Mormon Life - LDS History tag

Deporting "Undesirables"

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 09:41:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

On April 23, 1914, five Latter-day Saint elders arrived at the port of Table Bay, South Africa, to begin service as missionaries in that country. Before they had actually set foot on the docks, government officials boarded the ship to examine the passengers. Upon learning of their presence, the officials separated the five Mormon men and held them for special questioning.

The elders were subjected to a special “literacy test”: officials, selecting some of the most difficult words they could find in the dictionary, ordered the elders to write the words. None of the elders was able to spell all of the words correctly, and the officials ordered them deported on grounds of their “illiteracy.”

Information on the History of LDS Relief Society

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 08:43:00 -0700

source: mormonwoman.org

Mormon Life says: Links to some great resources here. There’s a great (unofficial) site called LDS Women of God that explores much of the history of the Relief Society. We’ve had people searching our site for information on the history of the Relief Society, so we thought this would be a good resource to share.

The history of the Mormon Church’s organization for women is a focus of our visiting teaching messages this year, so this is another place we can read and re-read about important parts of our history that our general Relief Society leaders felt would help Mormon women catch more of a vision for what Relief Society is all about.

You Have Been Listening to the Sunday Evening Broadcast: History of LDS Hymns

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:47:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

Radio Program Presented Sunday, Jan. 4, 1934

Announcer: As we near the close of another Sabbath, we bring you again the radio service of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the seventh of a series presenting the hymns of the “Mormon” people. Tonight’s broadcast comes from the famous Tabernacle, through KSL, Salt Lake City.

The spirit of song has always been with God’s people. I quote: “As we turn back the pages of our Bible we find that from the time the foundations of the earth were laid, when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, down through the stream of time to the apocalypse, the Bible itself is one grand song service. Again and again its pages are brightened by the beautiful verses of song. Many a spiritual thirst has been quenched by the songs of Miriam and the “refreshing water of the Psalms.”

Orrilla Northway Rose Higley: “If You Should Have a Chance to Hear a Mormon Elder Preach”

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:55:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

Orrilla Northway was born 13 June 1795 at Granby, Connecticut. She married Josephus Rose of Granville, Massachusetts, and had at least one child, Samuel. After Josephus’s early death, she married Lyman Higley of Simsbury, Connecticut, on 7 January 1825. Their five children were Harriet, Oliver, Virgil, Ezra Marvin, and Addison. The couple moved to Columbia County, Wisconsin at some point, where Orrilla died on 30 June 1884.

That’s a sterile little biography, isn’t it? Most of us know no more about our ancestors than this, and the boringness of it all is usually why we hide from Great Aunt Edna at family reunions, because we know she’ll want to tell us in excruciating detail about her latest discovery of a date in the life of someone whose name we barely know.

The biography gets a little more interesting upon discovery of a Higley family history (Mary Coffin Johnson, The Higleys and Their Ancestry: An Old Colonial Family. 1896):

The roles of Eliza R. Snow

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:10:00 -0600

source: MormonTimes.com

"We believe in Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and Eliza R. Snow."

This motto was given in direction to Primary teachers at the end of the 19th century.

"Children were taught to honor Joseph Smith, Eliza R. Snow and the Holy Priesthood. That gives you a sense of the esteem in which that generation held her. She was a remarkable woman that made a singular contribution," said Jill Mulvay Derr, senior research historian in answer to a question asked at the Women's History Lecture Series on Thursday at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Although Eliza R. Snow is primarily known as a writer, having written many hymns and more than 500 poems, she was also a powerful leader in the LDS Church's women's organizations. However, Thursday night's lecture focused on a different roles of Eliza's — the roles of wife, sister and aunt.

Mormon proselytizing in Europe started early

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:56:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

The preaching and proselytizing of the Mormon faith in central and eastern Europe has not been an inaugural endeavor in recent decades.

In fact, the presence of leaders and missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dates back nearly 170 years ago, when Orson Hyde of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve was making his 1841 journey to Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

He is credited as being the first LDS member to set eyes on what is present-day Austria, Bulgaria and Romania, as he took a steamer on the Danube River from Vienna to Galatz (now Galasi, Romania) on his way to the Black Sea.

"I am a witness that the gospel has been proclaimed all along the Danube," wrote Elder Hyde of this portion of his trip.

Initial missionary efforts in Europe beginning in the 1830s focused on the British Isles and the northern Scandinavian countries. The first missionaries reached Germany in 1840, and that country's first branch was established in 1843, several years before the America-based Latter-day Saints relocated from Nauvoo, Ill., to the Salt Lake Valley.

