This chapter examines the early shared experiences of the newly organized Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, experiences that had a lasting impact on Brigham Young’s development as a Mormon leader and on the nature of the later Quorum of the Twelve under his direction.1 For the apostles this was a period of struggling to define the scope of their office and to learn the meaning of the apostleship. While the highlights of the period came in connection with important shared experiences in the temple, the period was otherwise characterized more by difficulties, disagreements, and division. All of these provided Young experience, and in some ways perhaps the negative exerted more influence on his later leadership than did the positive. As President of the Twelve, his emphasis on unity and duty was, in part, a reaction against the disharmony, and the concern for status and authority, that he experienced here. It is only against the backdrop of this formative period that the decimation of the Twelve in the disaffections of 1837–1838 or Young’s leadership of a revived quorum in 1839 can be adequately understood.
The personality of Thomas Marsh, president of the Twelve throughout this period, helped set the tone for his quorum. [150] Initially the Twelve was not more prominent in church leadership than were other church councils, a disturbing fact for Marsh and some others. Several times in confrontations with other church officials their concerns about this surfaced. Because Marsh was concerned about his prerogatives as president, his leadership of the Quorum was often intrusive and officious. He was impatient with criticism and tended to view a difference of opinion or even initiative by other apostles as a challenge to his leadership.2 No doubt these characteristics contributed to the pettiness and self-concern that plagued the quorum.
Disharmony within the Quorum cannot all be laid at the feet of Marsh, however. Others, too, had visions of potential authority and prestige greater than the actual, creating tensions within them and leading to anxiety about position and prerogatives. Also, some of the difficulties clearly related to the newness of their office and their own relative youth and inexperience.3 This was a collection of individuals not yet molded into a unit and often without a clear view of its role and purpose. Neither tradition nor precedent defined for them their mission or suggested how they accomplish it. Scriptural models and Smith’s instructions provided guidelines, but the precise bounds of their authority and methods of their work could only be the product of shared experiences. Finally, Joseph Smith ruffled the feelings of his sensitive apostles as often as he soothed them. Whether this was a conscious ploy on his part to teach that humility and service must precede authority, as Young later thought, or simply a consequence of his [151] own style, the results were the same. Eager to be powerful men in the kingdom, some of the apostles bristled and complained at every slight.
Rather than complaining, Brigham Young was patient. Reverence for Joseph Smith and his authority, along with a deep sense of the importance of obedience, no doubt contributed to his patience in spite of difficulties. Perhaps a sense of destiny also contributed—if not a sense of personal destiny, at least a feeling that the fledgling quorum had an important future role and that this stage was, in some measure, a necessary preparation. Years later he related that when Marsh complained about Smith’s treatment of the Twelve at this time, he told his president, “If we are faithful, we will see the day . . . that we will have all the power that we shall know how to wield before God.”4
Young and Kimball may have reacted differently to the challenges of this period for still another reason. While it is not known how their fellow apostles viewed them at this time, it is likely that several of the more polished and accomplished ones—perhaps men like William McLellen, John F. Boynton, or Orson Hyde—felt that the two artisans did not quite measure up. They had none of the learning, flashy dress, or eloquence of some of their colleagues. And for Young, close-up views of apostolic pettiness must have increased his confidence in his own virtues, especially his teachableness and common sense. Speaking generally about the way “Big Elders” reacted to their call to the apostleship, Young commented about the foolishness of those who knew too much to be [152] taught. Observing them, he said, helped him better understand why he and Heber had been called.5
For Young this was a period of learning, observing, and growing. Although existing documentation does not permit knowledge of his specific response to all these events, he was a participant. When opportunity came to do more, he would be prepared. When it was his responsibility to head the Twelve, he would do things differently.
Of the period following his call to the apostleship, Young mentioned in his history frequent councils where they received “much instruction” from the prophet about their new callings.6 Between the calling of the Twelve and their May departure for a joint mission, Joseph Smith and others of the Presidency did meet several times with the apostles. In the first of these instruction meetings, one week after the ordinations, Oliver Cowdery delivered to the Twelve an “apostolic charge” that outlined the scope of their personal responsibility and came to serve as a charter for the apostleship. As one of the Three Witnesses, Cowdery had assisted in calling and ordaining the Twelve; as Assistant President of the Church, he also spoke for the Presidency.
The new apostles received Cowdery’s solemn and impressive charges in a public meeting, 21 February 1835. Throughout Cowdery stressed that their office required sacrifice and great labor. “You have enlisted in a cause that requires your whole attention,” he told one apostle: “Your labor must be incessant, and your toil great; you must go forth and labor till the great work is done. . . . your heavenly Father requires it.”7 [153]
All must prepare their minds for long periods away from home and family. The gospel must go to the ends of the earth, and since the Twelve hold the keys of that ministry, they, too, must go. The cost would be high, stressed Cowdery, and they should be willing to sacrifice even their lives should God require it. Nonetheless, God would protect them. “You will see what you never expected to see; . . . you must be prepared to walk by faith, however appalling the prospect to human view,” he told them.8
Cowdery further warned the Twelve to cultivate humility and to set their hearts fully on the things of the Kingdom. “I know the pride of the human heart,” he stated, therefore
Beware, lest the flatterers of the world lift you up; beware, lest your affections be captivated by worldly objects. Let your ministry be first. Remember the souls of men are committed to your charge; and if you mind your calling, you shall always prosper.
Unity as a quorum would provide both power and protection, he told them, and they should avoid the temptation of some of the “ancient apostles” who sought to be greater than their brethren. “You are as one; you are equal in bearing the keys of the Kingdom to all nations.” Rather than competing, each must pray for the other and aid him to bear off his portion. “This appointment is calculated to create for you an affection for each other, stronger than death.”9
As apostles abroad in the world they would need great wisdom and knowledge. They must seek that not from the world but from God: “He can endow you without worldly pomp or great parade. He can give you that wisdom, that intelligence, and that power, which characterized the ancient saints.” The future temple [154] endowment was part of the knowledge they must have before going abroad with their message: “Tarry at Kirtland until you are endowed with power from on high.”10
Cultivate humility, beware of pride, give credit to God; mind your ministry and you shall prosper; be zealous for the souls of men committed to your charge; seek unity and brotherhood as a quorum; be prepared to walk by faith heedless of the odds in human terms alone. As if Brigham Young took the charge as a model for his ministry, all these became important themes in Young’s life and in the success of his leadership in the years ahead.11
In addition to these charges there was another, at once the most fundamental and the most imposing. Noting the powerful testimony of the ancient apostles that they had seen the Savior after His resurrection, Cowdery told one of the apostles: “You must bear the same testimony; or your mission, your labor, your toil, will be in vain.” To all the Twelve he elaborated. Each should receive his own witness of the gospel even “that you have seen the face of God.”
Never cease striving until you have seen God face to face. Strengthen your faith; cast off your doubts, your sins, and all your unbelief: and nothing can prevent you from coming to God. Your ordination is not full and complete until God has laid his hand upon you.
They must qualify as special witnesses of the Savior as did the ancients, insisted Oliver again in closing, “Therefore call upon Him in faith in mighty prayer till you prevail, for it is your duty and your privilege.”12
For years Brigham Young had striven diligently to know and be worthy of his Master. Now it was his personal responsibility [155] to seek Him as never before. Until he succeeded, according to Cowdery, his apostleship would not be fully validated. In his turn Brigham stepped up before Oliver to receive the covenant:
Do you with full purpose of heart take part in this ministry, to proclaim the Gospel with all diligence, with these your brethren, according to the tenor and intent of the charges you have received?13
Yes, he answered, no doubt with full and solemn intent. His call and ordination and this charge henceforth would be part of his life. Here, and in the days ahead, as he learned more of the meaning of the apostleship, he would endeavor resolutely to do all that duty required of him. The changes in his life had just begun. From this time he desired more deeply and with more intent than ever to sit at Joseph’s feet and learn “the deep things of God.”14
Less than a week after Cowdery’s charge to the Twelve, Joseph Smith and his counselors met with the new apostles to further instruct them.15 Wiser from experience, Smith first stressed to the new officers the necessity of keeping a detailed, permanent record of their councils and deliberations. Carelessness in not appointing a clerk for every meeting had already meant the loss of important knowledge—something they must avoid. He promised that if they kept a faithful record “it will be one of the most important records ever seen,” for their decisions would become items of doctrine and covenants for the Church.16
Joseph Smith then proposed a discussion of the importance of apostles and how they differed from other church officers. Brigham Young was one of the four who discussed the question, then Joseph explained: [156]
They are the Twelve Apostles, who are called to the office of the Traveling High Council, who are to preside over the churches of the Saints, among the Gentiles, where there is no presidency established:
Their ministry was not to the gathered Saints in the stakes of Zion, but to the world.
they are to travel and preach. . . . They are to hold the keys of this ministry, to unlock the doors of the Kingdom of heaven unto all nations, and to preach the Gospel to every creature. This is the power, authority, and virtue of their apostleship.17
The minutes kept by the Twelve record Joseph’s additional emphasis on the priesthood keys and authority they now held. It was “all important,” he stressed to them, that they understood their priesthood and authority, for they otherwise could not fulfill their responsibilities. And because they now held the authority, it was their duty to unlock the kingdom of heaven to foreign nations, “for no man can do that thing but yourselves.” Though their assignment was different than his, he concluded, “you each have the same authority in other nations that I have in this nation.”18 Schooled in such precepts, it is no wonder that the Twelve soon had difficulty reconciling their treatment and actual status with the theology of their office.
One month later the Twelve received through Joseph an important revelation that formalized their role as he had already described it to them. Looking towards departing 4 May on their first mission as a quorum, the Twelve met in council on 28 March for a time of “general confession.” Feeling unworthy of their calling, they petitioned Joseph to “inquire of God for us, and obtain a revelation, (if consistent) . . . that our hearts may be comforted,” and the revelation “On Priesthood,” was the result.19 [157]
The revelation affirmed that the “twelve traveling counsellors . . . or special witnesses of the name of Christ” were to be called “the twelve apostles” and that when united “they form a quorum equal in authority and power” to the Presidency of the Church. The Seventy, also special witnesses but acting under the direction of the Twelve, when united also form a quorum “equal in authority to that of the twelve special witnesses or apostles.” Finally, the “standing high councils, at the stakes of Zion, form a quorum equal in authority to that of the twelve especial witnesses or apostles” and their decisions, too, have equal weight. The revelation suggests a hierarchy with the Presidency directing the Twelve and the Twelve directing the Seventy, all equal in authority and power, though not in responsibilities or assignment. The special assignment of the Twelve as “a travelling, presiding high council,” was to build up and regulate the Church in all nations, organizing branches and ordaining officers under the general direction of the Presidency.20
While the revelation was not ambiguous concerning the relationships of the Presidency, Twelve, and Seventy, the relationship between the High Council in Zion and the Twelve was not clarified. The revelation stated only that in authority, and in the weight of their unanimous decisions, they were equal. In the months ahead, this ambiguity became problematical for both apostles and councilors concerned about their priority.21 Even additional instructions from the Prophet further defining the distinct jurisdictions of the two councils failed to end speculation and concerns. [158]
So that the newly appointed officers could not mistake their responsibility and jurisdiction, Smith amplified the instructions one more time before the apostles left on their mission. In a 2 May conference on the eve of their departure, he told the Twelve that they were to regulate all matters in the branches of the Church wherever there was no standing high council, but “the Twelve will have no right to go into Zion, or any of its stakes, and there undertake to regulate the affairs thereof, where there is a standing high council.” Nor can the standing high councils regulate the churches abroad, “for this belongs to the Twelve.” He also stressed the special authority of the Twelve as a quorum. Although individual apostles must conduct their business in the branches by the consent of the membership, while in a quorum capacity the Twelve “will have authority to act independently, and make decisions, and those decisions will be valid.”22
From the first, then, it was clear that the Seventy were subordinate to the Twelve, just as the Twelve operated under the direction of the Presidency. The relationship between high priests and seventies or apostles was not clear. Some worried about who had more authority, a seventy or a high priest, and about whether an apostle had the high priesthood or not. This, no doubt, was one of the reasons Smith repeatedly stressed the special assignment of the traveling high council and seventies—that they operated abroad and not in the stakes. According to Brigham Young, Joseph verbally clarified the relationship on the level of authority, as well. Many times in later years Young told how Heber’s case and his own provided the occasion. [159]
Both Brigham and Heber had been present 17 February 1834 in Kirtland when the first high council was formed, but neither had been called to the council or ordained high priests when others were. Later, when it came to the attention of fellow apostles that they were elders when ordained to the apostleship and had never been high priests, William E. McLellen asked Joseph if the oversight should not be corrected. Young recalled Joseph’s disappointment that those concerned didn’t better understand the priesthood. “Will you insult the Priesthood? Is that all the knowledge you have of the office of an Apostle? Do you not know that the man who receives the Apostleship, receives all the keys?”23
This early, if Young’s memory was correct, Joseph Smith saw the apostleship as at least equal to any other office, holding all of the keys of the priesthood.24 That was the potential of the office in Smith’s revelation “On Priesthood.” It is also clear that their sphere of jurisdiction was then limited. Regardless of what one understood of the potential of the Twelve, by assignment they had been steered away from the stakes where they were not needed, to the world where they were needed and where, by revelation, their first responsibility lay. The two stakes could best be handled by their own high councils, directly under the Presidency, leaving the Twelve free for their labors. It is also clear that at first the office of apostle did not bring with it any more prestige or honor than membership on the high councils. On the contrary, the nature of their respective assignments assured more local responsibilities and visibility to the standing high councils. [160]
Preparing for their first spring mission, the Twelve decided in a 12 March council on a schedule of conferences that would take them to branches of the Church in New York, New England, and Upper Canada. This mission was to fulfill their general responsibility to oversee—to regulate and organize—the branches abroad. It also had several specific purposes, one of which was to collect monies from members in the East to buy lands for gathering “and in this way . . . establish Zion,” as required by a December 1833 revelation.25
The ordination of Parley P. Pratt in late February brought the number of apostles meeting in Kirtland to ten.26 On 25 April Thomas B. Marsh arrived and the following day Orson Pratt, ordained later that afternoon, completed the Quorum of the Twelve.27 The first meeting of the full Quorum stressed a theme of quorum fellowship and unity that Young preached many times in later years. During the meeting all felt moved to forgive any wrongs that existed between them and to commit to one another “that from henceforth each one of the Twelve love his brother as himself, in temporal as well as spiritual things, always inquiring into each other’s welfare.”28 The most memorable meeting, however, occurred later in the same week when on 2 May Joseph presided over “a grand Council of all the church authorities in Kirtland.”29
We have already noted the instruction Joseph gave on that occasion about the role of the Twelve. In addition, other things occurred in that “grand Council” that had special significance for Brigham Young. For the first time Smith organized the Twelve according to age and provided a structure of leadership. [161]
Thirty-three-year-old Brigham Young, the second apostle called, now sat as number three, behind Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten who were less than two years his seniors. Heber C. Kimball, just fourteen days his junior, was seated fourth. At this time Joseph suggested a rotating Presidency, each apostle presiding in turn. Very early, however, either by further direction or as a matter of practical need, the practice was established of having the senior member preside.30
Another matter of significance to Brigham Young was taking the gospel to the Indians, whom they thought of as descendants of the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon, a promised race, the Seed of Joseph. It was proposed as early as March “that Brigham Young should open the door of the Gospel” to them, and now in May the entire quorum voted him that assignment as part of their mission, with the Prophet affirming that “This will open the door to all the seed of Joseph.” Although both in that mission and in the years ahead Young repeatedly came short of the success he desired on his labors among the Indians, he never forgot his special responsibility for them.31 Also of special importance to Joseph Smith—and something Brigham Young never forgot—was an item that did not become a part of the printed record. As the meeting closed it was unanimously agreed “that we never give up the struggle for Zion until it is redeemed altho we should die in the contest.”32 The concerns of Smith, Young, and others for the redemption of Zion had clearly not ended with the failure of Zion’s Camp. [162]
Sometime before their departure that spring the Twelve prepared a written testimony to accompany the revelations in the soon-to-be-published Doctrine and Covenants. With editorial work complete, a conference voted to accept the revelations and publication began before the Twelve returned from their mission. The testimony of the apostles was placed as a preface, a testimony that has since appeared in most editions and which makes the Twelve the “Witnesses to the Book of the Lord’s Commandments.”33
Another mission at hand, Brigham Young again resumed his diary. On Sunday, 3 May, he noted a meeting with the Twelve during the day, an evening gathering at Smith’s home, and at 2:00 a.m. “the 12 started on our mishon to the east.” Apparently they started in the night in order to meet a steamer in Fairport at 6:00 a.m. “A boat was there as had been predicted by Brother Joseph,” noted Heber Kimball. By 4:00 p.m. they were 140 miles from home at Dunkirk.34 The first mission of the Twelve had begun.
