THE MORMON CURTAIN
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MORMON CHURCH HISTORY
Total Articles:
8
Mormon Church History.
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July 3, 1834 - Joseph Smith disbands Zion's Camp without having rescued Zion.
July 3, 1835 - Michael H. Chandler exhibit four Egyptian mummies and at least two rolls of papyrus in Kirtland, Ohio. He then sells the mummies and papyrus scrolls to Joseph Smith who begins to translate them using his white seer stone. His translation is later published as the Book of Abraham.
July 3, 1837 - Ground is broken for the Far West Temple. The corner stones are not laid for a year. Nothing further is done until April 26, 1839, when the twelve apostles, in fulfillment of a revelation, hold a secret meeting on the temple site and symbolically re-commenced the building of the temple by rolling a large stone up to one of the corners. The temple is never built because the Mormons are driven from Missouri in 1839.
July 3, 1844 - William Clayton digs up the minutes of the Council of Fifty that he had buried at Joseph Smith's request a week earlier. He finds that they have been damaged by water while buried.
July 3, 1845 - At a meeting of the Apostles "It was decided to employ Brother [Isaac] Morley to make 100 barrels of wine for sacrament."
July 3, 1870 - Albert Carrington is ordained an apostle. He is the first general authority with B.A degree (Dartmouth College, 1834, Phi Beta Kappa). He is also first general authority who attended Ivy League school.
July 3, 1880 - Apostle Wilford Woodruff preaches: "When we came here thirty-three years ago we found this place a barren desert. There was no mark of the white man here· It was a desert indeed, hardly a green thing to meet the eye." However his diary entry for July 24, 1847 describes the Salt Lake Valley: "We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley which lay for about 25 miles in length and 16 miles in width Clothed with the Heaviest garb of green vegetation . . . [a] glorious valley abounding with the best fresh water springs rivlets creeks and Brooks and Rivers of various sizes all of which gave animation to the sporting trout and other fish while the waters were wending there way into the great Salt lake."
Woodruff continues his sermon: "Joseph and Hyrum, it is true, were called to lay down their lives. Why? I believe myself it was necessary to seal a dispensation of this almighty magnitude with the blood of the testator for one thing, and for another thing the people were worthy that put, him to death, and will have the bill to pay as the Jews had to pay for the blood of the Messiah."
July 3, 1881 - Apostle John Henry Smith reports on a stake conference assignment in Filmore, Utah: "J. V. Robison [spoke] . . . on the celestial law of marriage, showing that the man who had one wife sealed to him by the Holy Spirit of promise had only gone part of the way. I presented the general authorities and Br. E. Partridge the local. After which Bro. [Apostle] F[rancis] M. Lyman spoke on the Celestial law of marriage laying down the rule that no man could get all of the blessings without keeping the whole law.
July 3, 1885 - Apostle Heber J. Grant records that First Presidency authorizes half-masting of American flags on Salt Lake city hall, court house, and at church-owned ZCMI on July 4. This causes near-riot by non-Mormons.
July 3, 1887 - Apostle Heber J. Grant writes in his diary: "I have felt for a long while that Pres[iden]t Cannon was expecting to succeed Pres[iden]t Taylor, Pres[iden]t Cannon thinks I am the most ambitious young man in Utah, and I think there is not limit to his ambition. I have but little confidence in Pres[iden]t Cannon's management of affairs financially. I get up out of bed a[nd] prayed with all my heart and soul to God that he would help me to overcome my feeling of ambition that was calculated to lead me from Him or the path of duty . . ." After John Taylor dies three weeks later, nineteen months pass before Wilford Woodruff is chosen as President of the Church.
July 3, 1889 - Apostle John W. Taylor prophesies about "the battle when the Negroes rise up against their masters which soon would be the case. The red men would stalk through the land as the battle axe of the Lord and after they had done this work they would be changed to a skin of whiteness in a day."
July 3, 1918 - Joseph Fielding Smith, David O. McKay, and Heber J. Grant of the Twelve called on President Joseph F. Smith's Counselors Anthony H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose. The three apostles said that the Twelve differed with the presiding patriarch Hyrum G. Smith who believed, on the basis of his patriarchal office, he ought to become the presiding authority of the church upon the death of Joseph F. Smith. To help settle the matter Heber J. Grant produced a letter written by Wilford Woodruff stating that without direct revelation from the Lord he did not believe that the day would come when the president of the Council of the Twelve would not become president of the church. Both presidents Lund and Penrose expressed pleasure at the letter but decided not to discuss the matter with Joseph F. Smith in view of his poor health.
July 3, 1936 - First Presidency statement against Communism and Communist Party (which is legal in United States at this time and has candidates in Utah elections).
July 3, 1981 - After nearly eleven years of losing advertising revenues, DESERET NEWS begins publishing ads for R-rated movies.
July 3, 1984 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Council of the Twelve writes a memorandum to the Church Board of Education Executive Committee and the Special Affairs Committee that a scholarly defense of the historicity of the Book of Mormon should be prepared. Maxwell names BYU's John Sorenson as a possible author.
| On This Day in Mormon History - July 4
July 4, 1829 - Martin Harris and W. W. Phelps both sign the so-called anti-masonic declaration of independence at Le Roy, N.Y. Both were third degree Masons.
