The Utah Gospel Mission: 1900-1950

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 44, 1976, No. 2

The Utah Gospel Mission,1900-1950

BY STANLEY B. KIMBALL

THE MISSIONARY ACTIVITY OF VARIOUS Christian denominations in the Mormon settlements of Utah and neighboring states bears witness to the commitment and zeal of the organizers and workers and reveals a story unique to the Intermountain West. These attempts to "Christianize" the Mormons, while fascinating, are largely forgotten today. However, one such venture, the Utah Gospel Mission, was well documented by photographs that came to light in 1971 when Bowling Green State University, Ohio, acquired some papers of Rev. John Danforth Nutting who organized the mission in 1900.

Nutting was born March 8, 1854, at Randolph Center, Vermont, not ten miles from the Sharon birthplace of Joseph Smith, Jr., whose church was to be the target of the Congregational minister's educational effort. Nutting's parents, determined that their children "be able to attend a truly Christian college . . . unhampered by 'secret societies,' " moved the family to Illinois where John attended Wheaton College, receiving his master's degree in 1881. Convinced of his call to the ministry, Nutting entered Oberlin Theological Seminary. He completed his studies in 1885 and was ordained as a Congregational minister.

After serving pastorates in several states Nutting was called to the Plymouth Congregational Church in Salt Lake City in 1892. There he began to study Mormonism and to assess the difficulty of reaching Mormons with the Protestant message. A new kind of Christian missionary work was called for. His fellow ministers "commissioned Mr. Nutting to 'go back east' and find out what could be done." When many possibilities had been investigated, the Utah Gospel Mission was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1900 with Nutting as secretary. He managed the mission's activities for the next half-century.

Nutting's work to "save" the Mormons was carried out primarily by "wagon missionaries," a traveling ministry that went from place to place in large canvas-covered wagons and, later, motorized vans. Living three to a vehicle, they traveled to Mormon areas in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana the year around, calling at homes, passing out literature, and holding indoor and outdoor meetings wherever possible. In short, they followed quite closely the Mormon missionary system—fighting fire with fire as it were.

Many missionaries came to Utah in answer to appeals for their services. Nutting carefully planned their travels.

The men are asked to give one year to the work with all expenses paid. A number have given much more. It was not unusual to see Mr. Nutting standing by his desk near a window studying road maps. He must find the way to reach all villages and hamlets and to prevent back travel where possible. If the force is full they separate for small places and bring the whole force together for the larger towns. In general the plan is to travel north in the summer and camp in shade. In the fall they turn south and seek sunny spots for stopping.

Although the Utah Gospel Mission was not a great success, the missionaries certainly tried hard. By 1935, for example, the central Mormon region had been worked over seven times; 381,510 house-tohouse calls had been made, over forty-five million pages of literature had been distributed, and over forty thousand Bibles had been sold or given away. The now defunct venture might well be studied in greater detail.

While these zealous missionaries failed to convert large numbers of Mormons, they did leave Utahns a precious visual heritage—more than one hundred glass negatives, mostly dating from the 1910s to the 1930s— depicting Utah towns, streets, churches and other buildings, and the missionaries themselves. The collection is unusual in several ways: it includes rare photographs of interiors, hard-to-find non-Mormon churches, new views of towns and buildings, and, of course, the Utah Gospel Mission personnel and equipage. The photographs reproduced on the following pages will serve to memorialize this mission to the Mormons.

Missionaries traveled vast distances in wagons, horse-drawn at first and later motorized, to bring tent meetings and children's classes to the farflung, sparsely populated Mormon settlements. All photographs in this section are courtesy of Bowling

Green State University.

Banners proclaim the enthusiasm of church workers in Utah. Zeal, combined with the need to give children a good education, led to classes held in many towns. The motto on the classroom wall shows the religious emphasis. The missionaries were also committed to study, often in solitude at makeshift desks in their wagons.

From the top: Rare pftotograph of the interior of a log home shows a "Mormon couch" against the wall behind the table. Other valuable documentary photographs show the town of Pleasant Grove, the old Provo Fifth Ward, and the Nebo Stake Tabernacle in Payson.

Left and below: The missionaries photographed many buildings such as these two churches that are now difficult to identify. These unknowns intrigue and challenge the detective in every historian.

Even the smallest settlement attracted the wagon missionaries. The brush-covered hills and rubble-rock commercial building are typical of many small Intermountain towns. Right: pendence Hall in Salt Lake City, a true community meetinghouse, was used by Jews, itians, fraternal lodges, and other groups.

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