Daniel Webster Jones and His Exchange with Isaac Morley

Orphaned at the age of eleven, Daniel Webster Jones traveled from his home in Missouri to the western United States in 1847 with a company of volunteer soldiers who went to fight in the U.S.-Mexican War. “Gambling, swearing, fighting, and other rough conduct” were part of his every day activity he later wrote in his autobiography.^[1]Forty Years among the Indians, Salt Lake City, Utah: Juvenile Instructor Office. So Daniel Webster Jones in his early years seemed an unlikely person to join the Church, spend forty years proselyting among the American Indians, and with little formal training in Spanish help make the first Spanish translation from the Book of Mormon. As it happened, he was a good person to do all of these things.^[2]Jack McAllister, The Unlikely Convert: Daniel Webster Jones, Ensign, June 1988.

He does not talk about his early life, but somewhere he had gained a strong belief in God. During the three years he spent in Mexico with the volunteer army, he “took part in many ways in the wild, reckless life that was common in the army;” but still would not partake of “strong drink and other worse vices that I could see were destroying the lives of my friends.”

Because of his lifestyle, he says, “I felt condemned, and often asked God in all seriousness to help me to see what was right, and how to serve Him; telling Him I wanted to know positively, and not be deceived.” In his rough way, he felt that people living in his time were entitled to a prophet too; that it was not right “to leave them without anything but the Bible.”

He left Mexico in 1850 with a large trading company traveling to Salt Lake City. On the way, he was badly wounded by a gun accident, but managed to survive until his companions got him to the Latter-day Saint settlements near Provo, south of Salt Lake City.

In that day, the Saints were often ridiculed by travelers, but when he overheard some of his friends reading the Doctrine and Covenants and making fun of it, he thought of his prayer asking for modern revelation. He left his companions, moved in with a Latter-day Saint family, and began investigating the gospel as he recovered from his injury. “Everyone was kind and treated me with great confidence,” he remembered. “I listened to the elders preaching and soon concluded they were honest and knew it, or were deliberate liars and deceivers. I was determined, if possible, not to be fooled, therefore I commenced to watch very closely.” He was particularly impressed by the lack of bitterness that Latter-day Saints felt toward the Indians, in spite of recent battles.

When he learned about the Book of Mormon, “it seemed natural to me to believe it. I cannot remember ever questioning in my mind the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, or that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The question was: Are the Mormons sincere, and can I be one?” When he decided that he could be, he spoke to Isaac Morley, who had been one of the first converts to the Church in Ohio.^[3]Ibid.

On January 27, 1851, he approached Isaac Morley with his questions. One historian writes, “About the time of Manti’s first civic election Daniel Webster Jones,  a man possessing a similar name to that of Manti’s first mayor gazed upon Manti while en-route to California with intentions of mining gold. Jones had strong inclinations toward the church but argued that he would make a better Mormon if he were to travel to California, secure a fortune in gold, and return and be baptized. Evidently he was not completely converted to his own philosophy since he sought advice from several brethren including Father Isaac Morley.^[4]Isaac would be 65 years old in 1851. When Jones arrived at the Stake President’s home he found Morley with an ax in his hand and ready to start chopping wood.

During the course of their conversation Jones was touched by the spirit of conversion and requested baptism from Father Morley who replied, “I am ready, here is my ax to cut the ice. I have been expecting this for some time.”

Subsequently Jones and Morley walked to city creek where they chopped a hole through one foot of ice and the baptismal ordinance was performed. Sometime after his baptism Jones told a friend that since he hadn’t confided with anyone about his intentions, he didn’t know why President Morley was expecting him to come and request baptism.^[5]Daniel Jones, Forty years among the Indians, Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office 1890, p. 41.

After his baptism, Jones spent 23 years in and around Utah working to build the kingdom. In 1874 he was called by Brigham Young to serve a mission in Mexico. Jones would work on the translation of the Book of Mormon into Spanish, experiencing miracles along the way.^[6]Jones worked with a man, Mileton Trejo, who had much more experience in Spanish than he. Trejo remarked that in many instances Jones had a better grasp of the nuances of Spanish in their translation … Continue reading The Book of Mormon Spanish translation was completed in 1886 by Brothers Trejo and James Z. Stewart. The initial work of the Spanish translation of the Book of Mormon was begun by a faithful, obedient servant of the Lord, Daniel Webster Jones, an orphaned boy from Missouri, who the Lord knew.^[7]I am indebted to the connections brought to light by the article of Jack McAllister. For more information on this translation and its subsequent revision, see his article. The Lord worked through this man to put the Book of Mormon into the hands of millions of our Spanish brothers and sisters today, who have come to know the Lord in ways they never thought they would. The Lord is truly the God of widows and orphans.^[8]Yahweh as the God of widows and orphans is something I find all over in the Old Testament. The fatherless, יָתוֹם- are mentioned throughout the text. For example, Deuteronomy 10.17-19, which … Continue reading

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