July 4, 1838 - First Counselor Sidney Rigdon gives an Independence Day sermon which Joseph Smith publishes as a pamphlet: "And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination . . . for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families." In the July issue of the ELDER'S JOURNAL, the prophet also writes: "But we do not believe in setting the Negroes free."
July 4, 1843 - Wilford Woodruff writes in his diary: "As the Romans took particular notice of any singular event as ominous of good or evil so I will record a sma11 circumstance that took place in my house this morning. Soon after I arose in the morning on this 4th Day of July my Sword while hanging in its usual place unsheathed of itself and the scabbard droped upon the floor leaving the bear blade suspended from the peg upon which it hung."
July 4, 1844 - There is no fourth-of-July celebration in Nauvoo. William Clayton writes: "Instead of celebrating with splendor with joy we celebrate her [the nation's] down-fall with grief and mourn for the loss of our prophet and Patriarch and pray to God to avenge their blood speedily."
Through the "true order of prayer" during the regular Thursday meeting of the Anointed Quorum, "It seemed manifest" to William Marks, Alpheus Cutler, Reynolds Cahoon, and William Clayton that Nauvoo's stake president William Marks should be the Trustee-in-Trust and church president. Emma Smith agrees.
In Springfield, Illinois, 100 miles from Nauvoo, the SANGAMO JOURNAL reports only rumors of troubles in Hancock County. The telegraph is still a few years away.
July 4, 1845 - A cannon explodes during and Independence Day celebration at LaHarpe, Illinois, maiming one man. Brigham Young's secretary confides that the cannon was sabotaged by a member of Council of Fifty.
In Nauvoo the Nauvoo Legion marches in a parade along with the "Junior Legion" of some 250 boys who train every week during the summer of 1845; they march in white caps and pants trimmed in red.
July 4, 1854 - Brigham Young preaches that U.S. Constitution is not complete, but "it is a progressive--a gradual work. . . . Will the Constitution be destroyed? No: it will be held inviolate by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, 'The time will come when the destiny of the nation will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.' It will be so."
July 4, 1857 - Brigham Young writes to George Q. Cannon: "The Territory this season, has taken an emetic, and the way Lawyers, Loafers, Special pleaders, Apostates, Officials, and filth have been cast out, is a caution to all sinners, that here they would be in the wrong place."
July 4, 1863 - Author Fritz Ludlow visits Salt Lake City on his way to San Francisco. He later writes in a national magazine: "Though Mormondom is disloyal to the core it still-patronizes the Fourth of July, at least in its phase of festivity, omitting the patriotism of our Eastern celebration, substituting 'Utah' for 'Union' in the Buncombe speeches." He describes Brigham Young at the Fourth of July ball as sitting in the theater dress circle "looking down on the dancers with an air of mingled hearty kindness and feudal ownership. I could excuse the latter, for Utah belongs to him of right."
July 4, 1868 - Apostle Orson Pratt confesses to Salt Lake School of Prophets that he has been wrong to reject Brigham Young's Adam-God doctrine for past sixteen years. This is three days after Pratt writes personal apology to Brigham Young.
July 4, 1885 - At President John Taylor's request all flags on Church property and at some government buildings are at half mast in protest of the federal government's anti-polygamy crusade against the Church. NonMormons are incensed by this action and almost riot.
July 4, 1888 - First joint celebration of Independence Day by Prominent Mormons and anti-Mormons. Presided over b y non-LDS governor Caleb W. West, ceremonies have LDS participation by Arthur Stayner, Orson F. Whitney, and James E. Talmadge, with anti-polygamy leaders: Judge Charles S. Zane, Judge Goodwin, and Commissionar Norrell.
July 4, 1919 - William Harrison ("Jack") Dempsy is forst Mormon to be Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world, which title he maintains until 1926. LDS boxers of similar status are: Gene Fullmer (Middleweight Boxing Champion, 1957), Don Fullmer (American Middleweight Champion, 1965), Danny Lopez (Featherweight Boxing Champion of world, 1976-80), Javier Flores (Super Bantamweight Champion of North America, 1978), Albert Kapua (New Zealand's Junior Boxing Champion, 1978). Mormon inductees into Boxing Hallof Fame are Jack Dempsey (1954) and Gene Fullmer (1974).
July 4, 1931 - CHURCH SECTION article, "Without Purse or Scrip In the Argentine Mission."
July 4, 1948 - CHURCH NEWS refers to three significant developments in LDS missionary work. First, report of success of two missionaries "tracting without purse or scrip" in Texas-Louisiana Mission. This practice is newsworthy because it has become so rare and is later prohibited by LDS headquarters. Second, E. Hyde Dunn, age nineteen, has left for special mission in which he volunteers to be construction missionary in Tonga. His voluntarism inspires headquarters to adopt this as regular program for South Pacific. Third, report that missionary Richard L. Anderson's teaching "plan" is now in use by all missionaries of Northwestern States Mission. Fourteen-lesson "Anderson Plan" is soon adopted by many LDS missions as non-memorized outline for teaching investigators. Anderson later becomes distinguished professor of religion at BYU.
July 4, 1985 - Six LDS chapels are bombed in Chile, apparently by the Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez, Chile's most important armed opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship.
| July 24, 1822 - PALMYRA HERALD publishes an article titled MONEY DIGGERS: "We could name, if we pleased, at least five hundred respectable men, who do, in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts, verily believe that immense treasures lie concealed upon our Green Mountains; many of whom have been for a number of years, most industriously and perserveringly engaged in digging it up." The same issue also includes "Poetical Description of the Mammoth, by a Shawnee Indian."
