7 Ward Bishops and the Localizing of LDS Tithing, 1847-1856

Tithing, the lifeblood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ financial system, has a history of its own. Although official tithing records are closed to research, Leonard Arrington and other scholars have written several chapters of tithing’s history.1 Chapter one, the Nauvoo beginnings, and chapter two, the exodus, are sketchy. The fourth and fifth chapters about tithing’s connections with consecration and United Orders are well written. A later chapter about turn-of-the-century shifts to cash tithes awaits telling.

What follows is a chapter three, dealing with tithing between 1847 and 1856. During this period, new Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter revolutionized the tithing system by making ward bishops, instead of the Presiding Bishop, responsible to receive tithes from, keep accounts for, and make annual tithing settlements with individual Saints.

A previously ignored, undated “Circular” from Hunter to ward bishops, which we can now date to late 1852, initiated the new program.2 The new system took three years to implement fully and required printed instructions and forms, new record-keeping systems, trainers, and monitors, standardizing valuation lists, building local storehouses, and intermittent scoldings to help bishops and members turn tithepaying into a ward matter.

Once they had become established in their Great Basin communities, LDS pioneers were expected to pay three types of tithes: property, increase, and labor. Apostle Parley P. Pratt, on October 7, 1849, gave perhaps the first Utah discourse that details the triple tithe. First, he said, “To fulfill the law of tithing a man should make out and lay before the [Presiding] Bishop [then Newel K. Whitney] a schedule of all his property, and pay him the tenth of it.” That is, he should pay a one-time initiatory tithe on all property he possessed. “When he has tithed his principal once,” Pratt continued, “he has no occasion to tithe again” on that property. But the next year he must pay one-tenth of his increase of “cattle, money, goods and trade.” A member also owed “the tenth of his time”—a labor tithe of each tenth day of man, young man, and work animals and wagons for the days not devoted to producing income or increase.3

The first Mormon pioneers had no large-scale “increase” to tithe until their first harvest in 1848. Albert Carrington’s personal tithing book pinpoints October 5, 1848, as “the beginning of tithing in this valley”—months before any Utah wards were created.4

The exodus from Nauvoo had disrupted stake, ward, and quorum organizations. “Until now,” First Presidency Counselor Heber C. Kimball said on February 16, 1849, our organizations “have all been kicked to pieces.” To solve the problem, the First Presidency then called a stake presidency and high council, and divided Great Salt Lake City into nineteen wards, each with a bishop. Several country wards also were created.5

Newly appointed bishops met together as a quorum, beginning on March 25, 1849. Their meetings became bimonthly. At the initial meeting, Daniel H. Wells, director of the Church’s public works projects, said he had “arranged the City into tithing wards and wish the Bishops with their men to be on hand when called upon.” His term “tithing ward” referred to labor tithing only, and he soon assigned city wards one by one or in clusters to provide workmen for community projects.6

Daniel H. Wells directed the public-works projects that were completed using labor tithing, which was required for members to be considered full tithepayers. Courtesy Perry Special Collections.

Presiding Bishop Whitney continued to receive, record, and disburse cash and commodity tithes from Salt Lake Valley Saints. When LDS settlements rooted beyond the Salt Lake Valley, bishops in distant wards acted as his agents, funneling tithes and keeping simple records of receipts and disbursements. Bishop Whitney conducted no tithing settlements in 1849 or 1850. He lacked a good storehouse for the commodities/tithes. During 1850 he handled tithing business in a room in the State of Deseret statehouse, in the mint, and in a joiner’s shop. Meanwhile, he eagerly watched the rise of walls for the new tithing storehouse. But he died in September 1850 before the place was finished.7

In 1851 a series of actions worked together to systematize tithe-handling. First, during April general conference, Bishop Edward Hunter, a skilled businessman, became the new Presiding Bishop six months after Whitney’s death. Second, that spring a central tithing storehouse finally opened, with one apartment to store grain, others for a store and a mechanic’s shop, and cellars for vegetables.8 Third, in April leaders announced plans to build the Salt Lake Temple, a project requiring tithing food to feed workmen and tithing materials with which to build.9 Fourth, during fall general conference, Bishop Hunter received as helpers two traveling presiding bishops, Nathaniel H. Felt and John Banks, whom he assigned to visit outlying wards and “settle with the several Bishops from time to time and report the same to the Presiding Bishop.”10

John Banks was called in 1851 to assist Edward Hunter in his duties as Presiding Bishop. Bishop Banks traveled to outlying settlements to work with the local bishops on the payment and disbursement of tithes. Courtesy Church Archives.

