Joseph
Smith
It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of
generations yet
unborn, will contain a question like this: What historical American of the
nineteenth
century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his
countrymen?
And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be
written:
Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.
. . . Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past, p.
376, 1883
Joseph Smith, founding prophet and first president of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, was in born in Sharon, Vermont, December 23,
1805, the
fourth child in a farm family. When he was ten years of age the family moved
to the
Finger Lakes region of western New York state, where they began farming near
the Erie
Canal village of Palmyra.
In the spring of 1820 Joseph announced that in response to his earnest prayer
asking which church he should join, he had experienced a heavenly
manifestation. God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ had appeared to him.
Subsequently he was given a collection of records by an American prophet
named Moroni. These records told the history of Moroni's people who had
come to the American continent from Jerusalem in the year 600 B.C. By the
power of a heavenly gift, Joseph translated the record from its original
language of Reformed Egyptian and published it in March 1830. A few days
later on April 6, 1830, he organized the Church with six members.
The new Church drew many converts, but it also drew critics. Soon after
the Church was organized, Joseph Smith and his followers were driven from New
York and settled in Ohio. They were driven from Ohio, moved to Missouri,
and then after bitter persecution established acity on the Mississippi River
which they called Nauvoo. By the mid-1840's it had grown to rival Chicago
as the largest city in the state of Illinois. Joseph was not only the
president of the Church, but also served on the city council, and later
became mayor. In addition, he was the Lieutenant General and leader of the
Nauvoo Legion. He also operated a store and was editor and publisher of a
newspaper.
The growing numbers and differences in beliefs resulted in severe
persecution again. On June 27, 1844, when he was just 38 years of age,
Joseph and his brother Hyrum while in jail in Carthage, Illinois were shot
to death by an angry mob.
Back to History
Brigham Young
Colonizer, territorial governor, and second President of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young was born in
Vermont in 1801. He became an apprentice carpenter, painter, and glazier.
In time, he became a master carpenter, building door fittings, louvered
attic windows, furniture and ornate mantel pieces. At the age of
twenty-three he married, established a home andjoined the Methodist Church.
In 1828 Brigham moved his family to Mendon, New York. In the spring of 1830
he received a copy of the Book of Mormon, and after two years of
investigation, was baptized, along with his wife and other family members.
His wife, Miriam, died in 1832. Along with fellow members of the church
Brigham moved with his two small daughters to Kirtland, Ohio which had
become the headquarters of the Church. There he first met the twenty-six
year old Prophet
Joseph Smith.
While in Kirtland Brigham married Mary Ann Angell and they subsequently
had six children.
In 1835 Brigham
became a member of the Church's original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,
a"traveling
high council" charged to take the gospel "to all the nations, kindreds,
tongues, and
people". In this capacity he served many missions in the United States,
Canada, and
England. By the summer of 1838 Brigham and his family had moved with the
Saints to
Missouri. Growing numbers of Latter-day Saint arrivals rekindled antagonism
with old
settlers, and violence erupted. Disarmed, violated, and robbed of most of
their holdings,
they were driven from the state. With Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and
other
Church leaders imprisoned, Brigham Young, senior member of the Quorum of the
Twelve, directed the evacuation of the Saints to Illinois.
In the spring of 1839
Joseph Smith designated Nauvoo, Illinois the new central gathering place of
the Saints.
Brigham's family were hardly settled in the area when he and other members of
the
Twelveleft to fulfill their calls to Great Britain as missionaries in spring
1840. They
baptized between 7,000and 8,000 converts during their time there.
Back in
Nauvoo Brigham was named president of the quorum and given the assignment of
directing the Twelve. By virtue of his position, he was second only to the
First
Presidency ( Joseph Smith and his two counselors) in authority and
responsibility. In
May 1844, Brigham and other apostles left on summer missions. While they
were gone,
events in Nauvoo deteriorated. Joseph Smith was arrested and, on June 27 was
killed
with his brother, Hyrum, when a mob stormed the jail where they were being
held.
Brigham was in the Boston area but immediately rushed back to Nauvoo where he
and
the Twelve were designated to lead the Church. Brigham remained the leader
until his
death in 1877.
Violence erupted again in the fall of 1845 and they announced
their intention to leave by the following spring. The Saints spent the fall
and winter
preparing for the exodus. Partly because of concernsabout governmental
intervention,
Brigham Young began the migration in the cold and snow ofFebruary 1846 rather
than
awaiting spring. By hundreds, then by thousands, people, animals, andwagons
crossed
the Mississippi River and trudged across Iowa mud to a winter quarters
(nowFlorence,
Nebraska) on the Missouri River. In late spring nearly 16,000 Saints were on
the
road.
Brigham personally directed this massive movement which involved the
allocations of foodstuffs,wagons, oxen, and Church property to organized
companies
setting out on the trail. The preparationand the move through Iowa took so
long that
none of the companies could reach the RockyMountains that year as they had
hoped.
This demanding Iowa experience taught Brigham Youngvaluable lessons about men
and
organization that he used throughout his years of leadership. He alsolearned
anew that
when human resources prove inadequate, one must turn in faith to God.