July 24, 1823 - A $300 land assessment increase shows improvements on the Smiths' Manchester property since the previous year indicating that for the first time a cabin had been built and sufficient land had been cleared so that under New York law the assessed value had to be raised.
July 24, 1829 - The WAYNE SENTINEL opines that the "gap in the history of the world, as far as it relates to [the Indians], . . . can never be closed up." The same newspaper quotes Thomas Jefferson as saying that the Indian's origin and ancient history was "consigned to the receptacle of things forever lost upon earth."
July 24, 1843 - Elder Noah Rogers administers to a paralyzed woman at Farmington, Connecticut, who walks the next day.
William Clayton writes in his journal: ". . . M[argaret] is still miserable and unhappy and it does seem that my heart must burst. What shall I do? How shall I recompense? And how long must I thus suffer worse than death for that which I have always regarded as being the will of the Lord. By the help of the Lord I will do right. I have repeatedly offered to M[argaret] to try to get a release from the covenant and I have done all I know to make things comfortable but to no effect. She appears almost to hate me and cannot bear to come near me." Clayton's secret plural wife, Margaret Moon, had met two days previously with her returned-missionary fiancée, Aaron Farr, and told him of her marriage.
July 24, 1847 - Brigham Young enters Salt Lake Valley with the rest of the pioneer company, and officially decrees this as the new Mormon headquarters. Among these pioneers are three plural wives and three Black slaves. William Clayton writes upon seeing the valley: "There appears to be a unanimous agreement in regard to the richness of the soil and the good prospect of sustaining and fatt[en]ing stock with little trouble." Wilford Woodruff writes of his impressions of the valley: "We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley which lay for about 25 miles in length and 16 miles in width Clothed with the Heaviest garb of green vegitation in the midst of which lay a large lake of Salt water . . . After gazing awhile upon the seenery we travled across the table land into the valley 4 miles to the encampment of our Brethren who had arived 2 days before. [-] they had pitched there encampment upon the bank of two small streams of pure water and had commenced plowing. Had broke about 5 acres of ground and commenced planting Potatoes."
July 24, 1849 - First mass celebration of Pioneer Day; first LDS historical event to be "ritualized."
July 24, 1851 - Wilford Woodruff describes Pioneer-day festivities: "The order of the day was kept up by the fireing of cannon 110 times. The organization and parading of Streets by an escort consisting of the Nauvoo Brass band the Military Band the Pioneers of 47 the Regency, the aged Fathers young lads, followed By the Mothers in Israel young girls, young men and young women the Presidency with the officers of State formed the escorted party. In their rear were 24 Bishops forming a Phalanx of the combined wisdom and strength of the Kingdom of God in the last days. The numerous flags and Banners the various Emblems of art agriculture and industry and the music accompanying the procession from the presidents residence to the Bowery could ownly be surpassed in the Armies of heaven."
July 24, 1853 - Brigham Young preaches, "I believe the Father came down from heaven, as the Apostles said He did, and begat the Saviour of the world; for he is the ONLY-begotten of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget him in person. . . . I believe the Father came down in His [bodily] tabernacle and begat Jesus Christ."
July 24, 1854 - Brigham Young preaches: "I will begin by asking the older portion of the assembly, if you do, not recollect that when you were two, three, or four years of age, many of your mothers, as soon as you were able to drink out of a glass, and they happened to have a little wine, would compel you to partake of it, contrary to your feeble remonstrances? Do you not recollect when your mother made a little sling to revive her when she was fatigued with labor or exertion of any kind, saying to you, 'Drink, my child?' Now, I wish to say to you girls, never be guilty of such practices when you become mothers. Never, when you sit down at the table to drink strong tea, perhaps as a stimulant when you are fatigued, give it to your child. I see this practice almost daily, or occasionally, at least, in this as well as other communities. Keep the tea, the coffee, and the spirits from the mouths of your children."
July 24, 1857 - During tenth anniversary celebration of pioneer arrival, Brigham Young announces the "invasion" of U.S. troops and instructs Mormons to resist militarily.
July 24, 1859 - Orson Pratt preaches: "Now if it [polygamy] be a crime--if it can be proved to be a crime by the law of God, then the inhabitants of this Territory, so far as this one institution is concerned, are in an awful condition; for it is well known that this practice is general throughout this Territory, with but a few exceptions. A great many families, not only in Salt Lake City, but throughout the settlements, have practically embraced this doctrine, believing it to be a Divine institution, approbated of God and the Bible."
July 24, 1861 - Brigham Young's office journal relates: "In the course of conversation Pres[ident] Young mentioned about one John Karl a man who had written a book against the Church, and Joseph Smith (Prophet) had cursed him for it, this man died a very miserable death wasting away, and nothing but the curse could be assigned as the cause of his sickness. This man confessed on his dying bed to his former Sectarian friends, that he had no confidence in their religion, and if any religion was true it was the religion of the Mormons."
July 24, 1870 - Brigham Young preaches: "Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed 'the man in the moon,' and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets."
July 24, 1885 - The day after the death of President Ulysses S. Grant all flags in Salt Lake City are at half mast. This avoids a confrontation between Mormons who want to put flags at half mast in protest of government prosecution of polygamists (as they did three weeks earlier on the 4th of July) and non-Mormons who consider such use of the flag desecration.
