Henry Hug was born October 7th, 1829 in Wenningin (spelling
may be off), near Zurich, Switzerland. His parents were John Jacob Hug Born
Feb.19, 1793. Died April 30,1860 (both in Wenningin, Zurich) & Regula
Stelzer. Born Nov. 11, 1801 Wenningin. Died Nov. 2, 1861 Utah. Henry's second
wife was Anna Muller Born June 20,1836 Switzerland.
Quote from Dialogue: Heinrich Hug and Jacob Tobler:
From Switzerland to Santa Clara,
1854-80
Douglas F. Tobler
Both men were German-speaking Swiss—Hug from Canton Zurich
and Jacob from tiny Protestant Appenzell ausser Rhoden in eastern Switzerland—who had joined the LDS church during its first decade in Switzerland in the 1850s. Both contributed to the Mormon harvest of souls there
that would eventually number in the thousands of converts, many of
whom, like themselves, would eventually leave the homeland for America.
Hug had converted first, having been baptized with several of his family
on 31 January 1853 by the pioneer missionary into that part of Switzerland,
George Mayer.2
For the next five years Hug roamed the Protestant cantons—they were
not admitted into the Catholic ones—in search of converts, keeping a
careful and complete record of the 201 souls he was able to bring into the
fold. Jacob Tobler and his first wife, Anna Katherina Preisig, were listed as
numbers 167 and 168 of those which he either baptized, confirmed, or both,
having submitted on 10 August 1856 while Hug was on a swing through
the eastern cantons.3
Even though he had long wanted to emigrate and
several of his extended family, including his mother and four brothers, had
emigrated to Utah already in 1854, Heinrich acceded to Mayer and his
successors', John L. Smith's and Jabez Woodard's, requests to remain to
continue what they correctly assumed would be an astounding missionary
success while providing vigorous and informed leadership for the growing
Swiss flock. Because he had traveled as a missionary for four years,
Heinrich knew virtually every member in Switzerland. By 1858, however,
he was permitted to leave and led a group of Swiss Saints to Utah a year
later, settling for the time being in Salt Lake City in 1860 prior to the call to
southern Utah.4
Immigration
Like other European Saints both the Hugs and the Toblers
were under
considerable pressure to emigrate. One was not really a
full-fledged Latter-day Saint if he or she was able and did not. To stay made
it easier to fall
away from the faith. As noted earlier, Heinrich had long
wanted to emigrate to America even before be became a Mormon, a paradoxical
attitude
when one considers his later intense longing for his Swiss
homeland after
he began to be disaffected in Santa Clara. Heinrich's
journal, as well as a
long and descriptive letter back to the editors of the
Darsteller, give us a
good idea about emigrant life aboard their ship, the Emerald
Isle, and what
emigrants that would follow could expect. In New York he
was, for
example, fascinated by the Castle Garden reception building,
the efficient
church organization to help them, and the rapidity with
which emigrants
with trade skills and English could quickly find work to
tide them over the
winter of 1859-60 and gain funds for the necessities of the
trip west. He also
reestablished his relationship with Karl G. Maeser, then
doing missionary
work in Philadelphia but sent to New York by George Q.
Cannon to
translate for him. Like themselves, Maeser was working to
get funds to
eventually travel to Zion.31
H Hug is baptized:
THE HISTORY OF GEORGE MAYER
On the 27th of January 1854, Brother John Hug and John Ruggle came to my room and took dinner with me, and after dinner I laid my hands on John Ruggle and blessed him and gave him power over his father’s family to teach them the principles of truth and convince them of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought forth in these last days. I laid my hands on John Hug’s head and blessed him that the spirit of God should lead his mind to give heed to the counsel of the servants of God and obey their counsel and he should have more of the Spirit of God than he ever had before and should rejoice in the light and he should increase from this time. May God grant it for Christ’s sake is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.
On January the 31st, A. D. 1854 I went to Winegan to Mr. Hug’s and on this evening I baptized five persons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, four of the Hug’s family and a man that worked at Hug’s, a shoemaker by the name of John Sehmed. (Schmid ?). I baptized them in the River Lemmad(?) at Winegan, Canton Zurich, 1) Henrich Hug 2) Jacob Hug, 3) David Hug, 4) Reguld Hug, 5) John Schmid. (The laboring man cut off from the Church.) And I confirmed them the same night between eleven and two o’clock in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had to walk a mile to the river. We had a first rate time and there was none that complained of the cold, and when I confirmed them I felt much of the Spirit of God and gave them many blessings and taught them much and the necessity of giving heed to the counsel of the Elders of the Church and it was the only way that we could obtain salvation in the Kingdom of God. They all agreed to give heed to my counsel and the authority that God would set over them from time to time.Like other European Saints both the Hugs and the Toblers
were under
Heindrich Hug:
Heinrich Hug, "Unpublished Journal," original in Walter M. Pierce Library, Eastern Oregon College, LaGrande, Oregon. I am grateful to Paul Nielson for having called my attention to this extensive and valuable journal. Many of the papers are no longer legible. What could be read was transcribed from the German script by Justus Ernst. Copies of the original journal and the transcription are in my possession. See page 276 for the baptism record of Jakob and Katharina Tobler.