Week 9

Justine Sanders

11-15-11

FDREL 324

Kelly Anderson

Student Choice #3

(Week 9)

Choice #3 (section 52):

Who’s who in the Doctrine and Covenants? Look up ten names of people you are unfamiliar with that are mentioned in Section 52, and read a brief biography of them in Susan Easton Black’s Who’s Who in the Doctrine and Covenants (or a comparable resource available to you). What do you learn about their lives that helps you better appreciate the principles of the gospel as taught in the revelations? How are you like/unlike these people? What can you learn from their lives that will help you be a better disciple in your own?

1. Levi Ward Hancock

(April 7, 1803 – June 10, 1882) was an early convert to Mormonism and was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly fifty years. He was also one of the witnesses of the Book of Commandments.

Hancock was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1830, while living in Ohio, Hancock heard Latter Day Saint missionaries Parley P. Pratt, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery preaching in Mayfield. Convinced by their words, Hancock was baptized in the Latter Day Saint church. He was ordained an elder shortly after his baptism and in 1831 he served a proselyting mission to Missouri with Zebedee Coltrin.

In 1834 Hancock participated in Zion's Camp, traveling from Ohio to Missouri in an effort to assist Church member who were experiencing trouble there. On March 1, 1835, Hancock was ordained a seventy in the Church and was selected as one of the first seven presidents of the Seventy. On April 6, 1837, Hancock was released from this position because it was mistakenly believed that he, like five of the other presidents of the Seventy, had already been ordained a high priest. When it was discovered that this was not the case, Hancock was restored to his position on September 3, 1837. Hancock would serve as one of the presidents of the Seventy until his death.

Hancock wrote the words to several songs. His "My Peaceful Home, 1837" captures the feelings of Latter-day Saints about their new homes in the communities they had set up.[1] Hancock wrote the words of the twelve verse-song sung at the placing of the Far West Temple cornerstones in 1838.[2]

Hancock followed the Latter Day Saints as they moved to Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. He was a member of the Nauvoo Legion and the Nauvoo police force. In 1843 Hancock was made the chief musician in the Nauvoo Legion.[2]

Hancock was one of the Church members in Missouri that sustained the truth of the Book of Commandments. He signed the testimony with a pencil and he also added the text "never to be erased", when "he saw that the others had signed with a pen." Because of the circumstances when the book was printed, the document was not included in the printing.

2. John Murdock

“[John Murdock] was in the first group to be ordained high priests by Joseph Smith. He was called on two of his missions by revelations which are in the Doctrine and Covenants. (See D&C 52:8; D&C 99:1.) [Later on] his wife died, leaving him twins only six hours old. These were the twins that the Prophet Joseph Smith received into his home to raise.” (“Did Not Our Heart Burn Within Us?” Ensign, May 1977, 30)

3. Lyman Wight

(May 9, 1796 – March 31, 1858) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the leader of the Latter Day Saints in Daviess County, Missouri in 1838. In 1841, he was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. After the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. resulted in a succession crisis, Wight led his own group of Latter Day Saints to Texas, where they created a settlement. While in Texas, Wight broke with other factions of Latter Day Saints, including the group led by Brigham Young. Wight was ordained president of his own church, but he later sided with the claims of William Smith and eventually of Joseph Smith III. After his death, most of the "Wightites" (as members of this church were called) joined with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

4. Thomas Baldwin Marsh

(November 1, 1799[3]– January 1866) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He served as the first President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1835 to 1839. He was excommunicated from the Church in 1839, and remained disaffected for much of his life. Marsh rejoined the church in July 1857, but never again served in Church leadership positions.

“On 7 June 1831, the Prophet received a revelation calling Ezra to serve a mission with Thomas B. Marsh (see D&C 52:22). He failed to serve this mission… Apparently Ezra repented, for on 25 January 1832 he was again appointed to serve a mission with Thomas B. Marsh (see D&C 75:31). He was faithful to this charge. One year later he was appointed to negotiate the purchase of land in Kirtland for the Church, including 103 acres of the Peter French Farm. On this land the Kirtland Temple was built.

5. Ezra Thayre

Ezra Thayre had thought that the Williams farm might be divided up between the three families residing there. Having previously consecrated a large sum of money to the Church, he may have thought such an arrangement to be fair. Ezra was concerned about ownership; the Lord was operating upon the principles of stewardship. Therefore, the land was not to be divided. If Brother Thayre couldn’t live by that principle, then he was to be given his money back and cut off from the Church.

“…Ezra's Church membership was suspended in May 1835 for impropriety, based on a complaint signed by Oliver Granger. In September that year the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote of his love for Ezra: ‘This day my soul has desired the salvation of Brother Ezra Thayer.’

