North Lat. 44, Long 69, 10. North Fox Islands, Vinalhaven, Maine,
Aphek & Azubah Woodruff,
Honoured Parents
As duty
And the commandments of God hath called your Son to stand upon
the Islands of the sea in defence of the word of God, & the testi-
mony of Jesus Christ, I am under the necessity of making
use of my pen to communicate all information that you
recieve from me, but this is a privilege inasmuch as we can
not do it by word of mouth. I would inform you that I
recieved a letter from my wife yesterday informing me that she
took two letters out of the Office for me, one from you, & the other
from Brother Asahel. She gave me the purport of them. I was
glad to hear from you, & all the friends & esspecially that the word had
the desired affect in Aunt Cossetts family, & with others. I would like to
be with you & our friends in Connecticut long enough to build up a
Church, but if I cannot be, I pray God to send some faithful servent among
you to teach the word. I expect you wish to hear where I am, & what I am
doing &c. On the 19th of Aug, in company with Elder Hale, I left Portland on
board the steamboat Bangor, foxr fox Islands, Vinalhaven. After travling 100
miles on the steam boat; we took a vessel & was landed on North fox Island at 2 oclok
Sunday morning following, entire strangers & about peneyless. We called at the first
house & retired to rest, as we had slept none through the day & night. We arose at 8
oclock took breakfast. I then enquire if their was any priest or religion on the Island.
they informed us theirre was a Baptist meeting house & church & priest in the
centre of the Island, & that there would be preaching to day. In the name of the
Lord we hastened to the place. Meeting had commenced. I sent for the deacon
to come to the door; I told him we were servents of God, we had a message to
the people & wished to be herd. he informed the priest of it. he invited us into
the pulpet. After he closed they had a short intermission I then arose & addressed
the congregation, and it was amid many peculiar feelings; knowing that it was the first
time the voice of an Elder ^of^ the Latter Day Saints, was herd upon one of the Islands of the sea,
to set forth the fullness of the gospel. When I closed I gave out several appointments for
preaching in different parts of the Island, which was 9 miles long & 2 miles wide containing 800
inhabitants divided into four distrects having four school houses. We presented Mr Newton (this
Baptist priest) the Book of Mormon he was mild, did not object to it, said he would read it. In the
first fourteen days, we preached nineteen discourses, & the whole Island flocked out to hear.
The priest began to see his foundation giving way, he was alarmed & began to cry against us
& would not let us have the meeting house. But the excitement ^was^ so great & the people so much
in our favor that on Sunday the 27th the people asseb assembled at a school house to hear us
While Mr. Newton had the meeting house to himself without one solitary soul to accompany him.
Even the deacons of the church were attending our meetings & enquiring into these things &
& calling upon us to visit them, & the sound went abroad to other Islands of the
sea with rapidity, & they came over in their ships & boats to hear for themselves. On
Sunday the 3rd Sept. I preached to a Large congregation assembled together from different
Islands after I closed a very wealthy, respectable Sea Captain & his Lady came
foreward & wished to be baptised. We repaired to the waters of the Atlantic & Elder Hale
lead them down into the sea & baptized them. These are the first baptized upon the Islands
of the sea (to my knowledge) by the Elders of Israel, & they are the first fruits of our min-
istry here. & On last Sunday the 10 th of the month, I met a large congregation at the same
place from different Islesands, & & preached to them from Math 16 ch 17, 18, & when I closed
another sea captain a member of the Baptist church came forward for baptism & also a
young Lady. We repaired to the sea shore, & while the people throng'd the beach I lead
them forth into the ocean & baptized them both for the remission of their sins & lade
hands upon them & they received the Holy ghost & were made glad. On the Tuesday
following three others wished to be baptized & the ordinance was administered unto them
by Elder Hale which makes seven we have baptized. Thus you seae the Lord hath not
sent us here in vain. There is many on our right & left ready as it were to step into
the waters of Baptism. Calls begin to salute us from the different Islands come &
preach to us, come & preach to us. We have visited South Fox Island & held five meet-
ings with them, they came out by hundreds & filled the homes. South Fox Island is 10 miles
long & 5 wide containing 1000 inhabitants with 6 school houses no meeting house but a methodist
church, & a priest in their midst. They have 3 saw mills & one grist mill these are all tide
mills vinal haven fits out rising of 100 vessels for fishing & mostly from this Island.
