[J. Reuben Clark] Dictation'Ideas by J. R. C. I recall a very sage remark made by Dr. Brimhall, formerly President of the Brigham Young University: There are two occasions in a man's lifetime when it becometh a man to say little: One is at the beginning of his service when he is yet to prove himself, and the other is at the end of his service when he has made his record. Memo by J R C on above: At the beginning a man has little but hope and aspiration and what ability and determination as he may bring to his service; the other is that at the end of his service when his record is made, it speaks for itself. [The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015]
Today In Mormon History-fb
Several curious tidbits that happened on this day in Mormon History
185 years ago today - Jun 10, 1841
Monmouth, Illinois. On a technicality, Judge Stephen A. Douglas ruled that that Joseph Smith's writ was illegal and discharged him from the arrest warrant. [BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
20 years ago today - Jun 9, 2006
Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple: Ground was broken in a small ceremony on 12 September 2009 after a new site was selected. Previously ground had been broken on 9 June 2007 by Spencer V. Jones, excavation was halted because of opposition from Tegucigalpa city officials and citizens, who felt the temple would overshadow and block the view of the Catholic Our Lady of Suyapa Basilica on adjacent land. After negotioations failed to resolve the issue, the church announced on Wednesday, 28 January 2009, that out of respect for the city officials and citizens, the church would relocate the temple. [Wikipedia, List of Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_temples_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#List_of_temples]
115 years ago today - Jun 9, 1911
The Hotel Utah was built as a cooperative effort by the business and ecclesiastical leaders of the Salt Lake community to bring everyone together. It succeeded. Shares in the venture were sold and the hotel's prominent location on the corner of South Temple and Main Street, previously the site of the Bishop's Tithing Office and the Deseret News, was donated by the LDS Church. After two years of construction and a $2 million price tag, the Hotel opened 9 June 1911 "in a blaze of splendor" with a grand party for 500 of Utah's notables. [Utah History Encyclopedia: Hotel Utah, http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/]
165 years ago today - Jun 9, 1861
President Brigham Young gave a very interesting historical sketch of his late visit to the extreme southern settlements of the Territory and interspersed his remarks with suitable instructions on the practicability of the brethren producing their own sugar, tobacco, wine, cotton cloth, etc., in the south. -- SLC Bowery [Deseret News, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
185 years ago today - Jun 9, 1841
[A] trial is held to see if Illinois should send Joseph back to Missouri. The actions of the young prosecuting attorney are so outrageous that the judge is forced to silence him. By the time Joseph's attorney, Mr. Browning, finishes his sad tale of the Saints being driven from Missouri and walking on bloody bare feet across the snow to Illinois, Judge Douglas himself is in tears. [Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
190 years ago today - Jun 9, 1836
[After some sermons] Elder Patten arose bound the Law & Scealed the testimony & Prophesied upon the heads of some of the ungodly People who were Present. ... Elder Patten was filled with the Power of God. Numbers were healed of sickeness. [Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
195 years ago today - June 1831 (on or before 19 June)
Section 53, 54, 55 & 56 are received about this time, relating to land, travels to Missouri and missionary work.
175 years ago today - Jun 8, 1851
While he was alive, Joseph Smith married the wife of Simeon Dagget Carter in Nauvoo. Lydia Kenyon Carter was listed as "Lydia Smith [--] wd of Joseph Smith (Prophet)," when she was sealed to James Goff on 8 June 1851. Born in 1799, she was 44-years-old (menopausal) when she became one of the Prophet's polygamous widows, after which Reynolds Cahoon sealed her as a polygamous wife to Heber C. Kimball on the same day the apostle sealed Cahoon to his first polygamous wife. The latter two had also married before the Prophet's death. Legally married to Simeon D. Carter since 1818, Lydia (mother of their three children) resided with him in Nauvoo and Utah --despite her marriages to Smith, Kimball, and Goff. [Endowment House Record Book (1851-1854), Entry 65, for marriage of "Lydia Smith" (born on 11 December 1800) to James Goff on 8 June 1851 (Film 183,393--not available to the general public), LDS Family History Library, but with typescript available to the public in Quinns Research Files, Beinecke Library; Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 74; Kenney, Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, 6: 305 (12 December 1866), referenced in "Evidence For The Sexual Side of Joseph Smith's Polygamy," Comments by D. Michael Quinn on Session #2A "Reconsidering Joseph Smith's Marital Practices," Mormon History Association's Annual Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 29 June 2012 (unabbreviated version, revised during July)]
170 years ago today - Jun 7, 1856