This mission is significant not only as the first the apostles undertook as a quorum, but also because it is the only mission that involved the whole quorum in the same labors. In the future either some of the Twelve had separate assignments or, as in the case of the mission of the Twelve to England, some failed to respond. This mission saw twelve men participating, traveling together and, at least some of the time, meeting together. As Orson Hyde put it, he “with the entire quorum” was appointed “to hold conferences in all the churches . . . strengthening . . . regulating and putting them in order.”35 On this mission the label “traveling high council” had concrete meaning as they formed [163] a high council to conduct necessary business in many regions.36 They labored as a quorum, “bound together,” as Cowdery had urged, “notwithstanding you can part and meet, and meet and part again.”37 Between appointed conferences, where most would gather to form a quorum or council to conduct the business of regulating or organizing a conference, the Twelve and their traveling associates divided up either to visit churches by assignment or preach much as Young and others had done on earlier mission.38
The Twelve held conference 22 and 23 May in Freedom, New York, with Elder David Patten presiding. Local business accomplished, they met on the twenty-fifth in the spirit of their earlier resolutions to pray for each other. The council assigned Brigham Young to preach to a nearby group of Indians and blessed him, at his request, that he would have the necessary power to succeed. Later that day he left with two companions, one his brother-in-law John P. Greene.39 Though they had but a few days before appointed meetings with the Twelve further east, Young felt a great desire that the short assignment be effective. His brief diary entries record his efforts but no specific results.40
Elder Young and his companions rejoined the Twelve for a 5 June conference at Lyonstown, New York, where Heber Kimball presided.41 Here Young learned that Joseph Smith had sent for him, Orson Hyde, and William Smith to return to Kirtland to testify in court in his behalf. They arrived in Kirtland in time to help Joseph “righteously triumph over his enemies,” then promptly rejoined their colleagues in the East to finish with them the conference schedule.42 The twenty-seventh of September found [164] Young and Kimball back in Kirtland with family and friends. According to Kimball, during their mission they had felt the power of God, including healing the sick and casting out devils by their authority.43 The new apostles had done their duty. It seemed a promising beginning.
During the five months, Young and companions traveled hundreds of miles by wagon, canal boat, river steamer, railroad, on foot, and no doubt by stage once or twice. Traveling without purse or scrip, they met both kind friends and rejection. At one large conference they counted 144 carriages and estimated that 2–3,000 attended. Here the members assisted the itinerant apostles more than any other place. Three weeks later they found “Fathers and mothers sisters and Brothers who opened their house to ous and adminersted to our relief” and in another city a month later Young noted that the Saints helped him get a badly needed coat.44
On many other occasions people rejected their testimony and sometimes their calls “upon the charity of the people to help ous on our Jurney” as well. Announcing that they were traveling preachers who went without money, they asked one man for breakfast who immediately denounced them as impostors. Against some they washed their feet or shook their garments. Young noted in his diary an occasion when a woman stood after one of them spoke and said that they were proud deceivers only after money and women. After several others also spoke critically, Young arose and testified against them. Kimball told of leaving their testimony with a town that cordially received them: “may the Lord bless them”; and of another town where twelve Methodist families in [165] succession refused them a meal: “may the Lord reward them.” That night they had to hire a room at an inn and went to bed hungry. Next morning they traveled ten miles before finding breakfast.45 Kimball said that because most of the mission had been performed on foot, that he suffered considerably from fatigue and blistered feet.46
None of this, of course, was much different than they had expected. Previous to their ordination, Elders Young and Kimball had tasted some of this, and Cowdery had warned them as apostles to expect more. In addition to their general responsibilities to testify to the world and to regulate the Saints, the Twelve also attended to specific assignments given them by Joseph. In harmony with an earlier revelation, he had asked them to appoint men in each branch of the Church to raise means to assist in the purchase of land in Zion. He also instructed them to seek means for the temple and for publishing the word of God. After mentioning these assignments, Kimball carefully noted in his summary of the mission: “we feel as though . . . we had done as the Lord commanded.”47
All was not well, however, and if the Twelve returned to Kirtland to accolades, they also returned hurt and angry to face accusers. Even while they labored in the East a letter of complaint from Freedom, New York, along with other reports raising doubts in the minds of the Presidency, resulted in a letter of chastisement and censure. Their problems began when Warren A. Cowdery, presiding elder in Freedom, wrote to Kirtland about the late May conference the Twelve held there. They had ignored their instructions regarding the Kirtland Temple, insisted Cowdery, neither gathering monies [166] nor preaching the subject as a preparation for agents that followed them.48
The instructions to the Twelve emphasized both the temple and monies for land in Zion. Apparently the Twelve, intent on fulfilling the written revelation, stressed more the latter, while the Presidency insisted that they should have understood the priority of the temple. The Presidency and Kirtland High Council met on 4 August to consider the complaints and concluded, in strong language, that the Twelve had
failed in the outset, to fill their great and important mission, as they know God has commanded us to build a house, in which to receive an endowment, previous to the redemption of Zion, and that Zion cannot be redeemed until this takes place.
The temple and its endowment of power from on high was a necessary prelude to the establishment of Zion, they insisted. Since the minutes would be sent to the Twelve, they queried directly, “did we not instruct you to remember first the house, secondly the cause of Zion, and then the publishing of the word to the Nations?”49
The next charge, at first impression petty, called forth the strongest censure. Orson Hyde had briefly left his mission to return to Kirtland with Young to testify for Joseph. Rejoining his brethren in the East he made derogatory reference to how Sidney Rigdon’s Kirtland school was conducted, remarks reflected in William McLellen’s letter to his wife in Kirtland. The remarks, decided the Council, insulted and cast reflections on “those who are held in much higher estimation in the sight of God and this church than themselves.” They preemptorily disfellowshipped [167] Elders Hyde and McLellen until they could return and make satisfaction.50 The letter of reproof continued with the warning that he who spoke evil, even to his family, “of the dignities which God has set in his Church,” would be cursed unless he repented. There were already insinuations enough in Kirtland without having more from those who should be friends and brothers and who, in fact, were sent to put down such gossip, concluded the letter: “May God help you to be more wise for the future.”51
The Presidency expressed other concerns as well. Word had reached Kirtland that at least some of the Twelve had complained of the burden their mission placed on their families and of the treatment their families received in Kirtland. Their duty, reminded the Council, was to seek first the kingdom of heaven, not to “preach yourselve crucified for your wives sake,” but to testify of Christ. Then there was a reminder to credit God—not their own preaching—for success, and finally, a stinging rebuke of the whole Quorum:
as far as we can learn . . . you have set yourselves up as an independent council subject to no authority of the church a kind of out law. This impression is wrong, and will if persisted in, bring down the wrath and indignation [of heaven] upon your heads.
Were they not an “independent Council” when traveling abroad? (Or had they boasted even in Kirtland that they were subject to no one except Joseph?) If they felt prideful and boastful before, they could feel only hurt after receiving the letter.52 The letter also included this counsel and this balm: “go forth in the name of the Lord, in the power of [your] mission, giving diligent heed to [168] the direction of the Holy Spirit. . . . for great things await you, and great blessings are in store for you.”53
With all the criticism that the Kirtland authorities received from detractors outside the Church and complainers inside, it is not difficult to understand the Presidency’s anxiety that perhaps even their newest official quorum did not possess the hoped-for wisdom and steadfastness. It is less understandable that they would react so immediately and so strongly to such “unwarrantable,” indeed flimsy, evidence without awaiting the Twelve’s return.54 Whether good would result from this hasty, and perhaps unfounded, chastisement remained to be seen.
The same day the Twelve returned to Kirtland from the East, 26 September, they met with Joseph Smith and the Presidency to consider their difference. The Twelve showed Warren Cowdery’s charges that they had been remiss in their duties were incorrect. On the matter of writing derogatory sentiments about Kirtland, Orson Hyde and William McLellen confessed and were forgiven. The record made no mention of the charge that the Twelve had set themselves above all authority. As far as Joseph Smith was concerned, “all things were settled satisfactorily.” Noted Joseph of the next day, four of the Twelve—the four senior members, including both Brigham Young and Heber Kimball—“preached and broke bread. The Lord poured out his Spirit, and my soul was edified.”55
On the part of the Twelve, hurt feelings and misgivings remained. The fact that the initial letter of reproof had been issued by the Presidency in council with the Kirtland High Council further complicated relationships between the two parallel councils. [169] The whole incident could only have increased the feelings of insecurity some had about their status and heightened concerns for reputation and position. Nor had the Twelve yet received the last criticism relative to their conduct in the East. Feelings would not be fully aired and the problems finally resolved until some months later when the Presidency and Twelve met to establish harmony and a spirit of unity in preparation for the temple endowment.
This incident, with additional slights and reproofs from the Presidency in the months ahead, severely tested some of the Twelve. Although Brigham Young no doubt felt some of the hurt that troubled his associates, and did not understand in the fall of 1835 precisely why Joseph had acted as he had, he nonetheless had confidence enough in the Prophet to be patient until he did understand. Eventually he thought the meaning and purpose clear. After Joseph Smith’s death, Joseph Young, senior president of the Seventies, asked why the Prophet had “snubbed” the Seventies so. In response, Brigham asked why Joseph had likewise kept the Twelve “so far from him & snob[bed] them” so much that some exclaimed “We are Apostles[!] it’s an insult for us to be treated so.” The answer, thought Brigham Young: Joseph “snobed us & when we proved ourselves willing to be every bodys servant for Christs sake then we were worthy of power.” This was necessary, according to Young, for only “true servants” may receive the power. Those who aspire or think themselves great are unfit for power.56
Immediately upon returning to Kirtland, the Twelve testified in the high council trial of Gladden Bishop. After cutting him off [170] from the Church at a conference in the East, they had invited him to Kirtland for a rehearing of his case. The high council confirmed that the Twelve had acted properly in the case and announced a decision along the lines suggested by Thomas Marsh and Brigham Young. When some in the council tried to incriminate the Twelve for cutting Bishop off, suggesting they had exceeded their authority, Joseph Smith announced that the high council had nothing to do with the Twelve or their actions, that according to revelation only a general council of the authorities of the whole Church had jurisdiction over them if they erred.57 Even though the authority of the Twelve had been upheld, the insinuations hurt and were not soon forgotten by some of the Twelve.
