4 Elder F. G. Williams: Missionary to the Lamanites, 1830–1831

In September 1830, less than six months after the organization of the Church, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation in Fayette, New York, a portion of which called Oliver Cowdery to preach the gospel to the Lamanites (or Native Americans).¹ Soon thereafter, a second revelation was received calling Peter Whitmer Jr. to accompany Oliver Cowdery in his Lamanite ministry.² Sometime in October 1830, two more missionaries, Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson, were called by revelation to join Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer Jr. on the mission to the Lamanites. In addition to these four, the Lord promised that he would accompany them and be in their midst: “And that which I have appointed unto [Parley P. Pratt] is that he shall go with my servants, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the Lamanites. And Ziba Peterson also shall go with them; and I myself will go with them and be in their midst.”³

Baptism

The four original missionaries to the Lamanites left New York in the latter part of October 1830 and arrived in the area of Kirtland, Ohio, not many days afterward. They stayed about four weeks, preaching and baptizing some one hundred converts, before they continued their journey to Missouri. Among those baptized were Frederick and Rebecca Williams and most likely their older children. According to their granddaughter, Lucy Ellen Williams Godfrey, Rebecca accepted baptism before Frederick, who evidently had some reservations that delayed his decision a couple of days.

The Elders presented him a book of Mormon which he determined not to read. He would read a little would lay it away but soon was reading it again. He became converted and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Meanwhile Rebecca had read the book was convinced of the [truth] and entered the waters of bap[t]ism first.

When the Elders were going on they desired F G Wms to accompany them which he did furnishing part of the outfit which left his wife alone with four small children to get along as best she could. He was gone ten months on this mission to the Indians.⁴

In her biographical sketch of her father, Ezra G. Williams (son of Frederick and Rebecca Williams), Lucy gives additional details about the timing of her grandparents’ baptisms:

In the fall of 1830 the family were converted to the L.D.S. Church by four missionaries, Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Ziba Peterson and Peter Whitmer, Jr., whom had been sent on a mission to the Lamanites or Indians and who had come to Kirtland on their travels. His mother was baptized on Saturday and his father on Monday. Just two weeks after meeting the Elders, his father was chosen to go with them to finish the mission. He was gone ten months.⁵

Nancy C. Williams adds more information regarding the Williamses’ conversion and baptism.

Dr. Williams and his wife Rebecca began to investigate the new religion. She and the children attended all the private meetings and the Doctor went when his work would permit. They were very enthusiastic and sincere in their investigation of this new faith and she took home the literature given to them at the meetings in order that she and the Doctor could sit late into the night studying it. True to the nature of all good women endowed with inspiration she knew of its truth and like a thirsty man in the desert drank freely and with no hesitation led the family into the waters of baptism on a Saturday evening, in October of 1830, when the Church was just a little over six months old. Frederick, was not quite ready. Cautiously he weighed the matter. He had read the Book of Mormon and had compared it to the Bible. Unwilling to accept its truth, he would lay it aside to have nothing more to do with it only to find himself later turning its pages and making comparisons and deductions. The result was that he too saw the light and shortly after, during the same month of October 1830, he followed Rebecca’s example and was baptized, confirmed and ordained an elder under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Ziba Peterson.⁶

Williams Joins the Mission to the Lamanites

The first test of Frederick G. Williams’s commitment to the gospel came very soon after his baptism,⁷ when he was asked to join the missionaries in preaching to the Lamanites on the borders of Missouri. Elder Williams, who had just turned forty-three years old, accepted the mission call. He put his medical practice on hold, entrusted the care of his wife and four young children to God and the kindness of others, and began the long journey at an unusually late date in the winter season with his four companions: Oliver Cowdery (age 24), Parley P. Pratt (age 23), Peter Whitmer Jr. (age 21), and Ziba Peterson (age unknown).