July 24, 1947 - Centennial of arrival of Mormon pioneers to Utah which is celebrated in special ceremonies outside United States by Austrian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, and Japanese Mormons according to reports in CHURCH NEWS.
In Salt Lake City the "THIS IS THE PLACE" monument is unveiled and dedicated. Sculptor Mahonri Young says he has been deprived of $11,000 in payment for the monument. This brings a severe rebuke from George Q. Morris, who instructs him never to write the President again about this matter. Young never recovered the $11,000 and is bitter about it to the end of his life.
July 24, 1949 - Costa Rican Mormons celebrate Utah Pioneer Day.
July 24, 1970 - LDS headquarters invites only prominent Republicans to Salt Lake City airport to greet U.S. president Richard M. Nixon who has asked to meet with First Presidency. This excludes Utah's Democratic governor Calvin M. Rampton who "almost had to force his way into the receiving line." First Presidency secretary Francis M. Gibbons latter acknowledges that this is "a snafu in protocol." DESERET NEWS reports that Nixon addresses crowd of 15,000 from steps of Church Office Building at 47 East South Temple Street, but Nixons cancel their scheduled tour of Temple Square because of what Utah's Congressional representative Laurence J. Burton describes as "stupid, crazy, threatening" posters of "dissident groups." Presidency secretary Gibbons later describes these as "militant blacks" and antiwar protesters.
July 24, 1981 - Representatives of National Organization of Women march in Salt Lake City's Pioneer Day parade as part of their "mission" to Utah in support of Equal Rights Amendment. LOS ANGELES TIMES reports that "some spectators heckled, threw fruit and spat on ERA missionaries."
July 24, 1982 - Zion Lutheran Church of Salt Lake Ciy enters float in "Days of '47 Parade," apparently first participation of non-LDS church in this celebration of Mormon Pioneers.
July 24, 1984 – Two Mormon Fundamentalists, brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, ritualistically murder their sister-in-law Brenda and her fifteen-month-old daughter Erica in response to a "Thus saith the Lord" revelation: "It is my will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that my work might go forward. For they have truly become obstacles in my path and I will not allow my work to be stopped. First thy brother's wife Brenda and her baby, . . ."
July 24, 1993 - Utah Pioneer Day parade has float by "Latter-day Saints for Cultural Awareness," who portray African-American pioneers Elijah Abel (ordained elder and Seventy with Joseph Smith's approval, denied endowment by Brigham Young), Green Flake (Utah pioneer slave), and Jane Elizabeth Manning (sealed as eternal "Servitor" to Joseph Smith).
| July 25, 1830 - Joseph Smith receives a revelation instructing missionaries to curse those who will not listen to them: "And in whatsoever place ye shall enter, and they receive you not, in my name, ye shall leave a cursing instead of a blessing, by casting off the dust of your feet against them as a testimony, and cleansing your feet by the wayside"
July 25, 1831 - The first company of Mormons arrive in Jackson County, Missouri.
July 25, 1844 - Illinois Governor Thomas Ford writes to the people of Hancock county: "Try your 'Mormon' neighbors again, and if you cannot dwell together in amity, you may at least refrain from injuring each other. . . . Besides, if you are the aggressors, I am determined that all the power of the state shall be used to prevent your success. I can never agree that a set of infatuated and infuriated men shall barbarously attack a peaceful people who have submitted to all the demands of the law, and when they had full power to do so, refrained from inflicting vengeance upon their enemies. You may count on my most determined opposition--upon the opposition of the law, and upon that of every peaceful, law-abiding citizen of the country. . . . I have been informed that the 'Mormons' about Lima and Macedonia have been warned to leave the settlements. They have a right to remain and enjoy their property. As long as they are good citizens they shall not be molested, and the sooner those misguided persons withdraw their warning and retrace their steps, the better it will be for them." Since it is an election year, feeling is that Ford is only trying to win Mormon votes for the Democratic party.
July 25, 1847 - William Clayton writes: "At ten o'clock a meeting was held in the camp and the brethren addressed successively by Elder G[eorge] A. Smith, H[eber] C. Kimball and E[zra] T. Benson mostly expressing their feeling of gratification for the prospects of this country, each being highly satisfied with the soil andc. Elder Kimball referred especially to the manifold blessings we have been favored with during the journey. Not a man, woman, or child has died on the journey, nor even an horse, mule, ox, cow or chicken has died during the whole journey." This last part is slightly incorrect. One of Brigham Young's horses was accidentally shot during the journey. Wilford Woodruff writes: "there was one universal feeling of Satisfaction with the valley. Evry man that spoke upon the subject said they were Joyfully disappointed that the whole appearance was Altogether better throughout the valley than they had Anticipated or even dreamed of." Brigham Young rises from his sick-bead to address the saints and tells them, "No man should buy or sell land. Every man should have his land measured off to him for city and farming purposes, what he could till. He might till it as he pleased, but he should be industrious and take care of it."
July 25, 1861 - Brigham Young's office journal states: "Pres[ident] Young had some conversation with his Br. Joseph about the form and principles of a Republican Government. The President remarked in a republican government the people have a right to interfere when the Officers of the Government are taking a wrong course; he also remarked that [Joseph] Morris the crazy prophet would give fight to this people if his numbers were strong enough."
