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“Congenial to Almost Every Shade of Radicalism”: The Delaware Valley and the Success of Early Mormonism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Stephen J. Fleming
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Abstract

With many theories about the rise of Mormonism, this article turns to early Mormonism's growth in the Delaware Valley for insights. By testing the relative wealth of the converts, this article argues that Mormon conversion was not a product of deprivation as the converts tested were somewhat wealthier than their neighbors and were drawn from across the socioeconomic spectrum. Instead of appealing to the dispossessed, Mormonism offered a radical supernatural biblical message that appealed to certain cultural and religious orientations. Mormonism was successful among Methodists in central New Jersey, whose religious practice was still full of the enthusiasm common to Methodism's early years in America. Many of these Methodists saw Mormon supernaturalism as a welcome addition to their experience, while the considerably more formal Methodists on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware were much less receptive to Mormonism. A Quaker heritage among the converts was common on both sides of the river. The converts were principally not practicing Quakers but still maintained aspects of their heritage and were, thus, termed “hickory” Quakers. Such individuals were common in the Delaware Valley since so many Quaker's had been cut off from the fold largely resulting from the mid-eighteenth-century Quaker reformation that reinstituted strict guidelines on the membership. Yet, the reformation did not reinstitute the enthusiasm of the Quakers’ early years that had been lost after its first generation. The lapsed Quakers who were drawn to Mormonism's supernatural worldview had a romantic inherited memory of Quakerism's origins and were eager to join a religion that manifested the fervor of Quakerism's origins. Thus, Mormonism was congenial to both these kinds of religious radicalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 129 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 2007

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References

Notes

I would like to thank Bret E. Carroll, Steven C. Harper, John C. Brooke, Thomas D. Hamm, and Jenny Hale Pulsipher for their abundant help, and the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for providing multiple travel grants.

1. Before 1838, Mormon missionary efforts had principally been in New England, New York, Ohio, and Canada, but, in 1838, Mormon missionaries began to venture throughout the middle and southern states. S. George Ellsworth, “A History of Mormon Missionary Activity in the United States and Canada, 1830–1860” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1950), 210–11.

2. Winchester, Benjamin, letter to Robinson and Smith, June 18, 1839, in Times and Seasons 1, no. 1 (1839): 10 Google Scholar.

3. Edwin Woolley, 1839 journal, February 8 and 20, 1839, Archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter referred to as LDS Church Archives).

4. “Mormonism in New Egypt &c.,” Daily State Gazette (Trenton), May 7, 1870.

5. Erastus Snow, letter, October 31, 1840, Times and Seasons 2, no. 2 (November 1840): 221.

6. “‘Mormonism Is Rolling Along with All Power’ Says Letter of 1852,” Northern Chester County Herald, May 1, 1952.

7. Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County, New Jersey (Philadelphia: A. D. Smith, 1899), 71.

8. Carroll, Bret E., The Routledge Historical Atlas of Religion in America (New York: Routledge, 2000), 83 Google Scholar. Based on an examination of branches listed in the Mormons’ newspaper for that period, The Times and Seasons, the Delaware Valley was one of Mormonism's most successful proselytizing areas during the Nauvoo period.

9. Alice Tyler Felt provided an early representative statement: “Through the first decade [Mormonism’s] membership came almost entirely from the same class of people: the poor, restless, and dissatisfied, those who succumbed eagerly to religious emotionalism and those whose fortunes were at a low ebb” (Freedom's Ferment: Phases of American Social History to 1860 [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1944], 86). More recent statements are discussed below.

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16. Based on her dissertation, Marianne Percianccante argued that the early Mormon converts in Jefferson County, New York, were likely part of a backlash against formalism among the Methodists and Baptists in the area, but she gave no evidence that the Mormons in the area felt that way (“Calling Down Fire: Charles Grandison Finney and Revivalism in Jefferson County, New York, 1800–1840” [Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1992]). Steven Harper argued that the converts in the area joined not because of poverty but because of broader trends he found in his other research. (See Harper, “Missionaries in the American Religious Marketplace” and “Infallible Proofs, Both Human and Divine.”) Harper's numerical data was limited and problematically presented, and, like Percianccante, he was unable to provide evidence that those in his study fit the broader trend of conversion he proposed.

