The most prominent - and problematic - of all the men and women who came to California in 1846 on the ship Brooklyn was Samuel Brannan, leader of the expedition. Brannan went on to become one of the richest men in the state, and after he left the LDS church in 1849, he became Mormonism's most famous apostate. His intimate connection with the LDS church proved to be a problem in his later life, and he found it convenient to put as much distance between himself and his past as possible. Brannan periodically rewrote his personal history to match his changing situation, leaving behind a tangled web of evidence that has thoroughly confused historians. Several fictionalized biographies written in the 1940s and 1950s compounded the problem, and it now impossible to find a Brannan life history that is not shot through with error.

Samuel Brannan was born on 2 March 1819, the fifth and last child of Thomas and Sarah Knox Emery Brannan, in Saco, Maine, a thriving coastal village fourteen miles southwest of Portland. His father was an emigrant from Waterford, Ireland. A widower, Thomas Brannan married Sarah Emery, the niece of Henry Knox, George Washington's secretary of war, in 1805. Thomas Brannan was sixty-four when his youngest son was born, and was a reasonably prosperous farmer with an interest in progressive religion. Family tradition long painted him as "irritable, and hard drinking," and a victim of "bone fever" - rheumatism, but the dark picture traditionally painted of him is probably exaggerated. Samuel Brannan was very close to his older sister, Mary Ann, who converted to Mormonism in Boston in 1832 with her husband, Alexander Badlam.

In 1833 Brannan moved with the Badlams to Kirtland, Ohio, site of the first Mormon "gathering." Brannan apprenticed in the church's printing office, which published the Evening and Morning Star and the Messenger and Advocate. Editor Oliver Cowdery later referred to "my old apprentice, Samuel Brannan." On his arrival in Hawaii, Brannan claimed that he had "resided for nearly three years in the family of Joseph Smith, Jr." Joseph Smith III recalled that his earliest recollections of "men, things, and events" at Kirtland included the young printer. The prophet's son recalled Brannan and Ebenezer Robinson were "either inmates of my Father's house or frequent visitors therein." Joseph Smith's journal noted on 14 December 1835, "To day Samuel Branum came to my house much afflicted with a swelling on his left arm which was occasioned by a bruise on his elbow. We had been called to pray for him and anoint him with oil, but his faith was not sufficient to effect a cure. My wife prepared a poultice of herbs and applyed to it and he tarryed with me over night."

By 1837 Brannan had ended his apprenticeship and joined "the mania of making fortunes without the worrying need of time, trouble or capital" that swept the United States. By all accounts, these "speculations" ended in disaster. "In the course of the five following years he visited most of the States in the Union," working as a tramp printer, until he rejoined the Mormon church about 1842. During these wanderings, perhaps while editing a newspaper in Indianapolis, Brannan developed powerful connections in the Democratic party. By December of 1843, however, he was a missionary in southern Ohio.

Brannan continued his missionary work in New York in 1844. He married Ann Eliza Corwin that year (there is not shred of documentary evidence to support the story that he had earlier married and abandoned one Harriet Hatch in Ohio). Brannan was one of the "young Lions of Mormonism" on the east coast, and on 20 July 1844 he became publisher of the Prophet, the LDS newspaper in New York. Brannan was soon thoroughly embroiled in both Democratic party politics and Mormon church scandals. He was excommunicated in 1845, but the support of his boss, Parley P. Pratt, and a trip to Nauvoo brought him back into the LDS church. By the summer of 1845 he was deeply involved with adventurer Lansford Hastings, politician Amos Kendall, and entrepreneurs A. W. and A. G. Benson in a plot to conquer the Mexican province of California, a complicated scheme that helped spark the Brooklyn adventure.

Will Bagley has been working on a biography of Samuel Brannan for the last ten years. The Arthur H. Clark Company will publish his edition of Scoundrel's Tale: The Samuel Brannan Papers later this year as part of a new series, Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier. The Journal of Mormon History will publish his article, "'Every Thing Is Favourable! And God Is On Our Side': Samuel Brannan and the Conquest of California" in an upcoming issue. The article will contain source notes for the information presented here.

This year Mission San Jose in Fremont celebrates its 200th birthday. A Bicentennial Plaza is being built next to the mission, featuring four statues. John Horner, representing the American Pioneers, will be one of the four people honored with a statue. The City of Fremont is funding the plaza, but the statues must be funded by private donations.

John and Elizabeth Horner were married shortly before the Brooklyn left New York City, and thus spent their honeymoon on board ship! After moving to Mission San Jose (now Fremont), they became wealthy during the gold rush by providing fresh produce to miners.

John Horner was a prominent early settler in Southern Alameda County. He and his brother, William, owned over 30,000 acres at one time. He ran the first steamship on the bay, the Union. He helped many early Mormons get established, built the first school house (which was also used for church services on Sunday), laid out many of the roads, invented farm equipment and even a mechanical washing machine. At the first agricultural fair in California, held in San Francisco, Horner was given the title, "First Farmer of California."

