s Advocate, Newton stated, “The novelty of their [Woodruff and Hale’s] sentiments led many to hear them.” (Gideon Newton, “Revivals,” Zion’s Advocate, 25 Oct. 1837, 170.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
Zion’s Advocate. Portland, ME. 1828–1920.
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17
Woodruff, Journal, 27 Aug. 1837. In an 1880s account of the mission, Woodruff observed that Newton attended a dozen of their meetings before he “made up his mind, contrary to the dictation of the Spirit of God to him, to reject the testimony, and come out against me.” (Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal, 33.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Woodruff, Wilford. Leaves from My Journal, Third Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882.
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18
Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal, 34.
Woodruff, Wilford. Leaves from My Journal, Third Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882.
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19
Woodruff, Journal, 19 Sept. 1837. One of the ministers was Reverend Amariah Kalloch, the first pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockland, Maine. (Eaton, History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, 374–375.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Eaton, Cyrus. History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, from Their First Exploration, A. D. 1605; with Family Genealogies. Vol. 1. Hallowell: Masters Smith, 1865.
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20
Gideon Newton, “Revivals,” Zion’s Advocate, 25 Oct. 1837, 170. In a 20 November 1837 letter to Don Carlos Smith, Woodruff countered Newton’s account of the revival meetings, asserting that the Baptist minister gained only two converts: “his own son and daughter.” (Wilford Woodruff, Vinalhaven, ME, to Don Carlos Smith, Kirtland, OH, 20 Nov. 1837, in Elders’ Journal, Nov. 1837, 17–19.)
Zion’s Advocate. Portland, ME. 1828–1920.
Elders’ Journal of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Kirtland, OH, Oct.–Nov. 1837; Far West, MO, July–Aug. 1838.
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21
Woodruff, Journal, 3–4 Sept. 1837; Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 34–35.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
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22
Woodruff, Journal, 4–10 Sept. 1837; Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 35.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
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23
The six other converts were Ebenezer Eames, Melannar Eames, Cyrus Sterrett, Phebe Sterrett, Abigail Farnham, and Eliza Luce. On 1 October, Woodruff and Hale organized the first branch of the church in Vinalhaven, comprising twelve members. (Woodruff, Journal, 10, 12, and 17 Sept. 1837; 1 Oct. 1837; Hale, Reminiscences and Journal, 35, 37, 40–42.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Hale, Jonathan H. Reminiscences and Journals, 1837–1840. CHL.
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