Apostle Dallin H. Oaks marches in procession in honoring Carolyn Tanner Irish's ordination as bishop of Utah's Episcopal diocese. Bishop Irish was an LDS member until her Protestant conversion as an adult. LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley tells general conference in October: "I know of no other organization [besides the LDS church] which affords women so many opportunities... for holding positions of leadership and responsibility," even though Mormon women cannot be ordained to ecclesiastical office.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
60 years ago today - May 31, 1961
[First Presidency]
There has been some uncertainty in the past arise in cases where a couple have been civilly married in a State which does not require a serological [blood] test. In all cases where a couple has been legally married in any State or Country of the world, they are entitled to go to any temple of the Church if properly recommended by their bishops and stake presidents, or branch and mission presidents, and are otherwise worthy to be sealed for time and eternity, without complying with the laws of the State or Country in which the temple is located. We give full recognition to the married status of such couples created under the laws of the land in which they were civilly married. It is this legal marital status which gives us the right to perform our temple sealings without compliance with the provisions of the laws which apply to the creation of the marital status by the civil law. Therefore, if a couple are legally married in a State or Country in which no serological test is required, they are not obligated to undergo such a test in the State or County in which the temple is located as a condition precedent to their participating in the sealing ordinances of the temple.
[David O. McKay, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and Henry D. Moyle, circular letter, May 31, 1961, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
There has been some uncertainty in the past arise in cases where a couple have been civilly married in a State which does not require a serological [blood] test. In all cases where a couple has been legally married in any State or Country of the world, they are entitled to go to any temple of the Church if properly recommended by their bishops and stake presidents, or branch and mission presidents, and are otherwise worthy to be sealed for time and eternity, without complying with the laws of the State or Country in which the temple is located. We give full recognition to the married status of such couples created under the laws of the land in which they were civilly married. It is this legal marital status which gives us the right to perform our temple sealings without compliance with the provisions of the laws which apply to the creation of the marital status by the civil law. Therefore, if a couple are legally married in a State or Country in which no serological test is required, they are not obligated to undergo such a test in the State or County in which the temple is located as a condition precedent to their participating in the sealing ordinances of the temple.
[David O. McKay, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and Henry D. Moyle, circular letter, May 31, 1961, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
120 years ago today - May 31, 1901
[William Henry Smart]
Went to Temple this morning[,] presenting [the] recommend which Pres[iden]t [Lorenzo] Snow gave me about 3 months ago. We had not come [to the temple] before [to receive] our second anointing as the baby was young, and because we desired to become settled in our new home. I was called to speak during the services of the temple. Dwelt principally upon the necessity of keeping awake during temple services and keeping awake in our duties. I consider this a very great honor to be called to speak in the House of the Lord. B[isho]p John R Winder annointed us and Elder [Adolph] Madsen instructed us. These are the greatest blessings that are bestowed upon man in the flesh. We were both melted in tears and I felt the patriarchal spirit of pure affection more than I have done before. The witnesses to the annointing were John R. Winder[,] [who] annointed. Adolph Madsen assisted. John Nicholson [was the] Recorder.
[[William Henry Smart diary, May 31, 1901, Marriott Library, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
Went to Temple this morning[,] presenting [the] recommend which Pres[iden]t [Lorenzo] Snow gave me about 3 months ago. We had not come [to the temple] before [to receive] our second anointing as the baby was young, and because we desired to become settled in our new home. I was called to speak during the services of the temple. Dwelt principally upon the necessity of keeping awake during temple services and keeping awake in our duties. I consider this a very great honor to be called to speak in the House of the Lord. B[isho]p John R Winder annointed us and Elder [Adolph] Madsen instructed us. These are the greatest blessings that are bestowed upon man in the flesh. We were both melted in tears and I felt the patriarchal spirit of pure affection more than I have done before. The witnesses to the annointing were John R. Winder[,] [who] annointed. Adolph Madsen assisted. John Nicholson [was the] Recorder.
[[William Henry Smart diary, May 31, 1901, Marriott Library, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
120 years ago today - May 31, 1901
[James E. Talmage]
[...] When I submitted manuscript for the "Articles of Faith," the book that I had prepared in response to the appointment of the First Presidency, I asked no royalty on the sales or other pecuniary return; indeed I felt honored in being able to do that little for the good of the Church. There was some hesitation on the part of the First Presidency in accepting the gift, partly owing to a request of mine that the book be sold strictly at cost, and partly because of Pres. Snow's statement that a proper payment ought to be made. The first edition of 10,500 copies has been sold, and copy for a second issue is now in the hands of the electrotypers […] Several times I have been called into conference with the publication committee and with the Presidency relative to the transfer of my copyright to the Church; this the authorities desire, and for the same the Presidency declare a payment ought to be made. The brethren have urged the matter with such kindness that I could not well do otherwise than express acquiescence. I was asked to name a sum that would be satisfactory; this I declined to do, saying that I had offered the work as a gift. Pres. Snow replied that it had been accepted as a gift, but they desired to make a present in return. Today Pres. Snow informed me of the decision reached, and I was handed a check for Fifteen Hundred Dollars. I made the legal transfer of copyright to the work, and assigned all claims incident to the first edition. [...]
[The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]
[...] When I submitted manuscript for the "Articles of Faith," the book that I had prepared in response to the appointment of the First Presidency, I asked no royalty on the sales or other pecuniary return; indeed I felt honored in being able to do that little for the good of the Church. There was some hesitation on the part of the First Presidency in accepting the gift, partly owing to a request of mine that the book be sold strictly at cost, and partly because of Pres. Snow's statement that a proper payment ought to be made. The first edition of 10,500 copies has been sold, and copy for a second issue is now in the hands of the electrotypers […] Several times I have been called into conference with the publication committee and with the Presidency relative to the transfer of my copyright to the Church; this the authorities desire, and for the same the Presidency declare a payment ought to be made. The brethren have urged the matter with such kindness that I could not well do otherwise than express acquiescence. I was asked to name a sum that would be satisfactory; this I declined to do, saying that I had offered the work as a gift. Pres. Snow replied that it had been accepted as a gift, but they desired to make a present in return. Today Pres. Snow informed me of the decision reached, and I was handed a check for Fifteen Hundred Dollars. I made the legal transfer of copyright to the work, and assigned all claims incident to the first edition. [...]
[The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]
125 years ago today - May 31, 1896
[Heber J. Grant]
[In Provo] The name of Bro [apostle] Moses Thatcher was omitted as a counselor to General Superintendent Woodruff.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
[In Provo] The name of Bro [apostle] Moses Thatcher was omitted as a counselor to General Superintendent Woodruff.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
130 years ago today - May 31, 1891
[Heber J. Grant]
At the meeting this A.M. Brother A. M. Cannon announced that he was a Republican and made quite a political speech. I was surprised and annoyed at his remarks and felt ashamed to have them made during our services.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
At the meeting this A.M. Brother A. M. Cannon announced that he was a Republican and made quite a political speech. I was surprised and annoyed at his remarks and felt ashamed to have them made during our services.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
155 years ago today - May 31, 1866 (Thursday)
The first circumcision of a Hebrew child in G.S.L. City took place.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
165 years ago today - May 31, 1856
Recently-ordained Church Patriarch John Smith writes of being scared "most to death" of public speaking. He said, "I have refused allmost every time Brother Brigham called on me to dismiss the conference."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
175 years ago today - May 31, 1846
[General Young]
Brigham Young first realizes the saints are running on 'Mormon Standard Time' -- "Brethren should be as prompt and punctual with each other as do the gentiles ..."
[John D. Lee Journals (LDS Church Reporter, 1845-47), Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan.. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.); Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah]
Brigham Young first realizes the saints are running on 'Mormon Standard Time' -- "Brethren should be as prompt and punctual with each other as do the gentiles ..."
[John D. Lee Journals (LDS Church Reporter, 1845-47), Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan.. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.); Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah]
175 years ago today - May 31, 1846
[Brigham Young]
It has been reported the past week to new comers and news has been sent back that the Twelve command the people and are going to take everything from them. I shall command when God requires it of me.
I want to know whether those that have recently arrived here will be united and work for the general good, and not desire to separate themselves. ...
Exhorted the saints to live up to all of their privileges, for the saints have to become so pure that their bodies will be changed in a moment as Jesus was, and not rest in the grave one hundred or a thousand years.
[MHBY 172-173, in Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)]
It has been reported the past week to new comers and news has been sent back that the Twelve command the people and are going to take everything from them. I shall command when God requires it of me.
I want to know whether those that have recently arrived here will be united and work for the general good, and not desire to separate themselves. ...
Exhorted the saints to live up to all of their privileges, for the saints have to become so pure that their bodies will be changed in a moment as Jesus was, and not rest in the grave one hundred or a thousand years.
[MHBY 172-173, in Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)]
185 years ago today - May 31, 1836
[Wilford Woodruff]
... found it [today] to be the most interesting, important & instructive day of my LIFE. For on this Glorious DAY I was ordained unto the High Priesthood and also as one of the Second Seventy & sealed up unto Eternal LIFE under the hands of my Beloved Brethren, VIZ Elder's David W Patten & Warren Parrish. My ordination was requested by the PRESIDENCY of the Church at Kirtland Ohio.
Their was glorious things Pronounced upon my head in my ordination by the spirit of Prophecy & Revelation. Some I will mention which are as follows: That although my enemies would strive to take my life & confine me in dungeons & Prisons yet God should give me power over my enemies & deliver me out of their hands & from their vaults, Prisons, & caves in the name of Jesus Christ, & that men would bow at my feet & worship me if I did not say to them do it not & that Kings would bow before me & Princes give me their hand & that I Should Baptize them into the Kingdom of God & that I should be blessed on the EARTH When my head blossomed with age & if I desired it I should remain on the Earth untill the comeing of the Savior & that God would give me the desire of my heart & that God had had his eye upon me all my life long to prepare me for this work. YEA <even when my spirit was [praying?] around the throne of God [--]> that I should travel to the nations of the Earth & the Islands of the sea to Proclaim the word of God. When these and other blessings were Pronounced upon my head I Was filled With the Power & Spirit of God. EVEN SO LET IT BE. AMEN...
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
... found it [today] to be the most interesting, important & instructive day of my LIFE. For on this Glorious DAY I was ordained unto the High Priesthood and also as one of the Second Seventy & sealed up unto Eternal LIFE under the hands of my Beloved Brethren, VIZ Elder's David W Patten & Warren Parrish. My ordination was requested by the PRESIDENCY of the Church at Kirtland Ohio.
Their was glorious things Pronounced upon my head in my ordination by the spirit of Prophecy & Revelation. Some I will mention which are as follows: That although my enemies would strive to take my life & confine me in dungeons & Prisons yet God should give me power over my enemies & deliver me out of their hands & from their vaults, Prisons, & caves in the name of Jesus Christ, & that men would bow at my feet & worship me if I did not say to them do it not & that Kings would bow before me & Princes give me their hand & that I Should Baptize them into the Kingdom of God & that I should be blessed on the EARTH When my head blossomed with age & if I desired it I should remain on the Earth untill the comeing of the Savior & that God would give me the desire of my heart & that God had had his eye upon me all my life long to prepare me for this work. YEA <even when my spirit was [praying?] around the throne of God [--]> that I should travel to the nations of the Earth & the Islands of the sea to Proclaim the word of God. When these and other blessings were Pronounced upon my head I Was filled With the Power & Spirit of God. EVEN SO LET IT BE. AMEN...
[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 - May 31, 1836
About this time - Lucy Mack Smith: -At the time a certain young woman, who was living at David Whitmer's uttered a prophecy, which she said was given her by looking through a black stone that she had found. This prophecy gave some altogether a new idea of things. She said the reason why one third of the church would turn away from Joseph was because that he was in transgression himself; that he would fall from his office on account of the same; that David Whitmer or Martin Harris would fill Joseph's place. The girl soon became an object of great attention among those who were disaffected. Dr. Williams became her scribe and wrote her revelations for her. Jared Carter soon imbibed the same spirit, and I was informed that he said in one of their meetings that he had power to raise Joseph Smith to the highest heavens, or sink him down to the lowest hell. They still held their secret meetings at David Whitmer's and when the young woman who was their instructress was through giving what revelation she intended for the evening, she would jump out of her chair and dance over the floor, boasting of her power, until she was perfectly exhausted. Her proselytes would also, in the most vehement manner proclaim their purity and holiness, and the mighty power which they were going to have. They made a standing appointment for meetings to be held every Thursday in the Holy Temple the House of the Lord-
[Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, pp. 242-243, 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/]
[Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, pp. 242-243, 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/]
60 years ago today - May 30, 1961
The Church News describes Duad Sahim as the "first Asiatic Indian to be ordained an elder in the Church."
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
145 years ago today - May 30, 1876 (Tuesday)
The mail coach was robbed near the Sevier river, in Juab County.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
155 years ago today - May 30, 1866
[Brigham Young]
I heard Joseph Smith say about thirty two years ago, when the State of Missouri refused to redress the wrongs of our brethren who were driven from Jackson County, if the Government of the United States and the State of Missouri did not take up that matter and redress the wrongs of this innocent people, they should have mob upon mob, until the country, east and west, north and south, would be subject to one continual scene of mob violence. If we have not already seen the fulfillment of this, we will, for it will come, as the Lord lives, if we do not repent of our sins as a nation, and refrain from persecuting the innocent, and those that love and serve God according to the best of their ability. Many of you will live to see mobs rule and reign, until the only law of the land will be mob law among all the people who will not serve God; and the time will come that he, who will not take up his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee to Zion. ...
