Addendum

TERRITORY OF UTAH

To Whom It May Concern

Know ye that I, Brigham Young, Governor of said Territory in the United States of America, am personally acquainted with the bearer, Rev. Daniel Tyler, and know him to be a respectable, high minded, and honorable man.

And as Mr. Tyler purposes visiting Europe on a mission, I cheerfully recommend him to the protection and respect of all Sovereigns, Ministers of State, Magistrates, and Police Authorities and to the esteem of all honorable men amongst whom he may sojourn.

In token of which I have herunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of said Territory to be affixed at Great Salt Lake City this 6th day of April, 1852, and of the Independence of the United States, the Seventy Seventh,

Brigham Young

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ABOUT DANIEL TYLER’S EUROPEAN MISSION

FROM HIS OWN WRITINGS, YEARS LATER,

IN A BOOK CALLED

“SCRAPS OF BIOGRAPHY”

Incidents of Experience, Chapter 4

(Beginning on page 38, paragraph 2, where he begins telling about his mission.)

The Sea Voyage

At spring conference, in 1853, I was called on a mission to Europe, with a number of others. While crossing the ocean, when about two hundred miles from Liverpool, we encountered what the captain said, was the severest storm he had experienced during thirty years of sea-faring life. There were seven elders on board the English sail ship, Ashburton. When the storm became the most severe only four could be got together. We had taken second cabin passage, and, of course, had a room with bunks in which to sleep. To this room Elders Charles R. Dana, Israel Barlow and myself repaired, leaving Brother Thomas Colburn outside to watch and tend the door while we prayed and rebuked the raging wind and boisterous sea.

We had just commenced to pray when the door of the ventilator of our room flew open and let a large stream of water upon us. Brother Barlow sprang upon one of the upper bunks and closed the door and held it in its place while Brother Dana and myself continued the prayer. By this time the ship had come so near capsizing that a bottle of ink being open and standing over one door post, which was about six feet high, emptied its contents upon the opposite post about one and a half feet from the door sill, making an angle, by actual measurement, of over fifty degrees, which was just about as far as she cold go without capsizing. Just at this juncture the wind was rebuked by the servants of the Lord, and so sudden was the reaction that the ship creaked from stem to stern and we did not know but what she might fall to pieces. But the main damage done was to lose her sails and cause the yard-arm to fall and break the ship carpenter’s leg. The cargo was shipped to one side so that she could not run level during the remainder of the voyage.

We had on board, among other passengers, a Presbyterian temperance lecturer, with whom we had many arguments on the use of spiritual gifts, he taking the view that they were done away because no longer needed. His berth was on the opposite side of the ship. Before the prayer was closed and the door opened, he stood trembling with excitement outside. No sooner was the door opened than he exclaimed hastily and in an excited manner, “Haven’t you been praying? Haven’t you been praying?” On Elder Dana inquiring why he asked that question, he nervously answered, “I thought you had; the wind stopped blowing so suddenly.”

During the remainder of the journey, whenever there was more than a gentle breeze of wind, this man and his friends were sure to find their way to our cabin, as though they thought, if all the balance of the ship sank, our side would float alright.

This is one of the many incidents that might be cited to show that our enemies are not sincere in opposing our doctrines. I firmly believe that many people who hear the gospel preached have an inward conviction of its truth, but the love of riches and popularity with the fear of their friends deserting them and the frowns of the world, in many instances, cause their love to grow cold and they smother their convictions and become our enemies. On this subject the Lord has said, “Every ear shall hear and every heart shall be penetrated.” I think both occur at the same time, that there may be a time in the future when they will feel it much stronger, when it is too late to benefit them, I also admit, for they will even seek death and not be able to find it.

Among the passengers was a young man, son of an Irish widow, who lived in Dublin, Ireland. Becoming consumptive, he went to New York for his health. Growing worse, he decided to return and die in the land of his fathers, and have a tender mother’s care to soothe his last hours. But, alas, when the land-breeze struck him, the night before we sighted land, he expired and was buried at sea.

We sailed along at the rate of about ten miles per hour until about seven o’clock in the evening when the sky was suddenly darkened by a thick fog, a contrary wind arose, and simultaneously with it, a brig struck our ship’s stern, took off her helm or rudder, got tangled in her rigging and took off her top-mast and top-sail and damaged her generally. The brig’s rudder was also taken away by our ship, and she was so damaged that her captain asked permission to lash her to our ship, but our captain replied that his ship was so badly damaged that he dared not allow it. A wail went up from the little craft that they would all go to the bottom. They were soon out of sight.

