Fifty years after the Church began keeping individual membership records, it completed computerizing membership records worldwide. [Correlation Timeline, Compiled by Lisle Brown]
Today In Mormon History-fb
Several curious tidbits that happened on this day in Mormon History
40 years ago today - Apr 27, 1986.
The ten-month speaking ban on Linda Newell and Val Avery is lifted. The story is carried by UPI and AP, and published in the Tribune and other major newspapers in the state with the exception of the Deseret News. Linda summarizes the experience: "If you're excommunicated or disfellowshipped, you know what the repentance process is and you get on with your life. But what do you do when you've been punished by people who are handing down decisions they didn't make? I thought a lot about the damage the whole incident had done to me, to the church, my friends, to my family, untold people who were distraught by it, and those who sat in judgement. I went back to my stake president and asked him to talk to Elders Oaks and Maxwell again about reconsidering the ban. I would be participating in a KSL's `Talkabout' program discussing the upcoming Mormon History Association in England, and I knew, with audience participation, that someone would ask me about the ban. I hadn't been in a public setting for the whole ten months when people hadn't discussed it. I pointed out to my stake president the advantages to everyone of being able to say that the situation had been resolved. He said he'd see what he could do. The night before I was to tape the program, he called and said that I was no longer under any restrictions." [Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]
65 years ago today - Apr 27, 1961
First counselor J. Reuben Clark tells the apostles: "I think it is terrible for any man in the Church to begin to use his Church position, particularly in finances, to his own advantage... So far as I know there are none of you who are trying to use the Church to your own self-advantage. That cannot be said for all our Church members." [The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
95 years ago today - Apr 27, 1931
[Minutes of the Seventies] My dear President [Heber J.] Grant: ... you gave to the apparent incongruity of the First Council of the Seventy being unable to participate with members of the Twelve when out in conferences, when ordaining High Priests and bishop's counselors when occasion should arise. The answer to all this has been that the Presidency of the Seventies, not being High Priests were barred from these functions; also in regard to performing marriage ceremonies, etc. Perhaps you will remember that I said I thought the decisions that had led to this policy of excluding the Seven Presidents from such functions was too tightly drawn and that if it were considered that these brethren have an APOSTOLIC CALLING, that calling would warrant them to do along these lines whatsoever might be necessary in the course of their ministry (as stated in Doctrine and Covenants) ... I trust you will not think me over persistent in the matter, but I did think that since this information had come into my hands and also is in strict harmony with the interpretation I gave with the Seventies holding an APOSTOLIC CALLING, it would authorize the First Council to do whatever the Apostles do when necessary, and when appointed to do it, should be made known to you and your counselors and to the present quorum of the Twelve; and in this spirit I submit it to your consideration. Very truly yours, [Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015, Appendix 1: Minutes of the Seventies, 1837-1933, Excerpts]
170 years ago today - Apr 27, 1856
[Brigham Young] "some of the bishops don't know right from wrong, truth from error, nor a sheep from a jackass and men would give boot to be a home. Children must be made to know their Father and they must be corrected. Wives must submit themselves unto their husbands as unto the Lord - Men if you don't know enough, hold your tongue, but don't let your wives know they know most or they will leave you - there never was a circumstance when women were the head of the men. treat your wives kindly but if they step out of their place put them right and quick. There is not a man who magnifies his calling but can rule any woman in the kingdom. I just know that the people pray for me for I feel it every hour and I pray for you always. Martha S. Heywood Journal. I prayed my Heavenly Father that I may receive it [President Young's words] in honesty, especially the principle that a woman, be she ever so smart, she cannot know more than her husband if he magnifies his priesthood. That God never in any, any age of the world endowed woman with knowledge above the man. -- Salt Lake City " [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 - Apr 26, 1851