Mormon Kid Art, 1919

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:15:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

The Church’s children’s magazines have frequently encouraged children to send in their artwork, poems, and short stories for publication in a special contributors’ section. In 1919, that section of the Juvenile Instructor was called “The Children’s Budget Box.” (One old-fashioned definition of “budget,” before anybody wonders, is a bag or sack or box filled with miscellaneous items. Old newspapers often printed a column of short news items from around the region headlined “A Budget of News,” for example. So in that sense, the Juvenile Instructor’s department meant a collection of short, unrelated offerings from various contributors.)

You’ll notice that most of these contributors are older than readers of today’s children’s magazine. The Juvenile Instructor was targeted mainly to adults — parents and the teachers of Sunday Schools — with a few children’s features aimed at kids from infancy to age 16.

“The Gushing Rill”

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:16:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

BCC’s sidebar links to this report of a clinical study providing scientific evidence for something most of us have heard before: drinking water — plain, pure water — before meals helps you eat less, probably by filling your stomach and helping you feel fuller faster, or at least by reducing the amount of sugary sodas you might otherwise drink. The study says that in their trials, people 55-75 years of age who drank two cups of water before meals ate 75-90% fewer calories, and lost 5 pounds more during the study period than a control group who did not drink water before meals.

Well, this proves that just about anything can be made into a Mormon history post.

Our ancestors promoted the drinking of water — not to lose weight, but as a healthful alternative to drinks condemned by the Word of Wisdom.

Remembering, recording: 4 women profiled in history lecture

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:13:00 -0600

source: ldschurchnews.com

Mormon Life says: Some really inspiring examples of strong faithful women. Highlighting the lives of four Latter-day Saint women from different time periods in Church history, Christine Cox told a gathering at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City that there can be various ways of remembering and recording the hand of the Lord in one's life.

Their lives show that "we become angels for others when we are in tune with the Spirit," said Sister Cox, director of library services, as she delivered the second address in the Women's History Lecture Series at the library. The five-lecture series is held monthly through November.

Sister Cox gave profiles of writer Emmeline B. Wells, actress Maud May Babcock, photographer Ellen Johanna Larson Smith and painter Minerva Teichert. They each had trials, challenges and difficult times, she said, "but there are some messages for us."

Emmeline B. Wells

Emmeline Blanche Woodward was ridiculed at school after joining the Church, suffered the death of her first child and abandonment by her first husband, endured the hardships with the pioneers of expulsion from Nauvoo, Ill., and crossing the plains to Utah. She married Bishop Newell K. Whitney, who died soon after their arrival in Utah, and later married Daniel H. Wells. Notwithstanding her best efforts, some of her children fell away from the Church.

"Despite all of these hardships and discouragements, she made some amazing contributions," Sister Cox remarked. "She was a writer, an editor and a mother. She helped publish and became an editor of the Women's Exponent. She participated in Mormon politics, women's suffrage and advanced women's status in defending the Church before Congress and the president of the United States."

Eliza R. Snow

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:41:00 -0600

source: MormonTimes.com

Eliza R. Snow. How many members of the church today recognize the name? More importantly, how many women in the church today know of Eliza R. Snow? More than ever, women in the church today need great and good role models, and Snow certainly stands out as the pre-eminent LDS woman in 19th century Mormondom.

Eliza was the sister of Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the church; secretary of the Nauvoo Relief Society; and general president of the Relief Society when it was re-established in the Utah territory. Eliza helped establish the Primary and Young Women organizations. She was a brilliant leader, active in promoting women's rights and female suffrage in the 19th century, and a valiant defender of the faith. Her life and poetry has been exquisitely chronicled by Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson in "Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry."

Oliver Cowdery’s Last Testimony

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:50:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

On 20 May 1848, Samuel Whitney Richards and his brother, Franklin Dewey Richards, arrived at Winter Quarters, Nebraska after nearly two years spent on missions in England and Scotland. Franklin and his wife, Jane Snyder, were able to join Uncle Willard Richards’s company about to leave for Utah Territory. However, Samuel and his wife, Mary Haskin Parker, could not come up with money for a “fit-out.”

Instead, Samuel rented a thirty-acre farm about four miles from Hunsaker’s Ferry on the Nishnabotna River in what is now Fremont County, Iowa. At that time, though, the farm was in Atchison County, Missouri. This was the location of the Austin Post Office which served Winter Quarters between 1846 and 1848.

During 1848, Oliver Cowdery made his decision to return to full fellowship in the Church. He was rebaptized in Kanesville and began making plans to go west. In January 1849, he and his wife, Elizabeth Whitmer, set out from Kanesville to visit her brother, David Whitmer, in Richmond, Missouri. Bitter cold, stormy, weather and almost impassable conditions compelled them to stop at a farm house along the way. There, they discovered Samuel and Mary Richards. It was almost two weeks before Oliver and Elizabeth could continue on their journey, and the two couples held many gospel discussions while sitting by the warmth of the fireplace.