In regard to the Haunts Mill massacre, I will remark that it never would have occurred if the Counsel of the prophet Joseph had been strictly obeyed....
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
I heard Joseph Smith say about thirty two years ago, when the State of Missouri refused to redress the wrongs of our brethren who were driven from Jackson County, if the Government of the United States and the State of Missouri did not take up that matter and redress the wrongs of this innocent people, they should have mob upon mob, until the country, east and west, north and south, would be subject to one continual scene of mob violence. If we have not already seen the fulfillment of this, we will, for it will come, as the Lord lives, if we do not repent of our sins as a nation, and refrain from persecuting the innocent, and those that love and serve God according to the best of their ability. Many of you will live to see mobs rule and reign, until the only law of the land will be mob law among all the people who will not serve God; and the time will come that he, who will not take up his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee to Zion. ...
In regard to the Haunts Mill massacre, I will remark that it never would have occurred if the Counsel of the prophet Joseph had been strictly obeyed....
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
160 years ago today - May 30, 1861
At 4 P.M. he [Pres. Young] preached 120 minutes in my family hall. Said this was the best fort that had ever been built in this territory. Reproved the Bishops for using tithing [for personal ends], Bishop R. D. Covington in particular. ... Pres. Young said that the company that was used [killed] up at the Mountain Meadows were the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and connections of those that murdered the Prophets; they merited their fate, and the only thing that ever troubled him was the lives of the women and children, but that under circumstances could not be avoided. Although there had been [some] that wanted to betray the brethren into the hands of their enemies, for that thing [they] will be damned and go down to hell. I would be glad to see one of those traitors, though I [don't] suppose that there is any here now. They have ran away, and when he came to the monument that contained their bones, he made this remark: '"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I have taken a little of it.'" -- Fort Harmony, Utah
[A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee. 1848-1876. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds. San Marino, California: Huntington Library Press, 2003 ed. 313-314, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee. 1848-1876. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds. San Marino, California: Huntington Library Press, 2003 ed. 313-314, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
160 years ago today - May 30, 1861
[Brigham Young]
In his sermon, when speaking of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, he [Pres. Young] said: Do you know who those people were that were killed at the Mountain Meadows? I will tell you who those people were. They were fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and children of those who killed the Saints, and drove them from Missouri, and afterwards killed our Prophets in Carthage jail. ... And yet after all this, I am told that there are many of the brethren who are willing to inform upon and swear against the brethren who were engaged in that affair. I hope there is no truth in this report. I hope there is no such person here, under the sound of my voice. But if there is, I will tell you my opinion of you, and the fact so far as your fate is concerned. Unless you repent at once of that unholy intention, and keep the secret of all that you know, you will die a dog's death, and be damned, and go to hell. I do not want to hear of any more treachery among my people. -- Fort Harmony, Utah
[Mormonism Unveiled 258-259, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
In his sermon, when speaking of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, he [Pres. Young] said: Do you know who those people were that were killed at the Mountain Meadows? I will tell you who those people were. They were fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and children of those who killed the Saints, and drove them from Missouri, and afterwards killed our Prophets in Carthage jail. ... And yet after all this, I am told that there are many of the brethren who are willing to inform upon and swear against the brethren who were engaged in that affair. I hope there is no truth in this report. I hope there is no such person here, under the sound of my voice. But if there is, I will tell you my opinion of you, and the fact so far as your fate is concerned. Unless you repent at once of that unholy intention, and keep the secret of all that you know, you will die a dog's death, and be damned, and go to hell. I do not want to hear of any more treachery among my people. -- Fort Harmony, Utah
[Mormonism Unveiled 258-259, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
175 years ago today - May 30, 1846
[William Clayton]
Went and borrowed A[aron] Farr's ornaments and robe. Then rode with Dr. Richards about 3 miles on the prairie. There were 5 others and carriages[.] President Young [brought our two tents]. We fixed them up and then met and clothed. There was President B[righam] Young, H[eber] C. Kimball, P[arley] P. Pratt, W[illard] Richards, O[rson] Pratt, J[ohn] Taylor, Geo[rge] A. Smith, A[masa] Lyman, John Smith, N[ewel] K. Whitney, D[aniel] Spencer, O[rson] Spencer, C[harles] C. Rich, E[zra] T. Benson, W[illia]m Huntington and myself. Clothed and having offered up the signs [and then] offered up prayer[,] H. C. Kimball being mouth. We then conversed a while and prayed again, G. A. Smith being mouth. A[lbert] P. Rockwood and W[illiam] Kimball were guarding the tent. Prayers were offered that we might be delivered from our enemies and have teams to go on our journey &c. About 2 o'clock we returned to camp.
[William Clayton diary, May 30, 1846, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
Went and borrowed A[aron] Farr's ornaments and robe. Then rode with Dr. Richards about 3 miles on the prairie. There were 5 others and carriages[.] President Young [brought our two tents]. We fixed them up and then met and clothed. There was President B[righam] Young, H[eber] C. Kimball, P[arley] P. Pratt, W[illard] Richards, O[rson] Pratt, J[ohn] Taylor, Geo[rge] A. Smith, A[masa] Lyman, John Smith, N[ewel] K. Whitney, D[aniel] Spencer, O[rson] Spencer, C[harles] C. Rich, E[zra] T. Benson, W[illia]m Huntington and myself. Clothed and having offered up the signs [and then] offered up prayer[,] H. C. Kimball being mouth. We then conversed a while and prayed again, G. A. Smith being mouth. A[lbert] P. Rockwood and W[illiam] Kimball were guarding the tent. Prayers were offered that we might be delivered from our enemies and have teams to go on our journey &c. About 2 o'clock we returned to camp.
[William Clayton diary, May 30, 1846, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
180 years ago today - 1841: 30 May
[Patriarchal Blessing]
Mary Newberry. (Given by Hyrum Smith.)
"... Behold I seal upon your head the comforter the second comforter even the promise of eternal life to come forth and chear [sic] your heart in the day of affliction and tribulation that when you read these sacred words and your heart shall leap with joy you shall know the promise is true.
[Typescript; RLDS Archives, Up N423, in Selected LDS Patriarchal Blessings, New Mormon Studies CD ROM, Signature Book, 2009, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Mary Newberry. (Given by Hyrum Smith.)
"... Behold I seal upon your head the comforter the second comforter even the promise of eternal life to come forth and chear [sic] your heart in the day of affliction and tribulation that when you read these sacred words and your heart shall leap with joy you shall know the promise is true.
[Typescript; RLDS Archives, Up N423, in Selected LDS Patriarchal Blessings, New Mormon Studies CD ROM, Signature Book, 2009, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
180 years ago today - 1841: 30 May
[Patriarchal Blessing]
James Newberry. (Given by Hyrum Smith.)
"... thou art a descendant of Nathan that Prophet, that with boldness said thou art the very man; when he stood in the presence of the King.
[Typescript; RLDS Archives, Up N423, in Selected LDS Patriarchal Blessings, New Mormon Studies CD ROM, Signature Book, 2009, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
James Newberry. (Given by Hyrum Smith.)
"... thou art a descendant of Nathan that Prophet, that with boldness said thou art the very man; when he stood in the presence of the King.
[Typescript; RLDS Archives, Up N423, in Selected LDS Patriarchal Blessings, New Mormon Studies CD ROM, Signature Book, 2009, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
75 years ago today - May 29, 1946
Five hundred former members who had been part of a group that had left the Church over a dispute regarding native leadership spread flowers along the lane leading to the chapel in Tecako, Mexico, and stand on each side, singing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet" as President George Albert Smith arrives to address them. He invites them back into the Church, and some twelve hundred eventually return.
125 years ago today - May 29, 1896
President Wilford Woodruff "spent the day in the office and talked over our Church Debts & how to settle them. F S Richards Just Notified me that the Government had sent back our Real Estate Property to salt Lake City to be dismissed by the Court & the property turned over to the Trustee in trust."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
130 years ago today - May 29, 1891 (Friday)
At a Liberal rally held in Salt Lake City, bitter opposition was manifested to the division on national party lines, and the "Mormons" were accused of insincerity.
At a meeting of the chief officers of the People's Party [the church's political party], held in Salt Lake City, it was decided to disorganize the People's party and advise its members to join the national parties.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
At a meeting of the chief officers of the People's Party [the church's political party], held in Salt Lake City, it was decided to disorganize the People's party and advise its members to join the national parties.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
130 years ago today - May 29, 1891 (Friday)
At a Liberal rally held in Salt Lake City, bitter opposition was manifested to the division on national party lines, and the "Mormons" were accused of insincerity.
At a meeting of the chief officers of the People's Party, held in Salt Lake City, it was decided to disorganize the People's party and advise its members to join the national parties.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
At a meeting of the chief officers of the People's Party, held in Salt Lake City, it was decided to disorganize the People's party and advise its members to join the national parties.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
30 years ago today - May 28, 1991
The LDS church receives legal recognition in the Republic of Russia, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs a concert in the Bolshoi Theater on 24 June. The Church News cover photograph emphasizes that this is "America's Choir" at Red Square in Moscow.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
70 years ago today - May 28, 1951
[J. Reuben Clark]
James Sharp left the following message: He travels throughout the state, meets numerous people, both Mormons and non-Mormons, and the question arises for him to answer which he can't answer, as to why Pres. Clark had to take a back seat. He wanted Pres. Clark to know that the people throughout the State, Mormons and non-Mormons, do not approve of the movement; he does not either, and as a non-Mormon told him yesterday, he said the Presidency of the Church is slipping, does not like to see the way things have gone. There isn't anything he can do, but he wanted Pres. Clark to know how he feels. ( R J M).
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
James Sharp left the following message: He travels throughout the state, meets numerous people, both Mormons and non-Mormons, and the question arises for him to answer which he can't answer, as to why Pres. Clark had to take a back seat. He wanted Pres. Clark to know that the people throughout the State, Mormons and non-Mormons, do not approve of the movement; he does not either, and as a non-Mormon told him yesterday, he said the Presidency of the Church is slipping, does not like to see the way things have gone. There isn't anything he can do, but he wanted Pres. Clark to know how he feels. ( R J M).
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
125 years ago today - May 28, 1896
The First Presidency and Council of Twelve Apostles cannot agree on whether to try Apostle Moses Thatcher for insubordination immediately or to wait until he is well. John Henry Smith says that an extenuating circumstance is that Thatcher is addicted to morphine and is "hardly a responsible man." Heber J. Grant points out that Thatcher's position "since he commenced using morphine was in perfect harmony with that which he occupied a number of years prior to becoming addicted to this habit." They decide to "labor with Apostle Moses Thatcher and learn if he is with us or against us." Thatcher is later dropped from the Council of Twelve Apostles.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
125 years ago today - May 28, 1896
The First Presidency at their office this morning conversed on the subject of the terrible disaster with awful destruction of life and property in the City of St. Louis [Missouri] on Wednesday. President [Wilford] Woodruff remarked that the Lord in the early days of the Church required his servants to make a record of their persecutions and the mobbings they endured from their enemies. The Lord also told them that angels were waiting to go forth and reap down the earth, but were told to keep back for a season. President Woodruff said that at the time of the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, the spirit manifested to him that the Lord was about to send special messengers to the earth for special purposes, and he firmly believed as much as he believed anything that some of those messengers had already commenced their work, and that the numerous and great disaster of recent date were the evidences of their presence.
[Journal History, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Journal History, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
35 years ago today - May 27, 1986.
LDS Historical Department officials announce that researchers must apply for admittance, be interviewed by an archives official, and sign a statement agreeing to abide by archival rules which include submitting a pre-publication copy of quotations and their context to the Copyrights and Permissions Office. A typical letter granting such permission uses the following language: "After reviewing your request, we have decided to raise no objections to your proposed use of the requested material." Physical remodeling of the facilities puts patrons using archival materials in a small glass-walled room.
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
[Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
55 years ago today - May 27, 1966
Ezra Taft Benson to Robert H. Hinckley, 27 May 1966: "I cannot believe that a man with your background and experience would make the errors attributed to you in the attached item from the Deseret News of May 25th". [Hinckley had criticized the John Birch Society and noted that Ezra Taft Benson was a leading figure of the right-wing. See entry for May 24, 1966.]
[folder 2, box 124, Hinckley Papers. 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.]
[folder 2, box 124, Hinckley Papers. 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.]
75 years ago today - May 27, 1946
Fawn Brodie writes her parents: "Thank you for sending the Hugh Nibley pamphlet [No Ma'am, That's Not History]. I had expected better things in this 'scholarly reply to Mrs. Brodie.' It is a flippant and shallow piece. He really did me a service by demonstrating the difference between his scholarship and mine. If that is the best a young Mormon historian can offer, then I am all the more certain that the death of B.H. Roberts meant the end of all that was truly scholarly and honest in orthodox Mormon historiography."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
110 years ago today - May 27, 1911
Mahonri M. Young's life-size statues of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, "The Prophet and The Patriarch," are placed on Temple Square.
