Leonard Arrington's title is officially changed from "Church Historian" to "Director of History Division of Historical Department." Arrington continues to fill his ecclesiastical calling by giving talks, sitting on committees, and representing the Church in historical matters. When people, including President Kimball, refer to him as "Church Historian," he does not correct them.
The U.S. justice Department charges that BYU off-campus housing practices violate the Fair Housing Act, and give the university one month to conform. The threatened suit grew out of an incident in which a BYU female applied for an apartment in a building approved for male student housing. BYU's policy is that unmarried male and female students may not live in the same building, even if they live in separate apartments, and all students must live in university-approved housing. The suit is resolved when BYU-approved, off-campus housing becomes limited to BYU students only.
90 years ago today - Feb 28, 1928
[Heber J. Grant]
Franklin S. Richards called and we discussed the proposition of starting legal proceedings against Fred Smith for the disturbing of the bodies of the Prophet and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He felt there could be no damages secured and the only thing would be to prosecute these people criminally, and he had grave doubts that we could ever get a jury that would make a decision in our favor.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
Franklin S. Richards called and we discussed the proposition of starting legal proceedings against Fred Smith for the disturbing of the bodies of the Prophet and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He felt there could be no damages secured and the only thing would be to prosecute these people criminally, and he had grave doubts that we could ever get a jury that would make a decision in our favor.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
120 years ago today - Feb 28, 1898 (Monday)
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision, affirming the constitutionality of Utah's eight-hour law. [IE eight hour work days, passed in 1894 in Utah]
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
130 years ago today - Feb 28, 1888
[Marriner W. Merrill]
Olonzo came to the Temple and was baptized for his health and administered to.
[Source: Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Olonzo came to the Temple and was baptized for his health and administered to.
[Source: Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
165 years ago today - Feb 28, 1853
Millard Fillmore writes Utah's congressional delegate John M. Bernhiscl (a member of Council of Fifty), "my thanks for the beautiful copy of the 'Book of Mormon.'" Fillmore is apparently first U.S. president in accept copy of Book of Mormon but may not have even opened it.. He appoints Brigham Young as Utah's first governor who gratefully names Fillmore, Utah, as territorial capital from 1851 to 1858.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
175 years ago today - Feb 28, 1843
Orson Hyde affidavit of 15 & 16 September 1869, "And in the month of February or March (1843) I was married to Miss Martha R. Browitt [also spelled "Browett"] by Joseph Smith," witnessed by Marinda N. Hyde. Joseph Smith performed polygamous marriage for him and Mary Ann Price in April 1843, witnessed by Marinda N. Hyde. Compare with Joseph Smith's journal 28 February 1843, "To Elder Hydes to dinner at 4 o'clock P.M." and also "The following list of marriages is written on one of the last leaves of this journal," beginning: "Apr 42 Marinda Johnson [Hyde] to Joseph Smith 1843" and "July 20 [1843] M.P. to O Hyde." Thomas Bullock's entry in Joseph Smith's journal affirmed that there were two ceremonies, first in April 1842 and second at an unspecified date in 1843. The first was without her husband's knowledge, but the second was with his permission. Her 1869 affidavit provided better dating for the 1843 ceremony, which was thirteen months after she actually became Joseph Smith's wife. [Joseph Fielding Smith Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage, 89; An American Prophet's Record, 313, 396]
[Source: "Evidence For The Sexual Side of Joseph Smith's Polygamy," Comments by D. Michael Quinn on Session #2A "Reconsidering Joseph Smith's Marital Practices," Mormon History Association's Annual Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 29 June 2012 (unabbreviated version, revised during July)]
[Source: "Evidence For The Sexual Side of Joseph Smith's Polygamy," Comments by D. Michael Quinn on Session #2A "Reconsidering Joseph Smith's Marital Practices," Mormon History Association's Annual Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 29 June 2012 (unabbreviated version, revised during July)]
175 years ago today - Feb 28, 1843 - Tuesday
[Joseph Smith]
... notice in Chicago Express that Wm <Hiram> Redding had seen sign of the son of man.— [In addition to printing Redding's statement about seeing the sign of the Son of Man, William Brackett, the editor of the Chicago Express, made an explicit comparison between Redding and JS, suggesting, and then explaining, his conviction that "so far at least as revelations are concerned, we think Joe Smith has his match at last."]]
wrote Editor of Times & Seasons. for No 8. vol 4 that Reding had not seen the sign of the son of man. and he would not come in [18]43— &c ... [In his letter to the editor, JS stated that Christ's second coming would not take place until prophecies of signs preceding the Second Coming were fulfilled.]
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
... notice in Chicago Express that Wm <Hiram> Redding had seen sign of the son of man.— [In addition to printing Redding's statement about seeing the sign of the Son of Man, William Brackett, the editor of the Chicago Express, made an explicit comparison between Redding and JS, suggesting, and then explaining, his conviction that "so far at least as revelations are concerned, we think Joe Smith has his match at last."]]
wrote Editor of Times & Seasons. for No 8. vol 4 that Reding had not seen the sign of the son of man. and he would not come in [18]43— &c ... [In his letter to the editor, JS stated that Christ's second coming would not take place until prophecies of signs preceding the Second Coming were fulfilled.]
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
60 years ago today - Feb 27, 1958
[J. Reuben Clark]
In the discussion Dr. [William F.] Edwards and Brother Virgil Smith had had with President McKay and myself beforehand, the statement was made that putting President Joseph Fielding Smith on the Loan Committee [of Utah Home Fire Insurance Company] along with Virgil Smith and Eugene Watkins was done so that he could be paid a compensation and that seemed to be the only way that could be accomplished.
When the matter came up at the Stockholders meeting of the Beneficial Life in connection with the reorganization, Dr. Edwards sat next to me and recalling what he had said earlier, I leaned over and said to him, "Don't forget that Joseph Fielding Smith may be the next President of the Church." I left it there. ...
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
In the discussion Dr. [William F.] Edwards and Brother Virgil Smith had had with President McKay and myself beforehand, the statement was made that putting President Joseph Fielding Smith on the Loan Committee [of Utah Home Fire Insurance Company] along with Virgil Smith and Eugene Watkins was done so that he could be paid a compensation and that seemed to be the only way that could be accomplished.
When the matter came up at the Stockholders meeting of the Beneficial Life in connection with the reorganization, Dr. Edwards sat next to me and recalling what he had said earlier, I leaned over and said to him, "Don't forget that Joseph Fielding Smith may be the next President of the Church." I left it there. ...
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
75 years ago today - Feb 27, 1943
[Heber J. Grant]
I think it was an inspiration not to choose John Smith's great grandson to be the patriarch. For ten years there has been a vacancy in the office of Presiding Patriarch, and yet at one time a majority of the Quorum of the Twelve felt that I ought to choose one of John Smith's great grandsons. It has been a very humiliating thing to me to have the majority of the brethren wanting me to choose a man who felt he was entitled to it, but I have seen all of them lately and they all say they are perfectly willing to sustain Joseph F. Smith [III] for the position. I was very glad that I stood out for ten years seeing that President Smith himself felt that he was entitled to have one of his line as the Presiding Patriarch.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
I think it was an inspiration not to choose John Smith's great grandson to be the patriarch. For ten years there has been a vacancy in the office of Presiding Patriarch, and yet at one time a majority of the Quorum of the Twelve felt that I ought to choose one of John Smith's great grandsons. It has been a very humiliating thing to me to have the majority of the brethren wanting me to choose a man who felt he was entitled to it, but I have seen all of them lately and they all say they are perfectly willing to sustain Joseph F. Smith [III] for the position. I was very glad that I stood out for ten years seeing that President Smith himself felt that he was entitled to have one of his line as the Presiding Patriarch.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
115 years ago today - Feb 27, 1903; Friday
[First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve]
The following telegram was received from Bro[ther, apostle & senator elect]. [Reed] Smoot:
"Extra session United States Senate likely. Lielich's polygamy charge prevents oath. Excited public and the press against our interests." ...
The following sent to Bro[ther]. Smoot this afternoon:
"Leading Gentiles say that you should swear out complaint against Lielich for criminal libel and have him arrested on his appearance in Washington [D.C.]. It would offset his work more than anything at present. We think it would be good thing to do."
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
The following telegram was received from Bro[ther, apostle & senator elect]. [Reed] Smoot:
"Extra session United States Senate likely. Lielich's polygamy charge prevents oath. Excited public and the press against our interests." ...
The following sent to Bro[ther]. Smoot this afternoon:
"Leading Gentiles say that you should swear out complaint against Lielich for criminal libel and have him arrested on his appearance in Washington [D.C.]. It would offset his work more than anything at present. We think it would be good thing to do."
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
145 years ago today - Feb 27, 1873
Apostle Joseph F. Smith dreams of an anti-Mormon who uses a bottle of "concentrated essence of S--t" to attack plural marriage. He thinks the dream refers to Congress.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
160 years ago today - Feb 27, 1858
Judge Hosea Stout describes with no disapproval how Mormons "disguised as Indians" drag man [Henery Jones] "out of bed with a whore and castrated him by a square & close amputation."
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
165 years ago today - Feb 27, 1853
President Brigham Young preached & he presented some of the most interesting & deepest principles ever presented to man on the earth. ...
In speaking of the privileges of this people He said the people should first perform evry known duty & not neglect them to enjoy any pleasure.
In speaking of danceing he said when the saints were taken up with the spirit of the fiddle & dancing & had not the spirit of God they were wrong & in the wrong road. A man should never go to a dance to the neglect of other Duties neither should he unless he Could have the spirit of God as well as in a prayer meeting.
He said some Elders would threaten to curse their wives if they did not obey him because he had the priesthood. He said the Curses of such men wer of no force & the women need have no fears of it.
He said again some men had a desire to stick to the work because it made them kings & priest so they Could sway a great septer & rule with a rod of Iron & damn men here & curse them there &c and had not in view the principles of Justice Jud[ge]ment mercy truth &c but they can not arise upon such principle. Even God himself should He act upon this principle He would scease to be God ...
Some men want women sealed to them at the same time they will steal my property. I want such men to go to Calafornia as soon as possible for they will go to Hell any how.
Who should have women sealed to them? Those men who have proved to God Angels & m[a/e?]n that they are willing to do any thing that God requires of them ... Men that have women sealed to them & abuse them & turn them out doors & treat lightly those sacred things given unto them it will prove a Curse unto them. ...
The difference between Christ & the devil is Christ will increase & the devil will decrase untill Christ will have power to destroy death & him that hath the power of death which is the devil. Yes the devil will finally be destroyed & disorganized & will scease to exhist as a devil & the Elements of which he is composed will go back into its mother Element ...
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
In speaking of the privileges of this people He said the people should first perform evry known duty & not neglect them to enjoy any pleasure.
In speaking of danceing he said when the saints were taken up with the spirit of the fiddle & dancing & had not the spirit of God they were wrong & in the wrong road. A man should never go to a dance to the neglect of other Duties neither should he unless he Could have the spirit of God as well as in a prayer meeting.
He said some Elders would threaten to curse their wives if they did not obey him because he had the priesthood. He said the Curses of such men wer of no force & the women need have no fears of it.
He said again some men had a desire to stick to the work because it made them kings & priest so they Could sway a great septer & rule with a rod of Iron & damn men here & curse them there &c and had not in view the principles of Justice Jud[ge]ment mercy truth &c but they can not arise upon such principle. Even God himself should He act upon this principle He would scease to be God ...
Some men want women sealed to them at the same time they will steal my property. I want such men to go to Calafornia as soon as possible for they will go to Hell any how.
Who should have women sealed to them? Those men who have proved to God Angels & m[a/e?]n that they are willing to do any thing that God requires of them ... Men that have women sealed to them & abuse them & turn them out doors & treat lightly those sacred things given unto them it will prove a Curse unto them. ...
The difference between Christ & the devil is Christ will increase & the devil will decrase untill Christ will have power to destroy death & him that hath the power of death which is the devil. Yes the devil will finally be destroyed & disorganized & will scease to exhist as a devil & the Elements of which he is composed will go back into its mother Element ...
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
185 years ago today - Feb 27, 1833
"Sang by the gift of tongues and translated:"
age after age has rolled away according to the sad fate of man countless millions forever gone at length the period of time has come that oft was seen by a prophetic eye and written too by all holy men inspired of the Lord a time which was seen by Enoch of Old at a time when he stood upon the mount which was called the Mountain of God as he gazed upon nature and the corruption of man and mourned their sad fate and wept and cried with a loud voice and heaved forth his sighs Omnipotence Omnipotence ....
[Source: Kirtland Revelations Book, 48-49, handwriting of Frederick G. Williams]
age after age has rolled away according to the sad fate of man countless millions forever gone at length the period of time has come that oft was seen by a prophetic eye and written too by all holy men inspired of the Lord a time which was seen by Enoch of Old at a time when he stood upon the mount which was called the Mountain of God as he gazed upon nature and the corruption of man and mourned their sad fate and wept and cried with a loud voice and heaved forth his sighs Omnipotence Omnipotence ....
[Source: Kirtland Revelations Book, 48-49, handwriting of Frederick G. Williams]
185 years ago today - Feb 27, 1833
Joseph receives D&C 89 ["The Word of Wisdom"]. According to Brigham Young the School of the Prophets was meeting in Joseph's kitchen, a small room in the house attached to the store owned by Bishop Whitney. As the brethren would gather after breakfast, they would immediately light their pipes, filling the room with smoke, or they would begin to chew tobacco, spitting it on the floor. After the complaints of his wife, Joseph prayed about the problem and received the above revelation.
[Source: Journal of Discourses (26 volumes) 12:157-58; Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
[Source: Journal of Discourses (26 volumes) 12:157-58; Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
20 years ago today - 2/26/1998
Andy Pugno writes letter to BYU Prof Lynn Wardle on State Senator Pete Knights letterhead asking Wardle to review the text for the proposed Prop 22 language. Specifically, Pugno asks if its better to use "one man and one woman" or "a man and a woman" and also asks, "Is there a better way to draft the text of this initiative, considering California's long history of recognizing any marriage legally contracted elsewhere (even if it would have been invalid if performed in this state)? The current proposed language is very short and to the point because, our voter research shows, voters are more supportive if the text is very brief and doesn't leave much to doubt."
