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Letter from Thomas Burdick, 28 August 1840

Source Note

, Letter, , Lake Co., OH, to [?], intended for JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 28 Aug. 1840. Featured version copied [probably ca. late Aug. 1840] in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 174–176; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 2.

Historical Introduction

On 28 August 1840, , a member of the in , Ohio, addressed a letter to an unidentified individual and asked the recipient to share the letter with JS. Burdick was likely writing to , a member of the church’s . Smith, with whom Burdick had recently corresponded, had served as the point of contact for the church in , Illinois, in late 1839 and early 1840 when JS was in . Burdick requested that this 28 August letter be shown to JS so that it could be answered according to the Lord’s “mind and will.”
expressed concern about the actions of , a church member who had passed through and had taught in public and in private what Burdick considered strange doctrine. In 1837 Dunham received a blessing that he was “to do a great work a mongst the ” and that he would “preach to the Lamonites, to the Indians.” After proselytizing in in late 1839 and early 1840, Dunham traveled to . He stayed there for just a few days and then set out for Indian Territory west of , spending several days there in May and June 1840 before traveling to the eastern , where he hoped to proselytize among Native Americans in . Although there is no record of Dunham receiving a specific assignment to preach to American Indian groups, JS may have authorized him to undertake this mission as part of a larger effort to proselytize among Native Americans. In May 1840, Phebe Carter Woodruff wrote her husband, , that “an Indian and his wife and daughter”—likely and Mary Dana and their daughter—had been in . The man had declared that he was an interpreter for six tribes, all of which “will receive the work.” She added that and had “gone out among the Indians on a mission,” which considered to be “the first commencement of the work among the Lamanites.” Dunham apparently left Nauvoo for Indian Territory with Dana just a few days after Phebe Woodruff wrote her letter.
When —who referred to himself as a “Lamanite”—reached , he worked to recruit missionaries to accompany him to . Although other religious groups in the also tried to convert Indians to Christianity through preaching, some of what Latter-day Saints believed about Indians troubled non-Mormons and raised concerns about church members’ contact with Native Americans. According to passages in the Book of Mormon, Lamanites—believed by the Saints to be the ancestors of Native Americans—would join with European-American converts to build the , or city of , on the American continent. Church members also interpreted passages in the Book of Mormon to mean that Indian groups would wreak vengeance on the inhabitants of the United States if they rejected the Book of Mormon. Accordingly, allegations that the Saints were conspiring with Indians to attack non-Mormons dogged the church. JS and other church leaders issued a statement in 1838 declaring that they had not “had any communication with the Indians on any subject,” but fears of a Mormon-Indian alliance persisted and were apparently troubling to individuals who heard about Dunham’s plans to preach to Indian groups.
While in , also preached on topics that JS had expounded upon in but that had apparently not yet been discussed in Kirtland. requested in his letter more information from church leaders about who Dunham was and whether he was authorized to speak publicly about the teachings in question. No response from JS or other church leaders has been located, but JS evidently received the letter, the original of which is not extant, because , one of JS’s clerks, copied it into JS Letterbook 2.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    A letter from Parley P. Pratt to JS, for example, was answered by Hyrum Smith, who then informed JS of the letter’s contents. (Letter from Parley P. Pratt, 22 Nov. 1839; Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840; Letter to Oliver Granger, between ca. 22 and ca. 28 July 1840.)

  2. [2]

    “A Prophecey upon the Head of Jonathan Dunham,” 15 July 1837, Jonathan Dunham, Papers, CHL.

    Dunham, Jonathan. Papers, 1825–1846. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Jonathan Dunham, Cotton, IN, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, Aug. 1840, 1:154; Dunham, Journal, 10 Dec. 1839–10 June 1840.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Dunham, Jonathan. Journals, 1837–1846. Jonathan Dunham, Papers, 1825–1846. CHL. MS 1387, fds. 1–4.

