135 years ago today - Mar 28, 1887

Wilford Woodruff, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles writes to Apostle Heber J. Grant "in answer to his question 'do you know of any reason in Case of the death of the President of the Church why the Twelve Apostles should not Choose some other Person besides the Preside[n]t of the Twelve to be the Preside[n]t of the Church?'" Woodruff "answered him that I have several vary strong reasons why they should not." Four months later the church president, John Taylor, dies. It takes almost two years after Taylor's death for a new first presidency to be formed. In 1918 Heber J. Grant cites this same letter to assure his own uninterrupted ascendancy to the Presidency of the Church which had been challenged by Church Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith.