Gospel Herald (Voree, 1847-1850)

Summary

The Gospel Herald is the surviving bound run of James Jesse Strang’s church newspaper from its Voree, Wisconsin period, predating the move to Beaver Island. The copy held by this project spans from Volume 2 (beginning September 1847) through Volume V, with dated issues running at least into June 1850 – the year Strang’s followers relocated to Beaver Island and his newspaper was reestablished there under a new title. It is, with The Diamond: Being the Law of Prophetic Succession (1848), one of two primary sources this project holds for the pre-Beaver-Island phase of Strang’s movement. Its successor on the island itself was the Northern Islander (1850-1856).

History

The masthead throughout the held volume reads “GOSPEL HERALD,” datelined from Voree (spelled variously “W. T.” and “Wis.” in different issues) on a weekly Thursday schedule; the earliest dated issue in the file is 23 September 1847.¹ Content is doctrinal and polemical – lengthy theological essays (for example a serialized “Treatise on the Spiritual Covenant made with Abraham” by John E. Page), correspondence, and church business – in the same register as The Diamond: Being the Law of Prophetic Succession (1848). Issues from 1850 carry datelines into April, May and June of that year, and the file’s final pages include a notice, signed by Strang and other church presidents, of a “general assembly of the saints at the Tabernacle, St. James, Beaver Island,” showing the paper’s own business had already begun to shift toward the island before the Voree run ended.²

Quaife’s scholarly account, describing the paper under its earlier title Voree Herald, states it was established in January 1846, issued at first monthly and later weekly, edited throughout by Strang himself regardless of the “succession of nominal editors” credited on its masthead, and printed at various times at Voree, Elkhorn and Southport, Wisconsin, Ottawa, Illinois, and New York City. He dates its last number to 6 June 1850 and the first number of its successor, the Northern Islander, to 12 December 1850 at Saint James, Beaver Island.³ The name “Gospel Herald” under which this project’s copy is catalogued, and the internal section heading “ZION’S REVEILLE” found within it, are not reconciled here into a single clean chronology of the paper’s changing titles; see Open questions.

Significance

This is the primary published record of Strang’s movement before it took root on Beaver Island, and its final issues bridge directly into the island period, recording the same “general assembly … at Saint James, Beaver Island” that marks the community’s arrival. Read alongside The Diamond: Being the Law of Prophetic Succession (1848), it shows the doctrinal groundwork – succession, scriptural authority, church governance – that Strang had already built before proclaiming the Kingdom of Saint James in 1850.

Open questions

• The exact sequence and dates of the paper’s name changes (Voree Herald → Zion’s Reveille → Gospel Herald, or some other order) are not established from a full read of this 230,000-line file; Quaife’s account names only Voree Herald and Northern Islander, treating intermediate titles as one paper under changing names rather than distinct publications.
• Whether the held volume is a complete run of Vols. 2-V, or has gaps, has not been checked issue-by-issue.

See also

• The Diamond: Being the Law of Prophetic Succession (1848)
• James Jesse Strang
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)

Sources