July 25, 1871 - Brigham Young writes to his son Willard who is a cadet at West Point: "We would like to learn in detail the routine of your daily life; what your duties and exercises consist of; what the regulations are about visitors, whether ladies have access to the cadets and under what restrictions, if any. This last is a matter I am quite concerned to know about, as I understand you cadets are exceedingly popular with the fair sex and some of them are very, very dangerous when so dis posed, just for the sake of having a laugh at their victims; shun such as you would the very gates of hell! They are the enemy's strongest tools, and should be resisted as strongly. Beware of them! . . . With regard to your attending Protestant Episcopal service, I have no objections whatever. On the contrary, I would like to have you attend, and see what they can teach you about God and Godliness more than you have already been taught."
July 25, 1880 - First Counselor in First Presidency George Q. Cannon preaches: "It [the Word of Wisdom] appeals to our sense of right that a commandment does not, because a commandment comes with strict injunctions which leaves no alternative but to obey; but this is a word of counsel by a kind father. . . ."
July 25, 1881 - Stake president Heber J. Grant writes: "I wanted to waltz very badly but knowing it was contrary to the wishes of the Genl. Church authorities, I refrained from doing so."
July 25, 1883 - President John Taylor appoints George Q. Cannon and George Reynolds "to get together all papers and information that they could obtain relating to the former Schools of the Prophets that were organized under the direction of Presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, so that the School might be properly organized in accordance with the designs of the Almighty."
July 25, 1887 - John Taylor dies on "the Underground." Because of his wounds in Carthage Jail and his death in exile, counselors George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith write: "To-day he occupies the place of a double martyr. PRESIDENT JOHN TAYLOR has been killed by the cruelty of officials who have, in this Territory, misrepresented the government of the United States . . . who, with insensate hate, have offered rewards for his arrest and hounded him to the grave."
After conversation with senior apostle Wilford Woodruff, apostle Heber J. Grant [while still unaware of President Taylor's death] writes: "Prest. Woodruff said he would be willing to have [junior apostle] Joseph F. Smith made Prest of the Church provided the quorum of the apostles should wish it but as near as I could judge he had no idea that such a thing would be done. . . .I know that some of the members of our quorum are of the opinion that in case of the reorganization of the First Presidency after the death of Pres[iden]t Teylor and before the death of Pres[iden]t Woodruff that Bro[ther] Woodruff must be made the President. I have no such a feeling. I feel that Pres[iden]t Joseph F. Smith will succeed Pres[iden]t Taylor if the First Presidency is reorganized."
July 25, 1891 - Apostle Abraham H. Cannon writes: "A Sister Parkinson asked why her new born babe died when A.H. Cannon blessed it and promised it should live to manhood and several weeks later it got pneumonia and the Elders promised it continued life? 'I could not account for the failure of our promises that it should live except that sympathy instead of the Spirit of God prompted the utterances.'"
July 25, 1899 - Apostle John Henry Smith writes in his diary: "One Owens has made an accusation against Heber J. Grant for Adultry for living with his [plural] Wife Emily Wells."
July 25, 1946 - First Counselor J. Reuben Clark speaks concerning embezzlement by local bishop: "The Church could not use its funds for such a means as proposed to save any embarassment to the Church, and it could not and should not require the [local] brethren there to sacrifice unless their friendship for the [bishop's] family prompted them to do so on their own accord, and that he didn't worry about the resultant effect upon the Church if we did not attempt to cover up, but insisted upon justice."
July 25, 1993 - Representatives of University of Jordan and BYU sign agreement for academic and cultural exchanges, which represents Howard W. Hunter's long encouragement for greater LDS out-reach to Arab and Muslim peoples.
| July 31, 1832 - Joseph Smith writes: "and now I conjure and exhort mine accusers and the hypocrite in Zion in the love of Christ yea in the name of Jesus of Nazareth"
July 31, 1847 - Orson Pratt and Henry G. Sherwood began the first survey in Salt Lake City. It is completed three weeks later.
July 31, 1857 - Brigham Young marries Sarah Delight Stocking, who had turned nineteen three days earlier, to fifty-year old Wilford Woodruff. This is Woodruff's third wife named "Sarah." In addition to his marriage to Sarah Delight, Woodruff records a dream of Heber C. Kimball's "I Called upon Brother Kimball early this morning and had some Conversation with him. He told me a dream. He said He thought He had some Hogs caught with ropes and he was driving them up a mountain. He had one vary fat hog. He said we had better kill him. He would never be as good again to kill as now. He told some one to take Care of him for a while till he could attend to some others, and they let him get away from them and the hog ran up the mountain with all his might. When Brother Kimball saw him he took after him and told the brethren to help ketch him and kill him but they Could not ketch him so he got away. He gave me what He thought to be [an] interpetation of the dream. The Hogs were our Enemies and one of them run away."
July 31, 1861 - Major James H. Carleton writes to Army Headquarters: "Nearly all Mormons are foreigners. Among these are Welsh, English, Norwegians, Swedes, some Germans, and a few French. They are evidently of the lowest and most ignorant grade of the people in the several countries from whence they have come. Mixed in with these are a few low, unprincipled Americans. The most intelligent and crafty of these, commencing with Brigham Young, are the directors and rulers of the whole mess. . . their government is solely a hierarchy, and notwithstanding, in theory, they are assumed to be a population obedient to the laws of our common country, practically they score and deride, and set at defiance all laws that interfere with their safety or interest, save those promulgated by the great council of the church."
