Young warns non-Mormon Thomas L. Kane (whom Young had just met) "that we had more influence with the indians than all other nations on the earth, & if we were compelled we would use it."
[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]
[Minutes of the Apostles]
Resolved unanimously, that we deeply feel for our beloved President Joseph Smith & his fathers family on account of the great losses they have sustained in their properties on account of /by/ the unparalleled persecutions in Missouri, as well as the other many persecutions they have sustained since the Rise of the church, which has brought them to their present destitute situation; 'Therefore, Voted unanimously, /for ourselves & the church we represent/ that we approve of whel of the proceedings of president Smith so far as he has gone, in making over certain properties to his wife & children /& friends/ for their Support. & that He continue to deed & make over certain portions of church property /which now exist, or which may be obtained by exchange/ as in his wisdom he shall judge expedient, till his own & his fathers household shall have an inheritance secured to them ...
Resolved, that on account of the peculiar situation of the Church hitherto, it has been expedient & necessary that that the deeds. Bonds. & properties of the Church should be & have been taken & holden by committees of the church'& private individuals.'but that we now have a Trustte in Trust.' viz. President Joseph Smith appointed according to the laws of the Land....
... it was, voted unanimously that President Smith., as Trustee in Trust, be requested, & instructed /by the Conference on behalf of the Church/ to extend relief to such indigent suffering brethren., either by land or goods, as the properties of the Church would admit.
[Minutes, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
Joseph Smith receives a revelation (unpublished) directing that Kirtland's sawmill operator, John Burk, and others immigrate to Missouri. The family of later sawmill owners Azariah Lyman and Austin Loud believe that this act disrupts Kirtland's sawmill operation.
[Mark Lyman Staker, Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations: A Selective Chronology of Significant Events in Ohio's LDS History]
... Where persons who are involved in pending divorce or annulment proceedings make application for permission to go to the temple, brethren authorized to issue temple recommends should carefully and search ingly interview the applicant, and if it is found that he or she is in no cent of any serious wrongdoing in connection with the divorce or annulment and is otherwise worthy, a temple recommend may be issued. When the final decree of divorce or annulment has been entered, a divorce clearance must be obtained from the First Presidency by the parties involved, if they were previously sealed to each other in the temple, before they may be permitted to continue temple attendance or receive a temple recommend.... Divorces or annulments of marriage need not be cleared by the First Presidency for persons who were not sealed to each other in the temple....
[David O. McKay, Hugh B. Brown, N. Eldon Tanner, and Joseph Fielding Smith, circular letter, Aug. 30, 1966, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
At a testimony meeting of the general board of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association invited guests Lillie T. Freeze and Maria Young Dougall speak in tongues and interpret. Sisters Freeze and Dougall are general board members in other auxiliaries and speak in tongues and interpret at such meetings until they die in 1937. By then glossolalia no longer occurs in LDS meetings, since all Mormons with this gift have died without successors. After 1930s LDS leaders redefine the "gift of tongues" to be xenoglossia, the ability to learn unfamiliar language (such as Japanese), rather than spontaneous speaking of "unknown tongues" which correspond to no recognized language.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Bro. Reed Smoot was all broken up over some of Bro. Roberts talk on Polatics.
[Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]
[Abraham H. Cannon]
"There seems to be a regular mania to commit suicide sweeping over this city. Scarcely a day passes but what one or more cases occur."
[Abraham H. Cannon Journal Excerpts, http://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Record-Journals-Abraham-1889-1896/dp/B000MFD1K4]
[Wilford Woodruff]
"Presidents Young & Richards Met at my tent And I Called my family together & I lade before them the Conduct of Caroline Barton & Sarah Brown [teen age wives added to Woodruff's family on the 2nd] in there night Ramblings with unprincipled young men. Many things were said upon the subject. They manifested a disposition to live els whare and I wished them to do so if they would not conduct better. Elder Richards prophesyed to them in the name of the Lord that they would see the day that they would be willing to have there right arm severd from there body if that would restore them to the place & station they were now loosing. But in consequence of there bad conduct I sent Caroline to her Father & Mother & Sarah left my tent to seek some place to stay. She went to Br Bakers untill she could get one."
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Kirtland, Ohio. While traveling to Colesville, New York, from Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph Smith and his company were miraculously delivered from their enemies, who were blinded and unable to identify them.
[BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
Zina D. H. Young: Died of old age—sexton's records list "senility"—at her home at 146 Fourth Street in Salt Lake City at the age of eighty. Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery family plot of her first husband, Henry B. Jacobs, who had died of Bright's disease in 1886. Her epitaph is the motto of the Relief Society: "Charity never faileth."
[Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
28th Met in Council this morning with the Omaho's Chiefs & braves. We smoked the pipe of peace And then President Young spoke to them through there interpeter whose name was [ ] Informing them It was our desire to winter here And if they wished we would do some work for them make them a field & fix there guns &c. And many things were said which I Cannot now name.
And the big Elk replyed My Son thou hast spoken well. I have all thou hast Said in my heart. I have much I want to say. We are poor. When we go to hunt game in one place we meet an enemy & so in another place. Our enemies kill us. We do not kill them. I hope we will be friends. You may stay on these lands two years or more. Our young men may watch your cattle. We would be glad to have you trade with us. We will warn you of danger from other Indians &c. Many other things were said. The Council closed. The Indians were fed & returned home.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
In Joseph Smith's absence some members call for David Whitmer to assume leadership of the Church. A similar situation happened during Smith's trip to Canada in July of 1837. Accounts of these two events are difficult to sort one from another. The earlier attempt to unseat Smith may possibly have been related to his affair with Miss Fanny Alger.
[Broadhurst, Dale R., Mormon Chronology, http://olivercowdery.com/history/morchrn2.htm]
[John Henry Smith]
It was agreed that the bond of George Q. Cannon should be paid. The Beck and Bullion Mine business was taken up and after a free discussion of the matter the brethren consented for President Taylor to guarantee the parties to the tune of one hundred thousand dollars. Who should become bondsmen. All of the Brethren expressed themselves as opposed to mining but the President. I gave some little offense to my brethren by my to candid expression of my feelings about the bond business.
[Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]
[Brigham Young]
"Now, I wish to make this request: that the Elders who return from missions consider themselves just as much on a mission here as in England or in any other part of the world. There is no people need preaching to more than those who live in this Territory and in these mountains. The Latter-day Saints, or those who profess to be, need talking to just as much as a child who begins to prattle and run around the house. It gets into mischief continually and its mother has to keep talking to it to keep it from meddling with things that it should not. It does not know how to guide itself, and wants guiding and correcting all the time; but not more than the Latter-day Saints who gather together."
"I will turn again to the Latter-day Saints and to the world, and will say I would to God that the Latter-day Saints would take the word of Brigham Young to be law! I will defy the inhabitants of the whole earth to tell one word that he ever counseled that was wrong; or to point out a path that he ever advised man or woman to walk in but would lead to light, life, glory, immortality, and to all that is good or desirable by the intelligence that dwells upon the earth. What do you say, is that boasting? If any person has a mind to call it boasting, do so."