Church gives $500,000 to the Alaska Family Coalition, formed to ban gay marriage in Alaska. Total donations for the gay marriage ban that year were $600,000.
[Source: Mormons for Marriage: A Prop 8 Timeline, http://mormonsformarriage.com/?page_id=68]
Church gives $500,000 to the Alaska Family Coalition, formed to ban gay marriage in Alaska. Total donations for the gay marriage ban that year were $600,000.
[Source: Mormons for Marriage: A Prop 8 Timeline, http://mormonsformarriage.com/?page_id=68]
70 years ago today - Feb 26, 1948
[J. Reuben Clark]
Nicholas Baker, member of the bishopric of Layton Ward called and made the following statement: He was teaching the Gospel Doctrine class in his ward ... He said that Bro. and Sister Nalder (who had been to see me regarding the matter of conscientious objectors, they being conscientious objectors, and their two sons likewise, were making trouble in his class and quoting me. They are saying, as Brother Baker remembered it, that I had said that the spirit which prompted Nephi to kill Laban in order to get the plates on which the Law of Moses was engraved, was the spirit of the Devil and not the spirit of the Lord. I told Bro. Baker that I did not remember ever having talked that matter over with the Nalders, though I may have done, but I would repeat to him the statement that Bro. George Albert Smith had made, namely, that I do not remember whether or not I made the statement, but I did not think that I did, but if I did make that statement I did not believe it when I said it and I do not believe it now. I called Bro. Baker's attention to the fact that the word spirit is capitalized all through those verses carrying the account of this incident, and that indicated to the man who superintended the printing of the Book of Mormon regarded it as the Spirit of the Lord and not the spirit of the Devil, otherwise he would not have capitalized the word Spirit. ... These people who are apparently really apostates, also had some kind of a cock and bull story about the Church having under consideration the elimination of part of the Doctrine and Covenants and printing a new edition. ...
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
Nicholas Baker, member of the bishopric of Layton Ward called and made the following statement: He was teaching the Gospel Doctrine class in his ward ... He said that Bro. and Sister Nalder (who had been to see me regarding the matter of conscientious objectors, they being conscientious objectors, and their two sons likewise, were making trouble in his class and quoting me. They are saying, as Brother Baker remembered it, that I had said that the spirit which prompted Nephi to kill Laban in order to get the plates on which the Law of Moses was engraved, was the spirit of the Devil and not the spirit of the Lord. I told Bro. Baker that I did not remember ever having talked that matter over with the Nalders, though I may have done, but I would repeat to him the statement that Bro. George Albert Smith had made, namely, that I do not remember whether or not I made the statement, but I did not think that I did, but if I did make that statement I did not believe it when I said it and I do not believe it now. I called Bro. Baker's attention to the fact that the word spirit is capitalized all through those verses carrying the account of this incident, and that indicated to the man who superintended the printing of the Book of Mormon regarded it as the Spirit of the Lord and not the spirit of the Devil, otherwise he would not have capitalized the word Spirit. ... These people who are apparently really apostates, also had some kind of a cock and bull story about the Church having under consideration the elimination of part of the Doctrine and Covenants and printing a new edition. ...
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
115 years ago today - Feb 26, 1903; Thursday
The following telegram was received this morning from Senator elect [Reed] Smoot:
"Have Deseret News publish no more against Perry Heath or Thomas Kearns. They say they will open old fight unless they stop. Ministers hired Michener and Dudley to tell U.S. Senators I have three wives."
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
"Have Deseret News publish no more against Perry Heath or Thomas Kearns. They say they will open old fight unless they stop. Ministers hired Michener and Dudley to tell U.S. Senators I have three wives."
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
115 years ago today - Thursday, Feb 26, 1903
[Rudger Clawson]
There was some discussion regarding secret orders in our midst, suggested by the fact that in one instance a secret order claimed the privilege to officiate at the funeral of a member of the society—a Latter-day Saint—and in case of denial threatened to withhold the annuity, or death allowance, to which said deceased person was entitled. The bishop objected to being mixed up with said society in the funeral services. It became the sense of the council that the stand taken by the bishop was [right] and that in future cases of a similar character, our bishops should insist upon completing the funeral service before any society or outside organization should officiate in the burial.
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
There was some discussion regarding secret orders in our midst, suggested by the fact that in one instance a secret order claimed the privilege to officiate at the funeral of a member of the society—a Latter-day Saint—and in case of denial threatened to withhold the annuity, or death allowance, to which said deceased person was entitled. The bishop objected to being mixed up with said society in the funeral services. It became the sense of the council that the stand taken by the bishop was [right] and that in future cases of a similar character, our bishops should insist upon completing the funeral service before any society or outside organization should officiate in the burial.
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
130 years ago today - Feb 26, 1888
[James E. Talmage]
Talmage delivers a lecture on the subject of evolution, responding to the questions of Dr. York.
[Source: Salt Lake Herald, 24 February 1888; 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]
Talmage delivers a lecture on the subject of evolution, responding to the questions of Dr. York.
[Source: Salt Lake Herald, 24 February 1888; 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]
185 years ago today - Feb 26, 1833
National day of Temperance the day before the Word of Wisdom revelation. The May 1833 issue of the American Quarterly Temperance Magazine reports that "Simultaneous Temperance Meetings" by various temperance societies were held across the nation on or around February 26, 1833.
[Source: Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source; Leonard Arrington: The Writing of Mormon History p. 286, in Chronology of Mormon History, http://followtheprophets.com/chronology-of-mormon-history/]
[Source: Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source; Leonard Arrington: The Writing of Mormon History p. 286, in Chronology of Mormon History, http://followtheprophets.com/chronology-of-mormon-history/]
80 years ago today - Feb 25, 1938
[Heber J. Grant]
This evening I had a visit of over an hour with Raymond Taylor, a son of John W. Taylor, whose mother was a Woolley and a plural wife of Samuel Woolley of Grantsville. His wife was with him. He is preparing a history of John W. Taylor. I told him I thought it was a mistake. If they wanted to publish it, all right, it would not be a history unless they told he was in opposition to the apostles and was excommunicated from the Church and was never legally restored by baptism. They went out saying they were very glad to have had the interview, and as near as I could judge he was pleased to drop the matter, for which I felt grateful, that they had had this talk with me, and that it would be a mistake to publish this history.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
This evening I had a visit of over an hour with Raymond Taylor, a son of John W. Taylor, whose mother was a Woolley and a plural wife of Samuel Woolley of Grantsville. His wife was with him. He is preparing a history of John W. Taylor. I told him I thought it was a mistake. If they wanted to publish it, all right, it would not be a history unless they told he was in opposition to the apostles and was excommunicated from the Church and was never legally restored by baptism. They went out saying they were very glad to have had the interview, and as near as I could judge he was pleased to drop the matter, for which I felt grateful, that they had had this talk with me, and that it would be a mistake to publish this history.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
130 years ago today - Feb 25, 1888
[Franklin D. Richards]
Geo[rge] Q. Cannon in private conversation informed me some of [Quorum of Twelve] Pres[iden]t WW [Wilford Woodruff] views about management of affairs of the appointment of a First Presidency. [The tradition of establishing a First Presidency after the death of the previous president had not yet been established.]
[Source: Diary Excerpts of Franklin D. Richards, 1887-1897, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Geo[rge] Q. Cannon in private conversation informed me some of [Quorum of Twelve] Pres[iden]t WW [Wilford Woodruff] views about management of affairs of the appointment of a First Presidency. [The tradition of establishing a First Presidency after the death of the previous president had not yet been established.]
[Source: Diary Excerpts of Franklin D. Richards, 1887-1897, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
140 years ago today - Feb 25, 1878
[Wilford Woodruff writes in code in his journal:]
<I had> 2 <children sealed to me [-]> & George A. <[Dunford?] sealed to Wilford Woodruff> & <[Dora?] Young Woodruff>.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
<I had> 2 <children sealed to me [-]> & George A. <[Dunford?] sealed to Wilford Woodruff> & <[Dora?] Young Woodruff>.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
145 years ago today - Feb 25, 1873 (Tuesday)
The Frelinghuysen anti-Mormon bill was passed in the U.S. Senate, but failed to come up before the House.
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
160 years ago today - Feb 25, 1858
"A messenger dire[c]t from Washington [D.C.] arrives in Salt Lake City. Thomas Kane "come[s] as an ambassador from the Chief Executive of our Nation and am fully prepared and duly authorized to lay before you most fully and definitely the feelings and views of the Citizens of our Common Country and the feelings of the executive towards you . . ." He asks "to enlist your sympathies in behalf of the poor soldiers who are now suffering in the cold & snows of the mountains and request you to render them aid and comfort and to assist them to Come here and to bid them a hearty welcome to your hospitable valley." Of the United States Government Brigham Young says, "I suppose they are united in putting down Utah." Kane answers, "I think not."
40 years ago today - Feb 24, 1978.
Elder Durham's title is changed from "managing director of the Historical Department" to "director of the History Division of the Historical Department," the title formerly borne by Leonard Arrington. Sometime between this date and 1 June 1978 portraits of Church Historians from John Whitmer to Elder Durham are hung in the second-floor hallway leading to the administrative offices. They include photographs of Elders Alvin R. Dyer and Joseph Anderson, managing directors of the Historical Department during Arrington's tenure but never referred to as Church Historians. Leonard Arrington is conspicuously omitted.
In the summer of 1990, a separate grouping of division heads' portraits is hung, including those of Donald Schmidt, Earl Olsen, Florence Jacobsen, and Leonard Arrington. Portraits of succeeding Church Historians Dean L. Larsen and Loren C. Dunn are also hung, but that of intervening Church Historian John Carmack (1989-92) is not, at his own request.
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
In the summer of 1990, a separate grouping of division heads' portraits is hung, including those of Donald Schmidt, Earl Olsen, Florence Jacobsen, and Leonard Arrington. Portraits of succeeding Church Historians Dean L. Larsen and Loren C. Dunn are also hung, but that of intervening Church Historian John Carmack (1989-92) is not, at his own request.
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
120 years ago today - Feb 24, 1898 • Thursday
[George Q. Cannon]
In speaking about Brother Grant's situation, President Snow spoke in most eulogistic terms of Brother Grant's financial ability and what he had done for the Church. Brother Richards followed in a good deal the same strain. Brother Grant himself spoke in high terms of what he himself had done.
I felt that this sort of talk to him was not beneficial. I do not think it a wise thing to praise men in the strain in which Brother Grant was praised to-day. He already has a very high opinion about his own financial ability and the exertions he has made; while the truth is, without speaking in the least disparagingly of Brother Grant's labors, other men have done as much or more, but they do not say much about it. He has a good faculty for making known what he has done and the sacrifices he has made. He is an able man, kind-hearted and liberal, and can raise money very well; but his career has not shown wisdom in the management of funds or the organization of companies. His financial judgment is not good in some directions. The unstinted praise that was bestowed upon him to-day, President Woodruff and myself think hurtful to him; but it would have come with ill grace at the time to have said. Opportunity will have to be taken to allude to it at another time, as he is exceedingly sensitive. ...
As far as raising money is concerned, Brother John W. Young could beat any of us; he was a man of extraordinary ability in that direction; but he could also spend it!
President Woodruff and myself had a conversation with Brother M. F. Cowley respecting the amount that he should draw for his support. He had desired me to give him my views about this, but I told him I would prefer having President Woodruff with us when this was talked about. We explained to him that the system which had prevailed for some time of fixing certain amounts to certain officers was one that I for one was utterly opposed to. I had been protesting against it ever since it was instituted shortly after President Taylor's death. I thought it a bad thing, and that if it were not checked it would lead to our having a hireling ministry. My view was – in which President Woodruff coincided – that it was right for the brethren to have what they needed to sustain them economically and comfortably, but that there should be no fixed amount for them to draw, only to the extent that there should be a limit to their drawing.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
In speaking about Brother Grant's situation, President Snow spoke in most eulogistic terms of Brother Grant's financial ability and what he had done for the Church. Brother Richards followed in a good deal the same strain. Brother Grant himself spoke in high terms of what he himself had done.
I felt that this sort of talk to him was not beneficial. I do not think it a wise thing to praise men in the strain in which Brother Grant was praised to-day. He already has a very high opinion about his own financial ability and the exertions he has made; while the truth is, without speaking in the least disparagingly of Brother Grant's labors, other men have done as much or more, but they do not say much about it. He has a good faculty for making known what he has done and the sacrifices he has made. He is an able man, kind-hearted and liberal, and can raise money very well; but his career has not shown wisdom in the management of funds or the organization of companies. His financial judgment is not good in some directions. The unstinted praise that was bestowed upon him to-day, President Woodruff and myself think hurtful to him; but it would have come with ill grace at the time to have said. Opportunity will have to be taken to allude to it at another time, as he is exceedingly sensitive. ...
As far as raising money is concerned, Brother John W. Young could beat any of us; he was a man of extraordinary ability in that direction; but he could also spend it!
President Woodruff and myself had a conversation with Brother M. F. Cowley respecting the amount that he should draw for his support. He had desired me to give him my views about this, but I told him I would prefer having President Woodruff with us when this was talked about. We explained to him that the system which had prevailed for some time of fixing certain amounts to certain officers was one that I for one was utterly opposed to. I had been protesting against it ever since it was instituted shortly after President Taylor's death. I thought it a bad thing, and that if it were not checked it would lead to our having a hireling ministry. My view was – in which President Woodruff coincided – that it was right for the brethren to have what they needed to sustain them economically and comfortably, but that there should be no fixed amount for them to draw, only to the extent that there should be a limit to their drawing.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
130 years ago today - Feb 24, 1888
[Eliza Jones & Wilford Woodruff correspondance]
[Eliza Jones:] Will you please answer a few questions I wish to ask you. I am the widow of Thomas C. Jones of your Circle. He died soon after we came from [the] Logan Temple working for our Dead and having our 2d [an]o[i]nting[s] where we [were] told to attend to the Washing of Feet at home. The baby was sick after we came home so I asked Bro[ther] Jones when we should attend to it and he said we had better wait till the baby is better but he was taken sick and Died before it was attended to. Can that be done by Proxy or not as I feel sorry about it for he was a good man and I gave him 2 living Wives and 3 Dead ones and worked hard to help him to keep them.
