Three Letters from Dan Jones

Dan Jones.

Tri llythyr oddiwrth Capt. D. Jones, ac un oddiwrth Mrs. Lewis (o Gydweli), o Ddinas y Llyn Halen.

(Three letters from Capt. D. Jones, and one from Mrs. Lewis [of Kidwelly], from Salt Lake City.)

Merthyr Tydfil: John Davis, Printer, 1850.

8 pp. 17 cm.

John Davis's "At y darllenydd" (To the reader), written 24 September 1850, explains the existence of this pamphlet:

The following letters arrived on the 21st of September, after we had printed the Udgorn [Trumpet, shortened title] together with Cyfarwyddiadau iÕr ymfudwyr [Directions to the emigrants, item 47], and we thought it best to publish them without delay; and in hopes that many will be distributed, so that our sacrifice will not be too great, we venture to offer them at half price, i.e., a halfpenny.

Most of the Welsh Mormons planned to follow Captain Dan Jones's route from Liverpool to Salt Lake City via New Orleans, St. Louis, and Council Bluffs. These letters were the first to reach Wales from those who had crossed the ocean and the plains in 1849, so all Welsh Mormons were anxious to read them. Had they arrived a few days earlier, space would have been provided for them in the September 1850 Udgorn Seion. And had they arrived a few days later, the pamphlet would likely have contained an additional letter from Thomas Jeremy which, according to Davis's 10-line foreword, arrived the same day the pamphlet was at the press.
Jones's first letter, dated 20 November 1849, was directed to William Phillips, his successor in Wales. The next two were both dated 12 April 1850--one to William Phillips, the other to John Davis. The letter by Elizabeth Lewis, directed to John Davis, was dated lo April 1850. The first letter, although dated over four months earlier than the others, was sent with them. Jones explained in his second letter that he had intended to send the first with a group of American soldiers who passed through Salt Lake City in late November, but bad weather had kept the soldiers from leaving until the following spring.
All the letters contained glowing reports of circumstances in the Salt Lake Valley. The Welsh pioneers who had crossed the plains between Council Bluffs and Salt Lake City the previous year were getting settled and were prospering in their "promised land." Strong encouragement was offered to all to hasten after them.

MH, NjP, UPB, USlC, WS

Flake no. 4481

None

Immigrants:

Jones, Dan

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