During the church's first area conference in Manchester, England, there is a formal meeting of a joint council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This is the first such council meeting outside of the United States in Mormon history.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith to apostle John W. Young]
Your wife Christine wrote to us recently representing herself to be in needy circumstance, and asking us to use our good offices to induce you to help her children. We wrote her in answer to this that on a previous occasion (about two years ago) she wrote a similar letter, and that you were communicated with respecting it, and that you answered in effect that inasmuch as it was a domestic affair it appeared only right and proper that she should address you direct regarding it. In reply to this letter Sister Christine has written again, from which we are sorry to learn that she failed to be informed of the contents of your letter referred to; and from her last letter quote as follows:
' ... I had neither home nor means, no parents, no relatives who were in a position to help me, he knew fully that there was nothing to keep me and his two children from want all these twelve years except the effort of my hands, and that my health was such as to make that effort a severe trial he too was mad acquainted with through letters from the children. ... I feel strongly that no man with a vestige of chivalry in his soul would humiliate a woman so as to force her to ask a favor of him that what in all human justice she has a right to claim as her due'the least reparation man can make for a life's happiness destroyed. ... '
We sympathize with Sister Young in the embarrassing position in which she is placed, and agree with her that she should not be required to ask for the assistance you may be able to render and which you should render her; and we trust therefore you will see your way clear to aid her, and that you will have the disposition to help her without further importuning on her part. We appreciate the fact that this is a delicate subject, and that you may feel sensitive about it, but there appears at present to be no other recourse for Sister Christine, and this must be our apology for writing you regarding it.
[Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith, Letter to John W. Young, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
Apostle Moses Thatcher begins treatment with Keeley Institute for his addiction to opium and morphine. First Presidency and apostles tolerated Thatcher as a "morphine fiend" and "opium eater", but on 26 Jul his family and friends considered involuntary commitment to treatment. His is most prominent drug addict in Mormon history. Twelve drop Thatcher from quorum membership on 19 Nov because of four year conflict over his insubordination in political matters, but Thatcher's drug addiction aggravates that conflict.
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power]
H[eber] C. Kimball being requested by the Prest.[,] Brigham Young stated that the business this morning was to investigate the fire works of Judge [Uriah] Brown, whether we shall purchase it, or rejected [reject it]. ... O[rson] Hyde wished to know what the expenses of the fire works would be and what would be the benefit of it if we should buy it. P[hineas] Young. He states that he [Uriah Brown] has an invention of liquid fire to destroy an army & navy. Many evidences of the power of the invention can be adduced. ... If pipes were laid in the Kanyon he could destroy an army instantly without injuring the operator. If we ever settle on a sea port he could destroy any number of vessels, any navy in an instant. A[lmon] W. Babbit referred to the favorable reception the invention met with from Pres. Jos[ep]h Smith. The Russian Mission &c. and the favorable notice of the U.S. government in regard [to it]. He then referred to the report of the committee on the experiment, which he read. He is in favor of carrying out the views of Joseph Smith and thinks it a matter worthy of our notice. … ...
[Selected Minutes of the Council of Fifty, Quinn Papers, Beinecke Library, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)]
Joseph exchanges letters with Horace R. Hotchkiss concerning tardy payments for the Nauvoo lands. Apparently both Joseph and Hotchkiss assume that the Saints might get some financial compensation for their losses in Missouri, with which they might pay for the Nauvoo lands. When this does not come about, Hotchkiss begins to get quite anxious about the payment due him for his land. Joseph, of course, has little or no money of his own with which to pay for the lands.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
the CINCINNATI JOURNAL AND WESTERN LUMINARY prints a letter from Truman Coe pastor of the Old South Church in Kirtland, Ohio: "Mormonism, it is well known, originated with Joseph Smith in the town of Manchester, adjoining Palmyra, in the state of New York. Smith had previously been noted among his acquaintances as a kind of Juggler, and had been employed in digging after money. He was believed by the ignorant to possess the power of second sight, by looking through a certain stone in his possession. He relates that when he was 17 years of age, while seeking after the Lord he had a nocturnal vision, and a wonderful display of celestial glory. An angel descended and warned him that God was about to make an astonishing revelation to the world, and then directed him to go to such a place, and after prying up a stone he should find a number of plates of the color of gold inscribed with hieroglyphics, and under them a breastplate, and under that a transparent stone or stones which was the Urim and Thummin mentioned by Moses."
Tom Green, a Mormon fundamentalist with five wives and 30 children, was sentenced by a court in Provo, Utah, to five years in prison in the state's biggest polygamy case in nearly half a century.
[Ratnikas, Algis, TimelinesDb, http://www.timelinesdb.com/listevents.php?subjid=201title=Utah]
The Church News prints the official reassurance of Jack H. Goaslind Jr. (First Quorum of the Seventy member on the executive board of Boy Scouts of America) that the LDS church is still in BSA: "'Learning for Life' [program for self-identified homosexual scouts] does not affect the use of traditional Scouting as a tool to further the goals of the Aaronic Priesthood. As far as the Church is concerned, we are still totally supportive of the Boy Scouts of America program as we know it." This is in response to distressed inquiries from parents about Goaslind's previously published statement that the LDS church "would withdraw from the Boy Scouts of America" if it permitted membership by self-identified homosexual teenagers. This retration represents either a reversal of a First Presidency decision or a repudiation of Goaslind's speaking out of turn.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[Harvey Fletcher]
"You know they're not always agreeing in the Twelve on some of these things, particularly when it deals with science. He (now referring to brother [John A.] Widtsoe) said brother Joseph Fielding Smith and brother [James E.] Talmage used to have it pretty hot sometimes, and he said that brother Talmage, see he talked about fossils and that was part of his subject as a geologist, went down to Adam-ondi-aman where the altar of Adam is supposed to be and he had a pick and picked around through it and finally found a fossil right in the cement of this altar. He found two or three of them and brought them up and put them in a bag and brought them home. He said he came back at one of the meetings of the Twelve, and he said, 'Now brother Joseph, I understand that you thoroughly believe and are very sure that the first man on earth was Adam, the first life was Adam.' He said, 'I certainly do believe that.' He said, 'Well, what about these?' then, he handed out the fossils, and said, 'I found those in the altar.'"
[Oral History of BYU, #17, Harvey Fletcher, p. 11, in reference to Correspondence from First Presidency, Letter to Eugene T. Thompson (http://zackc.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/correspondence-from-first-presidency-in-re-fletchers-reminiscences.pdf, referenced 10.20.2014)]
Two weeks after the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City, "the Council of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles" issues a statement expressing concern about "recent symposia . . . that result in ridiculing sacred things or injuring The Church . . . detracting from its mission, or jeopardizing the well-being of its members." Lowell Bennion, a Sunstone participant, comments, "We are asked to love the Lord with all our hearts and minds. It is a poor religion that can't stand the test of thinking."
