On 22 March 1842 member wrote a letter from , Massachusetts, to JS in , Illinois, in which he reported on missionary labors and the growth of church in New England. in , Upper Canada, Maginn was later a in early 1839 in , Missouri. Later that year he departed on a lengthy proselytizing mission. During his mission, as reported in his letter, he visited “eighteen States and British Provinces.” By July 1841 Maginn arrived in , New Hampshire, a small township that he apparently used as a base of operations while preaching in various communities in New England. According to a local history, Maginn was “a lively, fascinating speaker with a wide knowledge of the Bible which he continually quoted. . . . Maginn, partly by his message and partly by his own magnetic personality, attracted people from far and near to his meetings in Peterborough.” While he apparently baptized dozens of local residents in Peterborough, Maginn—along with other Latter-day Saint preachers, such as —also encountered resistance from some local clergymen and residents in and New Hampshire.
During his time in New England, apparently presided over, or at least kept careful watch over, several branches of the church in New Hampshire and . He also traveled on occasion to and , Massachusetts—both located approximately sixty miles southeast of Peterborough—to aid other Latter-day Saint missionaries laboring in those areas. For example, Maginn traveled to Salem to preach with in mid-November 1841; Snow reciprocated by preaching in in mid-January 1842.
On 20 March 1842 again journeyed to , where, two days later, he wrote the featured letter to JS. In this missive, Maginn forwarded the names of newspaper subscribers and twenty-four dollars of subscription money for the Times and Seasons, as well as twenty dollars’ worth of donations earmarked for the construction of the . He also informed JS of the success of recent missionary endeavors in New England and offered a brief report on the number of converts organized into local branches. The original letter is not extant, but an abridged copy was published several weeks later in the 2 May 1842 issue of the Times and Seasons. In that issue, the editor prefaced the letter by indicating that the subscription money and donations had been received.
“Statement of Sister Smith respecting the History of Eli P. Magin,” Obituary Notices and Biographies, CHL; Record of Seventies, bk. A, 61.
Obituary Notices and Biographies, 1854–1877. CHL.
Record of Seventies / First Council of the Seventy. “Book of Records,” 1837–1843. Bk. A. In First Council of the Seventy, Records, 1837–1885. CHL. CR 3 51, box 1, fd. 1.
Benjamin Elsworth, Palermo, NY, 18 Oct. 1840, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 15 Nov. 1840, 2:219; Morison, History of Peterborough, New Hampshire, 187; “Diary [Reminiscence] of George Bryant Gardner,” 1.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Morison, George Abbot. History of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Vol. 1, Narrative. Rindge, NH: Richard R. Smith, 1954.
“Diary [Reminiscence] of George Bryant Gardner,” after 1893. Typescript. Collected His- tories of Gardner and Beebe Family Members. Typescript. CHL.