• Home
  • Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company records

Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company records

1865 Mormon wagon train

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company records (MSS 843). The collection contains handwritten correspondence, financial instruments, passenger lists, and miscellaneous items. The materials relate to the activities and finances of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Included is a letter signed by Church leaders, Brigham Young (1801-1877) and Erastus Snow (1818-1888). Nine of the documents are in Danish. An index is located in the first folder of the collection.

Initiated in 1849 primarily to help Mormon refugees from Nauvoo, Illinois, migrate to Utah, the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) also became a major instrument for gathering Latter-day Saint converts to Utah from abroad. It assisted some 26,000 immigrants–about 36 percent of the approximately 73,000 Latter-day Saints who emigrated from Europe to the United States between 1852 and 1887.

(From Richard L. Jensen, “Utah History Encyclopedia”)

Recent Posts

Archives