[Wilford Woodruff response:] The ordinance of which you speak, and which you say you failed to attend to before the death of your husband, is one that should not be written about, and it cannot be attended to by proxy. Your husband is dead and, so far as the ordinances is concerned, it is all right. If there are any of his children who were not born in the covenant and they are dead, a living child, or children can officiate for them in being sealed to their parents. You ask a question whether a sister can be sealed to her first husband, who never heard the gospel, if she has embraced it and has married and [has been] sealed to another. We do not consider it safe for a woman in the Church to be sealed to a man who died before receiving the gospel.
[Source: Eliza I. Jones to Wilford Woodruff, Feb. 24, 1888; Wilford Woodruff to Eliza I. Jones, Feb. 24, 1888. These sources are from Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
[Eliza Jones:] Will you please answer a few questions I wish to ask you. I am the widow of Thomas C. Jones of your Circle. He died soon after we came from [the] Logan Temple working for our Dead and having our 2d [an]o[i]nting[s] where we [were] told to attend to the Washing of Feet at home. The baby was sick after we came home so I asked Bro[ther] Jones when we should attend to it and he said we had better wait till the baby is better but he was taken sick and Died before it was attended to. Can that be done by Proxy or not as I feel sorry about it for he was a good man and I gave him 2 living Wives and 3 Dead ones and worked hard to help him to keep them.
[Wilford Woodruff response:] The ordinance of which you speak, and which you say you failed to attend to before the death of your husband, is one that should not be written about, and it cannot be attended to by proxy. Your husband is dead and, so far as the ordinances is concerned, it is all right. If there are any of his children who were not born in the covenant and they are dead, a living child, or children can officiate for them in being sealed to their parents. You ask a question whether a sister can be sealed to her first husband, who never heard the gospel, if she has embraced it and has married and [has been] sealed to another. We do not consider it safe for a woman in the Church to be sealed to a man who died before receiving the gospel.
[Source: Eliza I. Jones to Wilford Woodruff, Feb. 24, 1888; Wilford Woodruff to Eliza I. Jones, Feb. 24, 1888. These sources are from Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
130 years ago today - Feb 24, 1888 • Friday
[George Q. Cannon]
Bro. Lorenzo Snow ... hinted that we ought to have a First Presidency.
In connection with this subject Bro. John H. Smith made some remarks and said that he was averse to this knowledge of our affairs being confined to one or two individuals, and when trouble arose for them to fall back on the Quorum to come to the rescue. In this connection he alluded to Bro. James Jack and one other individual, intimating that this trouble had come upon us and they were the only two who knew anything about it. I inferred, of course, that he referred to me, and I asked him if his remarks had reference to me. I told him that his statement was not true; that Bros. Lorenzo Snow, F. D. Richards and H.J. Grant were present and knew all about the transaction and the sale of the stock. He disputed my statements. I told him that what I said was correct, and I appealed to Bro. Snow and Richards to confirm what I said, which they did very emphatically, Bro. Snow especially speaking out in response to my question with great promptness. Brother Smith manifested considerable feeling on this subject, and I was deeply wounded at the remarks. I afterwards told the brethren that I had felt exceedingly hurt by the remarks which had been made, and said that I was not to blame for anything of this kind; that I had all the time advocated a different policy to that which had been pursued in regard to our property; but I had obeyed the counsel of President Taylor and carried it out strictly, even though it was contrary in some instances to my own judgment. After we adjourned, Brother Smith and myself had conversation, and I told him that in saying his statement was untrue I did not mean to say that it was a lie; for I did not believe that he had told anything intentionally that was not true; but he was not acquainted with the transaction and was mistaken in making the statement. He said, though greatly aroused at my statement that what he said was untrue, he could distinguish the difference between that and stating that he had told a lie. I regretted exceedingly this episode; for it is most painful to me to have a spirit of this kind in our Council. I remarked to Bro. Lyman and him afterwards that I had been nearly 30 years connected with the Quorum of the Twelve and during that entire time I had never had a shadow of feeling between myself and any other member of the Quorum that I knew of, only since the death of President Taylor, and I mourned exceedingly that such should be the case.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
Bro. Lorenzo Snow ... hinted that we ought to have a First Presidency.
In connection with this subject Bro. John H. Smith made some remarks and said that he was averse to this knowledge of our affairs being confined to one or two individuals, and when trouble arose for them to fall back on the Quorum to come to the rescue. In this connection he alluded to Bro. James Jack and one other individual, intimating that this trouble had come upon us and they were the only two who knew anything about it. I inferred, of course, that he referred to me, and I asked him if his remarks had reference to me. I told him that his statement was not true; that Bros. Lorenzo Snow, F. D. Richards and H.J. Grant were present and knew all about the transaction and the sale of the stock. He disputed my statements. I told him that what I said was correct, and I appealed to Bro. Snow and Richards to confirm what I said, which they did very emphatically, Bro. Snow especially speaking out in response to my question with great promptness. Brother Smith manifested considerable feeling on this subject, and I was deeply wounded at the remarks. I afterwards told the brethren that I had felt exceedingly hurt by the remarks which had been made, and said that I was not to blame for anything of this kind; that I had all the time advocated a different policy to that which had been pursued in regard to our property; but I had obeyed the counsel of President Taylor and carried it out strictly, even though it was contrary in some instances to my own judgment. After we adjourned, Brother Smith and myself had conversation, and I told him that in saying his statement was untrue I did not mean to say that it was a lie; for I did not believe that he had told anything intentionally that was not true; but he was not acquainted with the transaction and was mistaken in making the statement. He said, though greatly aroused at my statement that what he said was untrue, he could distinguish the difference between that and stating that he had told a lie. I regretted exceedingly this episode; for it is most painful to me to have a spirit of this kind in our Council. I remarked to Bro. Lyman and him afterwards that I had been nearly 30 years connected with the Quorum of the Twelve and during that entire time I had never had a shadow of feeling between myself and any other member of the Quorum that I knew of, only since the death of President Taylor, and I mourned exceedingly that such should be the case.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
160 years ago today - Feb 24, 1858 (Wednesday)
Col. Thomas L. Kane arrived in G.S.L. City by way of Southern California. He came voluntarily for the purpose of bringing about a peaceful solution of the existing difficulties between the United States and Utah. After conferring with Gov. Brigham Young and other leading citizens, he went out to the army, which was encamped at Ft. Scott (near Ft. Bridger). There he had an interview with the new governor, Alfred Cumming, who concluded to accompany him to G.S.L. City.
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Source: Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
160 years ago today - Feb 24, 1858
[Brigham Young]
A poor man Came into my Office. I felt by the spirit that He needed five dollars in money. I took it out of my pocket and gave it to him. I soon after found a five dollar gold peace in my pocket which I did not put there. I soon found another. This was put in my pocket by the Lord or some agent. Many think that the Lord has nothing to do with gold but he has charge of that as well as any other Element. -- Salt Lake City
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal. 9 Vols. Scott G. Kenney, ed. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1983-85. 5:170-171, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
A poor man Came into my Office. I felt by the spirit that He needed five dollars in money. I took it out of my pocket and gave it to him. I soon after found a five dollar gold peace in my pocket which I did not put there. I soon found another. This was put in my pocket by the Lord or some agent. Many think that the Lord has nothing to do with gold but he has charge of that as well as any other Element. -- Salt Lake City
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal. 9 Vols. Scott G. Kenney, ed. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1983-85. 5:170-171, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
175 years ago today - about Feb 24, 1843
Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith dictated a 78-stanza poem written for William W. Phelps that was based on the revelation in Doctrine & Covenants 76.
[Source: BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
[Source: BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
85 years ago today - Feb 23, 1933
[During the Great Depression]
Increasingly, evictions proceeded only over citizen protest. On the afternoon of 23 February 1933 Salt Lake County Sheriff Grant Young and several of his deputies were scheduled to conduct a tax sale from the west steps of the City and County Building. Six houses and a farm were to be sold for back taxes following mortgage foreclosures. A crowd of several hundred people gathered to try to prevent the sale. Sheriff Young appealed to them to disperse; instead, they stormed the building. Deputies turned a fire hose on them, slowing them only momentarily, and they quickly wrestled the hose from the deputies and turned it into the building, flooding the ground floor. Police finally succeeded in dispersing the crowd with tear gas and arrested seven men and a woman for "direct rioting". Eventually, fifteen people were arrested, found guilty, fined and sentenced to brief jail terms.
[Source: Utah History Encyclopedia: The Great Depression, http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/]
Increasingly, evictions proceeded only over citizen protest. On the afternoon of 23 February 1933 Salt Lake County Sheriff Grant Young and several of his deputies were scheduled to conduct a tax sale from the west steps of the City and County Building. Six houses and a farm were to be sold for back taxes following mortgage foreclosures. A crowd of several hundred people gathered to try to prevent the sale. Sheriff Young appealed to them to disperse; instead, they stormed the building. Deputies turned a fire hose on them, slowing them only momentarily, and they quickly wrestled the hose from the deputies and turned it into the building, flooding the ground floor. Police finally succeeded in dispersing the crowd with tear gas and arrested seven men and a woman for "direct rioting". Eventually, fifteen people were arrested, found guilty, fined and sentenced to brief jail terms.
[Source: Utah History Encyclopedia: The Great Depression, http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/]
120 years ago today - Feb 23, 1898
[President Wilford Woodruff]
I thought it for the best to write my views and feelings on the matter which has been on my mind for some time and which has been made quite clear to me in regard to the Godhead, and of which I hope to be able to speak at the coming Conference, so that I can submit the same to Bros Cannon & Smith.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I thought it for the best to write my views and feelings on the matter which has been on my mind for some time and which has been made quite clear to me in regard to the Godhead, and of which I hope to be able to speak at the coming Conference, so that I can submit the same to Bros Cannon & Smith.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
120 years ago today - Wednesday, Feb 23, 1898
[John Henry Smith]
Charles Shumway was born August 1st, 1806, Oxford, Worcester Co., Mass. He has four wives, 37 children and over one hundred grand children. I ordained him a Patriarch. He is very feable and his mind is clear only a portion of the time.
[Source: 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]
Charles Shumway was born August 1st, 1806, Oxford, Worcester Co., Mass. He has four wives, 37 children and over one hundred grand children. I ordained him a Patriarch. He is very feable and his mind is clear only a portion of the time.
[Source: 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]
135 years ago today - Feb 23, 1883 • Friday
[George Q. Cannon]
The [anti-polygamy] Edmunds bill was brought up and was discussed by Senators Logan, Call and others. Logan was as bitter as usual. He has always been our enemy, and has never missed an opportunity to deal us a blow. Call made a manly defence of the constitutional principles involved in this law. When upon a vote, on a motion of Senator Ingals to disfranchise the women of all the Territories, it was developed there was no quorum. The next four hours (till 10 oclock) was spent in filibustering by the democrats to the great disgust of Edmunds who, baffled at every point, finally moved to adjourn. I was in the gallery till the close and exercised all the faith I could
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
The [anti-polygamy] Edmunds bill was brought up and was discussed by Senators Logan, Call and others. Logan was as bitter as usual. He has always been our enemy, and has never missed an opportunity to deal us a blow. Call made a manly defence of the constitutional principles involved in this law. When upon a vote, on a motion of Senator Ingals to disfranchise the women of all the Territories, it was developed there was no quorum. The next four hours (till 10 oclock) was spent in filibustering by the democrats to the great disgust of Edmunds who, baffled at every point, finally moved to adjourn. I was in the gallery till the close and exercised all the faith I could
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
150 years ago today - Feb 23, 1868
[Wilford Woodruff]
We laid hands upon John Taylor, & Presidet Young set him apart as Probate Judge for Utah County.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
We laid hands upon John Taylor, & Presidet Young set him apart as Probate Judge for Utah County.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
180 years ago today - Feb 23, 1838
[Wilford Woodruff]
During the day we repaired to the sea shore & clensed our feet with pure water & bore testimony against eight housholds before God who had rejected us or turned us from their Doors the evening before.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
During the day we repaired to the sea shore & clensed our feet with pure water & bore testimony against eight housholds before God who had rejected us or turned us from their Doors the evening before.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
190 years ago today - about Saturday, Feb 23, 1828
New York City, Martin Harris visits with Dr. Samuel Mitchill about characters transcribed from the plates ("Anthon Transcript").
[Source: Watson, Elden, Approximate Book of Mormon Translation Timeline, http://www.eldenwatson.net/BoM.htm]
[Source: Watson, Elden, Approximate Book of Mormon Translation Timeline, http://www.eldenwatson.net/BoM.htm]
40 years ago today - Feb 22, 1978
First Presidency letter to all stake and mission leaders: "the fact that there may be some question as to man's ancestry cannot be rightfully considered as evidence that he has Negro blood... If there is no evidence to indicate that a man has Negro blood, you would not be justifies in withholding the priesthood and temple blessings from him, if he is otherwise worthy." This stops the denial of priesthood merely on the basis of black African appearance and is a significant prelude to the end of the ban althogether less than four months later.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
125 years ago today - Feb 22, 1893
[James E. Talmage]
Being at the President's office early this morning I had a conversation with President Woodruff concerning the Seer Stones spoken of yesterday, and particularly of the stone owned by Bro. Rushton, which latter I showed to the President. He attributes no importance at all to the stone; and he sustains me in my opinion concerning Mrs. Russel and her divinations. Later in the day Bro. Rushton called upon me and gave me a history of the stone. He found it in Nauvoo, associated with a valuable record, and with a store of gold; but neither the record nor the gold could he obtain. He claims that the location of the stone was revealed to him in a day vision thrice repeated; and at first it was under a seal, the nature of which he declined to explain. He says the stone possesses a celestial and a terrestrial side, and is capable of revealing matters connected with this world and the spirit land. One surface of the stone is devoted to the Ten Tribes, and in that the Seer can perceive the place and circumstances of that people beyond the ice. Bro. Rushton says the stone served him to locate the burial places of several of Joseph Smith's kindred, the prophet having placed several of the brethren under covenant to bury his dead together. Since that work was accomplished, Rushton has lost his gift, but lives in hope that it will be restored to him. The stone he believes will be of service in the vicarious work of the Temples by revealing the condition and desires of those behind the vail. Bro. Rushton and I met Pres. Woodruff, but Rushton declined to explain to the President the nature of the seal under which the stone was laid. Pres. Woodruff: says he has but little encouragement to offer for the use of Seer Stones.