Within ten days of the return of the Twelve, Joseph Smith presided at a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve. He further instructed them in their duties and then told them “it was the will of God” that they go with their families to Missouri in the spring of 1836. In the meantime, they were to
attend this fall the solemn assembly of the first Elders for the organization of the school of the prophets, and attend to the ordinence of the washing of feet and to prepare their hearts in all humility for an endowment with power from on high to which they all agreed with one accord, and seemed to be greatly rejoiced.
According to Smith’s diary, he had a “glorious time” with the Twelve. His prayer, “May God spare the lives of the twelve with one accord to a good old age for Christ the redeemers sake Amen,” concluded the entry.
Joseph Smith’s next diary entry about the Twelve, nearly a month later, began on a completely different note: “Behold they [171] are under condemnation.” With no hint in the entries before this, and without any context provided or reason suggested here, Smith wrote in his diary for 3 November,
Thus came the word of the Lord unto me concerning the Twelve saying . . . they are under condemnation because they have not been sufficiently humble in my sight, and in consequence of their covetous desires, in that they have not dealt equally with each other.58
The revelation named Elders Patten, Hyde, and McLellen as offenders, as well as William Smith in another connection. The Twelve should be equal in their rights and their privileges, equal in the ministry and in sustenance, stressed the revelation, and those who had not honored that command must repent and prepare their hearts “for the solemn assembly and for the great day which is to come. Verily thus saith the Lord.” They had not kept their agreement of the spring before that each “love his brother as himself, in temporal as well as in spiritual things.”59
Was Brigham Young one under condemnation here? If so, he learned a lesson that remained with him throughout his life. Consistent with what is known of him in this regard, it is more likely that he was not: “nevertheless, some of them dealt equally therefore they shall be rewarded,” stated the revelation. Still, Young no doubt felt with the others the sting of chastisement, recognizing that he, too, could do better: “but verily I say unto you they must all humble themselves before me before they will be accounted worthy to receive an endowment to go forth in my name unto all nations.”60
The only other revelation Smith had written for the Twelve was the impressive spring discussion “On Priesthood.” Understandably [172] this one, featuring reproof as well as promise, caused a stir among the Twelve. As soon as they heard about it, William McLellen and Orson Hyde visited Smith’s to hear it read. They “expressed some little dissatisfaction” until Smith convinced them to examine their hearts. Brigham Young came by later the same day and to Joseph “appeared perfectly satisfied” with the chastisement.61
No doubt one of the reasons Young felt “perfectly satisfied” is that he recognized the justice of the rebuke. In addition to examining his own heart, he knew personally the disunity in the quorum, along with certain jealousies and pettiness. There was not always the feeling of brotherhood that should characterize such officers. Years later he explained that in Kirtland the Twelve were divided by jealousy, “continually sparring at each other.” On one occasion some of the Twelve convened the Quorum and summoned Brigham when they learned that he had accepted an invitation to preach. By what authority, they wanted to know, had he “presumed to appoint a meeting and preach” without consulting them? Nor was this an isolated instance. Under Thomas Marsh they met very often, he concluded, “and if no one of them needed cleaning, they had to ‘clean’ some one any how.” Later, he would conduct matters differently. He told the Twelve in 1849, “when T. B. Marsh was Pres[iden]t of the 12—he was a[lway]s like a toad’s hair comb[ing] up & down” but “since I [h]ave been the Pres[iden]t I am daddy.”62
A few days after the November 1835 revelation chastising the Twelve, Joseph met with them “by their request.” The minutes do not show that the revelation was mentioned. Instead, Joseph reassured them: “I am satisfyed that the Spirit of the Lord is [173] here, and I am satisfied with all the brethren present [nine of the Twelve].” He told them they had his full confidence and he intended fully to uphold them. He acknowledged that there were difficulties—“darkness”—but chose to stress “that great blessings awate us at this time and will soon be poured out upon us if we are faithful in all things.”63
Additional blessings from on high were needed before the Church was fully established or Zion could be redeemed—that was Smith’s text for the Twelve. According to the Prophet, he had supposed he had established the Church on a permanent foundation when he had gone to Missouri with Zion’s Camp, “and indeed I did so, for if I had been taken away it would have been enough.”64 But he had not been taken, and now God required more of him—and not only of him but of others. Smith told the Twelve that disunity was presently the one “great deficiency or obstruction” in the way of greater blessings. Furthermore, it was their duty to hold a solemn assembly as commanded by the Lord and according to his pattern, including the washing of feet, the specific ordinance “calculated to unite our hearts, that we may be one in feeling and sentiment.”65 If the Twelve could humble themselves as the revelation commanded and perform the ordinance in the proper spirit, perhaps then they could enjoy that unity and oneness that had so far escaped them.
Joseph Smith concluded his remarks to the Twelve by further instructing them about the endowment they were “so anxious about.” The endowment would not give them power to heal those without faith or benefit those whose hearts were not right, nor were their minds presently enlightened enough to comprehend the endowment, he told [174] them. Nonetheless, if they prepared themselves faithfully, he predicted “a blessing that will be worth remembering.” As they prepared their hearts for the ordinances, some might receive special manifestations. If so, they should be considered a personal blessing not to be shared: “let us be faithful and silent,” Smith counseled, and “if God gives you a manifestation, Keep it to yourselves”—advice that Brigham Young lived by and taught in later years.66 Oliver Cowdery had earlier charged the Twelve to validate their calls as special witnesses by preparing themselves to see the Lord. For some, promised the Prophet in closing, the time for that was near at hand, for “all who are prepared and are sufficiently pure to abide the presence of the Saviour will see him in the solemn assembly.”67
Instead of the peaceful unity and humble repentance that might prepare them for glorious blessings, the Twelve continued to be plagued with difficulties through the close of 1835. The worst of these involved William Smith whose rebellion and uncontrolled emotions drove him to angry clashes with his brother Joseph. That fall Brigham Young witnessed and, as a member of the quorum that sought to discipline one of their own, participated in scenes that he would never forget as he watched William insult and abuse the Prophet. Although William Smith was the only apostle singled out for praise in the August letter chastising the Twelve, within a month of the return of the Twelve to Kirtland William’s difficulties erupted dramatically.68 During a high council proceeding at which their mother, Lucy Smith, was testifying, William Smith jumped up to accuse his brother Joseph of insulting [175] their mother. An argument ensued that would have entirely disrupted the meeting had not Father Smith stepped in and urged patience on Joseph.69
After the confrontation, William Smith was immediately “censured by the brethren”—presumably his quorum, though perhaps some of the high council, as well. In a letter to Joseph the next day he alluded to the censure as unjust, “concidering that his cause was a just one,” and wanted the matter reopened. Joseph replied simply by note that he had parted with good feelings (after the intervention of their father) and could not be held responsible for “the dissatisfaction of others,” i.e. those who had called William to account. Nonetheless, Joseph invited William to call on him. Joseph promised he would talk with his younger brother “in the spirit of meekness and give him all the satisfaction I could.” William did come, and in the presence of their brother Hyrum, the two attempted to discuss the matter. Perceiving that Hyrum agreed more with Joseph, William became enraged and rushed from the house. If Joseph could sway brother Hyrum, then William would influence their brother Samuel to his viewpoint. As Joseph wrote in his diary, soon Samuel
was in the street exclaiming against me, and no doubt our enemies rejoiced at it. And where the matter will end I know not. but I pray God to forgive him and them, and give them humility and repentance. The feelings of my heart I cannot express on this occasion.
After evening prayer Joseph “obtained a testimony” that William would return to the Church, and “repair the wrong he had done.”70
During the following week, Joseph wrote the revelation chastising the Twelve, discussed above. One paragraph of the [176] communication was directed at William: “my servant William shall return, and I will yet make him a polished shaft in my quiver. . . . and there shall be none mightier than he, in his day and generation.” Nevertheless, warned the writ, “if he repent not speedily, he shall be brought low.” His sin was great, but not more so than that of others of the Twelve, stated the revelation.71 Perhaps the promise of potential prominence helped calm William’s passions. Peace was restored to the family for over a month until once again William’s emotions overcame him in a clash more violent and damaging than the first.
This time the altercation broke out in William’s own home, where he hosted a debating society. Mistaking some of Joseph’s remarks, he became enraged and physically attacked Joseph and others, leaving him “with marks of violence” and “feelings indescribable.” When he came to his senses, William realized that this time he had gone too far and a humble sadness replaced the rage and rebellion. Before he had demanded a council that he might be vindicated. This time he responded meekly when the Twelve summoned him—not just to call him to account, which they did, but also to find if he intended to right himself and continue with them and the Church or not.
I told them that on reflection upon the many difficulties that I had had with the Church and the much disgrace I had brought upon myself in consequence of these things and also that . . . my health was such that I was not able to travel as an apostle must . . . it would be better for them to appoint one in the office that would be better able to fill it.72 [177]
This he thought best both for the Church and for himself. He feared falling from such a high station, he said, but felt that perhaps as a common member he could save himself.
William explained all of this in a contrite letter to Joseph on 18 December. Joseph felt gratified with William’s change of heart but firmly declined the offer to resign his apostleship. “When a man falls one step, he must regain that step again, or fall another,” Joseph replied. If William maintained his office by “rising up and making one tremendous effort,” he might yet overcome his passions and please God. Joseph’s answer also showed once again the great need he felt for unity within the Twelve. He told William the grief he felt at his treatment of Elder McLellen the night of the debate: “I thought you should have concidered your relation with him in your Apostle ship, and not manifest any division of sentiment between you, and him, for a surrounding multitude to take advantage of you.”73
The exchange of letters laid the groundwork for reconciliation. Pondering on New Year’s Day the serious difficulties in his family, Joseph attributed them to the powers of darkness seeking to promote so much jealousy and disunity in the Smith family and in the Twelve that the Saints could not be endowed. In his diary Smith noted his firm determination to resolve the family difficulties that very day.74
Several of the family, along with Martin Harris, joined in a special meeting in Joseph Smith’s home. Father Smith’s moving prayer set the tone for his remarks to his family, during which, according to Joseph, “the Spirit of God rested down upon us in [178] mighty power, and our hearts were melted.” William made a “humble confession” and
the spirit of confession and forgiveness was mutual among us all, and we covenanted with each other in the Sight of God and the holy angels and the brethren, to strive henceforward to build each other up in righteousness. . . . and be reconciled and thereby promote our own happiness, and the happiness of the family.
Mother Smith, Joseph’s wife Emma, and his scribe were called in to witness the solemn covenant of reconciliation, “truly a jubilee and time of rejoicing.” The following day William humbly confessed before a council meeting. The next day, Sunday, he asked forgiveness of the whole congregation.75
Brigham Young had never rebelled against Joseph Smith—and he would not forget the rebellion of William, his fellow apostle. Young had too much respect for Joseph Smith as a man, and for his office and the principle of obedience to authority, to permit himself to oppose the Prophet, in spite of his own deep feelings about independence. Yet Young, too, had his trials of obedience to Joseph and, ironically, most severely in connection with the continuing foibles of the Prophet’s younger brother William. On a later occasion, aware that William was out of line and required church discipline but sensitive to his family position, Smith insisted that Young handle the matter. Young accordingly made the charges, followed through to a church court, and in the midst of establishing his case was shocked to find Joseph on his feet opposing him. His wife Emma had persuaded Joseph, apparently as a matter of Smith family unity, that he must stop Young’s attempt to injure the family. “Bro Brig[ham] I will not listen to this [179] abuse of my family a minute longer,” Joseph is reported to have said. According to the apostle who later related the incident, Young was “tried to the very utmost” and for a moment his standing in the Church seemed to tremble in the balance. Instead, Young withdrew the charges and yielded to the Prophet.76
William Smith’s reconciliation gave Joseph great satisfaction. After William’s public confession Joseph wrote in his diary,
the cloud that has been hanging over us burst with blessings on our heads, and Satan has been foiled in his attempts to destroy me and the Church by causing jealousies to arise in the hearts of some of the brethren, and I thank my heavenly father for the union and harmony which now prevails in the Church.77
This entry, like the revelation to the Twelve, suggests that William Smith had not been the only difficulty, and indeed he had not. A less serious difficulty that had grieved Smith only two weeks before involved Orson Hyde.
Hyde, certain that others of the Twelve had received benefits for their families that he had not, complained to Joseph about the inequality. He even hinted that if the matter was not handled to his satisfaction he would leave Kirtland to find better employment “in the world.”