By accepting the invitation to serve, Williams in effect became the first “senior” missionary in this dispensation, as well as one of the first married missionaries of the restored Church to leave his family for an extended period.⁸ His willingness to sacrifice the comforts of home and family for a season in order to serve the Lord—while paying his own way and at the same time supporting the missions of others—would be a pattern that thousands more would emulate over the years.⁹

Nancy C. Williams, paraphrasing Ezra G. Williams’s sketch of his father,¹⁰ records in After 100 Years that Brother Williams outfitted the travelers with his best horse, provisions, and cash and that the members in Kirtland provided them with another animal and a wagon.¹¹

Eber D. Howe, editor and owner of the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, printed several negative articles about Joseph Smith and the Mormons over the next few years, but one early article titled “Book of Mormon” was at least semicomplimentary about the kinds of people who had joined the Church, calling them “respectable for intelligence and piety.” Speaking of the success the four original missionaries had had in Kirtland and the surrounding area before departing for Missouri, Howe wrote: “There are rising of 100 in this and an adjoining county who have embraced the ideas and assertions of Joseph Smith, Jr., many of these respectable for intelligence and piety. . . . The four persons who were here, have proceded on their missions to the Indians, (or Lamanites, as they term them) in the ‘far west,’ where they say a Prophet is to be raised up, in whom the tribes will believe.”¹²

In Joseph’s History of the Church, we read of the fifth missionary, Frederick G. Williams, who joined the company of the original four missionaries. “This much accomplished, the brethren bound for the borders of the Lamanites, bade an affectionate farewell to the Saints in Kirtland and vicinity; and, after adding one of their new converts to their number—Dr. Frederick G. Williams—they went on their way rejoicing.”¹³

Excited about his newfound faith, Elder Williams asked that the party stop in Newburgh near Cleveland, so that he could share his testimony with his parents. “His family was very happy to see him and to become acquainted with his companions, yet they did not accept their teachings. Neither did they ridicule nor treat them unkindly, merely treated their doctrines with indifference.”¹⁴

Route Taken to Missouri

In his Autobiography, Parley P. Pratt describes the route the missionaries took and the difficulties they faced that very cold winter. At Cincinnati, about December 20, 1830, the five missionaries took a steamer for St. Louis. Ice at the mouth of the Ohio River prevented them from reaching their goal, however, so they debarked and walked the remaining 300 miles. In the beginning of January 1831, they left St. Louis and continued their journey on foot, arriving in Jackson County, Missouri, at the end of January or beginning of February. Pratt describes the trip in chilling detail:

In the beginning of 1831 we renewed our journey; and passing through St. Louis and St. Charles, we travelled on foot for three hundred miles through vast prairies and through trackless wilds of snow—no beaten road; houses few and far between; and the bleak northwest wind always blowing in our faces with a keenness which would almost take the skin off the face. We travelled for whole days, from morning till night, without a house or fire, wading in snow to the knees at every step, and the cold so intense that the snow did not melt on the south side of the houses, even in the mid-day sun, for nearly six weeks. We carried on our backs our changes of clothing, several books, and corn bead and raw pork. We often ate our frozen bread and pork by the way, when the bread would be so frozen that we could not bite or penetrate any part of it but the outside crust.

After much fatigue and some suffering we all arrived in Independence, the county of Jackson, on the extreme western frontiers of Missouri, and of the United States.

This was about fifteen hundred miles from where we started, and we had performed most of the journey on foot, through a wilderness Country, in the worst season of the year, occupying about four months, during which we had preached the gospel to tens of thousands of Gentiles and two nations of Indians; baptizing, confirming and organizing many hundreds of people into churches of Latter Day Saints.¹⁵

The Missionaries Separate into Two Groups: 
Williams Goes into Indian Territory

Pratt begins the next chapter with the missionaries separating: “Two of our number now commenced work as tailors in the village of Independence, while the others crossed the frontier line and commenced a mission among the Lamanites, or Indians.”¹⁶ Peter Whitmer Jr.’s summary of the Lamanite mission identifies the tailors as himself and Ziba Peterson, while Cowdery, Pratt, and Williams crossed over into Indian Territory and preached to the Delawares and Shawnees.