  4. [4]

    Phebe Carter Woodruff, Montrose, Iowa Territory, to Wilford Woodruff, Burslem, England, 9 May 1840, digital scan, Wilford Woodruff, Collection, CHL; Woodruff, Journal, 13 July 1840; see also Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom, 98–99.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Collection, 1831–1905. CHL. MS 19509.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Hartley, William G. My Best for the Kingdom: History and Autobiography of John Lowe Butler, a Mormon Frontiersman. Salt Lake City: Aspen Books, 1993.

  5. [5]

    Dunham, Journal, 13 and 19 May 1840.

    Dunham, Jonathan. Journals, 1837–1846. Jonathan Dunham, Papers, 1825–1846. CHL. MS 1387, fds. 1–4.

  6. [6]

    See Prucha, Great Father, 52–53.

    Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. 2 vols. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

  7. [7]

    See, for example, Book of Mormon, 1837 ed., 528 [3 Nephi 21:23]; see also Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 8 Sept. 1838.

  8. [8]

    Book of Mormon, 1837 ed., 527 [3 Nephi 21:12]; Pratt, Mormonism Unveiled, 15; Pratt, Voice of Warning, 185–192.

    Pratt, Parley P. Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked, and its Editor, Mr. L. R. Sunderland, Exposed: Truth Vindicated: The Devil Mad, and Priestcraft in Danger! New York: O. Pratt & E. Fordham, 1838.

    Pratt, Parley P. A Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People, Containing a Declaration of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Commonly Called Mormons. New York: W. Sanford, 1837.

  9. [9]

    See Historical Introduction to Affidavit, 8 Sept. 1838; and Walker, “Seeking the ‘Remnant,’” 13–20.

    Walker, Ronald W. “Seeking the ‘Remnant’: The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period.” Journal of Mormon History 19 (Spring 1993): 1–33.

  10. [10]

    Affidavit, 8 Sept. 1838.

  11. [11]

    Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17, 19.

    Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
* Letter from Thomas Burdick, 28 August 1840
Letterbook 2

Page 174

Aug 28th 1840
We are in the dark concerning the mission and proceedings of , who recently passed through this place. He presents himself first by a letter dated Waterford, Washington Co. Ohio, Muskingham river directed to Hiram Kellogg of . Ohio. (in “haste”).
The following are some of the Items contained in the letter in his own words “Dear brother in the gospel and , I feel it a duty to inform you that I am on my way and mission to the State of , I have just returned from the ! by way of , &c. I started in company with three other Elders who have all got sick & I have been obliged to leave them, two of whom have gone back & the other I left in Covington K.Y. opposite . My mission is urgent indeed. I am now left alone” I and want you to select out if possible three or four preachers and have them ready when I arrive to go to Catteraugus Buffalo Tonawanda, Tuscaroras, Alleganys Onendagas and Oneidas:— I want the bretheren if possible to assist me in getting to the Onida Castle by water for I am in haste to return to at Oct. , & then to my station in the Territory of 9 miles from the Garrison (Levingworth), from whence I have just come. A new scene of things are about to transpire in the west, in fulfilment of prophecy, &c I want your prayers & also the prayers of the bretheren that I may have my health to accomplish my mission. I am not sent to the neither to the Cities of the Sameritans, but to the promised people of the house of Jacob, who if they go through &c”
To this letter he signs his name “ Lamanite” Hyrum Kellogg being absent, his son Henry Kellogg, a Universalist preacher takes the letter out of the Post Office and reads it & replies “the mormons ought to be seen to or words to that amount”; &c— soon afterwards arrives & confirms the letter by preaching much stronger meat than it contains, both in publick and in private: in publick he says “this nation is about to be destroyed” and suggests to the bretheren that there [p. 174]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Thomas Burdick, 28 August 1840
ID #
568
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D7:379–384
Handwriting on This Page
  • Howard Coray

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Waterford, Ohio, is located in the southeastern portion of the state, roughly 170 miles from Kirtland.

