Lengthy letter from Bethiah Bonney Miller Nelson to her aged mother (and brother, Reverend Moses Miller of Heath, MA). She describes her life and the state of religion in Portage County, Ohio, including an annotated map of portage county drawn by her husband, Rev. Bonney. Nelson, Portage County, Ohio, June 20, 1836.

This document contains original, unpublished religious data on towns relevant to Mormon history. This was the county of the Snow family, the county where Doctrine and Covenants 76 was received, and where Church headquarters were located temporarily in the early 1830s. Social history, the “new” historiography of the second half of our century, thrives on sources such as this. Here we have a splendid sampling of Ohio preserved for us, not by generals merchants or politicians, but by a minister’s wife on the Western Reserve, telling us what life was like for her, complete with a remarkable diagram detailing the religious condition of most of the thirty townships in county, (drawn by Revered Bonney but the text apparently in Bethiah’s hand. Ravenna. Just dismissed a worthy Minister called to Macinaw. Infidels and Christians . . . together. County Town. / Aurora. Mr. Seward the best of Ministers, Father of all this region. rich township don’t give the minister all they have. He lives neat & comfortable . . . Bethiah urges her brother to come to the area to live and preach, and to bring their 87-year-old mother as well.

8 by 13 inches. 4 pages on two leaves. Address portion with postal markings on it. It is written in a minuscule hand that fills every page and then wraps around margins and corners. It fills every available space right up to and around the wax seal. It requires an hour to decipher with the aid of a large magnifying glass.