President David O. McKay had global reach

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:32:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

David O. McKay, the ninth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had a full life — 96 years long — that was chronicled extensively in the Deseret News.

As an apostle in 1930, then-Elder McKay's strong educational talents were highlighted.

"He received his early education in the Huntsville schools, and when 20 years of age became principal of a school," the Deseret News reported on April 5, 1930. "He attended the (University of Utah) and graduated as president of his class in 1897."

In August 1897, he was ordained a seventy and served a mission in his father's homeland of Scotland.

"He returned in 1899 and became instructor in the Weber Stake Academy. Later, he became principal and held that position until 1908," the 1930 Deseret News stated.

As academy principal, he led students on a 1922 hike to the summit of Mount Ogden to establish a flagpole there in what became an annual trek up the mountain.

President McKay was called as an apostle in 1906 at age 32, and in 1919, he was appointed as the first commissioner of church education.

What Is Our Required Sacrifice?

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:53:00 -0600

source: mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com

My ancestors were part of the mass exodus that came from Illinois across the plains to settle in Utah, the desolate desert. My Great-Great-Grandfather lost not only his wife, but his oldest daughter. His daughter died first, and they buried her near the Sweetwater River-- a little over one-hundred miles from their final destination.

Seventy-five miles from that final destination, his wife Caroline died. Before she died, she made him promise to bury her in the valley, and to bring the body of their daughter into the valley to be buried as well. This man, my Great-Great Grandfather, carried his deceased wife the final seventy-five miles. He traveled night and day to fulfill her final wish. She was the first white woman to be buried here. Not a distinction any of us would want, I think.

After he buried Caroline, he traveled back to his wagon company, rested a day and continued back to where he had buried his six year old daughter, Margaret. However, when he arrived he found the wolves had just finished their ugly task.

Early Mormon grudge against President Van Buren lasted a long time

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:25:00 -0600

source: standard.net

Mormons believe that the higher level of salvation, or exaltation, a person earns after their time on Earth determines the extent of their power and responsibilities throughout eternity. Temple ceremonies on earth are connected to the Mormon view of the hereafter. As can be expected, energetic Mormons have done temple work for just about all of the U.S. presidents and even founding fathers. For a long time, there was one key exception: the eighth U.S. president, Martin Van Buren.

Although it wasn’t true, I was told as a child by more than one adult LDS Church member that temple ceremonies had not been performed for President Van Buren as punishment for his deliberate betrayal to the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and the early LDS church members. And indeed, Smith was very bitter when, on a visit to Washington D.C. in 1839, President Van Buren emphatically rejected the young church’s pleas to allow church members to settle peacefully in Missouri or at least be paid for their losses at the hands of that state’s anti-Mormon mobs. In early 1840, Smith met again with Van Buren, who uttered these LDS-iconic words: “…your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you.”

“As Wonderful as It Is Glorious”: Lorenzo Snow Goes for a Spin in an Automobile

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:11:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

Lorenzo Snow crossed the plains to Utah in 1848 with ox-drawn wagons. His company, led by Brigham Young, needed more than 100 days to plod slowly down the trail. “When we came here I drove one of the ox teams … we made on an average of 100 miles a week,” he later calculated.

That was a dull plodding that would not forever satisfy the pioneer. I have an incomplete story from a reliable witness that in 1899, the 85-year-old church president, then on a tour through the southern Utah settlements, challenged Joseph F. Smith to a horse-and-buggy race for 15 miles over the rough road south of Cove Creek. Unfortunately, the fact of the race was what mattered to the witness, and he didn’t record who won.

On May 15, 1900, at 2:30 p.m., Lorenzo Snow stepped out of his South Temple office in Salt Lake City and stepped up to another buggy – but this one was not powered by flesh and blood horses. This carriage was of the horseless variety, one of the first automobiles brought to Utah. Owned and driven by Hyrum Silver, the tiny vehicle (it weighed only 400 pounds) was a right-hand drive with room for only two riders, who sat in arm chairs in a wagon box perched precariously above steel springs.

Be not silent, nor unquestioning.

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:54:00 -0600

source: segullah.org/blog/

Religious persecution is not a cross I have to bear. Although at times I feel like a stranger in a foreign land when it comes to the beliefs and convictions that separate me from the general populous, I have only to glance backward at history to know that I have been born in an age when I ought to feel gratitude with every waking breath for those who have fought this battle before me.