Finally, with the tithing office open and capable men called to manage the tithes, Brigham Young shocked conference attenders on September 10, 1851. He required them to covenant by raised hand and voice vote to tithe faithfully and to again pay their initiatory tithe on “all they have got.” He asked Saints to “commence anew the tithings and consecrations, and that within thirty days, each Saint should make a consecration of one-tenth of his property, and one-tenth of his interest or income ever after.”11 After the covenanting conference, Bishop Hunter and his staff opened for tithing settlement “business,” which lasted until the next March.

A Deseret News editorial on November 29, 1851, invited all Saints to settle their tithing accounts. The General Tithing Office, it said, wanted to close up accounts not settled since fall 1848. Many had tithed, the paper said, but had never made settlement since reaching the valley. Only those who settled their tithing could have their names entered in the Church’s sacred financial record, The Book of the Law of the Lord, and could receive certificates proving they were full tithepayers. They received one of four tithing certificates: for initiatory property tithes paid prior to September 10, 1851; for labor tithes; for increase tithes; and for property tithes paid in accordance with the September 10, 1851, covenant. “Each person ought to be able to show these four separate certificates to his Bishop this present season.” After 1852, the editorial added, only the produce and labor tithing certificates would be required.

Saints, after covenanting, sent a stream of tithing that brought Hunter and his staff new problems. The increase tithe and the labor tithe posed no challenge, but the property tithes on such things as a horse or a house did. “We have got to take one kind of property to pay tithing of another,” a bishop pointed out. Hunter said that “when a man is industrious, and has only a span of horses and a cow, we don’t want to cripple him. In such cases we will take hewed timber, Poles, wood, lumber, or labor.”12

But how many feet of lumber was a horse worth? How much tithing labor was an adobe house worth? How many peaches was a cast-iron stove worth? In bishops meetings and by correspondence, the portly Bishop Hunter set standardized valuation and exchange rates. “Cows should be estimated from twenty to thirty dollars,” Hunter advised, and oxen at sixty to eighty dollars per yoke. He warned bishops not to appraise low. “When you find a first rate piece of property, put on a first rate price, and a poor piece of property in a decreasing rating.” Tithing office clerks could not appraise properties, he announced; only he could.13 By posting valuation and exchange rates, Hunter opened the door for all ward bishops to soon become tithing appraisers and receivers.

To aid the 1851 tithing settlement at Church headquarters, Church Recorder Willard Richards issued a “Tithing Circular” on November 15 to tithing handlers in Utah and abroad. It called for full and accurate tithing records that listed when payments were received, by whom, and where, and also how, when, and to whom disposed. By October general conference each year, it instructed, all tithing accounts should be submitted to the tithing office. Saints wishing to make tithing settlements must bring receipts from bishops to whom they paid tithes. Utah bishops should make semiannual reports of their tithing books at conferences. Bishop Hunter and his staff were “to see that all Bishops and agents do their duty, and report according to this circular.” A year later, however, the historic 1852 circular cancelled these instructions.14

Hunter’s office, lacking ward rosters and master lists of Church members, had no way to know how well Saints were paying tithes. So, on January 20, 1852, he asked bishops to help him find out if their people paid tithing. This reversed roles. Previously, bishops wanting to know which ward members paid tithes would ask the General Tithing Office. But now Hunter asked bishops for that information. How could a ward bishop know who paid tithes at the central office? Only by asking each member. Hunter also pressed bishops to give him lists naming people unwilling to pay tithing. This act involved virtually every ward bishop for the first time in the tithing settlement process.15

In February 1852 ward bishops learned they soon would receive tithing ledgers, and that Bishop Hunter planned to build regional tithing storehouses, “with a cellar and upper Story.” Hunter’s assistant, Bishop Felt, advised bishops to obtain tubs for storing tithing butter, pork, eggs, and other perishables.16

Hunter finished settling the 1851 tithes on March 25, 1852. The First Presidency judged the year successful. “The brethren generally have been prompt in paying in one-tenth of their property according to their vote of last September Conference,” they said, “and never before has the Lord’s storehouse been so well supplied with wheat, meat, butter, eggs, vegetables, and other useful articles, and His pasture with cattle, as at the present time.” However, Church needs exceeded tithes received, forcing the Church leaders to pay one-fourth of annual expenses from nontithing sources.17