Wilford Woodruff records: "President Young while speaking of the Resurrection said that we should Receive the same Bodies that we lay down if our dust was Blown to the four winds of Heaven." [On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
180 years ago today - Apr 26, 1846
[Nauvoo Temple] Brigham Young received a letter from Orson Hyde, who wrote that a wealthy Catholic benefactor had offered to buy the Temple for $200,000. Hyde offered to lease the Temple to him instead, but he refused and the offer fell through. Hyde asked if it might not be better to sell the Church's two temples at Kirtland and Nauvoo, and use the money to help the poor move west. [Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple]
180 years ago today - Sunday, Apr 26, 1846
President Young said the spirit of the Lord and keys of the priesthood holds power and dominion over all animated beings. When Father Adam transgressed the law, he did not fall all at once from the presence of the Lord, but spake face to face with him for a long time afterwards. The rising generation continued to sin and degenerate from generation to generation until they have got so far from the Lord that a veil of darkness sprung up between them, so that they could not any longer speak with the Lord save it was through a prophet. During this time the earth and all creation groaned in sin and continued to degenerate, and enmity increased and the lives of man and beast began to shorten, and the earth continued downwards to the present time. For this cause the Son of God descended below all things that he might reach the case of every man that he might return to the Father and possess all things. In this dispensation the keys that were committed to Father Adam will be restored. And we are to commence retracting, and to approximate back again into the favor and presence of the Lord by taking up the ordinances of the gospel and following them back to the starting point. [Willard Richards Journal]
80 years ago today - Apr 25, 1946
[Marion G. Romney] I had a meeting with President Clark early this morning, at which it was determined to ship immediately two carloads of food and a carload of clothing to Munich and Austria in the German Mission. [The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015, Appendix 2, The Diaries of Marion G. Romney, 1941-1961, Abridged]
60 years ago today - Apr 25, 1966
A "standing-room-only audience" listened as David O. McKay's nephew referred to the recent Birch Society president - Robert Welch banquet as a "gathering of the clan," and referred to the "Dear Brethren" letter promoting it as "a deceitful device." Alluding to the controversies of the previous month, Quinn McKay observed: "What do we do when General Authorities do not see eye to eye on political issues? Which do we follow? If each of the General Authorities were to speak on `The Contributions of the John Birch Society' you would no doubt hear some rather contrasting views. Then which apostle would one quote?" McKay's nephew then referred to the Reed Benson letter which had ignited the race hysteria preceding the October 1965 conference. [Quinn G. McKay, statements in Davies, Political Extremism Under the Spotlight, 12, 19,20-21. The "standing-room-only" reference is from the description of the meeting on the inside front cover. 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.]
185 years ago today - Apr 25, 1841
A Mormon "Secret Service in detecting thiefs &c." is founded. The thieves are former Danites. [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]
105 years ago today - 1921. April 25
(Emmeline B. Wells) : Died at the age of eighty-four in her home at 1354 South 900 East in Salt Lake City; buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery near her husband Daniel. [Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
175 years ago today - Apr 25, 1851
[Wilford Woodruff] ....[I] found Walker the Utah Chief with His band. I Here saw him for the first time. He is an ugly cunning chief. [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 - Apr 24, 1981
Apostle David B. Haight gives the keynote address at Annual Meeting of the Utah Association of Women. He states that Many of today's problems can be traced to the music of the Beatles in the early 1960s. "I witnessed the early developing of protests on college campuses, protests against the Vietnam War, with protestors using Beatle-type music to express their feelings against our government, against our military, and against authority in general."
