American History
Baptism
Brigham Young
British Isles
Category=NHK
Category=QRAX
Category=QRM
Category=QRMB5
Category=WQH
Chimney Rock
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints
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Fort Laramie
George Q Cannon
Herber C Kimball
History
Illinois
Immigrant
Immigration
John Taylor
Midwest
Missionary
Mississippi River
Missouri River
Mormon
Nebraska
Orson Pratt
Overland Journey
Pitman Shorthand
Polygamy
Religion
Religious Conversion
Religious Convert
Religious Migration
Religious Studies
Scotland
Steamboat
Transatlantic Journey
Translation
Utah
Product details
- ISBN 9781496229878
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2022
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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George Darling Watt was the first convert of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints baptized in the British Isles. He emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842. He returned to the British Isles in 1846 as a missionary, accompanied by his wife and young son. He remained there until 1851, when he led a group of emigrant converts to Salt Lake City, Utah. Watt recorded his journey from Liverpool to Chimney Rock in Pitman shorthand. Remarkably, his journal wasn’t discovered until 2001—and is transcribed and appearing for the first time in this book.
Watt’s journal provides an important glimpse into the transatlantic nature of Latter-day Saint migration to Salt Lake City. In 1850 there were more Latter-day Saints in England than in the United States, but by 1890 more than eighty-five thousand converts had crossed the Atlantic and made their way to Salt Lake City. Watt’s 1851 journal opens a window into those overseas, riverine, and overland journeys. His spirited accounts provide wide-ranging details about the births, marriages, deaths, Sunday sermons, interpersonal relations, weather, and food and water shortages of the journey, as well as the many logistical complexities.
Watt’s journal provides an important glimpse into the transatlantic nature of Latter-day Saint migration to Salt Lake City. In 1850 there were more Latter-day Saints in England than in the United States, but by 1890 more than eighty-five thousand converts had crossed the Atlantic and made their way to Salt Lake City. Watt’s 1851 journal opens a window into those overseas, riverine, and overland journeys. His spirited accounts provide wide-ranging details about the births, marriages, deaths, Sunday sermons, interpersonal relations, weather, and food and water shortages of the journey, as well as the many logistical complexities.
LaJean Purcell Carruth is a senior historian at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. She is the coeditor of Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers. Ronald G. Watt is retired after working thirty-five years for the archives of the LDS Church Historical Department. He is the author of four books, including The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: First British Convert, Scribe for Zion.