“Apparently the complaint was settled. Ezra moved to Missouri and resided in Adam-ondi-Ahman, where he served on the high council. After the Saints were expelled from Missouri, Ezra moved to Rochester, New York. On 9 July 1840 Heber C. Kimball wrote to the Prophet about staying one night with Ezra in Rochester, ‘He was glad to see me, and inquired much about you and the rest of the brethren: he seemed to be firm in the faith of the gospel and has much love for his brethren.’ Jonathan Crosby had a differing opinion of Ezra's faithfulness. He had found him in Rochester also, and said, ‘He treated us well, but was dead spiritually.’

After the Martyrdom Ezra refused to follow the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve. He was living in Michigan in 1860 and was a high priest in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” (Susan Easton Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 319-321)

6. Isaac Morley

(March 11, 1786 – June 24, 1865) was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement and a contemporary of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. He was one of the first converts to Smith's Church of Christ. Morley was present at many of the early events of the Latter Day Saint movement, and served as a church leader in Ohio, Missouri and Utah Territory.

Morley was born on March 11, 1786 in Montague, Massachusetts, one of nine children of Thomas E. Morley and Editha Marsh. He served in the War of 1812 from 1812-15, and later held the position of captain in the Ohio militia.

7. Ezra Booth

Booth had been a popular Methodist minister before going to Kirtland, Ohio with John and Alice (Elsa) Johnson in 1831. After witnessing Joseph Smith, Jr. healing Elsa's arm, Booth became a convert and was baptized and ordained an elder in May 1831, and later was ordained to be a high priest by Lyman Wight on June 3, 1831.[1]

On June 6, 1831, Booth was called to go to Missouri with Isaac Morley and "preach[] the word by the way."[2] Booth began his mission by preaching the Book of Mormon to a large audience in Bates Corners, Norton Township, Ohio in June 1831. On August 4, 1831, Booth was one of fourteen elders attending the a “Special Conference” in Kaw township, Jackson County, Missouri, “held by special commandment of the Lord” called by Joseph Smith Jr.[3]

Less than three days after being "silenced from preaching as an Elder", and after only being a member for five months, Booth renounced Mormonism in the first of nine letters to be published in the Ohio Star, beginning in November 1831.[5] In Norton Township (the area Booth was sent to on his mission), the effect of Booth's letters is such that "the public feeling was, that 'Mormonism' was overthrown"[6] until Reynolds Cahoon, David Whitmer, and Lyman E. Johnson arrived on a mission.

Information about Booth after 1831 is scarce. However, he did marry a couple in Mentor, Ohio on January 16, 1832 and later created the “Church of Christ”. His “Church of Christ" claimed that Joseph Smith, Jr. was a false prophet and that the Book of Mormon was not true. The church had several meetings and soon disbanded.

He is buried in a graveyard not far from the Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio.

8. Harvey G. Whitlock

(1809–1874) was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the witnesses to the Book of Commandments. He was among those Latter Day Saints driven by mobs from Jackson County, Missouri in the summer of 1833. From 1835 he was in and out of multiple Latter Day Saint groups several times.

Whitlock was a native of Massachusetts. He joined Joseph Smith, Jr.'s Church of Christ by 1831 and was an early missionary in Amherst, Ohio. Whitlock was among those who were directed to go to Missouri by a revelation of Smith.[1] He later returned to Ohio and then moved his family to Missouri. He was viewed as such a leader in the church that he was specifically targeted for early expulsion from Missouri.

In 1835, Whitlock was excommunicated. In November 1835, he sent a letter expressing repentance to Smith and Smith directed Whitlock to come to Kirtland, Ohio. In January 1836 Whitlock was rebaptized at Kirtland and restored to his priesthood.

Whitlock again withdrew from the church in 1838. In 1846, he became a member of Sidney Rigdon's Latter Day Saint church. By 1850, Whitlock was in Salt Lake City, but there is no record of his having been joined the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) until 1858. Whitlock was excommunicated by the LDS Church in 1859. In 1864, Whitlock moved to California where he became the head of the Pacific Slope Region of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). In 1868, Whitlock was excommunicated by the RLDS Church.

9. Edson Fuller

“Edson Fuller, a carpenter by trade, was residing with his family in Chardon, Ohio, when he accepted baptism in 1831. He was called by revelation on 7 June 1831 to journey from Ohio to Jackson County, Missouri (see D&C 52:28). Apparently he didn't go to Missouri but remained in Ohio. According to historian Josiah Jones, he claimed that visions had called him to preach the gospel in Ohio.” (Susan Easton Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 93.)

10. Jacob Scott

“Jacob Scott attended the fourth general conference of the Church in June 1831 in a schoolhouse on Isaac Morley's farm in Kirtland. At the conference he became one of the first men in this dispensation to be ordained a high priest by the Prophet.

“One day after the conference Jacob was called by revelation to serve a mission: ‘Let my servants Edson Fuller and Jacob Scott also take their journey’ (D&C 52:28). However, Jacob Scott apostatized after receiving the command and refused to go.