Lysander Mason Davis, the First Latter-day Saint Missionary to Proselytize in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina

For the date March 9, 1842, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that he “attended Court at Hyrum Smiths office whare Lysander M. Davis was found guilty of slandering the character of Joseph Smith & was bound over to keep the peace under $100 bond. After court was over Joseph Smith & the Twelve supped upon a rost Turkey with sister Hyde.”1 It appears that Woodruff inserted the wrong date into his journal. There is no court record for a trial on March 9th, nor is there evidence of a meal of roast turkey for the Twelve that evening at Sister Hyde's home. Both of those events occurred the following day on March 10, 1842. Significantly more troubling, however, is Woodruff's identification of Lysander M. Davis as the party found guilty of slandering Joseph Smith. At the time of the trial, Lysander M. Davis was almost 900 miles away in South Carolina faithfully laboring as a missionary for the Church.2It is certain that Woodruff inserted into his journal the wrong date and the wrong first name and middle initial for the Davis who was convicted. It was, in fact, Amos Davis (no relation) who appeared before a Nauvoo court on March 10, 1842. Records from the proceeding contain the affidavit of Joseph Smith before Mayor John C. Bennett wherein a type of slander charge was made by Smith against Amos Davis, based on an occurrence the preceding day in the home of Amos Davis. A jury of twelve men heard the testimony of several witnesses before finding Amos Davis guilty of the misdemeanor as charged.3 Unfortunately, Woodruff's mistaken identification of Lysander M. Davis4 has been repeated by modern historians, resulting in Davis's becoming largely forgotten and ignored—and occasionally unfavorably misrepresented. Such neglect and misrepresentation have obscured his important early missionary efforts and subsequent commendable life in the South.Presented below is the untold and unappreciated story of an inadvertently defamed and long-forgotten man, the first missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to proselytize in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina: Lysander Mason Davis. It is hoped that this article will fill a void in recorded church history.Lysander Mason Davis, hereinafter Davis, was born on April 7, 1816, in Reading, Windsor County, Vermont, the son of Eliakim Davis (1775–1850)5 and Olive Hawthorne Davis (1776–1844).6 Both of Davis's grandfathers fought as colonial soldiers in the American Revolution.7Davis was educated in the common one-room log schoolhouse in Reading, where reading, writing, and spelling were emphasized.8 In his youth, Davis acquired excellent handwriting skills, which served him well throughout his life. In addition to his mastery of the mechanics of cursive writing by the time he terminated his academic schooling at age fourteen, he developed the ability to express himself with eloquence, as demonstrated in various letters he would later pen as a young adult missionary to the South and as an adult writer of letters, business documents, and history.9In 1830, Davis's father, Eliakim, sold his farm and moved from Reading to Errol, New Hampshire. Davis, a fourteen-year-old, embarked on an independent life rather than moving with his family to New Hampshire. Wrote Davis regarding his adventurous youth, “I wandered westward, lived in Iowa, California, [and] sailed on the Pacific Ocean to Panama.”10 Traveling as a teenager through untamed Mexican and Indian territories, living in California, and sailing to Panama in the early 1830s engendered personal confidence and prepared Davis for his future travels as an unaccompanied missionary.The exact date and place that Davis was baptized into the Church is not known, but it was likely in the early part of 1836 in the Kirtland area, about the time that Davis turned twenty. His earliest recorded connection to the Church indicates that about July 1836, Reynolds Cahoon turned over to the Church a note for six dollars from L. M. Davis, along with donative notes from others.11In Kirtland, Davis was ordained an elder in the Church on December 28, 1836, during a regular meeting of the Kirtland elders’ quorum.12 Also, in 1836, Davis became a modest original shareholder in the Kirtland Safety Society. He bought forty shares of stock on November 9, 1836, at twenty-six cents per share.13 He signed the “Articles of Kirtland Safety Society” on January 2, 1837.14Like many faithful members of the Church, Davis followed the admonition of church leaders to gather to Zion in Jackson County, Missouri. The time frame for Davis's departure from Kirtland appears to have been shortly before July 1, 1837. A notice published in the Painesville Telegraph on October 13, 1837, advised Davis and four others that they had unclaimed mail in the Kirtland Mills Post Office since July 1, 1837.15Davis suffered through the Missouri persecutions of 1838. Despite the danger, Davis remained in Missouri following the forced expulsion of the main body of the Church, refusing to abandon Joseph Smith and other Latter-day Saint leaders who were incarcerated in the Liberty Jail during the winter of 1838–39.16Davis was still in Missouri on January 28, 1839, when he executed a short-term (one-day) promissory note to Willard Snow for $12.00.17 Davis was in Far West on January 31, 1839, when he served as the recorder of a patriarchal blessing that was bestowed by patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr. upon John Scott, a twenty-seven-year-old