We came to independence. . . . I began to Labour with mine owne hands Brother[s] Oliver and Parl[e]y and Frederick started to see the deleware tribe in a few days they came to see me and brother Ziba and they declared that the Lamanites received them with great joy my brethren started againe to the delewares and also the shayneye but to our sorrow there came a man whose name was Cumons and told us he was a man under authority he told us that he would apprehend us up to the garoson we then resorted among the Gentiles and declared the word and Baptised 7 we taught school & tailord and preacht the gospel for our support.¹⁷

Historian Max H Parkin adds the following details regarding the mission to the Native Americans:

Whitmer and Peterson set up a tailor shop to earn needed funds, while Cowdery, Pratt, and Williams crossed the state boundary, called by them “the border of the Lamanites,” into Indian country. After first contacting the Shawnees, the elders crossed the frozen Kansas River and walked to the Delaware Indian village located about twelve miles west of the Missouri state line.

The Delaware Indians had arrived there only the previous November after a toilsome journey of their own. Because of their present poverty and mistreatment at the hands of whites, the aged Delaware chief, known to the white man as William Anderson Kithtilhund, viewed any Christian missionaries with suspicion. After his initial hesitation, however, Kithtilhund summoned his chiefs into council. For several days, through an interpreter, Cowdery shared with the receptive Delawares the Book of Mormon account of their ancestors.

Plans to establish a permanent school among the Delawares and to baptize converts were soon interrupted by an order to desist from the federal Indian agent, Richard W. Cummins. After issuing a second warning, he threatened to arrest the elders if they did not leave Indian lands [because they lacked authorization]. . . . Later in Independence, Cowdery wrote the superintendent requesting a license to return to Indian lands, but the request was never granted, and that effectively ended the Lamanite Mission.¹⁸

General William Clark was the superintendent of Indian Affairs to whom Oliver Cowdery wrote on February 14, 1831, to request permission to return to Indian lands. Indian Agent Richard W. Cummins also wrote General Clark, alerting him to the forthcoming Mormon request. In his short missive, Cummins accurately represents the missionaries’ restoration message and their intentions regarding the Indians; he also identifies the provenances of the five strangers:

A few days agoe two men, all Strangers to me, went among the Indians, Shawnee and Delawares. They say for the purpose of preaching to and Instructing them in Religious matters. They say they are sent by God and must preach. They have a new Revelation with them, as there Guide in teaching the Indians, which they say was shown to one of their Sects in a miraculous way, and that an Angel from Heaven appeared to one of their Men and two others of their Sect, and shewed them that the work was from God, and much more &c. I have refused to let them stay or go among the Indians unless they first obtain permission from you or some of the officers of the Genl Government who I am bound to obey. I am informed that they intend to apply to you for permission to go among the Indians. If you refuse, then they will go to the Rocky Mountains but what they will be with the Indians. The Men act very strange. They came an [as] five to this place, they say four from the State of New York and one from Ohio.¹⁹

Not allowed to continue their preaching to the Lamanites beyond the borders of the United States, Pratt concluded this chapter of his autobiography with a summary of their labors among the Native Americans and a hope for the future.

Thus ended our first Indian Mission, in which we had preached the gospel in its fullness, and distributed the record of their forefathers among three tribes, viz: the Catteraugus Indians, near Buffalo, N.Y., the Wyandots of Ohio, and the Delawares west of Missouri.

We trust that at some future day, when the servants of God go forth in power to the remnant of Joseph, some precious seed will be found growing in their hearts, which was sown by us in that early day.²⁰

Parley P. Pratt later recorded in his autobiography: “It was now the 14th of February, 1831. . . . Elders Cowdery, Whitmer, Peterson, myself, and F. G. Williams, who accompanied us from Kirtland, now assembled in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, and came to the conclusion that one of our number had better return to the church in Ohio.”²¹ Pratt soon left for Kirtland and naturally concluded that being forced out of the Indian territories meant the end of the Lamanite mission; however, as we shall see, that proved not to be the case.

