Exmo-Robertson
June 29th 2003, 10:03 AM
The Restoration Means God Leads the Mormon Church
"Through living prophets, Christ is leading this church today. The greatest security of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes from learning to listen to and obey the words and commandments that the Lord has given through living prophets. I would hope that the world would understand the importance of having a living prophet on earth today. In my own lifetime, through association with prophets, I have observed how they are prepared by the Lord. Their purpose is to bring us the will of the Lord for our times. I give my testimony that the prophets of this day have the qualities of the prophets of old and the other prophets of this dispensation. Each of these prophets has humbly and prayerfully sought to know and follow God's will in his personal ministry. We declare with soberness, and yet with the authority of God in us vested, we have a prophet today. The President of the Church, as a prophet, is God's representative on earth and is appointed to lead His church. Christ is the head of his Church today, just as he was in ancient times. The Lord has said that this is 'the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased' (D&C 1:30)."
-Apostle Robert D. Hales, "Hear the Prophet's Voice and Obey," Ensign, May 1995, Page 15
"Brethren, the Church is true. Those who lead it have only one desire, and that is to do the will of the Lord. They seek his direction in all things. There is not a decision of significance affecting the Church and its people that is made without prayerful consideration, going to the fount of all wisdom for direction. Follow the leadership of the Church. God will not let his work be led astray. Brethren, if we live worthy of his inspiration, there will never be doubt in our minds concerning the truth of this work and the great mission of this kingdom."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Be Not Deceived,” Ensign, Nov. 1983, page 44
"I knew a so-called intellectual who said the Church was trapped by its history. My response was that without that history we have nothing."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith,” Ensign, Nov. 2002, 78
The following historical events come from Michael Quinn's excellent book The Mormon Hierarchy : Extensions of Power. For references, refer to the book. All of these events actually happened, and testify more of the truthfulness of the gospel than any sermon ever did...
Jan 23,1852 - Brigham Young instructs Utah Legislature to legalize slavery because "we must believe in slavery."
Feb 5,1852 - Brigham Young announces policy of denying priesthood to all those black African ancestry, even "if there never was a prophet, or apostle of Jesus Christ spoke it before" because "negroes are the children of old Cain....any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the priesthood." Contrary to Joseph Smith's example in authorizing the ordination of Elijah Abel, this is LDS policy for the next 126 years.
Jan 3,1854 - Brigham Young invites Elijah Ablel, free black and ordained Seventy, to party with 98 other men in Social Hall. Some of these parties are male-only dances.
Nov 22,1855 - Brigham Young secretly ordains his eleven year old son John W. an apostle in connection with receiving the endowment. Young later ordains three other sons apostles.
4 Dec, 1856 - Speaking at the funeral of Apostle Jedediah Grant in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, a member of the First Presidency, Heber C. Kimball declares "I am talking of what I know, and not of what I merely believe... Brother Brigham is my brother, and brother Jedediah is my brother; I loved him, I love those men, God knows I do, better than I ever loved a woman; and I would not give a dime for a man that does not love them better than they love women. A man is a miserable being, if he lets a woman stand between him and his file leaders; he is a heel, and I bare no regard for him; he is not fit for the Priesthood."
Mar 21,1858 - Brigham Young tells this special conference that Joseph Smith disobeyed revelation by returning to Nauvoo to stand trial, that the church's founding prophet lost Spirit of God the last days of his life, and died as unnecessary martyr. He published this talk as pamphlet.
Dec 15,1858 - Young readily grants divorce to unhappy plural wives but requires husbands to pay him personally a $10 fee ($214.50 in 2001 U.S. dollars). Young issues 1,600 certificates of divorce for unhappy polygamous marriages. (This equals 16 thousand dollars, or $343,200 2001 U.S. dollars)
Aug 20,1859 - Brigham Young regarding slavery: "We consider it of divine institution, and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants.
Sep 7,1859 - Salt Lake City clerk records sale of twenty six year old "negro boy" for $800 to William H. Hooper. Until federal law ends slavery in U.S. Territories in 1862, some African-American slaves are paid as tithing, bought, sold and otherwise treated as chattel in Utah.
Nov 18,1861 - Abraham Lincoln checks out Book of Mormon from Library of Congress. He returns it on 29 July 1862, apparently first U.S. president to read Book of Mormon.
Dec 10,1862 - Deseret News reports that Church Historian's Office is displaying sample of tobacco crops grown in Provo during past summer.
Oct 6,1863 - Brigham Young prophesies to general conference: "Will the present struggle (of the U.S. Civil War) free the slaves? No..... and men will be called to judgement for the way they have treated the negroe." The 13th Amendment legally ends slavery in the United States in 1865.
May 15,1864 - Brigham Young preaches, "I don't want Mormonism to become too popular... we would be overrun by the wicked."
Dec 9,1869 - ZCMI Drug Stores advertises that is has just opened on Main Street with "Liquors, Draught and by the case."
Jun 18,1870 - First Counselor George A Smith tells Salt Lake School of Prophets about "the evil of masturbation" among Utah Mormons. Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "plural marriage would tend to diminish the evil of self pollution and the indulgence on the part of men was less in plural marriage than in monogamy."
