Today in Mormon History - May 21

[TodayInMormonHistory]

On this day in Mormon History
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-- 190 years ago today - May 21, 1836 --
[Patriarchal Blessings]
Patriarchal Blessing of Sally Cabb given by Joseph Smith, Sr. ... if thou wilt wilt go down into the waters of baptism thy blessings shall be great for thou shalt have knowledge. angels shall visit the[e] thou shall behold the heaven in night visions. stand on the land of Zion. last days be best days. long life is thine. shalt behold thy Redeemer in the flesh.... and thou shalt be sealed up unto eternal life even so Amen. (1)
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-- 180 years ago today - May 21, 1846 --

Brigham Young encapsulates his vision of why the saints were going west:

"... the Lord's house must be established in the tops of the mountains, where the people may gather, the saints receive their endowments, and the Lord hide Israel while his indignation shall pass by." (2)
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[Nauvoo Temple]
The Missouri Whig reported on the effort to sell the Temple, stating that the purchaser could acquire it for less than one fourth of the cost to the Mormons to build it. The article reported that the temple was now considered finished and said of the first floor: "The grand hall designed for the congregation is worthy of attention of all architects in originality and taste." It also reported on the dedication of the temple, stating that 5,000 persons were present on the third day, when a vote was taken to sell the Temple; the asking price was $200,000. (3)
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-- 175 years ago today - May 21, 1851 --

Work on the Old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City begins. This tabernacle is located on the site that would later be occupied by the Assembly Hall and serves the Saints until 1870, when it is torn down.
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-- 155 years ago today - May 21, 1871 (Afternoon) --
[Brigham Young]
I wish to say to strangers that we were not persecuted because we believed in having many wives, for that principle was not known to our persecutors until we came to these mountains, although the revelation was received by Joseph Smith and written a year before his death. Since this doctrine has been proclaimed we have lived in peace. The inquiry among many, and especially among our political friends, is, '"What are you going to do? Are you going to observe the law against plurality of wives, or are you going to obey the revelation?'" We have obeyed the revelation thus far, and still live; that I can say, and perhaps that is enough. What do we say about the lawmakers? Go to, ye legislators, and make a law that every man in this government shall have one wife. You have just as good a right to do that as to say that we shall not have two. ...

Again, a gentleman said to me, the other day, '"What are you going to do with the anti-polygamy law?'" I replied, '"Nothing at all, we mind our own business, and I hope everybody else will. (2)
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-- 140 years ago today - May 21, 1886 --

Sarah Pratt claimed in an interview that, while in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith, Jr. was attracted to her and intended to make her "one of his spiritual wives" while Orson was in England on missionary service. She also claims that Bennett performed abortions. (4)
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-- 125 years ago today - May 21, 1901 (Tuesday) --

The Presbyterian Assembly at a session held in Philadelphia, Pa., passed a resolution urging Congress to act on a constitutional amendment prohibiting polygamy. (5)
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-- 125 years ago today - May 21, 1901 --
[Heber J. Grant]
I learned from Brother Kelsch that at the conference of the Granite Stake that Brother John W. Taylor predicted that there would be abundant success attend the opening of a mission in Japan and that thousands would yet embrace the Gospel in that land. (6)
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-- 120 years ago today - May 21, 1906 --

Royal G. Smith is born to Mary T. Schwartz Smith a plural wife of Church President Joseph F. Smith. Joseph F. Smith is arrested, after returning from a trip to Europe, on a charge of illegal cohabitation, and released on his own recognizance. Under considerable pressure, the case is brought to trial, and on Nov 23, 1906, Joseph F. Smith pleads guilty and was fined $300 (7)
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-- 95 years ago today - May 21, 1931 --
[Heber J. Grant]
I asked the apostles in the meeting yesterday to each send me two names of persons that they would like to become members of the Council of the Twelve. Nearly all of them handed in names last evening and the others gave me names this morning. J. Reuben Clark, Hugh B. Brown, Hugh Cannon, A. A. Hinckley, Winslow Farr Smith, Joseph F. Merrill and Adam Bennion were named. Nine of the apostles and my counselor, Brother Nibley, gave me names. Brother Clark received three votes and Brother Hugh J. Cannon two. The other brethren mentioned received only one vote each. Any one of these brethren I personally would feel all right to sustain as an apostle to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Brother Orson F. Whitney. There were some splendid men mentioned as second choice that I could also sustain to fill the vacancy. ...