Preaching to the Kaw Indians, Giving Medical Aid, and Teaching School

Pratt may have simply assumed that the missionaries’ attention would now turn entirely to the white settlers in Jackson County. That was not the case, however, for the missionaries who remained continued to work and preach among the Kaw Indians in and around Burlington, Missouri, as we learn from Nancy C. Williams: “[Dr. Williams] reported that he was enjoying his labors very much and had made many friends, especially among the Kaw Indians where he could alleviate their pain in sickness. This gave him the opportunity to teach the gospel and introduce the Book of Mormon to many of their number.”²²

From a letter written at the time by Oliver Cowdery to Newel K. Whitney in Kirtland, we learn that Oliver and Frederick were teaching school to pay for their support. It is dated April 8, 1831, from Kaw Township (in the area of present-day Kansas City, Missouri) some eleven miles west of Independence:

We have traveled about in this country considerable and proclaimed repentence and many are very serious and honest. Brothers Peter and Ziba started this day to go across the Missouri River to preach by request and myself and Frederick are together and will hold a meeting next Sunday at the house we are teaching school for we concluded that we were able and also willing to Labour with our hands for our support but while we do this we do not forget the ministry and are thankful that our heavenly Father has endowed us with faculties to do this for our support.²³

Williams’s Positive Attitude about His Mission, and a Pending Matter of Law

This same April 8, 1831, letter from Oliver Cowdery goes on to share Williams’s positive attitude about and commitment to his mission, as well as some concerns awaiting him back home: “Broth[er] Frederick wants Bro. Whitney to write the principle names of those brethren who have been baptized of his neighbours since he left[.] Broth[er] Frederick wishes to inform his wife that he is fine that the Lord called him to come to this country and consequently he shall not return until he calls him back again[;] he also informs her that respecting that suit at Law that there can be nothing done on there part more till August term.”²⁴

Principles of Consecration Revealed to the Prophet

Meanwhile, the Prophet and his family had left New York and arrived in Kirtland “about the first of February [1831].”²⁵ It was expected that in the spring many more members of the Church from the eastern states would soon begin arriving as well, “and it became necessary to make definite arrangements for their settlement.”²⁶ On February 9, 1831, the Lord revealed to the Prophet his will concerning the consecration of properties to aid the poor who would soon be arriving; he also gave instructions regarding the purchase of lands for the public benefit of the Church, the building of houses of worship, and a reference to the temple.

And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken. . . . And for the purpose of purchasing lands for the public benefit of the church, and building houses of worship, and building up of the New Jerusalem which is hereafter to be revealed—That my covenant people may be gathered in one in that day when I shall come to my temple. And this I do for the salvation of my people. And it shall come to pass, that he that sinneth and repententh not shall be cast out of the church, and shall not receive again that which he has consecrated unto the poor and the needy of my church, or in other words, unto me.²⁷

Revelation in Absentia

Other revelations soon followed concerning the importance of consecration.²⁸ Although Elder Williams was then serving his mission in Missouri, some 1,000 miles from Kirtland, and had not yet even met the Prophet, nevertheless, Joseph Smith received a revelation from the Lord in May 1831 regarding Elder Williams’s family, his farm property, and his home in Kirtland.

Revelation given May 1831 at Kirtland concerning the farm owned by Frederick and also concerning Joseph [Smith Sr.] & Ezra [Thayre.] . . .

Hearken unto my words and behold I will make known unto you what ye shall do as it shall be pleasing unto me[;] for verily I say unto you it must needs be that ye let the bargain stand that ye have made concerning those farms until it be so fulfilled[.] behold ye are holden for the one even so likewise thine advisary is holden for the other[;] wherefore it must needs be that ye pay no more money for the present time until the contract be fulfilled[;] and let mine aged servant Joseph and his family go into the house after thine advisary is gone[;] and let my servant Ezra board with him[;] and let all the brethren immediately assemble together to put up an house for my servant Ezra[;] and let my servant Fredericks family remain and let the house be prepared and their wants be supplied[;] and when my Servant Frederick returns from the west behold and lo he desireth to take his family in mine own due time unto the west[.] let that which belongeth unto my servant Frederick be secured unto him by deed or bond and thus he willeth that the brethren reap the good thereof[.] let mine aged servant Joseph govern the things of the farm and provide for the families and let him have healp in as much as he standeth in need[.] let my servant Ezra humble himself and at the conference meeting he shall be ordained unto power from on high and he shall go from thence if he be obedient unto my commandments and proclaim my gospel unto the western regions with my servants that must go forth even unto the borders by the Lamanites[;] for behold I have a great work for them to do and it shall be given unto you to know what ye shall do at the conference meeting[.] even so[,] amen.—