Sep 1,1870 - Salt Lake City's 9th Ward reports that only thirty one of its 181 families attends Sunday Services regularly and 50% of families are perfectly indifferent.
Jun 3,1871 - Salt Lake Tabernacle service: "Pres D.H. Wells spoke 25 minutes following President Young's remarks. Not very good attention. Considerable moving about, passing out, and drowsiness."
Jan 4,1877 - Joseph Smith's last born child David is committed to Illinois Hospital for the Insane. Proclaimed by Brigham Young in 1866 as rightful heir of LDS presidency, he has served as counselor on RLDS presidency since 1873. He dies in asylum in 1904.
Aug 29,1877 - Brigham Young dies. His last words are "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!"
June 4,1879 - John Taylor and apostles decline to allow Elijah Abel to receive temple endowment because he is Negroid, even though Abel received Melchizedek priesthood with Joseph Smith's authorization in 1836. This African American regularly attends his Seventy's quorum meetings and serves proselyting mission just before his death in 1888.
Dec 27,1879 - Apostle Wilford Woodruff tells stake conference in Snowflake, Arizona, "There will be no United States in the year 1890."
Jan 9,1880 - Apostle Orson Pratt writes to his children that city of New Jerusalem will be constructed by April 1950.
Jan 7,1882 - Apostle Francis M Lyman's diary begins recording month-long nervous breakdown of Heber J Grant, his successor as Tooele Stake President. Physician diagnoses Grant's condition as "nervous convulsions" and warns that condition could lead to "softening of the brain," if Grant continues his stressful pace of activity. Grant becomes apostle ten months later and is first LDS leader with diagnosed history of emotional illness.
Mar 31,1882 - John Taylor closes Church Historian's Office to the public.
Mar 22,1884 - James E Talmage begins using hashish at Johns Hopkins University as "my physiological experiment" of its effects. By April 6 he is using twenty grains, "and the effect was felt in a not very agreeable way." This is last reference in his diary. Four months later he becomes member of stake high council.
May 17,1888 - At dedication of Manti Temple, Wilford Woodruff declared prophetically , "We are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the Coming of the Son of Man."
Feb 27,1889 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald: "In 1870 Utah had second highest rate of divorce and in 1880 the tenth highest for all states and territories."
Jun 8, 1889 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "his sister, the late Eliza R. Snow Smith, was a firm believer in the principle of reincarnation and that she claimed to have received if from the Joseph the Prophet, her husband. He said he saw nothing unreasonable in it, and could believe it, if it came from the Lord or His oracle."
Dec 5, 1891 - Stake President relates "incident of the Prophet Joseph telling Dimick B Huntington.....that Noah built the Ark in the land where South Carolina is now.
Nov 29,1893 - Presidents Wilford Woodruff and George Q Cannon meet with three apostles and James E Talmage: "That there will also be daughters of Perdition there is no doubt in the minds of the brethren."
Dec 7,1893 - First Presidency and Twelve decide that garments worn under clothing should be white. This is first departure of Utah temple garment from contemporary "Union Suit" which comes in various colors and upon which Utah "street garment" is based.
Apr 5,1894 - At meeting of First Presidency and apostles, Wilford Woodruff announces revelation which ends practice of adopting (sealing) men to LDS leaders.
Apr 9,1894 - Death of Thomas C Sharp, principal conspirator in murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He has had a successful career as mayor, judge, school principal and newspaper editor.
Apr 15,1894 - Juvenile Instructor publishes hymn "Our Mother in Heaven," which is phrased as prayer to the goddess.
May 18,1894 - In Salt Lake Temple, "Jane Elizabeth Manning (a Negro woman) is sealed as a servitor for eternity to the Prophet Joseph Smith." Joseph F. Smith acts as proxy.
Aug 26,1894 - "First time a woman has spoken in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on the Sabbath at the regular service- the people don't know what to make of it-it must bode good for women." The speaker is a non-Mormon.
Oct 24,1894 - Wilford Woodruff and his two counselors each give approval for Apostle Abraham H Cannon to marry another plural wife. In all, ten general authorities marry post-Manifesto plural wives by permission of church president or his counselors during next ten years.
Mar 1,1895 - Some non-Mormons are given full tour of dedicated Salt Lake Temple interior.
Apr 7,1895 - Wilford Woodruff tells conference: "Cease troubling yourselves about who God is; who Adam is, who Christ is, who Jehova is. For Heaven's sake, let these things alone.
Aug 22,1895 - First Presidency and apostles decide to deny temple endowments to "Black Jane" Manning (James) because of her "negro blood." Black women are banned from temple, as are black men until 1978.
Mar 12,1896 - First Presidency gives James E. Talmage "an instruction to smoke tobacco to relieve his persistent insomnia."
Aug 23,1896 - Sugar House Ward congregation votes against man proposed as Bishop of new ward to divided from the old. Salt Lake stake president Angus M. Cannon furiously shouts, "Sit down! and shut your mouths, you have no right to speak!" When Cannon engages in shouting match with dissenting congregation, a ward member and policeman threaten to arrest stake president for disturbing the peace. Cannon more calmly repeats his attempt but is voted down "again several times." Secretary of the First Council in attendance writes: "I have been taught that the appointing power comes from the priesthood and the sustaining power from the people and that they have the right of sustaining or not sustaining appointees."