The wind and fog continued, and Captain Williams, of the Ashburton, lay drunk in his cabin most of the time. There was but one man on board who understood the channel in which we were sailing. And he was mate of another vessel of the same line (the “Black Ball”) which sailed previous to ours. He was on a spree when his ship left New York, and, although an excellent officer, could not be induced for love or money to go on board until “he had had it out.” Being over his drunken spree, he entered our ship, the control of which, during our last calamity, was intrusted entirely to him. Our only method of guiding the shop was by a rope tied to the corner of the main sail and pulling it from one side to the other. To do this required the assistance of all the passengers and for three days and nights we barely escaped being dashed to pieces on the rocks which abounded all around us. Finally we succeeded in landing in Belfast Harbor.

Here we left our ship waiting repairs and took a steamer for Liverpool, where we arrived a few hours later.

The brig we came in contact with was wrecked on the coast of the Isle of Man, but no lives were lost.

During my stay in England, which was less than a year, there were many cases of healing and other incidents of interest occurred, but such things being usual with all the elders, I need not rehearse them.

Chapter 5

I Go To Switzerland

In the fall of 1854, I was sent to Switzerland, to take charge of the Swiss and Italian missions, the French and German missions were subsequently added.

Here was fulfilled a prediction spoken in tongues by a Sister More, in the Tenth Ward, of Salt lake City, the year before I was called on my European mission. I was at the time going on crutches, with a broken leg, and having but little hope of ever being able to walk. The leg was badly fractured, and by getting out of place and having to be reset caused the bones to be very slow in knitting together. It was about seven months before I could bear any weight upon my broken limb. While in this condition, I went on my crutches to a little prayer meeting in a private house, there being no public meeting house then built in the ward.

In going to the meeting, my worst fears of always being a cripple, had loomed up before me like a great mountain, and, like Jonah, I felt that “it was better for me to die than to live.” This was a weakness in me, of course, but so it was.

After the meeting opened, Sister More arose and began to speak in tongues. She addressed her remarks to me, and I understood her as well as though she had spoken the English language. She said: “Your leg will be healed, and you will go on a foreign mission and preach the gospel in foreign lands. No harm shall befall you, and you shall return in safety, having great joy in your labors.”

That was the substance of the prophecy. It was so different from my own belief and fears of many others that I was tempted not to give the interpretation, lest it should fail to come to pass. The Spirit, however, impressed me and I arose, leaning upon my crutches, and gave the interpretation.

Not long afterwards I was told in a dream what to do to strengthen my fractured limb, and it began to receive strength immediately, and in the short space of about one week I dispensed with my crutches and walked with a cane.

Although Switzerland was a republic, the people were not prepared for a free government. After a few months, most of the American and English Elders were banished, and the work devolved mainly on the native Elders, and even they were sometimes cast into prison.

On one occasion, a zealous youth, whom I had directed to be ordained a Priest, took some tracts printed in the German language to distribute among the people. He left one with an invalid woman who had been several years confined to the house. She believed, and asked to be administered to that she might be healed, in order that she could be baptized. I sent an elder to learn whether she wanted a sign or whether she was sincere. If found sincere and humble, he was to administer to her by anointing her with oil and laying his hands upon her. He found that she believed with all her heart. He attended to the ordinance and went a distance of about four miles to stay over night. The next morning she walked all that way to be baptized.

Among the remarkable incidents in the Swiss mission is the fact that after the Elders were driven out for preaching the doctrine of direct revelation, strange noises were heard in people’s houses, especially in the city of Zurich, from which place all foreign elders had been banished. The noises consisted of rapping upon cupboards, tables, dishes and other like things. The Saints were not troubled with them, but they became so frequent that they created great excitement among the outside people.

Elder John Bar wrote to me to know what it meant, and asking if it was of the Lord, and, if so, why did it not visit the Saints?

I answered that the people had rejected revelation from the Lord, and banished the elders who taught inspiration. That it was known in America as spirit-rapping, and that it would probably take definite shape soon. Soon after, circles were formed around tables, and the rapping in other places ceased.

