9 Brigham Young and the New Quorum of the Twelve, 1839–1840

The bold return to Missouri marked the beginning of a new era for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Not only did the April Missouri ordinations provide, for the first time since Kirtland, enough apostles for a quorum, the successful foray into enemy territory launched the new quorum with united confidence. In addition, their impending mission to England gave them direction and purpose.

In retrospect, it is clear that this was an important beginning in another sense, one that the participants could not yet have foreseen: joined by Willard Richards, named but not yet ordained, the cast would be complete of those apostles who would eventually succeed Joseph Smith as the primary leaders of Mormonism. Here were added to the Twelve the men who would be associated with Young and Kimball in providing continuity with Joseph Smith and his principles for the next two generations. Both those of the original apostles still involved in the work and those newly ordained recognized Young as their senior in the apostleship, a relationship that began here and would continue for more than forty years. ^[392]

Brigham Young’s role in the Mormon exodus from Missouri had been his first experience in heading a movement of larger scale. He appears to have labored carefully, consulting with others, and using the familiar leadership structures. His was a management through conferences, committees, and councils, low-key rather than domineering, though he firmly made his influence felt where he judged it mattered most. Now his most important council and committee would be the Twelve. What style would he use with them? How effective would he be as a leader or would they be as a quorum? Could they become a powerful and united tool for the kingdom under his direction? The months just ahead would begin to provide the answers.

Problems remained, however. Parley Pratt still languished in a Missouri jail, William Smith could not be counted on, Lyman Sherman had died before he joined them, and Willard Richards remained thousands of miles away. But the quorum was active again, it had a determined leader, an urgent purpose, and energetic new members committed to the same ideals. All of this seemed to promise for the Twelve better days ahead than they had known in the past.

The early May reunion of Joseph Smith and the Twelve launched an unusual season of instruction, with the Prophet frequently joining the Twelve in council. For the first time, the apostles would here begin to have, as a quorum, that relationship with Joseph Smith and the Presidency which, to the deep consternation of some, had earlier eluded them. During this period, Joseph Smith began with Young the process of shaping the reorganized ^[393] quorum into an effective unit. Not only did Smith instruct them for their mission, he also began teaching them more of those “mysteries of the kingdom” alluded to in his prison letters, instruction which served as a prelude to the intensive teaching that followed their return from Europe.

For the first time since the Missouri difficulties, the Church met 4–6 May for an important conference under the direction of the Presidency. The business transacted during the three-day gathering proved to be of great importance for the Church and the Twelve. By this time Sidney Rigdon resided in perhaps the best dwelling in Commerce, Illinois, upriver from Quincy, and the conference appointed his home as the location for the next general conference in early October. That action, along with the sanctioning of Joseph Smith’s purchase of Iowa lands directly across the river from Commerce, effectively established a new gathering place for the Saints. Not only had Smith completed arrangements with Galland for the Iowa lands, as he had indicated his intention to do, he also completed just before the conference negotiations to purchase lands in Commerce. At the conference he appointed William Marks to preside over the Saints at Commerce and he instructed the bishops to reside there, marking the beginning of what would soon be known as the Nauvoo Stake of Zion. Saints in the East, however, he counseled to settle in Kirtland and vicinity rather than migrating to Commerce; he appointed a new Kirtland presidency to preside over the temple and re-establish a stake of Zion there.^{1 [394]}

With reference to the Twelve, the conference sanctioned their proceedings at the Far West temple site, including the ordination of new apostles and the excommunication of dissidents. The members also resolved to do all in their power to assist the Twelve in their intended mission to England. The conference then considered the cases of apostles William Smith and Orson Hyde. Faithful to his promise to Hyde, Heber Kimball had described to Hyrum Smith before the meeting Hyde’s feelings of remorse and his desire to return. When Joseph Smith proposed to drop Hyde, Hyrum and Heber both pled his case. Joseph Smith withdrew his proposal and the conference then voted merely to suspend the two apostles until they personally appeared before the next conference of the Church to explain their conduct. Most of the business behind them, the Saints spent the second day of the conference receiving instruction from “the Presidency and those of the Twelve present.” The final day the Twelve and Seventy met to attend to ordinations and to select a number of seventies to accompany the Twelve to England.²

Apparently Joseph Smith left for Commerce immediately after the conference and commenced laying out a city while the Twelve remained in Quincy for another week of councils and business. “Spent the day in converation with the Twelve,” wrote Woodruff about the seventh, and Sunday, 12 May saw him “in council with the twelve & Quorums of the seventies” to conduct church business. They organized committees to assist the families of the seventies who were to preach and also to labor with Lyman Wight whose political pronouncements portended difficulty.³ The next several ^[395] days letters went out “by the direction of the Twelve” informing men of their appointments and assignments.⁴

Joseph Smith wasted no time in founding a new city for the Saints. Brigham and the apostles had insisted to the Saints that once again they must and would gather and build. Once he was free, Joseph Smith put his energies to the task. The temporal labors of city building would remain a religious duty of the Saints. By 18 May, Young, Woodruff and their families arrived at the designated location to settle. Already they found the surveyor hard at work laying out a city according to Smith’s plans. That day Woodruff wrote in his diary that although the Saints were driven from place to place, yet they were not discouraged but “determined to build a city wherever their lot is cast showing themselves to be industrious & determined to maintain the kingdom of God.”⁵ Though it be only a resting place, the city must rise.

