A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem by Maggi Smith-Dalton

Author:Maggi Smith-Dalton [Smith-Dalton, Maggi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, New England (CT; MA; ME; NH; RI; VT), Body; Mind & Spirit, Spiritualism, Occultism
ISBN: 9781614236603
Google: _0B_CQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2015-10-12T00:36:52+00:00

Erastus Snow, whose Mormon missionary work in Salem bore fruit for the church.

In the year 1839 or 1840 there came to Salem, Erastus Snow, preaching the gospel in its purity, as revealed to Joseph Smith. My father was not a member of any denomination but attended the Universalist Church of which my mother was a member because as I have often heard her say they preached the love of God for his children in contrast to the doctrines of the Orthodox churches that held to the everlasting punishment of all who did not embrace their peculiar dogmas.

Father returned home one Sunday noon, saying he had been to hear a new religion preached by a Mormon in the Masonic Hall…My mind soon became enlightened upon the plan of salvation…

Mother…attended the meetings in the Masonic Hall and became convinced of the truth of the gospel. One Sunday morning father gave me some money and told me to go to Sexton and give up his pew and shortly after, he and mother were baptized into the church and though they had bore excellent characters all their days they were called crazy, and derided by relatives and friends.

We all continued to attend the meetings of the Saints and a large branch was organized…

Brother Snow who had been living in one of father’s houses returned to Nauvoo and contracted for a house to be built and upon his return to Salem sold to father the lot adjoining his…

We left Salem the 14th of October [1843]…64

An important Salem convert to Mormonism during these early years was Nathaniel Henry Felt (1816–1887). Reverend Joseph Barlow Felt (1789–1869), whose Annals of Salem is a standard Salem historical source, was Nathaniel’s first cousin.65 According to a Felt family website, he was a descendant of the first accused witch executed in Salem in 1692, Bridget Bishop,66 and was also related to Nathaniel Silsbee and Timothy Pickering. His house still stands in Salem, marked with a commemorative plaque.

Nathaniel, with his brother, was the proprietor of an Essex Street tailoring service. He converted to Mormonism in 1843 and, “with 120 new converts, began a small branch of the Church in Salem. Because of Nathaniel’s position as branch president, this house became an important Mormon meeting place.”

LDS leader Brigham Young sent his teenage daughter Vilate to the Felt abode the following year to continue her education. Young came to Salem several times, and it was in Salem that Young received news of Smith’s assassination in Illinois in June 1844. The following year, Salem Mormons, including the Felt family and Vilate Young, left the City Named for Peace for a journey that would finally end in Salt Lake City.

There, Nathaniel embarked on a public career “that included service as Salt Lake City alderman and Utah Territorial representative.” According to the Felt family website, Nathaniel married three wives under the Mormon doctrine of polygamy.

Mormons believed that revelation was not confined to the early Christian church but was continuing in contemporaneous America. Significantly, by the early 1850s,

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