After April 1852 general conference, the First Presidency published a rare disclosure of tithes. It shows that between November 1848, the last tithing settlement, and March 27, 1852, tithepayers paid property tithing in accord with the September 10 covenant of one-quarter million dollars.18

Capping the tithing push, the First Presidency made Edward Hunter’s trial appointment permanent by ordaining him as Presiding Bishop at April general conference in 1852. They also appointed five men as assistant presiding bishops: Seth Taft, David Pettigrew, Abraham Hoagland—three city bishops who retained their offices—and David Fullmer and Daniel Spencer of the Salt Lake Stake’s presidency.19

Tithing merely trickled during summer 1852, stopping public works for want of materials and food. By fall the plan to make tithing a ward matter was finalized. No October general conference talks of which we have record discuss the change, but during conference week Brigham Young told high priests of a “future plan” of bishops keeping their own books and of members settling their tithes with their bishops. At general conference, Bishops Nathaniel Felt, John Banks, and Alfred Cordon became traveling presiding bishops to assist Hunter.20

In November or December 1852, Bishop Hunter issued the historic circular instructing ward bishops to handle, record, process, and forward tithes at the ward level and hold annual tithing settlements with members—tasks his office had handled until then. The two-page, printed, undated circular is addressed “to bishop _____,” is signed by Hunter, and includes a “postscript” by Brigham Young. “Hereafter, all the settlements of Tithing with those living in your branch or ward, will be made at your office” is the key phrase of the letter to the bishops.21

This major policy statement has been overlooked by historians because, somehow, a library cataloger mistakenly labeled it as an 1860s document. Not only does the context of tithing history date this document to 1852, but we also find a tithing instruction in 1859 that refers to a time when people settled tithing with the General Tithing Office “previous to the Bishops being authorized to do so in 1852.”22

Tithepaying was being localized, the circular said, because a “rapid increase” in population meant that “our settlements have extended themselves for hundreds of miles on every side.” Because of such growth, tithing management required that “some new arrangements” be created to produce “uniformity in all the branches.”

The circular next discussed four tithing matters: bookkeeping, appraising, annual settlements, and disbursements.

Bookkeeping: Bishops were warned to “keep an accurate account of all tithing deposited with you” by using a daybook and a ledger. In the daybook “every item of tithing paid, should be plainly and distinctly entered to the credit of the individual.” The daybook should be preserved until deposited in Hunter’s office. The daybook accounts should be posted in the ledger book. “The necessary forms of Bookkeeping, settlements, reports, etc.” accompanied the circular. Bishops should spell names properly and fully and should preserve and file away “all your receipts, orders, and due bills, with the names and dates endorsed on the back, as these will all be required in the settlement of your accounts.”

Appraising: The circular gave bishops skimpy advice on how to assign values to donated tithing items. Regarding labor tithing, bishops should be governed “by your own judgment, taking the circumstances of the several cases into consideration.” As a general rule, bishops “will allow at the rate of a month for tilling 2 acres of land, and charge four dollars labor tithing per month for the residue of the year; eight dollars a year for tithing on team work for a yoke of oxen, span of horses, or mules, when the owner is not engaged in teaming for wages.”

From cows either labor, butter, or a fee was expected: “When a tenth of butter is not paid, you will charge two dollars per annum for each cow.” Bishops were told to state on their tithing settlement reports any reasons “why a man’s labor tithing is less or more than the usual or general amount,” and “if there are any reasons why any man’s produce tithing is not as large as would ordinarily be expected.”

Hunter inserted a reminder, humorous today but serious then, about quality tithing: “And we wish the Bishops in no wise to countenance nor receive old worn out oxen, kicking cows, scabby sheep.” Young’s postscript to the circular asked for good materials but insisted that tithes should be paid in the product produced, not with substitutes:

The individual who neglects to pay a tenth of his butter, eggs, wool, stockings, cloth, &c, but pays the value thereof in wheat, potatoes, squashes, &c.; (while those who employ all their time and means, in rearing the Temple, and building up the Kingdom, are living with their families upon bread and water, and are destitute of the necessaries of life, or clothing to shield them from the inclemency of the weather,) has not fulfilled the law of tithing. Neither has that person who turns out the old broken-down horse, ox, or cow, while he retains the young and healthy stock, available property, or money in his own possession.