17. Though this study lends support to John Brooke's heritage thesis, I here find that the Mormons placed their message within a fundamentally biblical context and that the converts, therefore, did not need to “accommodate both magical practice and religious devotion” to accept Mormonism as Brooke assumed (Brooke, Refiner's Fire, 33). Brooke saw radical sectarianism as acting in concert with what he calls “the various manifestations of a popular hermeticism—Freemasonry, divining, and counterfeiting” to set the stage for Mormon conversion (Brooke, Refiner's Fire, 144). However, the lack of such manifestations of popular hermeticism in the experiences of the Mormons in the Delaware Valley indicates that radical sectarianism was the dominant of the two factors in this area. This is not to say that hermetic connections did not exist: Edward Hunter took interest in Swedenborgianism prior to joining the Mormons, and the Ephrata cloister, what Brooke calls “the highwater mark of religious hermeticism in the American colonies,” had been located in the area (Brooke, Refiner's Fire, 44). Nevertheless, I argue here that the converts’ religious orientation was more biblical than hermetic. See Smith, Timothy L., “The Book of Mormon in a Biblical Culture,” Journal of Mormon History 7 (1980): 3–21 Google Scholar.

18. The idea of comparing converts to their neighbors using local tax records comes from Steven Harper's suggestions and demonstration in Harper, “Restoration of Mormonism to Erie County,” 1–19.

19. Chester County Tax Records, Brandywine, Uwchlan, and West Nantmeal Townships (1839). Microfiche in Chester County Archives, West Chester, Pennsylvania. My thanks to John Brooke for his suggestions on organizing these tables.

20. Those six include Hunter, William Gheen ($3,950), Robert Pierce ($3,455), John McLeas ($3,846), Thomas Downing ($4,155), and Benjamin Riter (Righter) ($3,517). The five below the median were William Grow ($149), Davis Page ($117), John Buckwalter ($240), James Rodeback ($160), Levi Malin ($150), and Caleb Dilworth ($100). Dilworth himself did not join the Mormons, but his wife and children did, and I have, therefore, included him.

21. Christiana and Centerville Hundreds in New Castle County (1839), Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware.

22. Lancaster County Tax Record, East Earl Township (1835), microfilm, Lancaster County Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

23. Julian Moses, autobiography [ca. 1858–1875], 53, LDS Church Archives; Lancaster County Deeds: (Neff) Book Y6, October 11, 1843, 657; Book E7, June 24, 1846, 499; Book Y8, April 1, 1853, 528; (Sidwell) Book E7, April 10, 1846, 212; Book E7, April 10, 1846, 214; (Pickel) Book M8, November 10, 1847, 528; Book F8, March 9, 1854, 307; (Kearns) Book W6, March 25, 1842, 35, microfilm, Lancaster County Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

24. New Jersey State Gazette (Trenton), August 9, 1839.

25. Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia), September 3, 1841, quoted in Inez Smith Davis, The Story of the Church, 3d ed. (Independence, Mo.: Harold Publishing House, 1943), 274.

26. Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County, 71.

27. Yet, Anthony was friendly to the Mormons to the point that a colporteur for the American Tract Society referred to Anthony when he said, “One of them [Mormons] is a man of considerable wealth” (Colporteur Reports to the American Tract Society, 1841–1846 [Newark: Historical Records Survey, 1940], 16). Anthony aided the missionaries in several ways and even built them a meetinghouse in Toms River, likely the first Mormon meetinghouse ever constructed. Edwin Woolley, diary, September–December 1842, December 27, 1842, LDS Church Archives.

28. Miller, Pauline S., Early History of Toms River and Dover Township (Toms River: n.p., 1967), 12 Google Scholar.

29. Theodore McKean, “Family Record of Theodore McKean: Ancestors and Descendants, Formerly of Toms River Ocean County, New Jersey, Now of Salt Lake City Utah” [115], Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

30. Washington eventually owned a store, lime kilns, a boat dock, and was responsible for getting the railroad to Toms River. The main street in Toms River, Washington Street, was named after him. Ellis, Franklin, History of Monmouth County (Philadelphia: R. T. Peck, 1885), 621 Google Scholar; Miller, , Early History of Toms River, 12, 21Google Scholar; Edwin Salter and G. C. Beckman, Old Times in Old Monmouth (n.p., n.d.), 144. 31. Burlington County Deeds, Book A4, March 30, 1841, 78, Burlington County Courthouse, Mount Holly, New Jersey; letter, Parley P. Pratt to Joseph Smith Jr., November 22, 1839, Joseph Smith Papers, LDS Church Archives.