What shall the brethren do with the monies[?] ye shall go forth and seek diligently among the brethren and obtain lands and save the money that it may be consecrated to purchase lands in the west for an everlasting inheritance[.] even so[,] Amen.²⁹

More will be said in the next chapter about Frederick’s farm in Kirtland, how he acquired it, and his consecration of it for the benefit of the Church.

In a subsequent revelation received by Joseph Smith in June 1831, Ezra Thayre’s commandment to preach was revoked, and he was commanded to repent and obey the former commandment concerning the place upon which he lived—a direct reference to the unpublished May 1831 revelation.³⁰

In June 1831, Joseph Smith made his first journey to Missouri, arriving there a month later, in the middle of July. He and his seven fellow travelers followed the same general route the five “Lamanite” missionaries had taken the previous winter, although Joseph’s party paid for more public transportation both on land and on water, not just because the weather now permitted it but also in order to accommodate the one woman in their party, Sister Elizabeth Van Benthuysen Gilbert, wife of Algernon Sidney Gilbert.³¹ The following is recorded in the History of the Church:

On the 19th of June, in company with Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Edward Partridge, William W. Phelps, Joseph Coe, Algernon S. Gilbert and his wife, I started from Kirtland, Ohio, for the land of Missouri, agreeable to the commandment before received, wherein it was promised that if we were faithful, the land of our inheritance, even the place for the city of the New Jerusalem, should be revealed. We went by wagon, canal boats, and stages to Cincinnati. . . . We left Cincinnati in a steamer, and landed at Louisville, Kentucky, where we were detained three days in waiting for a steamer to convey us to St. Louis. At St. Louis, myself, Brothers Harris, Phelps, Partridge and Coe, went by land on foot to Independence, Jackson county, Missouri, where we arrived about the middle of July, and the rest of the company came by water a few days later.³²

Meeting the Prophet, the Dedication of the Temple Lot, and the Return Trip

The culmination of Elder Williams’s ten-month missionary labors came with the visit by Joseph Smith Jr. to Missouri. It must have been a thrill to finally meet the prophet of the Lord and to participate with him in several spiritual experiences. History of the Church records the following sentiments about the happy meeting with the Saints in Missouri and Joseph’s impressions of frontier society, both the white settlers and the Native Americans:

The meeting of our brethren, who had long awaited our arrival, was a glorious one, and moistened with many tears. It seemed good and pleasant for brethren to meet together in unity. But our reflections were many, coming as we had from a highly cultivated state of society in the east, and standing now upon the confines or western limits of the United States, and looking into the vast wilderness of those that sat in darkness; how natural it was to observe the degradation, leanness of intellect, ferocity, and jealousy of a people that were nearly a century behind the times, and to feel for those who roamed about without the benefit of civilization, refinement, or religion; yea, and exclaim in the language of the prophets: “When will the wilderness blossom as the rose? When will Zion be built up in her glory, and where will Thy temple stand, unto which all nations shall come in the last days?”³³

On Sunday, a meeting was held beyond the borders of the country, in Indian Territory:

The first Sabbath after our arrival in Jackson county, Brother W. W. Phelps preached to a western audience over the boundary of the United States, wherein were present specimens of all the families of the earth; Shem, Ham and Japheth; several of the Lamanites or Indians—representative of Shem; quite a respectable number of negroes—descendants of Ham; and the balance was made up of citizens of the surrounding country, and fully represented themselves as pioneers of the West. At this meeting two were baptized, who had previously believed in the fullness of the Gospel.³⁴