Annual tithing settlements: The circular gave most attention to settlements matters. At least once each year, or oftener, “a full settlement should be made, the books balanced, and the report made to this office, where the General Records are kept” so that “the same may be put upon the record in their proper places, and the individuals may receive a certificate from this office.” Bishops and any clerks they employed should sign the reports because “you will be held accountable for all property put into your hand, as also for the correctness and safety of your books.”

The circular listed sample questions for bishops to use during settlement interviews:

Had you any property when you came into the valley, on which you had not paid tithing?

Had you any money on hand?

In what were you engaged during the year after you arrived?

How much land did you till?

How many teams had you?

Did you pay a tenth of your Produce?

Did you pay a tenth of your Hay?

Did you pay a tenth of your Butter?

Did you pay a tenth of your Eggs and Chickens?

Did you make any thing by trading?

How much did your property increase in your hands?

Had you any increase of stock?

Disbursement: Regarding the distribution of collected tithes, the letter asked that “All the heavy articles of tithing” be forwarded “as heretofore” to the “General Tithing Store House,” where receipts would be issued “which you will enter to their several accounts.” Lighter items and “smaller articles of domestic production, such as butter, cheese, eggs, &c, you will receive and credit, and forward as circumstances will admit.”

Bishops must not take lightly these new tithing duties, the letter warned: “We shall charge you here as Bishop, with the total amount of tithing received by you, from each person, and it will stand against you until you account for the manner in which the produce and other property have been disposed of.” To supervise and train local bishops, “Traveling bishops” would visit the wards, inspect the tithing books, “audit all the accounts of your Ward, and assist in continuing a uniformity of system, and valuation of property.”

Should nontithepayers be disciplined? No, Hunter advised, “It is your duty to see that your wards fulfill the Law of Tithing, or let it alone, and in accordance to their works, let their accounts be rendered to the General Office. As this is a matter between them and their God, to us, it matters little whether they pay, or do not.” Young’s postscript underscored the point: “There is no compulsory or arbitrary power to be exercised over this brethren, in order to coerce the payment of tithing.”

Closing the epistle, Bishop Hunter expressed his hopes for the new ward tithing plan: “A strict adherance to the instructions herein contained, will render the business throughout the Territory easy, safe, and uniform.”

Although bishops quorum minutes record no mention of the circular, several entries show that bishops knew of the ward tithing plan by the end of 1852. Hunter probably had the circular’s instructions in mind at the December 7 meeting when he “remarked upon the multiplicity of business which was increasing upon the hands of the bishops and which before long will call for their whole time to be devoted to it.” Also, the bishops gave tithing reports at the December 21 meeting, showing they were busily engaged by then in gathering tithes. In the Tenth Ward, for example, men “were fast settling up their labor tithing.” Another bishop said that “none in his ward had refused to pay their tithing.” Traveling Bishop Felt advised reluctant bishops that “twas not oppressive in a bishop in demanding the tithing.”23

Trying out new tithing roles, some bishops encountered problems. In January 1853, Bishop Philip Klingonsmith of Cedar City sent Hunter a report but said he knew it was inadequate because he lacked account books and had never seen a correct form before. He also said he needed a storehouse, tithing office, and larger record books. Some people there claimed they had paid part of their tithes at Hunter’s office, which Klingonsmith complained he had no way to verify.24

Bishop Abraham Hoagland of Salt Lake’s Fourteenth Ward, responding to Hunter’s circular, began a “Day Book for Tithing” on December 11, 1852.25 The book has three hand-ruled columns in which Hoagland recorded daily tithing transactions during 1852 and 1853 by name, credits, and debits. A handful of women and thirty-five of the ward’s one hundred males are listed as donors. His busiest tithing month was March 1853, the last month for settling 1852 tithes. By categories, his March tithing transactions were:

Bishop Hoagland’s daybook lists only one tithing settlement—the others no doubt were entered in his missing ledger book, not now extant.