120 years ago today - May 27, 1901
Apostle John Henry Smith, visiting in Colonia Juarez, Mexico, writes in his journal: "I had a talk with A. F. McDonald about Sealings and I told him if he was sealing Plural Wiles to men his standing in the church was in danger."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
155 years ago today - May 27, 1866
Louise Yates (Robison), later the seventh general president of the Relief Society, is born in Scipio, Utah.
175 years ago today - Wednesday, May 27, 1846.
[Willard Richards]
"... The Saints have got to become so pure that their bodies will be changed in a moment as Jesus' was, and not rest in the grave a 100 or a thousand years. Meeting adjourned 12. ..."
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
"... The Saints have got to become so pure that their bodies will be changed in a moment as Jesus' was, and not rest in the grave a 100 or a thousand years. Meeting adjourned 12. ..."
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
175 years ago today - May 27, 1846
[Hosea Stout]
"Pleasant Green Taylor, my wifes brother came to the tent wet thoroughly. ... He said also that there was a war between the United States and Mexico [the saints were fleeing the U.S., headed to Mexican territory] and a great excitement in the state about raising troops to March to the relief of General Taylor in Texas who had already had two battles with the Mexicans. I confess that I was glad to learn of war against the United States and was in hopes that it might never end untill they were entirely destroyed for they had driven us into the wilderness & was now laughing at our calamities."
[Diaries of Hosea Stout]
"Pleasant Green Taylor, my wifes brother came to the tent wet thoroughly. ... He said also that there was a war between the United States and Mexico [the saints were fleeing the U.S., headed to Mexican territory] and a great excitement in the state about raising troops to March to the relief of General Taylor in Texas who had already had two battles with the Mexicans. I confess that I was glad to learn of war against the United States and was in hopes that it might never end untill they were entirely destroyed for they had driven us into the wilderness & was now laughing at our calamities."
[Diaries of Hosea Stout]
15 years ago today - May 26, 2006
Holocaust survivors are listed in it despite agreement, Jews say
Jewish leaders in a dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its practice of posthumous baptisms say there is new evidence that the names of Jewish Holocaust victims continue to show up in the church's vast genealogical database.
"We've been dealing with it for 11 years, since 1995, and we continue to deal with it," said Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor and founding member of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
A cross-referencing of more than 1,500 Dutch Jews whose names should have been deleted from the church's International Genealogical Index remain in the database, Michel said. ...
["Mormon baptism database in dispute" by Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press, in A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html]
Jewish leaders in a dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its practice of posthumous baptisms say there is new evidence that the names of Jewish Holocaust victims continue to show up in the church's vast genealogical database.
"We've been dealing with it for 11 years, since 1995, and we continue to deal with it," said Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor and founding member of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
A cross-referencing of more than 1,500 Dutch Jews whose names should have been deleted from the church's International Genealogical Index remain in the database, Michel said. ...
["Mormon baptism database in dispute" by Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press, in A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html]
115 years ago today - May 26, 1906
Thomas Clawson, brother of Apostle Rudger Clawson, writes: "Held our regular Block Teachers Meeting after the servide. Bro John Woodmansee was the home missionary and his talk was upon the Adam God doctrine which was entirely to deep for him as well as for all who listened to him. In fact it was a very dry and unprofitable meeting."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
120 years ago today - May 26, 1901
[Heber J. Grant cryptically notes President Lorenzo Snow's permission to take another plural wife]
10 am Temple Fast mts'17 years since Gusta & I married'She willing to have me do my duty. & Pt Snow. Miss Babcock Mary Walker Kimball Hugh J Cannon Sister Edward Stevenson I sang O My Father at Pt Snow-request ... Gusta & I went to Josephine Snow's'Geo M Cannon & I blessed Libbie Ivins Gusta & I 6 '|-16th Ward I sang Let each man learn to know himself'Lord's side & Holy City'Spoke & Sang abt 11/4 hrs.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
10 am Temple Fast mts'17 years since Gusta & I married'She willing to have me do my duty. & Pt Snow. Miss Babcock Mary Walker Kimball Hugh J Cannon Sister Edward Stevenson I sang O My Father at Pt Snow-request ... Gusta & I went to Josephine Snow's'Geo M Cannon & I blessed Libbie Ivins Gusta & I 6 '|-16th Ward I sang Let each man learn to know himself'Lord's side & Holy City'Spoke & Sang abt 11/4 hrs.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
130 years ago today - Tuesday, May 26, 1891
[Apostle John Henry Smith]
The Republican Committee met and adopted an address to the people. Myself, John M. Zane, and Geo. M. Cannon arc to go about organizing the Counties into clubs. John M. Zane and I took the Document to the Herald and Tribune.
[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]
The Republican Committee met and adopted an address to the people. Myself, John M. Zane, and Geo. M. Cannon arc to go about organizing the Counties into clubs. John M. Zane and I took the Document to the Herald and Tribune.
[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 - May 26, 1846
"President Young told Daniel and O. Spencer that he dreamed, asleep or awake, that the Spirit said to him, tell Daniel to gather up what teams, tools, and seed and men he can, and go on and let Orson stay and take care of the families and bring them on, etc."
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal]
180 years ago today - May 26, 1841
Joseph Smith writes to Thomas Sharp, editor of the WARSAW SIGNAL: "SIR-You will discontinue my paper-its contents are calculated to pollute me, and to patronize the filthy sheet-that tissue of lies-that sink of iniquity-is disgraceful to any moral man. Yours, with utter contempt, JOSEPH SMITH. P.S. Please publish the above in your contemptible paper." Sharp publishes Smith's letter with the introduction: "In our paper of week before last, we took occasion to express an honest opinion in relation to the Mormons, and some of their leaders -an opinion which we believe is concurred in by nine-tenths of the community. No sooner, however, had our paper reached Nauvoo, than it caused the following highly important revelation to be forwarded us, from his holiness, the Prophet." This is Sharps first published sarcasm towards the Mormons but from now on he refers to Smith as "His Holiness."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
55 years ago today - May 25, 1966
Robert H. Hinckley, former assistant secretary of the U.S. commerce department, chair of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and vice-president of the American Broadcasting Company, criticized the Birch Society in an address to students of the University of Utah. He lambasted the society's "collective slander, which now seems to have become standard operating procedure for some Birchites," and also "the semi-secret chapters that parallel Communist cells, the use of front groups, the tactics of infiltration, [and] the use of the big lie." Hinckley also identified Ezra Taft Benson as part of the "leadership of the Right Wing" in America. The full text of this assessment appeared in the Congressional Record in June 1966.
[Robert H. Hinckley, "The Politics of Extremism," in Congressional Record—Senate 112 (13 July 1966): 15584, 15583; "Says Birchers Copy Reds," Deseret News, 25 May 1966, A-12; "Hinckley Blasts Extremists," Provo Daily Herald, 25 May 1966, 14. 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.]
[Robert H. Hinckley, "The Politics of Extremism," in Congressional Record—Senate 112 (13 July 1966): 15584, 15583; "Says Birchers Copy Reds," Deseret News, 25 May 1966, A-12; "Hinckley Blasts Extremists," Provo Daily Herald, 25 May 1966, 14. 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.]
60 years ago today - May 25, 1961
Several apostles "are gravely concerned about the pressures being put on missionaries to baptize to fill a quota of baptisms. . . .This of course[is] a criticism of President Moyle and many of the mission presidents working under his direction." Extensive abuses in "baseball baptism program" lead to counselor Moyle's censure in 1963, mass excommunications of European "kiddie baptisms" in 1964-65, and more than decade of avoiding baptism quotas for full-time missionaries. General authorities are haunted by memories of baseball baptism era and urge restrain upon youthful missionaries.
[Wilkinson diary, 25 May 1961, also 6 September 1960 as quoted in D. Michael Quinn, 'I-Thou vs. I-It Conversions: The Mormon "Baseball Baptism" Era', Sunstone Magazine 16 (7) December 1993: 30-44]
[Wilkinson diary, 25 May 1961, also 6 September 1960 as quoted in D. Michael Quinn, 'I-Thou vs. I-It Conversions: The Mormon "Baseball Baptism" Era', Sunstone Magazine 16 (7) December 1993: 30-44]
160 years ago today - May 25, 1861
[Wilford Woodruff]
We visited the Mountain Meadow Monument put up at the burial place of 120 persons killed by Indians in 1857. The pile of stone was about 12 feet high, but begining to tumble down. A wooden Cross was placed on top with the following words: Vengence is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. President Young said it should be Vengence is mine and I have taken a little.
A stone at the bottom bore the following Inscription: 120 Men, women, & Children, Murdered in Cold Blood Early in Sept 1857 From Arkansaw. And on the other Side South is a slab Erected by Company K 1st Dragoons May 1859. Most of those killed were buried some distance North in a hollow & not at that monument.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
We visited the Mountain Meadow Monument put up at the burial place of 120 persons killed by Indians in 1857. The pile of stone was about 12 feet high, but begining to tumble down. A wooden Cross was placed on top with the following words: Vengence is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. President Young said it should be Vengence is mine and I have taken a little.
A stone at the bottom bore the following Inscription: 120 Men, women, & Children, Murdered in Cold Blood Early in Sept 1857 From Arkansaw. And on the other Side South is a slab Erected by Company K 1st Dragoons May 1859. Most of those killed were buried some distance North in a hollow & not at that monument.
[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 - May 25, 1856
The ship Horizon leaves Liverpool, England, for Boston, carrying 856 Saints led by Edward Martin. Most in the company later become part of the ill-fated Martin and Willie handcart companies, which become stranded in present-day Wyoming during their trek to Utah.
165 years ago today - May 25, 1856
Emma Smith Bidamon (widow of Joseph Smith) sells "four Egyptian Mummies with the records of them. These Mummies were obtained from the catacombs of Egypt sixty feet below the surface of the Earth, by the antiquarian society of Paris & forwarded to New York & purchased by the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith at the price of twenty four hundred dollars in the year Eighteen hundred thirty-five they were highly prized by Mr. Smith on account of the importance which attached to the records which were accidentally found enclosed in the breast of one of the Mummies." Emma waited until Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, died (eleven days previously) before selling the mummies and "records" to "Mr. A. Combs."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
180 years ago today - May 25, 1841
Lieutenant General Joseph Smith issues General Orders for the Nauvoo Legion: "The 1st Company, (riflemen) 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Cohort, will be attached to the escort contemplated in the general orders of the 4th inst., for the 3rd of Jul next. In forming the Legion, the Adjutant will observe the rank of companies as follows; to wit: 1st Cohort the flying artillery first, the lancers next, and the riflemen next -- visiting companies of dragoons next the lancers, and cavalry next the dragoons: 2nd Cohort -- the artillery first, the lancers next, the riflemen next, the light-infantry next, and the infantry next -- visiting companies in their appropriate places on the right of said troops of their own grade: the ranking company of the 1st Cohort will be formed on the right of said cohort, and the ranking company of the 2nd Cohort will be formed on the left of said cohort, -- he escort will be formed on the right of the forces."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
60 years ago today - May 24, 1961
[Ernest Wilkinson] "Presided at devotional, at which I introduced Elder Ezra Taft Benson. He gave a fine talk. It is apparent, however, it is very difficult for him to divorce himself from the active politics in which he has been engaged, and get into his work again as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. While I agreed with every word that he said, I suspect there were some Democrats who did not, and he took one-third of his time talking on current political problems."
[Ernest L. Wilkinson diary as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)]
[Ernest L. Wilkinson diary as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)]
95 years ago today - May 24, 1926
[Heber J. Grant]
"Bishop Nicholas G. Smith called and we had a conversation with him regarding a brother in South Africa who claims he has no negro blood in his veins wishes the priesthood. Brother Smith feels sure that this man is a negro. We concluded to wait for the return of Brother Sessions, the present president of the South African Mission, who is on his way home, before rendering a decision."
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
"Bishop Nicholas G. Smith called and we had a conversation with him regarding a brother in South Africa who claims he has no negro blood in his veins wishes the priesthood. Brother Smith feels sure that this man is a negro. We concluded to wait for the return of Brother Sessions, the present president of the South African Mission, who is on his way home, before rendering a decision."
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
115 years ago today - May 24, 1906
A Deseret Evening News editorial argues against the frequent requests to remove section 132 from the D&C. This indicates how deeply post-Manifesto polygamy has alienated church members who often refer to themselves as "modern Mormons."
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
115 years ago today - May 24, 1906
[Carl Badger]
"The Senator [i.e., Reed Smoot] says he thinks nothing was said about the reasons for the resignations of T. & C. [John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley] because it was hoped some day to forgive them and take them back into the quorum."
[Carl A. Badger, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
"The Senator [i.e., Reed Smoot] says he thinks nothing was said about the reasons for the resignations of T. & C. [John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley] because it was hoped some day to forgive them and take them back into the quorum."
[Carl A. Badger, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
135 years ago today - May 24th, 1886
[Lorenzo Snow to Governer West]
"Utah Penitentiary
May 24, 1886 To His Excellency Caleb W. West
.... We conscientiously believe in the doctrine of plural marriage, and have practiced it from a firm conviction of its being a divine requirement.
