Several curious tidbits that happened on this day in Mormon History
[Brigham Young Jr.]
Had some strange experiences today. After meeting in the Temple, Pres. Snow held reception for Ken. news men at Beehive. I had Sis. Effie E. Hakes sealed to me (she's dead) Sis. Falkland acted for her. Some other experience was peculiar and the Lord interposed to spare me and mine. God is good, I acknowledge Him in everything.
[Diary of Apostle Brigham Young Jr., http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
Joseph Smith, father of the Prophet, came from Merrimac River, N.H., and first settled in Palmyra, but in 1819 removed to this place. He was a Methodist; but had formerly been a Universalist, and was quite an adept at Scriptural arguments. Credulity seems to have been a pretty large ingredient in his composition, as he was a great digger, always seeing "sights;" but never realizing his expectations, he was noted for his indolence, and for generally being in some difficulty with his neighbors. Joe's mother was a far different person from his father: she is described as a woman of strong uncultivated intellect, artful and cunning, and strongly imbued with an illy regulated religious enthusiasm, and much given to vague visions of riches and greatness. As is usually the case, she had much more to do with forming the character of the son than his father, though he had more of the atrocities of the latter, so far as his habits were concerned. Mrs. Smith seems to have been the head and front of the movement; she it was who first gave vague hints that a prophet was to arise from her humble household, and as arrangements progressed towards a consummation, she named those who had been fixed upon as instruments to assist them in getting out the new revelations--always selecting men who were noted for their credulity. In these affairs her husband assisted, and was her executive officer.
ALVAH [Alvin], the eldest son, was originally intended for the prophet, but alas for all human designs, "the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak;" and one day, ALVAH being rather hungry, he indulged too freely in raw turnips, sickened and died; so the incipient prophet was lost to the world and to Mormonism. Joe Smith thereby became a great man, for it was immediately given out that the mantle of Alvah [Alvin] had fallen upon him, unworthy though he was--for rumor says he was as lazy as his father, rather intemperate in his habits, and possessed of less than ordinary intellect. He had previously professed religion at a camp meeting, and was quite an exhorter at evening meetings; but this did not last long. "Mormon Hill" had been long designated "as the place in which countless treasures were buried;" Joseph, the elder, had "spaded" up many a foot of the hill side to find them, and Joseph Jr., had on more than one occasion accompanied him. Taking all these circumstances together, how perfectly natural was it for the Smith family to be selected as the means of finding, and Mormon Hill as the repository of the long buried revelation, known as the "Gold Bible."
It has been generally believed that this celebrated book was written by Mr. Spaulding, of Ohio, but for this belief there is no foundation; the original production undoubtedly emanated jointly from the Smith family, and a schoolmaster of this village by the name of OLIVER COWDERY, who was intimately connected with the Smiths in all their movements...
The original design of the movers was undoubtedly to make money and to gain a certain notoriety, of which, as we have said, Mrs. Smith had often had visions, and they had no idea at this time of founding a sect. Joe Smith has himself said as much. As soon as the Bible had been discovered Joe commenced to prophesy and to name individuals who were, as he said, called of God, as chosen instruments to assist him in the translating, &c., of the revelation. The most noted of their assistants was MARTIN HARRIS, a respectable and honest farmer residing at Palmyra--much given to new creeds, and a monomaniac upon the subject of "spiritual manifestations." He mortgaged his farm to pay for the printing of the Gold Bible, but a contract signed by JOSEPH, and witnessed by COWDERY, secure to Harris and his heirs one half the proceeds of the sale of the Gold Bible, until he was reimbursed in the sum of $2500--the cost of printing. This, together with the fact that Harris had procured the services of a village jeweler to help him estimate the value of the plates, taking as a basis Joe Smith's description, leaves us in doubt as to whether he was altogether a dupe.
The Prophet's account of finding these plates was--that an angel appeared, and directed him where to dig; he was then compelled, against his will, to interpret them, and promulgate their contents to the world; that on the plates were the names of the ancient residents in this country, "engraved by Mormon the son of Nephi;" that in the box containing them was "a large pair of spectacles, the stone or glass set in them being opaque to all but the prophet;" that "these belonged to Mormon the engraver, and that the plates could not be read without them." Harris was the principal amanuensis, and having nearly a hundred pages of the manuscript translation in his house, his wife, who was an unbeliever, seized them, and either burned or secreted them--it was supposed the former--but for fear that she should confront them with the lost documents at some future day, the Smiths, Cowdery and Harris, agreed not to translate these again, but to let so much of the new revelation drop out, lest "the evil spirit should get up a story that the second translation did not agree with the first." . . .
