, Letter, , OH, to “Our beloved brethren” [JS and others], [, Seneca Co., NY], 12 Nov. 1830. Featured version copied [ca. 1871] in Newel Knight, History, 207–210; unidentified handwriting; private possession. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Newel Knight and the Church in Colesville, 28 August 1830.
Historical Introduction
sent this letter to his “brethren” in two weeks after arriving in , Ohio, with his fellow missionaries en route to . The text of this letter was copied into another letter sent by JS and to members of the church living in , New York. The letter from JS, including Cowdery’s communication, was then copied into ’s autobiography by an unknown scribe at a much later date, providing the only known surviving copy.
En route to the Indian territory in present-day eastern Kansas, one of the four missionaries, , called on , who was his “former friend and instructor, in the Reformed Baptist Society.” The letter below suggests that the group had planned before their arrival to stop briefly in the area and seek out Rigdon. The missionaries found Rigdon and many of his parishioners ready recipients of their message, and the letter describes their success.
For nearly a decade prior to meeting the missionaries, was affiliated with in a mutual quest to reclaim “the ancient order of things.” Campbell and his colleagues were known for their teaching, based on Acts 2:38, that baptism, rather than being an “experience” of grace, was the divinely appointed means of receiving a “remission of sins.” Yet, as an early follower clarified, their call to reform Christianity “did not begin nor end in . It saw as its end, and sought nothing less, than the de-organization of sect, and the re-organization of the saints . . . in the express terms and conditions divinely set forth in the Holy Scriptures.” Many reformist congregations in northeastern eventually severed denominational ties and by the early 1830s reorganized under Campbell’s leadership as the “Disciples of Christ.”
Not long before his reunion with , parted theologically with . (This occurred at a meeting where ministers of the Mahoning Association, a reform-minded branch of the Baptists of which Campbell and Rigdon had been key members, voted to dissolve.) The rift was caused by Campbell’s refusal to agree that a full restoration of biblical truth also included re-creation of communal conditions described in the book of Acts. About two months later Pratt and his associates arrived at Rigdon’s home proclaiming a restoration of ancient truth and divine authority. His prior commitment to Christian primitivism enabled Rigdon, as well as his followers, to listen closely to the missionaries. Later, an editorial in a Mormon newspaper looked back with gratitude on the converts’ connection to Campbell, affirming that their minds “were prepared for the work through the belief and reception of many of the principles propagated by [Alexander] Campbell . . . and we will even go further and acknowledge that the Lord permitted the propagation of those principles as a forerunner to the fulness of the gospel, though its advocates knew it not.”
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Campbell wrote, “A restoration of the ancient order of things is all that is necessary to the happiness and usefulness of christians. . . . [T]he thing proposed, is to bring the christianity and the church of the present day up to the standard of the New Testament.” (Alexander Campbell, “A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things, No. I,” Christian Baptist, 7 Feb. 1825, 49; see also Rollmann, “Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon,” 48–49.)
Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 67–70, 158.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
See Harrell, Quest for a Christian America, chap. 1; and Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve.
Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. Quest for Christian America: The Disciples of Christ and American Society to 1866. Nashville, TN: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1966.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
See Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 298–299; and De Pillis, “Development of Mormon Communitarianism,” 58–64; see also Acts 2:44; 4:32–35.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
De Pillis, Mario S. “The Development of Mormon Communitarianism, 1826–1846.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1960.
directly to this place. On the fourth after attending <a public> meeting we came to the place where we had prophesied tarrying a few days. It is where several families had united themselves as a band of brethren and put all their property together determining to live separate from the world as much as possible, and when we had returned we held a meeting with these brethren, and seventeen went immediately forward and were , be [p. 208]
Known as “the Family” or “Morley’s Family,” this group of Sidney Rigdon’s followers lived communally on Isaac Morley’s farm in the township of Kirtland, Ohio, in an effort to replicate the New Testament ideal of having “all things common.” Of the Family’s origin, Lyman Wight wrote, “I went to Kirtland, about twenty miles, to see Bro. I[saac] Morley and—[Titus] Billings, after some conversation on the subject we entered into a covenant to make our interests one as anciently. In conformity to this covenant I moved the next February [1830] to Kirtland, into the house with Bro. Morley. We commenced our labors together with great peace and union. We were soon joined by eight other families. Our labors were united both in farming and mechanism, all of which was prosecuted with great vigor. We truly began to feel as if the millennium was close at hand.” (Acts 2:44; History of the Reorganized Church, 1:152–153; see also De Pillis, “Development of Mormon Communitarianism,” 58–62; and Backman, “Non-Mormon View of the Birth of Mormonism in Ohio,” 308.)
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.
De Pillis, Mario S. “The Development of Mormon Communitarianism, 1826–1846.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1960.