Elder Jesse W. Hoopes and companions protected by police in Bedford
Published October 13, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
In Bedford, England, Elder Jesse W. Hoopes and his companions were protected by police during a street meeting. The account dated August 13, 1905, describes an orchestrated disturbance in which children shouted and sang during the sermon; after Hoopes mentioned Joseph Smith, the disturbance escalated, and police—including the Chief and chief detective—arrested the opposition’s leaders. Police later told the missionaries’ friends that the Elders had shown proper Christian spirit and deserved protection. A 1906 Millennial Star record also reports that Hoopes and his companion were protected from a mob by Bedford police.
In Their Own Words
“We have been holding street meetings in Bedford for some time, and have had good success. On Sunday, August 13, we held a meeting on Market Hill. We had a large crowd, and everything went along nicely until I mentioned the name of Joseph Smith, when the spirit of the mob began to manifest itself. The children began to shout and sing, and the older ones joined in. The police heard of it, too, and were a little anxious, no doubt. Not only were the police out, but the chief and also the chief detective. No disturbance came until, as I said, I mentioned Joseph Smith, then they were wild with shouting and singing; but the policemen captured a few of the leaders, even the Chief took one, and they were marched off. We distributed our tracts and then went away quietly. The policemen noticed our actions and have made mention of it to our friends that we show the proper Christian spirit, and that we shall be protected.”
— Jesse W. Hoopes, letter to the editor, Millennial Star 67:34
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 68, No. 24 (1906). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar6824eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 24 August 1905 (Vol. 67, No. 34). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1905-08-24_67_34 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 67, No. 34 (August 24, 1905), p. 541 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1905-08-24_67_34
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