Autograph Letter Signed. 2pp. + stampless address leaf. To Dr. [Rev. W.R.] Williams, care of his brother, lithographer James Shearman, Sarony & Major, New York.
Destined to become Elder of Mormon emigrants to the California gold fields, a teenaged 49er describes, to his friend, a Baptist Pastor in New York, the first leg of his westward journey. About to cross the “vast extent of plains”, he writes about the “dangers” of river travel on “flimsy” boats and the discomfort of crossing the mountains over muddy roads, packed into old stage coaches.
He had seen the “magnificent scenery” of Virginia; Pittsburgh, “the dirtiest hole I ever was in” (though “the people were the kindest we had met with”), and “pretty”, Cincinnati, “Queen City of the West”, where he attended Church. In general, “the further west we go the worse seems to be the morals of the place. I was shocked to hear the awful profanity…. Indeed morality seems to be at a low ebb, throughout all the Slave States…. And a man cannot express his opinion with regard to Slavery without danger. One of our number saw a man hung in Florida, for doing so, in the presence of Slaves. In St. Louis I saw a Slave sold, a little boy about 10 years old, for $300…. There are plenty of Indians here”, who, he was told, “are a very worthless, drunken thieving set…gathering on the plains in great numbers, to rob the Caravans crossing….”
Shearman was travelling with a large Emigrant Company, “composed of affectionate, good natured, generous, intelligent men” – though none shared his religious fervor - led by a “noble..very handsome" Captain of military bearing who acted “like a father to us”, his only failing being that he did not have “the Love of God in his heart”. As they traveled through towns along the way, he felt “ashamed at first of marching through the Streets with crowds gazing at us, but… Shame has given way to Military pride”, after they were “drilled” by an Army officer in the group, and “passed through with every one’s good wishes, and the admiration of the Ladies.”
Shearman did reach California, by way of Utah, where he was nearly converted by Mormon Apostle Amasa Layman and probably met Brigham Young who would later insure his adherence to Mormonism. Born in England, the son of a Doctor who was a devout Baptist, at 14, he followed his family to New York, joining the Baptist church of the Pastor to whom he wrote this letter. Having experienced a vision of Jesus among the angels, he spent five years as a Methodist preaching in the California gold fields before a letter from Young convinced him to be ordained in Sacramento as travelling Elder of Gold Rush Mormons. He then emigrated to Utah, where he wrote articles for the leading Salt Lake newspaper, was sent to his native England during the American Civil War as a Mormon missionary and ultimately, in 1869, returned to America to break with the Church as a theological dissenter, though he retained the respect of his fellow Mormons, among whom he died in Salt Lake City in 1892.