On this day in Mormon History
http://TodayInMormonHistory.com/
-- 180 years ago today - Sep 2, 1845 --
Patriarchal Blessing of Polly Colten given by William Smith ... for of thy posterity shall spring up mighty men and they shall wield the sword in Zion[']s defence and go forth to avenge the blood of Prophets ... (1)
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-- 175 years ago today - Sep 2, 1850 --
Joseph E. Johnson is on trial impregnating one of Apostle Lorenzo Snow's plural wives. A Church court in Kanesville, Iowa, had already decided that "his priesthood was required to be laid down [i.e., he was disfellowshipped] until he came here" to Salt Lake City. Johnson said "I never heard any conversation to say it was right to go to bed with a woman if not found out--I was aware the thing [with Mrs. Snow] was wrong." He told the court "He was familiar with the first frigging -- that was done in his house with his mother in law [Mary Heron Snyder (Snider)] -- by Joseph [Smith]." He added " I knew at the time I was doing wrong [with Mrs. Snow] -- I never av [have] taken any body as a[n] excuse -- I never plighted my faith on Joseph's transactions."
In 1850 Joseph E. Johnson was not an uninformed novice about Joseph Smith's polygamy a decade earlier. Two of his sisters (Delcena in 1842, then Almera in 1843) married the Prophet, who also performed the polygamous marriage for their brother Benjamin F. Johnson, after which Joseph Smith unsuccessfully asked to marry yet another of the Johnson family's daughters in the spring of 1843 (16-year-old Esther). (2)
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-- 170 years ago today - Sep 2, 1855 --
P P Pratt[:] I told Sam Brannan's Mother in law, that Sam would never die, until he saw the time, that he wanted money to buy a piece of bread'- B Y[:] I sa[y] Amen to that'-H[eber] C K[imball]. Amen'- ... B Y[:] San Bernardino is the half way house this side of hell'- (3)
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-- 170 years ago today - Sep 2, 1855 (Sunday) --
The Ute and Shoshone Indians met in front of the Deseret News office, G.S.L.. City, and entered into a treaty of peace. (4)
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-- 150 years ago today - Sep 2, 1875 --
The day after his father (George A. Smith, First Counselor to Brigham Young) dies Apostle John Henry Smith writes, "Father still lays in the ice and is keeping very nicely." (5)
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-- 60 years ago today - Sep 2, 1965 --
Son of Ezra Taft Benson -- Reed Benson escalated both the Birch conflict and racial tensions in Mormonism with a memorandum to all Birch Society chapters in Utah on 2 September 1965:
It is common knowledge that the Civil Rights Movement is Communist controlled, influenced and dominated. . . . Our founder and guide, Mr. Robert Welch, has instructed us that when necessary we must adopt the communist technique in our ever present battle against Godless Communism. It is urged that in the coming weeks the Utah Chapters begin a whispering campaign and foster rumors that the Civil Rights groups are going to organize demonstrations in Salt Lake City in connection with the forthcoming LDS conference. . . .. A few well placed comments will soon mushroom out of control and before the conference begins there will be such a feeling of unrest and distrust that the populace will hardly know who to believe. The news media will play it to the very hilt. No matter what the Civil Rights leaders may try to say to deny it the seed will have been sown and again the Civil Rights movement will suffer a telling blow. (6)
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1 - Marquardt Papers, U of U
2 - Council meeting and trial of Joseph E. Johnson, 2 September 1850, Miscellaneous Minutes, Brigham Young Papers, referenced in "Evidence For The Sexual Side of Joseph Smith's Polygamy," Comments by D. Michael Quinn on Session #2A "Reconsidering Joseph Smith's Marital Practices," Mormon History Association's Annual Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 29 June 2012 (unabbreviated version, revised during July)
3 - Minutes, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010
4 - Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology
5 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot..com
6 - Reed A. Benson, "Memo to the Utah Chapters," 2 Sept. 1965, on letterhead of the John Birch Society, photocopy in Williams Papers; Quinn G. McKay to J. D. Williams, 20 May 1966, Williams Papers. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.
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