[Wilford Woodruff]
26th Elder Whipple took some of my loading to carry one sack of Coffee from Bess wagon ...
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
175 years ago today - Aug 26, 1850
[Hosea Stout]
Capt Stansbury of the U. S. Topographical Engeneers started back to the [United] States to day having completed the survey of the G.[reat] S[alt] Lake[.]
[Diaries of Hosea Stout]
Capt Stansbury of the U. S. Topographical Engeneers started back to the [United] States to day having completed the survey of the G.[reat] S[alt] Lake[.]
[Diaries of Hosea Stout]
180 years ago today - Aug 26, 1845
Patriarchal Blessing of Laurah Lavina Shimer given by William Smith ... all thy sins are forgiven thee ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessings]
195 years ago today - Aug 26, 1830
Joseph Smith pays Isaac Hale the remaining balance of $86 for his home and thirteen-acre lot . This leaves Smith with $104.95 of the $190.95 he received the previous day from George H. Noble & Co., which on the 26th enters an "Amicable" action against Smith for the amount and puts a lien on Smith's property. Isaac and Elizabeth Hale appear before Justice Jesse Lane concerning the sale to Joseph Smith. The debt to George Noble & Co. will be satisfied sometime before 4 June 1831.
[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]
[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]
35 years ago today - Aug 25, 1990
Mugisa James Collins, the first convert to the Church in the central African country of Uganda, is baptized.
130 years ago today - Aug 25, 1895
[Francis M. Lyman]
"Denounced the ideas of the World in regard small families and the use of preventatives to avoid large families."
[Excerpts of Apostle Francis M. Lyman Diaries, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
"Denounced the ideas of the World in regard small families and the use of preventatives to avoid large families."
[Excerpts of Apostle Francis M. Lyman Diaries, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
135 years ago today - August 25th, 1890
Pres. Peterson told of an incident which he often heard Zebedee Coltrin relate. One day the Prophet Joseph asked him and Sidney Rigdon to accompany him into the woods to pray. When they had reached a secluded spot, Joseph laid down on his back and stretched out his arms. He told the brethren to lie one on each arm, and then shut their eyes. After they had prayed he told them to open their eyes. They did so and saw a brilliant light surrounding a pedestal which seemed to rest on the earth. They closed their eyes and again prayed. They then saw, on opening them, the Father seated upon a throne; they prayed again and on looking saw the Mother also; after praying and looking the fourth time they saw the Savior added to the group. He had _____________ brown, rather long, wavy hair and appeared quite young.
[Journal of Abraham H. Cannon, Vol 13:89; August 25th, 1890, quoted in "Concepts Quotations Dealing With the Origin, Identity Position of Adam Eve"]
[Journal of Abraham H. Cannon, Vol 13:89; August 25th, 1890, quoted in "Concepts Quotations Dealing With the Origin, Identity Position of Adam Eve"]
180 years ago today - 1845 25 Aug.
Apostle Orson Pratt writes in the New York Messenger against Mormons who are teaching that the mortal body "of our martyred prophet and seer, or of any other person, was, or is the especial tabernacle of the Holy Ghost..." This is the earliest specific reference to a belief that Joseph Smith was the Holy Ghost in the flesh. Nearly fifty years later Wilford Woodruff would publicly indicate that this was a continued belief among some Mormons.
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
195 years ago today - Aug 25, 1830
The JOURNAL OF HEALTH, published semi-monthly at Philadelphia, concludes a year-long series of articles denouncing the use of ardent spirits, tobacco, tea, and coffee in the strongest terms. It claims, "The most deadly of all poisons, the prussic acid, has been detected in green tea." It also advises, "A substitution almost entire, of vegetable for animal substances . . ."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
195 years ago today - Aug 25, 1830
Isaac Hale signs over the Harmony property to Joseph Smith. John Whitmer signs as one of two witnesses to the transaction. ... Joseph Smith gives a promissory note to George H. Noble & Co. for $190.95.
[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]
[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]
180 years ago today - Aug 24, 1845 (Morning)
President Brigham Young ... said the devils had no dominion, only on this earth, and their power was to recede until they would have no power on the earth. Where would they be then?
[Franklin D. Richards Journal, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Franklin D. Richards Journal, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
40 years ago today - August 23, 1985
[Michael Quinn]
[From his 1988 and 2009 memoirs:]
Continuing work on Mormon controversies.