Aug 26,1896 - Apostle Moses Thatcher begins treatment with Keeley Institute for his addiction to opium and morphine. First Presidency and apostles tolerated Thatcher as a "morphine fiend" and "opium eater", but on 26 July his family and friends considered involuntary commitment to treatment. His is most prominent drug addict in Mormon history. Twelve drop Thatcher from quorum membership on 19 Nov because of four year conflict over his insubordination in political matters, but Thatcher's drug addiction aggravates that conflict.
Nov 5,1896 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow's youngest plural wife bears his last child in Canada. At age 82 he is the oldest General Authority to father a child.
Jan 15,1897 - Apostle Brigham Young, Jr. temporarily resigns as vice-president of Brigham Young Trust Company because first counselor George Q. Cannon allows its property to become "a first class" brothel on Commercial Street (now Regent Street), Salt Lake City. Apostle Heber J. Grant is invited to its opening reception and is stunned to discover himself inside "a regular whore-house." This situation begins in 1891, and for fifty years church controlled real estate companies lease houses of prostitution.
Oct 7,1898 - At general conference Apostle John W. Taylor reports that in one rural area, 80% of LDS marriages involve premarital sex.
Feb 7,1901 - Apostle Brigham Young, Jr writes that proposal to provide Utah's school children with smallpox vaccinations is "Gentile doctors trying to force Babylon into the people and some of them are willing to disease the blood of our children if they can do so, and they think they are doing God's service."
Mar 3,1901 - Lorenzo Snow promises Salt Lake temple workers that "some of us would go back to Jackson County, Missouri."
July 11, 1901 - First Presidency and apostles agree that Danish beer is not harmful or in violation of Word of Wisdom and release an official statement to the same affect.
Nov 7,1901 - First Presidency officially declares that there is no "rule in the church forbidding cousins to intermarry" and that first cousins can have temple marriages if they present civil license.
Apr 3,1902 - First Presidency and apostles read letter that U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Republican Part leader Mark Hanna guarantee they will arrange to defeat proposed constitutional amendment on polygamy and unlawful cohabitation. They expect Mormons to vote Republican in exchange.
Mar 26,1903 - Joseph F Smith tells apostles "there would be no daughters of perdition, only sons" in final judgement.
Oct 22,1903 - First Presidency and Twelve authorize purchase of twenty five acres of the original temple lot at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. Purchase is complete on 14 Apr 1904. These purchases continue throughout twentieth century.
Feb 20 1904 - First verified suicide of full time LDS missionary. He shoots himself as he is returning to Utah.
Mar 2,1904 - Before committee of U.S. Senate, Joseph F. Smith testifies: "I have never pretended to nor do I profess to have received revelations. I never said that I had a revelation except so far as God has shown me that so-called Mormonism is God's divine truth, that is all."
Apr 14,1904 - First Presidency and apostles decide to resume sale of liquor at church resort of Saltair due to need for non-Mormon patronage.
Jan 10,1906 - First Council of Seventy instructs B.H.Roberts to go to Los Angeles for "recuperation from a weakness for liquor that had fastened itself upon him."
Oct 6, 1907 - At sustaining of church officers a man votes against Joseph F. Smith because of his admitted violation of Utah's cohabitation law. Smith has him ejected from Salt Lake Tabernacle by force.
1904 - Church president instructs twelve apostles to walk through all doorways in order of seniority.
1906 - Joseph F. Smith pleads guilty in court to unlawful cohabitation for which he pays $300 fine.
1907 - General Conference votes to send twenty tons of flour to China for famine relief. This comes from Relief Society grain storage program.
1909 - October at General Conference, Apostle George Albert Smith stops speaking after three minutes as he begins to "tremble and perspire." Apostle Reed Smoot had referred two weeks earlier to Smith's "mental trouble." Since January Smith's diary has described symptoms of his eventual collapse. At age thirty-nine he is first general authority whose debilitating mental problems cannot be attributed to senility. Hospitalized for ten weeks at Gray's Sanatarium in Salt Lake City, Smith does not recover from his emotional breakdown until 1913. Problem re-emerges in 1930's and in 1949-51.
1910 April - Stake president writes of church members "complaining on account of so many Smiths being chosen." Recent conference sustained John Henry Smith as second counselor and President Smith's son, Joseph Fielding Smith, as new apostle. In addition to appointing his son Hyrum M. an apostle in 1901, Smith also appointed his son David A. Smith to Presiding Bishopric in 1907.
Oct 2,1910 - First anti-Mormon film, Victim of the Mormons ("Mormonens Offer"), opens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Film goes into international distribution, is publicly condemned by Apostle David O. McKay at next general conference. It is target of first censorship effort led by Utah governor (William Spry, LDS).
