40 years ago today - Feb 12, 1979-Monday

[Leonard Arrington]
Jan [Tyler] said that when she was 17, President Kimball, then an apostle, dedicated their chapel in Walla Walla. She was asked to transcribe the tape of his talk. While she was transcribing it, she had gotten through one tape and was about halfway through the second when suddenly she heard a voice come in, as if a spirit voice, and say, "This man will someday become president of the Church and under his presidency the blacks will be given the priesthood." She was startled, realizing that it was not President Kimball's voice. She went back and played the tape again, and did not hear the "spirit voice." She did write down the experience, however, for future reference. Later on in the day she began to wonder whether she had the experience or not-whether it was just a case of bad hearing. So she played the tape once more and heard the same voice interject with the same statement. Then to make sure, she replayed it again and did not hear the voice. So she heard the voice twice, and of course if anyone else played the tape they would not hear the voice. ...

This morning Clyde A. Miller and his two sons Mark and Karl came to talk about a history of John W. Taylor, the apostle, son of President John Taylor. They said they have in their possession all the papers of John W. Taylor, hundreds of letters, diaries, and other documents. They will give these to the Church Archives when they finish doing the history. ... He asserted in the strongest terms that the family do not want to have anything in the book that will embarrass the Church in any way. The two sons strongly supported that position. ... They told me many stories about John W. Taylor and his spiritual experiences. He made many prophecies, all of which, they believe, have come true. He also saw and visited with the Savior. There are others in this same vein.

The family are not pleased with The Family Kingdom by Sam Taylor. They know that Sam Taylor invented some of the things in that book to make it more readable, and he has admitted that explicitly to them. There was no conflict between the wives of John W., they said, and when Sam Taylor sent in the draft of Family Kingdom to the publisher, they said "You have got to have some conflict that will provide interest to the reader," and so he invented some experiences that brought out the conflict between the wives. John W. has 36 children, some 19 of whom are still alive. Basically most of them are loyal in the Church. ...

They told me stories indicating that Joseph F. Smith was very sorry that he had excommunicated John W., [for promoting post-manifesto plural marriage] also that John W., while out of harmony with the Quorum [of Twelve Apostles], never lost his testimony of the gospel, and felt firm in the Church. They indicated he was one of the great speakers or orators in the Church, and that he counseled the family to "follow the Brethren" in every way. They indicated that he was a close friend from missionary days of Matthias Cowley [a fellow apostle who was also discplined] and they remained close friends to the end of John W.'s life.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]