Although they found the location for the city beautiful and promising, with only a handful of buildings scattered about, the two apostles had to join others seeking shelter for their families across the river at abandoned Fort Des Moines (Montrose), Iowa. With dwellings in Iowa and church councils and conferences in Commerce, Young and Woodruff—along with John Taylor and others who soon joined them there—commenced a summer of ferrying the Mississippi.

On 21 May the Presidency crossed the river into Iowa and toured that region with Elders Young, George A. Smith, and Woodruff of the Twelve and several other men. By the twenty-fourth, six of the Twelve resided in Montrose and spent the day exploring ^[396] the Iowa prairie on foot. The next day they all crossed to Commerce for an important council. Heber Kimball, standing at the rail of the ferry, remarked as they approached Commerce, “It is a very pretty place, but not a long abiding place for the Saints.” Already there had been threats and some destruction of property by a few rowdies in Iowa, and by month’s end there would be more.⁶ Was Kimball simply pondering the likely possibilities and announcing by “natural revelation,” as Brigham had said to himself about Far West the spring before, his assessment of the outcome? Or was Kimball, later noted for his prophecies, voicing what he felt prompted to say? For whatever reasons, Kimball was certain that Nauvoo would prove a less than permanent home for the Saints.

Heber’s pessimistic remarks saddened President Rigdon when he learned of them, for he had the best house in town and no interest in leaving it. When the council opened at the home of Joseph Smith, Rigdon indicated he had some feelings about Kimball. “I should suppose,” he told the council, “that Elder Kimball had passed through sufferings and privations and mobbings and drivings enough to learn to prophesy good concerning Israel.” Knowing that Rigdon was in earnest, Kimball adroitly turned the matter to a point of humor that evoked laughter and “Elder Rigdon yielded the point.”⁷ Nonetheless, after two years of turmoil, it was a serious matter to predict still another migration.

No minutes of the day-long council have survived, although Woodruff noted that “we recieved much council from Joseph,” and had “a vary important & lnteresting time.” The day before the Twelve had submitted to Joseph a report in reference to the ^[397] seventies. Perhaps that report and their upcoming mission were discussed. Woodruff also noted that William Smith was “restored to his qourum.”⁸ A later report said that the intercession of Hyrum and Joseph Smith led the council to restore him to fellowship.⁹ The next day, Sunday, the Twelve again crossed the river for a meeting held in Joseph’s home when John Taylor and Orson Pratt addressed the Saints.

Few councils were held in early June while the Prophet worked on his history and visited family and friends. Smith did counsel those of the Twelve whose families did not yet reside in the Commerce area to move them immediately to the new gathering place. The advice sent Heber Kimball back to Quincy to bring up his family. John E. Page was visible in the city by early June, if he was not there earlier. Kimball wrote to Parley Pratt, still in prison, telling him that the Presidency were sanguine that he would soon be out of the hands of his enemies. Kimball also was optimistic: “I do not feel as though I can go to England until I take you by the hand. . . . Be of good cheer, brother; a few days now, and you shall see the salvation of God; and I shall see you in other lands, publishing peace to the captives.” Heber further informed him that the Church had resolved that the bishops would care for the families of the Twelve so they would be free to preach abroad.¹⁰ The Twelve met as a quorum in Montrose on 20 June to discuss their calling. “We feel & believe that it is the most important period & age of the world,” wrote Woodruff after the day together. They read and discussed with great interest the Old Testament history of the Children of Israel and they searched the ^[398] prophecies of Isaiah. But even more compelling, thought Woodruff, were their readings in the Book of Mormon and contemplation of the future work to go forth among the descendants of those peoples.¹¹

Orson Hyde joined the Twelve in their 25 June council meeting in Montrose, “& a more humble & penitent man I never saw,” thought Woodruff who had not been present during the Far West difficulties.

& well he might be for in the time of persecution in Zion or far west he deserted the cause, denyed the faith, & betrayed his brethren & assisted Thomas B. Marsh (the president of the Twelve Apostles) in jeperdizing the lives of Joseph & his Council & the whole church in Zion.