Jan 1913 - Deseret News favorably reviews One Hundred Years of Mormonism, first commercial film about Mormons made with cooperation of church officials. The 6 reel, 90 minute silent film features one of Brigham Young's grandsons in the role of his grandfather. During Joseph F. Smith presidency, Hollywood produces other silent features which portray Mormonism less favorably: A Trip to Salt Lake City (1905), The Mountain Meadow Massacre (1912), The Mormon (1912), Deadwood Dick Spoils Brigham Young(1915), Cecil B. DeMille's A Mormon Maid (1917), and The Rainbow Trail (1918).
Dec 17,1913 - Death of Joseph Smith's last surviving plural wife, Mary E. Rollins Lightner. She helped save the still-unbound Book of Commandments from printing office set afire by mob in 1833. She witnessed adoption of 1835 D&C, which prohibited polygamy, and became secret plural wife of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo while still living with her non-Mormon husband.
Oct 8, 1916 Apostle James E. Talmadge anounces in Conference that "The [ten lost] tribes shall come: they are not lost unto the Lord; they shall be brought forth as hath been predicted; and I say unto you there are those now living - aye, some here present - who shall live to read the records of the Lost Tribes of Israel..."
Mar 22,1919 - "The Nigger" is the new production to be given at the Social Hall, proclaims Deseret News with explanation: "The Nigger" is distinctly Southern. It is a romance based on Southern ideals and the race problem.
Nov 11,1919 - Apostle James E. Talmage attends Third Christian Citizenship Conference in Pittsburgh as delegate chosen by Utah's governor. Utah delegates are booed and hissed by 4,000 other delegates. Talmage hurriedly leaves after some delegates surround him and threaten to strip off his clothes in order to display his temple garments.
Jan 4,1922 - From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Brigham H. Roberts presents detailed summary of textual and historical problems in Book of Mormon to combined meeting of First Presidency, apostles, and Seventy's presidents. He recommends that these problems should be researched and publicly discussed.
May 17,1923 - First Presidency and Twelve agree to alter temple undergarment worn outside temple: "buttons instead of strings; no collar; sleeves above the elbow and few inches below the knee and a change in the crotch so as to cover the same." Mormons of the time regard this as a dramatic change from endowment garment introduced by Joseph Smith.
Nov 26,1923 - Corporation of the President is incorporated, becoming the successor of the Trustee-in-Trust as center of church financial operations.
Jan 21,1925 - Mason Grand Lodge of Utah officially prohibits Mormons from membership in any of its Masonic lodges and provides for expulsion of any Mormons who are current members of any Utah lodge. Utah is the only state with formal Masonic restriction against religious group or denomination. Some Mormons (primarily converts) affiliate or preside in Masonic lodges outside Utah after 1925.
May 22,1925 - Deseret News editorializes in favor of new Utah law which legalizes horse racing and pari-mutual betting. Legislature has appointed Brigham F. Grant as chair of Racing Commission. He is manager of Deseret News and brother of church president, Heber J. Grant.
Feb 15,1927 - Apostle George F. Richards notifies temples that it is decision of First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve to immediately omit from prayer circles "all references to avenging the blood of the Prophets. Omit from the ordinance and lecture all reference to retribution." Letter also instructs to "omit the kissing" at the end of the proxy sealings.
Jan 19-20,1928 - Frederick M. Smith, RLDS president, supervises disinternment of his martyred grandfather and granduncle, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, from coffin-less burial place kept secret since 1844. They are reburied in coffins, one on each side of Emma Hale Smith Bidamon, next to Mansion House in Nauvoo.
Sept 24,1929 - Heber J. Grant writes: "I am free to confess that I am disappointed with the Yosemite valley. It seems only about one-half as grand as the American Fork canyon of Utah."
Aug 16,1930 - Heber J. Grant remarks that Apostle George Albert Smith "is getting very nervous. We don't want him to have another breakdown such as he had years ago, almost costing him his life." Apostle Smith doesn't begin describing his symptoms until January 1932, and year later writes, "My Nerves are nearly gone but am holding on the best I know how." Symptoms gradually subside and do not resume until he is church president years later.
April 2,1932 - Heber J. Grant launches campaign against use of tobacco as part of his emphasis on observing Word of Wisdom by total abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. Previously, Section 89 was not regarded as a commandment nor was it interpreted as simply abstaining from four specific substances.
May 5,1932 - Apostle Stephen L. Richards tells First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve that he will resign as apostle rather than apologize for his general conference talk which says church is putting too much emphasis on Word of Wisdom. He later confesses his error to Heber J. Grant on 26 may and retains his position.
July 29,1932 - Death of George H. Brimhall from self-inflicted gunshot. He served as BYU President from 1904 to 1921 and is only BYU president to commit suicide.
Dec 9,1933 - Church News article "Mormonism in The New Germany," enthusiastically emphasizes parallels "between the LDS Church and some of the ideas and policies of the National Socialists." First, Nazis have introduced "Fast Sunday." Second, "it is a very well known fact that Hitler observes a form of living which Mormons term the Word of Wisdom. Finally, due to the importance given to the racial question by Nazis and the almost necessity of proving that one's grandmother was not a Jewess, there no longer is resistance against genealogical research by German Mormons who now have received letters of encouragement complimenting them for their patriotism."
Jan 25,1936 - Church News Section photograph of LDS basketball team in Germany giving "Sieg Heil: salute of Nazi Party.