native of Ireland.18Davis left Missouri and, by the summer of 1839, was living in the area on the east side of the Mississippi River in Illinois that would later become Nauvoo. But Davis would not live in the area for long.In the late summer of 1839, twenty-three-year-old Davis was called to serve a mission to the South with no specified term of service and with little direction.19 Davis departed for his mission from Nauvoo without a companion.20Davis passed through Alabama en route to his primary mission assignment in South Carolina. In obedience to the earlier 1831 counsel given by Joseph Smith to the traveling elders of the Church, Davis engaged in “preaching the word by the way” (Doctrine and Covenants 52:9). Confirming his presence in Alabama, an 1878 history of the city of Montgomery records: October 7, 1839:A Mormon preacher delivered a sermon in the old21 Court House in this city. He was the first representative of Joe Smith's fanatics who visited Montgomery.22There is no record of the number of people attending the meeting, but the presence of a Latter-day Saint preacher would likely have aroused considerable curiosity at the time, hence the need for holding the meeting in the largest public facility in town. Strange (or with a living modern from the of to as the and various to modern likely in the of as well as an to have been by Joseph from Davis's in in Davis en route to his South Carolina Davis a with to his his date in South about a in as in his first to the and and Davis's likely route of was from Georgia, through a called and South Carolina on the and time his presence in Montgomery and he would have an of about twelve miles per Davis of for more than It is that missionary Davis from to about the Church traveling the of the that Davis was the first Latter-day Saint missionary to proselytize in in South Carolina in late October early November of Davis has been the of the first Latter-day Saint missionary to in South to members of the Church in South Davis was to hereinafter who had of his and about Joseph Smith's was his of the of Mormon and other church with in South have no journal which Davis's as a have the of four letters by Davis published in and December 1839, following church in Davis a which appeared the in and He that he had been in South Carolina more than a which a time for his in Montgomery on October 7, his Davis first found M. with and with have found an the found a who through the of and the of his were in the Davis on to that he had baptized four and that there were of of of that of Jesus Christ He that his had in of from and December 1839, well upon the and of the upon he had for and during his of and is to the of for in travels during the six through as many as from the Mississippi to the He has not at time left at without a place to nor without to the of March in Davis that was at in in the and After that he had baptized Davis have elders to who will faithful as to to by the of for they in this part of of was by the of a that Latter-day Saint would in the South for several to Davis's The from Davis was on April he was incarcerated in the His of the was in the of a and the He that they had him to for and against him as with and in that him in to the Davis was of certain South the in charge of the who with the that the will for he and the that for they have on his of the and for the of Davis was that he would and that the people of South Carolina would the members of the Church than the people of Missouri were against Davis, by the of The first charge was for and the charge was for The South Carolina of and on a of court to Davis's and the subsequent court and the following is from those court charge was a family with to sister was the of a by Davis. and of were as witnesses in the as April the who signed by his before the of the that had to and that on about the day of December 1839, Lysander M. Davis by from of a in the of a and cents in to his Sister of a for the of Davis was and John the to before the jury for October Davis was from by and his M. Davis had been for before on of the of the time that Davis first in affidavit was to the almost four the had and Davis had with considerable missionary It is that was not the of the and the not to the for than a before the trial witnesses were to for the witnesses were and of the the trial date witnesses were as witnesses for Davis. and and were as witnesses for the as well as the October 2, the were as witnesses for October four witnesses for Davis were October 10, before the was to Davis more witnesses to in his October the day for the to to the signed a that his was to to court and that not without on that day to ability to a of the He a charge against Davis, before that Davis had in Davis's that was in the and that Davis's had of testimony from witnesses in to have Davis and the of for and Davis on a of which the of of Davis's future and C. In with the of a of the was The against Davis were to to the jury at the term of which would not March court record is during the the day of the term of the jury Davis's The jury a for Davis's for there was evidence to to Davis with Davis was on the and of the on his in that were from charge was with on March the day that the jury for that the of the signed the following to with the in this by a and this the term of the Court since the It is that the and his and they from in this and hence without and the against October Davis a from to the traveling of the Church of the Latter-day in to a from which to with A of Davis's was published in the and that he had baptized more for a of in the were and he to where he was