At night I attended the monthly meeting of the Home Missionary Quorum. A matter was there discussed, which I have already spoken upon in public a few times of late, and which I have asked counsel upon from the authorities:—the unseemly anxiety approaching curiosity on the part of some people for miraculous manifestations at the approaching dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. I believe that we should exercise faith in God for His blessings: leaving Him to decide what particular manifestations would be for our good. For my part, the Lord does not favor me with visual or oviricular manifestations, yet I have an abiding faith in His supporting care.
[Source: The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]
Being at the President's office early this morning I had a conversation with President Woodruff concerning the Seer Stones spoken of yesterday, and particularly of the stone owned by Bro. Rushton, which latter I showed to the President. He attributes no importance at all to the stone; and he sustains me in my opinion concerning Mrs. Russel and her divinations. Later in the day Bro. Rushton called upon me and gave me a history of the stone. He found it in Nauvoo, associated with a valuable record, and with a store of gold; but neither the record nor the gold could he obtain. He claims that the location of the stone was revealed to him in a day vision thrice repeated; and at first it was under a seal, the nature of which he declined to explain. He says the stone possesses a celestial and a terrestrial side, and is capable of revealing matters connected with this world and the spirit land. One surface of the stone is devoted to the Ten Tribes, and in that the Seer can perceive the place and circumstances of that people beyond the ice. Bro. Rushton says the stone served him to locate the burial places of several of Joseph Smith's kindred, the prophet having placed several of the brethren under covenant to bury his dead together. Since that work was accomplished, Rushton has lost his gift, but lives in hope that it will be restored to him. The stone he believes will be of service in the vicarious work of the Temples by revealing the condition and desires of those behind the vail. Bro. Rushton and I met Pres. Woodruff, but Rushton declined to explain to the President the nature of the seal under which the stone was laid. Pres. Woodruff: says he has but little encouragement to offer for the use of Seer Stones.
At night I attended the monthly meeting of the Home Missionary Quorum. A matter was there discussed, which I have already spoken upon in public a few times of late, and which I have asked counsel upon from the authorities:—the unseemly anxiety approaching curiosity on the part of some people for miraculous manifestations at the approaching dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. I believe that we should exercise faith in God for His blessings: leaving Him to decide what particular manifestations would be for our good. For my part, the Lord does not favor me with visual or oviricular manifestations, yet I have an abiding faith in His supporting care.
[Source: The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]
140 years ago today - Feb 22, 1878
Utah adopts an election law which for the first time since 1849 eliminates marked ballots that allow election officials to know how each person voted.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
180 years ago today - Feb 22, 1838
[Warren Parrish]
I have listened to him [Joseph Smith] with feelings of no ordinary kind, when he declared that the AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD, INSTRUCTED HIM TO ESTABLISH A BANKING-ANTI BANKING INSTITUTION, who like Aaron's rod SHALL SWALLOW UP ALL OTHER BANKS (the Bank of Monroe excepted) and grow and flourish and spread from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and survive when all others should be laid in ruins.
[Source: Painesville Republican, February 22, 1838, as quoted in Conflict at Kirtland, page 297, in Kirtland Timeline – Kirtland Safety Society, the Bank of Monroe, Temple Dedication, Consecration, and significant historical events related, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/kirtland-timeline-kirtland-safety-society-the-bank-of-monroe-temple-dedication-consecration-and-significant-historical-events-related/]
I have listened to him [Joseph Smith] with feelings of no ordinary kind, when he declared that the AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD, INSTRUCTED HIM TO ESTABLISH A BANKING-ANTI BANKING INSTITUTION, who like Aaron's rod SHALL SWALLOW UP ALL OTHER BANKS (the Bank of Monroe excepted) and grow and flourish and spread from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and survive when all others should be laid in ruins.
[Source: Painesville Republican, February 22, 1838, as quoted in Conflict at Kirtland, page 297, in Kirtland Timeline – Kirtland Safety Society, the Bank of Monroe, Temple Dedication, Consecration, and significant historical events related, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/kirtland-timeline-kirtland-safety-society-the-bank-of-monroe-temple-dedication-consecration-and-significant-historical-events-related/]
115 years ago today - Feb 21, 1903
The Utah Legislature selects Apostle Reed Smoot to be U.S. Senator from Utah. Smoot is not seated for three years as the U.S. Senate holds hearings on whether to seat a Mormon apostle as a senator.
130 years ago today - Tuesday, Feb 21, 1888
[John Henry Smith]
I was called out of bed in the night and consented to aid the Democratic national committee to the tune of $25,000.00.
[Source: 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]
I was called out of bed in the night and consented to aid the Democratic national committee to the tune of $25,000.00.
[Source: 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]
175 years ago today - Feb 21, 1843
By early 1843 there was much speculation in Nauvoo as to whether or not Joseph Smith was secretly practicing polygamy. More and more were learning that members of the Twelve and others had secret plural wives, and the saying became more popular, "There cannot be so much smoke without some fire." On February 21,1843, the Prophet spoke to those who were building the Temple ... a group consisting of both men and women, and told them that he knew what people were saying about him. According to Official Church History, Joseph told them: Smith tells temple workers to stop gossiping about polygamy . "There is a great noise in the city, and many are saying there cannot be so much smoke without some fire. Well, be it so. If the stories about Joe Smith are true, then the stories of John C. Bennett are true about the ladies of Nauvoo; and he says that the Ladies' Relief Society are all organized of those who are to be the wives of Joe Smith. Ladies, you know whether this is true or not. It is no use living among hogs without a snout. This biting and devouring each other I cannot endure. Away with it. For God's sake, stop it."
[Source: Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm]
[Source: Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm]
175 years ago today - Feb 21, 1843
Joseph Smith preaches concerning a wife-beater in Palmyra, New York: "I whipped him till he cried enough."
[Source: 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]
[Source: 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]
175 years ago today - Feb 21, 1843
[Wilford Woodruff]
Joseph said the Pagen Prophet [Lucien Woodworth] had prophesied one thing that was true viz that if we did not build the temple & Nauvoo house it would proove the ruin of the place that if we did not build those buildings we might as well leave the place & that it was as necessary to build one as the other
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Joseph said the Pagen Prophet [Lucien Woodworth] had prophesied one thing that was true viz that if we did not build the temple & Nauvoo house it would proove the ruin of the place that if we did not build those buildings we might as well leave the place & that it was as necessary to build one as the other
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
180 years ago today - Feb 21, 1838
[Wilford Woodruff]
I had an interesting time in speaking and after we closed the meeting at half past 8 oclock I walked out of the house & cast my eyes towards the heavens & a glorious scene presented itself to our view.
I light commenced in the NE. & spread to the W. & soon rolled up over head & also in the south & it centered in the heavens & rolled forth fire blood & smoke like contending armies: the whole heavens was illuminated with blood & fire for the space of half an hour & shook like a fowl upon the wing. It seemed at times as though the veil was about to rend in twain <and the throne of God to appear>. It appeared as though the elements were contending with each other.
We were travling through deep snow drifts most of the time during this sceneery. This is one of the signs in the heavens in the last days spoken of by the ancient as well as modern Prophets. O may God hasten the day when the scenerry will be wound up.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I had an interesting time in speaking and after we closed the meeting at half past 8 oclock I walked out of the house & cast my eyes towards the heavens & a glorious scene presented itself to our view.
I light commenced in the NE. & spread to the W. & soon rolled up over head & also in the south & it centered in the heavens & rolled forth fire blood & smoke like contending armies: the whole heavens was illuminated with blood & fire for the space of half an hour & shook like a fowl upon the wing. It seemed at times as though the veil was about to rend in twain <and the throne of God to appear>. It appeared as though the elements were contending with each other.
We were travling through deep snow drifts most of the time during this sceneery. This is one of the signs in the heavens in the last days spoken of by the ancient as well as modern Prophets. O may God hasten the day when the scenerry will be wound up.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
25 years ago today - Feb 20, 1993
Second counselor Thomas S. Monson speaks at rededication ceremony for Roman Catholic church's Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, also attended by Apostles James E. Faust and Neal A. Maxwell.
In response to LDS man and woman separately preparing simplified English versions of BOOK OF MORMON, First Presidency officially prohibits such a "translation" as undermining the ancient origins of scripture. Man withdraws but Lynn Matthews Anderson publishes her revision in 1994.
In response to LDS man and woman separately preparing simplified English versions of BOOK OF MORMON, First Presidency officially prohibits such a "translation" as undermining the ancient origins of scripture. Man withdraws but Lynn Matthews Anderson publishes her revision in 1994.
115 years ago today - Friday, Feb 20, 1903
[John Henry Smith]
I visited the Penitentiary and had a chat with Tom Williams who killed one Hutchinson over 20 years ago. he is serving a life sentence. With others I am trying to get him paroled.
[Source: 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]
I visited the Penitentiary and had a chat with Tom Williams who killed one Hutchinson over 20 years ago. he is serving a life sentence. With others I am trying to get him paroled.
[Source: 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]
130 years ago today - Feb 20, 1888
[James E. Talmage]
[Talmage] was pouring molten slag from an assay crucible into a mould [sic] in the laboratory when some material inside the molten mass exploded, scattering the remainder and hurling some of it directly into the professor's left eye. The pain was frightful and it at first appeared that the eye had been permanently destroyed, for the molten matter had actually penetrated the eyeball. […] But expert medical attention, frequent administration by the priesthood, and the motherly nursing of Sister Josiah Cluff into whose home James was induced to move temporarily after a grim attempt to care for himself in his bachelor's quarters, eventually brought full recovery with no permanent impairment to his vision.
[Source: 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]
[Talmage] was pouring molten slag from an assay crucible into a mould [sic] in the laboratory when some material inside the molten mass exploded, scattering the remainder and hurling some of it directly into the professor's left eye. The pain was frightful and it at first appeared that the eye had been permanently destroyed, for the molten matter had actually penetrated the eyeball. […] But expert medical attention, frequent administration by the priesthood, and the motherly nursing of Sister Josiah Cluff into whose home James was induced to move temporarily after a grim attempt to care for himself in his bachelor's quarters, eventually brought full recovery with no permanent impairment to his vision.
[Source: 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]
140 years ago today - Feb 20, 1878
Proxy endowments are performed in the St. George Temple for Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, and the wives of Sir Walter Scott, Horatio Nelson Thomas Moore, Robert Burns, Edmund Burke, Lord Byron, Goethe and other "eminent women of the world." Wilford Woodruff "officiated as El[oheim]" and also "took through the veil some 30 person[s]."
155 years ago today - Feb 20, 1863
[Wilford Woodruff]
I had the two last teeth taken out of my upper Jaw to day by Brother Barlow with the intention of putting in a New Set.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I had the two last teeth taken out of my upper Jaw to day by Brother Barlow with the intention of putting in a New Set.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
165 years ago today - Feb 20, 1853. Sunday.
[William Clayton]
Took Tea at Brother W[illia]m Memmet's, then again went to meeting. I addressed the Congregation and proved to them, that even if we were deceived in regard to the administering of the angel &c. we were still better off than the sectarians in every sense of the word.
[Source: George D. Smith, An Intimate Chronicle; The Journals of William Clayton, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1995, http://bit.ly/WilliamClayton]
Took Tea at Brother W[illia]m Memmet's, then again went to meeting. I addressed the Congregation and proved to them, that even if we were deceived in regard to the administering of the angel &c. we were still better off than the sectarians in every sense of the word.
[Source: George D. Smith, An Intimate Chronicle; The Journals of William Clayton, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1995, http://bit.ly/WilliamClayton]
165 years ago today - Feb 20, 1853
Brigham Young speaks concerning Mormons who say the judgment of living prophets "is superior to mine, and consequentîy I let you judge for me." He says that such Latter-day Saints do not possess "the true independence of heaven," and consequently "will never be capable of entering into the celestial glory, to be crowned as they anticipate; they will never be capable of becoming gods." Young says that Mormons should depend on "the influences of the Holy Spirit" and "their own understanding."
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
165 years ago today - Feb 20, 1853
Erastus Snow Addressed the meeting & spoke well. ... He spoke of his mission in denmark. The Lord showed him that the King & Counsel was taking counsel against him to stop his preaching. He herd their conversation in a night vision but He said as I kept the Law & my brethren they could find no accusation against me. ...
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[Source: 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 - Feb 20, 1843
Seventy brethren help Joseph chop, split, and pile logs in his yard. He studies German. He sees two boys fighting with clubs and stops the fight. He lectures the onlookers for not stopping the fight immediately and tells them that "nobody was allowed to fight in Nauvoo but myself."
[Source: Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
[Source: Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
115 years ago today - Thursday, Feb 19, 1903
The clerk read a letter from Alfred A. Cluff and several other brethren written in behalf of about 25 members of the church from Guatemala, Central America. They reported the fact that they had reached that land and found everything favorable to establishing a colony of our people, which they would do. Said that the Presidency of the church might look for a letter from them occasionally. Regarding this matter Pres. Smith said that they were counseled not to go, because of the great distance from the body of the saints, and the first thing we knew they had gone. Elder Jno. H. Smith moved that, notwithstanding the move had been made against counsel, they be nursed along and that a kind and encouraging letter be written in answer to their communication. Carried.