"Through living prophets, Christ is leading this church today. The greatest security of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes from learning to listen to and obey the words and commandments that the Lord has given through living prophets. I would hope that the world would understand the importance of having a living prophet on earth today. In my own lifetime, through association with prophets, I have observed how they are prepared by the Lord. Their purpose is to bring us the will of the Lord for our times. I give my testimony that the prophets of this day have the qualities of the prophets of old and the other prophets of this dispensation. Each of these prophets has humbly and prayerfully sought to know and follow God's will in his personal ministry. We declare with soberness, and yet with the authority of God in us vested, we have a prophet today. The President of the Church, as a prophet, is God's representative on earth and is appointed to lead His church. Christ is the head of his Church today, just as he was in ancient times. The Lord has said that this is 'the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased' (D&C 1:30)."
-Apostle Robert D. Hales, "Hear the Prophet's Voice and Obey," Ensign, May 1995, Page 15
"Brethren, the Church is true. Those who lead it have only one desire, and that is to do the will of the Lord. They seek his direction in all things. There is not a decision of significance affecting the Church and its people that is made without prayerful consideration, going to the fount of all wisdom for direction. Follow the leadership of the Church. God will not let his work be led astray. Brethren, if we live worthy of his inspiration, there will never be doubt in our minds concerning the truth of this work and the great mission of this kingdom."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Be Not Deceived,” Ensign, Nov. 1983, page 44
"I knew a so-called intellectual who said the Church was trapped by its history. My response was that without that history we have nothing."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith,” Ensign, Nov. 2002, 78
The following historical events come from Michael Quinn's excellent book The Mormon Hierarchy : Extensions of Power. For references, refer to the book. All of these events actually happened, and testify more of the truthfulness of the gospel than any sermon ever did...
Jan 23,1852 - Brigham Young instructs Utah Legislature to legalize slavery because "we must believe in slavery."
Feb 5,1852 - Brigham Young announces policy of denying priesthood to all those black African ancestry, even "if there never was a prophet, or apostle of Jesus Christ spoke it before" because "negroes are the children of old Cain....any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the priesthood." Contrary to Joseph Smith's example in authorizing the ordination of Elijah Abel, this is LDS policy for the next 126 years.
Jan 3,1854 - Brigham Young invites Elijah Ablel, free black and ordained Seventy, to party with 98 other men in Social Hall. Some of these parties are male-only dances.
Nov 22,1855 - Brigham Young secretly ordains his eleven year old son John W. an apostle in connection with receiving the endowment. Young later ordains three other sons apostles.
4 Dec, 1856 - Speaking at the funeral of Apostle Jedediah Grant in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, a member of the First Presidency, Heber C. Kimball declares "I am talking of what I know, and not of what I merely believe... Brother Brigham is my brother, and brother Jedediah is my brother; I loved him, I love those men, God knows I do, better than I ever loved a woman; and I would not give a dime for a man that does not love them better than they love women. A man is a miserable being, if he lets a woman stand between him and his file leaders; he is a heel, and I bare no regard for him; he is not fit for the Priesthood."
Mar 21,1858 - Brigham Young tells this special conference that Joseph Smith disobeyed revelation by returning to Nauvoo to stand trial, that the church's founding prophet lost Spirit of God the last days of his life, and died as unnecessary martyr. He published this talk as pamphlet.
Dec 15,1858 - Young readily grants divorce to unhappy plural wives but requires husbands to pay him personally a $10 fee ($214.50 in 2001 U.S. dollars). Young issues 1,600 certificates of divorce for unhappy polygamous marriages. (This equals 16 thousand dollars, or $343,200 2001 U.S. dollars)
Aug 20,1859 - Brigham Young regarding slavery: "We consider it of divine institution, and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants.
Sep 7,1859 - Salt Lake City clerk records sale of twenty six year old "negro boy" for $800 to William H. Hooper. Until federal law ends slavery in U.S. Territories in 1862, some African-American slaves are paid as tithing, bought, sold and otherwise treated as chattel in Utah.
Nov 18,1861 - Abraham Lincoln checks out Book of Mormon from Library of Congress. He returns it on 29 July 1862, apparently first U.S. president to read Book of Mormon.
Dec 10,1862 - Deseret News reports that Church Historian's Office is displaying sample of tobacco crops grown in Provo during past summer.
Oct 6,1863 - Brigham Young prophesies to general conference: "Will the present struggle (of the U.S. Civil War) free the slaves? No..... and men will be called to judgement for the way they have treated the negroe." The 13th Amendment legally ends slavery in the United States in 1865.
May 15,1864 - Brigham Young preaches, "I don't want Mormonism to become too popular... we would be overrun by the wicked."
Dec 9,1869 - ZCMI Drug Stores advertises that is has just opened on Main Street with "Liquors, Draught and by the case."
Jun 18,1870 - First Counselor George A Smith tells Salt Lake School of Prophets about "the evil of masturbation" among Utah Mormons. Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "plural marriage would tend to diminish the evil of self pollution and the indulgence on the part of men was less in plural marriage than in monogamy."
