Comments on: From The Archives: James C. Brewster to “The Mormon Money Diggers”

By: David G.

David G. — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:01:02 +0000

Thanks Jared, fun stuff.

By: Jared T

Jared T — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:57:19 +0000

Actually, I think it goes on:

TRUST NOT IN WORDS.
1 Trust not in them that say believe,
For surely they will you deceive;
Trust not in words
For they are vain,
For friendship’s end is death and pain.

2 Trust not in promises for lies they be,
Bind not yourselves but stand forth free,
Trust not in friends
For they are vain,
For all that’s joined shall be rent in twain.

3 Trust not in arms for weak they be,
Trust not in sped for you cannot flee,
Trust not to hide
For you shall be found
When stern destruction sweeps the ground.

4 Trust not in ships to escape on sea,
Trust not in walls though high they be,
Trust not in towers,
In bolts or bars,
In rising hills or lofty spars.

5 Trust not in strength of walls or towers,
Trust not to hide in the thickest bowers,
But trust in him
Who rules on high,
Who rides above the stormy sky.

6 For he will guide to the Western main,
To the land which has long in darkness lain,
Where the rivers flow
And the forest bend,
There to this land the saints he’ll send.

7 Where the wide spreading waters reflect the blue sky
And refreshing cool zephyrs forever draw nigh
Where birds play in the air
And the fish in the deep,
And in the rough mountains the hard minerals sleep.

8 Where the mountains, the vales, and the wide spreading plains
Are covered with verdure, with choice herbs and grains,
Where the righteous may dwell
And the saints have their fill
Along the broad river beyond the high hill.

The sun is greater than the moon
Yea greater than the earth;
The time shall come, yea very soon,
When there shall be an end of mirth,
For the sun shall shed his hottest rays,
And there shall be no rain
Until the end of eighty days,
And there shall be grief and pain.
For a sign of this a star shall shine
Low in the Western skies,
Although it shall be seen to set,
It shall not seem to rise.
Therefore, prepare when ye this sign behold,
Shine in the West, like a bright diamond gold,
For want shall come upon this wicked land,
And none but those who fear the Lord can stand.
Sign after sign shall fill the evening sky,
First in the East, the West, and North, the cry
Repentance to the land and bid it sigh,
For fears and evils surely shall increase,
As honor, love and beauty do decrease.

[p. 10-12]

By: Jared T

Jared T — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:46:10 +0000

smb…ask and ye shall receive…

THE SONGS OF ENOCH, WRITTEN FOR THE SAINTS

1 There is a place beyond the hills,
Where peace and plenty flow,
Where rolling waves the valley fills,
And fishes play below.

2 Where beauty clothes the spreading plain,
And decks the varied hills;
But there unknown it long has lain–
The mountain and the rills–

3 The oak that waves along the shore,
In greenest verdure drest,
That say to man now weep no more,
But be forever blest.

4 There plains extend in glittering pride
Along the blissful shore,
While through the air the songsters glide
They sing but sigh no more

5 Soon war shall rage about this land
With all its terrors reign,
And who in all the earth shall stand
For thousands shall be slain.

[From pages 9-10]

By: Jared T

Jared T — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:41:39 +0000

Ardis, thanks for that account! Brewster was quite the colorful character. Apparently, after failing to establish his Zion community (never making it to California), he returned to Illinois and was baptized into Sidney Rigdon’s group.

By: smb

smb — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:35:33 +0000

Does any of you have the text of the Song of Enoch? You can’t throw out that tidbit and then not deliver.

By: SC Taysom

SC Taysom — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:37:25 +0000

Christopher,
Come on, everyone knows the essence of true devotion is suffering! As Ignatius of Antioch once said

I shall be a convincing Christian only when the world sees me no more

I can think of fewer places that better fit this image of Zionic bizarro-bliss than Yuma in August.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:32:06 +0000

This is fascinating stuff, Jared. Thanks. I don’t feel like I have anything substantial to add to what others have said.

Ardis, that’s an interesting topic. Though anyone who’s spent time in Yuma in July or August knows there’s no way that it’s the new Zion.

By: Jared T

Jared T — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:19:41 +0000

Rick, thanks for the bibliographic particulars. I neglected to give the full citation of Brewster’s pamphlet. It’s scarcity is why I chose to put up so much of it. I came across it while reading Mark Ashurst-McGee’s thesis on Joseph Smith.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:17:18 +0000

This is a bit of a threadjack (sorry), but there is a well-known sequel to James C. Brewster’s claims to the status of prophet, although most who know the sequel don’t recognize the connection. The Oatman family who were attacked by Indians in what is now Arizona in 1851 — six were clubbed to death, one survived by playing dead, and two girls were captured as slaves (one died of starvation in captivity; the other returned to white society and had a noteworthy but probably unhappy later life) — were Brewsterites, and were on their way to join Brewster at the place he claimed for the new Zion: the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers (near Yuma).

A recent and very well written account is Brian McGinty, The Oatman Massacre: A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.

By: Rick Grunder

Rick Grunder — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:56:39 +0000

So interesting, Jared! Your post sent me back to Differing Visions, which you cite, in order to see why I failed to read Dan’s article. Sure enough, there was my bookmark right in the middle of the part you discuss! Memories fail, as does our time to read so many books.

Thank you for bringing this account back to life. For those who enjoy bibliographic particulars, I notice entries describing Brewster’s 1843 pamphlet in Flake 810 and Dale Morgan’s A Bibliography of the Churches of the Dispersion 24. Brewster’s title is, Very Important! to the Mormon Money diggers. Why do the Mormons rage, and the People imagine a vain thing? ([Springfield, Illinois, 1843; dated at the end, Springfield, March 20, 1843]).

Morgan notes that this is a twelve-page pamphlet measuring 18.8 X 12.1 cm. “. . . Brewster had a good deal to say,” adds Morgan, “about the history of Joseph Smith, Senior, Hyrum Smith, and other Saints as money diggers and seers in peepstones back in New York State; this is the principal content of the pamphlet, but it also contains, pp. 9-11, ‘The Songs of Enoch, Written for the Saints,’ and on p. 12 a quotation from the Encyclopedia of Geography, vol. III, p. 195, concerning California.” Flake finds only two copies of this rare publication, at Yale and at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.