I believe this was the first introduction of Spiritualism into the cantons [of Switzerland], and , so far as known, in Europe, and was similar to the first in the United States made known to “the Fox girls” of New York. Thus, my young readers will perceive that these false spirits and other delusions follow the rejection of the gospel.

KARL G. MAESER

About this time, I received a letter, inquiring about the Saints and their doctrines, from Karl G. Maeser, a professor of theology in Dresden, in Saxony. In consideration of the excitement and desire on the part of many of the police authorities to trap the elders, Elder Chislett and myself looked upon it as a snare to entrap us. I returned the letter without answer. No sooner had I dropped it into the letter box than a strong feeling came over me that the man might be an honest enquirer after truth. On telling this to Elder Chislett, he said if such be the case the door would be closed. I answered, “No, that letter will return.”

He said, “No, you may get another, but the same letter will never come back.” I repeated, “If he is an honest enquirer after truth that letter will return, and I will accept it as an evidence of sincerity.” Elder Chislett said, “If it does return I will set you down as a prophet.”

On receipt of his returned letter, Professor Maeser forwarded it to Elder John Van Cott, at Copenhagen. As Elder Van Cott knew I was presiding over the German mission, he mailed the letter to me, explaining that he had directed the professor to me, as he was doing nothing in the German language, and he believed him to be an honest enquirer after truth. I answered Professor Maeser’s letter and he wanted to know more. I sent him German publications. He believed them all and said during an approaching vacation he would come to Geneva, a distance of about six hundred miles, and be baptized.

Thinking this might be an opening to establish the gospel in the heart of Germany, where it had not been preached for about eighteen hundred years, I wrote and told the professor that if there was free toleration of religion perhaps I might send an Elder to preach the gospel to others as well as to instruct him further in its principles. He wrote, in answer, that no religion, except the Lutheran, was allowed to be taught, and that was the national religion.

He thought, however, that as all persons who took up their abode in the kingdom had to make know their business, an elder might go under the guise of a teacher of the English language. On my informing him that I apprehended such a policy might draw a class around him who would be liable to betray him to prison and banishment, and as I had an elder under my charge who had some knowledge of the German language, I asked him whether it would not be better that his object be known to be to complete his education in the same. Simple as this suggestion was, it struck him with great force. Knowing that I was unacquainted with their laws and customs and that he had been taught them from childhood, in fact, was a leading teacher among his fellows, he referred to this fact and said he could see the wisdom of the Lord in it, and it was another evidence to him that the Latter-day Saints were His people, and he would be exceedingly glad if I could send an elder to baptize him.

An important duty now devolved upon me which was to inform the learned professor that our elders, like the ancient disciples, traveled and preached the gospel “without purse or scrip,” and, if an elder was sent, he would have to sustain him free of charge. Most men of his type would have spurned such a proposition. Not so with this humble servant of the Lord. In his reply he said: “If you send an elder, my house shall be his house, my table shall be his table, all I have shall be his as well as mine.”

Apostle Franklin D. Richards, president of the European Mission, who had recently arrived in Geneva from Liverpool, on hearing his letter read, immediately decided to send Elder William Budge, who was then in England, having been banished from Zurich, a prominent Swiss canton.

On Elder Budge’s arrival, he was reported as a gentleman from England, having come to complete his education in the German language, which was, of course, one part of his mission. He was instructed to confine his labors principally to the professor and his family, and to baptize none until he had further instructions.

THE VISIT TO ITALY WITH ELDER RICHARDS

President Richards now decided to visit Italy, where there were a few Saints in the Walsensian valleys under the presidency of Elder Samuel Francis. These Saints were very poor, and most of them lived very hard. Some of them having to subsist five months in the year on roasted chestnuts, and, perhaps, a little sheep’s or goat’s milk, without any other food, having to winter in stables in order to receive warmth from the animals in the absence of fuel. Brother Richards was accompanied by Elders William H. Kimball, John L. Smith, John Chislett, and myself.

About the time of our arrival one of the native brethren had by mistake eaten poison mushrooms, taking them for the variety often used as food in that country. He reeled as he walked to a chair, or stool, to receive the ordinance of laying on of hands. President Richards rebuked the poison, and he recovered. Shortly afterwards an outsider collected some of the same variety, which were cooked, and the man with his wife and children, died through eating them.

