[Leonard Arrington]
Saturday night at James's party I had a conversation with Phyllis Phillips, Lora's mother ... after Joseph Smith's death, Emma Smith was trying to get her hands on the records of the Church. Brigham Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and Spencer W. Kimball.
Young had obtained the records and had them in one of his homes. Knowing that Emma might come to get them, Brigham left instructions with all concerned about not letting Emma have these records. On one occasion when he was gone, Emma did come to get the records. She insisted that they were hers. The person who let her into the house was about ready to give them to her when there appeared at the top of the stairs Harriet Cook, one of Brigham Young's plural wives. Harriet said she had heard what Emma said and that she knew that these were Church records, not private records, and that they belonged to the Church. She said she would see to it personally that they were kept in the possession of Brigham Young, representing the Twelve and the Church. Emma is then said to have remarked: "I guess I might as well give it up; I'm more afraid of Harriet than I am of the sheriff!"
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
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