Utah tithepayers, including the 1851 covenanters, made 1852 a good tithing year despite the slack summer—whether or not ward bishops grasped their new tithing tasks. Late in 1852 the general storehouse contained fifteen thousand bushels of grain—a quantity so great that many felt Utah could never have a grain shortage (it did three years later). Bishop Elias Blackburn of Provo reported in November 1852 that: “The produce tithing is coming in well except the Wheat which has not yet been thrashed but I expect it ere long. There has been but few cattle paid in yet upon Property Tithing by the new comers Yet I believe they all manifest good disposition to pay up.”26 By mid-February 1853, Hunter observed that there was never a better spirit of tithepaying.27

Just before the April 1853 settlement deadline, Bishop Hunter reminded bishops to handle tithing settlements themselves rather than expecting his staff to do it. Ward bishops, he said, “know better how the brethren stood . . . than the clerks in the general office.” Bishop Felt, liking the new ward tithing system, said he believed that the “time was just at hand when the whole temporal business of the church would devolve upon the bishops.” The Deseret News reminded bishops that tithing returns were due at general conference. On April 5, Traveling Bishop Cordon said that along his way to Provo he gave bishops forms to fill out and bring to conference.28

As a traveling bishop, Nathaniel H. Felt taught local bishops that asking members for tithes was one of their expected duties. Courtesy Church Archives.

Tooele Bishop John Rowberry’s postconference letter to Hunter shows some complications that distant bishops faced.29 Rowberry, while settling tithing accounts at Richville and E T City, found some brethren who, because they maintained accounts with the General Tithing Office, refused to settle with him. His books, therefore, showed more unpaid tithing than was so. Produce tithing, he said, was lower than seemed right for their acreage, but their farms were new and lacked adequate water.

During April general conference in 1853, Hunter’s staff labored long hours to close the 1852 tithing books. Meanwhile, the Church’s need for tithes became visible on April 6 when Saints witnessed the laying of cornerstones for the Salt Lake Temple. Capitalizing on the occasion, several leaders called for tithes and consecrations to flow into the tithing house to “untie” leaders hands, overcome Church indebtedness, and support the workmen. President Young wanted tithepayers to “be as prompt in paying, as you are in feeding your family,” so the temple could rise quickly.30

The 1852 tithing season ended quietly in April 1853. Conference sermons, bishops quorum minutes, and the First Presidency’s April 13 general epistle neither laud nor berate the new ward tithing method. The epistle does note that “storehouses generally are in the various settlements.”31

Hunter found it remarkable that during the weeks and months after the conference, surprisingly little was said from pulpits regarding tithing.32

New Church programs, even then, required more time to implement than leaders expected. It took the ward tithing system three years to root firmly. Bishops quorum minutes for 1854–55 show that some bishops adapted well, while others seemed confused and hesitant. Some Saints disliked paying and settling tithes with their own bishop. Current events, such as the 1854 consecration movement, the 1855 drought, changes in bishoprics, and moves by ward members hampered tithing operations.

The biggest problem plaguing the ward tithing system was bad bookkeeping. During the new system’s first year, many bishops discovered their accounting inadequacies. To help them, General Tithing Office clerk Howard Coray gave the bishops quorum bookkeeping instructions on August 30.33

The bishops’ second tithing settlement season lasted from fall 1853 to April general conference in 1854. That winter Bishop Hunter and staff devoted “constant attention” to “heavy business” at the General Tithing Office. Early in 1854, Bishop Edwin Woolley predicted that recent “smooth doings” regarding tithing matters would soon change into a “storm.” Look well to your wards, he advised bishops, “and have the tithing as straight up as possible.”34

On the eve of the April conference, some tithepayers seemed confused about how to settle their accounts. Bishop Cordon, who was both a traveling bishop and General Tithing Office clerk, reported that “a question arised with many, where shall we settle our tithing? Some said settle with your bishop, but some said at the general office.”35

That April conference brought no tithing “storm,” but, instead, the First Presidency reintroduced the law of consecration. Consecration, however, was a second option for members, and the tithing system continued in place. In fact, some members “over Jordan” chose not to consecrate but salved their consciences by “overpaying their tithing.”36

Tithing storm clouds billowed in July 1854 when the First Presidency urgently called for tithes to keep public works crews working. Bishops should immediately send to Bishop Hunter all tithing products within a hundred-mile radius of Salt Lake City. The First Presidency asked bishops to compile and send in names of all who should pay tithing, and opposite each name, bishops should note “the amount of wheat and all other grain, and of potatoes, and all other vegetables he raises this season as fast as it can be ascertained; also the amount of stock owned by each person, specifying the yearly increases; and in short, state all the items upon which a saint should rightfully pay tithing, keeping each item in a separate column.” Bishop Hunter advised that ward teachers help bishops compile the lists.37

Neither tithes nor lists funneled properly into Church headquarters, finally unleashing the storms Woolley had predicted in the form of heated reprimands. One struck that fall, another the next spring, and a final one the next fall during the fiery Mormon Reformation. Together the storms produced a fully functioning ward tithing system from a potentially functioning one.