I am willing to continue and do all I can provided we can share equal benefits one with the other, and upon no other principle whatever. If one has his support from the “publick crib” let them all have it. But if one is pinched I am willing to be, provided we are all alike.78
While the sentiments sound just, they do not breathe that same spirit that once prompted Brigham Young to exclaim that he would stay in Kirtland and work to build it up if he was not paid a [180] farthing. Smith fully agreed—as the revelation also confirmed—that the Twelve had not been equal, yet he felt that some of Elder Hyde’s specific accusations were unjust and untrue. After discussion with Joseph, Elder Hyde went away generally satisfied both with Joseph and his brethren of the Twelve.
A few days later, Brigham Young witnessed a minor confrontation between Orson Pratt and Joseph Smith in the Hebrew school that would have meaning later when Brigham presided over the learned and stubborn apostle. A discussion between the two men over the pronunciation of a Hebrew letter turned into a heated debate with Elder Pratt manifesting “a stubbourn spirit,” as Joseph saw the event. It required most of the morning to settle the unpleasant feelings and bring Pratt to confess his fault “for entering into any controversy concerning so small a matter as the sound of a Hebrew letter.” No doubt the man later known as “the Professor” maintained that he could pronounce a letter as correctly as the Prophet, not to mention that a controversy required two parties. For him it must have been a severe trial to swallow his pride and ask “the forgivness of the whol school.”79
By early January the difficulties that had caused division with the Twelve had been largely resolved. As far as records reveal, Brigham Young had not been personally involved in any of the difficulties, nor had others like Parley Pratt, Heber C. Kimball or the Johnson brothers. Complaining and murmuring or opposing Joseph Smith were not strong tendencies in Young’s character that he had constantly to keep in check. He apparently remained consistently loyal to Joseph and to his calling. As a [181] keen student of human behavior and human relations as well as, since his conversion, a perceptive student of priesthood and church government, no doubt Brigham Young carefully observed how each man had responded to the difficulties and reached private conclusions about the people and the principles that he filed away for the future.
There remained, however, the general difficulty between the Presidency and the Twelve and the ambiguity in the relationship of the High Council and the Twelve. Only a new supposed slight was necessary to bring the friction to the surface. In mid-January Smith called two important councils involving all of the officers of the Church (members of the two high councils, two bishoprics, two presidencies, the Twelve and the Seventies) to organize the leadership and to make arrangements affecting the temple. New councilors were selected to fill vacancies in the high councils—a replacement for Luke Johnson, now in the Twelve, for example, and for Oliver Cowdery, now in the Presidency. The full council also discussed and adopted rules for meeting in the House of the Lord. With so many quorums and offices present, during the business Smith stressed the need for perfect order. Each quorum, for example, would speak or vote in turn. On each proposition, the Twelve followed the high councils; otherwise the apostles were hardly mentioned.80
The following day the Twelve requested the Prophet to meet with them—they could remain silent no longer. Was this the occasion Heber Kimball later referred to when “Joseph tried the Twelve but the Twelve was united & tied Joseph down”? If so, [182] perhaps there was a written document signed by all of the Twelve that preceded the meeting. And if so, Smith left them a challenge and an instruction that they “never let any body tie [them] down as you have me.”81
The meeting began with Joseph Smith, Frederick G. Williams and Sidney Rigdon listening silently as each of the Twelve spoke in turn. To “unbosom his feelings touching the mission of the Twelve,” President Marsh spoke about three concerns. In the recent councils, the Twelve had been placed below the high council of Kirtland and Zion, “having been previously placed next [to] the Presidency in our assemblies.” Feelings also persisted, he said, about last fall’s handling by Hyrum Smith and the high council of the Gladden Bishop case in a way that seemed to discredit the Twelve. Finally, and significantly, there remained the issues raised by the actions of the August letter chastising the Twelve and suspending Hyde and McLellen while they were laboring in the East.82
David Patten, Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, and each of the Twelve followed in turn. All, apparently, acquiesced in the observations of Elder Marsh, adding their own feelings about the matters. Both the role and status of the Twelve and their relationship to Joseph were at issue. The letter of reproof, maintained the Twelve, was harsh in language and should never have been written without better evidence against them. That it was written forced them to conclude
that the presidency had lost confidence in them, and that whereas the church in this place had carressed them at the [183] time of their appointment, to the Appostleship they now treated them coolly and appear to have lost confidence in them also.
The apostles felt that both as apostles and before their calls they had “borne the burden in the heat of the day, and passed through many trials,” therefore the Presidency should have more confidence in them. Along with other specific complaints, they asked for additional information about their duties and authority so “that they might come to an understanding in all things, that they might act in perfect unison and harmony . . . and be prepared for the endowment.” These things were said, noted the minutes, “in a verry forcible and explicit manner yet cool and deliberate”—not in anger but with calm determination.83
In his response, Joseph Smith began at the heart of the matter: he asked the Twelve directly if they were determined to persevere in the Lord’s work, whether or not the presidency were able to satisfy them. They manifest by unanimous vote their commitment to remain in the work. Joseph then assured them that he had not lost confidence in them. If the words in the letter of chastisement were harsh, so also was the letter that Elder McLellen had written from the East and the one should be set against the other. Next he discussed the duties of the Twelve “and their authority which is,” he assured them, “next to the present presidency.”84 The order of the councils that had caused them concern was simply the “most judicious” for the occasion, an expediency simply because the matters at issue were local matters involving the presidencies and high councils more directly than the Twelve. To further emphasize the key part he repeated it once [184] again: “the 12 are not subject to any other than the first presidency; viz., myself, S. Rigdon and F. G. Williams.”85
The Prophet then acknowledged that, from the impulse of the moment, he had sometimes spoken too harshly. He asked their forgiveness if he had wounded their feelings, “for I love you and will hold you up with all my heart in all righteousness . . . I am determined that [nothing] . . . shall separate me from you.”
and I will now covenant with you before God that I will not listen to nor credit, any derogatory report against any of you nor condemn you upon any testimony beneath the heavens, short of that testimony which is infalible, untill I can see you face to face . . . and I do place unlimited confidence in your word for I believe you to be men of truth, and I ask the same of you . . . for I will not tell you I know anything that I do not know.
In the future, even upon firm evidence, Joseph Smith would be slow to act against one of the Twelve. After conciliatory words from Joseph’s counselors, the Twelve accepted by vote the covenant and expressed their satisfaction with the entire proceedings.86
we then took each others by the hand in confirmation of our covenant and their was a perfect unison of feelings on this occasion, and our hearts overflowed with blessings, which we pronounced upon each others heads as the Spirit gave us utterance. . . . and may God enable us all to perform our vows and covenants with each other in all fidelity and righteousness before Him, that our influence may be felt among the nations of the Earth in mighty power.87
The following day was Sunday. Joseph Smith began the usual services by arranging the quorums, “first, the presidency; then the twelve, and the seventy” and finally the high councilors. The Twelve were in their proper place. President Rigdon suspended the sermons for the day so the Presidency and Twelve could, in turn, share their feelings. Full reconciliation and harmony characterized the meetings. Reported Joseph: [185]
the Lord poured out his Spirit upon us, and the brethren began to confess their faults one to the other and the congregation was soon overwhelmed in tears and some of our hearts were too big for utterance, the gift of toungs came on us like the rushing of a mighty wind, and my soul was filled with the glory of God.88
No doubt Brigham Young felt much like his friend Heber Kimball who described this as the beginning of “a joyful season and one long to be remembered by us.”
All things were reconciled to our minds. . . . We continued together a day and a night. This seemed to be a day of humiliation amongst the church as all felt to confess their sins throughout. It was truly the beginning of good days.89
Finally, they felt the unity and harmony that portended future success.
The next week the good times not only continued but were enlarged. With grievances settled and the Twelve united, the time for long-awaited blessings had arrived. On the evening of Thursday, 21 January, Joseph Smith presided over the first ordinance work to be associated with the still-to-be-completed temple. First the Presidency washed, anointed, and blessed Father Joseph Smith, Sr. He was then prepared to anoint each of the Presidency in turn. In anointing his son Joseph, Father Smith sealed upon him “the blessings of Moses, to lead Israel in the latter days, even as moses led him in days of old.” This tie to ancient Israel Brigham Young often acknowledged by referring to Joseph Smith as “our Moses.”90 For Joseph, the ordinance concluded with all the presidency pronouncing prophecies and blessings on his head.91 [186]
According to Joseph Smith’s diary, in the midst of these blessings, the “heavens were opened upon us” and visions and revelations descended. Among those recorded:
[I saw] Eld[er] Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far south-west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men of colour, who appeared hostile He was preaching to them in their own toung and the angel of God standing above his head . . . protecting him, but he did not see it.
Joseph also reported seeing the Twelve, fatigued and in tattered clothes, standing together in a circle “with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold him, the Saviour looked upon them and wept.”92 Heber Kimball heard Joseph relate this vision several times, including how he saw the Savior watch over the Twelve until they accomplished their work and were crowned in the celestial city. “The impressions that the vision left on Bro Josephs mind was of so acute a nature that he never could refrain from weeping while rehearsing it,” said Kimball later.93 Others of the Presidency reported visions and the ministering of angels “and the power of the highest rested on us the house was filled with the glory of God, and we shouted Hosanah to God and the Lamb.” Following the Presidency, the high councils of Zion and Kirtland received the same ordinances:
some of them saw the face of the Saviour, and others were ministered unto by holy angels, and the spirit of prophecy and revelation was poured out in mighty power . . . for we all communed with the havenly hosts.94
Brigham and his brethren of the Twelve learned more about these great manifestations the next morning when they met, as usual, for school. Instead of Hebrew study, the morning was spent “rehearsing to each other the glorious scenes” that attended [187] the ordinance of the night before. That evening the Twelve and Seventy met in the temple with the Presidency for their anointings. As President of the Twelve, Thomas B. Marsh received his anointing first and was “ordained . . . to the authority of anointing his brethren.”95
Apparently Marsh’s anointing including a special responsibility and blessing to lead his quorum in introducing the gospel to foreign lands. Hereafter he saw this not only as a stewardship of the Twelve but more directly as his own. Later he even insisted that the work could not be done without him “for unto this was I anointed.”96
After his own anointing and blessing, President Marsh performed the same ordinance for his brethren, beginning with the oldest. Joseph Smith then laid hands upon them and spoke “many great and glorious” blessings. According to Joseph’s diary, “the heavens were opened and angels ministered unto us.” The Twelve then directed the anointing of the Seventy under their quorum leaders. After President Rigdon’s eloquent prayer invoking the benediction of heaven “upon the Lord’s anointed,” the brethren erupted in “a loud hosannah the gift of toungs fell upon us in mighty power, angels mingled their voices with ours, while their presence was in our midst, and unseasing praised swelled our bosoms for the space of half an hour.”97
The meeting was dismissed at a late hour—but not the manifestations. The Prophet noted in his diary that “the spirit and visions of God attended me through the night.” The brethren met for school next morning “filled with the spirit as on the past [188] evening” and instead of studying, conversed about “heavenly things & the day was spent agreably and profitably.”98 These and other experiences associated with the Kirtland Temple left an indelible imprint on Brigham’s mind and heart.
Over the next two weeks as the high priests and elders received their ordinances, Joseph Smith continued instructing the Twelve and others in the things of the temple. At one later meeting, the brethren present reported more manifestations, many testifying “that they were filled with the holy spirit which was like fire in their bones so that they could not hold their peace.”99
Like his brethren, Brigham Young had other involvements besides these soul-satisfying meetings relating to the temple. For months he and his fellow apostles had assisted in the ministry in the Kirtland region and in late February they, with the presidents of Seventy, received the assignment to oversee all missionary labors and teaching of the Saints in outlying areas—to “see that the calls for preaching in the region round about Kirtland be attended to and filled by judicious Elders of this church,” was how Joseph noted the assignment in his diary.100 There was also temple construction, a labor of love for Young’s skilled hands.
Clearly Brigham Young had little time to work at his trade for the support of his family and this, the second winter of labor on the temple, was a season of poverty for the Youngs. Joseph had told the Twelve and the Seventy that they had “a right by virtue of their offices to call upon the churchs to assist them” and their families.101 The Saints, however, found that temple [189] construction alone, even without the need to purchase lands in Missouri, exhausted their resources. They could not support Joseph Smith’s family, let alone the families of a traveling ministry.
For his part, Brigham Young prided himself that he lived by his own labors.
I traveled and preached, and still went back [with] nothing; but was willing to exchange, deal, work and labor for the benefit of my brethren and myself, with the kingdom of God and nothing else before me all the time.102
Although Young did work hard, he also received assistance, which he acknowledged: “I have supported myself and my family, by the help of the Lord and my good brethren. Some of them have helped me very liberally, for which I thank them.”103 He labored, he traded, he sometimes received gifts, and when he had to, he borrowed.
Indeed, the winter of 1835–1836 was a borrowing season. As Jonathan Crosby remembered the time, Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, and Parley Pratt were “very poor” in January 1836. Brigham stood in the door of the printing office, a building he had helped construct, “thinking of his condition & he felt so bad the swet rold off . . . him.” When apostle Parley Pratt came by, Young asked him, “What shall we do? I have nothing to eat & dont know whare to get it.” Pratt knew that Brother Crosby, who had just arrived, had some money and at his suggestion Elders Young, Kimball, and Pratt all went to Brother Crosby and each borrowed $25 to feed his family.104 With such assistance Young’s family ate in spite of his many hours devoted to the kingdom.