90 years ago today - Apr 24, 1936
[J. Reuben Clark] [During a meeting with Will Seegmiller and Harold Morgan on April 23, 1936:] I said that I was tremendously interested in victory this Fall, and that I was trying to do what I could to further that possibility. Mr. Seegmiller said that he also is most anxious for that, and that he was sure he knew a very great deal more about Utah's politics than I knew. I reiterated two or three times that I had no personal feeling in this matter at all. He said that people were saying that I, as a member of the First Presidency, was trying to dictate politics. I told him that there was no excuse for that, that I had made my position perfectly clear at the luncheons. He replied that some people had said I could not divest from myself my Church position in the matter of politics, to which I replied that those people would have to learn that it could be done. I stated I had explained to the luncheons my position with reference to myself himself, and felt that in the interest of harmony he should do as I suggested. He said that that was a matter of opinion, and his opinion differed from mine. I replied to the effect that it was a question of opinion, but I felt very clear about my own. ... [The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
140 years ago today - Apr 24, 1886 (Saturday)
The Supreme Court of Utah rendered a decision which practically endorsed lewd and lascivious conduct... [Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]
130 years ago today - Thursday, Apr 23, 1896
Prest. Jos. F. Smith['s] sermon on the [Political] Manifesto at Provo came up for consideration but no decision was reached, only opinions expressed. I feel Bro. Jos. F. construction of the Manifesto cuts to[o] deep and will cause trouble for our people everywhere. [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]
165 years ago today - Apr 23, 1861 (Evening)
Br. George A. Smith called in and had a conversation about coal oil springs. The President [Brigham Young] said God had a design in these springs, in time the people will find they are dancing over a volcano. -- Salt Lake City [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]
150 years ago today - Apr 23, 1876
Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, attends sacrament meeting at the Salt Lake City 14th ward. The Emperor is passing through Utah on his way to Philadelphia to assist President Ulysses S. Grant in opening the Centennial Exposition. The press reports him as saying that, having failed to see the harems of Turkey, he wished to visit the seraglio of Brigham Young. He is the first head of state to visit Utah.
160 years ago today - Apr 23, 1866
[Circleville Massacre] They (the Mormon townspeople) sent messengers requesting that the Paiutes go into town and hear a letter read to them. Many did. They gathered in the meetinghouse to hear Bishop William Allred address them. According to a previous plan, the Circleville men who outnumbered the Indians three to one came in unarmed and intermingled with them. The bishop read the message from Fort Sanford, stressing that the settlers wanted only peace with their band, but the Indians would have to help by lending them their guns. In return, the Paiutes could work for the whites and be paid in goods. When the Indians showed reluctance to give up their weapons, the settlers acted: "each man knowing his place and what was expected of him, grabbed hold of his Indian to disarm [him]. They all showed resistance but their bows and arrows and knives were taken from them." Next, "their arms were tied to a stick which was passed behind their backs and under their arms." Mormon militia proceeded to shoot the hand-tied Indian men, then slit the throats of their women and children one-by-one. Of this incident commanding general Daniel H. Wells, and Young's counselor, writes that these "brethren" did what was necessary. [Exploring Mormonism: Mountain Meadows Massacre Timeline, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/mountain-meadows-massacre-timeline/; The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn]
165 years ago today - Apr 23, 1861
The first of several Church wagon trains leaves the Salt Lake Valley with provisions for incoming Saints, whom they later meet at the Missouri River. This program to help immigrating Saints lasts until the railroad comes in 1869.