the at which time he would to throughout the Davis with the of which a considerable of and occasionally to the of the The of not but that they and that in the of his with the that he would to church in Nauvoo as as his he upon his missionary service “I have passed through since have been in the and have and but the the has delivered of and upon than they have been to in South Carolina throughout The he in Latter-day Saint A personal journal by 1842, his meeting Davis on the at in the of where found L. M. Davis an of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day which and He has been laboring in this for and six and has a little of Saints in the service of the in his journal that he was in the of Davis when letters to and M. who was in from that journal that had to Georgia, where he was laboring as a missionary for the Davis was in in early of In a from to Joseph Smith and 1842, L. M. Davis is that Davis that was a the had that has to Davis's becoming is an In the of the Church for March 10, 1842, Joseph Smith the the evening trial at the of Nauvoo Amos Davis, for and about at the day The were by the testimony of Davis was found guilty by the and by the bound over to keep the peace six under $100 which to the office with and supped with the Twelve and who were the evening with Sister in the court with the in the of the for Davis, there is an record that has his Wilford Woodruff Lysander Davis as the guilty not Amos Davis. the character of Joseph Smith was an that a than a and by faithful Latter-day Woodruff's journal became an there developed a that Davis was found guilty of slandering Joseph Smith. Woodruff's journal for without the need for A a Woodruff journal and the Church history record a C. to at the of the Church Woodruff's journal and Lysander Davis would to was found of slandering the character of Joseph for in on Smith's In addition to Davis into a teenager by his age by a and a connection Davis and Bennett and on to name Davis as a of to that has been the of other by and published a for the Kirtland that the wrong and the wrong place for missionary service for Mason at Reading, as missionary in The Church indicates that Davis was born in Reading, with Davis to his In early missionary in South to Davis as M. was by date that Davis his missionary in South Carolina is not There is no record of an from his nor is there an of his missionary There is no evidence that Davis to Nauvoo at the of his 1, about his recorded missionary Davis a young in The was by a native of was at the time of the was a of this was published in the July 10, of the Nauvoo was to than before the of Joseph Smith and his Hyrum Smith. than four Davis was in he a to October in which Davis not himself to a Davis's the of elders in his area, and His a in the and he was of the during an the indicates that Davis had the of following the of Joseph and his were living in when first was born him Lysander Davis the of Church members to a of the was The earliest of Latter-day Saints would not in the the summer and of But Davis and his young family were not were in a with an to with the the Davis family moved about miles from to County, that had sold his and his and with him to in the of County, Davis's and was about miles of home. Davis's a son Eliakim Davis, was born in on January son was for Davis's elder Davis, a and home in served for many as a for the Davis of as at a was likely to the that of had from South Carolina to and were in the and acquired in by from the and of South in Alabama a the of his Davis was the Latter-day Saint living in The in this was by by Davis, however, was to people and as his primary had not his to with the main body of the to Alabama in appears to have been to with Saints in the For the living in Alabama to the Mississippi a to that no later than Davis embarked on an to the main body of the Church in the The first of the about miles to the east of the Mississippi River in County, the for was Davis, his and Lysander and Eliakim, were living His was as a which was the that he upon his in A Davis with excellent writing would have been in as a with during of have to to in Mississippi that A they Mason Davis was born in on January 13, late with he had been to Davis his family the Mississippi River by The Mississippi River was to during the late time frame to In they a route the traveling to the of is that en route to Iowa, Davis and visited the city of which have been his In Davis have the city that his departure for his mission Davis would likely have visited the the been by an in the of and the been by a in the late of and family in Iowa, than forty miles of and about miles east of a of Latter-day Saints still living in of the in the where Latter-day Saint were for to the time in Iowa, the Davis family an early winter that was The for in December was below and the that was more than The Davis family the as they with the December of and was during of and on January a Olive Davis was born in later time that Davis and to to Zion and to The they before is for this not but several to were likely the Mississippi River was and the family was forced to more and more by The of finding the in and for have been a of and have been at There were other under age to of Nauvoo and the in a of have on Davis's a had passed since his with the about his original to a have his to the of and of the Davis family to in and remained from the main body of the Olive Davis on the Davis family was living in than at his home in following a over the preceding several a of people visited his home for the and Davis, who lived about were not of type were in the home at