On 22 February 1836, Joseph Smith asked Brigham Young to set aside everything in order to work full-time superintending [190] the interior painting and some aspects of the finish work on the temple. Until then he had spent most mornings with the elders in the Hebrew school, studying “the word of the Lord in the original,” as Joseph phrased it.105 It is interesting to contemplate a man of Young’s limited education so engaged day after day. It is not an activity he later commented on, nor did he later display any acquaintance with Hebrew. Clearly he was not a star pupil, and it is unlikely that anything but obedience and the opportunity to be with Joseph could have induced his daily attendance. He was a careful student of the scriptures and desired to further understand them, but it is likely that he considered prayerful application in a language he understood a more fruitful endeavor for him than Hebrew study.
Young was interested in the Egyptian mummies, however, and in the ancient writings with them. Several times he called on Joseph to learn more about them. Of one occasion when Brigham visited with two others, Smith wrote:
I exhibited and explained the Egyptian records to them, and explained many things to them concerning the dealings of God with the ancients and the formation of the planetary system.
Thought Joseph, “they seemed much pleased with the interview.”106 Joseph’s explanations of ancient records Brigham could understand. Reading them himself was something else.
This winter that closed the first year of his apostleship had been for Brigham Young eventful. He had labored on the temple, attended school, learned more about temple ordinances; he had met in council and preached and baptized. But ultimately the lasting impact of these events was not so much what he contributed [191] as what he had experienced.107 He had felt Joseph’s chastisement—and the Lord’s. He had seen the fruits of disunity and disharmony in his quorum, the wages of rage and emotion. No doubt these experiences increased his sensitivity to disunity and influenced the stress he would later put on achieving unity both by true brotherhood and obedience to authority. Witnessing personal attacks on Joseph likely strengthened inner feelings that would soon sustain and drive him as he rose up in defense of his Prophet. He had shared sacred experiences with his brethren and participated in emotional reconciliations that promised a future of greater harmony. And he continued to be enthralled by Joseph. Certainly with but few exceptions, when Joseph spoke in public, Brigham was there; if there was a council where his presence was appropriate, he was there. Much of the winter, however, saw Brigham Young at work on the temple while Joseph managed the affairs of his office. Neither a source of concern nor yet a right hand man, Brigham Young was infrequently mentioned in Joseph’s diary.
Not yet among the most influential leaders, not yet a full-time church authority, Brigham Young found that his ordination had given him new responsibility and new opportunity, but had not yet greatly altered the pattern of his life. Working on the temple, preaching, receiving instruction and blessings in council—all these were experiences any elder might have had. He was a disciple, a follower, known to the Kirtland Saints and, we can assume, respected by most, but not particularly visible or prominent. [192]
One change that Young must have contemplated as spring approached was the move to Missouri. The previous October, less than two weeks after the Twelve returned from their mission, Smith had told them that it would be necessary to move their families to Zion in the spring. The apostles’ mission had already involved them in assisting Joseph in the two projects closest to his heart, construction of the temple and the redemption of Zion. But now he wanted the Twelve’s assistance directly in the Missouri Zion. Smith’s resolve to redeem Zion ran deep. He had even concluded in the fall of 1835 that he would lead an enlarged Camp of Zion to protect the Saints in regaining their lands and in purchasing more.108
With spring approaching and the temple nearly completed, Zion was again on Joseph’s mind. On 13 March he met with the Presidency and some of the Twelve “and counseled with them upon the subject of removing to Zion this Spring.” Feeling that their influence in persuading the Saints to gather to Missouri would be greater if they, too, resided there, they concluded to emigrate by the fifteenth of May “if Kind providence smiles upon us and openes the way before us.”109
Although it looked for all the world like Brigham Young and his associates were headed for Missouri, it was not to be. On 27 March 1836, the Prophet Joseph presided over the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, with hundreds of Saints and 416 priesthood officers present—more officers than had ever assembled before. Songs and sermons—Sidney Rigdon spoke two and one-half hours “in his usual logical manner”—along with the sustaining of [193] officers, preceded Joseph Smith’s presentation of the dedicatory prayer. After Joseph was sustained as a prophet and seer, he called upon the Saints “to acknowledge the 12 Apostles who were present as Prophets and Seers and special witnesses to all the nations of the earth, upholding them by their prayers.” The Seventy were next sustained—as special witnesses but not as prophets and seers.110 After the prayer some bore testimony of angels, Brigham Young gave “a short address” in tongues which fellow apostle David W. Patten interpreted, along with a short exhortation in tongues himself, then Joseph dismissed the congregation.111
With the temple dedicated, the promised solemn assembly could finally be held. That very evening the Prophet gathered the Twelve and other quorums into the temple to instruct them on the ordinance of the washing of feet and also the spirit of prophecy. At one point young George A. Smith arose and began to prophesy
when a noise was heard like the sound of a rushing mighty wind . . . and all the congregation simultaneously arose . . . [and] many began to speak in tongues and prophesy; others saw glorious visions. . . . The people of the neighborhood came running together . . . and were astonished at what was taking place.112
Once again manifestations had confirmed to them the sacredness of the temple and the importance of their labors within.
Two days later, before beginning the ordinances, several of the Presidency knelt “in the most holy place in the Lord’s house” to seek the Lord’s will “concerning our going to Zion, and other important matters.” The Presidency and Twelve had earlier agreed to move with the families to Missouri by 15 May. With the [194] date fast approaching, Smith wanted confirmation that it was best. The voice of the Spirit, according to Joseph, was that through fasting and prayer, if they humbled themselves enough, they would receive further word.113 Although Joseph Smith’s diary records no specific later answer to this inquiry, his instructions to the Twelve in the temple the following day and his own subsequent actions make it clear that his inner feeling of urgency about Zion, and about the officials moving there, was gone.
The Twelve and other quorums received the washing of feet 30 March 1836. At least since the Fishing River revelation to Zion’s Camp—which stressed that Zion could not be redeemed until the elders were endowed with power from on high—Brigham Young had looked forward to the promised temple rites. No doubt the dedication and solemn assembly were for him days of satisfaction and fulfillment. The comments about the occasion in his history are unadorned: the washing of feet was administered to him by the Prophet Joseph, he noted, and “I . . . was privileged to listen to the teachings and administrations of the Prophet of God.” As they administered the ordinance, the Presidency pronounced blessings and prophecies upon the Twelve.114 Another who was present wrote of the event in his diary. The Twelve and presidents of Seventy first received the ordinance and then washed the feet of the other quorums.
after the washing the Brethren commenced prophesying for the spirit of prophecy was poured out upon the congregation: the house was divided into 4 parts by the curtains & they prophesied, spoke and sang in tongues in each room.115 [195]
After the ordinance, the Prophet instructed while the Twelve prepared the bread and wine. It had been necessary to tarry in Kirtland until endowed, he told them, but the time was near when the elders would go forth, each empowered to stand alone. The Seventies, he said, are not called “to serve tables or preside over churches,” but to build up churches and set others to preside over them. The “twelve also are not to serve tables, but to bear the keys of the kingdom of all nations.” What about Zion? Were the Twelve to go there? “The 12 are at liberty to go wheresoever they will and if one shall say, I wish to go to such a place let all the rest say Amen.” The Seventies also were free “to go to Zion if they please or go wheresoever they will and preach” the gospel. Zion, however, remained central: “let the redemption of Zion be our object,” to be accomplished by preaching and then gathering the strength of the Church to the borders of Zion. The brethren covenanted that if any more Saints were slain or driven from their lands in Missouri, they would not rest until the wrongs were avenged. The organization was now complete, Joseph told them. They had the necessary ordinances and the instruction they needed, now “go forth and build up the kingdom of God.”116
The assembly continued under the direction of the Twelve for eight hours after the Presidency retired. The rest of the meeting was summarized, as it was reported to him, in the Prophet’s diary:
the brethren continued exhorting, prophesying and speaking in tongues until 5 o clock in the morning. The Saviour made his appearance to some, while angeles ministered to others, and it was a pentecost for an enduement indeed, long to be [196] remembered, for the sound shall go forth from this place to all the world.117
What impact did all this have upon Brigham Young? Significantly, Young is highly selective in what he reports of the spiritual phenomena of Kirtland, limited mainly to what he experienced himself—the gift of tongues, healings, prophetic impressions of the Spirit—and things he witnessed of Joseph. He does not report open visions and visitations. The paucity of his comments possibly suggests he was not a participant and remained skeptical of some of the claims of others. His earlier experiences with New York revivalism had led him to conclude that the over enthusiastic could be deceived. On the other hand, it is clear that Young was sensitive to Joseph’s teaching that spiritual manifestations were sacred and personal, not to be lightly shared and certainly not to be sought after for a sign.
Both Young and Kimball later told of a meeting of the Twelve, probably about this time, that demonstrated the futility of sign seeking. According to Kimball, the Twelve had “set stakes” to see an angel. They sought a dramatic manifestation and determined to pray until they received one.118 Thomas B. Marsh, a man of ambition who desired manifestations partly as a confirmation of his position, probably set the tone for this meeting. According to Oliver Cowdery, he visited with Marsh 23 January 1836, the day after the first temple-related heavenly manifestations were reported. Marsh, apparently, had not shared the manifestations, for Cowdery wrote in his diary, “I pray that his faith may be strength[en]ed to behold the heavens open” as he greatly desired. [197] A letter from Marsh to Elder Pratt in 1837 further revealed elements of Marsh’s personality that could contribute to the scene described by Young and Kimball, including his fixed determination to wrest from heaven a spiritual blessing. In the letter, Marsh appointed an extraordinary meeting of the Twelve, noting that it would “be glorious & prove a lasting blessing. . . . we intend to break through every obstacle.”119
Although the Twelve “set stakes,” they did not see an angel that day, Kimball assured his later colleagues, “but [we] prayed ourselves into darkness.” For Brigham Young the incident illustrated the difference between humbly seeking the Lord’s enlightenment and blessings and sign-seeking. While the one is necessary, the other grieves the spirit of the Lord. The meek and cautious can distinguish between the two and avoid such pitfalls, thought Young. “At the time Brother Kimball speaks of,” he told the later apostles, “the Twelve had praid until it was so dark we could hardly see to get down stairs.” Understanding what had happened, Young “praid to God with all my heart that I might never again meet with that Quorum with the spirit they possessed and I never did.”120
George A. Smith, not one of the Twelve at this time or a participant in the experience just reviewed, later drew a similar conclusion from his own experiences and observations of the Kirtland Temple phenomena. He thought it highly significant that some of those “who manifested the greatest gifts, and had the greatest manifestations” later left the Church. Some of them, he thought, were “terribly afflicted with self conceit” and did not [198] demonstrate that humility and quiet dignity necessary for the experiences to be edifying. He contrasted them with those who received knowledge of the things of God “by the power of his spirit, and sought not after signs and wonders.” Upon them, observed Smith, the operations of the spirit “seemed to produce no visible demonstration.” These were the men, he concluded, who remained faithful.121
Did Young see the Savior as Joseph said some did, fulfilling the promise to the pure-in-heart and Oliver’s charge to the apostles? Young would never say. Only rarely did he later suggest publicly the deep meaning these experiences held for him. One such occasion was his thoughtful comments on the Kirtland Temple to the Saints gathered in Salt Lake City to lay the cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple. The preparatory ordinances administered in Kirtland, “though accompanied by the ministration of angels and the presence of the Lord Jesus,” were but a “faint similitude” of the full temple rites, he told them. In Kirtland some thought they had received all there was, then apostatized, convinced they knew as much as God.