Woodruff was certain that the Hyde and Marsh testimony had influenced the governor to issue his military order of extermination. The following day the Twelve crossed to Commerce and, with Joseph still out of town, met with Presidents Rigdon and Hyrum Smith. During discussion of Orson Hyde’s status, President Rigdon expressed “very plain and forceably” his fear that if Hyde were allowed to return to his quorum, he would desert the Church again at the next trial as he had done before. On the third day of Council about the matter, this time with Joseph Smith present, Hyde was restored to the Church and to the Quorum of the Twelve “in full fellowship by a full vote of the Council. after making an humble confession & acknowledgement of his sins.” According to John Taylor later, this only came after Hyde had “made all the satisfaction that was within his power.”¹²

From Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith and the Presidency had written that they held “the keys of the mysteries,” things that ^[399] would be known in due time but had not yet been given to the Saints. In the council on 27 June 1839, Smith began unfolding to the Twelve some of the promised teachings, launching a period of “much valuable instruction from the Prophet,” as Kimball characterized it.¹³ Along with his detailed doctrinal explanations, Joseph Smith told the apostles that God had not revealed anything to him but what he would in time make known to the Twelve—and not only to the Twelve but each Saint “may know all things as fast as he is about to bear it.”¹⁴

Surely as important as the specific teachings was the idea that as the Twelve prepared themselves more would be taught them. These intimate sessions of instruction apparently struck a responsive chord in the apostles and fired their imagination in anticipation of things ahead.¹⁵ Parley Pratt, who missed these important sessions but received private tutoring from Smith when they met in Philadelphia later in the fall, wrote with enthusiasm of the “many great and glorious principles concerning God and the heavenly order of eternity” that Joseph unfolded to him. In 1839 the Prophet “had barely touched a single key; had merely lifted a corner of the veil and given me a single glance into eternity,” wrote Pratt, but it was a beginning that opened up new views and excited his vision of expanding truth.¹⁶

On 2 July, after dining at the Woodruff’s, the Twelve and the Presidency assembled at Brigham Young’s for blessings and farewell instructions. The Presidency blessed the new apostles and the wives of several of the Twelve, promising, according to Woodruff, that if the apostles were faithful they would return ^[400] safely to their families and reap a bountiful harvest “as seals of our ministry.” Hyrum Smith urged the Twelve to be humble, not to trifle with their office, to remember strictly the importance of their mission. He told them to be prudent and preach only repentance and the first principles, not the mysteries. Joseph then presented the Twelve more of the “precious things of the kingdom.”¹⁷

The Prophet’s final instructions to the apostles especially stressed the need for humility and unity. He urged them to be merciful, always ready to forgive a brother at the first intimations of repentance. He counseled them to “not be exalted & beware of pride & not seek to excell one above another but act for each others good.” He prayed God to give them humility and the wisdom to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, and ask:

Must the new ones that are chosen to fill the places of those that are fallen . . . begin to exhalt themselves untill they set so high that they will tumble over & have a great fall . . . as several of the Twelve have done, or will they learn wisdom & be wise.

Joseph urged the Twelve to credit God and not themselves when they preached with power to the astonishment of the people. Nonetheless, he told them, “Ye are not sent out to be taught but to teach.” Finally, he concluded, in all their

trials, troubles, & temptations, . . . see to it that you do not betray heaven, that you do not betray Jesus Christ, that you do not betray your Brethren, & that you do not betray the revelations of God.¹⁸

Young, Taylor, and Woodruff spent 4 July preparing for publication in the first number of the Times and Seasons, the new church periodical, an epistle from the Twelve to all the Church. ^[401] The lengthy document expressed their feelings about the Missouri difficulties and repeated for the Saints much counsel that Joseph Smith had written from jail or recently taught the Twelve. Be patient, urged the Twelve, and leave vengeance in the hands of God. Be honest, prayerful, true men, aiding the weak and the poor, bearing with one another’s infirmities. Take care not to stir up dissension or accusations or rumor against church authorities, rather pray for them and uphold them. The epistle urged the elders to be up and about their labors, for God had committed to them the care of souls. They should preach “nothing but repentance to this generation” and leave the “further mysteries of the kingdom, till God shall tell you to preach them, which is not now,” for men must understand the first principles before they can understand “those greater mysteries, which the most wise cannot understand without revelation.” The Twelve concluded their circular with a revealing conditional promise: if the Saints were united and humble, if they submitted to counsel and sought the glory of God and the salvation of men rather than honor, if they were willing to “filfil the purposes of God in all things,” they would have power. And

Zion shall blossom as a rose, and the nations flock to her standard, and the kingdoms of this world shall soon become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, Amen.¹⁹