If sufficient funds can be raised, he will be honored in the Mission San Jose Bicentennial Plaza, along with Avelina (an Ohlone Native American), Father Narciso Duran (a Franciscan priest), and Don Jose de Jesus Vallejo (Mexican administrator during the Rancho Period). According to Lila Bringhurst, Chairperson of the Mission San Jose Bicentennial (and also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ship Brooklyn Association), tax-deductible donations to help pay for the Horner statue can be sent to the Family History Association, c/o Brent D. Fillmore, 3676 West 5675 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84118. Groundbreaking for the plaza will be March 16, 1997 with completion and dedication planned before the end of the year.

The Ship Brooklyn Association Board of Trustees strongly supports the placement of this statue of one of its own in the Bicentennial Plaza and encourages all members of the Association who can, to support it with donations. The Board welcomes the opportunity to tell the story of the Brooklyn and to feature one of its many passengers who did so much in the settlement of early California. Instead of a single statue of John Horner, the Board would prefer a family grouping of John, Elizabeth, and their son, William, who was probably the first American child born in Alameda County. There is room at the Plaza for a family grouping, but this enlarged statue will require substantially more money than a single statue of John. For further information, please call Wade W. Fillmore (415) 345-4742 or Lila Bringhurst (510) 656-5056.

Thank you for sending me the first issue of the Ship Brooklyn Association newsletter. I just finished reading it. It has great format and is very informative. The number of descendants out there in the world somewhere is mind boggling. Consider how meaningful this organization can be in a multiplicity of ways as time goes by. The "Mayflower Organization" is a very powerful group and the number of passengers on board that ship were not nearly so numerous as the Latter-day Saints on the Brooklyn. The not likely as prolific either.

Joe Livingston.

The crew of the ship Brooklyn signed on a for a very historic and exciting voyage. They brought the first shipload of immigrants into U.S. California and then visited Bodega Bay (also in California), Oahu, Wampoa (Huangpu) and Canton, China. They were also chartered to visit Manila and the East Indies before returning home.

Captain A. W. Richardson, part-owner of the chip, came back to California during the gold rush and settled for a time in Centerville, California (present-day Fremont), a neighbor to many of the passengers he took to California on the earlier voyage. Captain Richardson had property near John Horner's Centerville school house. Joseph W. Richardson, Captain A. W.'s red-headed nephew, was Captain of the Brooklyn for a second voyage to San Francisco in 1849. That trouble-ridden voyage was part of the gold rush. Joseph was seriously injured when he fell through a collapsing companionway, and again was burned badly when bottles of nitric acid (used for refining gold) broke in the hull. The ship became lost for a time and many passengers developed scurvy.

The names of some of the crew raise questions. For example, could the William Smith of the crew be the brother of Joseph Smith or some other relative? Also, some of the crew have the same surnames as the passengers: Haskell, Nichols, Clark and Austin. Could it be that relatives came along as crew members to accompany their relatives to California? In addition to the crew and Sam Brannan's passengers, four others were on the voyage to San Francisco Bay. There was a steward and a cook for those passengers and two men coming to California for business&emdash;Frank Ward and Edward von Pfister. If anyone has information on these crew members, the group's steward and cook, or about Ward and von Pfister, we hope you will contact Lorin Hansen about it.

We are pleased to support the celebration of the arrival in Utah of the first overland pioneer company in July of 1847. Most of those who settled the West came overland. We don't want it forgotten, however, that some early Mormon pilgrims took a different route, via a seagoing vessel, the Ship Brooklyn. We join hands and hearts will all the celebrants to honor those hardy people who sacrificed so much for us their descendants. Perhaps most members of the Ship Brooklyn Association are also descendants of pioneers who crossed the plains overland to the West.

We have heard there will be an article in one of the summer ENSIGN magazines about the Brooklyn Voyage. As members of the Association, one of our duties is to help others remember to include the Brooklyn Saints as they remember their pioneer heritage.

Due to budget limitations, this newsletter will not be mailed to every address in the Association files. Instead, to conserve funds for the fall issue which will be mailed to all those whose names and addresses we have collected, this issue is being mailed to those who have joined the association and to a few other supporters. We hereby give permission and encouragement to those who receive the newsletter to duplicate it and make it available to other members of their families.

We express our deepest thanks to Rohn Brown, Lu and Ralph Jones, and to those who read, folded, stuffed and stamped the first newsletter. Rohn Brown spent hundreds of hours on this project while waiting for his home to sell. He is now serving as a Family History Missionary in Salt Lake City. We wish him well.

Any member who donated over $20.00 to the Association will receive a receipt for the amount over $20.00 which can be deducted from taxes. We appreciate the generosity of those who donated. We promise to use the money wisely. The association needs more donations. Please be generous.

At its November meeting, the Board of Trustees proposed an increase in the number of its members from five to nine. This matter was submitted to members of record at the time for their approval and was unanimously approved by those who voted. New members of the Board may be nominated by any member. If you have someone in mind, please let us know. We will be submitting names of those nominated for your approval at a later date.

We are collecting stories and information about anything related to the Brooklyn voyage and the passengers and crew. If any of you have a story or any interesting information, please send it along to us.