Salt Lake City resident Christian Fonnesbeck, who wrote a letter to the First Presidency saying he was "puzzled" by the statement, is called in by his bishop, acting on instructions of his stake president, Herbert Klopfer, and relieved of his church calling as a Blazer-B instructor. He is told the action is taken on instruction of "high church officials." (He has since been put in charge of scheduling the building.) Kim Clark writes a letter to the editor, published in the Salt Lake Tribune, commenting on the statement. His stake president calls him in and tells him that he is "undertaking an investigation that could result in disfellowshipment or excommunication."
At October general conference, Elder Boyd K. Packer refers explicitly to the joint statement and comments on "the dangers of participating in symposia which concentrate on doctrine and ordinances and measure them by the intellect alone. . . . There is safety in learning doctrines in gatherings which are sponsored by proper authority." Apostle Marvin J. Ashton says, "Some of us may be inclined to study the word with the idea in mind that we must add much where the Lord has said little! Those who would `add upon' could well be guided by the anchor question of, do my writings, comments, or observations build faith and strengthen testimonies?" Elder Charles Didier of the First Quorum of the Seventy instructs Saints to build testimony "by asking your Heavenly Father in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Do not turn to public discussions and forums."
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
[J. Reuben Clark]
Judge Rulon Clark with First Presidency Took up question of sending sub-normals to Am. Fork School'where they are sterilized. Question really turned on Church attitude towards sterilization I strongly urged caution, that we knew too little to make our determination certain. He turned over a list of those now in question,'some 36 names. We decided we would investigate the ward membership in the area from which they came'Redwood Ward. I called Pres Child and asked him to take charge of matter and have it done (this at F.P.'s request). He said he would and got in touch with present Stake Presidency.
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
Sugar House Ward congregation votes against man proposed as Bishop of new ward to divided from the old. Salt Lake stake president Angus M. Cannon furiously shouts, "Sit down! and shut your mouths, you have no right to speak!" When Cannon engages in shouting match with dissenting congregation, a ward member and policeman threaten to arrest stake president for disturbing the peace. Cannon more calmly repeats his attempt but is voted down "again several times." Secretary of the First Council in attendance writes: "I have been taught that the appointing power comes from the priesthood and the sustaining power from the people and that they have the right of sustaining or not sustaining appointees."
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power]
[James E. Talmage]
The authorities have often spoken of my age and diligent labors in public and even President Woodruff was not an exception, but I see one thing, that this very circumstance imposes on me an onerous duty—to keep opinion of self down. [...] Some think me conceited, but I think they are those that know me but little. I am not so; indeed, I am impetuous, rushing, energetic, and these trains are often taken for self-conceit.
[The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]
At Council of Fifty meeting Phineas H. Young admits plotting with Indians to kill Apostle Orson Hyde in Iowa, because Hyde ordered someone to kill Phineas. Hyde mentlons William A. Hickman but doesn't admit responslblllty for an attempt on Phineas' life. Brigham successfully reconciles these two members of the Fifty.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
... ["]H[yde] advised the people to beat the Indians out of [Pottawattomie] County. [I] saw two Indians whipped there unmercifully. I said this was a bad policy. Thought such a course would stir up the Indians to prevent emigration, and thought it was done to prevent emigration. When he came through he met with the Indians. [Logan] Fontainelle complained and he told [the Indians] to take Hyde's skelp [scalp] but let the people alone.["] O[rson] Hyde-Has never had any difficulty with brother P[hin ehas]. ["]The difficulty has been with him alone. I have said or done little.["] In regard to P[hinehas] going East. He [Hyde] wanted [Bill] Hickman to let him have a horse, and advised Hickman to steal another.
… [In the afternoon] H[eber] C. Kimball [said:]. ["]The difficulty between Joseph Young and Bro. Hyde seems to be settled. But the matter between Bro Hyde and Phineas Young does not appear to be settled. Bro. Phineas Young has laid plains [plans] with the Indians to take the life of one of the anointed of the Lord, of a member of this council and we all know what our obligations are, and we cannot fellowship brother Phineas as a member of this council unless he makes full satisfaction. O[rson] Spencer accords with the sentiments advanced by coun[selor] Kimball. Also referred to the case between E[lde]r Hyde and Jos[ep]h Young. P[hinehas] Young. Wish[ed] the Council to understand that in consequence of what had taken place he had said what he did say. He acknowledges he has done wrong and wishes brother Hyde and the council to forgive him. Bro. Hyde need have no fears of him for he will not injure him. David Fullmer made remarks similar to those by O Spencer. O Hyde wished to know why P[hinehas] Young believed that H[yde] wished to kill him. P[hinehas] Young. Related the circumstances of his being at Kanesville during the election. Of his hearing of a plan being laid to assassinate him. Of his being shot at one night after dark. This made him think there were designs against his life and did not know why men should do it unless they were told to. A[lexander] Badlam thinks if bro. Hyde is willing to forgive P[hinehas Young] he don't know why he should withstand. There is wrong all around according to the acknowledgments, but he could not consent to taking life. A[lmon] W. Babbit. Referred [to the fact] that there had been wrong on both sides. Bro. Hyde acknowledged to having had [ill] feelings [against Young ever] since O[liver] Cowdrey came to Winter Quarters. Referred to what his [Babbit's] own feelings would have been towards bro. Hyde if the reconciliation had not taken place. Thinks there is more gass in Bro. Phineas than intention to injure bro. Hyde. Thinks they ought to settle the matter as it was [done] last evening. ... J[edediah] M. Grant. Said that bro. Phineas has boasted to the citizens of this place that he had advised the Indians to kill bro. Hyde. He considers the crime a great one. If the U.S. Officers become informed of the fact, the U.S. will not deal with brother Phineas as mercifully as we do. If one member of this council can be trampled upon with impunity, [then] the wild savages can be set on him with impunity. H. C. Kimball. Spake of his good feelings towards brother Phineas. He will tell brother Phineas some things which will lead him down to hell [if he persists], i.e., if he don't bind himself up and not talk so much carelessly and it will do so [anyway] by any man if they don't quit it. Pres[ide]nt Brigham Young. His feelings are if Bro. Phineas will take back what he has said wherever he has stated it, and write the letter, and then make a solemn covenant never to take a step against any member of this council or an anointed of the Lord again without proper evidence, he will feel to forgive him. If he will make a covenant to never let his tongue make a fool of him again and make restitution he may be forgiven. The above decision of the president, was then put to a vote and passed in the affirmative.
[Selected Minutes of the Council of Fifty, Quinn Papers, Beinecke Library, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)]
Money magazine ranks Provo-Orem as America's "No. 1 most-livable metropolitan area." By 1985 it also has the highest rate of church membership in the nation.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Had a conversation about the Characters of Abraham Lincoln & Stephen A. Douglas. President Young speaking of Abraham remarked if the Kingdom of God was not in the way, Abraham was a pretty good man, but he acted as if he would rather the Kingdom of God was out of the way; he was not the man to raise his voice in favor of Joseph Smith when his enemies were persecuting him, he with many others had assented to the deaths of innocent men, and through that he is subject to the influence of a wicked Spirit. -- Salt Lake City
[Brigham Young Office Journals, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
Nat Turner led about seventy slaves on a killing spree across the plantations of Southampton, Virginia, leaving fifty-five whites dead, escalating fears that and increasing rhetoric over the slave issue. Joseph Smith would prophecy on Dec 25, 1832 that "slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war." (D&C 87:4).