During the Sunstone Symposium, I gave a talk at the Hotel Utah about connections between the occult and early Mormonism. Learning that I planned to make a round-trip to BYU to print-out its reading-text, my friend Gordon A. Madsen very kindly invited me to use a computer in his home to prepare the talk. The Salt Lake Tribune featured it on the front page of its local section, along with a photo of one of the Joseph Smith Family's magic parchments (lamens). I would speak publicly on the same topic four times in 1986, coast-to-coast, and once in Cedar City, Utah, in May 1987. Then I would publish a book about it in August 1987. Nonetheless, Stake President [Hugh S.] West refused to follow the Apostolic
instructions to 'take further action' (disfellowshipping or excommunication) against me for my continuing to promote controversial history. - More than once in 1985, I left Stake President West's office knowing that the temple was not the only part of Mormonism I must learn to live without. Yet I still could not face the reality of total loss. November [From his 1988 memoir:]
Former mentor says I've gone too far.
Signature Books asked Davis Bitton to review the first draft of my book on early Mormonism's connections with occult traditions and folk magic [published as Early Mormonism and the Magic World View]. He made some helpful criticisms, but most of his review was a plea to me and the publisher to abandon this project. He said that my study was an assault on the faith of average Latter-day Saints. If I insisted on publishing this book, Davis instructed me not to mention in the acknowledgements that he had read the manuscript. His letter stunned me and I was in deep depression for weeks, while I reconsidered what to do. After telling Signature to put the book on hold, I decided to do an extensive revision to respond to the questions and criticisms by Davis, by Lavina Fielding Anderson, and by Allen D. Roberts. None of them particularly liked the study. This revision and new research took me another seven months. My second book, and now it's defenders of the New Mormon History
who want me not to publish! I guess I AM a radical, even though I've never felt like one. I had already resigned from Signature's board of directors, because I felt that it would be a conflict-of-interest for me to vote on financial matters at the same time I was submitting a manuscript for purchase and publication. I had served on its board for four years. When I wrote the preliminary manuscript's introduction during this Summer, I referred to the so-called 'Salamander Letter' as a possible forgery. Aside from passing references to it, my first draft excluded this '1830 Martin Harris Letter' because of serious questions then raised about its authenticity. Thus, I needed to revise only a few sentences and a paragraph for the upcoming Magic World View that would be published [in August 1987] after the police released their evidence of Mark Hofmann's forgeries. [Quinn's Early Mormonism and the Magic World View was published by Signature Books in 1987; a revised and expanded version
appeared in 1998.]
[From the diaries and memoirs of D. Michael Quinn, in 'On Writing Mormon History, 1972-95,' edited by Joseph Geisner, Signature Books, 2020]
[From his 1988 and 2009 memoirs:]
Continuing work on Mormon controversies.
During the Sunstone Symposium, I gave a talk at the Hotel Utah about connections between the occult and early Mormonism. Learning that I planned to make a round-trip to BYU to print-out its reading-text, my friend Gordon A. Madsen very kindly invited me to use a computer in his home to prepare the talk. The Salt Lake Tribune featured it on the front page of its local section, along with a photo of one of the Joseph Smith Family's magic parchments (lamens). I would speak publicly on the same topic four times in 1986, coast-to-coast, and once in Cedar City, Utah, in May 1987. Then I would publish a book about it in August 1987. Nonetheless, Stake President [Hugh S.] West refused to follow the Apostolic
instructions to 'take further action' (disfellowshipping or excommunication) against me for my continuing to promote controversial history. - More than once in 1985, I left Stake President West's office knowing that the temple was not the only part of Mormonism I must learn to live without. Yet I still could not face the reality of total loss. November [From his 1988 memoir:]
Former mentor says I've gone too far.
Signature Books asked Davis Bitton to review the first draft of my book on early Mormonism's connections with occult traditions and folk magic [published as Early Mormonism and the Magic World View]. He made some helpful criticisms, but most of his review was a plea to me and the publisher to abandon this project. He said that my study was an assault on the faith of average Latter-day Saints. If I insisted on publishing this book, Davis instructed me not to mention in the acknowledgements that he had read the manuscript. His letter stunned me and I was in deep depression for weeks, while I reconsidered what to do. After telling Signature to put the book on hold, I decided to do an extensive revision to respond to the questions and criticisms by Davis, by Lavina Fielding Anderson, and by Allen D. Roberts. None of them particularly liked the study. This revision and new research took me another seven months. My second book, and now it's defenders of the New Mormon History
who want me not to publish! I guess I AM a radical, even though I've never felt like one. I had already resigned from Signature's board of directors, because I felt that it would be a conflict-of-interest for me to vote on financial matters at the same time I was submitting a manuscript for purchase and publication. I had served on its board for four years. When I wrote the preliminary manuscript's introduction during this Summer, I referred to the so-called 'Salamander Letter' as a possible forgery. Aside from passing references to it, my first draft excluded this '1830 Martin Harris Letter' because of serious questions then raised about its authenticity. Thus, I needed to revise only a few sentences and a paragraph for the upcoming Magic World View that would be published [in August 1987] after the police released their evidence of Mark Hofmann's forgeries. [Quinn's Early Mormonism and the Magic World View was published by Signature Books in 1987; a revised and expanded version
appeared in 1998.]