  2. [2]

    Hiram Kellogg (1793–1846) was appointed as a counselor in the Kirtland stake presidency by July 1838. In April 1840, the Times and Seasons published an extract of a letter from Kellogg reporting on the condition of the church in Kirtland. Some evidently saw Kellogg as the presiding authority in Kirtland, even though Oliver Granger had been appointed to that position by a May 1839 conference in Quincy, Illinois. For example, after a group of Saints emigrating from England met Kellogg in October 1840, group member William Clayton referred to Kellogg as “the President Elder of the stake at Kirtland.” A May 1841 conference in Kirtland accepted Kellogg as president of the high priests quorum, but it is unclear when he started functioning in that capacity. (Treman and Poole, History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America, 185–186; Kirtland Elders Quorum, “Record,” 22 July 1838; “Important Church News,” Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:109; Minutes, 4–5 May 1839; Clayton, Diary, 24 Oct. 1840; “Minutes of a Conference,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1841, 2:458.)

    Treman, Ebenezer Mack, and Murray E. Poole. The History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America; with the Related Families of Mack, Dey, Board and Ayers. . . . Ithaca, NY: Ithaca Democrat, 1901.

    Kirtland Elders Quorum. “A Record of the First Quorurum of Elders Belonging to the Church of Christ: In Kirtland Geauga Co. Ohio,” 1836–1838, 1840–1841. CCLA.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

    Clayton, William. Diary, Jan.–Nov. 1846. CHL.

  3. [3]

    Covington, Kentucky, is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

  4. [4]

    Dunham was apparently referring to the locations to which he would be traveling in New York, although it is possible he was referring to specific Indian tribes. The 1837 blessing he received in New York instructed him to “go directly north untill thou shall find a certain tribe of Lamonites, or nation of Indians.” (“A Prophecey upon the Head of Jonathan Dunham,” 15 July 1837, Jonathan Dunham, Papers, CHL.)

    Dunham, Jonathan. Papers, 1825–1846. CHL.

  5. [5]

    Oneida Castle, New York, located on both sides of Oneida Creek, was a settlement organized around 1746 by the Oneida Nation under the name Kanonwalohale. It served as the capital of the nation and became known as Oneida Castle among European Americans, presumably because of its defensive features, which protected it against armed invasion. In 1815 the Oneida Nation transferred ownership of the settlement to European Americans. In the 1840s, approximately three hundred Oneida Indians resided about a mile south of Oneida Castle. (Tiro, People of the Standing Stone, 16, 129–130; Gazetteer of the State of New-York, 300.)

    Tiro, Karim M. The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation from the Revolution through the Era of Removal. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.

    A Gazetteer of the State of New-York: Comprising its Topography, Geology, Mineralogical Resources, Civil Divisions, Canals, Railroads and Public Institutions. . . . Albany: J. Disturnell, 1842.

  6. [6]

    Dunham reached the vicinity of Fort Leavenworth in Indian Territory in early June 1840. He spent several days in the area, trying to locate Thomas Hendricks, chief of the Stockbridge Indians; meeting with Kenekuk, the Kickapoo prophet; and attempting to locate Timothy Towsa of the Delaware Nation. Dunham apparently left Indian Territory after being ordered to do so by government officials. (Dunham, Journal, 3–10 June 1840; Walker, “Seeking the ‘Remnant,’” 24.)

    Dunham, Jonathan. Journals, 1837–1846. Jonathan Dunham, Papers, 1825–1846. CHL. MS 1387, fds. 1–4.

    Walker, Ronald W. “Seeking the ‘Remnant’: The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period.” Journal of Mormon History 19 (Spring 1993): 1–33.

  7. [7]

    See Matthew 10:5–6; and Book of Mormon, 1837 ed., 527 [3 Nephi 21:12].

  8. [8]

    Little is known about Henry Kellogg, who was born in 1816 and died in 1862. (Treman and Poole, History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America, 186.)

    Treman, Ebenezer Mack, and Murray E. Poole. The History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America; with the Related Families of Mack, Dey, Board and Ayers. . . . Ithaca, NY: Ithaca Democrat, 1901.

  9. [9]

    See Hebrews 5:12–14.

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