In the Evening and Morning Star Extra of July 16, 1833, W. W. Phelps reassures the Missourians that "we fear, lest, as has been the case, the blacks should rise and spill innocent blood: for they are ignorant, and a little may lead them to disturb the peace of society ..."
[Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
Brother [Heber J.] Grant questioned the advisability of our taking the ground that the manifesto was intended to cover the ground of our recognizing the validity of the law as far as unlawful cohabitation was concerned, as well as polygamous marriages. He thought if we went before the court stating that the manifesto was intended only to stop plural marriages, but that we recognized it to be our duty to live with our plural wives, at our own risk, it would be a better position to take. This led to Brother F[ranklin]. S. Richard explaining to Brother [John W.] Taylor that our going into court was not an original suit on our part, but that we were required to go, and explain the meaning and the scope of the manifesto, as it was on the ground that our Church funds were used for the purpose of propagating unlawful marriages that our property was escheated, and our showing the court that we were sincere in the issuing and adopting of the manifesto would be fundamental ground for the recovery of our property, besides the political standing it would give us before the nation. ... Brother Grant, having had a previous conversation with President [Joseph F.] Smith, asked him if he was now satisfied with regard to the manifesto being a revelation from God. President Smith answered emphatically no. He then went on to explain how he did regard the manifesto. He believed that President [Wilford] Woodruff was inspired to write the manifesto in consequence of the situation in which we were placed, and that because of the circumstances in which we were placed before the government, the Lord sanctioned it. But he did not believe it to be an emphatic revelation from God abolishing plural marriage. President Cannon, referring the remarks of President Smith, said he regarded President Smith's understanding upon this matter to be his [i.e., Cannon's]; that he himself did not regard the manifesto as a revelation abolishing polygamy, for the reason that that was an eternal principle, and could not be abolished by anybody; but in believing that President Woodruff was inspired to write the manifesto, he also believed it to be a revelation from God, for the reason that a revelation, as he conceived it to be, was a communication of God's will to man, irrespective of the form in which it may be written.
President Cannon's view was fully endorsed by Brother L[orenzo]. Snow and the Council generally. President Woodruff, expressing himself in this connection, said he foresaw what was coming upon us; that our temples were in danger, and the work for the dead liable to be stopped, and he believed he would have lived to have witnessed the hand of the government extended to crush us; but the Lord did not intend that Zion should be crushed, and He averted the blow by inspiring me to write and issue the manifesto, and it certainly has had the effect of doing it so far. How long it may remain in force it is not for me to say, that is for God alone to say. As for the principle, it is eternal and will stand forever. Brethren, you may call it inspiration or revelation, or what you please; as for me, I am satisfied it is from God. A general expression of endorsement was made.
[First Presidency Office Journal, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Abraham H. Cannon]
After breakfast we went out for a walk when Father [George Q. Cannon] told me that Bro. Moses Thatcher had preached that the people were to be robbed of all their political rights and brought into great bondage, and when it would seem as though there was no escape the people would cry unto God who would then send to them the man like unto Moses of whom the Doc. and Cov. speaks; this should be the Prophet Joseph resurrected, Bro. Thatcher claims no revelation for these things, which he says is all to occur within five years, but has made deductions from ancient and modern prophecies. Father says it has not been made known to him that this doctrine is correct, and he does not approve of its being taught. Father told me of his deep financial embarrassments. Besides his bonds, which he feels he must in honor pay, he seems on the point of losing considerable in John Beck's mine, where he invested at Pres. Taylor's wish and suggestion. He says he sees nothing but ruin ahead, though he has faith God will yet relieve him.
[Abraham H. Cannon Journal Excerpts, http://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Record-Journals-Abraham-1889-1896/dp/B000MFD1K4]
Apostle Orson Pratt preaches: "Some may inquire, 'Do you think the sun is a glorified world?' Yes, in one sense. It is not yet fully glorified, redeemed, clothed with celestial power, and crowned with the presence of the Father in all the fullness and beauty of a celestial mansion, because it is still subject to change more or less. If it were fully glorified; if it had passed through its temporal existence and had been redeemed, glorified, and made celestial, and had become the eternal abiding place of celestial and glorified beings, it would be far more glorious than our eyes could behold, the eyes of mortality could not endure the light thereof." ...
"Much might be said in this connection with regard to the doctrine of plurality of wives. There is a difference between the male and the female so far as posterity is concerned. The female is so capacitated that she can only be the mother of a very limited number of children. Is man thus capacitated? . . .Were not many of the ancient prophets and inspired men capable of raising twenty, forty, fifty, or a hundred children, while the females could only raise a very limited number on an average. . . . Would a monogamist have power to fill a world with spirits sooner than a polygamist? Which would accomplish the peopling of a world quickest, provided that we admit this eternal increase, and the eternal relationship of husband and wife-after the resurrection as well as in this world?" ...
"There are no marriages among spirits, no coupling together of the males and females among them; but when they rise from the grave after being tabernacled in mortal bodies, they have all the functions that are necessary to people worlds. As our Father and God begat us sons and daughters, so will we rise immortal males and females, and beget children and, in our turn, form and create worlds, and send forth our spirit children to inherit those worlds, the same as we were sent here, and thus will the works of God continue, and not only God himself, and His Son Jesus Christ have the power of endless lives, but all of His redeemed offspring."
[Journal of Discourses 14:242]
A legal holiday commemorates one hundred years of Mormon presence in Tonga, which issues two postage stamps for the occasion. King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV speaks at commemorative services. One-third of Tonga's population is LDS.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Brigham Young's representative "Wild" Bill Hickman and his Indian wife Margaret, both dressed in their beaded-buckskin suits, meet with forty lodges of Indians (numbering about three hundred). Gifts are distributed. The Indians believed Brigham Young had supplied the gifts, when they were in fact presents from the U.S. government.
[Letter to Mormon Battalion]
Camp of Israel, Omaha Nation, Cutler's Park, August 19, 1846. To Captain Jefferson Hunt and the Officers, and Soldiers of the Mormon Battalion:- We have the opportunity of sending to Fort Leavenworth this morning, by Dr. Reed, a package of twenty-five letters, which we improve, with this word of counsel to you all: If you are sick, live by faith, and let surgeon's medicine alone if you want to live, using only such herbs and mild foods as are at your disposal. If you give heed to this counsel, you will prosper; but if not, we cannot be responsible for the consequences. A hint to the wise is sufficient.
In behalf of the Council, BRIGHAM YOUNG, President. W. Richards, Clerk.
[1846-August 19-RCH 2:239, in Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
... Most of the Crops [in the Salmon River Mission] had been destroyed by the grass hoppers but thought they had raised about 200 bushels of wheat 50 of which would be Cut & the remainder would be draged in for seed.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
The Willie handcart company leaves Florence (Winter Quarters), Nebraska, for the Salt Lake Valley.