Of the forty nine Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints now imprisoned in this Penitentiary for alleged violations of the Edmunds law all but four had plural wives from its passage to thirty five years prior to its passage. We were united to our wives for time and eternity by the most sacred covenants, and in many instances numerous children have been born as a result of our union, who are endeared to us by the strongest parental ties.
... Had you offered us unconditional amnesty, it would have been gladly accepted, but dearly as we prize the great boon of liberty, we cannot afford to obtain it by proving untrue to our conscience, our religion, and our God....
As witness our hands,
Lorenzo Snow"
[Abraham H. Cannon Journal Excerpts, http://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Record-Journals-Abraham-1889-1896/dp/B000MFD1K4]
"Utah Penitentiary
May 24, 1886 To His Excellency Caleb W. West
.... We conscientiously believe in the doctrine of plural marriage, and have practiced it from a firm conviction of its being a divine requirement.
Of the forty nine Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints now imprisoned in this Penitentiary for alleged violations of the Edmunds law all but four had plural wives from its passage to thirty five years prior to its passage. We were united to our wives for time and eternity by the most sacred covenants, and in many instances numerous children have been born as a result of our union, who are endeared to us by the strongest parental ties.
... Had you offered us unconditional amnesty, it would have been gladly accepted, but dearly as we prize the great boon of liberty, we cannot afford to obtain it by proving untrue to our conscience, our religion, and our God....
As witness our hands,
Lorenzo Snow"
[Abraham H. Cannon Journal Excerpts, http://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Record-Journals-Abraham-1889-1896/dp/B000MFD1K4]
145 years ago today - May 24, 1876
Patriarchal Blessing of James Henry Martineau given by Henry Lunt ... Thou wilt live to see the face of thy Savior, and the holy angels will administer unto thee, and will reveal to thee the genealogy of many of thy forefathers, which to thee are unknown. Thou shalt live until thou art satisfied with life, and inasmuch as thou wilt exercise faith thou shalt not taste of death, but be quickened and changed in the twinkling of an eye, and caught up to meet our Savior when he shall come in his glory. ... Thy guardian angels have charge concerning thee. ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessings]
180 years ago today - May 24, 1841
The First Presidency calls on all Saints to gather to Hancock County, Ill., or Lee County, Iowa. All stakes outside these areas are discontinued.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
185 years ago today - May 24, 1836
[Wilford Woodruff]
"Travled to Mr Joseph Ash & found the family shaken in their faith three of which were members of the Church. They were shaken by the conduct of Br John Jackson Who was a Teacher in the church but had denied the faith & now become hostile. From thence to Br Petty. From thence to John Jacksons house. He was absent. Found his wife Sister Jackson turning from the faith & desireing to leeve the church. Walked from thence to Br Howard Williams. He had lost faith & desired to leav the church. His wife Sister Williams Also Sister Nancy Wood both were unbelieving & a prospect of their leaving the church & this by the influence of John Jackson."
"We then returned to Mr Jacksons. Had an interview with him. He denied all his former faith & pretentions. He raged much. Was filled with the spirit of anger wrath <and the destroyer>. He rejected our testimony <and denied the revelations of Christ>."
"We left his house at 10 oclock at night & went to a stream of Pure water & clensed our hands & feet & testified against him that our garments might be clear of his blood. We then walked to Br Petty's & spent the night."
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
"Travled to Mr Joseph Ash & found the family shaken in their faith three of which were members of the Church. They were shaken by the conduct of Br John Jackson Who was a Teacher in the church but had denied the faith & now become hostile. From thence to Br Petty. From thence to John Jacksons house. He was absent. Found his wife Sister Jackson turning from the faith & desireing to leeve the church. Walked from thence to Br Howard Williams. He had lost faith & desired to leav the church. His wife Sister Williams Also Sister Nancy Wood both were unbelieving & a prospect of their leaving the church & this by the influence of John Jackson."
"We then returned to Mr Jacksons. Had an interview with him. He denied all his former faith & pretentions. He raged much. Was filled with the spirit of anger wrath <and the destroyer>. He rejected our testimony <and denied the revelations of Christ>."
"We left his house at 10 oclock at night & went to a stream of Pure water & clensed our hands & feet & testified against him that our garments might be clear of his blood. We then walked to Br Petty's & spent the night."
[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 - May 24, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Abner Scovel given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... The Lord will bless thee on thy journey to the land of Zion. Thou must respect the sabbath on thy way by calling together thy family for prayer and by supplicating the throne of grace for blessings. Thou wilt assist in the redemption of Zion and succeed if thou art faithful. ... In passing from place to place no winds nor waves shall stop thee. Thou shalt stand on mount Zion with the one hundred and forty four thousand
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:56, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:56, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
75 years ago today - May 23, 1946
Six months after the publication of NO MAN KNOWS MY HISTORY, William H. Reeder, Jr., President of the New England Mission, sends a letter to Fawn Brodie which institutes Church proceedings against her to investigate "alleged wrongdoing and to show cause, if any you have, why you should not be excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for apostasy, in this among other matters: That in a book recently published by you, you assert matters as truths which deny the divine origin of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the Priesthood and of Christ's Church through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, contrary to the beliefs, doctrines and teachings of the Church." Brodie does not attend the bishop's court convened in her behalf "because, after all, I was a heretic." On the same day Historian Dale Morgan writes to Juanita Brooks, "As she [Brodie] has remarked to me, the book has served her as the autobiographical novel serves many other writers; it has been a kind of catharsis for her."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
90 years ago today - May 23, 1931
A Deseret News "Church Section" article, "Bishop Released After 31 Years," regarding Joseph C. Cowley.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
120 years ago today - May 23, 1901
President David H. Cannon said he wished to talk to us this morning. When a person is anointed, the towel should not be taken to wipe off the oil from the face or the hands or any portion of the body. Oil should not be used too profusely by the workers and should not be wiped off. There are probably some who do not understand this correctly. If they did they would not do it. It must not be done. [The] speaker wanted to say this to the people. When people come here to be baptized for their health who have not been endowed, they should be gotten out before the ceremonies commence. No persons here should see or hear these ceremonies without they are going through, nor should they be allowed to remain in the room.
[Temple Minute Book, St. George, May 23, 1901, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
[Temple Minute Book, St. George, May 23, 1901, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
125 years ago today - May 23, 1896
[Marriner W. Merrill]
Saturday. Yesterday we planted a little sack of corn sent me by Ezra, my son, from a gentleman in Kentucky. Said to be very early corn. Planted on [Logan] Temple ground.
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Saturday. Yesterday we planted a little sack of corn sent me by Ezra, my son, from a gentleman in Kentucky. Said to be very early corn. Planted on [Logan] Temple ground.
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
160 years ago today - May 23, 1861
He [Brigham Young] rebuked the speculators among us vary sharply those who are trading with the Armey & Gentiles & still profess to be Saints. Some remarks I herd at the Close as I was not in at the Begining. He said I marvel at the patience I have had with such men. Here is B F. Stewart & his Brother & hundreds of others I Could name. Bishop Warren is another. They are a stink in my norstrials. They will trade with our Enemies and sustain them and they would let in all Hell upon us for a few dimes. They would like to open a gold mine, Esstablish whiskey & Hore Shops or do any thing for Money & be hail fellows well met with the[re?] Damned Curses, They would Get my throat if they had the power.
But I will live to see them Damned & in Hell and these Stewarts & Hanks & your Bishop are among us as Saints, and we take them by the hand and Call them Brother. But I have no more fellowship for them than I have for the Devils in hell, and I Curse them in the name of Jesus Christ and the Curse of God Shall rest upon them from this hour. And they will see the day they will be glad to lick up the dust of the feet of the meanest Saint in the Celestial kingdom of God. Such men are not worth Hall room and the Curse of Almighty God shall rest upon them.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
But I will live to see them Damned & in Hell and these Stewarts & Hanks & your Bishop are among us as Saints, and we take them by the hand and Call them Brother. But I have no more fellowship for them than I have for the Devils in hell, and I Curse them in the name of Jesus Christ and the Curse of God Shall rest upon them from this hour. And they will see the day they will be glad to lick up the dust of the feet of the meanest Saint in the Celestial kingdom of God. Such men are not worth Hall room and the Curse of Almighty God shall rest upon them.
[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 - May 23, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Calvin Harkins given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... The blessing of God shall attend thee. on thy journey to the land of Zion. but thou must not violate the sabbath by travelling on that day. If thou shalt ask the father to see Jesus, that blessing shall not be denied thee. if thou ask in faith, nothing doubting.
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:57]n Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:57]n Patriarchal Blessings]
185 years ago today - May 23, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Joanna Swift given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... Thy days shall be lengthened out five years. thy last days shall be thy best days.
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:58, in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:58, in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
185 years ago today - May 23, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Calvin Harkins given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... The blessing of God shall attend thee. on thy journey to the land of Zion. but thou must not violate the sabbath by travelling on that day. If thou shalt ask the father to see Jesus, that blessing shall not be denied thee. if thou ask in faith
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:57, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:57, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
185 years ago today - May 23, 1836
... thou shalt stand till the winding up scene of this generation and Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven. Satan shall have no power over you, and thou shalt stand on the earth & thy strength shall be great when thou art seventy five. Thy strength shall be greater than when thou art twenty five. And thou shalt have many of thy friends with thee. I seal all these blessings upon the[e] and upon thy posterity after thee. if thou art faithful, and I seal thee up to eternal life in the name of Jesus Christ, even so Amen.
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:56-57, in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:56-57, in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
60 years ago today - May 22, 1961
[J. Reuben Clark]
President Wilkinson came in to see me, apparently much disturbed by the decision to discontinue the lectures of the Brigham Young University in the Assembly Hall. I told him the matter had been thoroughly considered ...
He had a general complaint on the general practice of getting the "go ahead" on certain things and then have them upset after without a hearing which apparently was done without being considered or discussed with him. I told him that such was the situation and that it was unfortunate if he did not like it, that I did not see anything else for him to do. He complained about his frustration and I indicated that this was unfortunate but it was the fact. He talked in a general way about the situation in which he found himself, that he got a decision from his Board and the President, only to find it overturned shortly, through "end-running."
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
President Wilkinson came in to see me, apparently much disturbed by the decision to discontinue the lectures of the Brigham Young University in the Assembly Hall. I told him the matter had been thoroughly considered ...
He had a general complaint on the general practice of getting the "go ahead" on certain things and then have them upset after without a hearing which apparently was done without being considered or discussed with him. I told him that such was the situation and that it was unfortunate if he did not like it, that I did not see anything else for him to do. He complained about his frustration and I indicated that this was unfortunate but it was the fact. He talked in a general way about the situation in which he found himself, that he got a decision from his Board and the President, only to find it overturned shortly, through "end-running."
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
60 years ago today - May 22, 1961
Ezra Taft Benson made what LDS authorities called "end runs" around the Quorum of Twelve and First Presidency counselors in order to obtain McKay's encouragement for his political activism. However, such "end runs" were common practice for general authorities and church bureaucrats during the McKay presidency.
[Specific use of "end run" terminology for this feature of McKay's presidency appears in J. Reuben Clark office diary, 22 May 1961; Wilkinson diary, 25 May 1967; Neal A. Maxwell oral history, 1976-77, 24-25, LDS archives. 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.]
[Specific use of "end run" terminology for this feature of McKay's presidency appears in J. Reuben Clark office diary, 22 May 1961; Wilkinson diary, 25 May 1967; Neal A. Maxwell oral history, 1976-77, 24-25, LDS archives. 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.]
135 years ago today - May 22, 1886 (Saturday)
The steamship Nevada sailed from Liverpool, England, with 279 emigrating Saints on board, under the direction of Moroni L. Pratt. They arrived at New York June 2nd, and at Salt Lake City on the 8th by the D. & R. G. Ry.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
175 years ago today - May 22, 1846
Patriarch "Uncle" John Smith writes: "For the first time since we left Nauvoo I blessed 3 persons & received one dollar. This same day I paid out my last half dollar." Four days later he notes, "Gave four blessings and one gratis."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
180 years ago today - May 22, 1841
May the 22– 1841 Minutes of a conference [Kirtland Elder's Quorum]
... The committee reported a set of resolutions, which appoint two door keepers: that no person shall occupy the pulpits or stand unless entitled by office or invited; ... that no person shall be allowed to wear his hat on his head in the inner court: and that means be taken to prevent persons from defiling the inside of the house with tobacco cuds and tobacco spittle, and to prevent smoking…
[Kirtland Elder's Quorum Record, http://ogdenkraut.com/?page_id=414]
... The committee reported a set of resolutions, which appoint two door keepers: that no person shall occupy the pulpits or stand unless entitled by office or invited; ... that no person shall be allowed to wear his hat on his head in the inner court: and that means be taken to prevent persons from defiling the inside of the house with tobacco cuds and tobacco spittle, and to prevent smoking…
[Kirtland Elder's Quorum Record, http://ogdenkraut.com/?page_id=414]
185 years ago today - May 22, 1836
[Wilford Woodruff]
After the close of the last discours Mr Rose rejected the testimony given & called on Br Patten to rase the dead that he might believe. Br Patten rebuked him sharply for his infidelity & unbelief. We then communed with the Saints.