Referring again to the names submitted by the brethren: Brother Hugh Brown was mentioned twice for second choice, and Brother Clark was mentioned twice as second choice. Therefore, Brother Clark had five votes, and the next highest man was Brother Brown with three but only one for first place. ... Unless I get the impression otherwise I am unqualifiedly in favor of Brother Clark. Before getting out of bed this morning I was going over the names of fifteen or twenty men, and he stood out prominently as first choice in my judgment. Brother Nibley's first choice was Reuben Clark and second, Joseph F. Merrill. On more than one occasion when I have almost made up my mind in favor of some individual my counselor, Brother Ivins, has named some one who pleased me better. He is out of the city today and before coming to a final decision to make a nomination I want to hear from him and also George Albert Smith and Melvin J. Ballard, who are out of the city. In my mind, J. Reuben
Clark is one of the outstanding men in the church, intellectually. He is ambassador from the United States to Mexico at the present time. (6)
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[James E. Talmage to [his son] Sterling Talmage]
"I was bold enough to point out that according to a tradition in the Church based on good authority as having risen from a declaration made by the Prophet Joseph Smith, a certain pile of stones at Adam ondi-Ahman, Spring Hill, Mo., is really part of the altar on which Adam offered sacrifices, and that I had personally examined those stones and found them to be fossiliferous, so that if those stones be part of the first altar, Adam built it of stones containing corpses, and therefore death must have prevailed in the earth before Adam's time." (8)
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-- 90 years ago today - May 21, 1936 --

Seventy's president Levi Edgar Young represents the church at the organization of the Utah chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He becomes its president in 1937. In the 1960s George W. Romney is the national director of the organization, which gives him its Charles Evens Hughes Gold Medal in 1965. (9)
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-- 60 years ago today - May 21, 1966 --
While Paul H. Dunn was working at the USC Institute, he completed an E.D. at the same institution. His doctoral diss. was a comparison of "what the Brethren thought ought to be taught, and what was being taught." Dunn said "They were miles apart. . . . I went through all of the curriculum of the college institute program to see if we were doing what the Brethren said we ought to do. That is where we found some real discrepancies. I made a recommendation of what we ought to be dong. When I became a General Authority, Brother [Harold B.] Lee said, "You'll never know how much that impressed me.'" (10)
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-- 50 years ago today - May 21, 1976 --

LaVern Watts Parmley receives the Silver Buffalo award. Formerly the general Primary president, she is the first LDS woman to receive this highest honor from the Boy Scouts of America. Dwan Jacobsen Young, also a former president of Primary, receives the award in 1990. (9)
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-- 30 years ago today - May 21, 1996 --

[Paul H. Dunn] Early in my career I found that there was not a whole lot of support or appreciation for [Ezra Taft] Benson constantly harping on the communist issue. Although, every time President McKay was present or in a meeting, he would be the endorser, or thanking President Benson for doing what he was doing. That kept the other elements sort of quiet. Hugh B. Brown really thought President Benson had gone overboard. And yet President Benson —I talked with him several times, not on this subject but just in conversation—would remind me that he was doing what the prophet had asked him to do. (11)
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[Same-Sex Marriage]
Hawaiis Campaign Spending Commission mails a complaint to Hawaiis Future Today [a church-sponsored front-group to fight against same-sex marriage] that indicates that the ads are in violations of Hawaiis regulations governing spending in political campaigns, indicates the fines for such a violation and explains that Hawaiis Future Today must file the required papers to register as a political-action committee. Follow-up letters dated 20 Jun repeats the information about the complaint. Hawaiis Future Today does not respond by registering as a political-action organization, but asserts that it does not plan to involve itself in lobbying or campaigning for candidates. (12)
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1 - Patriarchal Blessings
2 - Manuscript History of Brigham Young, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses
3 - Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple
4 - Exploring Mormonism: Polygamy Timeline, http://www.exploringmormonism.com/polygamy-timeline/
5 - Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology
6 - The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015
7 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
8 - James E. Talmage to Sterling Talmage
9 - The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]
10 - Prince, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, by Greg Prince p. 144, Interview with Paul H. Dunn, May 21, 1996.
11 - Paul H. Dunn interview as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)
12 - Crapo, Richley, Chronology Of Mormon / LDS Involvement In Same-Sex Marriage Politics http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/?q=node/59