Footnotes
“Contents of the Historian and Recorder’s Office. G. S. L. City July 1858,” 6, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; Turley, “Assistant Church Historians,” 20–21; see also Park, “Developing a Historical Conscience,” 115–134.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Turley, Richard E., Jr. “Assistant Church Historians and the Publishing of Church History.” In Preserving the History of the Latter-Day Saints, edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Steven C. Harper, 19–47. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010.
Park, Benjamin E. “Developing a Historical Conscience: Wilford Woodruff and the Preservation of Church History.” In Preserving the History of the Latter-day Saints, edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Steven C. Harper, 115–134. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2010.
Footnotes
Instruction on Priesthood, between ca. 1 Mar. and ca. 4 May 1835 [D&C 107:33–35]; Revelation, 23 July 1837 [D&C 112:1–10].
Woodruff left the Fox Islands on 28 April 1838. Regarding his return on 7 August, Woodruff wrote, “I received a letter from Elder Thomas B. Marsh from Zion in answer to the one I wrot to the Bishop & Presidency & Saints in Zion.” The following day, Woodruff visited the post office to obtain further mail, which indicates that he received Marsh’s letter from one of the members he visited before he went to the post office. (Woodruff, Journal, 28 Apr. and 7–8 Aug. 1838.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
See, for example, 1 Corinthians 14:33; see also Minutes, 3 May 1834.
Daniel 7:18.
Daniel 7:27.
The vision of Daniel culminated with all nations dissolving and with the people of God receiving everlasting dominion over the earth. (Daniel chap. 7.)
Early American Deists believed in a singular creator god and rejected all shades of polytheism, including Trinitarian theology. They tended to believe that the creator god was the architect of the universe, who after setting the stars and planets in motion withdrew from any further intervention. Deists rejected miracles, spiritual gifts, and any form of supernatural revelation, including those described in the Bible. They criticized classical Christian theology and espoused in its place a commonsense morality. (Holifield, Theology in America, 162–170.)
Holifield, E. Brooks. Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Marsh and Groves were commissioned to raise money to help poor Latter-day Saints moving to Missouri. (Minute Book 2, 25 July 1836.)
This money was borrowed at 10 percent interest. (“T. B. Marsh,” [2], Historian’s Office, Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861, CHL.)
Historian’s Office. Histories of the Twelve, 1856–1858, 1861. CHL. CR 100 93.
When Marsh and Groves were commissioned to raise money, they were instructed to “put the same into the hands of the Zion Presidency.” (Minute Book 2, 25 July 1836.)
Phelps and Whitmer purchased the original square mile for Far West in August 1836 and used the money raised by Marsh and Groves to purchase additional land in the vicinity in November 1836. Because the church was not incorporated in Missouri, church leaders could hold church property in their own names only. The use and administration of such property, however, was often subject to the deliberations of church councils. (Caldwell Co., MO, Original Land Entries, 1835–1859, p. 11, microfilm 2,438,695, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Minute Book 1, 2 Apr. 1836.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
In November 1836, the Zion church presidency “selected and appointed Jacob Whitmer, Elisha H. Groves, and George M. Hinkle for a building committee to assist the Presidency to build the house of the Lord.” In April 1837, the high council and the bishop and his counselors accepted the appointment of this committee and the Zion presidency’s related plans. (Minute Book 2, 15 Nov. 1836 and 7 Apr. 1837.)
When the Zion high council was organized in 1834, JS told the council members “that he now had done his duty in organizing the High Council, through which Council the will of the Lord might be known on all importent occasions in the building up of Zion.” (Minutes and Discourse, ca. 7 July 1834.)
Among their various holdings, Phelps and Whitmer owned the land for the platted town of Far West. Marsh may have been specifically referring to a map of Far West that was used for allotment—possibly a certified copy of the Far West plat. (“Description of Far West Plat,” BYU Church History and Doctrine Department, Church History Project Collection, CHL.)
BYU Church History and Doctrine Department. Church History Project Collection, 1977–1981. Photocopy. CHL.
Most other members of the Quorum of the Twelve lived in Ohio or were on proselytizing missions. (See Thomas B. Marsh and David W. Patten, Far West, MO, to Parley P. Pratt, Toronto, Upper Canada, 10 May 1837, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 62–63.)
According to the minutes of the meeting, the council prepared a list of questions for the two men, challenging the presidents’ authority to unilaterally select and purchase the land for the new settlement, sell lots in the city plat for their own profit, designate the temple site, appoint a committee to help build the temple, and take other actions. Two of the questions focused on whether the land and proceeds from selling lots should remain in the hands of Phelps and Whitmer or whether some should be distributed to other church leaders as compensation for their services. (Minute Book 2, 3 Apr. 1837.)