Brigham Young's office journal records: " Br[other] W[illia]m Clayton read the Pony dispatch to the members of the Club. The first Presidency were present. This dispatch noticed considerable loss of life [in the Civil War], and confusion[.] [T]he Company took comfort in the reflection that their old enemies were getting fewer in number."
July 31, 1864 - Brigham Young preaches: "The gifts of the Gospel are given to strengthen the faith of the believer;--'They shall speak with new tongues,' saith Jesus. The stranger who is ignorant of our history inquires:--'Have you the gift of tongues in your Church?' Yes, and were I to permit it now, hundreds of the Elders and the sisters would rise up in this congregation and speak in new tongues, and interpret as well as the learned of the age; but I do not permit it."
July 31, 1886 - Philo Dibble tells meeting of high priests that "Joseph Smith had been to Prest John Taylor and conversed with him in his body about the crusade against us, and that he felt grieved at the course his son Joseph [III] was taking." Joseph Smith III preaches in Utah (June 17 - Dec. 21, 1885). This vision occurs during one of the nights Taylor stays at John Carlisle house: July 14, Sept. 28 - Oct. 1, 1885, or Jan. 10-19, 1886.
July 31, 1896 - Apostle Franklin D. Richards writes in his Journal: "Sisters Z[ina] D[iana] H[untington] Young, Jane S. Richards, Bathsheba W. Smith and M[artha] I Horne and Emily T. Richards being together--The 3 Presidents and I and later John H. Smith we listened to the views of the Presidency to the sisters as to the course they should pursue in their political relations and labors as suffragists and as Democrats, very clear pointed and energetic instructions as to political principles and to practice."
July 31, 1954 - CHURCH NEWS publishes Counselor J. Reuben Clark's talk to all LDS seminary and institute teachers in which he declares that "even the President of the Church has not always spoken under the direction of the Holy Ghost."
July 31, 1971 - CHURCH NEWS reports that registered nurse Marilyn Lyons and Dr. Blair L. Bybee, church's first medical missionaries, are departing for assignments in Tonga and Samoa by direction of Welfare Services Missionary Program. First Presidency letter of Jan 22, 1973 solicits missionaries from U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Latin America. Redefined as "welfare missionaries," 768 Mormons without medical degrees are giving humanitarian aid and instruction throughout world by 1980. Decade later more than 350 "health missionaries" with medical or health degrees are also serving in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Caribbean, Pacific islands, and Eastern Europe.
July 31, 1986 - Gary Sheets and relatives install a memorial bench on the birthday of his wife Kathy (who was killed by one of Mark Hofmann's bombs), on the grassy corner of the nearby wardhouse lawn overlooked the woods and stream beside their driveway. Sheets Had previously asked the bishop for permission to install the memorial bench and was told, "No, I can't give you permission. Sheets "decoded" the message, to mean "It's easier to repent than get permission" to which the bishop smiled.
July 31, 1992 - Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley is speaker with RLDS president Wallace B. Smith at RLDS Auditorium in Independence, Missouri, where Mormon Tabernacle Choir also performs concert "to the sell-out audience of 5200."
July 31, 1993 - SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reports that LDS missionary-couples in Nauvoo, Illinois have worked "for 88 consecutive hours without sleep" to help protect historical properties of RLDS church in Nauvoo from rampaging Mississippi River.
| Aug 1, 1842 - Apostle Parley P. Pratt publishes a rebuttal to John C. Bennett's claims that Joseph is secretly teaching polygamy: "But for the information of those who may be assailed by those foolish tales about the two wives [Bennett had written "that God had given a revelation that men might have two wives"], we would say that no such principle ever existed among the Latter-day Saints, and never will." Pratt's autobiography later states that Joseph Smith disclosed to him the revelation on celestial marriage in January 1840.
Aug 1, 1843 - Joseph Smith physically assaults the county tax assessor, for which he pleads guilty and pays a fine.
Aug 1, 1846 - A non-Mormon at Carthage, Illinois, writes: "The North west of this county is almost entirely depopulated[--]the men having fled, and left their wives, children and crops to the mercy of the marauding parties of Mormons continually infesting this portion of the county. Some 1000 acres of fine wheat is entirely unharvested."
Aug 1, 1847 - Heber C. Kimball addresses the pioneer saints on what is now Temple Square. It is "decided that the three companies form into one camp and labor together. . . . That we build houses instead of living [in] wagons this winter. That we go to work immediately putting up houses. That we work unitedly. That the houses form a stockade or fort to keep out the Indians, that our women and children be not abused, and that we let the Indians alone." With trees scarce in the valley "it was voted to put up a stockade of adobie houses."
Aug 1, 1852 - Brigham Young preaches: "I live above the law, and so do this people." He mentions questions about polygamy but does not deny its practice. He says "for argument's sake" that plural marriage was not illegal under the constitution of any state or the United States. Four weeks later Orson Pratt officially announces that Mormons practice plural marriage.
Aug 1, 1860 - Brigham Young's office journal records: "In the evening Pres. Young discoursed upon the folly of daring each other to rash acts."
Aug 1, 1862 - Brigham Young writes to a local bishop: "my advice is for bro james T.S. Allred to marry the Indian girl in question. It is written that 'not many generations shall pass away before they become a white and delightsome people.'" Dozens of men marry Native Americans as plural wives in pioneer Utah and Arizona.