32. State Gazette (Trenton), September 6, 1856.

33. Burlington County Deeds, Book Z3, July 29, 1841, 547 and Book M4, January 24, 1846, 130. The farm was called the Chapman farm, and their father wanted his grandson Charles to have it, but not until 1855. John turned the farm over to Isaac for $420 in 1841, and Isaac sold the rights of the farm (until 1855) for $1,050 in 1846.

34. Burlington County Deeds, Book S5, 620.

35. Edward H. Anderson, “A Fragment of Church History,” Improvement Era 11 (March 1908): 357; International Society of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude (Salt Lake City: DUP Publishers, 1998), 3516.

36. “The Mormons,” Philadelphia Gazette, reprinted in the Delaware State Journal (Wilmington), January 4, 1842.

37. Philadelphia Branch Minutes, 5, typescript, Community of Christ Archives, Independence, Missouri.

38. William Appleby, letter to the editor, November 27, 1841, State Gazette (Trenton).

39. Mary Pierce Young, autobiography [ca. 1880], 1, LDS Church Archives. Robert Pierce was in the 95th percentile for wealth in his township at $3,455.

40. Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, 3516.

41. McKean, “Family Record,” [112–14]. For information on Mann's academy, see Woodward, E. M. and Hagemen, John F., History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of Many of Their Pioneers and Prominent Men (Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1883), 187–88Google Scholar.

42. William Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal of William Appleby,” typescript, 8, 48–49, LDS Church Archives.

43. Hunter, Edward, “Autobiography of Edward Hunter,” in Hunter, William E., Edward Hunter: Faithful Steward, ed. Janath RussellCannon, (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1976), 314–15.Google Scholar

44. Salter, and Beckman, , Old Times in Old Monmouth, 144 Google Scholar.

45. Miller, , Early History of Toms River, 25 Google Scholar. The offer was not accepted as the courthouse was built instead on land donated by a Mr. Cloward.

46. Ibid., 26; McKean, “Family Record,” [120–21].

47. Daily State Gazette (Trenton), May 7, 1870. The paper lists James L. Curtis and Alfred Wilson, who were on the board of the Methodist church in New Egypt prior to conversion. Tides of Time in Ocean County (n.p.: Ocean County Principals’ Council, 1940), 91.

48. Both Hatch and De Pillis made this assertion, but Gordon Pollock pushed the concept most fervently. According to Pollock, Mormons “had suffered from a rootlessness derived from their extreme mobility. They had been battered by the economic scramble of the period and had experienced family disintegration. They were, therefore, prior to joining the church, disoriented, atomized individuals” ( Pollock, Gordon, In Search of Security: Mormons and the Kingdom of God on Earth [New York: Garland, 1989], 39 Google Scholar).

49. Edson Whipple was born in Vermont, moved to Boston, and then Philadelphia. Edson Whipple, autobiography, 1, typescript, Perry Special Collections. Josiah Ells was from England.

50. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 314.

51. Elisha Sheets was adopted by Edward Hunter and joined when Hunter did (Andrew Jenson, “Elisha Sheets,” Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901], 1:614). The same was the case with George Boyd, who was adopted by David and Mary Yearsley, then Quakers, and joined the Mormons when the Yearsleys did (Mary Ann Vogel Cameron, “Corrections in the Life of Benjamin Morgan Roberts,” 13, typescript, LDS Church Archives). Rachel Ivins was taken in by her grandparents when her parents died and joined the Mormons after several of her extended family members did (Rachel Ivins Grant, “How I Became a Mormon,” holograph, LDS Church Archives). Benjamin Morgan Roberts and George Laub were both orphans who joined Mormonism through the influence of friends, but their cases were not typical of Mormon conversions in the Delaware Valley. See Cameron, “Life of Benjamin Morgan Roberts,” 13, and George Laub, reminiscences, journal, 1845, 2, 7, LDS Church Archives.

52. New Jersey State Gazette (Trenton), August 9, 1839; Biographical Cyclopedia of Ocean County, 71.

53. H. M. Vallette, letter to Edward Hunter, September 29, 1869, Edward Hunter Collection, Perry Special Collections.

54. “Ariel,” Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia), September 3, 1841, quoted in Davis, The Story of the Church, 3d ed., 274, emphasis in original.

55. F., “Mormonism,” Delaware State Journal, November 30, 1841.

56. Lee, E. G., The Mormons, or, Knavery Exposed (Philadelphia: George Webber and Wm. Penimore, 1841), 5–6 Google Scholar.

57. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 3, 8, typescript, LDS Church Archives.

58. D. McAllister, “William James Frazier McAllister,” 2, typescript, microfilm, Perry Special Collections; Grant, “How I Became a Mormon.”