The LATTER DAY SAINTS MILLENIAL STAR published in London, says Mormon missionaries in South Africa avoid contact with the Kaffir and Fingoe populations because they had "too much of the blood of Cain in them, for the Gospel to have much effect on their dark spirits." [On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
180 years ago today - Jun 7, 1846
[Brigham Young] "I can safely prophesy that we will not cross the mountains this season, and that is what many of the brethren wish, they would rather go to hell than be left behind. I instructed the sisters to keep themselves and tents clean, and not to dictate those over them, it was their duty to raise all the children they could lawfully, and rear them up in the name of the Lord, watching over them and keeping them from playing with ungodly children, or from falling into danger, or exposing themselves to sickness; and when they have raised them up to deliver them over to their father's charge. Instead of meddling with their husband's business, they should be careful of his feelings, and seek his interest, and men should be kind and affectionate to their wives, not abusing or exposing them to hardships." [Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846- 1847. Elden J. Watson, ed. Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1971.:179-180]
185 years ago today - Jun 7, 1841
Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith started very early for his court hearing in Monmouth, Illinois, a 75-mile journey, accompanied by Sheriff Thomas King, the arresting officer from Adams County, [BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith, http://byustudies.byu.edu]
195 years ago today - Jun 7, 1831
Doctrine and Covenants 52: Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, to the elders of the Church, at Kirtland, Ohio, June 7, 1831. HC 1: 175-179. A conference had been held at Kirtland, beginning on the 3rd, and closing on the 6th of June. At this conference the first distinctive ordinations to the office of high priest were made, and certain manifestations of false and deceiving spirits were discerned and rebuked. [Doctrine and Covenants, http://amzn.to/DoctrineandCovenants]
195 years ago today - Jun 7, 1831 (6 June)
[D&C 52] The revelation directed fourteen pairs of elders, including Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, to travel to Independence, Missouri. The missionaries were to "preach by the way" and to hold a conference upon their arrival. There was great interest in the Missouri mission since the New Jerusalem was to be identified. Joseph Smith and those traveling with him left Kirtland on 19 June 1831 and arrived in Independence in mid-July. ... The mission calls in verses 22 and 32 were later revoked. [Cook, Lyndon, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, http://amzn.to/RevelationsofJosephSmith]
185 years ago today - Jun 4, 1841
Joseph calls at the home of Governor Carlin in Quincy, Ill. The governor shows him great courtesy, and doesn't mention that Missouri has asked him to turn Joseph over to them. Within a few hours of Joseph's leaving the governor's mansion, Carlin sends a posse of law officers to capture him and turn him over to the Missouri authorities. [Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
195 years ago today - Jun 4, 1831
[General Coming] "When he [Joseph Smith] arose in our midst he said that before the conference closed there were those present who should see the heavens open and bear record of the coming of the Son of Man, and that the man of sin should be revealed... Lyman Wight, while being ordained to the priesthood by Joseph Smith, prophesied (while Smith's hands were still upon his head) "that there were some in this congregation that should live until the Savior should descend from heaven, with a Shout, with all the holy angels with him." Harvey Whitlock stepped into the middle of the room with his arms crossed, bound by the power of Satan, and his mouth twisted unshapely. Hyrum Smith arose and declared that there was an evil spirit in the room. Joseph said, "Don't be too hasty," and Hyrum sat down. Shortly Hyrum rose the second time, saying, "I know my duty and will do it," and stepping to Harvey, commanded the evil spirits to leave him, but the spirits did not obey. Joseph then approached Harvey and asked him if he believed in God. Then we saw a change in Harvey. He also bore record of the opening of the heavens and of the coming of the Son of Man, precisely as Lyman Wight had done. [Book of John Whitmer, Church Historian p.69-71; 4th Conference Events also josephsmithpapers.or, as quoted in The Last Days and December 1890 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, y George D. Speer Sr., privately circulated]
195 years ago today - Jun 04, 1831
The Prophet Joseph Smith, during a four-day Church conference held at a schoolhouse on the hill above the Isaac Morley farmhouse in Kirtland, sees the Father and the Son and declares, "I now see God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand, let them kill me, I should not feel death as I am now" [Levi W. Hancock, "The Life of Levi Ward Hancock," 33)]
195 years ago today - June 4, 1831
Joseph looked at Lyman Wight and said, "You shall see the Lord and meet him near the corner of the house." (Levi Hancock Autobiography, typescript, BYU-S, p. 33) Of this prediction, Zebedee Coltrin recalls, "When Lyman Wight was ordained a high priest, Joseph told him he should see the heavens opened, and after he was ordained he stood on his feet and testified that he could see the heavens open and could see Jesus standing at the right hand of God." [A Timeline of Joseph Smith's Prophecies: His Prophecies Fulfilled (https://amzn.to/42s0h3I)]
