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Lot 142A
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Erastus Snow, Mormon member, LS providing "four boxes of books for Utah Library".
Erastus Snow, Mormon member, LS providing "four boxes of books for Utah Library".
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Description:

Mormons -

Important Erastus Snow signed letter signed regarding providing "four boxes of books for Utah Library", and sending cattle to his wife "IF they live"!

Single page letter signed, on lightly lined paper, 7.75" x 9.75". Dated "7 May 1855", and neatly signed by Erastus Snow in full signature, "Erastus Snow". Page toned with pale scattered handling marks. Expected folds with a small 1/2 corner chip not affecting text, else near fine.

An outstanding letter written in the midst of the emigration and consolidation of Latter Day Saints to Zion with Erastus Snow writing a personal request for the delivery of "cattle if they live to go through to my wife Mrs. E Snow". The letter is an excellent representation of not only the raw, difficult, and tenuous trek across the wilderness, but also shows Snow in a more personal moment. But perhaps the most important reference made in this letter was to the transport of goods necessary to the very core of survival for the building and establishing a new society in the middle of the wilderness … the transport of books -- the transport of information.

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 establishment of The Perpetual Emigrating Fund which started in 1849 and whose goal was to assist with mass emigration. 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 P.E.F. 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 P.E.F 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 letter reveals how Snow orchestrated the transport of books to the Utah Library (recall this letter was written during the era when all knowledge was only accessed by books, thus making this 'transport' extremely important to survival), and also sending on cattle to his wife. The essence of the brutality of the trek is highlighted in his one simple comment: "if they live …" . Composed by "Erastus Snow" from the "Emigration Office" in St. Louis to Agent "Elder James McGaw".

The letter is shown in full below, in the 1850s, Snow served as the presiding church authority in the Midwest United States, using St. Louis as his headquarters:

"S.D.S. Emigration Office St. Louis Mo. 7 May 1855 No 15 Elder James McGaw Dear Brother I shift to your care four boxes of books for Utah Library which are to be transported to Salt Lake by Bro Jas Bywater who has an order on you for a yoke of oxen and a yoke of cows. In addition to those you will furnish him another ….yoke of oxen and chain for me and take his receipt for the cattle and books to deliver the boxes of books to the Librarian, and the cattle if they live to go through to my wife Mrs. E Snow. Thirteenth (illegible) Great Salt Lake city. I am Dr Brother Truly Yours Erastus Snow".

An extremely rare Erastus Snow signed letter, and one which highlights the very nature of the P.E.F., the emigration to Zion and the setting up of a working community to prepare to accept thousands of families from throughout the world. 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. The delivery of books was highly important and one can imagine that the boxes were likely the size of crates and this probably formed the nucleus of the first Mormon library formed only a few years before. In 1850 Three years after pioneers reached the Salt Lake valley, the University of Deseret appointed the first University librarian, William I. Appleby. The first recorded donations to the University were in the form of books. 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 P.E.F. by the early 1880s, and the fund was dissolved in 1887 when it was no longer needed.

Provenance: Originally from the Robert A. Siegler Auction Galleries, New York City. This piece was part of Lot 62A sold for $4,750 at the 464th sale conducted between January 28-30, 1975.

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