A letter was read from Chas. W. Carroll, Orderville. He said that the report had gone out among the people down there that plural marriages were being solemnized under the sanction of the Presidency, and this was causing some commotion among the saints. Pres. Smith remarked that, as the brethren knew, the rumor was foundationless ...
[At this time, the post-Manifesto plural wife of Kanab's stake counselor-patriarch Thomas Chamberlain is secluded in the house of President Smith's wife Julina, but the Church President tells the Quorum of Twelve that he was sending two apostles to Orderville to "endeavor to correct any wrong impression in the minds of the people." The two he sends are Matthias F. Cowley ( who had performed the Chamberlain plural marriage in Salt Lake City) and George Teasdale (whose own post-1890 polygamous marriage had been repeatedly described in the newspapers).]
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
A letter was read from Chas. W. Carroll, Orderville. He said that the report had gone out among the people down there that plural marriages were being solemnized under the sanction of the Presidency, and this was causing some commotion among the saints. Pres. Smith remarked that, as the brethren knew, the rumor was foundationless ...
[At this time, the post-Manifesto plural wife of Kanab's stake counselor-patriarch Thomas Chamberlain is secluded in the house of President Smith's wife Julina, but the Church President tells the Quorum of Twelve that he was sending two apostles to Orderville to "endeavor to correct any wrong impression in the minds of the people." The two he sends are Matthias F. Cowley ( who had performed the Chamberlain plural marriage in Salt Lake City) and George Teasdale (whose own post-1890 polygamous marriage had been repeatedly described in the newspapers).]
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
130 years ago today - Feb 19, 1888
[Wilford Woodruff]
I looked over the Expression of 252 Members of Congress upon the Utah question. 54 were for the Admission of Utah 124 against it & 74 Non Committal.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I looked over the Expression of 252 Members of Congress upon the Utah question. 54 were for the Admission of Utah 124 against it & 74 Non Committal.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
190 years ago today - February 19-20 and July 4-5, 1828
W. W. Phelps (publisher of 'Light on Masonry') is listed with other prominant antiMasons including a future antimasonic nominee for governor, original printer of William Morgan's expose' and the future husband of Lucinda Morgan [Harris]). He continues to be included as an active participant in the proceedings with mention of his Antimasonic newspaper 'Lake Light' and is the 3rd to sign the July 4th 'A Declaration of Independence from the Masonic Institution.' He toasts William Morgan as "the morning star of more light."
[Source: 'Convention of Seceding Masons' Held at LeRoy, New York, reprinted in 'Light on Masonry,' "Master Mason", in Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
[Source: 'Convention of Seceding Masons' Held at LeRoy, New York, reprinted in 'Light on Masonry,' "Master Mason", in Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
195 years ago today - Feb 19, 1823
Article in PALMYRA HERALD AND CANAL ADVERTISER: "The Indians are reported the aborigines of North America; but I doubt the truth of this proposition. The fortifications and remains of antiquity in Ohio and elsewhere, clearly prove them to be the work of some other people than the Indians. Many of these fortifications were not forts, but religious temples, or places of public worship. . . . What wonderful catastrophe destroyed at once the first inhabitants, with the species of the mammoth, is beyond the researches of the best scholar and greatest antiquaran."
115 years ago today - Feb 18, 1903; Wednesday
A meeting of the First Presidency and Apostles was held in the Temple.
Brother James Sharp, while attending the meeting of the Y.M.M.I.A. at Rexburg [Idaho] on the 25th of last month, was informed that it was the practice in the Fremont [Idaho] Stake to send a brother holding the lesser priesthood with an elder to administer to the sick, and he was asked this question: Is it proper for an elder to take with him a brother holding the Aaronic priesthood to assist in administering to the sick?
After general remarks, it was the sense of the Council, expressed in a motion by Bro[ther]. John Henry Smith, that the practice be confined to the elders; but in case of absolute necessity, that is where an elder finds himself in the situation that he cannot avail himself of the company of another elder, he may, if opportunity affords, avail himself of the company of a member of the Aaronic priesthood, or even a lay member, but for the purpose only of being supported by the faith of such member or members, the elder alone to officiate in the ordinance of administration; or the elder may administer alone without such assistance of a lay member or one holding the Aaronic priesthood. ...
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
Brother James Sharp, while attending the meeting of the Y.M.M.I.A. at Rexburg [Idaho] on the 25th of last month, was informed that it was the practice in the Fremont [Idaho] Stake to send a brother holding the lesser priesthood with an elder to administer to the sick, and he was asked this question: Is it proper for an elder to take with him a brother holding the Aaronic priesthood to assist in administering to the sick?
After general remarks, it was the sense of the Council, expressed in a motion by Bro[ther]. John Henry Smith, that the practice be confined to the elders; but in case of absolute necessity, that is where an elder finds himself in the situation that he cannot avail himself of the company of another elder, he may, if opportunity affords, avail himself of the company of a member of the Aaronic priesthood, or even a lay member, but for the purpose only of being supported by the faith of such member or members, the elder alone to officiate in the ordinance of administration; or the elder may administer alone without such assistance of a lay member or one holding the Aaronic priesthood. ...
[Source: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]
145 years ago today - Feb 18, 1873
Mormon mob lynches Charles A. Benson for murder in Logan, Utah, under circumstances in which his LDS apostasy is a contributing factor. He is the son of the former Cache Valley president, deceased apostle Ezra T. Benson, whose official biography states that "no further record of his life is available" after Charles's endowment date.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
175 years ago today - Feb 18, 1843
Joseph Smith teaches, "When the earth was sanctified and became like a sea of glass it would be one great Urim and Thummim [and] the Saints could look in it and see as they are seen."
180 years ago today - Feb 18, 1838
[Wilford Woodruff]
Elder Townsend and myself had an interesting time in secret Prayer in a snow bank. I Preached again upon the gospel. The spirit of God rested [upon] me.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Elder Townsend and myself had an interesting time in secret Prayer in a snow bank. I Preached again upon the gospel. The spirit of God rested [upon] me.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
185 years ago today - Feb 18, 1833
Orson Pratt returns to Kirtland after a long mission and washes his hands and feet "as a testimony unto the Lord that I had warned this wicked generation, and that my garments were clean of their blood," and is admitted to the School of the Prophets.
--
[Source: Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]
--
[Source: Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]
75 years ago today - Feb 17, 1943
[J. Reuben Clark]
D O M'Agreed that we would meet request of F.B.I. for missionary information regarding towns and cities in Axis countries, [Nazi Germany, Facist Italy, Imperial Japan and territories counquered by them] by giving them lists of missionaries and permitting them (FBI) to interview them and get such information as they could. We were to make clear there was to be no espionage in Axis countries by our missionaries.
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
D O M'Agreed that we would meet request of F.B.I. for missionary information regarding towns and cities in Axis countries, [Nazi Germany, Facist Italy, Imperial Japan and territories counquered by them] by giving them lists of missionaries and permitting them (FBI) to interview them and get such information as they could. We were to make clear there was to be no espionage in Axis countries by our missionaries.
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
135 years ago today - Feb 17, 1883
[Wilford Woodruff]
Alma Moroni Blanchard Called on me to day And professed to have found some plates Containing records in addition to the Book of Mormon. He had translated them by the Urim and Thummim and He wanted to Publish them. I think it all fals.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Alma Moroni Blanchard Called on me to day And professed to have found some plates Containing records in addition to the Book of Mormon. He had translated them by the Urim and Thummim and He wanted to Publish them. I think it all fals.
[Source: 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 - Feb 17, 1843
[Josiah Stowell Jr. recollection]
I will give you a Short history of what I know about Joseph Smith Jr I have binn Intemetely acquainted with him about 2 years[.] he then was about 20 years old or there about[.] I also went to schoal with him one winter[.] he was a fine likely young man & at that time did not Profess religion[.] he was not a Profain man although I did once in a while hear him sware[.] he never gambled to my knowledge[.] I Do not believe he Ever did[.] I well know he was no Hoars [Horse] Jocky for he was no Judge of Hoarses[.] I Sold him one[.] that is all I ever knewd he dealt in the kind[.] I never new him to git drunk I believe he would now and then take a glass[.] he never Pretend=ed to Play the Slight of hand nor Black leg, it was fashionable at that time to drink Liquor[.] ...
I am yours truly
Josiah Stowell Jr.
[Source: Josiah Stowell, Jr., to John S. Fullmer, 17 February 1843, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Josiah Stowell, Jr., To John S. Fullmer]
I will give you a Short history of what I know about Joseph Smith Jr I have binn Intemetely acquainted with him about 2 years[.] he then was about 20 years old or there about[.] I also went to schoal with him one winter[.] he was a fine likely young man & at that time did not Profess religion[.] he was not a Profain man although I did once in a while hear him sware[.] he never gambled to my knowledge[.] I Do not believe he Ever did[.] I well know he was no Hoars [Horse] Jocky for he was no Judge of Hoarses[.] I Sold him one[.] that is all I ever knewd he dealt in the kind[.] I never new him to git drunk I believe he would now and then take a glass[.] he never Pretend=ed to Play the Slight of hand nor Black leg, it was fashionable at that time to drink Liquor[.] ...
I am yours truly
Josiah Stowell Jr.
[Source: Josiah Stowell, Jr., to John S. Fullmer, 17 February 1843, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Josiah Stowell, Jr., To John S. Fullmer]
75 years ago today - Feb 16, 1943
[Heber J. Grant]
Brother Moyle is writing a history of his life to leave to his children. Really I would like to have a copy of it before the book is published. I am afraid there will be some things in it that he will regret. ... I hope he will not publish a book that will reflect upon the leaders of the Church. He is intensely Democratic and I am afraid of what he might write. I feel the same way toward my associate Apostle Reed Smoot, I think if he had written a book it would have been colored too much Republican. ... The same was the trouble with B. H. Roberts. When Roberts ran for Congress he knew that the Presidency of the Church, seeing that he had three wives, did not want him to run, and so did Brother Moyle. I was sitting with Brother Moyle in the convention that nominated Roberts.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
Brother Moyle is writing a history of his life to leave to his children. Really I would like to have a copy of it before the book is published. I am afraid there will be some things in it that he will regret. ... I hope he will not publish a book that will reflect upon the leaders of the Church. He is intensely Democratic and I am afraid of what he might write. I feel the same way toward my associate Apostle Reed Smoot, I think if he had written a book it would have been colored too much Republican. ... The same was the trouble with B. H. Roberts. When Roberts ran for Congress he knew that the Presidency of the Church, seeing that he had three wives, did not want him to run, and so did Brother Moyle. I was sitting with Brother Moyle in the convention that nominated Roberts.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
145 years ago today - Feb 16, 1873
President Young said ... to the mechanics, farmers, cotton raisers, and others that feel willing, to build up Zion and nothing else, to raise their right hands and covenant that they will build up the Kingdom of God and nothing else. (All hands were raised to the square). Said to the Bishops and others to sever those from the Church who will not cease their wickedness. -- St. George, Utah
[Source: James G. Bleak. "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission," Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Source: James G. Bleak. "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission," Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
150 years ago today - Feb 16, 1868
[Brigham Young]
One of the first objections that was urged against Joseph Smith was that he was a money digger; and now the digging of gold is considered an honorable and praiseworthy employment. They are hunting for gold all over the country, doing the very thing which they condemned in him. The next fault they found with Joseph and the Saints was that they were stirring up the slaves to rebellion against their masters; and this was published abroad. Have they not done, and are they not now doing, the very thing for which they falsely blamed the Saints? The next accusation was that the Saints took more wives than one. Whether they will make one grand sweep of it in the future, and all conclude to take more wives, I cannot say. I wish they might; I do not, however, wish this for any private benefit it will be to me or to God's people, but that they may make women honorable wives whom they now destroy, and conduct themselves more like human beings who bear the image of God than they now do before Him. It is for their own sakes that I wish this, and for the sake of the unfortunate females whom they outrage. ... Supposing that the Latter-day Saints had possessed the city of New York for the last twenty years, as they have these valleys of Utah, and the young women of that city from sixteen years of age to twentyone had been in the hands of Mormon Elders as wives, how many would have now been living and honorable mothers of a bright, intelligent, and vigorous race of men and women, that have met an untimely grave, husbandless, childless, friendless, disgraced, and forgotten? ...
It is absolutely necessary that the Saints should receive the further ordinances of the house of God before this short existence shall come to a close, that they may be prepared and fully able to pass all the sentinels leading into the celestial kingdom and into the presence of God. ...
[Source: Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 12:161-167; Deseret News. Also Deseret Evening News, Deseret News Weekly, Deseret News Semi- Weekly, and Deseret News Extra, Salt Lake City, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
One of the first objections that was urged against Joseph Smith was that he was a money digger; and now the digging of gold is considered an honorable and praiseworthy employment. They are hunting for gold all over the country, doing the very thing which they condemned in him. The next fault they found with Joseph and the Saints was that they were stirring up the slaves to rebellion against their masters; and this was published abroad. Have they not done, and are they not now doing, the very thing for which they falsely blamed the Saints? The next accusation was that the Saints took more wives than one. Whether they will make one grand sweep of it in the future, and all conclude to take more wives, I cannot say. I wish they might; I do not, however, wish this for any private benefit it will be to me or to God's people, but that they may make women honorable wives whom they now destroy, and conduct themselves more like human beings who bear the image of God than they now do before Him. It is for their own sakes that I wish this, and for the sake of the unfortunate females whom they outrage. ... Supposing that the Latter-day Saints had possessed the city of New York for the last twenty years, as they have these valleys of Utah, and the young women of that city from sixteen years of age to twentyone had been in the hands of Mormon Elders as wives, how many would have now been living and honorable mothers of a bright, intelligent, and vigorous race of men and women, that have met an untimely grave, husbandless, childless, friendless, disgraced, and forgotten? ...