Brigham Young set out with an advance group on April 5, 1847. He arrived in
the Salt Lake Valleyon July 24. Once he saw the valley he announced it as
the right
place for a new headquarters city andconfirmed that the region would be the
new
gathering place. He also identified the exact spot for atemple, directed
the exploration
of the region, and helped to survey and apportion the land forhomes,
gardens, and
farming. Then he returned to Winter Quarters where he and other members
ofthe Twelve
reorganized the First Presidency of the Church, with Brigham as President.
The
followingApril he, his family, and approximately 3,500 other Saints headed
for the Salt
Lake Valley. Brigham'sactivities in organizing companies, building bridges,
repairing
equipment, and training oxen developedabilities that would be in evidence the
rest of his
life.
Brigham was a well-built, stout (in later years, portly) man of five feet, ten
inches, somewhat tallerthan average for his day. His light brown hair, often
described as
"sandy", had very little gray. Visitors noticed his penetrating blue-gray
eyes lined by thin
eyebrows. Though he later wore a fullbeard, Brigham was clean-shaven until
the 1850's.
His mouth and chin were firm, bespeaking, visitorsthought, his iron will. He
was
generally composed and quiet in manner, but he could thunder at thepulpit.
Sometimes
called the "Lion of the Lord", he could also roar when aroused.
Brigham's most
obvious achievements were the product of his lifelong talent for practical
decisionmaking. He instituted patterns of Church government that persist to
this day. In
the Great Basin hedirected the organization of several hundred LDS
settlements, set up
several hundred cooperativeretail, wholesale, and manufacturing enterprises,
and initiated
the construction of meetinghouses,tabernacles and temples. While doing all
this, he
carried on a running battle with the US governmentto preserve the unique LDS
way of
life.
But for Brigham Young these were means, not ends. His overriding
concern was to build on thefoundation begun by Joseph Smith to establish a
commonwealth in the desert where his people couldlive the gospel of Jesus
Christ in
peace, thereby improving their prospects in this life and in the next. He
loved the Great
Basin because its harshness and isolation made it an ideal place to "make
Saints".
Adapted from
Encyclopedia of Mormonism,
Edited by Daniel
H. Ludlow, Macmillan Publishing Co.NY, 1992.
Back to History
Major Historical
Events
Early spring, near what is now Manchester, New York
Fourteen-year old
Joseph Smith
announces that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in a grove of
trees near his home in upstate New York---an eventcalled
"The First Vision"---in answer to his prayers to know which church to join.
September 22, 1827, near Manchester, New York
According to Church teachings, angelic visitor named Moroni
delivers to JosephSmith the gold plates upon which are written a scriptural
record that will be translatedand published three years later as the Book
of Mormon. The scriptures were named fora prophet believed to have lived on
the North American continent in ancient times.
May, 1829, Harmony Pennsylvania
Mormons believe
that John the Baptist and later the apostles Peter, James andJohn appeared to
Joseph
Smith and his scribe Oliver Cowdery and restored thepriesthood authority that
had been
taken from the earth soon after the death of JesusChrist.
April 6, 1830, Fayette,
New York
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized.
(Membership: 6)
February 14, 1835, Kirtland Ohio
The ecclesiastical
structure of the Church begins to take shape as the Quorum of theTwelve
Apostles is
organized and its members are sent into the world to preach thegospel
(Membership 4,372)
March 27, 1836, Kirtland Ohio
Joseph Smith,
the Church's first president, dedicates the first LDS temple, theKirtland
temple.
(Membership 13,292)
July 19, 1837, Great Britain
Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde arrive in the British Isles, the first
LDSmissionaries to venture beyond North America.
(Membership: 16,282)
March 17, 1842, Nauvoo, Illinois
Joseph Smith organizes the Female
Relief Society of Nauvoo, later known as theRelief Society, and charges its
members
with the responsibility of caring for the poorand the sick.
(Membership: 20,856)
June 27, 1844, Carthage, Illinois
An angry mob attacks and kills
Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, while they areimprisoned at Carthage.
(Membership: 26,146)
July 24, 1847, Utah
Brigham Young,
the Church's second president,
arrives with his advance pioneercompany in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake,
where the
Church will finally make itshome and establish its headquarters.
(Membership
34,694)
January 3, 1876, Provo Utah
Brigham Young Academy, later
known as BrighamYoung University, is founded asan institution of teaching
secular and
religious studies.
(Membership:34,694)
September 24, 1890, Salt Lake
City, Utah
Wilford Woodruff, the Church's fourth president, issues The
Manifesto, a documentthat officially discontinues the practice of plural
marriage.
(Membership: 188,263)
November 13, 1895, Salt Lake City, Utah
The Church's genealogical organization is formed as the basis of LDS
members'efforts to extend religious ordinances to their "kindred dead."
(Membership:223,369)
April 1936, Salt Lake City, Utah
In response
to the Great Depression, the Church introduces a welfare programintended to
serve needy
members around the world.
(Membership: 750,384)
June 9, 1978, Salt
Lake City, Utah
Spencer W. Kimball, the Church's 12th president, announces
the revelation thatextends "the blessing of the priesthood to all worthy male
members of
theChurch"---including, for the first time, blacks.
(Membership 4,166,854)
March 3, 1987, Jerusalem, Israel
The Brigham Young University
Jerusalem Center is opened.
(Membership:6,275,097)
December 11, 1994,
Mexico City, Mexico
The 2,000th stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints is dedicated by Howard Hunter, the Church's 14th president.
(Membership 9,024,569)
---from THE MISSION INSIDE THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
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