59. Thomas Sirls Terry, autobiography, 3, Perry Special Collections.

60. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 30.

61. Harper, “‘Infallible Proofs, Both Human and Divine,’” 99–118.

62. Times and Seasons 1, no. 2 (1839): 28.

63. “When the Mormons Were Here,” Allentown (N.J.) Messenger, August 24, 1905.

64. Erastus Snow, journal of Erastus Snow, box 1, fld. 2, 24, typescript, Perry Special Collections.

65. Ibid., 30.

66. John Horner, “Autobiography of John Horner,” Improvement Era 7 (May 1904): 513.

67. Woolley, journal, February 27, 1839.

68. William Sharp, “Latter-day Saints or ‘Mormons’ in New Jersey,” 1897, holograph, Elmer Tindall Hutchinson Collection, Special Collections, Alexander Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

69. Erastus Snow, E. Snow's Reply to the Self-styled Philanthropist, of Chester County (n.p., 1840), 4, and “The Mormons,” State Gazette (Trenton), July 22, 1840. Elijah Malin, letter to Edward Hunter, September 13, 1842, Edward Hunter Collection.

70. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 110.

71. Quoted in Hunter, Edward Hunter, 50. 72. This argument is stated the strongest by Marvin Hill, who argued that “Mormons were casualties of the Protestant conversion process, of sectarianism, and especially of revivalism” (Marvin S. Hill, “The Rise of Mormonism in the Burned-over District: Another View,” New York History [October 1980]: 426).

73. Two studies of early Mormon journals and autobiographies show that Mormon converts were churched at much higher rates prior to conversion than was the general populace. See Laurence M. Yorgason, “Some Demographic Aspects of One Hundred Early Mormon Converts, 1830–1837” (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1974), 43; and Mark R. Grandstaff and Milton V. Backman, Jr., “The Social Origins of the Kirtland Mormons,” BYU Studies 30, no. 2 (1990): 56. Yorgason found that 61 out of 93, or 66 percent, of test converts belonged to a church prior to conversion to Mormonism, and Grandstaff and Backman found that 57 out of 78, or 73 percent, of tested converts were affiliated. The United States’ churched rate was 34 percent in 1850. Roger Fink and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776–1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 16. Likewise, Malcolm Thorpe's examination of journals and biographies among British Mormon converts had an even higher churched rate there. Malcolm R. Thorpe, “The Religious Backgrounds of Mormon Converts in Britain, 1837–52,” Journal of Mormon History 4 (1977): 70. Thorpe found that 230 out of 280 converts were involved in a church, or 82 percent. My calculation for Great Britain's churched rate in 1840 was 21 percent. Robert Currie et al., Churches and Churchgoers: Patterns of Church Growth in the British Isles since 1700 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977), 25, 65, 156.

74. Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia), September 3, 1841.

75. Daily State Gazette (Trenton), May 7, 1870.

76. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. (Independence, Mo: Herald House, 1951), 3:764–68.

77. This was the case with John Horner. Horner, “Autobiography of Horner,” 513. William Appleby was unaffiliated before joining the Mormons and was convinced by his family members who had been Methodists prior to joining the Mormons. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 3, 8, 31–32. The studies on early Mormon journals all found that Mormons did well among Methodists generally.

78. Kent, John, Wesley and the Wesleyans: Religion in Eighteenthcentury Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wigger, John, Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 105 Google Scholar.

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81. Of his youth, Smith said, “My mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them” ( Smith, Joseph, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. Roberts, B. H., 2d ed., 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978 Google Scholar], 1:2).

82. Cartwright, Peter, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright: The Backwoods Preacher, ed. Stickland, W. P. (Cincinnati: Cranston and Curtis, 1856), 342 Google Scholar.

83. Woolley, journal, February 20, 1839.

84. See Stephen J. Fleming, “South Jersey Methodism and the Creation of Ocean Grove,” New Jersey History 122, nos. 1–2 (2004): 44–67.

85. Ellwood Stokes, Footprints in My Own Life … (Asbury Park, N.J.: M. W. & C. Pennypacker, 1898), 41.

86. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 32.

87. Millennial Star 16 (December 9, 1854): 782–84.

88. Woolley, diary, September–December, 1842, November 11, 1842.

89. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 88–89.

90. Arrington, Leonard J., From Quaker to Latter-day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1976)Google Scholar.

91. Samuel Woolley, Letters, microfilm, LDS Church Archives.

92. Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 89; Lorenzo Barnes, letter to D. C. Smith, September 8, 1839, in Times and Seasons 1, no. 2 (1839): 27.

93. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 311; James A. Gambert, Randal Malin: AQuaker, from Cheshire, England to Chester (Now Delaware) Co., Pa. and His Descendants (Utica, Ky., 1998), 17; Jennifer Larson Lund, “The Lives of Levi Evans Riter and Rebecca Dilworth Riter,” 1, typescript, LDS Church Archives; Cameron, “Life of Benjamin Morgan Roberts,” 13; Young, autobiography, 1; “Downing Family of Downington, PA,” www.members.aol. com/RDown3657/ (accessed October 2002); Leach, Josiah Granville, History of the Bringhurst Family (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901), 23–24, 32, 39, 49, 69Google Scholar; James W. Petty, “William Atkins Gheen—A Biography of a Pennsylvania Mormon,” 3, typescript, LDS Church Archives; Fleming, Stephen J., ed., “The Short-lived Mormon Encounter of Pennsylvania State University's First President: Six Letters from the Family of Evan Pugh,” Mormon Historical Studies 6, no. 1 (2005): 122 Google Scholar; and “Hoopes,” http://www.angelfire.com/ut/Mendenhall/whoopes.html (accessed October 2002). Similarly, upon the death of Benjamin Morgan Roberts's parents, he was sent to live with a Quaker family. David and Mary Yearsley, as Quakers, had taken in an orphan, George Boyd, who converted to Mormonism along with them. Cameron, “Life of Benjamin Morgan Roberts,” 7.

94. Sharp, “Latter-day Saints or ‘Mormons’ in New Jersey,” 1.

95. Archibald F. Bennett, “Some Quaker Forefathers of President Ivins,” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 22 (October 1931): 148–51.

96. Mary Grant Judd, “Rachel Ridgway Ivins Grant,” Relief Society Magazine 30 (April 1943): 229.

97. Charles R. Hutchinson, “Robbins,” Charles R. Hutchinson Collection, Book 6, 40, microfilm, Allentown Library, Allentown, New Jersey; “Woodward,” Charles R. Hutchinson Collection, Book 6, 4; and “Local Historians and Their Work: New York and Philadelphia District,” Journal of History 1, no. 2 (1908): 172.

98. In Delaware, the Sanders and Mendenhalls, who were related, had a Quaker heritage. “Mendenhall,” http://www.angelfire.com/ut/Mendenhall/biogeor.html. Further, when Mormon missionary William Moore married Joseph Forman to Margarett Mousely (both Mormons) in Delaware, all the participants (many of whom were Mormons) signed the certificate after the Quaker fashion (this was not a Mormon tradition). Marriage certificate of Joseph Foreman and Margarett Iona Mousely, April 17, 1845, photocopy, LDS Church Archives. William Appleby mentions baptizing a Quaker in Philadelphia. “Letter from W. J. Appleby, Esq.,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 13 (1842): 778. George Fox was one of the first to join the Mormons in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Branch Minutes, 34. Job and Joseph Sidwell were lapsed Quakers from Lancaster County. Ettie Jane Sidwell, “Sidwell Family History,” 1, typescript in possession of the author. David Brinton was a lapsed Quaker from Delaware County. Bushman, Virginia W., History of David Brinton, Utah Pioneer, and His Descendants (Salt Lake City: Brinton Family Organization, 1978)Google Scholar.

99. Three of the four other families had been Mennonites: Neff, Eaby, and Barr. Gordon B. Hinckley, “Salt of the Earth,” Deseret News, May 30, 1948, Church News Section, 12C.; William A. Neff, “The John Neff Story: Utah Pioneer of 1847,” Neff Times: A Newsletter to All Descendants of John Neff and Mary Barr 6 (Spring 2000). Thus, many of the conclusions drawn about the hickory Quakers may apply to lapsed Mennonites as well.

100. The wealthiest Mormon in Delaware was Elis Sanders, who had a Quaker heritage. Joseph Sidwell was the wealthy hickory Quaker from Lancaster County. The wealthiest convert in Lancaster County was John Neff, a lapsed Mennonite.

101. Hamm, Thomas, The Quakers in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 33, 35, 39Google Scholar.

102. Colporteur Reports to the American Tract Society, 1841–1846 (Newark, N.J.: Historical Records Survey, 1940), 107–8.

103. Hunter, , Edward Hunter, 21 Google Scholar; Gambert, Randal Malin, 8.

104. Northern Chester County Herald (Stoney Brook, Pa.), March 20, 1952.

105. Petty, “William Atkins Gheen,” 3. The other ethnic Quakers in Uwchlan township were Thos. Downing, Samuel Bringhurst, and the brothers Levi and Benjamin Righter.

106. Tolles, Frederick B., Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia, 1682–1763 (1948; repr.; New York: Norton, 1963 Google Scholar), 243. See the description of the New Jersey Quakers in Colporteur Reports, 108.

107. Dorsey, Bruce, “Friends Becoming Enemies: Philadelphia Benevolence and the Neglected Era of American Quaker History,” Journal of the Early Republic 18 (Fall 1998): 395–428 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

108. Arthur Raistrick notes such a rift occurring in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. See his Quakers in Science and Industry: Being an Account of the Quaker Contributions to Science and Industry during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (New York: Augustus M. Kelly, 1968), 343.

109. Kashatus, William C. III, Conflict of Conviction: A Reappraisal of Quaker Involvement in the American Revolution (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1990): 101–33Google Scholar.

110. Young, autobiography, 1–2.

111. Grant, “How I Became a Mormon,” 1.

112. Ibid.; Smoot, Joseph G., ed., “Journal of William S. Potts: A Mission in the Pines of New Jersey,” New Jersey History 106, nos. 1–2 (Spring–Summer 1988): 73 Google Scholar. Potts lists both a Margaret Ivins and a Mrs. Washington McKean, who were the same person.

113. Young, autobiography, 1–2.

114. Grant, “How I Became a Mormon,” 1. 115. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 312–14.

116. Hunter took in Elisha Sheets and his nephew Edward Hunter. Jenson, “Elisha Sheets,” 614; Hunter, Edward Hunter, 56; Hunter, “Autobiography,” 314–15. David Dutton Yearsley, another lapsed Quaker turned Mormon in the area, took in the orphan George Boyd. Cameron, “Life of Benjamin Morgan Roberts,” 7.

117. Hunter, , Edward Hunter, 38 Google Scholar; Hunter, “Autobiography,” 314–15.

118. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 316.

119. Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 127 Google Scholar.

120. Samuel Wetherill, Letter from Samuel Wetherill. To the Second Day's Morning Meeting of Ministers…, in Kashatus, Conflict of Conviction, 150.

121. Whitney, Orson F., “Edward Hunter,” Contributor (April 1885)Google Scholar.

122. Wetherill, , Letter, 146 Google Scholar.

123. See letters from Rev. E. D. Smith and A. V. B. Orr in folder 14346, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Missouri. More requests for information from Missouri were made from the Delaware Valley than from any other place.

124. Lee, , The Mormons, 7 Google Scholar.

125. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 315–16.

126. Deseret News (Salt Lake City) December 31, 1869. The Mormon missionaries met some resistance from the local Protestant clergy, but this treatment often brought townspeople to the Mormons’ aid. This aid took the form of either shouting down the Mormons’ detractors or confronting those who tried to keep the Mormons from preaching in some way. For the former, see Lorenzo Barnes, letter to D. C. Smith, 27; Elijah F. Sheets, journals, 1843–1904, November 9, 1843, microfilm, holograph, LDS Church Archives; Snow, journal, 29–30; and Times and Seasons 2, no. 1 (1840): 205. For the latter, see Winchester, letter to Robinson and Smith, 11; Appleby, “Autobiography and Journal,” 241.

127. Smith, , History of the Church, 6:492 Google Scholar.

128. Hunter, “Autobiography,” 318–19.

129. Ibid., 319.

130. Ibid., 316; Smith, History of the Church, 4:481–83, 491, 502, and 548. 131. Cited in Adriana Pugh, letter to Achilles Pugh, May 12, 1844, Evan Pugh Collection, Special Collections, Joe Paterno Library, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania.

132. Walker, Ronald W., “Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert,” Dialogue 19 (Winter 1986): 29–43 Google Scholar. Edward Hunter became Mormonism's longest-serving presiding bishop (the manager of Mormon finance), Edwin Woolley managed Brigham Young's personal finances, and three individuals from the Delaware Valley (Samuel Woolley, Jacob Weiler, and Elisha Sheets) were among Mormonism's longest-serving local bishops (a local office that ran both spiritual and temporal affairs). Arrington, , From Quaker to Latter-day Saint, 277, 318Google Scholar; Deseret News Church Almanac (1981): 257. The most prominent of such individuals was the son of Rachel Ivins, Heber J. Grant, who became the second longest-serving president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grant played a major role in Mormon finance throughout his life.