Sep 1,1870 - Salt Lake City's 9th Ward reports that only thirty one of its 181 families attends Sunday Services regularly and 50% of families are perfectly indifferent.
Jun 3,1871 - Salt Lake Tabernacle service: "Pres D.H. Wells spoke 25 minutes following President Young's remarks. Not very good attention. Considerable moving about, passing out, and drowsiness."
Jan 4,1877 - Joseph Smith's last born child David is committed to Illinois Hospital for the Insane. Proclaimed by Brigham Young in 1866 as rightful heir of LDS presidency, he has served as counselor on RLDS presidency since 1873. He dies in asylum in 1904.
Aug 29,1877 - Brigham Young dies. His last words are "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!"
June 4,1879 - John Taylor and apostles decline to allow Elijah Abel to receive temple endowment because he is Negroid, even though Abel received Melchizedek priesthood with Joseph Smith's authorization in 1836. This African American regularly attends his Seventy's quorum meetings and serves proselyting mission just before his death in 1888.
Dec 27,1879 - Apostle Wilford Woodruff tells stake conference in Snowflake, Arizona, "There will be no United States in the year 1890."
Jan 9,1880 - Apostle Orson Pratt writes to his children that city of New Jerusalem will be constructed by April 1950.
Jan 7,1882 - Apostle Francis M Lyman's diary begins recording month-long nervous breakdown of Heber J Grant, his successor as Tooele Stake President. Physician diagnoses Grant's condition as "nervous convulsions" and warns that condition could lead to "softening of the brain," if Grant continues his stressful pace of activity. Grant becomes apostle ten months later and is first LDS leader with diagnosed history of emotional illness.
Mar 31,1882 - John Taylor closes Church Historian's Office to the public.
Mar 22,1884 - James E Talmage begins using hashish at Johns Hopkins University as "my physiological experiment" of its effects. By April 6 he is using twenty grains, "and the effect was felt in a not very agreeable way." This is last reference in his diary. Four months later he becomes member of stake high council.
May 17,1888 - At dedication of Manti Temple, Wilford Woodruff declared prophetically , "We are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the Coming of the Son of Man."
Feb 27,1889 - LDS political newspaper Salt Lake Herald: "In 1870 Utah had second highest rate of divorce and in 1880 the tenth highest for all states and territories."
Jun 8, 1889 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that "his sister, the late Eliza R. Snow Smith, was a firm believer in the principle of reincarnation and that she claimed to have received if from the Joseph the Prophet, her husband. He said he saw nothing unreasonable in it, and could believe it, if it came from the Lord or His oracle."
Dec 5, 1891 - Stake President relates "incident of the Prophet Joseph telling Dimick B Huntington.....that Noah built the Ark in the land where South Carolina is now.
Nov 29,1893 - Presidents Wilford Woodruff and George Q Cannon meet with three apostles and James E Talmage: "That there will also be daughters of Perdition there is no doubt in the minds of the brethren."
Dec 7,1893 - First Presidency and Twelve decide that garments worn under clothing should be white. This is first departure of Utah temple garment from contemporary "Union Suit" which comes in various colors and upon which Utah "street garment" is based.
Apr 5,1894 - At meeting of First Presidency and apostles, Wilford Woodruff announces revelation which ends practice of adopting (sealing) men to LDS leaders.
Apr 9,1894 - Death of Thomas C Sharp, principal conspirator in murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. He has had a successful career as mayor, judge, school principal and newspaper editor.
Apr 15,1894 - Juvenile Instructor publishes hymn "Our Mother in Heaven," which is phrased as prayer to the goddess.
May 18,1894 - In Salt Lake Temple, "Jane Elizabeth Manning (a Negro woman) is sealed as a servitor for eternity to the Prophet Joseph Smith." Joseph F. Smith acts as proxy.
Aug 26,1894 - "First time a woman has spoken in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on the Sabbath at the regular service- the people don't know what to make of it-it must bode good for women." The speaker is a non-Mormon.
Oct 24,1894 - Wilford Woodruff and his two counselors each give approval for Apostle Abraham H Cannon to marry another plural wife. In all, ten general authorities marry post-Manifesto plural wives by permission of church president or his counselors during next ten years.
Mar 1,1895 - Some non-Mormons are given full tour of dedicated Salt Lake Temple interior.
Apr 7,1895 - Wilford Woodruff tells conference: "Cease troubling yourselves about who God is; who Adam is, who Christ is, who Jehova is. For Heaven's sake, let these things alone.
Aug 22,1895 - First Presidency and apostles decide to deny temple endowments to "Black Jane" Manning (James) because of her "negro blood." Black women are banned from temple, as are black men until 1978.
Mar 12,1896 - First Presidency gives James E. Talmage "an instruction to smoke tobacco to relieve his persistent insomnia."
Aug 23,1896 - Sugar House Ward congregation votes against man proposed as Bishop of new ward to divided from the old. Salt Lake stake president Angus M. Cannon furiously shouts, "Sit down! and shut your mouths, you have no right to speak!" When Cannon engages in shouting match with dissenting congregation, a ward member and policeman threaten to arrest stake president for disturbing the peace. Cannon more calmly repeats his attempt but is voted down "again several times." Secretary of the First Council in attendance writes: "I have been taught that the appointing power comes from the priesthood and the sustaining power from the people and that they have the right of sustaining or not sustaining appointees."
