Letter from Phebe Whittemore Carter Woodruff, 4 May 1840
Manchester, .
TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
Dear Brother,
Having just received a letter
from Mrs. Woodruff, I make a few
extracts, to be inserted in the Star, if
you think proper.--W. WOODRUFF.
Montrose, Iowa Territory, North America,
May 4, 1840.
My dear Companion,
The Conference held in Com-
merce on the 6th of April, was at-
tended with much interest. More
than 70 were baptised, many elders
ordained, and much business trans-
acted. Elder O. Hyde and John E.
Page, started on their mission, soon
after the Conference, to visit the Jews.
They go first to the Jews in New
York, and then on to Palestine.
They will call upon you in England,
as it will be on the way.
The work is rolling on in this
country with a greater rapidity than
ever before since the foundation of
the Church. There was an Indian,
his wife, and daughter, baptised in
Commerce a few days since; they
came some hundreds of miles to be-
come acquainted with the work; they
believed and embraced it joyfully.
They said every word of the Book of
Mormon was true. He was an in-
terpreter to six tribes, and he said
every one of his brethren would re-
ceive it; he knew it would be so.
Two Elders, with their families, have
gone out among the Indians on a
mission. Doctor Galland has just
returned from his mission, (I think
he started just before you left Mont-
rose,) and has brought 60 families
with him, and expects, it is said, 200
families more soon.
Commerce is building up surpri-
singly; the emigration there is said to
be much greater than it ever was in
Caldwell County.
I trust that you obtain the "Times
and Seasons," as the Editors said
they were forwarding them to each of
the Travelling Council. From those
papers you will learn of our Brethren's
success in this country, and many
things more correctly than I can in-
form you by writing. There has
been much destruction of shipping in
this country during the past season.
Since the destruction of Natchez by
a whirlwind, news has reached us that
New Orleans was covered with ten
feet of water, and that it was still
rising. It is said that the Indians
have been into two counties in Mis-
souri, and demanded and obtained
money, as a kind of tax for the land;
and that there are many fears enter-
tained by the Missourians concerning
the Indians.
The Rev. Mr. Bogart, the Metho-
dist preacher, who was the leader of
the Missouri mob in the late perse-
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