It is absolutely necessary that the Saints should receive the further ordinances of the house of God before this short existence shall come to a close, that they may be prepared and fully able to pass all the sentinels leading into the celestial kingdom and into the presence of God. ...
[Source: Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 12:161-167; Deseret News. Also Deseret Evening News, Deseret News Weekly, Deseret News Semi- Weekly, and Deseret News Extra, Salt Lake City, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
180 years ago today - Feb 16, 1838
[Wilford Woodruff]
I left the Simonton district in company with Elder Ball & J. Townsend. We repaired to a grove and held a Council and the Holy Ghost said seperate unto me James to the ministry. So we ordained Brother James Townsend unto the office of an Elder. We had a good time & the spirit of God rested upon us although we were alone in a grove surrounded by a snow storm.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I left the Simonton district in company with Elder Ball & J. Townsend. We repaired to a grove and held a Council and the Holy Ghost said seperate unto me James to the ministry. So we ordained Brother James Townsend unto the office of an Elder. We had a good time & the spirit of God rested upon us although we were alone in a grove surrounded by a snow storm.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
40 years ago today - Feb 15, 1978
First Presidency letter: "The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius and the reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato and others, received a portion of God's light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals."
50 years ago today - Feb 15, 1968
Not until President McKay specifically instructed him to do so in February 1968 did Ezra Taft Benson report to the Twelve about the behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of his presidential candidacy. This was more than two years after he began exploring this possibility with McKay and with the national leaders of the Birch Society who headed "The 1976 Committee."
... He attended their weekly meetings without once mentioning the efforts being made to propel him out of quorum activity and into the White House. What the apostles learned about Benson's candidacy, they read in the newspapers. When he finally informed a quorum meeting of those efforts in February 1968, Benson made it clear he did so only upon McKay's insistence. That was the day after the church president had privately ended Benson's political hopes by confidentially reaffirming to George Wallace that the apostle was unavailable as his vice-presidential candidate.
[Source: Dew, Ezra Taft Benson, 397-98; The 1976 Committee, Vie Team You Can Trust To Guide America; Epstein and Forster, The Radical Right, 53-55, 142. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
... He attended their weekly meetings without once mentioning the efforts being made to propel him out of quorum activity and into the White House. What the apostles learned about Benson's candidacy, they read in the newspapers. When he finally informed a quorum meeting of those efforts in February 1968, Benson made it clear he did so only upon McKay's insistence. That was the day after the church president had privately ended Benson's political hopes by confidentially reaffirming to George Wallace that the apostle was unavailable as his vice-presidential candidate.
[Source: Dew, Ezra Taft Benson, 397-98; The 1976 Committee, Vie Team You Can Trust To Guide America; Epstein and Forster, The Radical Right, 53-55, 142. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
55 years ago today - Feb 15, 1963
T]he church president instructed his secretary, Clare Middlemiss, to send a reply to Mormon Birchers [far right conservatives] who criticized the First Presidency statement. The letter affirmed: "The Church is not opposing the John Birch Society or any other organization of like nature; however, it is definitely opposed to anyone using the Church for the purpose of increasing membership for private organizations sponsoring these various ideologies."
[Source: "Bircher" and "Birchers" are terms members of the Birch Society apply to themselves, as in Vie John Birch Society Bulletin (Oct. 1992): 6,14, 20. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
[Source: "Bircher" and "Birchers" are terms members of the Birch Society apply to themselves, as in Vie John Birch Society Bulletin (Oct. 1992): 6,14, 20. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
100 years ago today - Feb 15, 1918
President John R. Winder was not ordained an apostle when he was set apart as first counselor to President Joseph F. Smith, nor afterwards, nor at any other time. He was a 'presiding high priest' and so filled the requirement in Section 107, par 22, Doctrine and Covenants. There is no such order as you mention, that persons called as counselors to the president must first be ordained apostles and then set apart as counselors.
[Source: Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose, Letter to Clarence Gardner, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Source: Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose, Letter to Clarence Gardner, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
180 years ago today - Feb 15, 1838
The PAINESVILLE REPUBLICAN prints a letter from Warren Parrish: "I have performed a pilgrimage with him [Joseph Smith], (not to Mecca,) but to Missouri, a distance of 1000 miles, for the redemption of Zion, in company with about two hundred others, called the camp of Israel. When we arrived in Clay County adjoining Jackson County, Mo., in which Zion was located by revelation, and from which our brethren had been driven, we were informed through the Prophet that God had revealed to us that we need not cross over and fight as we had expected, but that God had accepted our sacrifice as he did that of Abraham, ours being equal to his when he offered up his Son. Therefore, we were sealed up unto eternal life in the name of Jesus Christ, as a reward for our suffering and obedience. I have set by his side and penned down the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration of Heaven. I have listened to him with feelings of no ordinary kind, when he declared that the audible voice of God, instructed him to establish a Banking-Anti Banking institution, which like Aaron's rod should swallow up all other Banks (the Bank of Monroe excepted,) and grow and flourish and spread from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and survive when all others should be laid in ruins. I have been astonished to hear him declare that we had 60,000 Dollars in specie in our vaults, and $600,000 at our command, when we had not to exceed $6,000 and could not command any more; also that we had but about ten thousand Dollars of our bills in circulation, when he, as Cashier of the institution, knew that there was at least $150,000." The truth of the letter is attested to by two former apostles, Luke Johnson and John Boyington and two former Presidents of Seventy, Sylvester Smith and Leonard Rich.
190 years ago today - about Feb 15, 1828
Joseph Smith gave Martin Harris a transcript of characters from the plates of Mormon, which Brother Harris took to show scholars in New York City.
[Source: BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
[Source: BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
45 years ago today - 45 years ago - Feb 13, 1973
Twenty-one-year-old Almir S. Dutra is ordain bishop in Porto Allegre, Brazil as one of the youngest (if not the younest) bishops in twentieth-century Mormonism.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
50 years ago today - 50 years ago - Feb 13, 1968
General Authority Paul H. Dunn, in a speech at BYU, says of Baseball great Ted Williams, "He was no slouch. I know; I have pitched to him a time or two." Dunn also says "When I was eighteen, a rookie with the St. Louis Cardinals, I reported to spring training." However when Dunn graduated from High School in 1942, at age 18, spring training camps had already been over for a month. Later a spokesman for the Cardinals says that no Paul Dunn played for that club or for any of its farm clubs.
105 years ago today - 105 years ago - Feb 13, 1913
I attended regular weekly council meeting from 10:30 to 3:30 P.M. At this meeting it was decided to try putting two companies [sessions] through the temple in one day commencing tomorrow and word was given to the temple workers to that effect. This on account of the crowded condition of the temple.
[Source: George F. Richards, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Source: George F. Richards, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
120 years ago today - 120 years ago - Feb 13, 1898
While visiting Mesa, Arizona for stake conference Apostle John Henry Smith "met with the presidency and high Council in the Circle room and made an examination of the brethren and found three that were using tobacco."
130 years ago today - 130 years ago - Feb 13, 1888 • Monday
[George Q. Cannon]
We received the following telegrams from Bro. John W. Young [church representative in Washington, D.C.]:
"Telegram 13th received. Matters chrystalized to-day so that we must place, by Wednesday afternoon without fail, 15,000 to keep [bribe, Senator] Cullom silent and [Senator] Davis to vote with us in Committee and another Republican Senator advocate and vote openly. Amount contingent on faithful performance. Other ten needed to make sure of the majority of the committee to be successful. Telegraph money for Wednesday morning. Answer." ...
We made the follow reply:
"We think better await arrival friends [including Joseph F. Smith] who left here eleventh before you present any document to Senate or its Committee or doing anything about twenty-five thousand." [This is not the first time money was sent to influence legislators.]
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
We received the following telegrams from Bro. John W. Young [church representative in Washington, D.C.]:
"Telegram 13th received. Matters chrystalized to-day so that we must place, by Wednesday afternoon without fail, 15,000 to keep [bribe, Senator] Cullom silent and [Senator] Davis to vote with us in Committee and another Republican Senator advocate and vote openly. Amount contingent on faithful performance. Other ten needed to make sure of the majority of the committee to be successful. Telegraph money for Wednesday morning. Answer." ...
We made the follow reply:
"We think better await arrival friends [including Joseph F. Smith] who left here eleventh before you present any document to Senate or its Committee or doing anything about twenty-five thousand." [This is not the first time money was sent to influence legislators.]
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
165 years ago today - Feb 13, 1853
Jedediah M. Grant preaches, "Some wonder why we don't have revelation now in our day as well as in the days of Joseph. In his day the brethren would not build a log cabin till they went to Joseph to ask counsel how they should set it where they should put the door etc. But at the present day men have learned to do something themselves without troubling the president or the Lord about it." Lack of "thus sayeth the Lord" revelations since the death of Joseph Smith lead to over a thousand Mormons breaking away and following Joseph Morris who receives such revelations eight years later.
170 years ago today - Feb 13, 1848
Senior president of the of the Seventy Joseph Young and Apostle Wilford Woodruff chastise the First Quorum of Seventy for spending too much time "fiddleing and dancing."
175 years ago today - Feb 13, 1843
At Orson Hyde's house Joseph Smith says that those who come to Nauvoo but don't buy their land through the church "must be cut off." At this time Joseph Smith is chief land agent for the Church, and had contracted debt associated with land purchases. William Law is now competing with Joseph Smith.
175 years ago today - Feb 13, 1843
[Wilford Woodruff]
Spent the time in the printing Office. Get along well with the doctrins & covenants [2nd edition].
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Spent the time in the printing Office. Get along well with the doctrins & covenants [2nd edition].
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
80 years ago today - Feb 12, 1938
[Heber J. Grant]
Brother Richard L. Evans called and we visited for an hour and a half or two hours. He is very anxious to have me write my memoirs and have them published in the ERA. I told him I thought it would be intensely interesting if I would write up my courting of three women and marrying them. I told him all about it. He said, 'That is going to be intensely interesting.'
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
Brother Richard L. Evans called and we visited for an hour and a half or two hours. He is very anxious to have me write my memoirs and have them published in the ERA. I told him I thought it would be intensely interesting if I would write up my courting of three women and marrying them. I told him all about it. He said, 'That is going to be intensely interesting.'
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
115 years ago today - Thursday, Feb 12, 1903
[Rudger Clawson]
In view of Elder Smoot's early departure for Washington (namely, next Monday) he knelt at the altar and received a special blessing, in which the blessing and favor of the Lord was sought for his success in obtaining a seat in the senate of the United States Congress, Pres. Smith being mouth.
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
In view of Elder Smoot's early departure for Washington (namely, next Monday) he knelt at the altar and received a special blessing, in which the blessing and favor of the Lord was sought for his success in obtaining a seat in the senate of the United States Congress, Pres. Smith being mouth.
[Source: Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]
125 years ago today - Feb 12, 1893
Edmund Ellsworth says "he heard Joseph Smith say in Nauvoo that the outsiders would not let the Saints stay there. Said they would remove to the Rocky Mountains... and they will finally cast us out from the United States... We shall pass down through Mexico and back up through Texas to build up the center Stake of Zion [at Independence, Missouri]. He marked the profile of the journey in the sand. Bro. Averett [Everett] in speaking of the matter afterward said the route of the journey was shaped like a horseshoe. He haveing seen Joseph mark it out before." The published diary of Jesse N. Smith deletes this reference to the Horse Shoe Prophecy.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
150 years ago today - Feb 12, 1868
Deseret News editorial "Marry and Be Happy" says that if men continue to refuse to marry, "we would be inclined to favor the revival of the Spartan custom of treating bachelors [by flogging]."
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
165 years ago today - Feb 12, 1853 • Saturday
[George Q. Cannon]
Bro. Napela and I baptised a woman for her health.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
Bro. Napela and I baptised a woman for her health.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
175 years ago today - By Feb 12, 1843
Some followers of William Miller (who had predicted the end of the world in 1843) came to Joseph Smith's attention during a visit by several young men from New York. Joseph "preached them quite a sermon. Shewed them that the error is in the Bible or translation and that Miller is in want of information."
[Source: Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
[Source: Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
185 years ago today - Feb 12, 1833
Illinois outlaws polygamy [six years before the saints migrate to Nauvoo].
[Source: Mormon Chronology, N. R. Tidd, http://www.exmormon.org/mhistory.html]
[Source: Mormon Chronology, N. R. Tidd, http://www.exmormon.org/mhistory.html]
35 years ago today - Feb 11, 1983.
Paul Richards, BYU Public Communications director, informs Dean Huffaker, editor of Seventh East Press, that the paper cannot be "sold at the campus bookstore or on campus newsstands after Feb. 16. [Richards] declined to say whether the ban was ordered by church officials in Salt Lake City." An unofficial student newspaper at Brigham Young University that had drawn considerable criticism for its articles on Mormon history and doctrine, it had published an interview with Sterling McMurrin, Mormon philosopher, on 11 January in which he expressed disbelief about the First Vision and ancient origins for the Book of Mormon. The newspaper ceases publication on 12 April and is followed very briefly by the University Post, which also folds. The McMurrin interview is reprinted in Dialogue, Spring 1984.
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
65 years ago today - Feb 11, 1953
[J. Reuben Clark]
[In conversation with Ernest L. Wilkinson:] On the matter of Weber College, had talked with Harold B. Lee, and they felt that there would be certain political repercussions if the Church took it over at the present time. Pres. Clark said that Pres. McKay had reserved judgment and he thought Pres. McKay would let the matter take its own course.
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
[In conversation with Ernest L. Wilkinson:] On the matter of Weber College, had talked with Harold B. Lee, and they felt that there would be certain political repercussions if the Church took it over at the present time. Pres. Clark said that Pres. McKay had reserved judgment and he thought Pres. McKay would let the matter take its own course.