The first storm struck during Sunday tabernacle services on November 5, 1854, when President Brigham Young preached both morning and afternoon about tithing. He knew not one bishop who understood tithing, he said, criticizing specifically those who thought consecration was an extension of tithing, not tithing’s predecessor. People needed picks and wedges, he said, to open their eyes to tithing. “It is the Tithing Office that has built up this city and territory,” he asserted, and warned that “if the people do not observe the law of tithing, they will dwindle & be cursed. You cannot play with it. It will make you bleed.”38

His fiery sermon brought almost instant results, as Heber C. Kimball, his counselor, reported on November 26: “Since President Young and others have dwelt upon tithing, it is coming in first rate.” Kimball then poked fun at Bishop Hunter: “Bishop Hunter has become frightened; ‘Good heavens’ says he, ‘what shall we do with the tithing. We have not got room to put it.’ ‘Why,’ says I, ‘stretch out, Bishop.’”39

Brigham Young issued a second blast during the April 1855 general conference.40 He told forty bishops assembled in quorum meeting to “wake up and learn to do their duty.” “The bishops must be corrected,” he continued, “must be striped.” He then chided them about poor records. “You do not seem to understand your office,” he accused, “there never has been a bishop yet who has made a report that would give me any knowledge of the condition of his ward.” “It is the bishops’ duty to prepare an account book, and in the beginning of the year to know every man, woman, and child in his ward, and should know their occupation, and how they employ their time.” He ordered bishops to “make a schedule of your wards, make a return sheet so that Bishop Hunter can read it right; and know how many Oxen, Horses, Cows, Sheep, Lambs, Pigs, Fowls of all Kinds, Eggs, Butter, and Cheese, Produce of every kind, and money; also the profit on their goods.” Only with such information could bishops know that tithing was properly paid.

Some bishops, he said, complained that such a job required their full time, something they could not give. “Well let it take up all your time,” he said, “and trust in the Lord for a living.” Bishops unwilling to do their duty should resign. “The Bishops should be business men,” he warned. “Go to now and make a book; it is as simple as A.B.C.” Bookkeeping could be learned “in five minutes.” “Make a schedule of every man’s property, and see that the tithing is paid” and “that it is put to proper use.” Bishops should visit those who refused to tithe and work with them. “The tithing belongs to the Lord,” he concluded, “and there wants to be a concentration of faith, and a uniformity in business transactions.”

Bishop Hunter, as chief trainer of bishops, pledged that “we will try until we get a report that will be accepted by our President.” Keeping his word, Hunter told bishops on May 15, 1855, “We got a few reproofs at Conference,” and then he called for reform: “I would like the bishops to feel this storm, and arouse themselves, for they have been lukewarm. I want the Bishops to make out faithful reports—we will have a form printed and distributed among the bishops.”41

To bishops who had not accepted the new ward tithing system he bluntly said: “It is intended that the Bishops settle with their own wards.” A big discussion followed about how “to settle properly with ward members,” including the need to visit members in their homes. One bishop rejoiced at the instructions given, “even though we do get a lashing now and then.”42

Bookkeeping reform was in the wind that summer—along with deadly grasshoppers and a withering drought. Bishop Hunter sent out a new trainer, a Brother Hutchinson, to teach bishops bookkeeping. In June, Hunter informed bishops that instructions about how to settle tithes, as well as printed forms, were being mailed to them. On July 31 he “had an interview with Br. Hutchinson, who is instructing the Bishops on the method of settling with their wards, and how to keep their books. I was much pleased with his ideas on the subject of tithing. I am pleased he is with us.” Hutchinson visited the city bishops and planned to revisit. He urged bishops to obtain competent clerks, “which would be a great help to them, and prevent much confusion.”43