the on the of will was in April of The in the will was and of the advised the court for notice that in an that the Davis family have in during the January and of will and his and to other than to were still to Davis. The will to L. M. Davis the of dollars living and L. M. Davis is It appears that the who prepared the C. of Alabama, in County, an that Davis the in for the to his to have will a for his Davis. Such appears to have had more to with Davis's than his before his will was a based upon the of with his and signed a to missionary Davis of the South was to a from the in the of The which had no to for the of personal under the the was to have as to his personal of this became to a in and and on At an on October 10, Davis several at a farm and a family to his in and his ability to and him to a in the of He the following in a history that of his was to the as an and had a for to the likely the of that his from and the of his called the with to the members of the that the were to to the of the his as a The in the Office of that Davis, in his as a was a party in with dollars in the of over dollars to the that the of an Davis not to for had but but was to the of that made the of the to on Davis's as a evidence that he not as a The Davis was in the of the area of the Post place Davis the of his the for there were and who had place of in the His would by the of the December 13, Davis for dollars the of in the of father, by Davis a in and a in of and the of the Alabama the for the those had been before the which was in time, Davis acquired the of four other his Davis with the of the the His the other with he would to of those other was an age at the time of Davis's of his initial his it is that Davis his for A to to would have his in with many others over the of the After the Davis was to at public and four of a in the that were no by who have suffered from during at age on in left living for Davis to the 31, about the of Davis the in The was by M. of the For before Davis had with the of in into the family Davis with a of and that he would not have many with a was with a to 28, during the later of the Davis's Lysander Davis, in the The teenager to Illinois in to his Davis was to Illinois The that Davis's son became a Davis's and in and had first and a of would on to have six the number that he and Davis's was born in when Davis was age for the of was in the handwriting of Davis. He was the and for the Davis his of as and his as a and Davis became the of Davis his in an to Davis, who published a In the Davis's was by the with is a by and has suffered for the the South against the he to with and has remained a to the his which an writing Davis the he had in as a during and the In to the Davis the of of was by the which as and passed away from as the before the occurred before Davis's to the of the writing that his American on the of July at the of his he his is with of men who the at and and to the In fact, the life of no is the of time, Davis's as a of the Davis, as the for the Post which had been in He served in that for was living with his in the of when the was Davis, served as a He his as in from the and from Davis would have been in the of the on his by the common at the the his service as Davis, for the office of for the of Alabama, “I was a on the for but to the of the time, was The a party by of a of and Davis's for not in He is not as a in the and his name is not in of the the for that The party to to on The that Davis was well as a party that his and were still the Davis, and his of were still living in the of of were with January Davis of his to various The that Davis's were to a Latter-day Saint in Alabama, Davis was the of that and a of of per were to the which the time of Davis's in Alabama, there were no with Latter-day Saint other There was an in Davis's area during his of Davis's became members of is no evidence to that Davis his with the Church from Iowa, and more his to His appears to have been he from public to peace in his his in the him to his with repeated of his to the him to on for however, that the of his Davis was in his holding and his original of the of in on December At Davis lived for a time in with his Davis at his home in on October a He was His were in the the Davis was by four and from of his of Davis his first to members of the It is at this writing, that of his living in and that the of the first missionary from the Church to proselytize in Alabama, Georgia, and South an of Davis's a Latter-day Saint was and Alabama, miles of Davis's home in The is the Latter-day Saint in this article will the of Davis from and the Latter-day Saint and an for the personal he made for the of his and for his to his an of will to a more of his Davis has been occasionally he has been the of a character have and to a of in He is of the which has of Davis was a this of his a American Davis was a young in a one-room log he was an adventurous to in the early through to and he was an early to a and with no family he was a church with a and a faithful to his at the of his church he served time for as an and unaccompanied becoming the missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to he was a and he was a who his family from South Carolina to Alabama, to and to in a to gather to he was a and a he was a American and in the of family and living in the of and he was the and of a and a and he was a a and a for he was the writer of letters and documents, and a and recorder for he was an for a public office who for and he was a faithful to and the to twelve name Lysander Mason Davis to in for the he made to the Church, the and his of