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Letter from Lewis Zeigler, 25 May 1844

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Letter from Lewis Zeigler, 25 May 1844

Source Note

, Letter, Leitersburg, Washington Co., MD, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 25 May 1844; handwriting and signature presumably of ; two pages; JS Collection, CHL. Included enclosure (not extant); includes address, postal stamps, postal notations, docket, and notations.
One leaf measuring 12¼ × 7¾ inches (31 × 20 cm). The leaf is ruled on both sides with thirty-four printed blue lines. The letter was written in blue ink, folded once horizontally and then trifolded twice in letter style, addressed, sealed with a red adhesive wafer, the remnant of which is on the verso, and postmarked. The letter apparently included a five-dollar note, which was presumably used for the purposes mentioned in the letter. When the letter was opened, a hole was torn in the bottom of the leaf, removing some text. The letter was later refolded for filing.
The document was docketed by , who served as JS’s scribe from 1843 to 1844 and as clerk to the church historian and recorder from 1845 to 1865. The letter was copied into the Journal History of the Church, presumably by or under the direction of Andrew Jenson, who served as assistant church historian from 1897 to 1941. A graphite notation that reads “Copied” was apparently added by a clerk or secretary for Jenson. By 1973 the document had been included in the JS Collection at the Church Historical Department (now CHL). The document’s early docket, its inclusion in the Journal History, and its later inclusion in the JS Collection indicate continuous institutional custody.

Footnotes

  1. Jessee, “Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” 456, 458; Woodruff, Journal, 22 Jan. 1865.

    Jessee, Dean C. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History.” BYU Studies 11 (Summer 1971): 439–473.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. Historical Department, Journal History of the Church, 25 May 1844; Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians, 48–52, 55.

    Historical Department. Journal History of the Church, 1896–. CHL. CR 100 137.

    Bitton, David, and Leonard J. Arrington. Mormons and Their Historians. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988.

  3. See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.

Historical Introduction

On 25 May 1844, member wrote a letter from Leitersburg, Maryland, to JS in , Illinois, reporting on Zeigler’s missionary labors in and Maryland. Zeigler was apparently a native of Leitersburg who had moved to Nauvoo sometime around 1841. At an April 1843 in Nauvoo, Zeigler was appointed to preach in Maryland.
According to his letter to JS, featured here, departed in fall 1843 and preached in both and Maryland with little success. However, he expressed his determination to keep trying to convert people to the church. Along with his letter, Zeigler included five dollars for the construction of the Nauvoo .
sent the letter from Hagerstown, Maryland, the seat of Washington County (where Leitersburg was situated) as well as the location of the county’s post office. Mail from this vicinity took around three weeks to reach . It is unclear whether JS read the letter before his death on 27 June 1844. There is no known response.

Footnotes

  1. The 1860 census lists a Lewis A. Zeigler, age forty-three, living in Boonsboro District, Washington County, Maryland. Another record lists a Lewis Ziegler born in 1817 and buried in Leitersburg, who appears to be the same person. In the letter featured here, Zeigler referred to the area where he was preaching as his “native spot.” Contents of a letter Zeigler wrote from Nauvoo to Frederick Byers on 31 December 1841 suggest that Zeigler left Washington County not long before writing it. (1860 U.S. Census, Boonsboro District, Washington Co., MD, 689; “Lewis Ziegler,” Ziegler Family Cemetery, Leitersburg, Washington Co., MD, U.S. Find a Grave Index; Lewis Zeigler, Nauvoo, IL, to Frederick Byers, Leitersburg, MD, 31 Dec. 1841, CHL.)

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com.

    Zeigler, Lewis. Letter, Nauvoo, IL, to Frederick Byers, Leitersburg, MD, 31 Dec. 1841. CHL. MS 4859.

  2. “Notes on Maryland Conference and Baltimore Branch History,” 1.

    “Notes on Maryland Conference and Baltimore Branch History.” Maryland Conference Manuscript History and Historical Reports, 1838–1921. Typescript. CHL.

  3. Scharf, History of Western Maryland, 2:973, 1004. Hagerstown was about eight miles away from Leitersburg.

    Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1968.

  4. For example, JS received letters Orson Hyde wrote in Washington DC on 25 and 26 April 1844 by 13 May. (Letter to Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt, 13 May 1844.)