The inhabitants of Vinalhaven are wealthy, healthy, industrious, intelligent, generous & very hospitable
to strangers notwithstanding they are mostly fishermen. pop 1,800. Vinalhaven includes both of fox Islands. North
Island is rather rocky & rough have some fine farms, rase good wheat, barley, & potatoes, which is the staple pro-
ductions, but little stock excepting sheep which are numerous. they have but just finished haying and are now
in the midst of wheat harvest. There is an aboundance of raspburies and gooseburies on these Islands, but are
now mostly gone. not much of any other fruit. The timber is spruice, fir, & hemlock. Their is one Post Office &
store on this Island. one tide grist mill, &c.
South Fox Island is as near without any form or void I think as
any think I ever saw. It is almost impossible for the best historian to give an exact description of it. it is a universal
mass of ledges & shelves of rocks formed into hills & valleys cut up into necks & points to make room for the
coves and harbours that run through & through this Island. One may form some faint idea of it, on learning that it is
supposed to be rising of 100 miles round the Island to follow the beach in all its crooks & angles. There is some small parts
of this Island under cultivation but it is at the expens of great labour & toil. The hills are timbered with pitch pine and
spruce, the timber & bushes principly grow out of the cracks of the rocks, while the valleys are timbered in the same
manner with fir & birch. this people procured their wealth & living wholey by fishing, perhaps their is no people that supply
greater quantities of fish than they of this Island. many of them fish at Newfoundland & prepare them for sale here. their is
many kinds of fish here around these Island such as Whale, Blackfish, shark, ground shark, Pilot fish, Hors mackerel,
stergeon, Holloboat, Salmon, Cod, Pollock, Hake, Haddock, Shad, Mackerel Tom cod, Bass, Alewives Herren, Pohagen, Dolphin
Frost fish, Flounders, Smelt, Scate, Shrimp, Skid, Cusk, Bluebacks, Dogfish, Muttonfish, Lump fish, Squid, Five fingers,
Munkfish, Nurs fish, Sunfish, Sword fish, Tharsher, catfish, whiting, scuppog, Tootog, Eyefish, Minney's, cunner, Ling, Eels,
Lobsters, clames, scollops, Mussels, Wrinkles, seal, & Porposes &c &c. & many others not named. I have stood on the
shore & seen large schools of Mackerel come up to us so that we could catch any quantity of them with hooks that we
wished, also the beach is supplyed with clames in almost any part of the Island. The adjoining Islands are more fertile
than these. In a clear day I can view with the naked eye about fifty Island of the sea many of which are inhabited, & sometimes
20 or 30 gallant ships are passing by us at once &c. I have not givien this brief history of these Islands because my mind is more
on these things than my calling, for it is not. consequently I wish to call your minds back again to my labour in the vineyard
I remarked that many came out to hear us on the South Island. The methodist priest
became alarmed for fear his foundation also was in danger, & he came over whare we were baptizing
& made friends with the Baptist priest, (like Herod & Pilate) and called a meeting I went out
to hear him. [Luke 23:12] He commenced warm hostilities against the Book of Mormon and our principles
I wrote down his discours & are to give answer to it next Sunday, at which time I expect
to meet a numerous assembly I learned he would not be present to hear my answer so I
arose & rectifyed some of his wild mistakes in his presensce before he left the congregation.
The Baptist priest has written Letters & even gone himself to the main land after several priests
to come over and help them, declairing if they do not come the churches here will surely
fall. -[But cursed is man that puteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm saith the Lord]- [2 Nephi 4:34] But O ye
priests of Baal your cry is in vaine. The God of Israel hath set his hand to recover Israel his people
The stone has begun to roll. God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise, and
with them he will rend your Kingdoms. The cry of the Saints is assending unto the Ears of the Lord
of Sabaoth for Ephraim. The Apostles of the Lamb of God are bearing the Keys of his Kingdom
on the shores of Europe. Yea & the mighty captains of these Islands are receeving the gospel of
JESUS CHRIST & injoying its power. And the call of many from distant Islands has
already entered into our Ears to come & preach to them. My own Book of Mormon
has this day taken its departure over the billows of the great deep to teach those that trade in
ships at sea, & the word & work is propelled by the arm of JEHOVAH. And every weapon
formed against Zion shall soon be broken, & he that raises his puny arm against it, is fighting
against God, & shall soon mourn because of his loss. I say these things are so as God liveth
& the Spirit beareth record & the record is here. Therefore O Babylon thy fall is sure.
