Hey there, Mitt!
I seem to recall that your chosen religion IMPORTED foreign wives back in the early days!
Expansion and emigration[edit]
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In 1845 a missionary named Dan Jones arrived in Wales. He would become one of the most successful Mormon missionaries to work in the United Kingdom. In December 1845 there were 493 baptised members of the LDS church in Wales, in January 1846 Dan Jones was placed in charge of the LDS missionary efforts there and by the time he left Wales in February 1849 there were 4,645 baptised members in Wales. He also led at least two emigrant parties from Wales to the Salt Lake Valley.[20][21] He initiated publishing pamphlets and other magazines in the Welsh language that ultimately led to the publication of a Welsh translation of the Book of Mormon in April 1852 by John Davis.[22]
By 1850 British membership had risen to 30,747 members (which was slightly more than the total in the United States at that time)[23] and a further 7,500 had already emigrated to the United States. Following the death of Joseph Smith and the subsequent migration west of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, migration from the British Isles to the United States increased greatly.[19]:20 This emigration was aided by the church's Perpetual Emigration Fund.[24]
The Pearl of Great Price, now part of the Standard Works of the LDS Church, was first compiled in Liverpool in 1851 by Franklin D. Richards. Within a year it had been translated into Welsh.[25]
Opposition to Latter-day Saint missionary efforts in United Kingdom existed from the earliest missions but intensified in South Wales and the West Midlands in the 1850s, leading to some violent incidents.[26] In February 1913 an anti-Mormon riot in Sunderland possibly led to the death of an American missionary Elder Ralph H. Hendricks[27] though his death certificate stated he died from fever[28] and the LDS Church's own publication's obituary stated he died after a two-month illness.[29]
By 1892 the church membership still in the British Isles had fallen to only 2,604, despite around 111,330 baptisms occurring between 1837 and 1900[6][30] In a similar period of time at least 52,000[6] and up to 100,000 members[23] had emigrated to the United States.
In 1877 half of the 140,000 Mormons in Utah were of a British origin.[31] This migration would leave its mark upon Utah, which as of 2000 had the highest percentage of population claiming English descent (29%) of any state in the USA.[32]