The Church’s tithing bookkeeping system changed dramatically in 1855. Ledgers in the Church History Library show that “in 1855 the General Tithing Storehouse began a system of ledgers for each ward.”44 In these books “the ward clerk or bishop would enter the donations received from the member of the ward. Then when the bishop brought the goods to the General Tithing Storehouse, the clerk in the Tithing Office entered them into the Bishops’ Ledgers.” Brother Hutchinson apparently designed the new record system. One researcher noted:

Probably he (Hutchinson) took the economic census form and adapted it to fit the Church’s need. The columns listed almost everything possible the person could own (excluding household items) or produce. In the early schedules the bishop listed not only the tithing paid, but also everything the person owned, but very quickly the bishop listed only the tithing paid.45

Starting in 1855, records show, ward tithing schedules first were sent into the General Tithing Office. At that office, the schedules were later bound into three volumes: one for Salt Lake City, one for wards south of the city, and one for wards north.46

Drought and insects dried up the 1855 tithing flows. At October 1855 general conference, Brigham Young, sensing guilt among those who had nothing to tithe, told bishops that “it [tithing] is not required if a man has labored faithfully to produce, and his crops have failed.” Hunter, eager for bishops to adopt the new bookkeeping system, added that “he wished the bishops clerks to be diligent, and to practice writing and accounts so as to make themselves proficient for their duty.”47

Bishop Joseph Harker’s experience in Butterfield Ward in southwest Salt Lake Valley illustrates how those first ward tithing settlements were conducted. His diary notes that on December 9, 1855, he “gave some instruction on tithing settlement” at a ward meeting. Several days later he “took two horses on tithing.” Christmas Eve day he went to Salt Lake City “to get some council on tithing matters.” On Christmas Day he “made some tithing settlements.” The next day he “went to Harriman to make tithing settlements, 3 days.” On December 29 he “came home via Mill Branch and made some tithing settlements.” Two days later, he settled more tithing. On January 4 he wrote that some members disliked having him press them for their tithes: “I was making tithing settlements, some of the members said they should settle tithing when they pleased.” He spent a week until January 12 at Mill Creek settling tithing. He next mentioned tithing on February 13 when he “was settling my tithing books.” Two weeks later, he was “settling my tithing books” with a Brother Bennion. Bishop Harker then turned in his tithing records at Hunter’s office and “took Bishop Hunter’s council in relation to deficits in the ward.”48

Public works director Wells lamented that 1855 and early 1856 had been “financially disastrous” for the Church because of drought. Compassionately, leaders did not chastise members for the small tithing totals for 1855.49

The 1856 tithing year began in famine but ended with a good harvest. That fall the purifying Mormon Reformation produced the third storm that scorched bishops about tithing, including Bishop Hunter. “There has been too much mere talking” about tithing, First Presidency Counselor Jedediah M. Grant warned him. “Talking so much and not doing is one of the grand evils; it is not for the Bishop to merely talk about people’s paying their tithing, and say that they are good fellows, &c, but we want him to know that the people pay their tithing, and that they are right.” He challenged Hunter to bring those facts to Brigham Young, “reporting faithfully the situation of all the Bishops in the Church, and how they stand in their accounts with the General Tithing Office.” Grant told Hunter to call in the tithes in outlying settlements and not wait until April general conference, by which time cats, goats, ducks, rats, mice, geese, and rot would reduce the stored grain.50

By late 1856, Latter-day Saints and bishops knew that paying and settling tithing was a ward matter. During subsequent years, Bishop Hunter, through sermons, circular letters, and personal contacts, reminded and updated bishops about how to collect, record, store, and disburse tithes.

The success of annual ward tithing settlements varied year by year due to current events and bishops’ talents. In 1857, for example, men on winter military duty in the Utah War could not settle their tithing accounts properly. In 1858 the “move south” disrupted tithing storehouses, payments, and bookkeeping. The year 1859 was the first full tithing year that might be termed “normal” for the ward tithing system—not disrupted by consecration movements, famine, reformation, or war.

The ward tithing system started in 1852 and was fully implemented in 1855. Since then, Church leaders have adopted many procedural changes to upgrade accounting methods, improve storage, guide disbursements and uses of tithes, and switch from tithing in kind to a cash system. Despite such changes, the plan established in 1852, requiring ward bishops to be the primary tithing agents of the Church, continues to be the basic administrative system for managing “the Lord’s Tenth.”

This article was originally published in New Views of Mormon History, Essays in Honor of Leonard J. Arrington, ed. Davis Bitton and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 96–114.