175 years ago today - Apr 23, 1851
[Hosea Stout] Last night a man named Custer was killed by the Indians in Toolie Valley. They had been taken prisoners by the whites & attempting to break away they were pursued by the whites & Custer was shot. The Indians were taken but permitted to keep their arms. A party is going out to night to Toolie against the Indians. [Diaries of Hosea Stout]
160 years ago today - Apr 22, 1866
[Wilford Woodruff] At the Close of the meeting President Young & Wells & John Taylor W. Woodruff F. D. Richards & G. Q. Cannon met at the Historians Office for Prayer. The subject of the History of Joseph the Prophet as Published by Mother Smith was taken up & President Young said Brother Woodruff as soon as G A Smith Comes home I want you to get Elias Smith & set down & Correct the Errors in the History of Joseph Smith as published by Mother Smith & then let it be published to the world. [Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
150 years ago today - Apr 22, 1876
[Wilford Woodruff] This Evening train Brought the Emperor of Brazill Dom Pedro From Ogden to Salt Lake City. "And their Kings shall be brought" is being fulfilled. He took rooms at the waker House and went to the Theater in the Evening. He is the first Emperor that Ever Visited Utah Territory in our day. [Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
65 years ago today - Apr 20, 1961
The First Presidency and Twelve approve the rebaptism and full reinstatement of priesthood blessings for John D. Lee, the only executed participant in Mountain Meadows Massacre. The ordinances occur on 8-9 May 1961. [The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
165 years ago today - Apr 21, 1861
[Wilford Woodruff] I +***** found on the Table A Deseret Extra News Containing the latest pony dispatch which says that war has Commenced. ... This is the Commencemet of the war at South Carolina in fulfillment of the Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet in 1832. ...Presidet Brigham Young in his instructions to the missionaries said now I want you to remember what I say to you. Now take care that you do not get to Sleep & let the devil take the advantage of you. You may do that in an hour that you cannot regain through all Eternity. ... And let the women alone, or it will prove a Curse to you. Here is George Grant. Has no wife. Now let him not think of a wife untill He gets back. This Corting women while you are abroad upon a mission is a miserable business. I would not give shucks for an Elder who Cannot go on a mission & keep Clean & Come back Clean. Now remember that. I have spent my Early life without women. ... Many Elders go out get to sleep & do wrong and they Come back and are good for Nothing & never will be. ... [Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
60 years ago today - Apr 21, 1966
BYU president Ernest L. Wilkinson gives what he, himself calls a "powerful address" that would "rock the campus from one end to the other." Wilkinson designs the speech to be controversial and hopes that it will generate discussion on campus, especially among "liberal" professors. He then instructs the newly-formed student spy ring to solicit and report on the "liberal" professors's reactions to the speech. One professor of political science, Ray Hillam, a target of the spy ring, learns about the spy ring and requests a formal hearing which Wilkinson uses to formally charge Hillam with being pro-communist and disloyal to BYU. Hillam, in the process of defending himself exposes the spy-ring and precipitates a major scandal for Wilkinson. Wilkinson privately confesses his role to the Board of Trustees but publicly denies it.
105 years ago today - Apr 21, 1921
The IMPROVEMENT ERA publishes an article by James E. Talmadge on church discipline which says, "Should knowledge of any case of wrongdoing, or lack of harmony between or among members, come to the attention of the Bishopric of a Ward, it is their duty to delegate two or more priests or teachers to visit the parties concerned, and to try by brotherly mediation to bring about a reconciliation."
135 years ago today - Apr 21, 1891
[Brigham Young Jr.] I have had curious feelings lately. When father [Brigham Young] was verysick in St. George [Utah] in the spring of [18]77 previous to his death, he was taking a vapor bath in his house when he called for me to take him out of the box; 'quick, quick' he said. He fell into my arms fainting I laid him in his easy chair, he gasped twice, his eyes set, underjaw fell, his Bowels gave away and he lay as if dead I looked over and beyond him and saw a deep dark gulf, I was terrified and the horrible depths seemed to represent what was before us if father died. I believed him dead and my very soul cried out 'You must not die father,' the future was too terrible to contemplate. I laid my palsied hands upon his head and in a quivering voice prayed God to restore my father to life. At the end I opened my eyes and looked upon his face. His eyes were wide open and were clear and glittered like blue steel and in his natural voice he quietly said 'Well your not much of a soldier.' Twice within the last week I have been perfectly unmaned, for perhaps ten seconds each time, and the same sensations experienced on the occasion when I believed my father dead and I was gazing over his body into that gulf of dispair have the same feelings of despair assailed me. I never knew the torture of terror but these three times. I was wide awake each time and it took all the power I have in the priesthood to overcome this unknown terror. I know to some extent what the prophet Joseph [Smith] experienced when seized upon in the woods by that soul destroying power just previous to the appearing of our God & his Christ. [Brigham Young Jr. 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]
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