On 7 July each of the Twelve gave his farewell addresses to the Saints in an emotion-filled meeting of great impact. Orson Hyde once again enjoyed “the spirit of the Lord” as he addressed the Saints. Brigham Young “spoke & also bore testimony.” ^[402] President Rigdon with his customary eloquence brought tears to the eyes of many as he described the circumstances of the Twelve leaving all they held dear on earth, to go “amidst persecutions and trials such as always followed the preaching of this gospel.” Certainly the Prophet did no less when he told them that if they were placed where they could see their brethren only “through the grates of a window while in Irons because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ remember Brother Joseph has been in like circumstances also.”²⁰ All of this caused Woodruff to reflect in his journal

Surely this is an important day to behold a quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Lamb of God organized in these last days to go forth unto all the nations of the earth. . . . May the Lord enable us the Twelve ever to be meek & humble & to lie passive in His hands as the clay is in the hands of the potter.²¹

The Twelve now earnestly prepared to depart. They continued to meet in council with the Presidency, less for doctrinal instruction than for the practical labors of selecting hymns, preparing materials for publication in the Times and Seasons, and other matters of business.²² They also prepared their families as well as possible and packed a few personal belongings for traveling. Two things delayed their immediate departure: the escape of Parley Pratt from jail and chills and fever, the debilitating sickness that swept through their riverside settlements during July. On 12 July, President Smith called for some of the Twelve to visit the sick and administer to them, naming his own stricken father as one in need of their comfort. That same day, according to Woodruff, they received “the glorious intelligence of the happy deliverance” of Pratt after seven months’ ^[403] imprisonment “for the cause of God.” Within a week Parley was again among them. Orson Pratt had also been in Missouri to assist his brother; now both of the Pratt brothers could accompany their quorum to England.²³

In spite of tender hands and priesthood blessings, the disease continued unabated. For a week and more most energies went to attending to the sick. George A. Smith arrived in Commerce as the sickness spread. Joseph Smith told George A. and Joseph’s own brother Don Carlos to begin at his house and lay hands on every sick person, to “rebuke their diseases and command them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to arise and walk,” not leaving a single person on their bed between his house and Ebenezer Robinson’s. The Prophet had taken so many of the ill into his house and door-yard that his home looked like a hospital and he, too, fell victim and was confined to bed. On 22 July, “a day never to be forgotten,” Joseph arose from his own bed of sickness to command the sick in the name of Jesus to be made whole. He crossed the river to Montrose and went house to house. Said Young, “I arose and was healed, and followed him and the brethren of the Twelve” to other homes. Woodruff reported that

it was a day of Gods power there was many Sick among the Saints on both sides of the river & Joseph went through the midst of them taking them by the hand & in a loud voice commanding them in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from their beds & be made whole & they leaped from their beds . . . & followed Joseph from house to house & it was truly a time of rejoicing.²⁴

Although many continued ill and some new cases developed, this marked the height of the epidemic.²⁵ With the Prophet in their midst, bodies began to mend and spirits began to strengthen. ^[404] Woodruff himself escaped the sickness until a few days later when he experienced his first attack of the “distressing disease.” Contemplating how many of the Twelve were affected, he thought “the enemy is striving to bind us down that we shall not go into the vineyard.” Woodruff was one who did not intend to be bound.²⁶

Sunday, 4 August, was a day of prayer and fasting. The Prophet once again instructed the Twelve, including an admonition which the Twelve accepted to “go forth without purse or scrip, according to the revelations of Jesus Christ.” The meeting also passed a resolution that the Twelve should leave as soon as possible and affirmed again that the Church would provide for their families in their absence.²⁷ Later that same week Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor, the first of the Twelve to leave, departed Commerce for England. Wrote Woodruff in his diary:

It is no small trial of my faith to leave my family & my all & to start on a mission of four thousand miles to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth & that to without money purs or scrip with the power of desease resting upon me . . . but yet I do this freely for Christ Sake trusting in him. . . . May the Lord give me grace & a safe return to my family.

He wrote that his wife Phebe parted with him “with that fortitude that becometh a Saint realizing the call & responsibility of her companion.” He comforted her with the promise that in spite of the distance and perils of this mission, he would see her face again, for he was going in obedience to the command of the Lord.²⁸ As the time of parting arrived, this scene of deep emotion was no doubt repeated in the home of others of the Twelve.

From Liberty Jail, Joseph had written of an Abrahamic test, a trial of faith like unto the ancients’. Zion’s Camp had tested ^[405] them, the apostasies of Kirtland and disaffections and persecutions of Missouri did as well. But perhaps no test was greater for the Twelve—even before the challenges of the mission itself—than leaving their families in the grasp of poverty and sickness and before a new gathering place had yet risen after the defeats of the fall and winter before. When the history of this period was prepared in Nauvoo several years later, this paragraph was inserted to describe their difficulties:

Perhaps no men ever undertook such an important mission under such peculiarly distressing and unpropitious circumstances. Most of them when they left this place . . . were worn down with sickness and disease. . . . Several of their families were also afflicted and needed their aid and support. But knowing that they had been called by the God of Heaven to preach the Gospel to other nations, they conferred not with flesh and blood, but obedient to the heavenly mandate, without purse or scrip, they commenced.²⁹

Though the Church had promised to assist their families, the apostles had no illusions about church resources to do so. Nor could temporal means alone aid those lying sick, some near death. What gave strength and comfort was a feeling that the Lord would intervene and oversee; they left their families in the hands of God.

