1820-1839, Early Years of Church History: 5 Families and 11 First Converts

Five couples joined the Church as the first converts in their families in the early period before Nauvoo.  Samuel Parker, Sr., married Mary Elizabeth Gifford.  These 11 first converts represent the following extended families:

1.      Alpheus and Anna Nash Gifford

2.      Enos and Ruth Franklin Curtis

3.      Edmund and Lana Pickle Durfee

4.      Welcome and Susan Risley Chapman

5.      Josiah and Pernecia Adair Hawkins

The period of 1820 to 1839 were formative years for the Church as the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times was ushered in with the restoration of Priesthood keys and the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Kingdom of God on the earth. 

These early years were marked by intense adversities, persecutions and trials for the Latter-day Saints. 

The new nation of the United States of America captured the attention of the rest of the world of older nation states. 

Major controversies included slavery in this new nation divided north vs south over the institution of slavery.  This was a period between establishing the independent constitutional republic, a federal nation of states, and the great Civil War between the Union in the North and the Confederacy in the South. 

New discoveries in science, medicine, and technology included…..

Other world events included….

The only President of the Church during these years was Joseph Smith, Jr., the Prophet of the Restoration. 

The presidents of the U.S. were:

James Monroe, March 4, 1817 to March 4, 1825

John Quincy Adams, March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829

Andrew Jackson, March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837

Martin Van Buren, March 4, 1837 to March 4, 1841

States grew from 23 in 1820 to 26 in 1839.

Delaware became a state Dec. 7, 1787, Pennsylvania in Dec. 12, 1787, New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787,  Georgia Jan. 2, 1788, Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788, Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788, Maryland Apr. 28, 1788, South Carolina May 23, 1788, New Hampshire June 21, 1788, Virginia June 25, 1788, New York July 26, 1788, North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789, Rhode Island became the 13^th state May 29, 1790, Vermont Mar. 4, 1791, Kentucky June 1, 1792, Tennesee June 1, 1796, Ohio Mar. 1, 1803, Louisiana Apr. 30, 1812, Indiana Dec. 11, 1816, Mississippi Dec. 10, 1817, Illinois Dec. 3, 1818, Alabama Dec. 14, 1819, Maine became the 23^rd state Mar. 15, 1820, a the time the Final Dispensation began.  Over the next two decades, Missouri Aug. 10, 1821, Arkansas June 15, 1836, and Michigan Jan. 26, 1837, making 26 states by the end of the early period of Church history. 

The population grew from 9.6 million in 1820 to 17 million by 1840. 

The GNP grew from $_____ to $_____ in current dollars. 

The economic and banking system can be described as ….

Federal income taxes were nonexistent.  State taxes ….

The size of the public sector compared to the private sector was ….

1820
U.S. population: 9,638,453.

English writer Sydney Smith asks: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue?"

March 3: The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. Missouri is admitted as a slave state, and Maine (up to then a part of Massachusetts) is admitted as a free state.

April 24: The Land Act of 1820 reduces the price of land to $1.25 an acre for a minimum of 80 acres (down from $1.64 per acre for a minimum of 160 acres).

1821
Emma Hart Willard opens the Troy Female Seminary, the first institution in the United States to offer a high school education for girls.

Benjamin Lundy publishes an early antislavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation.

1822
Stephen F. Austin establishes an American colony in Texas.

The American Colonization Society founds Liberia as a colony for free blacks from the United States.

May-June: Denmark Vesey, a former slave who had purchased his freedom after winning a lottery, organizes an insurrection in Charleston, S.C. After several slaves informed their masters of the plot, 131 blacks were arrested and 35 were hanged.

1823
December 2: Responding to a fear that Russia would seize control of the Pacific Coast and that European powers would assist Spain in reclaiming its New World colonies, President James Monroe announces what has become known as the Monroe Doctrine. He declares that the Western Hemisphere is closed to further European colonization and threatens to use force to stop further European interventions in the Americas.

1824
"The Red Harlot of Infidelity," Frances Wright, arrives from Scotland, and lectures publicly on birth control, women's rights, and abolition.

1825
January 3: In Indiana, Robert Owen establishes New Harmony, the first secular utopian community.

1826
The Anti-Masonic Party was founded after William Morgan of Batavia, N.Y., was kidnapped and presumably murdered after he threatens to publish a book revealing the secrets of the Masonic Order.

July 4: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1827
Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm publish the first African American newspapers, Freedom's Journal.

Massachusetts enacts the first law requiring every community with 500 or more families to establish a high school.

1829
David Walker, a free black living in Boston, issues his militant Appeal, demanding the abolition of slavery and an end to racial discrimination.

April 6: Mexico forbids further U.S. immigration into Texas and reconfirms its constitutional prohibition on slavery.

1830
U.S. population: 12,866,020.

January 27: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" In his celebrated debate with Sen. Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina over federal land policy, Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts rejected the idea that the states could nullify federal laws.

April 6: Joseph Smith founds the Mormon Church.

April 13: At a Jefferson day dinner, Jackson expresses his opposition to the doctrine of nullification, proposing a toast: "Our Union: It must be preserved." Vice President John C. Calhoun responded: "The Union, next to our liberty, most dear!"

May 28: President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Acts, which promises financial compensation to Indian tribes that agree to resettle on lands west of the Mississippi River.

September 25: The first national Negro convention is held in Philadelphia.