My dear parents suffer me to drop a few words of my
meditations on this paper. When I think where I am, what my calling is, & where I have been
& whare I shall be, & have to do in this generation, I marvel & wonder. I [page torn]
myself. A few years since, I was tendindg mill as other men not expecting to do [page torn]
to live & di[e] with my friends. But how changed the scene, the last four years has [page torn]
the plow, called me into the ministry, bestowed the Holy priesthood, annointing, [page torn]
Blessing upon my head, & called me into the ranks of [page torn] [s]eventy Apostles to pus [page torn]
from the ends of the earth, and act a conspicuous part in winding up the august scene of these last
days in rending the kingdoms of darkness, and error with everlasting truth. It has called me to
visit 16 different states in America, & travel about 14,000 miles to preach the word of God, and
are now standing upon the Islands of the Sea, & thousands seeking wisdom & instruction
at my mouth, While at the same time its wise & learned complain Bitterly that I am
sapping the foundations of their Holy religion, churches & kingdom, & the ships of the sea
spread their canvas to bring captains & sailors to hear my voice. I say amid these
truths I ask myself the question who am I. ^I^ am that poor, weak, ignorant, Illiterate
Willford. then I have nothing to boast. No God forbid. It is not Willford that has done this,
but it is the power & work of God. I'll acknowledge he hath chosen the weak things
of this world to perform his work with, & if I glory it shall be in the cross of Christ
I cannot tell when I shall see any of you again. their was some invisidble power seemed to
hurry me from connecticut to come on my journey, it has been so with me ever since I left Kirtland, untill I reached these
Islands, and the reason was because of the great work to be done here, for the sound will go from here to a vast number of the
Islands to prepare the way before us. But I rejoice that I had the privilege of visiting you at all. I now feel as though it will be my privilege
to visit you again & build up a church in connecticut. But if I do not I pray GOD to send some one among you that will. I have great
faith yet to believe that many of my blood relations & other friends will stand in the covenant before they die. yes I believe my
Parents & their family will, for I know they are of the Blood of Ephraim, and the Lord will never suffer the good my father hath
done to the poor in his ^day^ go unrewarded. I believe you will both live to see a change in this world which is fast hastning. it would be great joy to my
soul to see you stand in the covenant. It is the work of God that hath called me to do as I have done, and it marvelous in mine eyes. I rather expect
to spend next summer amid these Islands of the sea. I intend to visit Deer Island as soon as possible, it is but 12 miles to it. it contains 4000
inhabitants, and theirre is but one priest among them. I do not know whare I shall spend the winter, whether here or in Scarborough. My friends
may still direct letters to Scarborough. Give my respects to Eunice, To Uncle Ozem & family & Aunt Cossetts family I think of writing to them both & also
^to^ Brother Asahel, & finally remember me to all inquiring fr^i^ends. O how I wish they would all receive the fullness of the gospel. Dear
Parents Pray for me & watch the signs of the times. I want to see you all much but I'll be content whare God would have me. Elder
Hale, & Phebe both wish to be remembered to you and all inquiring friends. That the peace of GOD may abide with you & that
your lives health & strength may be prescious in HIS sight, is the prayer of your Dutiful son
Willford Woodruff
Wilford Fox Islands
Vinalhaven M[ain]e
Sept[em]ber 19th
Paid [18 3/4]
Mr Aphek Woodruff
Farmington Hartford Co
Connecticut
[upside-down text]
Remember me to Sister Eunice if she is at home (if not) when you write to write to her. I do not know whether she is
at home or in Colebrook tell me next time you write to me. I am constantly busy now almost night and day some
of the time I am up all night, most of the time till midnight. I am visiting, writing, teaching, Preaching, Baptizing, &c.
I stand in need of much strength in the outer as well as innerman, give me your Prayers Adieu, W W
[end of upside-down text]
17th Sunday evening I have preached two lengthy discourses in the Baptist meeting house to day to several hundred people from different Islands in the
fore part of the day. I answered the objections Mr Douglass brought against the Book of Mormon and our principles and that to perfectly satisfactory to
the community. Much of the spirit of God rested upon me, many tears were shed in the house. at intermission we baptized a Lady we then
returned to the house I preached upon the gospel I have stood upon my feet before the people to day 6 hours hundreds are believeing and many ready to
be baptized Zion will soon bring forth many children here. goodnight WW