Less than eighteen months earlier a revelation had assured Brigham Young that it was proper for him to farm and care for his family “until I shall command him to go hence, and not to leave his family until they are amply provided for.”³⁰ Now, under circumstances that he could not have anticipated and even though his family were far from provided for, the command had come. For Brigham Young the decision—if not the execution—was simple; it was still another case of putting the kingdom and obedience to God ^[406] first, something he had disciplined himself to do since his conversion. He later said that it never entered into his heart, when the Lord said “Go and leave your family” to object,³¹ and he insisted that all true Latter-day Saints must learn to put the kingdom of God first and be willing “to forsake Wives, children, houses lands and possessions, for the gospel’s sake.”³²

Young did not advocate neglecting family responsibilities, however. He later told missionaries that the Twelve did this in 1839 by “special command” and that normally the elders must provide for their families before leaving to preach.³³ Still, the principle was important and Young would often stress it later: when the Lord required one’s labor, in sickness or health, poverty or comfort, the call should be heeded and, until the task was completed, home and family should be left in the hands of God.³⁴ That Brigham Young and his fellow apostles determined to do in 1839.³⁵

It was a trial not only for the apostles, but even more so for the wives who were left with the anxiety and immediate care of sick, poorly clothed, and poorly sheltered families. Without wives of strength and faith to match their own, the apostles could not have left under the circumstances. A few days after Kimball and Young departed, Vilate Kimball wrote Heber of her feelings. Because he had insisted, she would tell him frankly

how we do; which is very poorly, I can assure you. As to my feelings I don’t know but I am perfectly reconciled to your going, but I must say I have got a trial of my faith if I never had before. The day you left home was as sick a one as I ever experienced. . . . no doubt the pain in my head was worse on the account of my much weeping, but I did not weep any after you left.^{36 [407]}

For his part Brigham Young acknowledged that the sacrifices of his wife Mary Ann provided a necessary complement to and matched his own. “I am inclined to think you mean to get the blessing of those of the Patiants [patient] and faithful on[e]s,” he wrote to her a year later from England upon learning of her continuing self-denial to provide for others.

this I doe not here from you but from others, you may well think that my hart feeles tender toards you, When I relise your patiants and willingness to suffer in poverty and doe everything you can for my children and for me to goe and due the thing the Lord requires of me.

A month earlier he had written in a similar vein,

when I think how diligant you are and how faithful to my famely and willing to suffer for the sake of my going to preach the gospel you must be blest and blest you shall be I pray the Lord to Bless you and I Bles you and all the faithful sisters.³⁷

If answering the call to Europe under trying circumstances was indeed a test of faith, it might be expected that not all responded the same. Orson Hyde did not finally depart on his mission for many months, but after more than two years of magnificent effort, he completed his separate mission to the Holy Land. John E. Page, who after his eloquent enthusiasm about Hyde’s opportunity was called to accompany him, continued long after Hyde had departed to reaffirm his intentions of meeting him along the way. Two years later he still offered excuses but never managed to leave the East Coast.³⁸ William Smith apparently made no effort to join his fellow apostles. Though he was clearly better situated than some of those who went, he simply pled poverty and remained at home.³⁹ The rest answered the call. ^[408]

The History of the Church for this period, compiled in Nauvoo before the Mormon exodus, contains a passage that admirably describes their composite experience in traveling to New York in the fall of 1839, a passage which they may have helped prepare.

While journeying to the sea board they were brought into many trying circumstances; after a short recovery from severe sickness, they would be taken with a relapse, and have to stop among strangers, without money and without friends. Their lives were several times despaired of, and they have taken each other by the hand, expecting it would be the last time they should behold one another in the flesh. However . . . the Lord always interposed in their behalf, and did not suffer them to sink in the arms of death. Some way or other was made for their escape—friends rose up when they most needed them, and relieved their necessities; and thus they were enabled to pursue their journey. . . .⁴⁰

Taylor, healthy when he left with Woodruff in August, nearly died along the way a few weeks later. Kimball, Young, and George A. Smith were each a frail shadow of his healthy self, even though they delayed leaving a full month as they tried to recover. George A., much the youngest of the three, was so ill that he appeared as an old man.⁴¹

Young and Kimball started on their mission in mid-September. Brigham left a sick wife and children—not one well enough to draw water for the others—and an infant daughter ten days old. When he started out his sister Fanny urged him to stay until he (and presumably the family) was well. To her importuning he replied,

“Sister Fanny, I never felt better in my life.” She was a very eccentric woman and looking at me with tears in her eyes, she said, “You lie.” I said nothing but I was determined to go to England or to die trying. My first resolve was that I would do what I was required to do in the Gospel of life and salvation, or I would die trying to do it.⁴²

In fact, Young had to be helped to the river in order to cross, and from the Kimballs’ had to be helped to a wagon in order to depart. ^[409] Heber was little better. His wife also was bedridden and only by supreme effort did she rise to cheer him off with a wave.