Aug 26,1896 - Apostle Moses Thatcher begins treatment with Keeley Institute for his addiction to opium and morphine. First Presidency and apostles tolerated Thatcher as a "morphine fiend" and "opium eater", but on 26 July his family and friends considered involuntary commitment to treatment. His is most prominent drug addict in Mormon history. Twelve drop Thatcher from quorum membership on 19 Nov because of four year conflict over his insubordination in political matters, but Thatcher's drug addiction aggravates that conflict.
Nov 5,1896 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow's youngest plural wife bears his last child in Canada. At age 82 he is the oldest General Authority to father a child.
Jan 15,1897 - Apostle Brigham Young, Jr. temporarily resigns as vice-president of Brigham Young Trust Company because first counselor George Q. Cannon allows its property to become "a first class" brothel on Commercial Street (now Regent Street), Salt Lake City. Apostle Heber J. Grant is invited to its opening reception and is stunned to discover himself inside "a regular whore-house." This situation begins in 1891, and for fifty years church controlled real estate companies lease houses of prostitution.
Oct 7,1898 - At general conference Apostle John W. Taylor reports that in one rural area, 80% of LDS marriages involve premarital sex.
Feb 7,1901 - Apostle Brigham Young, Jr writes that proposal to provide Utah's school children with smallpox vaccinations is "Gentile doctors trying to force Babylon into the people and some of them are willing to disease the blood of our children if they can do so, and they think they are doing God's service."
Mar 3,1901 - Lorenzo Snow promises Salt Lake temple workers that "some of us would go back to Jackson County, Missouri."
July 11, 1901 - First Presidency and apostles agree that Danish beer is not harmful or in violation of Word of Wisdom and release an official statement to the same affect.
Nov 7,1901 - First Presidency officially declares that there is no "rule in the church forbidding cousins to intermarry" and that first cousins can have temple marriages if they present civil license.
Apr 3,1902 - First Presidency and apostles read letter that U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Republican Part leader Mark Hanna guarantee they will arrange to defeat proposed constitutional amendment on polygamy and unlawful cohabitation. They expect Mormons to vote Republican in exchange.
Mar 26,1903 - Joseph F Smith tells apostles "there would be no daughters of perdition, only sons" in final judgement.
Oct 22,1903 - First Presidency and Twelve authorize purchase of twenty five acres of the original temple lot at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. Purchase is complete on 14 Apr 1904. These purchases continue throughout twentieth century.
Feb 20 1904 - First verified suicide of full time LDS missionary. He shoots himself as he is returning to Utah.
Mar 2,1904 - Before committee of U.S. Senate, Joseph F. Smith testifies: "I have never pretended to nor do I profess to have received revelations. I never said that I had a revelation except so far as God has shown me that so-called Mormonism is God's divine truth, that is all."
Apr 14,1904 - First Presidency and apostles decide to resume sale of liquor at church resort of Saltair due to need for non-Mormon patronage.
Jan 10,1906 - First Council of Seventy instructs B.H.Roberts to go to Los Angeles for "recuperation from a weakness for liquor that had fastened itself upon him."
Oct 6, 1907 - At sustaining of church officers a man votes against Joseph F. Smith because of his admitted violation of Utah's cohabitation law. Smith has him ejected from Salt Lake Tabernacle by force.
1904 - Church president instructs twelve apostles to walk through all doorways in order of seniority.
1906 - Joseph F. Smith pleads guilty in court to unlawful cohabitation for which he pays $300 fine.
1907 - General Conference votes to send twenty tons of flour to China for famine relief. This comes from Relief Society grain storage program.
1909 - October at General Conference, Apostle George Albert Smith stops speaking after three minutes as he begins to "tremble and perspire." Apostle Reed Smoot had referred two weeks earlier to Smith's "mental trouble." Since January Smith's diary has described symptoms of his eventual collapse. At age thirty-nine he is first general authority whose debilitating mental problems cannot be attributed to senility. Hospitalized for ten weeks at Gray's Sanatarium in Salt Lake City, Smith does not recover from his emotional breakdown until 1913. Problem re-emerges in 1930's and in 1949-51.
1910 April - Stake president writes of church members "complaining on account of so many Smiths being chosen." Recent conference sustained John Henry Smith as second counselor and President Smith's son, Joseph Fielding Smith, as new apostle. In addition to appointing his son Hyrum M. an apostle in 1901, Smith also appointed his son David A. Smith to Presiding Bishopric in 1907.
Oct 2,1910 - First anti-Mormon film, Victim of the Mormons ("Mormonens Offer"), opens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Film goes into international distribution, is publicly condemned by Apostle David O. McKay at next general conference. It is target of first censorship effort led by Utah governor (William Spry, LDS).