Aug 1, 1869 - Joseph Smith's widow Emma writes to her son Joseph Smith III, "I do not like to have my children's feelings abused, but I do like that Brigham shows to all, both Saint and sinner that there is not the least particle of friendship existing between him and myself."
Aug 1, 1875 - George W. Hill baptizes more than 300 Shoshone Indians in Box Elder County, Utah, and performs priesthood administrations which heal many of them. First Presidency establishes Washakie Farm for Indian converts in Box Elder County. Two years later one of Brigham Young's sons writes of these Native American converts: "They practiced polygamy [before LDS baptism] and of course continue it."
Aug 1, 1902 - First Presidency Letter: "Brethren recommended to the temple for second anointings should be men of experience whose integrity to the work of the Lord is beyond question, and who are known for their continued faithfulness, as it would be very unfortunate thing indeed for a man to receive the higher blessings and aftewards apostatize. The question of age would naturally be a consideration in recommending for the higher ordinances, but it is not to be understood for a moment that you should wait until brethren become old before recommending them to receive these blessings. The chief qualifications are worthiness, fitness and unshaken integrity, and these should be combined in man thus recommended whether they occupy presiding positions or not: but as a matter of course the brethren occupying presiding positions, such as those of the stake presidency, high counsilor president of the high priest's quorum, patriarch and bishop are suppose to be in possession of these qualifications."
Aug 1, 1906 - "Fast meeting in 1st Ward. . . .Sister Jarrett speaks in tongues and prophesies." DER STERN reports Joseph F. Smith's statement to conference at Bern, Switzerland: "The time will come when this land [Europe] will be dotted with temples . . ."
Aug 1, 1963 - First Presidency statement that Latter-day Saints should not dance with "grotesque contortions of the body such as shoulder and hip shaking or excessive body jerking." As result Mormon youth generally cease dancing the popular "Twist" at LDS dances throughout the world, an adherence that had not uniformly followed the first announced ban two years earlier by youth auxiliaries.
RLDS First Presidency statement published in SAINT'S HERALD entitled, "Our Position on Race and Color:" "The internal racial problems in our church have been very minor. Integration has been such a natural process that there would be no need to discuss it in these columns were it not for the national attention that has resulted from the tense integration question. We have Negroes in our branches, in our priesthood, and in our church college. Our integration preceded any social pressures or Supreme Court decisions. It would be difficult to say how many of our Negroes now hold priesthood. No systematic records have been kept based on race or color. We have felt no reason for such accounting." The RLDS church allowed Blacks to have the priesthood in the 1800's
Aug 1, 1981 - Vandal attacks "Christus" statue in Visitor's Center on Salt Lake Temple Square and breaks off its fingers. On Dec. 16, 1982 same mentally-ill vandal breaks off its arms.
Aug 1, 1989 - Kingdom of Jordan grants legal status to LDS church by registering LDS "Center for Cultural and Educational Affairs."
| Aug 2, 1842 - Illinois governor Thomas Carlin, signs an order for Joseph Smith's arrest and delivery to Missouri officials to answer charges in the case of the attempted assassination of Missouri Governor Boggs.
Aug 2, 1847 - Orson Pratt begins to survey what will become Salt Lake City determining the altitude, latitude and longitude and laying out lots. L. B. Myers makes a preliminary exploration of Utah Valley.
Aug 2, 1857 - First counselor Heber C. Kimball prophesies that U.S. president James Buchanan "will die an untimely death." He dies at age 77 in 1868 same year Kimball dies at age 67.
Brigham Young preaches, "There are probably but few men in the world who care about the private society of women less than I do."
Aug 2, 1849 -At a special conference in the Bowery on Temple Square, Hosea Stout and two companions are called to go to China. They arrived in Hong Kong in April 1853. They become ill from the oppressive heat and the unusual food. Their message falls on deaf ears. There is no response other than ridicule. In four months they return home.
Aug 2, 1855 - Hosea Stout records in his diary that he went to Davis County in order to persuade the people to withdraw the name of a popular bishop, Anson Call, for nomination for the impending election to the Legislature and place John D. Parker in his stead. The change was apparently made without much protest. But what Stout does not mention, and what the people of Davis County apparently did not know, was the reason the change was implemented--that Parker belonged to the Council of Fifty while Call did not.
Aug 2 1859 - Seventy-three-year-old Elizabeth Watson wanders away from a handcart company and is not found despite day-long search. The camp moves on without her, only to be amazed on August 15 when she meets them at a trading post west of Independence Rock.
Aug 2, 1876 - DESERET NEWS publishes directory of "PRESIDING ELDERS AND BISHOPS of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." This is list of twenty-one regional bishops. Cache Valley's "presiding bishop" presides over twenty-four wards, while Iron County's presiding bishop is responsible for two wards.
Aug 2, 1883 - At reconvened School of the Prophets, President John Taylor and several apostles state their preference for conferring only Aaronic priesthood part of endowment ceremony on newly endowed adults. No decision.
Aug 2, 1892 - First polygamous marriage prformed in LDS Canadian settlement by its president Charles. O. Card, who performs this marriage by instructions of First Presidency. To end of 1905 only fifteen more post-Manifesto plural marriages occur in Canada (by Card and his successor as polygamy officiator), compared with hundreds performed in Mexico and United States.