In conformity with the foregoing item of law, 7 in the Summer and Fall of the year 1841, the brethern entered into measures to build a baptismal font in the cellar floor near the east end of the temple. President Joseph approved and accepted a draft for the font, made by Brother William Weeks; and on the 18th day of August of that year, Elder Weeks began to labor on the construction of the font with his own hands. He labored six days and then committed the work to carpenters.
[Fillerup, Robert C., compiler; William Clayton Nauvoo Diaries and Personal Writings, A chronological compilation of the personal writings of William Clayton while he was a resident of Nauvoo, Illinois. http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/clayton-diaries]
First Presidency statement that church's restriction on negroid peoples receiving priesthood "is not a matter of the declaration of policy but of direct commandment from the Lord."
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power]
Apostle Orson Hyde, Albert Carrington and others arrived in G.S.L. City from Kanesville, Ia., accompanied by Perry E. Brocchus, one of the newly appointed judges for Utah; they brought with them a brass cannon.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Wilford Woodruff]
It was Announced this morning that Porter Rockwell had arived in Camp And brought the Mail from Nauvoo. ... The same Paper informed us that the mob spirit was still alive in Hancock Co that they were still mobing, whiping, And killing each other in that County. The Saints were leaving as fast as possible And the new citizens had taken the matter in hand And the war was now between them And the mob.
I was in council with the Twelve & High Council. Porter Rockwell was with us. He was kept in jail as long as they Could & when brought to Court no man appeared against him so He was discharged & came to the Camp.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
LDS Church News reports that a married couple has been "teaching folk, square and some ballroom dances" to Indians in primarily Christian Goa, while "serving as Church representatives to teach recreation in India." LDS missionary work in India is limited by laws forbidding foreigners to overtly proselytize. Since the conversion and baptism in 1965 of S. Paul Thiruthuvadoss, who sought out LDS leaders to teach him, proselytizing on the Indian subcontinent is conducted by native converts.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
A First Presidency letter that "after the expiration of one year from the date of death, temple ordinances may be performed for all deceased persons, except those of known Negro blood, without the consideration of worthiness or any other qualification." Until the 1970s the LDS Genealogical Department flags the records of "those of known Negro blood" to avoid the performance of proxy endowment and sealing ceremonies for them. In 1974 church authorities quietly agree to end this practice, after being informed of a potential NAACP lawsuit and Congressional investigation of this racially discriminatory use of such federal records as the U.S. census.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
CHURCH NEWS reports that Finland has given its "Silver Cross" to LDS mission president Henry A/ Matis for allowing one of his missionaries to coach Finnish National Basketball team for international competition.
LDS Church News reports that a married couple has been "teaching folk, square and some ballroom dances" to Indians in primarily Christian Goa, while "serving as Church representatives to teach recreation in India." LDS missionary work in India is limited by laws forbidding foreigners to overtly proselytize. Since the conversion and baptism in 1965 of S. Paul Thiruthuvadoss, who sought out LDS leaders to teach him, proselytizing on the Indian subcontinent is conducted by native converts.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
A First Presidency letter that "after the expiration of one year from the date of death, temple ordinances may be performed for all deceased persons, except those of known Negro blood, without the consideration of worthiness or any other qualification." Until the 1970s the LDS Genealogical Department flags the records of "those of known Negro blood" to avoid the performance of proxy endowment and sealing ceremonies for them. In 1974 church authorities quietly agree to end this practice, after being informed of a potential NAACP lawsuit and Congressional investigation of this racially discriminatory use of such federal records as the U.S. census.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
CHURCH NEWS reports that Finland has given its "Silver Cross" to LDS mission president Henry A/ Matis for allowing one of his missionaries to coach Finnish National Basketball team for international competition.
Wilford Woodruff continued to warn church members of the approaching "hour." At an 1881 conference in Manti he promised "that thousands of the children of the latter day saints would not die but would live to see the Saviour come."
[Larson and Larson, Diary of Charles L. Walker, 2:563-64, 14 Aug. 1881., http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=5708, as quoted in The Last Days and December 1890 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, y George D. Speer Sr., privately circulated]
Wyman's Saint Louis Museum advertises in the SAINT LOUIS MISSOURI DEMOCRAT that "two mummies from the Catacombs of Egypt" are on display. These mummies formerly belonged to the LDS church. They stay in St. Louis for fifteen years before being moved to Chicago. Papyri found with the mummies are also displayed at the museum. Leipzig Egyptologist Gustavus Seyffarth was able to read the name of the person for whom Facsimile No. 3 was made. A contemporary account reports: ". . . according to Prof. Seyffarth, the papyrus roll is not a record, but an invocation to the Deity Osirus, in which occurs the name of the person, (Horus,) and a picture of the attendant spirits, introducing the dead to the Judge, Osirus." When the original of facsimile No. 1 resurfaces in 1967 the hieroglyphs in the margins give "Horus" as the person for whom the scroll was written.
William Morgan, a disaffected Freemason from Batavia, New York, registers a copyright for an exposé of Masonic rituals. (See December 1826 entry, regarding publication.)
[Wikipedia: Chronology of Mormonism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Mormonism]
... The small pox has been brought into Great Salt Lake county by a company which lately came in from the States ... And in case any of the inhabitants should be seized by a disease, which has been so scandalously kept secret, all parties concerned are required to use every precaution to prevent its spreading beyond such persons. Among the precautionary measures, let every locality of the disease be amply guarded by plain and abundant notices conspicuously posted at every approach thereto; and let there be no communication with the diseased, except by those who are not liable to the contagion. BRIGHAM YOUNG, HEBER C. KIMBALL, JEDEDIAH M. GRANT.
[1856-August 13-DN 6:181, in Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
About this time the mobbers in Hancock County, Ill., concluded to drive the few remaining "Mormon" families from Nauvoo.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[William H. Smart]
After dinner Apostle [Matthias F.] Cowley desired that we take a ride up to Bro[ther]. Shanks and get some flowers. On the way he said he wanted to have a private talk with me. He said although Plural marriage had to be suspended on account of our enemies yet it is an eternal principle and he gave me to infer that in the due time of the Lord it will be again practiced. He said that the people should be taught that it is right, yet in wisdom. He said I should teach it to my wife and with prayerful hearts we should seek to be ready to embrace it when or if opportunity is afforded. He said such men as me'full of faith and integrity proven'should have this blessing. I told him my wife and I are converted to this principle and that upon recommending to the temple or ordaining to the priesthood and setting apart to offices I had often asked this question as to their belief. He heartily commended me for this.
[William H. Smart, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
Brigham Young preaches: "Why does not our government make a law to say how many children a man shall have? They might as well do so as to make a law to say how many wives a man shall have."