But be assured, brethren, there are but few, very few of the Elders of Israel, now on earth, who know the meaning of the word endowment. To know, they must experience; and to experience, a Temple must be built.122
The Kirtland Temple experiences had meaning for Brigham Young. From this time the temple became a vital thread in Young’s life, a thread that for him eventually touched and became intertwined with every important thread of the gospel. [199]
To Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, George A. Smith, and others with experience in the Kirtland Temple who went on to experience other temples, the Kirtland ordinances fell into perspective as only a preparatory or initiatory rite. Brigham Young suggested that while there might have been in Kirtland additional ordinances had the Saints enjoyed the temple longer before their removal, they received and experienced in 1836 all they were prepared to receive. As George A. Smith later expressed it, the Lord went slowly and carefully, “with such great caution that, at all hazards, a few . . . might be able to understand and obey.” Some apostatized because there was too much, some because it was not enough, but if “the Lord had on that occasion revealed one single sentiment more . . . I believe He would have upset the whole of us.”123
There occurred the Sunday following the solemn assembly and washing of feet one of the most significant events associated with the Kirtland Temple. After the Lord’s supper, the Twelve officiating, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery retreated behind lowered veils for “solemn and silent prayer.” They afterwards testified that as they finished praying a vision opened up to them both and they saw and received in turn Moses, with the keys of the gathering and the return of the Ten Tribes; Elias, with the keys of the dispensation of Abraham; and Elijah with the important keys of redemption and sealing.124 Brigham Young and his associates in the Twelve later testified that they received all of these keys from Joseph along with the charge to safeguard them and the instruction to use them to build up the kingdom of God on earth. All of the keys were [200] important, but for them the key of Elijah, identified with the powers held by Peter and the ancient apostles to bind or loose on earth and have the act ratified or sealed in heaven, came to have special significance.125
These experiences, and of course the temple itself with ordinances said to be ancient, served as a reminder to Brigham Young and the Mormons that the Lord had not only restored biblical Christianity, but a new Israel as well. No doubt the reported appearance of the great prophets of the ancient world helped firm up in the minds of many the developing idea of a literal kingdom on earth ruled by priesthood power and encompassing both the temporal and the spiritual—the same kingdom, emphasized the Mormons, prophesied by Daniel to precede the millennial reign of Christ.126 When Joseph Smith first organized a priesthood council more than two years before, he had done so, he said, after an ancient pattern: “according to the ancient order, and also according to the mind of the Lord.”127 Hereafter the Saints would be even more attuned to the ancient order of things.128 The diary of Stephen Post, who wrote that after his Kirtland Temple experiences he “could form an idea of the endowment anciently for Gods ordinances change not,” indicates that this connection with ancient Israel was not lost on contemporaries.129
Joseph Smith’s excellent Kirtland diary ends with the report of these visitations. The events of the next week, the sixth anniversary of the Church, were not recorded at the time. According to Heber C. Kimball’s reminiscent account, dictated about three years later, 6 April found the priesthood of the Church [201] gathered in the temple fasting and observing the Lord’s Supper. The Twelve washed the feet of the Seventy as Christ had done with his apostles. “The meeting continued on through the night, and the spirit of prophecy was poured out upon the assembly and cloven tongues of fire sat upon them for they were seen by many. . . . Also Angels administered to many, for they were also seen by many.”130 Following the anniversary convocation in the temple, Kimball reported that manifestations continued for several days, “attended by a marvellous spirit of prophecy.” Every man seemed full of prophecy and
our time was spent in visiting from house to house, administering bread and wine and pronouncing blessings upon each other . . . [until] from external appearance, we would have supposed that the last days had truly come.
During this time there occurred one of the few temple-related events that Brigham Young later recounted in detail. He and others who had witnessed it told Wilford Woodruff how “a circle of about 40” angelic visitors “dressed in white robes & caps” spent several hours in the upper story of the temple.
their was no person in that room at the time that was mortal yet the room was filled with light & many personages did appear clothed in white & frequently went to the windows & looked out so that the Brethren in the street could see them plainly.131
Either they were very tall or their feet never touched the floor, the observers had concluded, for if they were only the size of “common men” they could not have been seen as fully from the ground as they were. Apparently Young and his companions watched the celestial phenomenon for several hours. When he arrived home, Mary Ann asked the reason for his lateness and he described the [202] scene to her. She remembered his description and related it years later.132
For the Twelve the dedication of the temple marked the end of a period of preparation. For more than a year they had met together frequently, learning about their authority and responsibility as a quorum and about each other. There had been less happy times when pettiness and jealousies created disunity and when the Twelve were not in harmony with the Presidency. Those times had been overshadowed by emotional reconciliations and shared experiences in the temple. As a quorum they had prepared for and experienced their first temple blessings. As a quorum they had organized and regulated the eastern branches. As a quorum they had superintended the preaching around Kirtland. Now, however, the time had arrived for them individually, and in different directions, to “go forth and build up the Kingdom.”
For some the Kirtland meetings of the Twelve in April would be their last with fellow apostles as a quorum. With the departure of Marsh and Patten to Missouri, the Twelve essentially ceased to function as a quorum until it was reorganized under Young nearly three years later. Except for a brief period in the summer of 1837 when a majority of the Twelve had an opportunity to meet in Kirtland, the next important meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve would be several years and hundreds of miles away—and would involve a number of new faces.
Instead of a requirement that they move their families to Missouri, as seemed likely a few weeks before, the Twelve were now free to choose their own field of labor and set their own [203] priorities in building up the kingdom. In the temple Smith had told the Twelve that the Quorum should respect the decision of each member to “go wheresoever [he] will.” Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten, Young’s two seniors in the Quorum, elected to reside with their families in Missouri after all, and later in the summer Marsh took a mission to Tennessee and Kentucky to raise monies for the purchase of lands for the gathering in Missouri.133
Others of the Twelve engaged in a fruitful season of preaching. Some, like Heber Kimball, chose their own fields according to Smith’s words, but for others Joseph suggested specific assignments. Parley Pratt was to go to Canada, Brigham and Joseph Young to preach to relatives in New England. Parley Pratt, deep in debt and with a sick wife, could not decide whether to go or care for his family and pay his debts. Not until Heber roused him from bed one evening and gave him a prophetic blessing of health for his wife, prosperity in his family, and success in his mission to Upper Canada, did he conclude to leave for Toronto.134
Brigham Young, also in debt, once again received this 1836 call from the Prophet without hesitancy. “It has never entered into my heart,” he declared when later remembering this, “from the first day I was called to preach the Gospel to this day, when the Lord said, ‘Go and leave your family,’ to offer the least objection.”135
Although Brigham Young may always have faithfully and unhesitatingly accepted mission calls, separation from his family was neither painless nor easy. Like any caring husband and father, he missed his family. The fact that usually he was forced [204] to leave them without sufficient support added to his concern. If his response seemed painless, it was only because he had long since established in his own mind, and with Mary Ann’s agreement as the rule in his own home, the priorities that placed God and duty to the kingdom first. He would do his duty as well and as quickly as he could, then return to his family. In June, a month after leaving Kirtland, he wrote back to Mary Ann,
what shal I say to you to comfort your hart I pray for you and I feel that the Lord will bless you and keep you from danger and bare you upon the arms of faith, tell the Children that I remember them in my Prares. I Pray the Lord to give you strength and wisdom in all things.
Among the messages for each of his children, he asked Mary Ann to “Kiss that little son of ours and tell him to make hast and groe so he can goe with me.” In closing, he indicated he did not yet know when he could return home. Next month Brigham wrote Mary Ann that his first priority once home would be to “pay for my house and I want to repare it this fall so that I can feele contented about my famely when I leve them.”136
Once again Brigham outlined his mission in a small diary, making entries faithfully from early May until early September. He and his brother preached wherever they could but, as Joseph had directed, concentrated their labors among relatives in New England, baptizing thirteen and leaving the seed planted in others. Several years later at a family meeting in Nauvoo, Brigham Young reminisced about this important mission. He noted that they made a concerted effort among family and friends only because Joseph had assigned it, that when he and Phinehas had early preached together “I never preached to my friends.” In reporting [205] their mission for publication, Brigham wrote that they had “visited our friends as we anticipated, with whom we conversed freely on the subject of the gospel as brought forth in the last days: many of them seemed to realize the truth of it and none rose in opposition to it.”137
By 1845 in Nauvoo, Brigham could better judge the results of this mission. There were “60 or 80” of their relatives in the Church, he thought. For Joseph Young, all this was “according to the promise of the Prophet,” who had promised them that they would see the fruits of their labors. Joseph Young remembered that some of the family looked upon both them and their doctrines as strange, yet they were able to preach and bear testimony to many.138 Among these they preached to was Uncle John Haven, who later remembered looking Brigham full in the face
to see if he could say he was a Mormon and I found that he had the courage to say that he was—I wanted to know what they said and then I took the Bible to see if it was true—l found they were the only sect that kept to the Bible in all its purity.139
That was the Mormonism that had intrigued and finally engulfed Brigham Young—and that was the Mormonism he preached.
Over the next several years many of the family joined Mormonism, but in terms of immediate success that spring, Brigham and Joseph were more successful in the Boston area, where they baptized seventeen after completing their specific assignment. Brigham met Joseph Smith in near-by Salem, Massachusetts, where on 6 August 1836 Smith received a revelation about their business in that place. Young remained with him “a few days” before returning to Boston. He also noted in his diary his joy at [206] spending time with Oliver Cowdery and Hyrum Smith.140 For Brigham Young the four months proved rewarding and important.
Brigham Young was clearly an effective messenger. Because of his sensitivity and genuine warmth, he made friends easily. Simple and sincere in approach, he could be either bold and direct or patient. For Brigham, preaching without purse or scrip was the best way and “never hard.” He and his companions spent some hungry days and cold nights, but not, he insisted, when he was the one to speak. “Now, you may think that I am going to boast a little. . . . brag a little of my own tact and talent,” he admitted later, “but when I had the privilege of asking, I never was turned away—no, not a single time.” Why? Because he first gained the friendship of the people.
I could make the acquaintance of the family, and sit and sing to them and chat with them, and they would feel friendly towards me; and when they learned I was a “Mormon” Elder, it was after I had gained their good feelings.141
Building on a foundation of friendship, he gained many invitations to teach a family or to preach in the neighborhood where a direct approach would have cost him dinner and a missionary opportunity, he insisted. He did not bait the ministers or denounce the sectarians. Rather he tried to attract people to the truth he brought and draw them into the gospel.142
Brigham and Joseph Young returned to Kirtland in September. In October, Levi and Willard Richards, two cousins whose family they had reached on their mission, arrived to further investigate the gospel. Willard stayed with Brigham that fall and when Brigham baptized him in December, he baptized a future apostle, a future [207] counselor to himself, and a man who for nearly fifteen years would be one of his closest associates.143
Parley Pratt’s mission also proved dramatically successful. As a result of his labors, many in the Toronto area were baptized, including Robert B. Thompson, soon a clerk to Smith; the Fieldings—Joseph, Mercy and Mary, who became Hyrum Smith’s wife; and John Taylor, soon an apostle and eventually Brigham Young’s successor as president of the Church. Several of these Toronto Saints, recently emigrated from England, played a role in the first mission to England as Heber Kimball had predicted—probably unaware that he would head that work and that Willard Richards would also play a role.144
In several respects, Young’s return from his second mission as an apostle in September 1836 closed an era in his life. With the dedication of the temple and the dispersing of the apostles in April, priorities changed. Not only would there be no meetings of the Twelve, there would not be the same demand for consecrated labor on the Lord’s House, or the same intense preparation for temple blessings. Missouri would figure again in Young’s future, but not yet. For the next three years he could not even count on his now familiar pattern of a summer’s preaching. The months since his ordination had been months of growth in his office and of preparation. Ahead would be months of performance, not as one of the Twelve, but sometimes standing alone. With Young it would still be the “Kingdom or nothing,” but the months ahead would force him to demonstrate that commitment in unexpected ways. [208]
1. Because of sparse documentation, this period in the history of the Quorum of the Twelve has never been adequately treated. Although gaps remain, using available contemporary records with the reminiscences provides, for the first time, the broad outlines, permitting an assessment of the impact of the period on participants.
2. This chapter and the following three provide examples of Marsh’s leadership and the documentation for these conclusions. See also Lyndon W. Cook, “‘I Have Sinned Against Heaven, and Am Unworthy of Your Confidence, But I cannot Live without a Reconciliation’: Thomas B. Marsh Returns to the Church,” Brigham Young University Studies 20 (Spring 1980):389–400. [Editor’s note: see Ronald K. Esplin, “Thomas B. Marsh as President of the First Quorum of the Twelve, 1835–1838,” Sperry Symposium (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1984), 167–190; Ronald K. Esplin, “Brigham Young and the Transformation of the ‘First’ Quorum of Twelve,” in Lion of the Lord: Essays on the Life and Service of Brigham Young, eds. Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995), 54–84.]
3. The four oldest apostles at the time of their call were thirty-four and thirty-three, the four youngest not yet twenty-four.
4. Discourse by Brigham Young, 7 October 1860, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–1886; reprint ed., 1967), 8:197, hereafter also cited JD. Thomas B. Marsh witnessed these comments.
5. Discourse by Brigham Young, 16 September 1860, Journal of Discourses 8:173.
6. “History of Brigham Young,” Deseret News, 27 January– 24 March 1858, p. 385.
7. Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1851), 2:192.
8. History of the Church, 2:193–98.
9. History of the Church, 2:195–97.
10. History of the Church, 2:197.
11. While there is no evidence that the Twelve initially had copies of Cowdery’s charge, it was recorded and referred to later. According to History of the Church, 5:386, the charge was read again in a meeting of 11 May 1843. Perhaps it became part of Young’s life because he “treasure[d] it up” in his heart, as he later testified he did of Smith’s teachings, praying to God “to help my memory when information [was] wanted.” His memory was excellent “especially with regard to things which pertains to the kingdom of God upon the earth,” and perhaps even more especially as to his own duty in that kingdom. See discourse by Brigham Young, 8 October 1866, Brigham Young Papers, Church Archives, Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, hereafter cited as Church Archives.
12. History of the Church, 2:193, 195–96. Compare this with Smith’s revelation in Doctrine and Covenants, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1923), Section 88:68. For an indication that this charge was taken seriously, see Cowdery’s conversation with Thomas Marsh, 23 January 1836 recorded in “Oliver Cowdery’s Sketchbook,” edited by Leonard J. Arrington, BYU Studies 12 (Summer 1972):420.