[Source: The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
65 years ago today - Feb 11, 1953
The First Presidency purchases $5,000 in bonds of the State of Israel.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
110 years ago today - Feb 11, 1908
[First Presidency to David H. Cannon letter]
... you stated that there was a certain person working in the [St. George, Utah] temple whose sister was married to a man said to have had negro blood in him, and because of this suspicion you decided that her children (who are dead) could not be sealed to their mother and the man she was to be sealed to. But as the friends of the deceased woman did not feel altogether satisfied with your decision, and that injustice might not be done to the deed, you referred the question to us for our consideration. But in your letter of the 3rd inst., you refer to these children as possessing, without question, a taint of negro blood, and to the oldest as a negro. In the first place we felt to give the children the benefit of the doubt which your letter carried; and in the second place, even if the blood of the children were tainted, and the sealing ordinance performed in their behalf, they could not become heirs of the priesthood without ordination; and we took it for granted that the authority behind the veil is beyond question competent to judge in all questionable cases, and that ordination will not be bestowed on any not entitled to it. Having expressed our views in regard to this matter, we leave it now entirely with you to perform the sealing or otherwise as you may elect, in the understanding of course that, if you decide to withhold the sealing ordinance from the children, it must be done on your own responsibility. But, should you conclude to perform the sealing ordinance in their behalf, it will not be necessary to endow the oldest child, he, according to your last letter, having reached the age of twenty-one at his death.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to David H. Cannon, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
... you stated that there was a certain person working in the [St. George, Utah] temple whose sister was married to a man said to have had negro blood in him, and because of this suspicion you decided that her children (who are dead) could not be sealed to their mother and the man she was to be sealed to. But as the friends of the deceased woman did not feel altogether satisfied with your decision, and that injustice might not be done to the deed, you referred the question to us for our consideration. But in your letter of the 3rd inst., you refer to these children as possessing, without question, a taint of negro blood, and to the oldest as a negro. In the first place we felt to give the children the benefit of the doubt which your letter carried; and in the second place, even if the blood of the children were tainted, and the sealing ordinance performed in their behalf, they could not become heirs of the priesthood without ordination; and we took it for granted that the authority behind the veil is beyond question competent to judge in all questionable cases, and that ordination will not be bestowed on any not entitled to it. Having expressed our views in regard to this matter, we leave it now entirely with you to perform the sealing or otherwise as you may elect, in the understanding of course that, if you decide to withhold the sealing ordinance from the children, it must be done on your own responsibility. But, should you conclude to perform the sealing ordinance in their behalf, it will not be necessary to endow the oldest child, he, according to your last letter, having reached the age of twenty-one at his death.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to David H. Cannon, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
85 years ago today - Feb 11, 1933
A notice calling for the centennial commemoration of the giving to Joseph Smith of the revelation known as The Word of Wisdom. NOTICE On Monday, February 27, 1933, it will be 100 years since the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was received by the Prophet Joseph Smith. We call this to the attention of the stake and ward officers with the hope that they will commemorate this great event by a discussion of the subject matter of this revelation in all services on Sunday, February 26. HEBER J. GRANT, ANTHONY W. IVINS, First Presidency.
[Source: 1933-February 11-Deseret News, Church Section, p. 1, in Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
[Source: 1933-February 11-Deseret News, Church Section, p. 1, in Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
130 years ago today - Feb 11, 1888
Frank J. Cannon takes the manuscript for his book "History of Joseph Smith the Prophet" to his father First Presidency Counselor George Q. Cannon. The elder Cannon approves it with a few alterations and gives permission "to get the manuscript into type." The book is later published under George Q. Cannon's name. Frank later becomes a U.S. Senator, an apostate and an anti-Mormon publisher.
145 years ago today - Feb 11, 1873
[Patriarchal Blessing of Elizabeth D. Kane given by William G. Perkins]
... You will have a mansion prepared for you that will be beautiful to behold. You will keep it neat and in good order. ... Holy Angels will visit and dine with you. They will acquaint you of your Dead. They will give you all the information you desire. They will bless you with a Holy Touch that will run through your whole system; they will anoint your eyes that they shall not grow dim by age.
You will go to the centre Stake [Jackson County] and go with your Husband into the House of the Lord, and there you will redeem your Dead. You will see that Temple finished and be at the dedication thereof. There you will see your Redeemer coming and His Holy Saints with Him. You will be caught up to meet Him and return with Him to His Temple. You will be with Him at that great feast even the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You will sit down and partake of its bounties. There you will see Jesus in the power of His glory and it will fall upon you. Your body will become like a sea of glass your whole body will be like unto an eye.... And I seal you up unto Eternal Life that you may be with your Saviour through the thousand years reign upon the earth. I seal upon your head a crown of Celestial Glory. This I do in the name of the Lord Jesus, your Redeemer. Amen.
[Source: Patriarchal Blessings]
... You will have a mansion prepared for you that will be beautiful to behold. You will keep it neat and in good order. ... Holy Angels will visit and dine with you. They will acquaint you of your Dead. They will give you all the information you desire. They will bless you with a Holy Touch that will run through your whole system; they will anoint your eyes that they shall not grow dim by age.
You will go to the centre Stake [Jackson County] and go with your Husband into the House of the Lord, and there you will redeem your Dead. You will see that Temple finished and be at the dedication thereof. There you will see your Redeemer coming and His Holy Saints with Him. You will be caught up to meet Him and return with Him to His Temple. You will be with Him at that great feast even the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You will sit down and partake of its bounties. There you will see Jesus in the power of His glory and it will fall upon you. Your body will become like a sea of glass your whole body will be like unto an eye.... And I seal you up unto Eternal Life that you may be with your Saviour through the thousand years reign upon the earth. I seal upon your head a crown of Celestial Glory. This I do in the name of the Lord Jesus, your Redeemer. Amen.
[Source: Patriarchal Blessings]
145 years ago today - Feb 11, 1873 • Tuesday
[George Q. Cannon]
The Agent of the Associated Press at Salt Lake city is the champion liar in his class. Every day we have a batch of inflammatory and lying dispatches from there, sent with a view to influence the action of Congress in our case.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
The Agent of the Associated Press at Salt Lake city is the champion liar in his class. Every day we have a batch of inflammatory and lying dispatches from there, sent with a view to influence the action of Congress in our case.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
175 years ago today - Feb 11, 1843 - Saturday
... When the Mayor [newly elected Joseph Smith] came in and said he had been doing a good deed. had been conversing with Elder [Sidney] Rigdon — & he & his family were willing to be saved, good feelings prevaild.— & we have shaken hands togethr [Rigdon and Smith had a falling out, primarily over Smith's proposal to Rigdon's daughter Nancy] ...
prophecid to James Sloan Recorder— that it would be better for him 10 years hence not to Say any thing more about fees.——
Mayor Made his Inaugural Address— & <in which he> urged the necessity of the city council acting upon the principle of liberality & of relievi[n]g the city f[r]om all unnecessary expences & burthens. Not to attempt to improve the city but enact such laws as will promote peace & good order. & the people will improve the city, capitalist will come in from all quarters & mills factories. & machinery of all kinds & buildings will arise on every hand this will become a great city. & prophecid that if the council would be liberal in their proceedings they would become rich. ...
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
prophecid to James Sloan Recorder— that it would be better for him 10 years hence not to Say any thing more about fees.——
Mayor Made his Inaugural Address— & <in which he> urged the necessity of the city council acting upon the principle of liberality & of relievi[n]g the city f[r]om all unnecessary expences & burthens. Not to attempt to improve the city but enact such laws as will promote peace & good order. & the people will improve the city, capitalist will come in from all quarters & mills factories. & machinery of all kinds & buildings will arise on every hand this will become a great city. & prophecid that if the council would be liberal in their proceedings they would become rich. ...
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
45 years ago today - Feb 10, 1973
Boy Scouts of America's director for Mormon relations reports that one of every twenty Scouts in the U.S. is LDS.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
140 years ago today - Feb 10, 1878
[Charles C. Rich]
It was a long time after the Prophet Joseph Smith had received the keys of the kingdom of God, and after Hyrum [Smith] and others had received many blessings, that the Lord gave Joseph a revelation, to show him and others how they could ask for and receive certain blessings. We read in the [R]evelations of St. John, that the Saints are to receive a white stone, "and in the stone a new name, which no man knoweth save him that receiveth it." Joseph tells us that this new name is a key-word, which can only be obtained through the endowments. This is one of the keys and blessings that will be bestowed upon the Saints in these last days, for which we shall be very thankful.
[Source: Charles C. Rich discourse, Feb. 10, 1878 , Journal of Discourses, 19:250, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
It was a long time after the Prophet Joseph Smith had received the keys of the kingdom of God, and after Hyrum [Smith] and others had received many blessings, that the Lord gave Joseph a revelation, to show him and others how they could ask for and receive certain blessings. We read in the [R]evelations of St. John, that the Saints are to receive a white stone, "and in the stone a new name, which no man knoweth save him that receiveth it." Joseph tells us that this new name is a key-word, which can only be obtained through the endowments. This is one of the keys and blessings that will be bestowed upon the Saints in these last days, for which we shall be very thankful.
[Source: Charles C. Rich discourse, Feb. 10, 1878 , Journal of Discourses, 19:250, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
160 years ago today - Feb 10, 1858
The DESERET NEWS publishes the ""History of Brigham Young," and quotes Joseph Smith as saying " . . . the time will come when bro. Brigham Young will preside over this church." However, the first handwritten version of the "History of Brigham Young" makes no reference to the prophecy.
175 years ago today - Feb 10, 1843 - Friday
[Oliver] Olney confessed before the Mayors court that he had been visited many times by the Ancient of days. sat with him on the 9. 10. & 11 days of June last.— & shall sit in council with ancient of Days on tuesday next— have had a mission from him to the 4 Quarters of the world. & have been have establishd the 12 stakes of Zion — I have visited them all but one in. the South. ... Olney was cut off from the chu[r]ch some time Since [disfellowshipped from the church on 17 March 1842 for "setting himself up as a prophet & revelator."]
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
130 years ago today - Feb 9, 1888
[Franklin D. Richards]
The Apostates and sorehead Liberals are terrible wrathy at the fusion that was adapted in our ticket for the next municipal election.
[Source: Diary Excerpts of Franklin D. Richards, 1887-1897, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
The Apostates and sorehead Liberals are terrible wrathy at the fusion that was adapted in our ticket for the next municipal election.
[Source: Diary Excerpts of Franklin D. Richards, 1887-1897, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
170 years ago today - Feb 9, 1848
[Wilford Woodruff]
I finished reading the Book of Jasher & found it to be an interesting work.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I finished reading the Book of Jasher & found it to be an interesting work.
[Source: 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 - Feb 9, 1843 - Thursday
Joseph explai[ne]d the followi[n]g there are 3 adminitater [administrators] Angels. Spirits Devils— one class in heaven Angels the spir[i]ts of Ju[s]t men made perfect.— innumerable co[mpany] of angels & Spirits of Ju[s]t Men made perf[e]ct. An angel appears to you how will you prove him. ask him to shake hands if he has flesh & bones— he is an Angel. "spirit hath not fl[e]sh & bones" spirit of a Ju[s]t man made perf[e]ct. person in its tabernacle could hide its glory. if David Patten or the Devil came. how would you determi[n]e should you take hold of his hand you would not feel it. if it were a false administrtin [[TEXT: Possibly "administrtor".]] he would not do it. true spirit will not give his hand the Devil will. 3 Keys— [this teaching would become D&C 129]
a man came to me in Kirtland & told me he had seen an angel dressed so & so. I told him he had seen no angel there was no such dress in heaven he got mad & went out in the street & commanded fire to come down out of heaven & consume me I laughed at him & told him he was one of Baals prophets his God did not not hear him. Jump up & cut yourself— & he comma[nde]d fire f[r]om heaven to consume my house.
— when I was preaching in Philadelphia a quaker wanted a sign— I told him to be still. after sermon he wanted a sign. I told the congregati[o]n the man was an adulterer, "A wicked & adulterous geneatin [generation]." & the Lord to me in a revelation that any man who. wantd a sign was adulteros person.— "It is true said one for I caught him in the very act.— which he afterwards confessed when he was baptized
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
a man came to me in Kirtland & told me he had seen an angel dressed so & so. I told him he had seen no angel there was no such dress in heaven he got mad & went out in the street & commanded fire to come down out of heaven & consume me I laughed at him & told him he was one of Baals prophets his God did not not hear him. Jump up & cut yourself— & he comma[nde]d fire f[r]om heaven to consume my house.
— when I was preaching in Philadelphia a quaker wanted a sign— I told him to be still. after sermon he wanted a sign. I told the congregati[o]n the man was an adulterer, "A wicked & adulterous geneatin [generation]." & the Lord to me in a revelation that any man who. wantd a sign was adulteros person.— "It is true said one for I caught him in the very act.— which he afterwards confessed when he was baptized
[Source: Joseph Smith, "President Joseph Smith's Journal," 4 vols., Book 1, 21 December 1842–10 March 1843 (Willard Richards)]
50 years ago today - Feb 8, 1968
Lacking sufficient support from the Republican leadership, Ezra Taft Benson had negotiated to become the vice-presidential candidate in George C. Wallace's third-party challenge. Wallace formally announced his third party candidacy on 8 February.
[Source: Willard S. Voit announcement, 17 Nov. 1967, in The John Birch Society Bulletin (Dec. 1967): 26-28; "Wallace In Race; Will 'Run To Win,'" New York Times, 9 Feb. 1968,1; "Benson Backs Wallace Stand," Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 1968, 3, based on an undated interview with Benson by a reporter with Reuters news service. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
[Source: Willard S. Voit announcement, 17 Nov. 1967, in The John Birch Society Bulletin (Dec. 1967): 26-28; "Wallace In Race; Will 'Run To Win,'" New York Times, 9 Feb. 1968,1; "Benson Backs Wallace Stand," Christian Science Monitor, 13 Feb. 1968, 3, based on an undated interview with Benson by a reporter with Reuters news service. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
55 years ago today - Feb 8, 1963
[Harold B. Lee to Douglas Stott]
Your letter expressed your concern over the statement of the First Presidency in a letter to Elder Samuel O. Bennion; and again, a statement by Elder John A. Widtsoe in his book 'Evidences and Reconciliations' to the effect that Brigham Young never did teach that God, the Eternal Father is Adam. If you will read carefully these letters you will find that what they do say is that in the sermon contained in Vol. 1, page 50, of the Journal of Discourses Brigham Young did not intend to teach the doctrine that Adam was our God. Whether or not at other times he did or did not, was not the subject of these particular writings to which you have made reference. ...