I then retired from the scene with Elders Patten & Boydstun to a stream of pure water & cleansed our hands & feet & testified against that people who had threatened us & rejected our testimony. We delivered them unto the hands of God <and the destroyer. O God, thy will be done.>
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
After the close of the last discours Mr Rose rejected the testimony given & called on Br Patten to rase the dead that he might believe. Br Patten rebuked him sharply for his infidelity & unbelief. We then communed with the Saints.
I then retired from the scene with Elders Patten & Boydstun to a stream of pure water & cleansed our hands & feet & testified against that people who had threatened us & rejected our testimony. We delivered them unto the hands of God <and the destroyer. O God, thy will be done.>
[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 - May 21, 1996
[Same-Sex Marriage]
Hawaiis Campaign Spending Commission mails a complaint to Hawaiis Future Today [a church-sponsored front-group to fight against same-sex marriage] that indicates that the ads are in violations of Hawaiis regulations governing spending in political campaigns, indicates the fines for such a violation and explains that Hawaiis Future Today must file the required papers to register as a political-action committee. Follow-up letters dated 20 Jun repeats the information about the complaint. Hawaiis Future Today does not respond by registering as a political-action organization, but asserts that it does not plan to involve itself in lobbying or campaigning for candidates.
[Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59]
Hawaiis Campaign Spending Commission mails a complaint to Hawaiis Future Today [a church-sponsored front-group to fight against same-sex marriage] that indicates that the ads are in violations of Hawaiis regulations governing spending in political campaigns, indicates the fines for such a violation and explains that Hawaiis Future Today must file the required papers to register as a political-action committee. Follow-up letters dated 20 Jun repeats the information about the complaint. Hawaiis Future Today does not respond by registering as a political-action organization, but asserts that it does not plan to involve itself in lobbying or campaigning for candidates.
[Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59]
25 years ago today - May 21, 1996
[Paul H. Dunn] Early in my career I found that there was not a whole lot of support or appreciation for [Ezra Taft] Benson constantly harping on the communist issue. Although, every time President McKay was present or in a meeting, he would be the endorser, or thanking President Benson for doing what he was doing. That kept the other elements sort of quiet. Hugh B. Brown really thought President Benson had gone overboard. And yet President Benson —I talked with him several times, not on this subject but just in conversation—would remind me that he was doing what the prophet had asked him to do.
[Paul H. Dunn interview as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)]
[Paul H. Dunn interview as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)]
45 years ago today - May 21, 1976
LaVern Watts Parmley receives the Silver Buffalo award. Formerly the general Primary president, she is the first LDS woman to receive this highest honor from the Boy Scouts of America. Dwan Jacobsen Young, also a former president of Primary, receives the award in 1990.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
55 years ago today - May 21, 1966
While Paul H. Dunn was working at the USC Institute, he completed an E.D. at the same institution. His doctoral diss. was a comparison of "what the Brethren thought ought to be taught, and what was being taught." Dunn said "They were miles apart. . . . I went through all of the curriculum of the college institute program to see if we were doing what the Brethren said we ought to do. That is where we found some real discrepancies. I made a recommendation of what we ought to be dong. When I became a General Authority, Brother [Harold B.] Lee said, "You'll never know how much that impressed me.'"
[Prince, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, by Greg Prince p. 144, Interview with Paul H. Dunn, May 21, 1996.]
[Prince, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, by Greg Prince p. 144, Interview with Paul H. Dunn, May 21, 1996.]
85 years ago today - May 21, 1936
Seventy's president Levi Edgar Young represents the church at the organization of the Utah chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He becomes its president in 1937. In the 1960s George W. Romney is the national director of the organization, which gives him its Charles Evens Hughes Gold Medal in 1965.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
90 years ago today - May 21, 1931
[James E. Talmage to [his son] Sterling Talmage]
"I was bold enough to point out that according to a tradition in the Church based on good authority as having risen from a declaration made by the Prophet Joseph Smith, a certain pile of stones at Adam ondi-Ahman, Spring Hill, Mo., is really part of the altar on which Adam offered sacrifices, and that I had personally examined those stones and found them to be fossiliferous, so that if those stones be part of the first altar, Adam built it of stones containing corpses, and therefore death must have prevailed in the earth before Adam's time."
[James E. Talmage to Sterling Talmage]
"I was bold enough to point out that according to a tradition in the Church based on good authority as having risen from a declaration made by the Prophet Joseph Smith, a certain pile of stones at Adam ondi-Ahman, Spring Hill, Mo., is really part of the altar on which Adam offered sacrifices, and that I had personally examined those stones and found them to be fossiliferous, so that if those stones be part of the first altar, Adam built it of stones containing corpses, and therefore death must have prevailed in the earth before Adam's time."
[James E. Talmage to Sterling Talmage]
90 years ago today - May 21, 1931
[Heber J. Grant]
I asked the apostles in the meeting yesterday to each send me two names of persons that they would like to become members of the Council of the Twelve. Nearly all of them handed in names last evening and the others gave me names this morning. J. Reuben Clark, Hugh B. Brown, Hugh Cannon, A. A. Hinckley, Winslow Farr Smith, Joseph F. Merrill and Adam Bennion were named. Nine of the apostles and my counselor, Brother Nibley, gave me names. Brother Clark received three votes and Brother Hugh J. Cannon two. The other brethren mentioned received only one vote each. Any one of these brethren I personally would feel all right to sustain as an apostle to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Brother Orson F. Whitney. There were some splendid men mentioned as second choice that I could also sustain to fill the vacancy. ...
Referring again to the names submitted by the brethren: Brother Hugh Brown was mentioned twice for second choice, and Brother Clark was mentioned twice as second choice. Therefore, Brother Clark had five votes, and the next highest man was Brother Brown with three but only one for first place. ... Unless I get the impression otherwise I am unqualifiedly in favor of Brother Clark. Before getting out of bed this morning I was going over the names of fifteen or twenty men, and he stood out prominently as first choice in my judgment. Brother Nibley's first choice was Reuben Clark and second, Joseph F. Merrill. On more than one occasion when I have almost made up my mind in favor of some individual my counselor, Brother Ivins, has named some one who pleased me better. He is out of the city today and before coming to a final decision to make a nomination I want to hear from him and also George Albert Smith and Melvin J. Ballard, who are out of the city. In my mind, J. Reuben Clark is one of the outstanding men in the church, intellectually. He is ambassador from the United States to Mexico at the present time.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
I asked the apostles in the meeting yesterday to each send me two names of persons that they would like to become members of the Council of the Twelve. Nearly all of them handed in names last evening and the others gave me names this morning. J. Reuben Clark, Hugh B. Brown, Hugh Cannon, A. A. Hinckley, Winslow Farr Smith, Joseph F. Merrill and Adam Bennion were named. Nine of the apostles and my counselor, Brother Nibley, gave me names. Brother Clark received three votes and Brother Hugh J. Cannon two. The other brethren mentioned received only one vote each. Any one of these brethren I personally would feel all right to sustain as an apostle to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Brother Orson F. Whitney. There were some splendid men mentioned as second choice that I could also sustain to fill the vacancy. ...
Referring again to the names submitted by the brethren: Brother Hugh Brown was mentioned twice for second choice, and Brother Clark was mentioned twice as second choice. Therefore, Brother Clark had five votes, and the next highest man was Brother Brown with three but only one for first place. ... Unless I get the impression otherwise I am unqualifiedly in favor of Brother Clark. Before getting out of bed this morning I was going over the names of fifteen or twenty men, and he stood out prominently as first choice in my judgment. Brother Nibley's first choice was Reuben Clark and second, Joseph F. Merrill. On more than one occasion when I have almost made up my mind in favor of some individual my counselor, Brother Ivins, has named some one who pleased me better. He is out of the city today and before coming to a final decision to make a nomination I want to hear from him and also George Albert Smith and Melvin J. Ballard, who are out of the city. In my mind, J. Reuben Clark is one of the outstanding men in the church, intellectually. He is ambassador from the United States to Mexico at the present time.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
115 years ago today - May 21, 1906
Royal G. Smith is born to Mary T. Schwartz Smith a plural wife of Church President Joseph F. Smith. Joseph F. Smith is arrested, after returning from a trip to Europe, on a charge of illegal cohabitation, and released on his own recognizance. Under considerable pressure, the case is brought to trial, and on Nov 23, 1906, Joseph F. Smith pleads guilty and was fined $300
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
120 years ago today - May 21, 1901
[Heber J. Grant]
I learned from Brother Kelsch that at the conference of the Granite Stake that Brother John W. Taylor predicted that there would be abundant success attend the opening of a mission in Japan and that thousands would yet embrace the Gospel in that land.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
I learned from Brother Kelsch that at the conference of the Granite Stake that Brother John W. Taylor predicted that there would be abundant success attend the opening of a mission in Japan and that thousands would yet embrace the Gospel in that land.
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
120 years ago today - May 21, 1901 (Tuesday)
The Presbyterian Assembly at a session held in Philadelphia, Pa., passed a resolution urging Congress to act on a constitutional amendment prohibiting polygamy.
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
135 years ago today - May 21, 1886
Sarah Pratt claimed in an interview that, while in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith, Jr. was attracted to her and intended to make her "one of his spiritual wives" while Orson was in England on missionary service. She also claims that Bennett performed abortions.
[Exploring Mormonism: Polygamy Timeline, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/polygamy-timeline/]
[Exploring Mormonism: Polygamy Timeline, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/polygamy-timeline/]
150 years ago today - May 21, 1871 (Afternoon)
[Brigham Young]
I wish to say to strangers that we were not persecuted because we believed in having many wives, for that principle was not known to our persecutors until we came to these mountains, although the revelation was received by Joseph Smith and written a year before his death. Since this doctrine has been proclaimed we have lived in peace. The inquiry among many, and especially among our political friends, is, '"What are you going to do? Are you going to observe the law against plurality of wives, or are you going to obey the revelation?'" We have obeyed the revelation thus far, and still live; that I can say, and perhaps that is enough. What do we say about the lawmakers? Go to, ye legislators, and make a law that every man in this government shall have one wife. You have just as good a right to do that as to say that we shall not have two. ...
Again, a gentleman said to me, the other day, '"What are you going to do with the anti-polygamy law?'" I replied, '"Nothing at all, we mind our own business, and I hope everybody else will.
[Journal of Discourses, Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 14:119-122 quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
I wish to say to strangers that we were not persecuted because we believed in having many wives, for that principle was not known to our persecutors until we came to these mountains, although the revelation was received by Joseph Smith and written a year before his death. Since this doctrine has been proclaimed we have lived in peace. The inquiry among many, and especially among our political friends, is, '"What are you going to do? Are you going to observe the law against plurality of wives, or are you going to obey the revelation?'" We have obeyed the revelation thus far, and still live; that I can say, and perhaps that is enough. What do we say about the lawmakers? Go to, ye legislators, and make a law that every man in this government shall have one wife. You have just as good a right to do that as to say that we shall not have two. ...
Again, a gentleman said to me, the other day, '"What are you going to do with the anti-polygamy law?'" I replied, '"Nothing at all, we mind our own business, and I hope everybody else will.
[Journal of Discourses, Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 14:119-122 quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
170 years ago today - May 21, 1851
Work on the Old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City begins. This tabernacle is located on the site that would later be occupied by the Assembly Hall and serves the Saints until 1870, when it is torn down.
175 years ago today - May 21, 1846
[Nauvoo Temple]
The Missouri Whig reported on the effort to sell the Temple, stating that the purchaser could acquire it for less than one fourth of the cost to the Mormons to build it. The article reported that the temple was now considered finished and said of the first floor: "The grand hall designed for the congregation is worthy of attention of all architects in originality and taste." It also reported on the dedication of the temple, stating that 5,000 persons were present on the third day, when a vote was taken to sell the Temple; the asking price was $200,000.
[Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple]
The Missouri Whig reported on the effort to sell the Temple, stating that the purchaser could acquire it for less than one fourth of the cost to the Mormons to build it. The article reported that the temple was now considered finished and said of the first floor: "The grand hall designed for the congregation is worthy of attention of all architects in originality and taste." It also reported on the dedication of the temple, stating that 5,000 persons were present on the third day, when a vote was taken to sell the Temple; the asking price was $200,000.
[Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple]
175 years ago today - May 21, 1846
Brigham Young encapsulates his vision of why the saints were going west:
"... the Lord's house must be established in the tops of the mountains, where the people may gather, the saints receive their endowments, and the Lord hide Israel while his indignation shall pass by."
[Manuscript History of Brigham Young, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
"... the Lord's house must be established in the tops of the mountains, where the people may gather, the saints receive their endowments, and the Lord hide Israel while his indignation shall pass by."
[Manuscript History of Brigham Young, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
185 years ago today - May 21, 1836
[Patriarchal Blessings]
Patriarchal Blessing of Sally Cabb given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... if thou wilt wilt go down into the waters of baptism thy blessings shall be great for thou shalt have knowledge. angels shall visit the[e] thou shall behold the heaven in night visions. stand on the land of Zion. last days be best days. long life is thine. shalt behold thy Redeemer in the flesh.... and thou shalt be sealed up unto eternal life even so Amen.