1831
January 1: A 25-year-old Bostonian, William Lloyd Garrison, publishes the first issue of the Liberator, the first publication dedicated to immediate emancipation of slaves without compensation to their owners. He promises: "I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE HEARD."

August: William Miller predicts that the second coming of Christ was imminent and that "cleansing by fire" would occur between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

August 21: Nat Turner, a Baptist preacher, leads a slave insurrection in southern Virginia, which provokes a debate in the Virginia legislature about whether slavery should be abolished.

1832
John Kaspar Spurzheim of Vienna introduces phrenology into America. Phrenology, an early example of the science of human behavior, taught that a person's character could be determined by studying the shape of a person's skull.

January 21: Sen. William Marcy of New York defends the Spoils System of party patronage with the phrase, "To the victor belong the spoils."

April 6: The Black Hawk War begins when Black Hawk, chief of the Sauk Indians, crosses the Mississippi River to plant corn on the tribe's old fields in Illinois. The Sauks had ceded their lands in exchange for new land in Iowa, but were unable to support themselves there. Capt. Abraham Lincoln and Lieut. Jefferson Davis took part in the conflict. The Sauk surrendered in August, after many older men, women, and children were massacred in Wisconsin while carrying white flags.

August: The United States's first school for the blind opens under the direction of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe.

November 24: South Carolina declares the federal tariff null and void.

December 28: John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President to resign, after he is elected as a Senator from South Carolina.

1833
Samuel Colt introduces the "six-shooter," the first handgun with a revolving barrel.

Massachusetts becomes the last state to end tax support for churches.

March 2: President Andrew Jackson signs Henry Clay's compromise Tariff of 1833, which reduces duties on imported goods, and the Force Act, authorizing him to use military force enforce the federal tariff.

March 15: South Carolina revokes its Ordinance of Nullification. Three days later, it nullifies the Force Act.

September 23: Andrew Jackson fires his Secretary of the Treasury for refusing to withdraw government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and place them in state banks.

November 24: South Carolina declares the federal tariff null and void. 

December 3: The first coeducational college in the United States, Oberlin, opens, with a class of 29 men and 15 women. In 1835, Oberlin became the first college to admit African Americans.

December 4: The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Philadelphia.

December 28: John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President after to resign, after he is elected as a Senator from South Carolina. 

1833 
March 2: President Andrew Jackson signs Henry Clay's compromise Tariff of 1833, which reduces duties on imported goods, and the Force Act, authorizing him to use military force enforce the federal tariff. 

March 15: South Carolina revokes its Ordinance of Nullification. Three days later, it nullifies the Force Act. 

September 23: Andrew Jackson fires his Secretary of the Treasury for refusing to withdraw government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and place them in state banks. 

1834
Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna overthrows Mexico's constitutional government.

March 28: The U.S. Senate votes to censure Andrew Jackson for removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States, accusing the President of having "assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws." The Senate expunged the censure in 1837.

1835
American colonists in Texas revolt against Mexican rule.

January: For the only time in American history, the United States was free from debt; the Treasury had a surplus of $400,000.

January 30: The first attempt on the life of a president occurs. In the U.S. Capitol, Richard Lawrence fired two pistols at the president at point blank range. Miraculously, both pistols misfire. Lawrence was later found to be insane.

July 8: The Liberty Bell cracks as it tolls the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.

October 21: A Boston crowd mobs William Lloyd Garrison and almost lynches him. He is placed in a jail for his own safety.

1836
The viciously anti-Catholic novel appears, Awful Disclosure of Maria Monk, as Exhibited in a Narrative of Her Suffering during a Residence of Five Years as a Novice, and Two Years as a Black Nun, in the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal.

March 2: Texas declares its independence from Mexico.

March 6: Mexican troops storm the Texans at the Alamo, a former San Antonio mission defended by 182 Texans, including the frontier heroes David Crockett and James Bowie. The Alamo's defenders included a number of Tejanos.

March 27: Santa Anna orders 330 Texas prisoners executed at Goliad.

April 21: East of present-day Houston, Gen. Sam Houston's troops defeat the Mexican Army and capture Santa Anna, forcing him to recognize Texas independence.

May 25: The House of Representatives adopts the Gag Rule, voting to table all antislavery petitions without discussion.

July 4: Marcus and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Henry H. and Eliza Hart Spalding establish a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington.

July 11: The Treasury Department issues the Species Circular, requiring payment in gold or silver for public lands. President Jackson's critics blamed the Species Circular for the Panic of 1837.

1837
John Deere introduces a plow with a steel blade.

March: The Panic of 1837 begins and lasts until 1843.

August 31: Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his "American Scholar" address, in which he calls for a distinctive national literature rooted in American experience.

November 7: Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy becomes the abolitionist movement's first martyr when he is murdered by a proslavery mob in Alton, Illinois, across from slaveholding St. Louis.

November: Mary Lyon opens the first woman's college, Mount Holyoke, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

1838
Samuel F.B. Mores develops an alphabet of dots and dashes, making communication with the telegraph possible.

December: 14,000 Cherokees are forcibly removed from western Georgia and southeastern Tennessee and marched down the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. Some 4,000 died en route.

1839
Enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish ship L'Amistad revolt. After their capture off Long Island, the Van Buren administration tried to have the captives returned to Spain. In 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad captives had been illegally enslaved and set them free.