On this day in Mormon History
http://TodayInMormonHistory.com/
-- 135 years ago today - May 17, 1890 --
LDS political newspaper SALT LAKE HERALD condemns "the scheme of the conspirators to consummate the political debauchery of making Utah a Republican state." (1)
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-- 125 years ago today - May 17, 1900 --
Apostle George Teasdale (sixty-eight years of age) marries twenty-three-year-old Letitia Dolly Thomas in the Logan Temple. Teasdale had lost four of his five wives through death. He formally divorces the fifth, (after a marriage of 24 years) just prior to this marriage charging that she was unable to have sexual intercourse, an impediment he discovered "immediately after said marriage took place." Teasdale had taken a post-Manfesto plural wife, Marion E. Scoles, three years previously but she had died in childbirth. After Apostle Teasdale's death Letitia married one of his sons (by a previous wife) George Washington Teasdale and thus became her own step-mother-in-law (1)
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-- 125 years ago today - May 17, 1900; Thursday --
[Lorenzo Snow and George Q. Cannon, letter to Bishop George W. Bramwell]
We have just had a conversation with Brother Grant Geddes, in regard to your decision in the case of Sister Margaret Geddes [who had confessed to an adulterous affair, but refused to give the name of the man to protect his reputation. He was actually her post-manifesto husband - David Eccles], and have decided that it would be right and proper in this case that you accept of her confession and forgive her transgression without any further requirement.
[See Today in Mormon History, May 16, 1900] (2)
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-- 95 years ago today - May 17, 1930 --
The International Hygiene Exposition at Dresden, Germany, includes an LDS exhibit on the Word of Wisdom. This is the church's first formal participation in a national or international exposition. In 1933, the church as an exhibit which includes sculptures by Avard Fairbanks in the Hall of Religion at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. In 1935 the church has its first exhibit building at the California-Pacific International Exposition in San Diego. (3)
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International Hygiene exposition at Dresden, Germany, includes LDS exhibit on Word of Wisdom. This is church's first formal participation in national or international exposition. In 1933, church has exhibit which includes sculptures by Avard Fairbanks in Hall of Religion at Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. In 1935 church has its first exhibit building at California-Pacific International Exposition in San Diego. (1)
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-- 85 years ago today - May 17, 1940 --
[President Heber J. Grant]
They have re-elected me as a director of the Union Pacific Railroad, also of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, and the Salt Lake Los Angeles Railroad. (4)
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-- 60 years ago today - May 17, 1965 --
Ezra Taft Benson wrote to FBI director Edgar Hoover with a plea. "Word has come to me, not yet fully confirmed, that some of our liberal 'soft-on-communist' groups are planning to put pressure on you to come out with a statement against the John Birch Society." He urged Hoover not to do so. "It is my conviction that this organization is the most effective non-church group in America against creeping socialism and godless communism," Benson wrote.
Hoover, however, in response to a question at a news conference soon thereafter, said he had little respect for the society or its founder, Robert Welch.
After Hoover's disavowal of Welch, Benson decided to meet with Hoover to explain his support of the society and how Welch's writings had convinced him that Eisenhower aided communism.
Files show that Hoover's aides twice told Benson that he was unavailable for such a meeting — as memos had advised them to do. So Benson wrote Hoover the sensitive "personal-confidential" letter of May 28, 1965, outlining his conclusions about Eisenhower.
Benson also soon sent a book by Welch titled The Politician, noting it was what led him to his conclusions about Eisenhower.
In the book, Welch argues that Eisenhower was either ignorant, a politician blinded by opportunism or was "consciously aiding the communist conspiracy" — and said it really didn't matter because "they all come to the same end … namely tragedy."
Benson wrote Hoover that he inscribed the following words on the flyleaf of the book after he first read it:
"Have just finished this shocking volume. ... While I do not agree with all or the extent of some of the author's conclusions, one must agree that the documented record makes the thesis of the book most convincing.
"How can a man [Eisenhower] who seems to be so strong for Christian principles and base American concepts be so effectively used as a tool to serve the communist conspiracy?
"I believe the answer is found in the fact that these godless communist conspirators and their fellow travelers are masters of deceit — who deceived the very elect. How our people need to be alerted and informed."
Benson added that he hoped the $1 book would be made available widely.
"This story must be told even at the risk of destroying the influence of men who are widely respected and loved by the American people. The stakes are high. Freedom and survival are the issues," he had written in his copy of the book.
Benson also wrote of Eisenhower: "I presume I will never know in this life why he did some of the things he did which gave help to the [communist] conspiracy. It is not my divine prerogative to know the motives of men. It is easier, however, to judge the consequences of man's actions." (5)
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1 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot..com
2 - Lorenzo Snow and George Q. Cannon, letter to George W. Bramwell, typed excerpt in Quinn Papers, original in LDS Archives
3 - The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]
4 - Diary of Heber J. Grant, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
5 - "Ike and the Birch Society," Lee Davidson, Salt Lake Tribune, November 16, 2010
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