Jan 1913 - Deseret News favorably reviews One Hundred Years of Mormonism, first commercial film about Mormons made with cooperation of church officials. The 6 reel, 90 minute silent film features one of Brigham Young's grandsons in the role of his grandfather. During Joseph F. Smith presidency, Hollywood produces other silent features which portray Mormonism less favorably: A Trip to Salt Lake City (1905), The Mountain Meadow Massacre (1912), The Mormon (1912), Deadwood Dick Spoils Brigham Young(1915), Cecil B. DeMille's A Mormon Maid (1917), and The Rainbow Trail (1918).
Dec 17,1913 - Death of Joseph Smith's last surviving plural wife, Mary E. Rollins Lightner. She helped save the still-unbound Book of Commandments from printing office set afire by mob in 1833. She witnessed adoption of 1835 D&C, which prohibited polygamy, and became secret plural wife of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo while still living with her non-Mormon husband.
Oct 8, 1916 Apostle James E. Talmadge anounces in Conference that "The [ten lost] tribes shall come: they are not lost unto the Lord; they shall be brought forth as hath been predicted; and I say unto you there are those now living - aye, some here present - who shall live to read the records of the Lost Tribes of Israel..."
Mar 22,1919 - "The Nigger" is the new production to be given at the Social Hall, proclaims Deseret News with explanation: "The Nigger" is distinctly Southern. It is a romance based on Southern ideals and the race problem.
Nov 11,1919 - Apostle James E. Talmage attends Third Christian Citizenship Conference in Pittsburgh as delegate chosen by Utah's governor. Utah delegates are booed and hissed by 4,000 other delegates. Talmage hurriedly leaves after some delegates surround him and threaten to strip off his clothes in order to display his temple garments.
Jan 4,1922 - From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Brigham H. Roberts presents detailed summary of textual and historical problems in Book of Mormon to combined meeting of First Presidency, apostles, and Seventy's presidents. He recommends that these problems should be researched and publicly discussed.
May 17,1923 - First Presidency and Twelve agree to alter temple undergarment worn outside temple: "buttons instead of strings; no collar; sleeves above the elbow and few inches below the knee and a change in the crotch so as to cover the same." Mormons of the time regard this as a dramatic change from endowment garment introduced by Joseph Smith.
Nov 26,1923 - Corporation of the President is incorporated, becoming the successor of the Trustee-in-Trust as center of church financial operations.
Jan 21,1925 - Mason Grand Lodge of Utah officially prohibits Mormons from membership in any of its Masonic lodges and provides for expulsion of any Mormons who are current members of any Utah lodge. Utah is the only state with formal Masonic restriction against religious group or denomination. Some Mormons (primarily converts) affiliate or preside in Masonic lodges outside Utah after 1925.
May 22,1925 - Deseret News editorializes in favor of new Utah law which legalizes horse racing and pari-mutual betting. Legislature has appointed Brigham F. Grant as chair of Racing Commission. He is manager of Deseret News and brother of church president, Heber J. Grant.
Feb 15,1927 - Apostle George F. Richards notifies temples that it is decision of First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve to immediately omit from prayer circles "all references to avenging the blood of the Prophets. Omit from the ordinance and lecture all reference to retribution." Letter also instructs to "omit the kissing" at the end of the proxy sealings.
Jan 19-20,1928 - Frederick M. Smith, RLDS president, supervises disinternment of his martyred grandfather and granduncle, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, from coffin-less burial place kept secret since 1844. They are reburied in coffins, one on each side of Emma Hale Smith Bidamon, next to Mansion House in Nauvoo.
Sept 24,1929 - Heber J. Grant writes: "I am free to confess that I am disappointed with the Yosemite valley. It seems only about one-half as grand as the American Fork canyon of Utah."
Aug 16,1930 - Heber J. Grant remarks that Apostle George Albert Smith "is getting very nervous. We don't want him to have another breakdown such as he had years ago, almost costing him his life." Apostle Smith doesn't begin describing his symptoms until January 1932, and year later writes, "My Nerves are nearly gone but am holding on the best I know how." Symptoms gradually subside and do not resume until he is church president years later.
April 2,1932 - Heber J. Grant launches campaign against use of tobacco as part of his emphasis on observing Word of Wisdom by total abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. Previously, Section 89 was not regarded as a commandment nor was it interpreted as simply abstaining from four specific substances.
May 5,1932 - Apostle Stephen L. Richards tells First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve that he will resign as apostle rather than apologize for his general conference talk which says church is putting too much emphasis on Word of Wisdom. He later confesses his error to Heber J. Grant on 26 may and retains his position.
July 29,1932 - Death of George H. Brimhall from self-inflicted gunshot. He served as BYU President from 1904 to 1921 and is only BYU president to commit suicide.
Dec 9,1933 - Church News article "Mormonism in The New Germany," enthusiastically emphasizes parallels "between the LDS Church and some of the ideas and policies of the National Socialists." First, Nazis have introduced "Fast Sunday." Second, "it is a very well known fact that Hitler observes a form of living which Mormons term the Word of Wisdom. Finally, due to the importance given to the racial question by Nazis and the almost necessity of proving that one's grandmother was not a Jewess, there no longer is resistance against genealogical research by German Mormons who now have received letters of encouragement complimenting them for their patriotism."
Jan 25,1936 - Church News Section photograph of LDS basketball team in Germany giving "Sieg Heil: salute of Nazi Party.