140 years ago today - Mar 6, 1886
Two thousand Mormon women assembled in Salt Lake City to protest the recently enacted Edmunds Act, a federal law designed to bring an end to the Mormons' practice of polygamy. [Matthew J. Grow, Kate Holbrook, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Jill Mulvay Derr, The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History, Chronology. https://churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/events]
150 years ago today - Jun 3, 1876
The Deseret News publishes the grand jury's audit of Salt Lake City Corporation's financial records, which show extensive transactions involving liquor. Municipal funds purchase liquor for Pioneer Day on 24 July and also for a party of Mormon Battalion veterans. The city rents Brigham Young's distillery for $2,000 annually from 1861 to 1867, after which the city government purchases its liquor directly from the Howard Distillery which is owned jointly by Brigham Young and his first counselor Daniel H. Wells. Young is also a member of the Salt Lake City Council (1872-77), and Wells is mayor from 1866 to 1876. The report observes: "After completion of the railroad, the city continued to buy liquor from Brigham Young at $4.00 per gallon, although they could have gotten better 'States' liquor at $1.25 per gallon." [The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
155 years ago today - Jun 3, 1871
Salt Lake Tabernacle service: "Pres D.H. Wells spoke 25 minutes following President Young's remarks. Not very good attention. Considerable moving about, passing out, and drowsiness." Salt Lake Stake Deacons Quorum Minute Book records: "Bro [Samuel D.] Chambers said It was a source of happiness to him to be here, feels to be the least of all the saints of God, but blest to be one of the number. It is joy to him to fill all calls made upon him. Asks an interest in our faith and prayers, that he may receive an exaltation in the kingdom of God." Chambers, a former slave, had been a Mormon for 29 years at this time. [On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
180 years ago today - Jun 03, 1846
Jesse Little, a representative of the Church, meets with U.S. President James K. Polk in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for establishing the Mormon Battalion.
195 years ago today - June 3-6, 1831
The fourth general conference of the Church is held in Kirtland, Ohio. Two thousand persons attend. The previous day Joseph prophesied that "the man of sin" would be revealed. After many evil manifestations of the spirit of Satan descending upon one member after another, Joseph rebukes Satan and many wonderful spiritual manifestations are experienced (including Joseph prophesying that John the Revelator is among the ten tribes and Lyman Wight seeing a vision of the Son sitting on the right hand of the Father). Elders are ordained as high priests for the first time in this dispensation. [Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology; History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (7 volumes) 1:175-77.]
145 years ago today - Jun 2, 1881
Patriarchal Blessing of Susan E. Martineau given by Joel Hills Johnson ... Thy friends from behind the vail, some of them, shall visit thee in thy vision in the night time, and instruct thee in all things that appertain to thy exaltation and glory. ... Thine offspring shall become a great and a mighty people in the midst of the earth, clothed with the power of the holy priesthood, and mighty men of God with honor and renown shall spring from thee. ... I seal thee up unto eternal lives with thy companion and thy children, to come forth in the morning of the first ressurrection [resurrection] ... [Patriarchal Blessings]
145 years ago today - Jun 2, 1881
Patriarchal Blessing of Jesse N. Martineau given by Joel Hills Johnson ... many of the great men of the earth shall come to thee for counsel and for wisdom in the calamities that shall fall upon the earth. Thou shalt have power to escape the power of the Destroyer, and to cast Satan's yoke upon his own neck, and be free from the power of sin and death; and heavenly messengers shall visit thee and instruct thee in all thy duties of life and shall touch thee even as Jesus Christ touched the three Nephites, that thou mayest live long upon the earth and not taste death. ... I seal thee up unto eternal lives, for thy offspring shall become great and mighty upon the earth ... [Patriarchal Blessings]
165 years ago today - Jun 2, 1861 (Morning)
Prest. B. Y. preached one of the most interesting and exalted discourses that I ever heard, to a large and interesting audience. Reproved Bishop Warren of this [place] for selling gentile goods on commission to the brethren for wheat at a reduced price. Showed that their policy impoverished the people and bring them to wretchedness and misery. -- Parowan, Utah [A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee. 1848-1876. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds. San Marino, California: Huntington Library Press, 2003 ed. 314, 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]
180 years ago today - Jun 02, 1846
U.S. President James K. Polk's cabinet authorizes him to ask the Latter-day Saints to provide several hundred men in the war against Mexico.