Today in Mormon History - Oct 10

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On this day in Mormon History
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-- 180 years ago today - Oct 10, 1841 --
[Brigham Young]
--10-- Met with the Twelve for the purpose of holding a council, but spent most of the day in visiting the sick. (1)
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-- 145 years ago today - Oct 10, 1876 --

John D. Lee sentenced to death for Mountain Meadows Massacre. Judge Jacob Boreman gives Lee the choice between hanging, firing squad or being beheaded. By choosing firing squad over beheading Lee seems to indicate he feels no need of blood atonement. At the sentencing Judge Boreman says LDS authorities had "inaugurated and decided upon the wholesale slaughter of the emigrants" and had been "a persistent and determined opposition to an investigation of the massacre." OGDEN JUNCTION newspaper calls Boreman's remarks "disgraceful" and an attack on prosecutor Sumner Howard. Howard had made a secret deal with the LDS leaders to prosecute only Lee in exchange for LDS cooperation. John D. Lee is the only person ever tried in connection with Mountain Meadows Massacre.
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-- 135 years ago today - Oct 10, 1886 --

.... He [David Whitmer] did say, however, that the prophet gradually began to receive revelations upon any trivial matters as were brought to his attention. … All of a sudden, Mr. Whitmer says, he beheld a dazzlingly brilliant light that surpassed in brightness even the sun at noonday and which seemed to envelope the woods for a considerable distance around. Simultaneous with the light came a strange entrancing influence which permeated him so powerfully that he felt chained to the spot, while he also experienced a sensation of joy absolutely indescribable. While trying to realize what had come over him, there appeared immediately in front of the little party a personage clothed in white and near him a table containing a number of gold plates, some brass plates, the urim and thummum, the sword of Laban (a distinguished Nephite), and some other articles. Whitmer and Cowdery were requested by the personage to examine these things, and after the inspection they were told that the Lord would demand of them that they bear witness to all the wor[l]d. Mr. Whitmer describes every detail of the "vision" with great precision and much fervency, and insists that he handled and scrutinized the plates, and that the form and appearance of the strangely engraved characters were so impressed upon his memory that he would never forget them. At this particular state of the recital an inspection of a copy of the hieroglyphics made from the first of the gold plates by Joseph Smith and preserved with the same solicitude that is thrown around the original manuscript, becomes of curious interest. The accompanying cut is a perfect fac-simile of the little sheet which took Joseph Smith a whole week to copy so particular was he that the characters should be perfectly reproduced, and that the "reformed Egyptian" language should be shown up in all its native simplicity, for, it must not be forgotten, there was a singular significance in the errand which this scrap of paper was destined to perform. … Much of the translation of the plates was accomplished at the house of Peter Whitmer, the father of David, and the latter witnessed demonstrations, on more occasion than one, of the prophet's manipulation of the stone spectacles. He states that the work of translation occupied fully eight months, and that at times this peculiar instrument would refuse to perform its functions. On such occasions the prophet would resort to prayer, and after a short season he would return to his work to find that the urim and thummum reflected the words of the translation with its wonted power. This rigorous exactment required him to be humble and spotless in his deportment in order that the work might progress. On one occasion the prophet had indulged in a stormy quarrel with his wife. Without pacifying her or making any reparation for his brutal treatment, he returned to the room in the Whitmer residence to resume his work with the plates. The surface of the magic stone remained blank, and all his persistent efforts to bring out the coveted words proved abortive. He went into the woods again to pray, and this time was gone fully an hour. His friends became positively concerned, and were about to institute a search, when Joseph entered the room, pale and haggard, having suffered a vigorous chastisement at the hands of the Lord. He went straight in humiliation to his wife, entreated and received her forgiveness, returned to his work, and, much to the joy of himself and his anxious friends surrounding him, the stone again glared forth its letters of fire. The urim and thummum, in this strange process of translation, would reflect a number of words in pure English, which would remain on its face until the party acting as scribe had got it correctly written, and the occasional disposition of the characters to remain long after they had been so written was always an infallible evidence that there was something wrong in the translation of the record, and a close comparison would invariably reveal this fact. When the necessary corrections has been made the words would instantly disappear from the urim and thummum and new ones take their place. ... By fervent prayer and by otherwise humbling himself, the prophet, however, again found favor, and was presented with a strange oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone about the size of an egg, only more flat, which, it was promised, should serve the same purpose as the missing urim and thummim (the latter was a pair of transparent stones set in a bow-shaped frame and very much resembled a pair of spectacles). With this stone all of the present Book of Mormon was translated. It is the only one of these relics which is not in the possession of the Whitmers. ... (2)
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-- 120 years ago today - Oct. 10th, 1901 --
[Apostle Brigham Young Jr.]
Salt Lake City, Thurs., Oct. 10th, 1901.

