We are often requested to grant the privilege, or rather to give recommends, to persons to get second annointings for worthy persons who are dead. Up to the month of December, 1900, there was no question, so far as we know, in our Stake about granting this privilege for the worthy dead. On December 1, 1900, however, the Presidency of this Stake received a letter from President [Lorenzo] Snow, in which he made the following remarks: "I would also suggest that for the present you will confine your names to men who are living, and their wives, living and dead, who are worthy, to assist them to be more faithful and energetic in the future, and not so much for the dead. The time will come when the dead will be properly cared for." Since the receipt of the above mentioned letter, the Presidency of this Stake have followed President Snow's instructions. But yesterday we received a very pressing request from the family of Brother Franklin Merry Whitmore, of Springville Third Ward, who died Feb. 15, 1902. He leaves one wife living; one died before him. The family has requested that he be permitted to receive his second annointings. Shall we give recommends for this purpose or not.
[David John and Joseph B. Keeler to Joseph F. Smith, Mar. 15, 1902 [handwritten note: "If in their judgement he is worthy[,] it will be O.K. to do so.", in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
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