[Brigham Young]
... Do we wish to destroy people? We do not, not even those ignorant, bloodthirsty Lamanites. Did we ever destroy? No; it is not our doctrine; but our doctrine is to build up and save life instead of destroying it. Is it necessary on any occasion, and under any circumstances whatever? Yes, let a man meet me with a design to kill me, and I am going to get the first blow if I can. I have not come to die for the sins of the world as our Savior, Jesus Christ, did. It was necessary for him to be killed; but it is not necessary for me. ... The man who was referred to this morning has given testimony against us, respecting matters here, which is utterly false. After making such infamous statements, that man could not live here twenty-four hours, if it were not that we are Latter-day Saints who live here. By letting him alone, however, he will kill himself. There is also a man down the street who tried to exhibit the endowments to a party who was here. You will see what becomes of that man. Do not touch him. He has forfeited every right and title to eternal life; but let him alone, and you will see by and by what will become of him. His heart will ache, and so will the heart of every apostate that fights against Zion; they will destroy themselves. It is a mistaken idea that God destroys people, or that the Saints wish to destroy them. ...
[Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 11:257-263, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Leonard Arrington]
... While the Mormon Heritage Series had good support from Elder [Alvin R.] Dyer and Elder [Joseph] Anderson we became aware in 1978 that it did not have full support from all members of the Twelve [Apostles]; specifically two members of the Twelve had reservation about the series: Elder [Mark E.] Petersen and Elder [Boyd K.] Packer. [Arrington describes this series: "Early volumes projected in this series were: letters of Brigham Young to his sons to be edited by Dean Jessee; letters of Brigham Young to Indian Chiefs to be edited by Dean Jessee; the holograph [handwritten] writings of Joseph Smith to be edited by Dean Jessee; the sermons of Heber C. Kimball to be edited by Stan Kimball; documents relating to the spread of the gospel overseas to be edited by Spencer Palmer].
Both had their confidence in our judgment marred by our leaving in the Brigham Young letters to his sons volume a reference in which Brigham tells his son Brigham Young, Jr., while on a mission in England that he ought to give serious consideration to giving up his use of tobacco while he was a missionary. There may have been other little things in the volume they did not like. [O]f course our own thinking was you do not build confidence in the integrity of your book if you leave out all of the passages that reflect any problems. We did have excellent reviews on the book and we felt, and continue to feel, very proud of it. We have no second thoughts about how it was handled.
But because of this observation Deseret Book, under the influence of their cautious president Marvin Ashton, have been less enthusiastic about the series than they were in the early 1970s. The result is the heavy editing of some of our things and the name "Mormon Heritage Series" has been removed from some of these books. Examples of the heavy editing are the Spencer Palmer book on The Expanding Church which was cut by about 1/3; the women book by Godfrey and Derr which was cut by about 1/3, the Dean Jessee volume of Joseph Smith holographs which apparently will be run as two volumes published in separate years. ...
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
The Rev. Truman Coe writes a description of Mormonism in the Ohio Observer, including the statement that "they believe that the true God is a material being, composed of body and parts; and that when the Creator formed Adam in his own image, he made him about the size and shape of God himself." This is one of the earliest recorded statements concerning the Mormon belief on this doctrine.
[Brigham Young University Studies (various issues), Sp '77, 354; Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
The returning Elders reached McIlwair's Bend (of the Missouri river) where Wm. W. Phelps "saw in open vision, by daylight, the Destroyer in his most horrible power ride upon the face of the water; others heard the noise, but saw not the vision."
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, was officially renamed Brigham Young University-Idaho and became a four-year university.
[Church News: Historical Chronology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/58765/Historical-chronology-of-The-Church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Latter-day-Saints.html]
[Brigham Young]
I propose that each Ward form female relief societies and not buy so much gew gaws ribbons bonnets shawls and shoes and to relieve the men from those things. The sisters are ignorant of the kind and quality from these societies and relieve themselves from a gallon of tea or coffee a day and your flum a diddles. We cannot see your knee or your shirts unless we go to bed with you or pull up your skirts and that we don't want to do...
I foresee the government of the United States as laying a plan to rush in by societies of 10 or 50 to come six months previous to the sale and buy up the land when it comes into market and so wipe up our inheritances. I know their hearts all I want to know. I am not afraid of it...
Women why do you want to deceive us all the time? You cannot make us believe you have not shape and form like men ladies. Stop this running to the store and buying ribbons and fine things, it is virtually husband [-] I want to grind you into the grave so that you may have your liberty again. go away to hell as soon as you like.
[Thomas Bullock Minutes,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]
... when we can he united in all things so that each will seek the interest and welfare of his brother, then the Lord will take up his abode with us.
[Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846- 1847. Elden J. Watson, ed. Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1971.:305, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Joseph Fielding Smith]
[Attended] Tabernacle in the afternoon. Dr. J[ames]. E. T[almage]. spoke not edifying but questionable.
[Joseph Fielding Smith, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
Talmage delivers the address "The Earth and Man" in the Tabernacle. Under a later journal entry dated November 21, 1931, Talmage referred back to the discourse:
In speaking at the Tabernacle on August 9 last I had not forgotten that in the pronouncement of the First Presidency mentioned under date of April 7 last it was advised and really required that the General Authorities of the Church refrain from discussing in public, that is preaching, the debatable subject of the existence of human kind upon the earth prior to the beginning of Adamic history as recorded in scripture; but, I had been present at a consultation in the course of which the First Presidency had commented somewhat favorably upon the suggestion that sometime, somewhere, something should be said by one or more of us to make plain that the Church does not refuse to recognize the discoveries and demonstrations of science, especially in relation to the subject at issue. President Anthony W. Ivins, of the First Presidency, presided at the Tabernacle meeting, and three members of the Council of the Twelve were present—Elders George F. Richards, Joseph Fielding Smith and Richard R. Lyman. Of course, Elder Smith, and in fact all of us, recognize that my address was in some important respects opposed to his published remarks, but the other brethren named, including President Ivins, expressed their tentative approval of what I had said. [Journal, MSS]
[Chronology of the Life and Work of James E. Talmage, J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MJsHY83JZL_n6CjWq11y1trT_CVXMMXAx2uYOWAwn0c/edit#heading=h.2zfdaoa]
Apostle James E. Talmage gives a talk in the Tabernacle on "The Earth and Man.: He says that plants and animals "lived and died, age after age, while the earth was yet unfit for human habitation. . . . Geologists and anthropologists say that if the beginning of Adamic history dates back but 6,000 years or less there must have been races of human sort upon the earth long before that time-without denying however, that Adamic history may be correct if it be regarded solely as the history of the Adamic race. . . . I do not regard Adam as related to-certainly not descended from-the Neanderthal, the Cro-Magnon the Peking or the Piltdown man." The talk is later published by the Church as a pamphlet. Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith later writes "False doctrine" on at least one copy of the pamphlet.
[Brigham Young Jr.]
Had some strange experiences today. After meeting in the Temple, Pres. Snow held reception for Ken. news men at Beehive. I had Sis. Effie E. Hakes sealed to me (she's dead) Sis. Falkland acted for her. Some other experience was peculiar and the Lord interposed to spare me and mine. God is good, I acknowledge Him in everything.
