In the summer of 1837, the “Mormon” missionaries1 came through our Berkshire neighborhood and worked mighty changes in our family. We have no record that Jason himself joined with the Latter-day Saints, but his wife and children did. On the first page of the first number of the Elders’ Journal, Wilford Woodruff (later to be the fourth president of the Church) reported:
“To Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Church of Latter day Saints in Kirtland, Greeting:…We…give you an account of our labors in the ministry since we left Kirtland…We left Kirtland May 31 and took steamboat at Fairport…we went to Colebrook, visited different parts of the town and held eight meetings; from thence we went to Canton….”
Whether this was the Stillmans’ first contact with the “Mormons,” or whether they had already moved to Westmoreland and met them there somewhat later, it is certain that Harriet, all three of her children, and Jason’s younger brother Dexter were soon part of the “Mormon” gathering. And Jason, whether dead or just estranged, seems not to have been with them.
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Wilford Woodruff2
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