Faith and determination made illness and the pain of parting bearable; it did not remove it. A few months earlier, alone and intensely worried about his family, Kimball had received what he took to be a binding promise from the Lord:

Trouble not thyself about thy family, for they are in my hands; I will feed them and clothe them and make unto them friends. They never shall want for food nor raiment, housing nor lands . . . and peace shall rest upon them forever, if thou wilt be faithful and go forth and preach my gospel to the nations of the earth.⁴³

No doubt this, as well as the general assurances of Joseph to the Twelve, were in his mind as they departed. None of it stilled the longing in his heart to comfort and assist. From England he reminisced about the parting:

I will tell you my Dear that time will be Remembered by me as long as time lasts. fore no man has ever suffered a[s] much as I did in my feelings. no nore do I ever wish to while I live on Earth. I think if Ever one man did I have left all fore the Caus of Christ.⁴⁴

Young’s first letter to his wife, written only hours after parting, explained debts that he owed and money owed him with which to pay them, ending with a balance of $2.72 for herself. “This is all most robing You I [k]now. but I doe not now wht else to doe. Brother Joseph has pledged him self that the Wives of the twelve should have what they wanted. . . . I doe feele as thou the Lord would provide for you and me.”⁴⁵

The Twelve left Commerce with neither money for passage nor clothing for their journey. To his wife, Brigham Young explained their plan to “goe through the Churches” or branches of the Church ^[410] along the way instead of the shortest route by water “so that we can recru[i]t up and get what Clothing we shall want.”⁴⁶ In spite of his illness, Young commenced diary entries to record this significant mission. His short entries convey his gratefulness to the Saints for their indispensable assistance: “The frends and Brothern convaid ous [conveyed us],” or “we ware kindley treated and nurst up and helped to pursue our jorney.”⁴⁷ Because of illness and their desire to visit the branches—where they preached and counseled as well as received assistance—the journey to Kirtland required seven weeks.

For ten years Young and Kimball had been companions and associates; never did they rely more on one another than now. First Heber nursed Brigham, who was the weaker. A month later Heber, very ill, was administered a mistaken dose of morphine by a drunken doctor and nearly died. He came to his senses to find Brigham attending him “with a fatherly care, and manifesting much anxiety.” “Don’t be scared; for I shan’t die,” Kimball told his faithful friend. The experience was a traumatic one for both men. Later in the month Heber had strength enough to write about it in detail. He told his wife that “it tock the docter and his wife and Br Brigham all nite to keep a breth of life in my body.”⁴⁸

Heber Kimball’s father-in-law, traveling from Commerce with other elders, came upon Heber in his illness and left him only with great sadness, certain he would never see him alive again.⁴⁹ Young gave the group all but $5 of the money he and Kimball had, as Heber tried to comfort them by insisting he would live and that he and Brigham would beat them to Kirtland. A few ^[411] days later Kimball was well enough to nurse Young, who suffered still another relapse. Additional donations brought their purse to $13.50 and they set out to travel by stage as far as it would take them. Young, who kept the money in his small trunk reached in and paid the fare at each point then, seeing enough for one more leg, went on. Then occurred something that the practical Young never could understand except as another manifestation that the Lord attended them in their ministry. Wrote one who heard Young later tell the story,

they did not expect to be able to travel far with the stage for lack of means, but at every stopping place, when Bro. Young went to his trunk to pay his fare, he found money to pay their fare to the next stopping place, and so on until they got through and had 50¢ left, and took their meals regular and always when he needed money he found it in his trunk.⁵⁰

Not until Kirtland did Young total up what he had spent to discover that they had disbursed over $87 out of the $13.50 they had begun with. At first he suspected that Heber had put the money there from a purse that he had not disclosed. Kimball insisted that was not so. Young, skeptical of some of the accounts he heard or read of others, later insisted as a preface to telling this story that he was willing to believe “a big story, if it was true.”⁵¹