[Diary of Apostle Brigham Young Jr., http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Joseph Smith, father of the Prophet, came from Merrimac River, N.H., and first settled in Palmyra, but in 1819 removed to this place. He was a Methodist; but had formerly been a Universalist, and was quite an adept at Scriptural arguments. Credulity seems to have been a pretty large ingredient in his composition, as he was a great digger, always seeing "sights;" but never realizing his expectations, he was noted for his indolence, and for generally being in some difficulty with his neighbors. Joe's mother was a far different person from his father: she is described as a woman of strong uncultivated intellect, artful and cunning, and strongly imbued with an illy regulated religious enthusiasm, and much given to vague visions of riches and greatness. As is usually the case, she had much more to do with forming the character of the son than his father, though he had more of the atrocities of the latter, so far as his habits were concerned. Mrs. Smith seems to have been the head and front of the movement; she it was who first gave vague hints that a prophet was to arise from her humble household, and as arrangements progressed towards a consummation, she named those who had been fixed upon as instruments to assist them in getting out the new revelations--always selecting men who were noted for their credulity. In these affairs her husband assisted, and was her executive officer.
ALVAH [Alvin], the eldest son, was originally intended for the prophet, but alas for all human designs, "the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak;" and one day, ALVAH being rather hungry, he indulged too freely in raw turnips, sickened and died; so the incipient prophet was lost to the world and to Mormonism. Joe Smith thereby became a great man, for it was immediately given out that the mantle of Alvah [Alvin] had fallen upon him, unworthy though he was--for rumor says he was as lazy as his father, rather intemperate in his habits, and possessed of less than ordinary intellect. He had previously professed religion at a camp meeting, and was quite an exhorter at evening meetings; but this did not last long. "Mormon Hill" had been long designated "as the place in which countless treasures were buried;" Joseph, the elder, had "spaded" up many a foot of the hill side to find them, and Joseph Jr., had on more than one occasion accompanied him. Taking all these circumstances together, how perfectly natural was it for the Smith family to be selected as the means of finding, and Mormon Hill as the repository of the long buried revelation, known as the "Gold Bible."
It has been generally believed that this celebrated book was written by Mr. Spaulding, of Ohio, but for this belief there is no foundation; the original production undoubtedly emanated jointly from the Smith family, and a schoolmaster of this village by the name of OLIVER COWDERY, who was intimately connected with the Smiths in all their movements...
The original design of the movers was undoubtedly to make money and to gain a certain notoriety, of which, as we have said, Mrs. Smith had often had visions, and they had no idea at this time of founding a sect. Joe Smith has himself said as much. As soon as the Bible had been discovered Joe commenced to prophesy and to name individuals who were, as he said, called of God, as chosen instruments to assist him in the translating, &c., of the revelation. The most noted of their assistants was MARTIN HARRIS, a respectable and honest farmer residing at Palmyra--much given to new creeds, and a monomaniac upon the subject of "spiritual manifestations." He mortgaged his farm to pay for the printing of the Gold Bible, but a contract signed by JOSEPH, and witnessed by COWDERY, secure to Harris and his heirs one half the proceeds of the sale of the Gold Bible, until he was reimbursed in the sum of $2500--the cost of printing. This, together with the fact that Harris had procured the services of a village jeweler to help him estimate the value of the plates, taking as a basis Joe Smith's description, leaves us in doubt as to whether he was altogether a dupe.
The Prophet's account of finding these plates was--that an angel appeared, and directed him where to dig; he was then compelled, against his will, to interpret them, and promulgate their contents to the world; that on the plates were the names of the ancient residents in this country, "engraved by Mormon the son of Nephi;" that in the box containing them was "a large pair of spectacles, the stone or glass set in them being opaque to all but the prophet;" that "these belonged to Mormon the engraver, and that the plates could not be read without them." Harris was the principal amanuensis, and having nearly a hundred pages of the manuscript translation in his house, his wife, who was an unbeliever, seized them, and either burned or secreted them--it was supposed the former--but for fear that she should confront them with the lost documents at some future day, the Smiths, Cowdery and Harris, agreed not to translate these again, but to let so much of the new revelation drop out, lest "the evil spirit should get up a story that the second translation did not agree with the first." . . .
Yours,
ASHES [anonymous author, probably relying on an 1851 account by Orsamus Turner]
["Mormonism in Its Infancy," Newark (New Jersey) Daily Advertiser, Circa August 1856, Charles Woodward Scrapbook, New York Public Library, New York, New York (Woodward 1880, 1:125)., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Manchester Resident Reminiscence]
[Helen Mar Kimball]
A few days after their return to Nauvoo the Prophet's brother Don Carlos Smith died, and being an officer in the legion as well as a Freemason he was buried with Masonic and military rites. Those of the Masonic fraternity marched next to the family to the grave which was in a little grove at the foot of the hill southwest of the temple. My mother's baby being too sick for her to leave I went in her stead and marched with my father in the Masonic procession ...
[Whitney, Helen Mar, Jeni Broberg Holzapfel, and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History, Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997]
TV GUIDE article: "Cute, Cuddly, Courteous and Worth Millions: Donny and Marie Osmond's TV Success is the Latest Chapter in a Unique Family Saga."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
Twenty-six-year-old Don Carlos Smith, Joseph's youngest brother, dies in Nauvoo. He was the editor of the Times and Seasons and became sick while printing in a damp cellar. He leaves three daughters.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
James Gordon Bennett diary entry, Geneva, New York (sixteen miles southeast of the Smith farm near Palmyra): Joseph Smith Sr. a healer and "grand story teller--very glib" and his son a "carless, idle, indolent fellow--brought up to live by his wits." The Hill Cumorah. Mormons moved to Ohio "because the people here would not pay any attention to them."
[Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]
[Heber J. Grant, Letter to Matthias F. Cowley]
"None of the Quorum saw fit to inform me of yours and Bro[ther]. John W [Taylor]'s resignations as members of the Quorum of the Apostles and my first official notice came from the Presidency after the April conference. No particulars as to why the resignations were given have been given to me. Toney [Anthony W. Ivins], Pres[ident]. [Joseph E.] Robinson and others gave an intimation of what was coming and I hoped and prayed that they were mistaken. I cannot possibly express to you the deep sorrow that I have felt that any such action as has been taken was considered necessary. My home coming in meeting my family and friends is looked forward to with much pleasure, but when I think of meeting in the Temple with my dearly beloved associates in our quarterly conferences and recall that you and John will not be there and that Bro[ther]s. [Marriner Wood] Merrill and [Abraham] Owen [Woodruff] will also be absent, it will indeed be a sad home coming. I am in perfect harmony with the action taken and am sure that no mistake has been made but this assurance makes no difference in the deep sorrow that I feel that there was any cause for action in yours and John's case."
