170 years ago today - Apr 8, 1841

A conference sustains John C. Bennett as "Assistant President" in the First Presidency to replace ailing Sidney Rigdon. He is the first general authority to have attended college, having studied one year at McGill University. Bennett is a Campbellite minister, self-trained lawyer, doctor, thirty-third-degree Mason, brigadier general in the Illinois Invincible Light Dragoons, and Quartermaster General of Illinois. Joseph Smith is so impressed by Bennett that he adopts many of Bennett's mannerisms including his oratorical style, his military dress and bearing, and his habit of using foreign phrases in written communications. Bennett boards at Smith's home and they are constant companions. William Law, also in the First Presidency, later writes that Bennett was "more in the secret confidence of Joseph than perhaps any other man in the city."

[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]