[Patriarchal Blessings]
Patriarchal Blessing of Sally Cabb given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... if thou wilt wilt go down into the waters of baptism thy blessings shall be great for thou shalt have knowledge. angels shall visit the[e] thou shall behold the heaven in night visions. stand on the land of Zion. last days be best days. long life is thine. shalt behold thy Redeemer in the flesh.... and thou shalt be sealed up unto eternal life even so Amen.
[Patriarchal Blessings]
50 years ago today - May 20, 1971
After BYU's 'Wye Magazine' publishes some poetry and fiction which general authorities and others find offensive, the university's administration "confiscated those copies that had not been delivered (1,000 out of 2,000)." Two years later general authorities require the BYU Press to destroy its entire press run of Thomas E. Cheney's 'Golden Legacy,' because he includes some vulgarisms in J. Golden Kimball's folk tales. Cheney republishes it with an independent press and without the offending stories.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
55 years ago today - May 20, 1966
Nearly twenty years after President George Albert Smith offers the prayer at the opening of the U.S. Senate, President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency opens the U.S. Senate with prayer.
90 years ago today - May 20, 1931
[George F. Richards]
At this [temple] meeting we were each asked to hand in a slip on which we are to write two names of men whom we think would be suitable for a member of the Council of the Twelve, at a later hour to-day. I handed in my names.
[George F. Richards Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]
At this [temple] meeting we were each asked to hand in a slip on which we are to write two names of men whom we think would be suitable for a member of the Council of the Twelve, at a later hour to-day. I handed in my names.
[George F. Richards Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]
120 years ago today - May 20, 1901
A Mormon's funeral has a "white coffin & white horse, flowers." To symbolize their positive view of death, Utah Mormons emphasize white at funerals.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
125 years ago today - May 20, 1896
[First Presidency to Temple Presidents]
"... In baptizing for the dead in the Temples we understand that the form of words used is as follows: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you[,] __________[,] for and in behalf of [,] __________, for the remission of your sins, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We might go into explanations as to the reasons which have caused this form of baptism to be adopted; but it is not necessary, further than to say that baptisms for health and baptisms for the renewal of covenants, etc., have led doubtless to the adoption of this form of ceremony to distinguish it from others. We have had this matter under consideration from time to time, and supposed that our views had been made known to the Presidents of the Temples; but we understand that they have not been informed upon this point, and that the form above given is still the one used in administering baptisms for the dead. The form we think proper, and that we desire to have used hereafter in administering the ordinance of baptism for the dead, is as follows: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you[,] __________[,] for and in behalf of __________, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We understand that in some instances baptisms have been administered in the Temples with something like the following ceremony: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for the remission of sins, for the renewal of your covenant, and for the restoration of your health, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We do not know upon what authority this form of administering baptism has been adopted, but we think it improper. There have been times in the Church when the First Presidency have felt it necessary to call upon all the members of the Church to renew their covenants, and at such times it was suggested that the words "for the renewal of your covenant" be used in the ceremony; but it does not follow that at other times, and in individual cases, that form should be used. We think it improper, speaking generally, for the words "for the remission of sins" or "for the renewal of your covenant" to be used in administering the ordinance of baptism. ... The practice which has prevailed in some instances where members of the Church are baptized, of using the words "re-baptize" and "re-confirm," we think unnecessary. When we strictly follow the form the Lord has given us we are sure to be right. In cases where people are baptized for their health, we see no impropriety in using the words "for the restoration of your health" in the ceremony. ..."
[Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith to Temple Presidents, May 20, 1896, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
"... In baptizing for the dead in the Temples we understand that the form of words used is as follows: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you[,] __________[,] for and in behalf of [,] __________, for the remission of your sins, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We might go into explanations as to the reasons which have caused this form of baptism to be adopted; but it is not necessary, further than to say that baptisms for health and baptisms for the renewal of covenants, etc., have led doubtless to the adoption of this form of ceremony to distinguish it from others. We have had this matter under consideration from time to time, and supposed that our views had been made known to the Presidents of the Temples; but we understand that they have not been informed upon this point, and that the form above given is still the one used in administering baptisms for the dead. The form we think proper, and that we desire to have used hereafter in administering the ordinance of baptism for the dead, is as follows: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you[,] __________[,] for and in behalf of __________, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We understand that in some instances baptisms have been administered in the Temples with something like the following ceremony: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for the remission of sins, for the renewal of your covenant, and for the restoration of your health, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. We do not know upon what authority this form of administering baptism has been adopted, but we think it improper. There have been times in the Church when the First Presidency have felt it necessary to call upon all the members of the Church to renew their covenants, and at such times it was suggested that the words "for the renewal of your covenant" be used in the ceremony; but it does not follow that at other times, and in individual cases, that form should be used. We think it improper, speaking generally, for the words "for the remission of sins" or "for the renewal of your covenant" to be used in administering the ordinance of baptism. ... The practice which has prevailed in some instances where members of the Church are baptized, of using the words "re-baptize" and "re-confirm," we think unnecessary. When we strictly follow the form the Lord has given us we are sure to be right. In cases where people are baptized for their health, we see no impropriety in using the words "for the restoration of your health" in the ceremony. ..."
[Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith to Temple Presidents, May 20, 1896, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
130 years ago today - Wednesday, May 20, 1891
[John Henry Smith]
"I was busy all day. At 8 p.m. a large crowd got together at the Theatre. A large number of liberals [liberal party] had come in with the design of breaking up the meeting but they failed to do this. C. W. Bennett was made chairman and speaches were made both for and against organization. W. H. Dixon spoke against and I for. The vote for organization carried. I never felt better in my life in talking."
[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 busy all day. At 8 p.m. a large crowd got together at the Theatre. A large number of liberals [liberal party] had come in with the design of breaking up the meeting but they failed to do this. C. W. Bennett was made chairman and speaches were made both for and against organization. W. H. Dixon spoke against and I for. The vote for organization carried. I never felt better in my life in talking."
[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 - May 20, 1891
[Heber J. Grant]
[Organization of the Utah republican party] "This evening I attended the Republican meeting in the Theatre and I do not think I have ever been at an entertainment that was the equal of the meeting this evening. It was a first class entertainment. The yelling was something immense. Between the Liberals who wanted organization and those who did not we had a great entertainment. John Hy Smith spoke at the meeting last night. I felt that it was one of the mistakes of his life to speak at the meeting and I felt sure that the roughs present would cry him down and that he would be humiliated, but much to my satisfaction he was given better attention than any other speaker and he made a good talk. I prayed for him with all my heart while he was talking."
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
[Organization of the Utah republican party] "This evening I attended the Republican meeting in the Theatre and I do not think I have ever been at an entertainment that was the equal of the meeting this evening. It was a first class entertainment. The yelling was something immense. Between the Liberals who wanted organization and those who did not we had a great entertainment. John Hy Smith spoke at the meeting last night. I felt that it was one of the mistakes of his life to speak at the meeting and I felt sure that the roughs present would cry him down and that he would be humiliated, but much to my satisfaction he was given better attention than any other speaker and he made a good talk. I prayed for him with all my heart while he was talking."
[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]
145 years ago today - May 20, 1876
Patriarchal Blessing of James Henry Martineau by Joel Hills Johnson ... Thou shalt visit some of the nations of the earth, and they shall rejoice at the sound of thy voice, and shalt gather them up to the land of Zion. Thou shalt go to the Center Stake of Zion, and shall assist in establishing the saints in that land, and do a great work in the temple which shall be reared there, for the redemption of thy dead; for they shall manifest themselves unto thee when the time comes for their redemption. ...
Thou shalt not come behind the chiefest of the saints of the Most High in the dispensation of the fullness of times. Thou shalt yet take more wives and raise up seed unto the Most High, who shall be great and mighty in their day and generation... When it is necessary for thee to accomplish thy work, the elements shall be subject to thy word, for thou shalt run and not be weary and walk and not faint, and mount up on wings as eagles.
... many of the Nobles of the Earth shall receive counsel from thee and rejoice to hear the words of thy mouth; and thousands of the Lamanites shall lift up their heads and rejoice at the words from thy lips... [I] seal thee up unto eternal lives, to come forth in the morning of the first Ressurrection [Resurrection], with all thy wives and offspring, to inherit glory, immortality and eternal lives, inasmuch as thou art faithful ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
Thou shalt not come behind the chiefest of the saints of the Most High in the dispensation of the fullness of times. Thou shalt yet take more wives and raise up seed unto the Most High, who shall be great and mighty in their day and generation... When it is necessary for thee to accomplish thy work, the elements shall be subject to thy word, for thou shalt run and not be weary and walk and not faint, and mount up on wings as eagles.
... many of the Nobles of the Earth shall receive counsel from thee and rejoice to hear the words of thy mouth; and thousands of the Lamanites shall lift up their heads and rejoice at the words from thy lips... [I] seal thee up unto eternal lives, to come forth in the morning of the first Ressurrection [Resurrection], with all thy wives and offspring, to inherit glory, immortality and eternal lives, inasmuch as thou art faithful ...
[Patriarchal Blessings]
190 years ago today - May 20, 1831
[Revelations]
Doctrine and Covenants 51. Consecration and stewardship. Bishop Edward Partridge deeds what is needed to families. Excommunicants retain deeded property but bishop retains their surplus for the poor and for his own family's needs. Be one. Behave as though this were a permanent settlement until the Lord directs otherwise. This is a church-wide policy. Eternal life promised to participants.
[Kenney, Scott; Saints Without Halos, 'Doctrine and Covenants,' http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/s/_dc.phtml]
Doctrine and Covenants 51. Consecration and stewardship. Bishop Edward Partridge deeds what is needed to families. Excommunicants retain deeded property but bishop retains their surplus for the poor and for his own family's needs. Be one. Behave as though this were a permanent settlement until the Lord directs otherwise. This is a church-wide policy. Eternal life promised to participants.
[Kenney, Scott; Saints Without Halos, 'Doctrine and Covenants,' http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/s/_dc.phtml]
140 years ago today - May 19, 1881
[Wilford Woodruff]
19 I received a letter from Br Barfoot Concerning a cloak belonging to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Sister Viena Jaquist [Vienna Jaques, plural wife of Joseph Smith] made a Donation of it to the Museum. The Cloak was shown to me. I spent the day in the board of trade & night at the farm. 6 M.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
19 I received a letter from Br Barfoot Concerning a cloak belonging to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Sister Viena Jaquist [Vienna Jaques, plural wife of Joseph Smith] made a Donation of it to the Museum. The Cloak was shown to me. I spent the day in the board of trade & night at the farm. 6 M.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
160 years ago today - May 19, 1861
Presidet Youngs address was upon the Resurrection of the Dead. He said that Some had thought that those who had lived in former dispensations would be raised first but this [is] not the Case. Joseph Smith will be the first man raised & he will raise his Friends & ordained them to raise those of there friends who had been Faithful.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[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 - May 19, 1856
[Heber C. Kimball letter]
... These men and women whom you recommend, must be individuals, who pay their tithing from year to year; who pray in their families, and do not speak against the authorities of the Church and Kingdom of God; nor steal; nor lie; nor interfere with their neighbors things; nor their neighbors wives or husbands; who attend strictly to meetings and prayer meetings, and those who pay due respect to their presiding officers, and Bishops and those who do not swear. We shall expect you to pickup the old and infirm; the lame and blind and the righteous poor, but not the devils poor. We would like to see many of the young and sprightly young persons who are strict to obey their parents. We shall require the Bishops to send their names in a letter fully recommended and tell them to qualify themselves by washing their bodies in pure water and bringing Temple clothing and oil for their anointings. As they live in the country, we want them to bring their eggs, butter, meat, bread and flour, and the luxuries of [the farm] fit to grace the tables of the House of the Lord, to feed the men and women who administer unto them; and if there should be any left, that we may give it to the poor; and in so doing God will bless you and we will bless you. This by order of the First Presidency.
[Heber C. Kimball to David Evans, May 19, 1856, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
... These men and women whom you recommend, must be individuals, who pay their tithing from year to year; who pray in their families, and do not speak against the authorities of the Church and Kingdom of God; nor steal; nor lie; nor interfere with their neighbors things; nor their neighbors wives or husbands; who attend strictly to meetings and prayer meetings, and those who pay due respect to their presiding officers, and Bishops and those who do not swear. We shall expect you to pickup the old and infirm; the lame and blind and the righteous poor, but not the devils poor. We would like to see many of the young and sprightly young persons who are strict to obey their parents. We shall require the Bishops to send their names in a letter fully recommended and tell them to qualify themselves by washing their bodies in pure water and bringing Temple clothing and oil for their anointings. As they live in the country, we want them to bring their eggs, butter, meat, bread and flour, and the luxuries of [the farm] fit to grace the tables of the House of the Lord, to feed the men and women who administer unto them; and if there should be any left, that we may give it to the poor; and in so doing God will bless you and we will bless you. This by order of the First Presidency.