13. History of the Church, 2:198.
14. Discourse by Brigham Young, 8 October 1866, Brigham Young Papers.
15. For a brief overview of the organization and early development of the Quorum of the Twelve from a different perspective—and with some information about other quorum members that is not developed here—see Wilburn D. Talbot, “The Duties and Responsibilities of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835–1945” (Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1978), chapter 3. See also D. Michael Quinn, “Organizational Development and Social Origins of the Mormon Hierarchy, 1832–1932: A Prosopographical Study,” (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1973). His chapter 1, Historical Development of the Hierarchy, places the Quorum of the Twelve in context with other officers and quorums of the Mormon leadership.
16. Minutes of meeting, 27 February 1835, History of the Church, 2:199. The Twelve immediately secured a book which opened with William E. McLellen’s minutes of this meeting. With Elders Hyde and McLellen as clerks, the minutes continued through August 1835, the end of their first mission. In spite of Smith’s stress on the importance of the record—in the Twelve’s version of the minutes he said that all important decisions if recorded by them “will ever after remain upon record as law, covenants and doctrine”—no additional entries were made. Apparently there was not another record book of the Twelve until Nauvoo. Their 1835 record is the source for several entries in the History of the Church (for example, 12 March, and 22 and 28 April 1835) and provides an alternate account of other meetings, notably the important one of 2 May 1835.
17. Kirtland Council Record Book, p. 88, Church Archives, emphasis added.
18. Record of the Twelve, 27 February 1835, Church Archives.
19. Minutes, 28 March 1835, Kirtland Record Book, p. 198, Church Archives.
20. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 107:23–39.
21. For a brief discussion of this problem and a diagram illustrating the parallel authority of the two councils, see D. Michael Quinn, “The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844, BYU Studies 16 (Winter 1976):213.
22. History of the Church, 2:220. The original can be found in Kirtland Record Book, pp. 187–91, Church Archives.
23. Discourse by Brigham Young, 6 April 1853, Journal of Discourses 1:136–37. Another version is in Deseret News, 6 June 1877, reporting Brigham Young’s 21 May 1877 speech (mistakenly titled 25 May) in Logan.
24. We have already noted that both Smith’s instructions to the Twelve in the 27 February 1835 meeting and the 28 March 1835 revelation allow for this interpretation. There was a precedent for this understanding even before the organization of the Twelve, however, for Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had been referred to as apostles as they presided over the Church before additional leadership quorums were formed.
25. History of the Church, 2:209. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 101:72ff, especially 72–74. In the 1835 Kirtland edition of the Doctrine and Covenants it is Section 97, paragraph 10 which Kimball quoted in summarizing this mission in “History of Heber Chase Kimball by his own Dictation,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers, Church Archives.
26. Parley Parker Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt [Jr.] (New York: Russell Brothers, 1874), 127.
27. Both Orson Pratt and Heber Kimball thought it significant enough to record that with the arrival of Marsh there was among the Twelve great desire for Pratt to join his brethren, including prayers for him and a prophecy that he would arrive for a meeting on the twenty-sixth “although no one of them knew where I was.” He arrived in Kirtland at 10:00 just as the meeting began for which his attendance had been predicted. “History of Orson Pratt (written by himself, March, 1858),” Deseret News, 29 June 1858, p. 65 and “Extract from the Journal of Heber C. Kimball,” Times and Seasons 6 (January–April 1845):669.
28. History of the Church, 2:219, 28 April 1835. This is printed from the Kirtland Council Record Book, pp. 187– 91, Church Archives.
29. “History of Brigham Young,” p. 386.
30. History of the Church, 2:219–20. Calendar age was important only in this first organization. The seniority of men called to fill future vacancies was established by the date they were set apart in the Quorum. The Minutes of the Twelve, 27 February 1835, record Joseph saying, “At all times when you assemble in the capacity of a council to transact business let the oldest of your number preside.” Perhaps the rotating presidency was designed more for a series of conferences in the field, where it was apparently used in the summer of 1835.
31. History of the Church, 2:209, 222; and “History of Brigham Young,” p. 386.
32. Record of the Twelve, 2 May 1835, Church Archives.
33. History of the Church, 2:245.
34. Brigham Young Diary, 3 May 1835, Brigham Young Papers; and “Journal of Heber C. Kimball,” p. 869.
35. “History of Orson Hyde,” Deseret News (5–12 May 1858), p. 49.
36. For an example, see the account of the “traveling high council assembled in conf[erence]” in Farmington, Maine, in Record of the Twelve, 28 August 1835, Church Archives.
37. O1iver Cowdery’s Charge to the Twelve, History of the Church, 2:198.
38. For accounts of the mission, “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers; Brigham Young’s holograph diary for the period, Brigham Young Papers; a short report in History of the Church, 2:222–26; and the Record of the Twelve, Church Archives. The entry of 9 May 1835 in that record provides an example of their approach as they organized conferences and enquired into the faith and labors of the Saints.
39. History of the Church, 2:224–25.
40. Brigham Young Diary, 25–30 May, Brigham Young Papers.
41. It is not clear whether a different apostle presiding in each conference represented a following of the pattern Smith suggested for conducting quorum meetings by a rotating presidency, or whether it is a result of the common practice of simply selecting one of the priesthood as the “presiding” official to conduct the business of that particular conference or meeting.
42. “History of Brigham Young,” ms no. 3, Historian’s Office Papers, Church Archives.
43. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers.
44. Brigham Young Diary, 17 July, 7 August and 12 September 1835, Brigham Young Papers.
45. Brigham Young Diary, 5–23 July 1835, Brigham Young Papers; and “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers.
46. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers.
47. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers; see the entry before 31 August 1835. The revelation can be found in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 101:72–74.
48. Warren A. Cowdery to Joseph Smith, 29 July 1835, in Minutes, 4 August 1835, Joseph Smith Papers, Church Archives.
49. Meeting of 4 August, Joseph Smith papers, reprinted in History of the Church, 2:239–40. Regardless of verbal instructions, as Joseph Smith reminded the brethren in Zion in a 16 August 1834 letter, Joseph Smith Papers, the Fishing River revelation made it clear that the temple and endowment were necessary before Zion would be redeemed. Nevertheless, the Twelve seem not to have understood that priority as part of their mission—at least when compared with the explicit emphasis on their duty to implement the earlier revelation. Their own minutes show much stress on the gathering and redeeming of Zion with but little mention of the temple. When the temple is mentioned in the minutes of the Saco, Maine, conference in late August (about the time the letter of reproof from the Presidency arrived), the order was: first, redemption of Zion; second, building the House of the Lord in Kirtland; and third, printing the word of God.
50. For the school being under Rigdon’s direction, see History of the Church, 2:283. Feeling the attack personally, perhaps Rigdon set the tone for the whole proceeding by insisting that such insults not be tolerated. Although published minutes indicate only that he was present, Joseph Smith’s diary suggests the prominence of President Rigdon in the whole affair. They met to resolve, he says “some matters of difficulty . . . between some of [the Twelve] and president Rigdon.” Joseph Smith Diary, 26 September 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
51. Minutes, 4 August 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
52. The letter reached them in Maine. See History of the Church, 2:372.
53. Minutes, 4 August 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
54. Unwarrantable is the word the Twelve used as recorded in Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. The word becomes “unwarranted” in the printed version, History of the Church, 2:372. It is not known what specific information the Presidency had for all the charges, but the specific ones mentioned seem either relatively minor or not on proven authority, i.e. “unwarrantable.”
55. Joseph Smith Diary, 26 and 27 September 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. See also History of the Church, 2:283. This dictated diary of Joseph Smith begins 22 September 1836 and continues through the major temple manifestations of the following spring, ending 3 April 1836. It is the most detailed and complete diary of Smith’s during the 1830s and is the basis for most of the entries in the History of the Church during this period.
56. Minutes, 30 November 1847, Brigham Young Papers. See both versions of these minutes. For a brief discussion with examples of Joseph Smith consciously trying people as a method of testing and teaching, see Danel Bachman, “Plural Marriage Before the Death of Joseph Smith,” (M.A. thesis, Purdue University, 1975), pp. 168–69. See also note no. 4, above.
57. Minutes, 26 September 1835, Kirtland Council Record Book, Church Archives. See History of the Church, 2:372 for an example of lingering feelings.
58. Joseph Smith Diary, 5 October and 3 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
59. Kirtland Council Record Book 2 May 1835, p. 18, Church Archives.
60. Joseph Smith Diary, 3 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
61. Joseph Smith Diary, 5 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
62. Historian’s Office Journal, 16 February 1859, Historian’s Office Papers. Minutes, 12 February 1849, Brigham Young Papers.
63. Joseph Smith Diary, 12 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
64. Diary of Joseph Smith, 12 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. Compare this statement with his comments in Missouri when he finished organizing the high council and presidency there as he had earlier done in Kirtland. He “told them that if I should now be taken away, I had accomplished the great work the Lord had laid before me, and that which I had desired of the Lord; and that I had done my duty in organizing the High Council.” Remarks of Joseph Smith, 3 July 1834, History of the Church, 2:124.
65. Joseph Smith Diary, 12 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
66. Brigham Young later stressed to the Saints that often one’s most sacred experiences were not to be shared. The Lord has no confidence in those who reveal all they know, he taught, and “He cannot safely reveal Himself to such persons.” But He has special blessings to bestow on those who can keep personal revelations private. Discourse by Brigham Young, 15 March 1857, Journal of Discourses 4:287–88 and 28 June 185,. JD 4:371–72. Brigham Young’s own most dramatic revelatory experiences were seldom discussed in detail with the Saints and are often known only by private writings or later brief public allusions. For example, Orson Hyde said in 1860 of an experience he, Young, and others of the Twelve shared in February 1848, “I do not know that this testimony has often, if ever been given to the masses of the people before” because “We said nothing about the matter in those times, but kept it still.” Discourse by Orson Hyde, 7 October 1860, JD 8:233–34. Young stressed that “the Spirit which reveals will impart the proper discretion” in a discourse of 20 April 1856, JD 3:318.
67. Joseph Smith Diary, 12 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
68. Council meeting and letter, 4 August 1835, Joseph Smith Papers, Church Archives. This communication indicated that he had written to Kirtland a letter that “filled our hearts with joy” when compared with the complaining and critical letters of some of the others.
69. Joseph Smith Diary, 29 October 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. No doubt William Smith was out of order, as Joseph insisted, but Joseph’s own diary suggests that he was perhaps as insistent on the point of order and his own dignity as William was stubborn about refusing to yield.
70. Joseph Smith Diary, 30–31 October 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
71. Joseph Smith Diary, 3 November 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
72. William Smith to Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith Diary, 18 December 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. See also the entry of 16 December for the altercation itself.
73. Joseph Smith Diary, 18–19 December 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
74. Joseph Smith Diary, 1 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
75. Joseph Smith Diary, 1, 2, and 3 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
76. Lorenzo Snow related the incident to the Twelve as recorded in Abraham H. Cannon Diary, 9 April 1890, Church Archives. At least one other incident where Young was reluctant to yield to Smith has been recorded. See the incident of 6 April 1843 over bonding in History of the Church, 5:329–32. Similar to Young’s refusal as a young man to sign a temperance pledge when he did not drink, Young felt it an insult to be bonded when he was thoroughly honest; Smith insisted that to increase the confidence of the members abroad in all authorized to handle church funds, that he, too, be bonded. Smith prevailed.
77. Joseph Smith Diary, 3 January 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
78. Letter from Orson Hyde to Joseph Smith, 15 December 1835, in Joseph Smith Diary, 17 December 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
79. Joseph Smith Diary, 5–6 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. See also History of the Church, 2:356.
80. Manuscript minutes of these two council meetings can be found in Joseph Smith Diary, 13 and 15 January 1835, Joseph Smith Papers, and Kirtland Council Record Book, pp. 200ff and 233ff, Church Archives. They are printed in History of the Church, 2:364–68 and 370–71. Smith noted in his diary after the meeting of 13 January, “This has been one of the best days that I ever Spent, there has been an entire unison of feeling expressed in all our proceedings this day, and the Spirit of the God of Israel has rested upon us in mighty power.”
81. Heber C. Kimball’s remarks in meeting of the Twelve, recorded in Wilford Woodruff’s Diary, 23 February 1859, Wilford Woodruff Papers, Church Archives. Years later in a 23 March 1888 meeting Moses Thatcher mentioned, and others present seemed to acknowledge, “a very strong document that President Young had signed, with others, in relation to some conduct of President Joseph Smith’s.” Copy of diary entry in files of author.
82. Minutes of meeting, found in Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
83. Minutes of meeting, found in Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
84. Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836. The term “present presidency” is important, as it serves to distinguish between the First Presidency present with the Twelve in this council and the Presidencies of the Church, which at this time included all those who presided over the stakes and high councils of Zion and Kirtland: Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, and others not included in the “present presidency.”
85. Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. Compare this with History of the Church, 2:373–74. The printed addition “who are now my Counselors; and where I am not, there is no First Presidency over the Twelve” is not in the manuscript account. After this there seems to be no question that the Twelve are second in authority to the First Presidency. Although they still have no assigned role in the stakes, they are seated second and come second in voting after the Presidency in matters affecting the whole Church. See for example History of the Church, 2:394–95 and 2:403. These entries come from Joseph’s diary for 12 February 1836 and 3 March 1836 and are not later interpolations.
