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Lot 151
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Erastus Snow amazing signed letter to outfit a family for the wagon trip to Zion!
Erastus Snow amazing signed letter to outfit a family for the wagon trip to Zion!
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Mormons

Erastus Snow amazing signed letter to outfit a family for the wagon trip to Zion!

 

Single page letter, on lightly lined paper, 7.75" x 5". Dated "21/4/55", and neatly signed by Erastus Snow in full signature, "Erastus Snow". Letter penned in another hand and signed by Snow. Page lightly toned with a very small stain to left margin, not affecting text. Expected folds, else near fine.

 

An outstanding letter penned in the midst of the emigration and consolidation of Latter Day Saints to Zion. 


Gathering to Zion, or moving to live in communities with the rest of the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a central principle of the faith; in fact, the tenth Article of Faith stated, "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel..." The converts to the church were Israel and they needed to be gathered to the Promised Land. The process to attain this end was the sophisticated establishment of The Perpetual Emigrating Fund which started in 1849 and whose goal was to assist with mass emigration on what would equate to relatively little financial resources to do so. Assistance by the church was always given as a loan, rather than as a gift. Emigrants were expected to repay the loan as they were able. Funds were raised from profits from church assets, as well as private contributions, and were made available based on individual need. However, because the funds were so limited, priority was given to individuals with skills that were desperately needed in the West. Special preference was also given to those whose relatives had contributed to the fund or those with the longest faithful church membership, usually 10 years or more.

To stretch the limited funds even further, doubling up in wagons, group contracts and the organization of handcart companies were some of the processes employed. As the emigrants were able to establish themselves and begin to repay the loans, the monies were extended again to aid more PEF emigrants. This cycle lead to a perpetual fund and allowed the church to emigrate an enormous number on very little "seed" resources. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, more than 30,000 people were helped through the Perpetual Emigration Fund, about one-third of them from Europe.

 

The journey from Europe and locations across the plains were well orchestrated by The Church who employed PEF agents. Such an "agent' in Liverpool, England would be employed to charter ships or arrange ocean passage. When the Saints reached New Orleans, another agent would meet them and arrange passage up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. A third agent met them in St. Louis and arranged passage up the Missouri River to the outfitting station for the wagon trip to Utah. Later, once the railroad reached St. Louis, the emigrants would travel to St. Louis via New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. The entire journey from Europe to Salt Lake City often took the better part of a year. This phenomenal and revealing letter captures the details of one such family's emigration and loan in detail and was composed by "Erastus Snow" from the "Emigration Office" in St. Louis to Agent "Mr. James McGaw, discussing the families loan which was extended to them, the supplies they received and notes the methods for their repayment of their debt to the fund.

 

The letter is shown in full below and represents an example of the outfitting of a family for the wagon trip to Utah using the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF). In the 1850s, Snow served as the presiding church authority in the midwest United States, using St. Louis as his headquarters:

 

"S.D.S. E Office St Louis 21/4/55

 

No 11

Mr. Martin Synder has deposited in my office $240. Say Two Hundred and forty dollars for which you will please supply one wagon with projections and two yoke of Oxen and if the cost of the whole be less than the amount deposited, you will refund the balance and if more you will collect the same, and place it to my credit. 

 

To Mr James McGaw

 .. K.I

Erastus Snow"

 

A extremely rare Erastus Snow signed letter, and one which highlights the very nature of the PEF, showing details revealing how it was successfully employed. Snow returned to Utah Territory in 1857 and engaged in farming, but by 1860 he went with Orson Pratt on a mission to the Eastern States. By the time they reached the Eastern United States, Abraham Lincoln had been elected president. With the impending war, they were able to convince many church members to move to Utah. Much of this migration happened in 1861 after the American Civil War had begun. In the Mormon records we find James McGaw and can track his activities, his company of 239 individuals and 54 wagons were in the company when it was organized at the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs). Shortly thereafter, a small group of about 40 people, led by Crandell Dunn, broke off from the main camp and traveled the remaining distance to the Valley independently. He served missions for the Church in 1842, 1848, 1851, 1854, and 1865. The family settled in Filmore, Millard County; American Fork, Utah County; and then moved by 1863 to Ogden, Weber, Utah. He died January 15, 1872, in Ogden, Weber, Utah. In 1855, James McGaw and Orson Spencer visited the Indian Territory from St. Louis, Missouri, and on April 8, five more missionaries were sent from Salt Lake City, and four from St. Louis. The Indian Territory Mission was created and placed under the leadership of Miller on June 26, 1855.

 

By 1880, the 50th anniversary of the church, President John Taylor forgave half the outstanding debt to the fund that was still owed by the poor. Those with means were still expected to repay their loans in full. Private assistance to emigrants surpassed loans made through the PEF by the early 1880s, and the fund was dissolved in 1887 when it was no longer needed.


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