The Colesville, New York, branch of the Church, numbering some sixty souls, arrived in Missouri on July 25 from Thompsonville, Ohio, and on Tuesday, August 2, 1831, Joseph Smith “helped lay the first log, for a house, as a foundation of Zion in Kaw township, twelve miles west of Independence.” The logs were carried by twelve men representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Sidney Rigdon spoke and dedicated the land.³⁵

The next day, Wednesday, August 3, 1831, Elder Williams was one of eight men who attended the Prophet’s dedication of the site for the temple in Independence.³⁶ Oliver Cowdery records the event thus, as reported by John Whitmer:

The day following [the dedication of the ground where the city of Zion is to stand] eight Elders, viz., Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, Peter Whitmer, Jr., Frederick G. Williams, Wm. W. Phelps, Martin Harris, and Joseph Coe, assembled together where the temple is to be erected. Sidney Rigdon [the day before] dedicated the ground where the city is to Stand, and Joseph Smith, Junior [today] laid a stone at the North east corner of the contemplated Temple in the name of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth. After all present had rendered thanks to the great ruler of the universe, Sidney Rigdon pronounced this Spot of ground wholy dedicated unto the Lord for ever. Amen.³⁷

The brethren returned to Kaw Township on Thursday, August 4, 1831, for the first conference of the Church in Missouri, held at the home of Joshua Lewis. Elder Frederick G. Williams is listed by name as one of the fourteen elders present. The conference opened by singing “Glorious things &tc.” Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith both spoke, Church business was conducted, and the sacrament was administered to the fourteen elders and thirty-one members present.³⁸ In the history of the Church by John Whitmer, he concluded the account of the Lamanite mission to Missouri with the following statement:

Now after the elders that were commanded to go to Missouri had arrived, they held a conference upon that land according to Revelation given in a preceding commandment. And thus they rejoiced together upon the land of Zion. And offered their Sacraments and oblations unto the Lord, for his mercy and goodness, which endureth for ever.

When they had held their sacrament meetings, and the laying of the foundation of the City, and cornerstone of the Temple, the Lord gave commandment to return [to Kirtland].³⁹

In addition to the above-mentioned activities in and around what was called Zion, the Prophet received a total of six revelations while on this journey: four in Jackson County (D&C 57, 58, 59, 60) and two on the way home (D&C 61, 62). Section 61 was given after the famous open vision W. W. Phelps had received at McIlwaine’s Bend of the destroyer riding upon the face of the waters. The commandment to return to Kirtland came on August 8; the revelation was received in answer to the inquiry of the elders as to what they were to do. Among the Lord’s admonitions is this oft-quoted rebuke to missionaries: “But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man.”⁴⁰

The next day, August 9, 1831, Joseph Smith and his party departed Independence for Kirtland; Elder Williams was among them.⁴¹ Ezra Booth, another member of the company, soon apostatized from the Church and began to write a series of antagonistic letters about Joseph Smith and the Mormons. These letters were published in the press, including the Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph. In his eighth installment, “Mormonism No. VIII,” written from Nelson, Portage County, Ohio, on November 21, 1831, Booth, along with insinuating wrongdoing by both Ziba Peterson and Oliver Cowdery, confirmed that Peter Whitmer Jr. and Frederick G. Williams had been among the returning travelers: “While descending the Missouri river, Peter and Frederick, two of my company, divulged a secret respecting Oliver, which placed his conduct on a parallel with Ziba’s; for which Ziba was deprived of his Elder and Apostleship.”⁴²

Death of William W. Williams, Frederick’s Father

On the way home, Williams stopped off at Newburgh near Cleveland to visit his parents and found his father in poor health. Nancy C. Williams reports the following: “The Prophet reached Kirtland August 26th, and Frederick a few days later. He had stopped in Cleveland to visit with his parents and family and was saddened to find his father in ill heath. Very shortly after his return to Kirtland he was summoned to come to Newburg as quickly as possible as his father was rapidly failing. William Wheeler Williams, Senior, passed away September 4, 1831.”⁴³

Corroborating the assertion that Elder Williams had arrived in Kirtland before returning again to Newburgh are the minutes of a conference held in Kirtland on September 1, 1831, which list Frederick G. Williams among the nine elders present.⁴⁴