86. It will be remembered that the difficulty began in August 1835 with a letter of Warren A. Cowdery from Freedom, New York. While this discussion and reconciliation effectively ended the difficulty between the Twelve and the Presidency, the problem with Dr. Cowdery remained. This same day Oliver Cowdery wrote to his brother in New York to help resolve the matter. On 11 February he received an answer from Warren along with letters from him to the high council and the Twelve. On 25 February Warren Cowdery and his family arrived to settle in Kirtland, and on 5 March he sat down with the Twelve and Presidency for an airing of feelings and final rapprochement. See entries for 16 January, 11 and 25 February and 5 March 1836 in “Oliver Cowdery’s ‘Sketch Book.’” Warren Cowdery’s 7 March 1836 letter of apology and explanation was published in the Messenger & Advocate 2 (February 1836):263.
87. Joseph Smith Diary, 16 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
88. Joseph Smith Diary, 17 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. The following Sunday the high councils of Kirtland occupied the time for confession and exhortation.
89. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers. The order of events in the manuscript seems to suggest that Kimball was here describing the aftermath of a fall 1835 reconciliation. Although the problems were first discussed in the fall, the details Kimball gives match not the fall discussions but the full reconciliation here. In several places Kimball’s reminiscent account provides correct details but places events out of sequence as he juggles items for the flow of the story. That this occurs here is natural since the resolution of the problems is separated by several months from their inception.
90. See for example Brigham Young to Mary Ann Young, 16 October 1840, Blair Collection, University of Utah. See also Wilford Woodruff Diary, 10 January 1837, Wilford Woodruff Papers.
91. Joseph Smith Diary, 21 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
92. Joseph Smith Diary, 21 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
93. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers.
94. Diary of Joseph Smith, 21 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. Numerous visions and visitations were reported in Kirtland during the several months beginning at this time and closing in April soon after the late March dedication of the temple. Milton V. Backman’s “Spiritual Manifestations in the Kirtland Temple: Contemporary Accounts and their Meanings,” a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mormon History Association, 1977, Kirtland, Ohio, surveyed these. His information will be presented in his forthcoming study on Ohio in the Sesquicentennial History of the Church. [Editor’s note: see Milton V. Backman, The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983), 284–309; Steven C. Harper, “‘A Pentecost and Endowment Indeed’: Six Eyewitness Accounts of the Kirtland Temple Experience,” Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 327–371.] A few instances can be found in Max H. Parkin, Conflict in Kirtland: A Study of the Nature and Causes of External and Internal Conflict of the Mormons in Ohio Between 1830 and 1838 (Salt Lake City: Max H. Parkin, 1966). pp. 84–88.
95. Joseph Smith Diary, 22 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
96. See Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten to Parley P. Pratt, 10 May 1837, Joseph Smith Papers. See also Heber C. Kimball to Vilate Kimball, 12 November 1837, photocopy in Kimball Family Papers, Church Archives.
97. Joseph Smith Diary, 22 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
98. Joseph Smith Diary, 22–23 January 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
99. Joseph Smith Diary, 28 January and 6 February 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
100. Joseph Smith Diary, 24 February 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
101. Minutes, 2 May 1835, Record Book of the Twelve. This version is different from the one in History of the Church, 2:221–22.
102. Discourse by Brigham Young, 3 February 1867, Journal of Discourses 11:296; see also discourses by Brigham Young, 31 August 1856, JD 4:34–35 and 7 April 1860, JD 7:229.
103. Discourse by Brigham Young, 7 April 1860, Journal of Discourses 7:229. For his further acknowledgment of the Lord’s assistance at this time, see discourse by Brigham Young, 7 April 1860, JD 7:229. See also discourse by Brigham Young, 24 July 1854, JD 2:18: “the Lord fed and clothed me.”
104. Jonathan Crosby reminiscence, Church Archives. Crosby says that Brigham Young later mentioned the incident many times but to his knowledge the others never did. Perhaps it was this experience that Young related in 1860, “a time in his past history, when he was so poor he did not know where to get bread for his family.” President’s Office Journal, 18 January 1860, Brigham Young Papers. Crosby dates this as January 1835, the winter after Zion’s Camp. However, Joseph Smith’s diary for 26 December 1836 notes that “a brother from the east called upon me for instruction, whose name is Jonathan Crosby,” strongly suggesting that Crosby was not previously known to Joseph and had just arrived. It seems likely that Crosby misdated his reminiscent account.
105. Joseph Smith Diary, 17 February 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. For Smith’s joy in Hebrew scriptures, see the whole entry. See also the entry of 19 January 1836.
106. Joseph Smith Diary, 16 December 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. Likely Young had already been there and heard explanations earlier with others of the Twelve. See Joseph Smith Diary, 3 October 1835.
107. Young was probably among those who shared an impressive experience in connection with the serious illness of his brother Lorenzo Dow Young. He would have been among those gathered up by Father Young to conduct a special group prayer according to a pattern Joseph Smith explained to them. As part of the pattern, Hyrum Smith was mouth in a priesthood blessing on Lorenzo who later related: “The spirit rested mightily upon [Hyrum] and he was full of blessing and prophecy. He said that I should regain my health [and] live to go with the Saints into the bosom of the Rocky Mountains to build up a place there.” According to Lorenzo, this was the first that he had heard of the Saints going to the Rocky Mountains, and, although he knew that Hyrum might have known it before, he thought Hyrum had “seemed surprised at some things he had said, and wondered at the manifestations of the spirit.” Little, “Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young,” Utah Historical Quarterly 14 (1946):45–46.
108. A few days before the Twelve returned to Kirtland, Smith prepared “an Article of inrollment for the redemption of Zion that we may obtain volunteers to go next spring to M[issouri]. I ask God in the name of Jesus that we may obtain eight hundred men or one thousand well armed and that they may accomplish this great work. Even so Amen.” Joseph Smith Diary, 24 September 1835, Joseph Smith Papers. For other examples of his concern with redeeming Zion see Joseph Smith Diary, 5 and 29 October 1835, Joseph Smith Papers.
109. Joseph Smith Diary, 13 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
110. Joseph Smith Diary, 27 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers. The account in History of the Church, 2:417 added “Revelators” and the phrase “holding the keys of the kingdom,” which are not in the diary account.
111. History of the Church, 2:428. Most of the History of the Church account, including the mention of the presence of angels, comes from Joseph Smith Diary. The mention of Young’s gift of tongues, however, is not in the contemporary account.
112. History of the Church, 2:428. Nearly all of the History of the Church entries dealing with the temple in the spring of 1836 are from Joseph Smith’s diary. In this instance the diary says only “met in the evening and instructed the quorums respecting the ordinance of washing of feet.” George A. Smith in his “History of George Albert Smith by Himself,” ms, George Albert Smith Papers, Church Archives, says simply that he “received much instruction & many manifestations of the Spirit and while in the Temple I had a vision of the Millennium and exclaimed ‘All the world is giving glory to god!’”
113. Joseph Smith Diary, 29 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
114. “History of Brigham Young,” p. 386. Joseph Smith Diary, 30 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
115. Stephen Post Diary, 30 March 1836, Church Archives.
116. Joseph Smith Diary, 30 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
117. Joseph Smith Diary, 30 March 1836, Joseph Smith Papers.
118. Remarks of Young and Kimball in Wilford Woodruff Diary, 23 February 1859, Wilford Woodruff Papers.
119. Entry of 23 January 1835 in “Oliver Cowdery’s ‘Sketch Book,’” p. 420; and Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten to Parley P. Pratt, 10 May 1837, Joseph Smith Letterbook, Joseph Smith Papers.
120. Remarks of Young and Kimball in Wilford Woodruff Diary, 23 February 1859, Wilford Woodruff Papers. Dating this incident is difficult, but it seems likely that it occurred in the spring of 1836. The only other plausible setting would be July 1837, ruled out by Kimball’s absence in England. An interlinear clarification by Woodruff of Young’s comments seems to say “last time I met with the Twelve in Kirtline.” If that is a proper reading, it strengthens the probability of April 1836, before the Twelve dispersed for their summer missions—and David Patten and Thomas Marsh for residence in Missouri. The Twelve only met as a quorum once more in Kirtland and that was in July 1837. Any other meeting of the Twelve in Kirtland after the spring of 1836 could have involved only a handful of apostles, and Elders Young and Kimball, critics of the meeting, would have presided.
121. Discourse by George A. Smith, 15 November 1864, Journal of Discourses 11:10.
122. Discourse by Brigham Young, 6 April 1853, Journal of Discourses 2:31.
123. Discourse by Brigham Young, 6 April 1853, Journal of Discourses 2:31; and discourse by George A. Smith, 18 March 1855, JD 2:215ff.
124. Joseph Smith Diary, 3 April 1836, Joseph Smith papers; and Doctrine and Covenants, Section 110. Since the manuscript version is in the handwriting of Warren A. Cowdery who left the Church in 1837, the historicity of the account is firm.
125. See Matthew 16:19 and 18:18.
126. Daniel 2:44–45.
127. History of the Church, 2:32–33, 19 February 1834.
128. Historian Jan Shipps has suggested that the reported visitations of the ancient prophets, 3 April 1836, was one of the perhaps five most pivotal events in Mormon history. She feels that this claimed contact with the great prophets of the Old Testament influenced the way Joseph and his associates viewed the Old Testament and the people of Israel, as well as how they viewed themselves as the modern Israel. Before this time, she argues, Mormons viewed the Old Testament through the filter of the New. Afterwards—just as Christ’s transfiguration with Moses and Elijah present tied his time directly with the prophetic era—Mormons brought Old Testament motifs directly into their religious life without redaction through the New Testament. Notes on file from conversation of 13 February 1980. Professor Shipps has a paper in progress developing these ideas.
129. Stephen Post Diary, 30 March 1836, Church Archives.
130. “History of Heber Chase Kimball,” ms, Heber C. Kimball Papers. Where Kimball’s details can be checked, they seem to be generally accurate, although for periods where he is working without notes the dating is sometimes off. In this case, the entry for 6 April seems distinct and with details that do not fit with other known dates. While his earlier discussion of temple experiences stretching over two months seems to suffer from some confusion and intermingling of events, most of the specific events he reported were recorded in Smith’s diary, though not always in the order or on the dates Kimball’s account suggests.
131. Wilford Woodruff Diary, 8 November 1857, Wilford Woodruff Papers.
132. Emmeline B. Wells, “Biography of Mary Ann Angell Young,” The Juvenile Instructor 26 (1 January 1891):18. Young told his wife that “the upper part of the temple was illuminated and I have been watching my friends. . . . the brethren who have been ministering in the temple have been quietly observing personages pass to and fro, and about in the upper part of the building.”
133. “History of Thomas Baldwin Marsh (Written by himself in Great Salt Lake City, November, 1857).” Deseret News, 24 March 1858, p. 18.
134. Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1938), pp. 130–31.
135. Discourse by Brigham Young, 24 July 1854, Journal of Discourses 2:19. Kimball had preached to many of his New England relatives during the 1835 mission with the Twelve.
136. Brigham Young to Mary Ann Young, 3 June and 21 July 1836, Blair Collection, University of Utah.
137. Minutes, 8 January 1845, Brigham Young Papers. Brigham Young to Oliver Cowdery, 15 September 1836, Messenger & Advocate 3 (November 1836):402. For accounts of the mission see also Brigham Young Diary, May–September 1836, Brigham Young Papers; “History of Brigham Young,” p. 386; and the letters to Mary Ann cited above.
138. Minutes, 8 January 1845, Brigham Young Papers; and “History of Joseph Young,” ms, Historian’s Office Papers. Phinehas Young also assisted for part of the mission.
139. Minutes, 8 January 1845, Brigham Young Papers.
140. History of the Church, 2:466; Brigham Young Diary, 8 August 1836, Brigham Young Papers; “History of Brigham Young,” ms no. 3, Historian’s Office Papers. See also Doctrine and Covenants, Section 111.
141. Discourses by Brigham Young, 31 August 1856, Journal of Discourses 4:34–35 and 5 April 1857, JD 4:305.
142. This approach came naturally to men like Brigham and Heber. It also was in harmony with Smith’s advice. During the solemn assembly in March, he instructed the elders to go forth “in all meekness, in sobriety, and preach Jesus,” and to do it without contending with others “on account of their faith, or systems of religion.” History of the Church, 2:431. In Brigham Young’s teaching this became “don’t fight the sects,” and he had occasion in later years to remind many, including some of his fellow apostles, of the teaching. Joseph promised that those who ignored the counsel to preach positively would bring persecution upon themselves, while those who heeded it “shall always be filled with the Holy Ghost.” For Young’s assessment of Kimball’s missionary approach see discourse of 6 April 1857, Journal of Discourses 4:305.
143. “History of Brigham Young,” p. 386; and “History of Willard Richards,” Deseret News, 23–30 June 1858, p. 173. See also History of the Church, 2:469–70 footnote where B. H. Roberts says that Richards first got the Book of Mormon as a result of Young’s 1835 mission. Joseph Young reported visiting the Richards family in the 1836 tour as well, and it is clear that Willard and his brother made their way to Kirtland soon after.
144. Pratt, Autobiography, p. 131. “[A]nd from the things growing out of this mission, shall the fulness of the gospel spread into England, and cause a great work to be done in that land.”
