Mormons in New York City

It is unusual these days for LDS congregations in Manhattan to experience death. Members of the Church here are generally young, and longtime members often move away by the time they arrive at retirement age—so we don’t see funerals or memorial services very often.

That was probably true in the early 20th century also. Newspaper accounts of the Church here often refer to the bulk of members here as the “Utah colony” and speak of why members have arrived (usually for work or school) and how they are returning back “home.”

But, of course, there were occasional deaths and the associated memorial services—which were held in place of funerals because the deceased was sent back “home” for a funeral.

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Some elements of our every day lives are so mundane, that we never think to record anything about them. How many of us burden our diaries and journals with the details of our daily commute? Which route we took, whether the light at a particular street was red or green that day and what car we owned at the time just don’t seem like important details. But more than 100 years later these details sometimes make a lot of difference in how we understand the past.

Do you record the details of sacrament meetings in your journal? Has it ever occurred to you that 100 years in the future sacrament meeting might be somewhat different? Fortunately, outsiders sometimes see the mundane of our lives with different eyes, and their accounts of what is mundane to us and unusual to them are, 100 years later, insightful accounts of important parts of every day lives.

Sacrament meeting is a good example, in this case. In 1873 a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle published an account of a Brooklyn sacrament meeting, leaving us what is, I think, an interesting outsider’s view of the “mundane” of Mormonism:

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Where were Mormon meetings first held in New York City? It depends a lot on what you mean by meetings. Do we count meetings held before the congregation was organized? Should we include the homes and private rooms of members? or only places meant for large groups? Do we include where members met privately? or only meetings open to the public?

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Today, LDS congregations in New York City experience a lot of turnover. People move in and out of LDS congregations frequently, driven by education and economic considerations. And we may not imagine that Mormon congregations in the area experienced the same kind of change over 150 years ago.

An 1856 newspaper story about the Hornerstown, New Jersey congregation gives an impression of a group in similar flux, although one that is slowly declining instead of increasing as most Mormon congregations in the area today.

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[Cross posted from Mormon Baseball.]

It is a simple journal entry by Mormon Battalion member Azariah Smith. After spending most of 1846 struggling along the long, 1,900 mile road from Council Bluffs, near what is now Omaha, Nebraska, through the territory we know as Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and after arriving in southern California, near San Diego, Smith recorded in his diary early in 1847 how he and some fellow soldiers chose to entertain themselves:

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Sunday March the 6th. We drilled as before and through the day we play ball and amuse ourselves the best way we can. It is very cool weather and clothing scarce.

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The New York Times somehow learned that 25 returning Mormon missionaries had arrived in New York City on March 10th, 1858 and tried to track them down and talk to them. But it is clear that the missionaries didn’t want to talk with the Times’ reporter at all. “The effort to learn any particulars concerning their party; where they had been, how long they had been abroad or even their names, was abortive. They referred the reporter to Mr. HERRIMAN, whom they designated as their chief, who they thought was at LOVEJOY’S Hotel,” the published report says. But at that hotel the reporter found six missionaries registered, not including Harriman. And, curiously, in signing the register those missionaries didn’t list Salt Lake City as their homes, instead listing Philadelphia, St. Louis and Syracuse.

Why were the missionaries so coy?

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It is wise to take many controversies that appear in the media with a grain of salt, for too often they are gone in a few days, and are regularly based on rumor and innuendo instead of fact.

I’m sure that rings true to most of us today. It was certainly true in August of 1866, when a group of Mormon immigrants touched off a minor controversy that appeared in the New York Tribune and then in the Brooklyn Eagle a few days later. The ship Cavour docked at Castle Garden in New York City on July 31, 1866 and almost all its passengers continued their journey by steamer towards Montreal on the following day. From their records, it appears they had no idea of how they would be portrayed in the Tribune a few weeks later.

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By 1877, the LDS Church in New York City was in a kind of decline, at least as far as local members were concerned. While many Mormons passed through the city in transit—either to missions in Europe or emigrating to Salt Lake City from Europe—the number of members who lived here was decreasing.

But then why were members here at all? And what was life like for them?

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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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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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