Wilford Woodruff

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Wilford Woodruff (March 1, 1807 – September 2, 1898) was the fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1889 until his death in 1898.

Woodruff was one of nine children born to Aphek Woodruff, a miller working in Farmington, Connecticut. Wilford's mother Beulah died of "spotted fever" at the age of 26, when he was just fifteen months old. Aphek later married Azulah Hart. As a young man, Woodruff worked at both the sawmill and flour mill owned by his father. He was always known as a religious man, but was also enthusiastically involved in the social life of his community. He was an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing and hunting. As an adult, Woodruff was a farmer, horticulturist and stockman by trade, but also wrote extensively for church periodicals.

Wilford Woodruff lived during the period that the LDS church authorized plural marriage, and was married to a total of six women; however, not all of these marriages were concurrent. His wives were:

These women bore him a total of thirty three children, with thirteen preceding him in death.

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Church Service

Wilford Woodruff, along with his brother Azmon, was baptized by missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on 31 December 1833 in Richland, New York. Other members of the Woodruff family, including Aphek, joined the church in 1839. Wilford became noted for his success as a missionary, completing several missions during his lifetime, and baptizing thousands of converts. The church sent him to Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky (1835-1836), to the Fox Islands, Maine (1837), to England as a proselyting missionary (1839), to England as President of the Church's European/English mission (1844), and finally to the Eastern United States (1848).

Shortly after his baptism, he accompanied Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Hyrum in a journey from Kirtland, Ohio to the Missouri, as a member of Zion's Camp. In 1838, he led a party of fifty-three members in wagons from the Maine coast to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1839, at the age of 32, Wilford Woodruff was ordained a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Brigham Young. He became a member of the Nauvoo City Council, and served as chaplain for the Nauvoo Legion, a local militia. He was also a member of the Anointed Quorum and Council of Fifty, and received his Endowment, a Mormon Temple Ordinance from Smith in the Red Brick Store prior to the completion of the Nauvoo Temple. After the death of Joseph Smith, Woodruff was an active participant in the westward progression of the LDS Church. He was a member of the first pioneer company of Latter Day Saints to arrive in Utah's Great Basin in 1847.

In 1856, Woodruff began serving as church historian, and served in this position for thirty-three years. During his time as Temple President over the first completed temple in Utah, the Saint George, Utah Temple (1877), Woodruff standardized temple ceremonies, under the direction of Brigham Young. He was baptized for the dead in behalf of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and other founding fathers, after he claimed to receive a vision, visitation or manifestation of the departed spirits of these men.

Many historians consider Woodruff's journals his most important contribution to LDS history. He kept a daily record of his life and the church's activities, beginning with his baptism in 1833 until his death. These meticulous records provide insight into not only church doctrines and the daily actions of church leaders, but also into the social and cultural aspects of early Mormonism. Several significant actions and speeches of early Church leaders are known only through these diaries. Some recollections were recorded in his journal years after the events, which have caused some historians to question the complete reliability of certain events, as they were not recorded contemporarily. However, his journal was kept nearly ever day since the day he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and provides invaluable insights.

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Actions as Church President

With the death of John Taylor in 1887, Wilford Woodruff assumed leadership of the Church as the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Woodruff was in Sanpete County, Utah when he learned of Taylor's death, in hiding from federal agents seeking him on anti-polygamy warrants. He returned to Salt Lake City in secret to take charge of the quorum, and was not seen in any public meetings. Two years later Woodruff was ordained as President. He was eighty-two. Woodruff had never expected to become president, as Taylor was the younger man.

During his tenure the church faced a number of legal battles with the United States, primarily over the practice of plural marriage. The church faced a real possibility of being destroyed as a viable legal entity. Citing revelation, Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto which ended polygamy or plural marriage in the Territory of Utah and directed Latter-day Saints only to enter into marriages that are recognized by the laws in the areas in which they reside. He wrote in his diary, I have arrived at the point in the history of my life as the president of the Church...where I am under the necessity of acting for the temporal salvation of the Church.... (Wilford Woodruff-Diary, Sept. 25, 1890). Some historians consider this policy statement his most important contribution to the stability of the church.

Despite the Manifesto, historians such as D. Michael Quinn, B. Carmon Hardy, and Richard S. VanWagoner assert that Woodruff continued to secretly encourage, or at least allow, plural marriages until his death in places where such marriages could be performed, such as Mexico.

During the administration of Woodruff, the church faced severe financial difficulties, some of which were related to the legal problems over polygamy. Although he instituted a number of sound financial practices, he was unable to completely solve these difficulties during his time as president. Woodruff was the LDS president who organized the Genealogical Society of Utah and dedicated the Salt Lake Temple. He died in San Francisco, California in 1898, and was succeeded in office by Lorenzo Snow.

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Quotes

  • " [Anti-Mormons] present objection to the Latter-day Saints, they say, is plurality of wives. It is this principle they are trying to raise a persecution against now. But how was it in Missouri, Kirtland, Jackson county, Far West, Caldwell county, in all our drivings and afflictions, before this principle was revealed to the Church? Certainly it was not polygamy then. No, it was prophets, it was "revelation, it was the organization of an institution founded by revelation from God." They did not believe in that, and that was the objection in those days. If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and kingdom. Do away with "that," then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether and turn sectarians and do as the world does, then all would be right. We just can't do that, for God has commanded us to build up His kingdom and to bear our testimony to the nations of the earth, and we are going to do it, come life or come death. He has told us to do thus, and we shall obey Him in days to come as we have in days past. Brethren and sisters, let us exercise faith; the ancient prophets lived by faith; it is as necessary for us as for them. I believe what God has said will be fulfilled. I believe the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants will be fulfilled, and all the promises and prophecies made by the faithful servants of God. When any man speaks as he is moved upon by the Holy Ghost, that is the word of God to the people; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of the word of God will fall unfulfilled. I care not whether it be by His own voice out of the heavens; by the ministration of angels; by the voice of a prophet, or by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost through His servants, it is the word of God to the people, it is truth and it will have its effect and fulfilment. Everything that has been communicated to us by revelation I believe to be true; many of them I know."
Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p.166 (1869)
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See also

Smoot-Rowlett Family

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References

  • Alexander, Thomas G. "Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930", University of Illinois Press.
  • Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1976. ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
  • Hardy, B. Carmon. "Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage", University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0252018338.
  • Ludlow, Daniel H., Editor. Church History, Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, UT, 1992. ISBN 0-87579-924-8.
  • Nibley, Preston. The Presidents of the Church. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, UT, 1974. ISBN 0-87747-414-1.
  • Quinn, D. Michael, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904", Dialogue 18, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 9–105;
  • VanWagoner, Richard S. "Mormon Polygamy: a History", Signature Books, ISBN 0941214796; Template:Note


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