170 years ago today - Nov 9, 1856

Arrival in Salt Lake City of Willie handcart company after loss of sixty-eight persons who freeze or starve to death in mountains. Martin handcart company arrives on 30 Nov. after about 150 similar deaths. This total death rate of 22 percent is worst of any Mormon emigrant companies. With better planning, handcarts bring thousands of European Mormons to Utah for another four years with few deaths.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

180 years ago today - Nov 9, 1846

Letter: Parley P. Pratt to Orson Hyde, Nov. 9, 1846, Manchester, England.

Dear Br. Hyde,

Manchester Nov. 9th 46

Your "Dreams" your "Whisperings of the Spirit" your "hopes," "fears" and "doubts"- Your false insinuations, your "disgust" - Your entire want of Confidence in those holding the Keys of the Holy Apostleship, and of the Kingdom of God, in common with yourself - Your railing accusations, and insults against that Priesthood as manifested in certain letters written to me of late, altogether manifest a spirit so false - so foreign from the true spirit of your high and responsable office that I am Constrained to Exhort you to repent and Return again to the Spirit of Charity and Truth.

And, not only so, but if you Continue in the same spirit of Railing, falsehood, and Insult, as manifested towards me in those Letters, Take heed Lest you are removed out of your place, and sent home, to answer for these things before the Council: For, be assured that Spirit shall never preside over me, nor over the Interests of the people of God in this Land so far as I have power by the help of God, and by the Cooperation of Br Taylor and the saints here, to prevent it. - You, Elder Hyde, Do not hold the keys of sitting in Judgement upon my soul, by your dreams, visions, Whispering of the Spirit, [illegible] or fears, or by any other means. This belongs to a united quorum. and they Can only do it by [te]stimony, according to the Laws of the Kingdom.

I [ca]re not a fig for your dreams, nor for the whisperings of the spirit about me, or my teachings for I know [an]d so does the Holy Ghost, and all that hear me, that the spirit that whispers to you bears false witness As I have taught nothing about Marriage, Wives, or [co]venants, or Choosings either for time [or] eternity, In England. And furthermore, it [illegible] another, of the same quorum, without being told. They aught to know it by the Holy Ghost, or if they do not know it, they aught, at least to believe nothing to the Contrary without they were compeled to believe.

Br. H. Let me tell you that the spirit that whispered to you had Lips of flesh and Blood, and a tongue to "set on fire of hell." And next time a spirit of that kind whispers to you, Pray, handle them and see.

[Address appears here]

And, Remember, that if you wish to controll or direct me at any time according to the birthright and spirit of your office, you have only to be in the exersize of the Holy Ghost, and come out, like an honest man, [illegible] and open like a Brother, and a still small voice, or the . . .

[Enough words in the last four lines are illegible to complete the text.]

[Letter: Parley P. Pratt to Orson Hyde]

195 years ago today - Nov 9, 1831

Hiram, Ohio. Joseph Smith spent much of his time reviewing and arranging the commandments and revelations in preparation for Oliver Cowdery to take them to the printing press in Independence, Missouri. [This would be for the forthcoming Book of Commandments, the predecessor to the Doctrine and Covenants.]

[BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]

75 years ago today - Nov 8, 1951

[J. Reuben Clark]

Mr. Sidney L. Cohen of the Intermountain Theatres in Salt Lake City (Associate General Manager), came to see my by appointment. He said, "I suppose you know why I am here." I said, yes, I thought I did, that I understood he knew about the rumor that Warner Brothers were going to produce a movie founded on the Mountain Meadow massacre. He said that was it.

I said I would like to begin by telling him a story, whereupon I told him the story of the Judge and the coachmen in Hyde Park, when the Judge seeing that a collision was inevitable, called out to the coachman, "For blank sake, drive into something cheap." I said that the Mormons were cheap, anybody could drive into us and get away with it now, but I said (later in the interview) one hundred years from now it would be a different story.

Then I said that I thought if they were going to produce the Mountain Meadow massacre they ought to write the story of the Saint Bartholomew massacre in France, or the story of the taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, and then said he knew the Jewish people had a little escapade they might take up also, that I thought they might then go back through the history of witchcraft in New England, but I saw no more reason for writing the Mountain Meadow Massacre than for writing these, and indicated they all were ancient history. ...

