175 years ago today - Jan 23, 1846

[William Clayton]

R. Miller reports that [James] Strang is making heavy breaches in the church, and drawing many after him. In one place 30 families have left the church and gone with him. It is also rumored that many of the saints here are full of Strangism and talking had in his favor. ... I read a copy of a letter perporting to be wrote by Prest. Joseph Smith on the 18th June 1844 in which he appoints Strang as his successor. The letter is a base forgery and is well calculated to deceive the simple minded and unfaithful.

It is also rumored that many are dissatisfied because the Twelve & some others are going West without taking the whole Church. This is a matter of impossibility and the saints have no cause for complaint. Amongst the rest are many of the Temple hands who are complaining much. ... My sister in law Lydia is in the way of apostacy. She went to Burlington last year but previous to her going she agreed to be sealed to me for time and eternity. She refused to be sealed to Joseph. While at Burlington she wrote pledging herself to her contract. When she came home she faultered and went out to fathers where she got entangled with my brother James and has resolved to marry him. She has lost her faith in the Church and is on the road to ruin, but so determined that no argument is of any use. The family feel sorry but cannot change her feelings. Her mother frets much about it.

[The Nauvoo Diaries of William Clayton, 1842-1846, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]

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