Archive for November, 2012

Presidents of the Eastern States Mission and New York City Immigration Agents

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

In his Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Andrew Jenson gives a list of the mission presidents of the Eastern States Mission, which generally had its headquarters in New York City, as the following:

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Mormon Emigration in 1869: Did immigrants need a Mormon Hotel?

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Last week I wrote about a November 1869 article from the New York Times that claimed that the LDS Church was about to build a “Temple” in New York City. But the building described was more like a hotel for immigrants with an integrated meetinghouse than a temple as we know it today. But the idea of even a Mormon immigration way station in the city deserves some consideration. Would such a structure have helped? Was it needed?

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A “Temple” in New York in 1869?

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

Perhaps the most audacious article about Mormons in New York City that I have discovered is an 1869 article in the New York Times that claimed that a Mormon Temple would soon be built in the city and that $500,000 had been set aside for its construction.

Only it wasn’t a temple the way Mormons today think of it.

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Appleby’s Journal

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

The Christian Observer of September 10, 1841 included an unusual item, a 3,000 word article entitled “Journal of a Mormon” drawn on exactly that, the journal of convert William I. Appleby covering a trip he took to visit Nauvoo a year or so after his conversion. According to the Observer, Appleby had apparently planned to publish this as a pamphlet—but no pamphlet is now extant.

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