Yours,
ASHES [anonymous author, probably relying on an 1851 account by Orsamus Turner]
["Mormonism in Its Infancy," Newark (New Jersey) Daily Advertiser, Circa August 1856, Charles Woodward Scrapbook, New York Public Library, New York, New York (Woodward 1880, 1:125)., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: Manchester Resident Reminiscence]
[Helen Mar Kimball]
A few days after their return to Nauvoo the Prophet's brother Don Carlos Smith died, and being an officer in the legion as well as a Freemason he was buried with Masonic and military rites. Those of the Masonic fraternity marched next to the family to the grave which was in a little grove at the foot of the hill southwest of the temple. My mother's baby being too sick for her to leave I went in her stead and marched with my father in the Masonic procession ...
[Whitney, Helen Mar, Jeni Broberg Holzapfel, and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History, Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997]
TV GUIDE article: "Cute, Cuddly, Courteous and Worth Millions: Donny and Marie Osmond's TV Success is the Latest Chapter in a Unique Family Saga."
[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
Twenty-six-year-old Don Carlos Smith, Joseph's youngest brother, dies in Nauvoo. He was the editor of the Times and Seasons and became sick while printing in a damp cellar. He leaves three daughters.
[Conkling, Christopher J., Joseph Smith Chronology]
James Gordon Bennett diary entry, Geneva, New York (sixteen miles southeast of the Smith farm near Palmyra): Joseph Smith Sr. a healer and "grand story teller--very glib" and his son a "carless, idle, indolent fellow--brought up to live by his wits." The Hill Cumorah. Mormons moved to Ohio "because the people here would not pay any attention to them."
[Kenney, Scott, Saints Without Halos, "Mormon History 1830-1844," http://web.archive.org/web/20120805163534/saintswithouthalos.com/dirs/d_c.phtml]
[Heber J. Grant, Letter to Matthias F. Cowley]
"None of the Quorum saw fit to inform me of yours and Bro[ther]. John W [Taylor]'s resignations as members of the Quorum of the Apostles and my first official notice came from the Presidency after the April conference. No particulars as to why the resignations were given have been given to me. Toney [Anthony W. Ivins], Pres[ident]. [Joseph E.] Robinson and others gave an intimation of what was coming and I hoped and prayed that they were mistaken. I cannot possibly express to you the deep sorrow that I have felt that any such action as has been taken was considered necessary. My home coming in meeting my family and friends is looked forward to with much pleasure, but when I think of meeting in the Temple with my dearly beloved associates in our quarterly conferences and recall that you and John will not be there and that Bro[ther]s. [Marriner Wood] Merrill and [Abraham] Owen [Woodruff] will also be absent, it will indeed be a sad home coming. I am in perfect harmony with the action taken and am sure that no mistake has been made but this assurance makes no difference in the deep sorrow that I feel that there was any cause for action in yours and John's case."
[Heber J. Grant, Letter to Matthias F. Cowley, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
"At 7 30 P.M. went to High Priests (Sic) Quorum Meeting and listened to a very interesting talk by brother Samuel Richard, the last of the original company of young men organized by Joseph the Prophet to go and explore the Rocky Mountains for a dwelling place for the Saints, he spoke of a night vision he had in answer to his prayers wherein he came west all over these rigions down into California Mexico and back up to Jackson Co where he helped to build the Great Temple there." [This is a recounting of the Horse Shoe Prophecy]
[Diary Excerpts of Thomas A. Clawson, Signature Books Library, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
[Brigham Young]
He further remarked that the Government would have to acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy, and after a while there would be a scarcity of grain. -- Salt Lake City
[Brigham Young Office Journals, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[Leonard Arrington]
Word has come to us that Elder [G. Homer] Durham is working out a policy on "conflict of interest" in the Historical Department. This policy includes the following elements:
1. No employee of the Historical Department is permitted to do any research or writing at his desk. This not only includes his work time but he may not use lunch time for the purpose nor stay after work hours to do so. He may, of course, do so on annual leave time if approved by Elder Durham.
2. He has not definitely ruled on the matter but is giving serious consideration to prohibiting Gordon Irving from serving as an assistant editor of the Journal of Mormon History. [[Durham ultimately approved Irving's outside involvement in the journal, for which Irving appeared in the staff box for six years, vols. 7-12 (1980-85).]]
3. No Historical Department employee will be able to use his Historical Department position as a power base for moving into a university or other professional position.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
Brigham Young's office journal records: " In the evening Pres[ident] Wells read to the President a part of the life of Senator Stephen A. Douglass, deceased, in which it mentioned a circumstance wherein Joseph Smith (Prophet) was protected by him. The President remarked that Stephen A. Douglass was a far better man than President Abel Lincoln for he knew his feelings were hostile to this people."
The newly renovated Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois, is dedicated. The cemetery contains the graves of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith, among others. A site of interest to both the RLDS and LDS Church, the dedication is performed under the joint direction of President Wallace Smith, president of the RLDS Church, and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the LDS Church.