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Leitersburg Washington Co Md.
May 25th 1844
Dear brother
knowing that it has been requested of the sent out from the City of to give an account of their steward ship I at this time feel to pen down a short scetch which I am in hopes through the interposition of Divine providence will land safe in that devoted . Last fall one year through apointment I left the place took steamboat then the stage by which means I was soon landed on my native spot
I then began to spend my time Preaching distribiting books and sometimes laboured with my hands while attempting to make known the principles of truth the Lord let his spirit descend uppon <​me​>, and soon a number was added to the viz twelve at sharpsburg & Thomas Town but in the latter place two were soon severed from the body. this winter I set of[f] for Lebanon Co Pa but after finding that I was altogether in a German settlement I turned about and came back to this neighbourhood of Taneytown about 30 miles distant from my Father[’s] Mansion and hung right to the spot till one came forward. having a baptist Meeting House to Preach in they having no Preacher at that time and at present I think are destitute of a Pastor being to[o] poor to raise hire enough for a preacher at last shuting the door upon me who spoke to them without geting wages
after leaving that place I went about six miles fu[r]ther a house being open I laboured till too 2 more were added to the chuch that belonged to the Lutheran society and you may be assure[d] it took labour the Parable says that God will hire labourers into his vineyard— it takes nothing short of labour and the assisting grace of God to hunt up the honest in heart and adopt them into the kingdom. I subscribe my self your brother in the bonds of of the everlasting gospel praying that the lord may assist you in the great work and teach y[ou] how to escape your enemies
give my love to Br Hi[page torn] [p. [1]]
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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter from Lewis Zeigler, 25 May 1844
ID #
1369
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Lewis Zeigler

Footnotes

  1. Based on instruction in an 1831 revelation that the Lord’s “servants who are abroad in the earth” were to “send forth the account of their stewardships to the land of Zion,” William W. Phelps, editor of the church’s early newspaper The Evening and the Morning Star, asked elders in 1832 to send him “all matters connected with their mission, embracing historical facts, the number of sheaves the faithful laborers are blessed with, and all else, that may be well-pleasing in the sight of” God. Elders also sent reports of their missionary efforts to the editors of the church’s later Nauvoo newspaper, Times and Seasons. The 1831 revelation was reprinted in the 1 May 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons, although it is unclear whether Zeigler had seen that issue by this time. (Notice, The Evening and the Morning Star, Aug. 1832, [7]; Revelation, 11 Nov. 1831–A [D&C 69:5]; “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons, 1 May 1844, 5:512; see also, for example, Arza Adams, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 Aug. 1843, 4:279; and Benjamin Brown and Jesse Crosby, Jefferson Co., NY, 6 Dec. 1843, Letter to the Editor, Times and Seasons, 1 Jan. 1844, 5:388.)

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  2. Sharpsburg was a town in Washington County. A Thomas Town in Washington County has not been located. A Thomas Town existed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Caroline County, Maryland, but that was on the eastern coast, a journey of approximately 150 miles from Leitersburg. (Scharf, History of Western Maryland, 2:974; Maryland Historical Trust, Thomas Town Survey District, Apr. 2003.)

    Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1968.

    Maryland Historical Trust. Thomas Town Survey District. Apr. 2003. Accessed 2 May 2022. https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Caroline/CAR-351.pdf.

  3. Early settlers of the Lebanon Valley in Pennsylvania were “mostly immigrants from German Principalities.” (Breslin, “History of Lebanon County,” 127.)

    Breslin, William M. “A History of Lebanon County prior to 1876.” Edited by Ezra Grumbine. In Papers and Addresses of the Lebanon County Historical Society February 23, 1912, to April 20, 1916. Vol. 6. [Lebanon, PA: Lebanon County Historical Society, 1916?].

  4. According to a history of western Maryland, Taneytown was “the oldest village in Carroll County,” Maryland, located about thirty miles from Leitersburg. Zeigler’s father was Frederick Zeigler Sr., described as “one of the wealthiest and most respectable citizens of Washington County.” Frederick served on the building committee of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. (Scharf, History of Western Maryland, 2:837, 1057, 1278.)

    Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Including Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1968.

  5. See Matthew 20:1–16.

  6. See Philemon 1:13.

  7. TEXT: “y[page torn]”. Missing text supplied from context.

  8. See Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 70 [2 Nephi 4:33].

  9. Possibly Hyrum Smith.

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