I told him, of the kind it was a very good story.

He said he thought that probably if they learned that such a picture would be offensive to as many people as would be affected by it, that they would wonder whether or not they could re-write the story and leave the Mormons out. I told him that would be impossible. I said, for example, they pictured John D. Lee a brute of the lowest order, yet I had seen Lee's descendants in Southern Utah and Arizona and they were among the leading citizens, adding that you could not have such a progeny from such an ancestor. I also told him that any story of the Mountain Meadow massacre would necessarily implicate some of the leading families of the southern part of the State who were

families of the highest standing.

I told him that President McKay was down in southern California and that he had in mind trying to see Warner Brothers about this matter. He knew about President McKay's being down in that area. ...

He seemed friendly and professed friendship and as having no desire other than to prevent the movie from being made.

[The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]

195 years ago today - Nov 8, 1831

Sidney refers to "errors or mistakes which are in commandments and revelations, made either by the scribe translation in consequence of the slow way of the scribe at the time of receiving or by the scribes themselves." Joseph will correct the "errors or mistakes which he may discover," and Oliver " Oliver Cowdery shall <copy, correct, and select> all the writings which go forth to the world which go through the Printing press (except) the revelations and commandments, by the Spirit of the Lord and this according to the commandment given in Missouri, July 20, 1831."

[Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]

195 years ago today - 8 November 1831 - Tuesday

Remarks by br. Sidney Rigdon on the errors or mistakes which are in commandments and revelations, made either by the scribe translation in consequence of the slow way of the scribe at the time of receiving or by the scribes themselves & Resolved by this conference that Br Joseph Smith Jr correct those errors or mistakes which he m[a]y discover by the holy Spirit while receiving the revelations ...

[Far West Record (Minute Book 2) The Joseph Smith Papers]

115 years ago today - Nov 7, 1911

Local Citizens elect Mary Woolley Chamberlain mayor of Kanab, with an all-female town council, the first such political event in U.S. history.

[LDS Daily, www.ldsdaily.com]

125 years ago today - Nov 7, 1901

The First Presidency decides that there is no "rule in the church forbidding cousins to inter-marry" and that first cousins can have temple marriages if they present a civil license. General authorities such as Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Joseph F. Smith, and Abraham H. Cannon married their first cousins as legal or plural wives.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

180 years ago today - 1846 November 7

Heber C. Kimball marries Presendia Lathrop Huntington as his 34th plural wife

[Hemlock Knots: Monogamy polygamy timeline in the LDS Mormon church]

135 years ago today - Nov 6, 1891

[First Presidency letter to the Presidents of Stakes and Bishops of Wards]

It has been decided that it is no longer necessary for those going to the Temples to attend to ordinances therein to send their recommends to President Woodruff to be by him endorsed. The signatures of the Bishop and Stake President will be all that is required.

This decision applies to all ordinances attended to in the House of the Lord, except Second Anointings, which last named will still require the approval of the President of the Church before they can be administered. ...

[1891-November 6-Circular letter, Church Historian's Library, in Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]

170 years ago today - Nov 6, 1856

[Hosea Stout]

An Express came in this morning announcing that the first company of Hand carts were in Echo Kanyon doing as well as could be expected and that the snow fell one foot deep this side the Little mountain last night. What the depth of snow on the Big mountain was may be imagined, to be at least two feet, while the weather is still like for more snow and the poor thin clad Hand Cart company must have yet a very cold hard time before the get in.

[Diaries of Hosea Stout]

170 years ago today - Nov 6, 1856

Brother Kimball said that any man that was faithful in the priesthood would have all the blessings He Could imagin or think in his heart and when Father Joseph Smith was on his dying bed I asked him to bless me so it might be written as he had blessed me several times & it was not written but Father Smith told me to write down every thing that I could think of in my heart or imagin & he would sign it & it should come to pass but He said a man must keep the Commandments of God in order to obtain the blessings.

