Letter from Harrison Sagers, circa April 1841
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Source Note
, Letter, , Orleans Parish, LA, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, ca. April 1841. Featured version published in “New Orleans,” Times and Seasons, 15 May 1841, vol. 2, no. 14, 415–416. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
Around April 1841, wrote a letter reporting his proselytizing efforts in Louisiana to JS in , Illinois. Sagers joined the in in January 1833 and quickly became a zealous missionary for his new faith. After serving several proselytizing missions to the eastern between 1833 and 1839 and moving to in 1840, Sagers was dispatched to , becoming the first Latter-day Saint missionary sent to Louisiana. His call came in response to a letter sent to JS from church members Eli Terrill and Elam Luddington, who were living in Louisiana at the time. In January 1841, Terrill and Luddington petitioned JS to “send help to this city before the people perish, for it is a time of great excitement here, send us a Peter, or an apostle to preach unto us Jesus.” Sagers arrived in New Orleans on 28 March 1841. He immediately met with Terrill and Luddington, and together they rented a house for preaching and began proselytizing throughout the area.Shortly after his arrival, wrote to JS about some of his proselytizing in and about prospects for future work in the area. JS presumably received the letter and then transmitted it to the editors of the church newspaper. Though Sagers’s original letter is apparently not extant, an excerpted version of it was published without a date in the 15 May 1841 issue of the Times and Seasons.
Footnotes
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1
Swanson, Sagers Clan, 28–45.
Swanson, Ella Sagers. The Sagers Clan: William Henry Harrison Sagers and His Descendants, with Shields, Smith, Martin and Other Related Lines. Tucson, AZ: By the author, 1980.
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2
Benjamin Winchester, Payson, IL, to Ebenezer Robinson and Don Carlos Smith, Commerce, IL, 18 June 1839, in Times and Seasons, Nov. 1839, 1:11; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 175.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.
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3
Terrill was serving as an agent for the Times and Seasons in New Orleans. Luddington spent his winters in New Orleans and summers in Nauvoo for several years. (“List of Agents,” Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1841, 2:310; Goodman, “Elam Luddington,” 242–243.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Goodman, Michael A. “Elam Luddington: First Latter-day Saint Missionary to Thailand.” In Go Ye into All the World: The Growth and Development of Mormon Missionary Work, edited by Reid L. Neilson and Fred E. Woods, 241–259. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012.
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4
“Summary,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1841, 2:339.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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5
“News from the South,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1841, 2:445–447.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
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