[Heber C. Kimball to David Evans, May 19, 1856, quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
180 years ago today - May 19, 1841
The WARSAW SIGNAL editorializes: "We believe they [Mormons] have the same rights as other religious bodies posses. . . But whenever they, as a people, step beyond the proper sphere of a religious denomination, and become a political body, as many of our citizens are beginning to apprehend will be the case, then this press stands pledged to take a stand against th. . . It is bound to oppose the concentration of political power in a religious body, or in the hands of a few individuals."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
190 years ago today - May 19-20, 1831
At the 2nd Antimasonic State Convention of Massachusetts, the inscribed gold plate of Enoch is referred to: "Why is there no mention of splendid Masonic Processions, the Laying of Corner Stones, and the deposit of Plates, previous to the last century? And where are those plates? Amidst all the vast ruins of so many ages, and so many countries, not one is known to have been discovered."
[Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
[Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]
35 years ago today - May 18, 1986
A Church News announcement instructs Mormons not to "be parties to" rumors that "the Proctor and Gamble Co. has some connection with satanism and devil worship, based on the firm's moon and stars trademark."
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
40 years ago today - May 18, 1981-Monday
[Leonard Arrington]
David Lawrence McKay came in to the office this morning and Davis Bitton was in on the conversation. He wanted to discuss the preparation of a biography for [his father] President David O. McKay. ... I told him if he wished to do it that way [do it privately through the Mormon History Trust Fund] that :
... The family would have to get approval from the First Presidency and the History Department for us to have access to the papers and if any papers are still with the family we would need to have access to those.
3. The family would have to agree to the preparation of an "honest" biography-well rounded, relatively intimate showing the warts as well as the positive side of President McKay.
Brother McKay said he would talk this over with the family and get back with us. ...
He talked as though all the McKay papers including diaries and scrapbooks are upstairs in the History Department. [Former secretary] Claire Middlemiss has copies of the diary-which is really her diary-but the original is upstairs. Brother McKay said he has access to the McKay papers and he might designate us as his agents in having access to them. ...
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
David Lawrence McKay came in to the office this morning and Davis Bitton was in on the conversation. He wanted to discuss the preparation of a biography for [his father] President David O. McKay. ... I told him if he wished to do it that way [do it privately through the Mormon History Trust Fund] that :
... The family would have to get approval from the First Presidency and the History Department for us to have access to the papers and if any papers are still with the family we would need to have access to those.
3. The family would have to agree to the preparation of an "honest" biography-well rounded, relatively intimate showing the warts as well as the positive side of President McKay.
Brother McKay said he would talk this over with the family and get back with us. ...
He talked as though all the McKay papers including diaries and scrapbooks are upstairs in the History Department. [Former secretary] Claire Middlemiss has copies of the diary-which is really her diary-but the original is upstairs. Brother McKay said he has access to the McKay papers and he might designate us as his agents in having access to them. ...
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
65 years ago today - May 18, 1956
[J. Reuben Clark]
"President Richards telephoned, quite literally puffing for breath, saying there was one matter of business he felt he must take up with me. While in New York Elder George Q. Morris and President George H. Mortimer of the New York Stake said they had confidentially learned that Tammany Hall [an influential New York City political organization] had recently held a "powwow" (President Richards did not use this term) and had determined that they had a vulnerable point on every member of the Cabinet except Secretary Benson, and as to him, the only point they had found was the attitude of the Church on the negro question, for which, of course, Benson stood.
"President Richards indicated to them that he was not too much impressed by the fact that Tammany Hall might have reached such a decision, and he pressed President Mortimer on the point that perhaps it was the Republican Party that was really raising the question, and Brother Mortimer finally admitted that that was true, that it was Brother Mortimer's party and not Tammany Hall that was urging it.
"President Mortimer wondered if we couldn't issue a statement making clear our position on the negro question. President Richards replied that we were governed by revelation and that nothing contradictory had ever been received. We could not very well change the revelation to meet some political exigency (in the latter part of the conversation he stated that he did not see how we could undertake to change a revelation because of political exigency and I said I wholly agreed with him.) President Richards pointed out what our traditional position on the negroes was as based on the revelation. Brother Mortimer raised the question as to whether or not the Prophet Joseph did not ordain a negro. President Richards stated that he was not sure about that. I told him I thought it was true, but I also understood that that ordination was made before the revelation was received. However he promised that he would let Brother George Q. Morris know in Washington whether or not we felt we could do anything.
"I did not understand from Brother Richards that Brother Benson or any other responsible person in the Republican Party had made any overtures in the matter.
"President Richards and I agreed that perhaps we were not in a position to make any changes and that we so advise Brother Morris addressing him in care of J. Willard Marriott.
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
"President Richards telephoned, quite literally puffing for breath, saying there was one matter of business he felt he must take up with me. While in New York Elder George Q. Morris and President George H. Mortimer of the New York Stake said they had confidentially learned that Tammany Hall [an influential New York City political organization] had recently held a "powwow" (President Richards did not use this term) and had determined that they had a vulnerable point on every member of the Cabinet except Secretary Benson, and as to him, the only point they had found was the attitude of the Church on the negro question, for which, of course, Benson stood.
"President Richards indicated to them that he was not too much impressed by the fact that Tammany Hall might have reached such a decision, and he pressed President Mortimer on the point that perhaps it was the Republican Party that was really raising the question, and Brother Mortimer finally admitted that that was true, that it was Brother Mortimer's party and not Tammany Hall that was urging it.
"President Mortimer wondered if we couldn't issue a statement making clear our position on the negro question. President Richards replied that we were governed by revelation and that nothing contradictory had ever been received. We could not very well change the revelation to meet some political exigency (in the latter part of the conversation he stated that he did not see how we could undertake to change a revelation because of political exigency and I said I wholly agreed with him.) President Richards pointed out what our traditional position on the negroes was as based on the revelation. Brother Mortimer raised the question as to whether or not the Prophet Joseph did not ordain a negro. President Richards stated that he was not sure about that. I told him I thought it was true, but I also understood that that ordination was made before the revelation was received. However he promised that he would let Brother George Q. Morris know in Washington whether or not we felt we could do anything.
"I did not understand from Brother Richards that Brother Benson or any other responsible person in the Republican Party had made any overtures in the matter.
"President Richards and I agreed that perhaps we were not in a position to make any changes and that we so advise Brother Morris addressing him in care of J. Willard Marriott.
[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
110 years ago today - May 18, 1911; Thursday
I was app[oin]t[e]d to Brigham [City, Utah] for funeral, to Logan [Utah] for Sunday peace meeting.
[Charles W. Penrose, Diary]
[Charles W. Penrose, Diary]
140 years ago today - Wednesday, May 18, 1881
City Hall, Salt Lake City
I spent the day in Council <of Fifty>. We discussed the subject of the Coming Elections.
[Wilford Woodruff diary, 8:32, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)]
I spent the day in Council <of Fifty>. We discussed the subject of the Coming Elections.
[Wilford Woodruff diary, 8:32, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)]
165 years ago today - May 18, 1856
[Brigham Young]
"Our sisters feel themselves fettered they suffer the privation of corrupting themselves. I feel to have mercy on them. I see some as corrupt as the bowels of hell come to the sacrament. You know you ought to be hewn down, for fearfulness does lay hold of the hypocrite in Zion. to falter in the faith is a marvel to me. I will not take away the agency of a single individual. they must choose or refuse for themselves. you who would lay the sword to my brethrens throats, you who know that you ought to have your throats cut - I will give you flour enough to get you out of this territory - now try me - if we suffer the spirit of apostasy to creep into us then we are in danger."
[Thomas Bullock Minutes, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
"Our sisters feel themselves fettered they suffer the privation of corrupting themselves. I feel to have mercy on them. I see some as corrupt as the bowels of hell come to the sacrament. You know you ought to be hewn down, for fearfulness does lay hold of the hypocrite in Zion. to falter in the faith is a marvel to me. I will not take away the agency of a single individual. they must choose or refuse for themselves. you who would lay the sword to my brethrens throats, you who know that you ought to have your throats cut - I will give you flour enough to get you out of this territory - now try me - if we suffer the spirit of apostasy to creep into us then we are in danger."
[Thomas Bullock Minutes, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
175 years ago today - May 18, 1846
Brigham Young establishes Mt. Pisgah on the middle fork of the Grand River as a second temporary way station along the Mormon Trail in Iowa.
175 years ago today - May 18, 1846
Brigham Young first arrives at Mount Pisgah on the day the Constitution for the State of Iowa is adopted in convention. Most of the proposed Deseret Constitution was copied from the Iowa ConstitutionPeter Crawley notes that "Fifty-seven of the sixty-seven sections are taken from the Iowa constitution, in most cases word for word .... The constitution for the state of Deseret was generated - lifted, almost - from the Iowa constitution in the summer of 1849. The document was first printed in Kanesville, Iowa, by apostle Orson Hyde at the Frontier Guardian office in September 1849, an action taken to support the petition for statehood carried by Almon Babbitt."
[Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source; "The Constitution of the State of Deseret," Provo, Utah: Friends of the BYU Library Newsletter, Vol. 19, 1982; Two-Millionth Volume Keepsake]
[Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source; "The Constitution of the State of Deseret," Provo, Utah: Friends of the BYU Library Newsletter, Vol. 19, 1982; Two-Millionth Volume Keepsake]
175 years ago today - May 18, 1846
At seven o'clock [am] the President [Brigham Young] called the captains of tens to his wagons and gave a pretty severe lecture. He referred to some who had left meat on the ground and would not use it because it was not hind quarter. Some would murmur because a fore quarter of meat was allotted to them, etc., which is not right, for God has given us a commandment that we should not waste meat, nor take life unless it is needful, but he can see a disposition in this camp to slaughter everything before them, yea if all the buffalo and game there is on our route were brought together to the camp, there are some who would never cease until they had destroyed the whole.
[William Clayton Journal pp 156-157, quoted in Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)]
[William Clayton Journal pp 156-157, quoted in Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)]
50 years ago today - May 17, 1971
Sidney Rigdon: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 17 May 1971, and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment 21 May
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
135 years ago today - May 17, 1886
Journal of Discourses ceases publication in Liverpool, England. In publication since 1853 (32 years, 6 months).
[Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984]
[Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984]
160 years ago today - May 17, 1861
Governor Alfred Cumming left Utah quietly on 17 May 1861.
[Utah History Encyclopedia: Civil War, http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/]
[Utah History Encyclopedia: Civil War, http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/]
185 years ago today - May 17, 1836
Joseph Smith with his brother Hyrum "brought [to Kirtland] my grandmother, Mary Smith, aged ninety-three years. She had not been baptized, on account of the opposition of Jesse Smith, her eldest son, who has always been an enemy to the work". Mary Smith dies ten days later.
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
70 years ago today - May 16, 1951
LaVern Watts Parmley is called as the fifth general president of the Primary, with Arta Matthews Hale and Florence Holbrook Richards as counselors.
85 years ago today - May 16, 1936
Dr. Max Haenle, a German non-Mormon, who visited Utah in the late twenties and became a friend of Anthony W. Ivins, speaks to a District Conference in Dresden on "Utah, Land of the Mormons." DER STERN reportes Haenle made "comparisons ... throughout the whole lecture between the Mormon state founded 86 years ago by Brigham Young in Utah and Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. . . . In its political productivity, its organization forms, and its unswerving successes in the various areas of governmental, social, and communal life," Haenle proclaimed, "Utah bears a really striking similarity to our Germany of today. Here as well as there, the unshakable faith in and willingness to die for their Fuhrer [respective leaders] is the foundation and prerequisite for all further development."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
120 years ago today - May 16, 1901; Thursday
[Heber J. Grant]
In chatting with the brethren of the Apostles before Pres[iden]ts [Loreonzo] Snow and [Joseph F.] Smith joined us and telling of the cancellation of the balance of my debt endorsed by the Trustee in Trust, Brother [George] Teasdale referred to the fact of his visiting my home some three years ago, just after I had been operated upon for appendicitis and when I was so sick with pneumonia. He referred to how he was inspired of the Lord in blessing me in not only promising me health, but that I should live to pay all my financial obligations. In hearing me tell oif my present financial condition he sad, he felt to praise the Lord for His goodness to me.
Brother John W. Taylor also referred to his visit to my home with Matthias F. Cowley about the same time as Brother Teasdale called and how they had administered to me and that after doing so as they went away he said to Brother Cowley that he did not feel that they had blessed me with any great power. Some days later he was impressed to come back and bless me again. He started to walk from his home in Mill Creek to the city and he met Brother Cowley in a buggy and they drove together to my house and they had great liberty in blessing me. Brother Taylor prophesying that I should live and should not only have vigor and strength of body but that I should live to be freed from all my financial obligations. I remembered this promise of Brother Taylor's very well indeed and how my whole being was thrilled by the Holy Spirit at the time of his making the promise and I felt that it was given under the inspiration of the Lord and would be fulfilled.
I am very thankful to feel that today I have sufficient property to pay all my obligations and that the Lord has fulfilled this prediction.
[Heber J. Grant, Diary]
In chatting with the brethren of the Apostles before Pres[iden]ts [Loreonzo] Snow and [Joseph F.] Smith joined us and telling of the cancellation of the balance of my debt endorsed by the Trustee in Trust, Brother [George] Teasdale referred to the fact of his visiting my home some three years ago, just after I had been operated upon for appendicitis and when I was so sick with pneumonia. He referred to how he was inspired of the Lord in blessing me in not only promising me health, but that I should live to pay all my financial obligations. In hearing me tell oif my present financial condition he sad, he felt to praise the Lord for His goodness to me.
