Description
This collection chiefly contains records documenting
the work of William Young Empey (1808-1890) in England and America
as an agent of the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF) of the Mormon Church, chiefly dating from
the early 1850s. There are also letters relating to Empey's service as a missionary in
England and to his personal affairs in later life.
Background
William Adam Empey (1808-1890) was born July 4, 1808 in modern-day Ontario Province, Canada. He returned to the United States,
the birthplace of his parents and grandparents, sometime
before the year 1844. Although the date and place of his conversion to Mormonism is not
known, he became involved in the Mormon Church before the exodus from Nauvoo and was
"sealed" to Brigham Young as an "adopted son". From this point on, he abandoned his first
middle name and used "Young" quite frequently. In 1847, he participated in Brigham Young's
pioneer expedition to the Great Salt Lake Valley. He never reached the Valley, however, for
Young selected Empey and eight other members of the party to operate the first Mormon ferry
at Upper Crossing on the North Platte River. After arriving in the Valley with a later
emigrant party, he served on the Iron County Mission which settled
Parowan in southern Utah. Then, in 1852, he was called to a mission in England, and
from 1852 through 1854, William Young Empey played an important role in the operations of
the PEF. During his
two-year stint, while still preaching the Church's gospel abroad, he was ordered home to
America and appointed to oversee all preparations of the overland parties in Missouri during
the 1853-54 travel season. When the Utah territorial legislature incorporated the Perpetual Emigrating Company, more
commonly known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund (PEF), in 1850, the Mormon "gathering of Zion"
entered a new phase. Although Mormon converts had often been encouraged to migrate from
their present locations to join the main body of believers, little institutional support had
been provided for them. With the establishment of the PEF, however, the Church committed
itself to financing in part or in full the emigration of impoverished Saints converted by
its increasingly successful overseas missions. Drawing in large measure upon the
contributions of the members of the Church already settled in Utah, the PEF assisted nearly
10,000 Saints in emigrating to Zion just between 1852 and 1855. PEF agents, in cooperation
with representatives of the Church's British Mission, organized companies of emigrants early
each year, funneling them through the English port of Liverpool and across the Atlantic on
chartered steamers to New Orleans. From there, river steamers carried the emigrants and
their supplies up the Mississippi to St. Louis and then up the Missouri
to frontier communities such as Westport, the precursor of modern Kansas City, Missouri
which served as the jumping-off points for overland wagon trains destined for the Great Salt
Lake Valley. Other PEF agents in New Orleans, St. Louis and the Missouri frontier towns
received this human cargo, ministered to their needs and forwarded them on to their next
stop. These agents dealt with steamship lines, freighters and merchants throughout the
Mississippi and Missouri river valleys, hiring transportation to carry their charges to the
edge of the settlements and purchasing the enormous quantities of provisions and equipment
necessary to outfit each overland party.
Restrictions
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or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.