I brought my two primary-age daughters to an activity at the temple this weekend. They were asked to bring a story of an ancestor to share. We tossed a few ideas around and decided en route to call Mimi—the family’s history enthusiast. Thank goodness for cell phones! And for living in an area rich with history vital to who we are; oral tradition is alive and well. She vivaciously told us the story* of 11-year-old Patience; niece to the well-known Anne Hutchinson, friend and peer to Roger Williams and our great-grandmother, several generations removed.

The First Mormon Chapel in England

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:06:00 -0600

source: mormonwoman.org

My husband and I recently traveled with a group from Hyde Park Ward on a long bus journey to the Gadfield Elm Chapel in Worchester. This is a Mormon Church historical site of the first chapel ever owned in England.

In 1840, Elder Wilford Woodruff and others proceeded “south” as directed by inspiration to visit the Malvern Hills area. They were introduced to John Benbow by his brother William Benbow who had joined the Church three weeks earlier in the Birmingham area. John Benbow was a leader in the “United Brethren,” a group some 600 strong who had broken from the Methodist Church and were seeking for a restoration of the truth as they found it described in the Bible. They had built a small one- room church for preaching and meeting, and Wilford Woodruff was invited to preach there. All but one of the United Brethren joined the LDS Church, and the building was donated to the Church in 1840; the building was used for two more years until most of the congregation had immigrated to the United States, and the building was sold to help in the immigration costs in 1842.

“He Got Well But Never Paid Us”: The Carthage Medical Bill of John Taylor

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:15:00 -0600

source: keepapitchinin.org

William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen’s Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers (New York: Knopf, 1958) carries a report of the martyrdom at Carthage from an unusual eyewitness: that of Dr. Thomas L. Barnes, the doctor called in to tend to the wounded John Taylor. Dr. Barnes wrote a letter to his daughter Miranda in 1897 reporting in great detail what he recalled of the events of that day, including these paragraphs:

I suppose by this time you are anxious to know what became of Taylor and Richards? Was they also killed, no they were not. Taylor was severely wounded, Richards was not hurt.
Shall I try to describe the wounds that Taylor received and got over them? Well let me tell you where we found him; I cannot impress your mind of his appearance as he appeared to us when we were called to him by the jailer.

Missionary wives served missions of their own

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:06:00 -0600

source: ldschurchnews.com

Though today's LDS missionaries are mostly young, unmarried men and women, for more than a century the Church called married men on missions, requiring them to leave their wives to shoulder the burden not only of caring for but providing for the children at home.

The unsung sacrifice of these "missionary wives" was the focus of a lecture July 8 by Chad Orton, archivist at the Church History Library. His was the first in a five-lecture series on women's history in the Church, sponsored by and presented at the library through November (please see accompanying box for a schedule of the four remaining lectures in the series).

"While the mission call was issued specifically to the husband, the wife received, in effect, a mission call of her own," Brother Orton said. "While missionaries would suffer hardships and privations, the women who remained home frequently faced a mission more trying than those experienced by their husbands. The wife's mission was to keep the family going while the husband, the family's breadwinner, spread the faith."

To accomplish her mission, the wife usually had to add her husband's responsibility to her already heavy duties, Brother Orton said, and with greatly diminished resources.

"Given the wife's responsibility, it is not surprising that one returned missionary would publicly declare that 'he would rather be a missionary than a missionary's wife, since they have the hardest mission to fill,'" he said.

Orson Scott Card: Nothing to fear from the truth

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:30:00 -0600

source: MormonTimes.com

Mormon Life says: Love the premise of this article: "Whatever happened or didn't happen, Joseph Smith was the Prophet of God, and the gospel is true." When I got home from my mission back in 1973, I discovered that my family had become close with the family of James B. Allen, who was then serving as assistant church historian. (I would bring the families even closer — in 1977 I married his oldest daughter.)

During the winter of 1974, with my future wife off on a BYU semester abroad in Paris, I occupied my time by working on writing a play about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. Sections 121 and 122 of the Doctrine and Covenants had become very important to me on my mission, and I wanted to know the whole story behind them.

So my future father-in-law took me up to the Church Historical Department and helped me find a lot of excellent information — including photocopies of letters written in the Prophet's own hand to his wife.

I also read books and monographs that Professor Allen steered me to, detailing key events during the Saints' time in Missouri. That was when I found out for the first time that the Saints, including many of their leaders, had not been exactly wise in their dealings with each other and with their non-Mormon neighbors.

No actions of the Saints justified the way they were treated by their enemies, but some of their words and actions, magnified and spread as rumors, made many of the non-Mormon settlers feel justified in fearing the Saints and wanting to drive them out.