[Source: Harold B. Lee, Letter to Douglas W. Stott, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
Your letter expressed your concern over the statement of the First Presidency in a letter to Elder Samuel O. Bennion; and again, a statement by Elder John A. Widtsoe in his book 'Evidences and Reconciliations' to the effect that Brigham Young never did teach that God, the Eternal Father is Adam. If you will read carefully these letters you will find that what they do say is that in the sermon contained in Vol. 1, page 50, of the Journal of Discourses Brigham Young did not intend to teach the doctrine that Adam was our God. Whether or not at other times he did or did not, was not the subject of these particular writings to which you have made reference. ...
[Source: Harold B. Lee, Letter to Douglas W. Stott, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
110 years ago today - Feb 8, 1908
[First Presidency to Joseph Shepherd]
As you know, the presidency of the Church from the beginning have advised against round dancing in the social gatherings of our people, and that restrictions have been placed upon it as the demands for that form of dancing have been made from time to time by our up; but so strong has been their desire to indulge in round dancing that in some places, as you say, the restrictions have been removed altogether, while in other places a check is still held upon it. We fully appreciate what you say that to undertake to regulate the dances with a view to restraining round dancings is a very difficult thing to do; and in view of the circumstances we know of no better way than to place the subject squarely before the young people of the several wards of your stake, and then leave the responsibility of their action with themselves. But in doing this we would like you to say to them, with our compliments, that the First Presidency have had naught but their very best interests at heart, and foreseeing the evil tendencies of round dancing they considered it a matter of duty to exclude it altogether from our dancing halls and afterwards to regulate it as best they could when it was found that rather than be permitted to have any such dances some would patronize public dancing halls run in the interest of money making in opposition to Church control.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to Joseph R. Shepherd, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
As you know, the presidency of the Church from the beginning have advised against round dancing in the social gatherings of our people, and that restrictions have been placed upon it as the demands for that form of dancing have been made from time to time by our up; but so strong has been their desire to indulge in round dancing that in some places, as you say, the restrictions have been removed altogether, while in other places a check is still held upon it. We fully appreciate what you say that to undertake to regulate the dances with a view to restraining round dancings is a very difficult thing to do; and in view of the circumstances we know of no better way than to place the subject squarely before the young people of the several wards of your stake, and then leave the responsibility of their action with themselves. But in doing this we would like you to say to them, with our compliments, that the First Presidency have had naught but their very best interests at heart, and foreseeing the evil tendencies of round dancing they considered it a matter of duty to exclude it altogether from our dancing halls and afterwards to regulate it as best they could when it was found that rather than be permitted to have any such dances some would patronize public dancing halls run in the interest of money making in opposition to Church control.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to Joseph R. Shepherd, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
125 years ago today - Feb 8, 1893
[Wilford Woodruff]
I Borrowed Ten thousand dollars of Asahel H Woodruff as trustee in trust to pay a Church debt And I gave him a Note of $10,000 at 10 per cent interest for two /one/ years.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I Borrowed Ten thousand dollars of Asahel H Woodruff as trustee in trust to pay a Church debt And I gave him a Note of $10,000 at 10 per cent interest for two /one/ years.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
150 years ago today - Feb 8, 1868 (Morning)
[Brigham Young]
When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry.
[Source: Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 12:157-160; Deseret News. Also Deseret Evening News, Deseret News Weekly, Deseret News Semi- Weekly, and Deseret News Extra, Salt Lake City, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry.
[Source: Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 12:157-160; Deseret News. Also Deseret Evening News, Deseret News Weekly, Deseret News Semi- Weekly, and Deseret News Extra, Salt Lake City, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
... when danger approached you the Angel of life shall be with [you] to forewarn you of those things, and your feet shall stand in sure places, and everlasting light shall shine upon you. If you are faithful br. William you shall live till your hair is as white as pure wool, you shall assist in avenging the blood of the prophets of God, and assist in accomplishing the great work of the last days, be an honor and a blessing to your family, and to your father’s house, and to your progenitors, be prepared to be a savior upon mount Zion, and to help to carry out the glorious work of the redemption of mankind.
[Patriarchal Blessing of William Adams by John Young]
[Source: 18580208]
[Source: 18580208]
165 years ago today - Feb 8, 1853 • Tuesday
[George Q. Cannon]
Bro. Napela received a letter from Bro. Uaua stating that his wife had been dead three hours when he returned to house and found her relatives wailing; he anointed her and laid hands on her and she recovered instantly.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
Bro. Napela received a letter from Bro. Uaua stating that his wife had been dead three hours when he returned to house and found her relatives wailing; he anointed her and laid hands on her and she recovered instantly.
[Source: The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]
175 years ago today - Feb 8, 1843
An unsigned document in the Joseph F. Smith's 1869-1870 Affidavit Books specifies this date for the sealing of Joseph Smith to Sylvia Session. Several additional documents support a sealing date after the excommunication of Sylvia's legal husband, Windsor Lyon, which occurred on November 19, 1842.
[Source: Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
[Source: Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]
175 years ago today - Feb 8, 1843
Joseph Smith "talked with a brother and sister from Michigan, who thought that 'a prophet is always a prophet;' but I told them that a prophet was a prophet only when he was acting as such." Joseph Smith also writes: "One Gentleman said he understood it was very fruitful at Nauvoo. Two women from his neighborhood who had no children went to Nauvoo and since have families."
25 years ago today - Feb 7, 1993
Cody Robert Judy holds Apostle Howard W. Hunter hostage for ten minutes in front of 17,000 students at BYU as president of Twelve starts to give Sunday evening sermon at Marriott Center. Judy claims to hold a bomb but is physically attacked and subdued by male students and BYU security personnel.
Salt Lake stake president Paul A. Hanks writes a letter to historian D. Michael Quinn requesting Quinn to explain his "personal feelings about the church" in an apostasy investigation. Quinn is charged with apostasy in connection with his recent writings suggesting that Joseph Smith taught that women receive the priesthood as part of the sacred temple ritual, and for an article "150 Years of Truth and Consequences About Mormon History" in which Quinn chronicled the punitive actions taken through history against those who write about controversial topics of Mormon history."
Salt Lake stake president Paul A. Hanks writes a letter to historian D. Michael Quinn requesting Quinn to explain his "personal feelings about the church" in an apostasy investigation. Quinn is charged with apostasy in connection with his recent writings suggesting that Joseph Smith taught that women receive the priesthood as part of the sacred temple ritual, and for an article "150 Years of Truth and Consequences About Mormon History" in which Quinn chronicled the punitive actions taken through history against those who write about controversial topics of Mormon history."
85 years ago today - Feb 7, 1933
[Heber J. Grant]
John W. Silver called about doing temple work for his father, Joseph Silver. I told him of his father's dishonesty and of his misrepresenting things in connection with plural marriage and that we did not feel justified in allowing temple work to be done for him. Were we to do so it would be an acknowledgment that he and others who had violated the rules of the Church had done nothing very serious. I told him I was afraid we would have to leave his case in the hands of the Lord.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
John W. Silver called about doing temple work for his father, Joseph Silver. I told him of his father's dishonesty and of his misrepresenting things in connection with plural marriage and that we did not feel justified in allowing temple work to be done for him. Were we to do so it would be an acknowledgment that he and others who had violated the rules of the Church had done nothing very serious. I told him I was afraid we would have to leave his case in the hands of the Lord.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
125 years ago today - Feb 7, 1893
[President Wilford Woodruff]
I Appointed Joseph F Smith Lorenzo Snow & Abram H Cannon A Committee to see to the finishing the [Salt Lake] Temple to Employ Architects to furnishing patterns & specifications for the workmen to work to to its finishing inasmuch as J. D. Carloss Young is sick and not able to furnish Patterns to finish the work. They went to the Temple to Meet with the Architeck.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I Appointed Joseph F Smith Lorenzo Snow & Abram H Cannon A Committee to see to the finishing the [Salt Lake] Temple to Employ Architects to furnishing patterns & specifications for the workmen to work to to its finishing inasmuch as J. D. Carloss Young is sick and not able to furnish Patterns to finish the work. They went to the Temple to Meet with the Architeck.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
165 years ago today - Feb 7, 1853
Orson Spencer writes from Berlin that "upon obtaining an interview, or an investigation before the President of the King's Police, he and Elder Houtz were required to leave the Kingdom of Prussia the next morning at 8 o'clock under penalty of Banishment. Upon asking permission to remain 1 or 2 days as visitors and close a little business it was denied them; not one moment was granted past the hour of eight o'clock; . . ."
170 years ago today - Feb 7, 1848
William A. Hickman's affidavit in first issue of church's FRONTIER GUARDIAN: "I do hereby solemnly declare that Mr. [Orson] Hyde never induced me to commit violence on the person of any man, either white or red." Apostle Hyde is editor.
175 years ago today - Feb 7, 1843
In the afternoon sent a warrant to Hiram Kimball's for the book of [patriarchal] blessings given by Father Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.] which was stolen from Far West. The affidavit /warrant/ was issued on affidavit of Johnathan Holmes and the book obtained.
[Source: Faulring, Scott (ed.), An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith Diary, 1842-43, http://amzn.to/jsdiaries]
[Source: Faulring, Scott (ed.), An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith Diary, 1842-43, http://amzn.to/jsdiaries]
25 years ago today - Feb 6, 1993
The Church News, "Barriers Crumble: Interfaith Activities Build Bridges of Friendship."
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
25 years ago today - Feb 6, 1993
At a meeting of the B. H. Roberts Society, David P. Wright, assistant professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Brandeis University and former professor at Brigham Young University until his dismissal, gives a talk "Do What is Right, Let the Consequence Follow: Telling the Truth about Our Scriptures." He describes his researches and concludes "A critical study of the Book of Mormon, as I have indicated, shows that Joseph Smith was its author, . . ." He concludes, "The spirit will generate in us commitment to our community, a sense of the relevance of our developing religious tradition, and a perception of the divine in our own and our spiritual ancestors' history But reasoned critical study must be allowed to guide us in our search for historical understanding and matters related thereto." Wright is excommunicated the next year for publishing such results of his research.
90 years ago today - Feb 6, 1928
The First Presidency approves the $50,000 purchase of the Hill Cumorah and farms in Palmyra, N.Y.
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
[Source: The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
95 years ago today - Feb 6, 1923
[Heber J. Grant]
Met. Joseph E. Richards, who is working in prohibition matters. He says the Ku Klux Klan are organizing in Salt Lake County. I regretted to hear this.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
Met. Joseph E. Richards, who is working in prohibition matters. He says the Ku Klux Klan are organizing in Salt Lake County. I regretted to hear this.
[Source: The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
135 years ago today - Feb 6, 1883
[John Nuttall]
... Can we receive Second Anointings for our dead fathers and mothers and others who we are proxy for? If your fathers and mothers were members of the Church in their lives and died as faithful members, Yes you can obtain Second Anointings for them, but if they and others who you are proxy for were NOT members of the Church in their lives, and for whom you have had certain ordinances performed in their behalf, it will be well to let that suffice for the present, as further opportunities may be granted hereafter.
[Source: L. John Nuttall to J. Crosley, Feb. 6, 1883, emphasis in original, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
... Can we receive Second Anointings for our dead fathers and mothers and others who we are proxy for? If your fathers and mothers were members of the Church in their lives and died as faithful members, Yes you can obtain Second Anointings for them, but if they and others who you are proxy for were NOT members of the Church in their lives, and for whom you have had certain ordinances performed in their behalf, it will be well to let that suffice for the present, as further opportunities may be granted hereafter.
[Source: L. John Nuttall to J. Crosley, Feb. 6, 1883, emphasis in original, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
160 years ago today - Feb 6, 1858
[Wilford Woodruff]
I Called upon president Young and found a company in his office reading the scraps sent from the states against Mormonism. There appears to be a fixed determination by the General Government to annihilate the saints of God from off the Earth & to destroy the last vestage of righteousness from among men.
O Hyde received a letter from Lucky Bill at Carson valley stating that there was a Company fitting out at Carson valley and at placerville to Come into our settlements for the purpose of robing and plundering. O Hyde wrote him a letter stating that He advised our friends if we had any [ ] not to ingage in a Contest against our people for God would smite them with Blindness and our Enemies would be given into our hands.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I Called upon president Young and found a company in his office reading the scraps sent from the states against Mormonism. There appears to be a fixed determination by the General Government to annihilate the saints of God from off the Earth & to destroy the last vestage of righteousness from among men.
O Hyde received a letter from Lucky Bill at Carson valley stating that there was a Company fitting out at Carson valley and at placerville to Come into our settlements for the purpose of robing and plundering. O Hyde wrote him a letter stating that He advised our friends if we had any [ ] not to ingage in a Contest against our people for God would smite them with Blindness and our Enemies would be given into our hands.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
165 years ago today - Feb 6, 1853
Brigham Young exhorts the Saints to "observe the Mormon Creed. Let everyone mind their own business." This "Mormon Creed" was first published by Joseph Smith in the Jun 11, 1842 edition of THE WASP: "Mormon Creed - To mind their own business and let everyone else DO LIKEWISE." When the Logan temple was dedicated in 1884 it contained an ornate, backpainted, glass fixture with the words: "Mormon Creed/Mind/Your Own Business/Saints/Will/Observe This/All Others Ought To." This piece has been displayed in the Museum of Church History and Art.
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