While the Twelve were slowly traveling eastward, Joseph presided in October over a general conference of the Church in Commerce, soon to be known as Nauvoo.⁵² For the most part, the business of the conference merely formalized matters that had already been decided in earlier councils with the Twelve present. William Smith and Orson Hyde received the vote of fellowship of ^[412] the Church. The conference again confirmed the appointments of Elias Higbee and Sidney Rigdon to carry church petitions for redress to Washington and the designation of the Commerce area as a suitable gathering place for the Saints. In connection with the vote of Commerce to be a stake of Zion, the Prophet spoke of how “in the providence of God they had been led to this place,” stating that he thought it a good place, well adapted to the needs and circumstances of the Saints. The minutes also show the prominence of Lyman Wight in this conference, interesting in light of his subsequent appointment as an apostle when the Twelve returned from England.⁵³

Sunday, 3 November, Young and Kimball arrived in Cleveland and there met Heber’s father-in-law Roswell Murray, who was as joyful and astonished in seeing Heber again as though he had seen someone rise from the dead. The following day they traveled to Kirtland, where they joined with others of the Twelve and remained about two weeks. For Young it was the first visit to the city since he fled for his life nearly two years before. He found a few friends and thought the Church in general striving to serve the Lord, although he noted “some devision of sentiment among the Brothern.” Others of the Twelve were less mild in their assessments. George A. Smith wrote in reminiscence that Kirtland members were “dead with a universal spirit of apostacy,” and although several families were very kind to them,

many considered that God was greatly displeased with us, or we would not be sick, & that we and the Saints . . . must be very wicked or we would not have been driven from our homes, & then afflicted with sickness on starting on a mission to preach the Gospel.^{54 [413]}

Heber Kimball wrote to his wife about his disappointment in the Kirtland Saints. He had anticipated finding the people united and enjoying the blessings of the people of God, he wrote, but instead he found to his sorrow only a few firm in the faith and the rest “broken up and divided into several different parties.”

Kimball had several experiences that convinced him that it was the “big elders,” those proud and haughty who could not be counseled, who caused the disunity.⁵⁵ Most of the Saints loyal to Joseph Smith and with means departed Kirtland in 1838, and for the most part only the very poor and those who did not wish to join with the body of the Church in the West remained.⁵⁶ Kimball preached in the temple comparing his audience “to a parcel of old earthen pots that were cracked in burning.” Those who had control of the house declared that he would never speak there again. Heber told his wife that he had been blessed by having “three competent Judges before me to Critticised and to pick all the flaws” that they could in his discourse.⁵⁷

Before they left Kirtland, the Twelve held a council with local leaders. No doubt they talked about the general condition of the Church in Kirtland. To the proposal of the apostles that several of the elders from the west remain there to preach for a few weeks, one local elder replied to the effect that they didn’t need farm-boy preachers like Young and Kimball and most of their company, that they had enjoyed many talented preachers in Kirtland and “men of such ordinary ability as the missionaries of our party possessed could do no good” there. He thought possibly that John Taylor “might do,” but he was not sure. Heber later chaired another ^[414] meeting that rescinded the proposal to leave elders in Kirtland and instead called for volunteers from Kirtland to preach elsewhere. Three or four Kirtland elders responded.⁵⁸

Sunday, 17 November, Brigham Young preached in the Kirtland Temple in the morning and John Taylor in the afternoon. That evening, those of the Twelve present and others of their party ascended to the attic story to perform temple rites for John Taylor and Theodore Turley, men who had not been in Kirtland during the temple experiences of 1836 and 1837. Wrote Young in his diary of this important and significant opportunity to return to the temple for sacred purpose,

I anointed Brother Taylor in the House of the Lord the Proses [process] was as follows after Brother Taylor had washed in pure water and castel soap then we all went to the House of the Lord H. C. K[imball] opened the meeting by prayr I then aninted J. Taylor with pure sweet oil and pronounced such blesings as the spirit gave utrence. J. T[aylor] then arose and praid for him self Brother Turley was anointed by D. S. Miles then it was se[a]led by Hozanna then their feet was washed.⁵⁹

A few days later the Twelve departed Kirtland, taking a lake steamer east toward New York. At night heavy weather transformed the tranquil waters that Young had so enjoyed during the day. Although he generally made his diary a simple record of names, dates, and places, he here recorded something of special significance to him, as if he were quietly surprised at himself and the outcome.

the wind arose about one o’clock in the morning I went up on deck and I felt impres[sed] in spirit to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus for a forgiveness of all my sins and then I fe[l]t to command the winds to sees [cease] and let ous goe safe on our Jorney the winds abated and Glory & [h]ouner & prase be to that God that rules all things.^{60 [415]}

The Twelve again preached, counseled, baptized, and collected means as they spent two months traveling from Kirtland to New York City. During this period Young recorded in his diary comments like “the Brothering they ware verry kind to us I think I shall never forget them in time nor in Eternity,” and “had a good visit with the Brotherin they helped ous on our jorney.” At one town they dedicated an upper room for a council and special prayer meeting to petition the Lord to open their way. There Young reproved George A. Smith for hurting some of the brethren by unwise talk before they left Illinois. According to Smith, he apologized and “felt thankful for the timely reproof.”⁶¹