What a day--long to be remembered by us all. At 6:00 a.m. Bro. McDonald came in buggy for me. Pres. Snow very much worse Saw him awake, knew me. He was lying in S.W. room of Beehive. His family were sent for. I came home, rested and returned to Temple, clothed and prayed for Pres. Snow. While discussing business, … Pres. Lorenzo Snow looked mild and happy. Two hours before his death, I put my hand on his brow and said, "Pres. do you recognize me?" He replied, "I should rather think I did," with a twinkle in his eyes and his usual attractive smile about his lips. (3)
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-- 120 years ago today - Oct 10, 1901 --
[Apostle Rudger Clawson]
Lorenzo Snow dies; as a result Clawson is never set apart as counselor in presidency. (4)
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-- 105 years ago today - 1916. October 10 --

(John W. Taylor) Prior to his death, he had told his wives, "No tears … I will be waiting for you over there. I must go now to prepare a place. And when I leave I want no mourning, I want no flowers, no public display. No funeral. I am a nomad. Let the ashes of this wandering body blow with the winds from some mountain peak."

Speculation as to whether the ex-apostle would be buried in his temple clothes caused curious onlookers to attempt to view the body. Family security prevented this. His wife Nettie related that on the night of Taylor's death, President Joseph F. Smith, regretting his role in Taylor and Cowley's dismissal, called privately at her home and gave her a package containing temple robes. He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. (5)
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-- 75 years ago today - Oct 10, 1946 --

Benjamin E. Roberts, son of B. H. Roberts, addresses the Timpanogos Club at the Hotel Utah, discussing his father's studies on the Book of Mormon. He presents a manuscript by B. H. Roberts titled "A Parallel" which lists 18 parallels between the Book of Mormon and Ethan Smith's "VIEW OF THE HEBREWS" which was published in New York in 1823 and again in an enlarged edition in 1825. One of B. H. Roberts striking "parallels" is a passage from Ethan Smith's book that gives a capsule outline of the Book of Mormon: "It is highly probable that the more civilized part of the tribes of Israel, after they settled in America, became wholly separated from the hunting and savage tribes of their brethren: that the latter lost the knowledge of their having descended from the same family with themselves; that the more civilized part continued for many centuries; that tremendous wars were frequent between them and their savage brethren, till the former became extinct." B. H. Roberts adds: "Let it be remembered that the work from which this is quoted existed from five to seven years before the publication of the Book of Mormon. And the two editions of the work flooded the New England states and New York."
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-- 70 years ago today - Oct 10, 1951 --

Meeting of the Twelve discusses the previous "controversy" between President Joseph F. Smith and his second counselor Charles W. Penrose over whether it is necessary to confer the priesthood before ordaining to an office. This does not become churchwide policy again for almost six years. (6)
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1 - Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844, ed. Elden Jay Watson (Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1968).
2 - "Revelations. A Flood of Light Upon a Much Disputed Point of Mormon Faith. Extraordinary Privileges Granted a Herald Correspondent By David Whitmer, Who Was One of the Original `Three Witnesses' to Prophet Smith's Discoveries. ... Interesting Statements Made By Mr. Whitmer Concerning the Manner in Which Revelations Were Made to Order," Omaha (NE) Herald 22 (17 October 1886): 4. Simultaneously released to various dailies, including Des Moines Daily News, 16 October 1886; Chicago Inter-Ocean, 17 October 1886; Salt Lake City Daily Tribune, 17 October 1886; and Philadelphia Press, 17 October 1886; and reprinted in the Saints' Herald 33 (13, 20 November 1886): 705-708, 721-25. , as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: David Whitmer Interview With Omaha (Ne) Herald
3 - Diary of Apostle Brigham Young Jr., http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
4 - Larsen, Stan (editor), A Ministry of Meetings:The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson, Significant Mormon Diaries Series No. 6, A Rudger Clawson Chronology, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson
5 - Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
6 - The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]