A Romantic History of Baptisms and Emigration

A Romantic History of Baptisms and Emigration from ''The Deseret News," volume 26, page 250 Elder Erastus Snow wrote the following interesting details concerning a recent visit to Colorado: Nephi, Utah, May 4th, 1877 Editor Deseret News: In the summer of 1875 I baptized L. M. Petersen and his wife and their Spanish muleteer, in company with many others in Manti, who at that time were renewing their covenants. The three named were visitors from the southern border of Colorado, and enquirers after truth. There is a bit of romance connected with this man, Petersen, not altogether devoid of interest. He was a Scandinavian by birth, but Spanish-American by education. When eleven years old, he strayed from a camp of the Saints near Kansas City, Missouri, while they were waiting for William Empy, our immigration agent for that year, to procure their teams and outfits for Utah. His father and mother had both died during the voyage to America, and the rest of the family and friends, after many a fruitless search, gave up young Petersen as lost to them forever and wended their way to Utah, while the lost boy fell in with some Spanish traders from New Mexico, who enticed him home with them, where he subsequently became quite proficient as a Spanish and English scholar, married a Spanish woman, was elected a county recorder, and while serving in that capacity he commenced corresponding with the recorders of Utah, which resulted in finding the whereabouts of his elder brother in Manti, and paying him a visit with his family, where they also embraced the gospel and provided themselves with our church works, and he being ordained an Elder returned to his former home and commenced a quiet missionary labor among the Spanish Catholics. He translated into Spanish some choice selections from our works, and with the aid of these and the Spanish translation of the Book of Mormon, he succeeded in baptizing about forty persons and awoke the wrath of the Spanish priests and editors. He writes from Las Tjeras, Col., April 14th, 1877, to his brother in Manti, that he expects to start about the 20th to the 25th of April, with his new converts, in twelve or thirteen wagons, via Albuquerque, for the Little Colorado, Arizona, where they intend locating with our new colonists. He hopes to reach there about the last of this month. I trust they will find Elders Hatch, Burnham, Lake, Allen and Lot Smith, to whose care and further instruction Brother Petersen and his new colonists are earnestly commended, hoping and praying also that they may prove valuable aids among the Spanish speaking natives and citizens of that region. Respectfully, etc., ERASTUS SNOW"




State Coordinator Assistant Coordinators Conejos County Coordinator
Colleen Pustola Rebecca Maloney
Betty Baker
M.D. Monk
Cynthia Martinez Monroe

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