Aug 2, 1967 - C. Wade Bell wins gold medal (800 meter run) at Pan American Games, also Michael M. Young (gold, wrestling) and Keith Russell (silver, diving). Other LDS medalists are Henry Marsh (2 gold, steeplechase, 1979), Danny Vranes (gold, basketball 1979), Demetrio Cabanillas of Mexico (bronze, steeplechase, 1979), Mark Fuller (silver, Greco-Roman wrestling, 1983), Denise Parker (gold, archery, 1987, 1991, 1995), Janet Blomstedt (gold, heptathelon, 1995).
| Aug 5, 1842 - The NEW YORK SUN publishes an editorial: "He [Joseph Smith] stands before us a swindler of his community, an impious dictator over free will, and now in his most glaring, and even hideous aspect -- a libertine unequalled in civilized life -- a Giovanni of some dozen of mistresses, and these acquired under the garb of prophetic zeal."
Aug 5, 1843 - Two days before the election and three weeks after Joseph's comments about Hyrum's taking over as prophet, Hyrum Smith announces to a large assembly that it was the will of God that the Saints should vote for the Democratic candidate. The next day, before the election, Joseph Smith preaches at the Sunday gathering and says, "Brother Hyrum tells me this morning that he has had a testimony to the effect that it would be better for the people to vote for Hoge; and I never knew Hyrum to say that he had a revelation and it failed. Let God speak and all men hold their peace." Joseph had promised his support to the Whig party but had changed his mind. The Mormon vote allowed Joseph Hoge to win a close race without Joseph, technically, breaking his promise.
Aug 5, 1844 - James J. Strang announces to his Michigan branch that he is Joseph Smith's successor through a letter of appointment. The branch president denounces the letter as a forgery and excommunicates Strang.
William Clayton writes in his journal: "This last night I dreamed that Joseph and Emma came to me and appeared very much dissatisfied and displeased because I had kept back the money sent by Brother [Heber C.] Kimball. I thought I explained the reason and told them I had been councilled to do so."
On Tubuai, an island in the South Pacific, missionary Addison Pratt administers the sacrament: "for wine I substituted cocoa nut milk, that was a pure beverage, which never had come to the open air, till we broke the nut for that purpose."
Aug 5, 1855 - Brigham Young tells apostles that after final judgment those consigned to terrestrial and telestial kingdoms will "eventually have the privilege of proveing [sic] themselves worthy and advancing to a celestial kingdom but it would be a slow progress."
Aug 5, 1851 - Brigham Young declares "Martial law is hereby declared to exist in this Territory. . . . and no person shall be allowed to pass or repass into, or through, or from this Territory, without a permit from the proper officer."
Aug 5, 1861 - Brigham Young's office journal records: " In the evening Pres[ident] Wells read to the President a part of the life of Senator Stephen A. Douglass, deceased, in which it mentioned a circumstance wherein Joseph Smith (Prophet) was protected by him. The President remarked that Stephen A. Douglass was a far better man than President Abel Lincoln for he knew his feelings were hostile to this people."
Aug 5, 1873 - African-American Samuel Chambers tells meeting of Salt Lake Stake deacon's quorum: "as I have been appointed a deacon I feel to fulfill my mission" On Dec. 8, 1874 he says that gospel "is not only to the Gentiles but also to the African, for I am of that race." Denied preisthood ordination by LDS presidents from 1852 to 1978, some LDS African-Americans in Utah are officially appointed as "acting deacon."
Aug 5, 1884 - DESERET NEWS editorializes that "as a synonym for quietude and lackadaisical apathy, yesterday's election ought to be placed in the museum and handed down to succeeding ages."
Aug 5, 1942 - First Presidency's finincial secretary refers to German-born Horst Scharffs as President Heber J. Grant's bodyguard. Apparently this is first time since 1887 that hierarchy has bodyguards.
Aug 5, 1969 - LDS church's World Conference on Records whose hundreds of participants include representatives of national archives of Soviet Union, Jewish Historical Archives in Jerusalem, UNESCO, U.S. national archives, and Japan's parlimentary library. Internationally famous for his book ROOTS, Alex Haley (Also ghost-writer of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X) speaks at World Conference on Records in 1980.
Aug 5, 1978 - UPI story about Sonia Johnson's appearance before U.S. Senate committee hearing on Equal Rights Amendment: "Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, clashed Friday with a woman of that faith who claimed a substantial number of female members are opposing the church's mandated opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. She questioned how Mormon leaders, in their official statement opposing the ERA, can talk about the 'exalted role of woman in our society' and yet follow policies in the church that push women into secondary positions. 'Where equality does not even pertain, the word 'exalted' is a mockery,' she said. 'One wonders if the leaders of the church would gladly exchange their sex and become so exalted.'"
Aug 5, 1983 - Second Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley dedicates temple at Apia, Western Samoa.
Aug 5, 1989 - "100 Million Names Processed In Stake Extraction Program," which CHURCH NEWS explains "helps keep the Church's 41 operating temples busy" performing vicarious ordinances for the dead. This program includes hundreds of thousands of Jews who died in Nazi holocaust, which Apostle Boyd K. Packer acknowledges to Israeli officials in explaining church's offer to microfilm records of Yad VaShem.
Aug 5, 1995 - CHURCH NEWS lists 117 appointments to new position (non-hierarchy) of "Area Authorities," including native-born professors at universities in Brazil, Canada, England, Japan, and Korea.
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