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]
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