[Heber J. Grant, Letter to Matthias F. Cowley, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
"At 7 30 P.M. went to High Priests (Sic) Quorum Meeting and listened to a very interesting talk by brother Samuel Richard, the last of the original company of young men organized by Joseph the Prophet to go and explore the Rocky Mountains for a dwelling place for the Saints, he spoke of a night vision he had in answer to his prayers wherein he came west all over these rigions down into California Mexico and back up to Jackson Co where he helped to build the Great Temple there." [This is a recounting of the Horse Shoe Prophecy]
[Diary Excerpts of Thomas A. Clawson, Signature Books Library, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[Brigham Young]
He further remarked that the Government would have to acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy, and after a while there would be a scarcity of grain. -- Salt Lake City
[Brigham Young Office Journals, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Leonard Arrington]
Word has come to us that Elder [G. Homer] Durham is working out a policy on "conflict of interest" in the Historical Department. This policy includes the following elements:
1. No employee of the Historical Department is permitted to do any research or writing at his desk. This not only includes his work time but he may not use lunch time for the purpose nor stay after work hours to do so. He may, of course, do so on annual leave time if approved by Elder Durham.
2. He has not definitely ruled on the matter but is giving serious consideration to prohibiting Gordon Irving from serving as an assistant editor of the Journal of Mormon History. [[Durham ultimately approved Irving's outside involvement in the journal, for which Irving appeared in the staff box for six years, vols. 7-12 (1980-85).]]
3. No Historical Department employee will be able to use his Historical Department position as a power base for moving into a university or other professional position.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
Brigham Young's office journal records: " In the evening Pres[ident] Wells read to the President a part of the life of Senator Stephen A. Douglass, deceased, in which it mentioned a circumstance wherein Joseph Smith (Prophet) was protected by him. The President remarked that Stephen A. Douglass was a far better man than President Abel Lincoln for he knew his feelings were hostile to this people."
The newly renovated Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois, is dedicated. The cemetery contains the graves of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith, among others. A site of interest to both the RLDS and LDS Church, the dedication is performed under the joint direction of President Wallace Smith, president of the RLDS Church, and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the LDS Church.
[LDS Daily, www.ldsdaily.com]
[Leonard Arrington]
I have learned today the true story of the cricket and seagull episode in Mormon history in 1848. It is well known that birds eat seeds-grain seeds, flower seeds, millet seeds, wheat and so on. The seagulls had been over Salt Lake City for perhaps millennia. At any rate they circled over the fields of grain of the Saints, descended and began to eat the maturing grain, as they still do today. The Saints began to despair that the seagulls were eating up all their grain. Fearfully, they worried about their future. Nevertheless, they didn't want to shoot the seagulls. They many times sang the song, "Don't Kill the Little Birds." [["Don't Kill the Little Birds" was, for instance, in the church's 1909 Deseret Sunday School Songs.]] The crickets realized the position the Saints were in and so decided to be a sacrifice for a good purpose. So the crickets came in and lay down, playing dead, which attracted the seagulls away from the grain. The seagulls ate the crickets instead. Thus it was really, in essence, the crickets that saved the Saints' grain crop. This suggests that we ought to put up a new monument on Temple Square to the Mormon cricket. [[Arrington meant this as a joke, although a member of the division, William Hart- ley, found that the story of seagulls rescuing settlers by devouring crickets had grown more miraculous over time. See "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls," 137-48.]]
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
The Christian Broadcasting Network, founded and run by Pat Robertson, began broadcasting over the radio.
[Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline]
[Leonard Arrington]
... I had always wanted to ask about President Romney's sister who became a Catholic nun. How did that happen? What were the circumstances? She said that this sister's name was Lurelene. She had grown up in Mexico, along with President Romney, and then went to Rexburg [Idaho], I believe. She had married and had I think five children. She had married an LDS person whose name Dona did not recall. Then she had been divorced, say when she was in her fifties. Sometime after she became a Roman Catholic and took the vows of a nun. She is known as Mary Catherine. She lives in Holladay [Utah] along with a few other nuns, perhaps six or seven. They do work on behalf of the poor and the needy. ...
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
[Charles W. Penrose]
At Pres[iden]ts office & B[isho]ps office. Note from [Josiah] Rogerson about his M/s [manuscript] on Mountain Meadows [Massacre]. Meeting at Temple. Read note rec[eive]d from Josiah Rogerson informing me that the First Presidency had 'appointed' me to hear and revise his history of the M[ountain] M[eadows] Massacre. Pres[ident] [Joseph F.] Smith denied having done so, and it was voted unanimously that the M/s [manuscript] be not published.
[Charles W. Penrose Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]
At St. Charles, Idaho, George Q. Cannon reports "having seen the Bear Lake Monster or something of that kind this evening while strolling along the lake."
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Groundbreaking for adobe Tabernacle on Temple Square.
[Timeline of Wilford Woodruff's Life in the Context of US and Church History, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/timeline]
[Wilford Woodruff marriage]
Sarah Elinore [Elinor or Eleanor] Brown. She was eighteen, Wilford was thirty-nine. They were divorced four weeks later and Sarah went to live with another family. This is Sarah Elinor Brown, born on August 22, 1827, in Vinal Haven, Knox, Maine, the daughter of Charles Brown and Mary Arey.
Wilford Woodruff apparently married her sister posthumously: Rebeca Brown born in vinal Haven Maine Oct 30, 1826 / Sealed to WW Died Aug 1839 Aged 13 year /June 15 1807/."
Sarah later married Lisbon Lamb in Salt Lake City on February 15, 1849, with whom she had three children. She died on December 25, 1915 in Farmington, Utah.
[Compton, Todd, 'The Wives of Wilford Woodruff', http://toddmcompton.com/WWfamilies.htm]
[Wilford Woodruff marriage]
Mary Carolyn [Caroline] Barton. Thomas Alexander refers to her as a teenager. She and Wilford Woodruff divorced four weeks later and she returned to her parents.
Alexander writes, The two young wives [she and Sarah Brown, see below] began keeping company with three young men nearer their own ages, staying out with them until early in the morning for several days. . . . The thirty-nine-year-old Woodruff forebade his teenage wives from consorting with the men . . . they continued dating their friends, and Woodruff thought some sexual misconduct had taken place . . . As promised, he sent Carolyn Barton back to her parents and Sarah Brown to another famly, and Hosea Stout whipped the boys. Woodruff thought the girls deserved similar punishment, but expulsion sufficed . . . Brigham Young agreed to divorces between Woodruff and the two women."
I have not yet identified the genealogy of Mary Barton. In Mormon history, there is a Mary Caroline Barton who married Erastus Curtis, with whom she had eleven children, but this is probably not the same Mary Caroline Barton.
[Compton, Todd, 'The Wives of Wilford Woodruff', http://toddmcompton.com/WWfamilies.htm]
A vandal attackes the "Christus" statue in the Visitor's Center on Salt Lake Temple Square and breaks off its fingers. On 16 Dec. 1982 the same vandal breaks off its arms.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Dallin H. Oaks begins his term as the eighth president of BYU (1971-80).
[J. Reuben Clark]
Mark Petersen'Told me of a rumor about town that the underworld plus some city officialdom,'angered by Tedesco incident were going to try to get something on Hotel Utah to get even on Church.
Mr Gamble'I told Gamble at end of my lunch of what Mark Petersen had told me. I warned that if there were any truth at all to the rumor, they would "plant" something on the Hotel. He observed they had been they had been above suspicion. I repeated my caution to him.
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]