Young later recorded two instances during this leg of his journey that had significance to him. The first had to do with counseling a branch of the Church who were in confusion because the gift of tongues had been among them and they supposed that everything which was spoken in tongues was “immediate revelation from God.” Speaking as a man of some experience with the gift, Young taught them that while the language might be from the Lord, the thoughts came from their heart “whether they were good or evil,” and that the gift was given for a blessing to the Saints, “but not to govern them nor to control the elders, or dictate the affairs of the church.” For that, said the apostle, “God had placed . . . apostles, prophets, helps and governments.” Shortly after this he met with the family of his cousin Phinehas Brigham, whose son was a young Baptist preacher. When a long visit proved unproductive, Young shared in parting one of the insights that had helped open his own mind to Mormonism nearly eight years before. ^[416] He told them that he had studied all the religions and found their doctrine when “simmered down to truth,” would fit “into a snuff box of the smallest class.” In contrast, he found the Mormon message expansive:

higher than I could reach with my researches, deeper than I was capable of comprehending, and calculated to expand the mind, and lead mankind from truth to truth, from light to light . . . to become associated with Gods and angels.⁶²

Young and his party arrived in New York City in late January and spent the next five weeks holding meetings, baptizing, and raising means. According to Kimball, who arrived somewhat later than Young after a side-trip to the Victor-Mendon area, the apostles would have departed weeks earlier for England had passage been available. Before they sailed, the four of the Twelve in New York on 19 February sent a communication to the Nauvoo Saints. Prominent in the letter is their sense of trials successfully met with the aid of the Lord. When they reflected on all that might have prevented them from accomplishing their mission—the mobbings and persecution since the mission was first appointed in 1838, the sickness and death and poverty—to

at last find them upon the sea shore, in health and peace and plenty; ready to set sail, . . . is a matter of joy and consolation . . . and fills our hearts with gratitude to that god who commanded us to cross the mighty deep. . . . We consider that there is no instance on record where men have been called to so great an undertaking, under the same circumstances of poverty, sickness and distress; both ourselves, families, and brethren; but yet through the mercy of God, we think the mission will be accomplished, and will stand on record.

Again they saw in their sacrifice and in their blessings a resemblance to “the old Patriarch” Abraham.^{63 [417]}

On 7 March 1840, Elders Young and Kimball, Orson and Parley Pratt, and George A. Smith departed New York harbor on board the Patrick Henry bound for Liverpool. Elders Woodruff and Taylor had booked passage several weeks before. After a stormy voyage—“I was sick nearly all the way, and confined to my berth,” said Young—they arrived in England on 6 April, the tenth anniversary of the organization of the Church. Joseph Smith had reassured Young before he left with the promise that “when [you] land upon a foreign shore the same spirit [will] rest upon you that now rests upon me. to lead guide and direct.”⁶⁴ He was there as the president of that quorum with special responsibility to bear the message to the nations of the earth. If humble and worthy, he believed, it was his right to be taught by the spirit how to lead and direct this mission. Neither Joseph Smith nor Hyrum Smith nor Sidney Rigdon could assist; it was now his responsibility to lead out as he had never done before. Full of emotion, Brigham Young let out a loud shout of hosannah when he touched the shore. “I felt that the chains were broken, and the bands that were upon me were burst asunder,” he recalled later.⁶⁵ He felt ready and fully determined to succeed with the mission that had already cost them so much.

As soon as their feet were firmly planted on English soil, the five apostles held a private meeting to partake of the Lord’s Supper, to thank God for their safe arrival, and to ask once again that the way be opened to accomplish their mission. Soon after, they met Elder Taylor and then Willard Richards (“I was so emaciated from my long journey and sickness that he did not know ^[418] me,” said Young of his cousin) and sent word to Elder Woodruff to meet in Preston for council and a general conference of the Saints.⁶⁶

The next week seven apostles and one to be ordained met in Preston for what Wilford Woodruff called “The First Council of the Twelve among the Nations.”⁶⁷ The apostles first ordained Willard Richards to the apostleship as authorized by the 8 July 1838 revelation. Perhaps Young instructed Richards in the importance of unity. In his diary the new apostle wrote a plea to God to enable him to perform his responsibilities in righteousness “with My Brethren the Twelve, that we may ever be of one heart & one mind in all things . . . in thy Kingdom.”⁶⁸ The apostles then formalized, for the first time since the apostasy of Thomas B. Marsh, the presidency of their senior member: Brigham Young was unanimously sustained by the apostles and set apart as “the standing President of the Twelve.”⁶⁹ Eight apostles, more than enough to do business as a quorum, now stood organized and ready to push forward the work in England. ^[419]