Brother John W. Taylor also referred to his visit to my home with Matthias F. Cowley about the same time as Brother Teasdale called and how they had administered to me and that after doing so as they went away he said to Brother Cowley that he did not feel that they had blessed me with any great power. Some days later he was impressed to come back and bless me again. He started to walk from his home in Mill Creek to the city and he met Brother Cowley in a buggy and they drove together to my house and they had great liberty in blessing me. Brother Taylor prophesying that I should live and should not only have vigor and strength of body but that I should live to be freed from all my financial obligations. I remembered this promise of Brother Taylor's very well indeed and how my whole being was thrilled by the Holy Spirit at the time of his making the promise and I felt that it was given under the inspiration of the Lord and would be fulfilled.
I am very thankful to feel that today I have sufficient property to pay all my obligations and that the Lord has fulfilled this prediction.
[Heber J. Grant, Diary]
125 years ago today - May 16, 1896
[J. Golden Kimball]
[W]ent to General Office of the 1st Council of Seventy and there met Elder B. H. Roberts. We conversed until 8 P.M. all about his past experience, political matters and late events. Roberts manifested a good spirit and fully sustained the Brethren of the Authorities. ... He also told me that Pres[ident]. Wilford Woodruff and Geo[rge]. Q. Cannon said that it was an injustice to Apostle Moses Thatcher to convey the idea that he was suspended because he was not in harmony with the Presidency and Twelve Apostles at any time previous to the 66th Annual conference, or because of former troubles that may have existed. The cause of suspension was because he refused to sign the address, presented before the conference on the 6th of April. Although Apostle [Lorenzo] Snow, Brigham Young [Jr.], and John Henry Smith had told me differently.
[J. Golden Kimball, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[W]ent to General Office of the 1st Council of Seventy and there met Elder B. H. Roberts. We conversed until 8 P.M. all about his past experience, political matters and late events. Roberts manifested a good spirit and fully sustained the Brethren of the Authorities. ... He also told me that Pres[ident]. Wilford Woodruff and Geo[rge]. Q. Cannon said that it was an injustice to Apostle Moses Thatcher to convey the idea that he was suspended because he was not in harmony with the Presidency and Twelve Apostles at any time previous to the 66th Annual conference, or because of former troubles that may have existed. The cause of suspension was because he refused to sign the address, presented before the conference on the 6th of April. Although Apostle [Lorenzo] Snow, Brigham Young [Jr.], and John Henry Smith had told me differently.
[J. Golden Kimball, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
170 years ago today - May 16, 1851
In speaking of the Indians He [Brigham Young] Said these Indians [near Parowan] were the descendants of the old Gadianton Robers who infested these Mountains for more than a thousand years.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[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 - May 16, 1841 (Sunday Morning)
Remarks by Joseph, May 16th, 1841.
There are three independent principles—the spirit of God, the spirit of man, and the spirit of the devil. All men have power to resist the devil. They who have tabernacles have power over those who have not. The doctrine of eternal judgment Acts 2-41 Peter preached repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, &c but in Acts 3-19 he says "Repent and be converted that you sins may be blotted out when the time of redemption shall come and he shall send Jesus," &c. Remission of sins by baptism was not to be preached to murderers. All the priests in christendom might pray for a murderer on the scaffold forever, but could not avail so much as a gnat towards their forgiveness. There is no forgiveness for murderers. They will have to wait until the time of redemption shall come and that in hell. Peter had the keys of eternal judgment and he saw David in hell and knew for what reason, and that David would have to remain there until the resurrection at the
coming of Christ. Romans 9—all election that can be found in the scripture is according to the flesh and pertaining to the priesthood.
[ Extracts from William Clayton's Private Book -Words of Joseph Smith, 74]
There are three independent principles—the spirit of God, the spirit of man, and the spirit of the devil. All men have power to resist the devil. They who have tabernacles have power over those who have not. The doctrine of eternal judgment Acts 2-41 Peter preached repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, &c but in Acts 3-19 he says "Repent and be converted that you sins may be blotted out when the time of redemption shall come and he shall send Jesus," &c. Remission of sins by baptism was not to be preached to murderers. All the priests in christendom might pray for a murderer on the scaffold forever, but could not avail so much as a gnat towards their forgiveness. There is no forgiveness for murderers. They will have to wait until the time of redemption shall come and that in hell. Peter had the keys of eternal judgment and he saw David in hell and knew for what reason, and that David would have to remain there until the resurrection at the
coming of Christ. Romans 9—all election that can be found in the scripture is according to the flesh and pertaining to the priesthood.
[ Extracts from William Clayton's Private Book -Words of Joseph Smith, 74]
185 years ago today - May 16, 1836
A Mormon diarist records seeing "extraordinary lights" in the Kirtland Temple at night. Apostles Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball would later reminisce that they also saw angels passing back and forth in front of the windows of the otherwise darkened temple.
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]
55 years ago today - May 15, 1966
T]he nationally distributed Parade Sunday supplement observed: "Ezra Taft Benson has consistently supported the John Birch Society's recruiting drives among Mormons." Without exaggeration, Parade also informed its millions of readers that Benson's political activism "has introduced as a result a divisive element in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
[Walter Scott, "Personality Parade," Parade, 15 May 1966. 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.]
[Walter Scott, "Personality Parade," Parade, 15 May 1966. 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.]
80 years ago today - May 15, 1941
President Grant said he had not changed his opinion that we should call these brethren apostles and ordain them Apostles, but not make them members of the Twelve; they are to be sent out to do the same work as the Twelve do in the Stakes of Zion.
[Minutes, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Minutes, 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 - May 15, 1896
[J. Golden Kimball]
The condition of some of our people regarding the last address, and the action taken by Apostle [Francis M.] Lyman in Tooele [Utah], and the course taken by Pres[ident] Jos[eph]. F. Smith, John Henry [Smith], and Heber J. Grant in Logan City [Utah] has simply shaken some of the people out of their boots. In the eyes of the people, at least many of them, it is making a martyr of Moses Thatcher.' My idea is that Apostle Thatcher, while suspended by his Quorum is still an apostle, and is not guilty of anything before the Latter-day Saints, until the time comes that he has an impartial trial, for a man cannot be guilty until it is so proven, by two or more witnesses. To say anything against Moses is to do him an injustice. All who have indulged in Politics, have got in trouble of some kind. Men seem not to be guided by the Holy Spirit when indulging in political matters as when preaching the Gospel.
[J. Golden Kimball, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
The condition of some of our people regarding the last address, and the action taken by Apostle [Francis M.] Lyman in Tooele [Utah], and the course taken by Pres[ident] Jos[eph]. F. Smith, John Henry [Smith], and Heber J. Grant in Logan City [Utah] has simply shaken some of the people out of their boots. In the eyes of the people, at least many of them, it is making a martyr of Moses Thatcher.' My idea is that Apostle Thatcher, while suspended by his Quorum is still an apostle, and is not guilty of anything before the Latter-day Saints, until the time comes that he has an impartial trial, for a man cannot be guilty until it is so proven, by two or more witnesses. To say anything against Moses is to do him an injustice. All who have indulged in Politics, have got in trouble of some kind. Men seem not to be guided by the Holy Spirit when indulging in political matters as when preaching the Gospel.
[J. Golden Kimball, Diary, 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 - May 15, 1896; Friday
[Heber J. Grant]
Had a chat with the Presidency regarding the editorial which appeared in this morning's issue of the Herald with reference to the alleged statements of Pres[iden]t [Joseph F.] Smith at the recent High Council meeting in Logan [Utah], to the effect that a deal had been made with leading republicans of the nation to deliver to the Republican party the Territory of Utah as a Republican State. I felt that inasmuch as this statement was absolutely false, and as the Presidency and Apostles had never been a party to any such a deal, that some contradiction ought to be made of these statements. No action, however, was taken in the premises.
[Heber J. Grant, Diary]
Had a chat with the Presidency regarding the editorial which appeared in this morning's issue of the Herald with reference to the alleged statements of Pres[iden]t [Joseph F.] Smith at the recent High Council meeting in Logan [Utah], to the effect that a deal had been made with leading republicans of the nation to deliver to the Republican party the Territory of Utah as a Republican State. I felt that inasmuch as this statement was absolutely false, and as the Presidency and Apostles had never been a party to any such a deal, that some contradiction ought to be made of these statements. No action, however, was taken in the premises.
[Heber J. Grant, Diary]
125 years ago today - May 15, 1896
[Apostle Marriner W. Merrill]
Finished planting potatoes east of [Logan] Temple today.
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Finished planting potatoes east of [Logan] Temple today.
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
130 years ago today - May 15, 1891
Case of Father Edward Bunker was then taken up. Clerk read paper from Father Bunker in which he submits his beliefs and unbeliefs to the High Council ... Coun D.H. Cannon referred to one part of the paper where it refers to Adam being the God of Jesus Christ, etc., and where Father Bunker says the Council had decided upon. Said the Council never decided upon this point at all. He then moved that the communication of Edward Bunker on what he believes and does not believe together with statement of the causes lading to the investigation which called forth his declaration also the full action of the Council in this matter be forwarded to the 1st Presidency of the Church asking their advice as to the proper course for us to take as the Presidency and High Council of the Stake.
[Friday, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
[Friday, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
165 years ago today - May 15, 1856
[Wilford Woodruff]
I was called upon to administer to Sister Orson Pratt at 1 oclok in the morning. I promised her that she & her Child should do well And in about 15 minutes she had a daughter born that weighed 12 lbs. Both Mother & Daughter doing well.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
I was called upon to administer to Sister Orson Pratt at 1 oclok in the morning. I promised her that she & her Child should do well And in about 15 minutes she had a daughter born that weighed 12 lbs. Both Mother & Daughter doing well.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
45 years ago today - May 14, 1976
Washington Post article: "Mormon Income Is $3 Million Per Day."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
60 years ago today - May 14,1961
Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith announces to stake conference in Honolulu: "We will never get a man into space. This earth is man's sphere and it was never intended that he should get away from it." Smith, the Twelve's president and next in succession as LDS President, adds: "The moon is a superior planet to the earth and it was never intended that man should go there. You can write it down in your books that this will never happen." In May 1962, he privately instructs that this view be taught to "the boys and girls in the Seminary System." On 20 Jul 1969 U.S. Astronauts are first men to walk on moon. Six months later Joseph Fielding Smith becomes church president.
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power]
[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power]
125 years ago today - May 14, 1896; Thursday
Pres[iden]t W[ilford]. Woodruff requested the brethren to stop enforcing the Declaration [permission from church leaders to enter into politcal office] among the people[;] Let the vote to adopt the same be taken in all the Wards & let the people vote or not as they feel inclined.
[Franklin D. Richards, Diary]
[Franklin D. Richards, Diary]
130 years ago today - Thursday, May 14, 1891
[John Henry Smith]
... Presidents Woodruff, G. Q. Cannon and I talked over the political situation and it was thought best to go ahead and organize the Republican party. President Woodruff said he was a Republican and I said I was.
[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]
... Presidents Woodruff, G. Q. Cannon and I talked over the political situation and it was thought best to go ahead and organize the Republican party. President Woodruff said he was a Republican and I said I was.
[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 - May 14, 1891
Concerning a young man who has been endowed and "sealed to his wife without having been ordained to any Priesthood," the First Presidency decides to have him ordained as an elder, but not to require him to be re-endowed or re-sealed.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
130 years ago today - May 14, 1891
John W. Taylor reported about the defense fund and said it brought in about $6,500.00 per month from the whole Church. [The defense fund was used to help with legal costs regarding polygamy prosecution]
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
160 years ago today - May 14, 1861
President Young signed a letter G.Q. Cannon instructing him to ... destroy works containing false doctrine [in England.]
[Brigham Young Office Journals, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Brigham Young Office Journals, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
165 years ago today - May 14, 1856
Lucy Mack Smith dies, having spent the last three years of her life in Emma-s care.
[Emma Smith, Woman of Faith, http://emmasmithmormon.com]
[Emma Smith, Woman of Faith, http://emmasmithmormon.com]
175 years ago today - May 14, 1846
[Wilford Woodruff]
... Some of my friends at times are tryed with the Celestial Law [plural marriage]. ...
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
... Some of my friends at times are tryed with the Celestial Law [plural marriage]. ...
[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 - May 14, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Sarah Mackley given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... when he is gone to fill his mission thou shalt have faith to rebuke diseases in thy family ... and seal thee up to eternal life in the name of Jesus, even so, Amen
[Patriarchal Blessings]
[Patriarchal Blessings]
185 years ago today - May 14, 1836
Patriarchal Blessing of Joseph Cooper given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... And thou shalt have power over unclean spirits and shall do many great miracles, Mountains shall remove at thy word, prisons shall not hold thee, thou shalt translate thyself from planet to planet and preach to the spirits in prison and bring many of them to God. ...
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:104, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
[Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:104, quoted in Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith Sr. (Author), H. Michael Marquardt (Editor), http://amzn.to/rCBHVe]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)