[From the diaries and memoirs of D. Michael Quinn, in 'On Writing Mormon History, 1972-95,' edited by Joseph Geisner, Signature Books, 2020]
85 years ago today - Aug 23, 1940
Premiere of Twentieth-Century-Fox motion picture "Brigham Young" at the Centre Theater and six other theaters in Salt Lake City. All seven theaters completely sell out to nearly 9,000 people at the then high ticket price of $1.10. Such unprecedented response to a film premiere sets an industry record for the number of theatres used simultaneously for the premiere of one film.. Ten days previously, the First Presidency was given a private screening. Emerging from the screening, President Heber J. Grant says to waiting reporters. "I endorse it with all my heart and have no suggestions. This is one of the greatest days of my life. I can't say any more than 'God Bless You'." Utah's Governor Henry H. Blood and Salt Lake City Mayor Ab Jenkins declare the 23rd as "Brigham Young Day" complete with parade, window display competition amongst the downtown merchants, and special advertising campaigns based on the pioneer theme. Actor Dean Jagger, who played the part of Brigham Young, converts
to Mormonism later in life.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
to Mormonism later in life.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
125 years ago today - Aug 23, 1900; Thursday
President [Lorenzo] Snow remarked that he could not feel to curtail the freedom of the Saints, in fact he felt like giving them the utmost freedom possible as long as it did not do wrong. ...
[First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
[First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
135 years ago today - Aug 23, 1890
DESERET WEEKLY NEWS reports that Jesus Christ appeared recently to Indian delegations gathered near Walker Lake and "showed scars on his hands and feet where he said the people had driven spikes, nailing him to the cross. He also had a bad wound in his side, where he said a spear had pierced his flesh."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
150 years ago today - Aug 23, 1875
Joseph F. Smith writes, "From my childhood-for twenty years and upwards I chewed the filthy weed. I never saw the moment during the whole time that I was not inwardly ashamed of it, insomuch I endeavored to keep it to myself, using great caution. One day I went into the president's [Brigham Young] office. He whispered to me, I was obliged to whisper back. He smelt my breath, and started in surprise. "Do you chew tobacco?" I could have shrunk out of existence, or anihilated myself from very shame, and he saw I was ashamed of myself, and pitying me said, "Keep it to yourself"!- In the 1860's Brigham Young also struggled with an addiction to chewing tobacco.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
150 years ago today - Aug 23, 1875
Apostle Wilford Woodruff is proxy in vicarious baptisms for all signers of Declaration of Independence (except John Hancock) and for all decesaed U.S. presidents, except James Buchanan and Martin Van Buren. This is first baptism for dead on behalf of U.S. president since 1840.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
155 years ago today - Aug 23, 1870
LDS political newspaper, the Salt Lake Herald, reports "The Outrage," in which four unidentified men "discharged the contents of a bottle filled with diluted excrements" upon Mormon apostates T.B.H. Stenhouse and his wife Fanny.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
160 years ago today - Aug 23, 1865
The First Presidency and Twelve publish a proclamation against Lucy Mack Smith's Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and against some of Apostle Orson Pratt's published teachings. Concerning Mother Smith's biography of her son: "Every one in the Church, male or female, if they have such a book, to dispose of it." Proclamation threatens excommunication against anyone espousing doctrines such as Pratt's statement: "The Father and Son do not progress in knowledge and wisdom, because they already know all things past, present, and to come" (reprinted Oct. 1865 in England).
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
165 years ago today - Aug 23, 1860
The President [Brigham Young] remarked that whenever any nation had commenced making arms and ammunition, it has always been with a view to the death of their fellow men and when was there a time when these implements of death were not used; and in a few years these murderous feelings will strengthen to such an extent that the work of death will commence. -- Salt Lake City
[Brigham Young Office Journals, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Brigham Young Office Journals, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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