Description
Much Treasure: The Family of Nathaniel Ashby
In the summer of 1836, Joseph Smith and others traveled from Kirtland, Ohio, to Salem, Massachusetts. Two things may have weighed on the mind of the Prophet. The first—the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri had been driven out by mobs. They held title to land they could not claim. The second was debt. The Church was heavily in debt for building the Kirtland House of the Lord.
According to accounts, Joseph was reportedly told by a man named Burgess that “a large amount of money had been secreted in the cellar of a certain house in Salem, Massachusetts, which had belonged to a widow, and he thought he was the only person now living, who had knowledge of it, or the location of the house.”
Burgess supposedly met Joseph in Salem but was unable to locate the house. After considerable searching, the house and the treasure were never found. Joseph inquired of the Lord and received a revelation that is known today as DC 111. It reads in part:
“I the Lord your God am not displeased with your coming this Journey, notwithstanding your follies. I have much treasure in this city for you, for the benefit of Zion; and many people in this city whom I will gather out in due time for the benefit of Zion, through your instrumentality: Therefore it is expedient that you should form acquaintance with men in this city, as you shall be lead, and as it shall be given you.”
After only a few days, Joseph left Salem, Massachusetts, and the whole expedition was considered a failure.
However, Hyrum Smith never forgot that revelation and five years later at a Church Conference in Philadelphia, he sent Elder Erastus Snow to Salem, to preach the Restored Gospel. He left him with a copy of the revelation and a note declaring that the “due time of the Lord had come.”
Elder Snow did not want to go to Salem. Nevertheless, he finally set out, arriving somewhere in the first week of September 1841. The work in the small city of about 15-20,000 started slow. Too slow. There was much opposition. Elder Snow’s companion left after a week and returned to Philadelphia.
Finally a local anti-Mormon preacher agreed to a series of debates. For six nights in November 1841, the two men debated and residents of the city turned out to watch. It worked. On November 8, 1841, Elder Snow baptized the first converts. By February, he organized a branch of 53 members, and within a year there were 110 members of the Church in that branch. When Elder Snow left for Nauvoo in the Fall of 1843, 75 members of the Salem branch went with him.
Among them—among those who attended those first lectures was Nathaniel Ashby and his young son, Benjamin. They believed. Benjamin later wrote:
“My mind soon became enlightened upon the plan of salvation. I firmly believed in the divinity and sacred character of the Book of Mormon, which I read—a copy of which had been loaned to father by Brother Snow.”
When Elder Snow left for Nauvoo, Nathaniel and Susan Ashby and all ten of their living children went with him, and eventually on in faith to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.
Recently, I spoke with the descendants of Nathaniel and Susan Ashby and they expressed the most profound gratitude that someone had the faith in that revelation to go back and lay claim to the real treasures in the city of Salem.
Sources:
Doctrine and Covenants 111
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/L5VN-XMK
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-6-august-1836-dc-111/1#historical-intro