[LDS Daily, www.ldsdaily.com]
[Leonard Arrington]
I have learned today the true story of the cricket and seagull episode in Mormon history in 1848. It is well known that birds eat seeds-grain seeds, flower seeds, millet seeds, wheat and so on. The seagulls had been over Salt Lake City for perhaps millennia. At any rate they circled over the fields of grain of the Saints, descended and began to eat the maturing grain, as they still do today. The Saints began to despair that the seagulls were eating up all their grain. Fearfully, they worried about their future. Nevertheless, they didn't want to shoot the seagulls. They many times sang the song, "Don't Kill the Little Birds." [["Don't Kill the Little Birds" was, for instance, in the church's 1909 Deseret Sunday School Songs.]] The crickets realized the position the Saints were in and so decided to be a sacrifice for a good purpose. So the crickets came in and lay down, playing dead, which attracted the seagulls away from the grain. The seagulls ate the crickets instead. Thus it was really, in essence, the crickets that saved the Saints' grain crop. This suggests that we ought to put up a new monument on Temple Square to the Mormon cricket. [[Arrington meant this as a joke, although a member of the division, William Hart- ley, found that the story of seagulls rescuing settlers by devouring crickets had grown more miraculous over time. See "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls," 137-48.]]
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
The Christian Broadcasting Network, founded and run by Pat Robertson, began broadcasting over the radio.
[Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline]
[Leonard Arrington]
... I had always wanted to ask about President Romney's sister who became a Catholic nun. How did that happen? What were the circumstances? She said that this sister's name was Lurelene. She had grown up in Mexico, along with President Romney, and then went to Rexburg [Idaho], I believe. She had married and had I think five children. She had married an LDS person whose name Dona did not recall. Then she had been divorced, say when she was in her fifties. Sometime after she became a Roman Catholic and took the vows of a nun. She is known as Mary Catherine. She lives in Holladay [Utah] along with a few other nuns, perhaps six or seven. They do work on behalf of the poor and the needy. ...
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
[Charles W. Penrose]
At Pres[iden]ts office & B[isho]ps office. Note from [Josiah] Rogerson about his M/s [manuscript] on Mountain Meadows [Massacre]. Meeting at Temple. Read note rec[eive]d from Josiah Rogerson informing me that the First Presidency had 'appointed' me to hear and revise his history of the M[ountain] M[eadows] Massacre. Pres[ident] [Joseph F.] Smith denied having done so, and it was voted unanimously that the M/s [manuscript] be not published.
[Charles W. Penrose 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]
At St. Charles, Idaho, George Q. Cannon reports "having seen the Bear Lake Monster or something of that kind this evening while strolling along the lake."
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]]
Groundbreaking for adobe Tabernacle on Temple Square.
[Timeline of Wilford Woodruff's Life in the Context of US and Church History, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/timeline]
[Wilford Woodruff marriage]
Sarah Elinore [Elinor or Eleanor] Brown. She was eighteen, Wilford was thirty-nine. They were divorced four weeks later and Sarah went to live with another family. This is Sarah Elinor Brown, born on August 22, 1827, in Vinal Haven, Knox, Maine, the daughter of Charles Brown and Mary Arey.
Wilford Woodruff apparently married her sister posthumously: Rebeca Brown born in vinal Haven Maine Oct 30, 1826 / Sealed to WW Died Aug 1839 Aged 13 year /June 15 1807/."
Sarah later married Lisbon Lamb in Salt Lake City on February 15, 1849, with whom she had three children. She died on December 25, 1915 in Farmington, Utah.
[Compton, Todd, 'The Wives of Wilford Woodruff', http://toddmcompton.com/WWfamilies.htm]
[Wilford Woodruff marriage]
Mary Carolyn [Caroline] Barton. Thomas Alexander refers to her as a teenager. She and Wilford Woodruff divorced four weeks later and she returned to her parents.
Alexander writes, The two young wives [she and Sarah Brown, see below] began keeping company with three young men nearer their own ages, staying out with them until early in the morning for several days. . . . The thirty-nine-year-old Woodruff forebade his teenage wives from consorting with the men . . . they continued dating their friends, and Woodruff thought some sexual misconduct had taken place . . . As promised, he sent Carolyn Barton back to her parents and Sarah Brown to another famly, and Hosea Stout whipped the boys. Woodruff thought the girls deserved similar punishment, but expulsion sufficed . . . Brigham Young agreed to divorces between Woodruff and the two women."
I have not yet identified the genealogy of Mary Barton. In Mormon history, there is a Mary Caroline Barton who married Erastus Curtis, with whom she had eleven children, but this is probably not the same Mary Caroline Barton.
[Compton, Todd, 'The Wives of Wilford Woodruff', http://toddmcompton.com/WWfamilies.htm]