[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

75 years ago today - Nov 5,1951

First Presidency learns of plans by Warner Brothers to make film about Mountain Meadows Massacre, based on recent scholarly book by LDS Juanita Brooks. Within seven days First Presidency successfully persuades Hollywood studio to kill project.

[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]

130 years ago today - Nov 5,1896

Apostle Lorenzo Snow's youngest plural wife bears his last child in Canada. At age 82 he is the oldest General Authority to father a child.

[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]

130 years ago today - Nov 5, 1896

Fast Day change-first Thursday to first Sunday ... the Fast Day mentioned ... was instituted following the famine of 1855-1856 in Utah. The principle underlying the inauguration of the Fast Day at that time was the rationing of foodstuffs by those families who had plenty and sharing with those whose crops had failed and had little or none. ...

This change ... to the first Sunday of each month marks an adjustment of the "Mormon" society to an increased industrialization which made a weekday Fast Service no longer feasible. ...

For many years these meetings were well attended, and they were of a most interesting character, and were a comfort and a strength to all who shared in them, as it was the practice for persons of both sexes to bear their testimony and take active part in them in each ward under the direction of the bishopric.

As the years rolled by, conditions changed, and it became more difficult for the people generally, and especially those in steady employment, to attend these meetings, until at the present time they have dwindled to such an extent that comparatively few have the opportunity of attending them...

In some places the custom has arisen to consider it a fast to omit eating breakfast. This is not in accordance with the views and practice of the past. When fasts were observed in the early days, it was the rule to not partake of food from the previous day until after the meeting in the afternoon of the fast day. ...

[Deseret Evening News, November 7, 1896, p. 7; Deseret Weekly, November 14, 1896, p. 678; Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]

130 years ago today - Nov 4, 1896

The First Presidency at their office today appropriated $100 in favor of the Deseret Museum, to be used by Brother James E. Talmage towards expenses in examining a bed of selenite in Kane County [Utah], discovered by Brother Franklin W. Young.

[Journal History, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]

160 years ago today - Nov 4, 1866

Presidet B. Young spoke upon Revelation 65 minuts. It was an interesting discourse. He said Revelation was as freequent as the weeds in the garden. All that we knew was by revelation.

[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

170 years ago today - Nov 4, 1856

At meeting with stake presidencies, ward bishoprics, and local quorum presidents, Brigham Young presents catechism for every Mormon to answer. Among questions: "Have you ever committed murder, shed innocent blood, or given your consent thereto? Have you ever committed adultery? Have you ever spoken evil of the church authorities or anointed of the Lord? Have you ever betrayed your brethren? Have you ever stolen or taken anything that was not your own? Have you ever taken the name of`God in vain? Have you ever been drunk? Do you pay your tithing? Do you teach your children the gospel? Do you pray in your family night and morning? Do you attend your ward meetings? Do you pray in secret? Do you wash your bodies once a week? At this meeting, Young answered only the last question: "Said that he did not. He had tried it. He was well aware that this was not for everybody."

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]

30 years ago today - Nov 3, 1996

The Kinshasa Zaire Stake, the first stake in the African Democratic Republic of Congo, is organized.

[LDS Daily, www.ldsdaily.com]

195 years ago today - Nov 3, 1831

Early versions of D&C 133 (BCR 119 and another manuscript in the handwriting of Sidney Rigdon) read "the moon shall be blown out & the Stars shall be hurrelled [hurled] from their sockets." The text was changed "the moon shall with hold its light; & the Stars shall be hurrelled [hurled] from their plac[es]" (published in the May 1833 issue of the Evening and the Morning Star)

[Michael Marquardt, "Joseph Smith's Revelations", D&C 133]

195 years ago today - Nov 3, 1831

D&C 133 (Hiram): "The Appendix" to the Book of Commandments: Missionaries to all nations, 144,000, cataclysms; angel flying through the midst of heaven, day of vengeance, resurrection.

Ezra Booth letter #4 published: High expectations for June , 1831 conference. Joseph promised some would see the Savior. Joseph ordains Lyman Wight and others to the High Priesthood, then Lyman declares he has seen the Lord and Joseph delegates him to ordain the others. The "man of sin" is made manifest and Joseph casts him out.

[Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]