Shortly after our return from Italy, President Richards and Elder Kimball repaired to Dresden, the capital of Saxony, where they were heartily greeted by Elder Budge and Professor Karl G. Maeser. They remained a few days, during which time President Richards baptized the professor and eight others, and organized a branch of the Church, with Brother Maeser as Presiding Elder. When the authorities learned to their satisfaction that he had joined the Church of the Saints they not only dropped him from his position, but banished him from the kingdom. Of his standing and usefulness among the Saints but little need be said. His charge of the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, and the blessings accruing to the youth of Zion, are too well known and appreciated to require any eulogy from me. Suffice it to say, that I had felt that I was doing but little good beyond filling a plain duty in responding to the call to go on a mission from England to Switzerland.

I refer to this incident to encourage the young elders who read this little book to not feel discouraged because they do not baptize as many as some others. I hope they will not feel that they are not being useful on that account. I baptized none personally while I was on that mission of about three and a half years, and yet, although I suffered much affliction and persecution, I look back upon it as one of the happiest times of my life.

DANIEL’S RETURN TO AMERICA

Daniel’s own account of his journey back to the Great Salt Lake Valley was either never written, or not as yet located. His missionary journal ended in November of 1855. However, thanks to information from the little booklet: “Mormon Emigration, 1840 - 1869" by the International Society of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, we gain the following valuable information:

On February 18, 1856, a group of 457 Latter-Day Saints under the leadership of Daniel Tyler departed Liverpool on the ship “Caravan.” The ship landed in New York Harbor, the date was not given. He then would have taken the train to Iowa.

According to the booklet: “In 1854, the Saints living in Europe were counseled to come to the United States under the direction of the Church Presidency in the British Isles. They were advised to stay in such places in the East as would be selected where they could find work until a way could be opened for them to come to Utah. ...The missionaries abroad were making converts and encouraging them to gather to Utah. Although numerous deaths occurred crossing the ocean, and along the trail, those people who reached their Zion strengthened the settlements and helped build a greater commonwealth.

“The Epistle of 1855 stated: ‘In regard to the foreign emigration another year let the Saints pursue the northern route from Boston, New York or Philadelphia and land at Iowa City on the then terminus of the railroad. There let them be provided with handcarts on which to draw their provisions and clothing, then walk and draw them thereby saving the immense expense every year for teams and outfits for crossing the plains. We are sanguine that such a train will out-travel any ox team train that can be started. . . Let the Saints who thereby immigrate the ensuing year understand that they are expected to walk and draw their luggage across the plains and that they will be assisted by the Fund in no other way.”

One sketch of Daniel’s life gives the information that he continued to Salt Lake Valley with Edward Martin’s Handcart Company. He was counselor to the captain and chaplain to the company. Probably most of those who traveled with him across the ocean were also in this handcart company. There were 475 Saints on the ship and 575 in the Martin Handcart Company.

The emigration booklet gives the information that the Edward Martin Handcart Company left Iowa City, Iowa on August 25th, 1856 and arrived in Salt Lake Valley on November 30th, 1856. Daniel had been away from home on his foreign mission for 3 ½ years.

1856 was apparently the first year of the handcart companies and this paragraph from the emigration booklet gives interesting information:

“This season’s operations have demonstrated that the Saints, being filled with faith and the Holy Ghost, can walk across the plains, drawing their provisions and clothing in handcarts. The experiences of this season will, of course, help us improve in future operations; but the plan has been tested and proved entirely successful. The entire trip from Iowa City, a distance of over 1,300 miles to this city, has been accomplished in less traveling days than it has ever been by ox train or wagons and with far greater ease to the travelers. These companies, with the exception of the last two, [Daniel’s was the last one] which started too late in the season, have made the trip from the Missouri River in a little over two months. . . In the first place our emigrants must start earlier in the season and the necessary arrangements must be made and completed by the time they arrive at the western frontier and no company must be permitted to leave the Missouri River later than the 1st day of July. . . . They must be provided with stronger handcarts and endeavor to arrange things so as to have the burden upon each cart vary as little as possible during the journey. . . All emigrants should supply themselves with an extra supply of good shoes. . . . The very aged and infirm should be brought in wagons in a separate train. . . . By observing these suggestions it is believed that, with one four or six mule team to each two hundred persons, the emigration will be much facilitated at a still lessened expense. . .”