Transcript

SWISS AND ITALIAN MISSION (The) comprised, during the seven years of its existence, the Republic of Switzerland and the province of Piedmont, Italy. The Swiss and Italian Mission was created by the amalgamation of the Swiss Mission and the Italian Mission (both having been established in 1850). Thomas B. H. Stenhouse, who had been appointed by Apostle Lorenzo Snow in 1850 to open up a missionary field in Switzerland, was called in January, 1854, to preside over the work in Italy as well as in Switzerland, as this missionary field lay mostly just across the Alps, which formed the boundary line of Switzerland on the south.

On Feb. 22, 1854, a company of 58 emigrating saints from Switzerland and Italy left Geneva for Utah. They traveled via Paris to Liverpool, to which point Pres. Stenhouse accompanied them. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the ship "John M. Wood," which arrived in New Orleans May 2, 1854.

Another company of 41 emigrating saints from Italy left Liverpool on the ship "John J. Boyd," Dec. 12, 1856, and on March 30, 1856, still another company of about 70 saints from Switzerland left Liverpool on the ship "Underwriter." It is estimated that from 1857 to the close of 1860 211 saints from the Swiss and Italian Mission emigrated to Utah. In 1857 a "Penny Emigration Fund" was established in the mission to which the saints subscribed a penny, or 5 centimes, a week, to assist members to emigrate.

At a special Priesthood meeting held in Geneva Oct. 1, 1854, Daniel Tyler was sustained as successor to Pres. Thomas B. H. Stenhouse, honorably released. At that time there was a total membership in the mission of 292.

In May, 1855, the first number of "Der Darsteller," a magazine, was published in the interest of the Church in the German language at Geneva, Switzerland, by Daniel Tyler; this periodical ceased to exist in 1860; it was a valuable asset to the missionaries while published. In September, 1855, Franklin D. Richards, president of the European Mission, visited many of the branches of the mission in company with John L. Smith, who was appointed to succeed Daniel Tyler as president of the mission. On Dec. 31, 1857, the Swiss and Italian Mission consisted of five conferences, namely, Zurich, St. Gallen, Bern and Geneva, in Switzerland, and the Italian Conference. In these conferences were eight organized branches of the Church and a total membership of 521. In January, 1861, the name of the Swiss and Italian Mission was changed to Swiss, Italian and German Mission, the Elders laboring in Germany having for some time been acting under the direction of the presidency of the Swiss and Italian Mission. Pres. Jabez Woodard, who had succeeded John L. Smith in September, 1857, continued to preside over the mission after the change of name.