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BOOK PREVIEW MEET THE MEN WHO MADE OUR HISTORY THIS INSPIRING VOLUME introduces you to every Apostle who has served in the latter days. Reading their true stories of trials and testimonies, you’ll come to know them personally as men of courage and compassion. Each one embraced the Savior’s call to stand as a special witness and spread the gospel throughout the world. FROM WELL-KNOWN NAMES to nearly forgotten figures, these faithful brethren left a legacy and a history for our Church that makes us who we are today. Discover how their lives and messages are still making a difference. PERFECT FOR CHURCH HISTORY enthusiasts and members of all ages, this is an invaluable volume that will strengthen your own testimony of Christ.
“Jerry’s compilation is a great place to begin investigating the lives of some of the most influential people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Once you get started, it’s hard to stop at just one.”
—David B. Marsh
religious educator, curriculum developer
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“Jerry Houck’s Witnesses of Christ was first written to give tour guides high-quality biographical information to be used in describing the painted portraits of deceased Apostles hanging in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Carefully researched and written, the work provides concise but meaningful accounts of the lives of each man who has served as an Apostle in this dispensation. It’s an important resource for LDS scholars, teachers, and students. I’d recommend it to anyone seeking rudimentary biographical material in a single volume regarding the men who have held the office of Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” , author of Utah’s Blackhawk War “Jerry’s compilation is a great place to begin investigating the lives of some of the most influential people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a rare quality to write both concisely and insightfully; Jerry achieves this in a delightful style. He gives you just enough insight into each of the Apostles’ lives that you feel you know them a little more intimately and, at the same time, you are filled with a desire to learn more. And once you get started, it’s hard to stop at just one.” religious educator, curriculum developer “Recently, Jerry shared a draft copy of his book, Witnesses of Christ, concerning the lives of the Apostles of the dispensation of the fulness of times. As my wife and I read it, we were amazed at the stories of these men. There were many whose names we knew, but their life stories were unknown to us. There were others that we did not know, and we were excited to learn about their lives and missions. It was inviting to read the brief digests of each Apostle. To get a glimpse into the achievements and character of each man was inspiring. Their life stories tell the major event of the Restoration and the difficult times they lived in. I heartily endorse this book to anyone desiring to learn more about the great men of this dispensation that lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” religious educator, curriculum developer Copyrighted Material
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CFI An Imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc. Springville, Utah
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Photo on page 317 copyright: “James E. Faust2” by James_E._Faust.jpg: Gerald Tsosie (of Gerald Tsosie Art / So-C) derivative work: --ARTEST4ECHO talk - James_E._Faust.jpg. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_E._ Faust2.jpg#mediaviewer/File:James_E._Faust2.jpg. © 2015 Jerry H. Houck All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, whether by graphic, visual, electronic, film, microfilm, tape recording, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles. This is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The opinions and views expressed herein belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of Cedar Fort, Inc. Permission for the use of sources, graphics, and photos is also solely the responsibility of the author. ISBN 13: 978-1-4621-1550-1 Published by CFI, an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc. 2373 W. 700 S., Springville, UT 84663 Distributed by Cedar Fort, Inc., www.cedarfort.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Houck, Jerry, 1940- author. Witnesses of Christ / Jerry Houck. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: Biographical sketches of 82 men who have served in the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ISBN 978-1-4621-1550-1 (alk. paper) 1. Council of the Twelve Apostles (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)--Biography. 2. Mormon Church--Apostles--Biography. I. Title. BX8693.H68 2015 289.3’320922--dc23 [B] 2015006831 Cover design by Shawnda T. Craig Cover design © 2015 Lyle Mortimer Edited and typeset by Mary-Celeste Ricks and Kevin Haws Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed on acid-free paper
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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX Thomas B. Marsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 David W. Patten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Brigham Young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Heber C. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Orson Hyde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 William E. McLellin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Parley P. Pratt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Luke S. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 William Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Orson Pratt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 John F. Boynton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Lyman E. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 John E. Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 John Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Wilford Woodruff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 George A. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Willard Richards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Lyman Wight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 V Copyrighted Material
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Amasa Lyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Ezra T. Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Charles C. Rich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Lorenzo Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Erastus Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Franklin D. Richards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 George Q. Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Joseph F. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Brigham Young Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Albert Carrington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Moses Thatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Francis M. Lyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 John Henry Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 George Teasdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Heber J. Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 John W. Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Marriner W. Merrill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Anthon H. Lund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Abraham H. Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Matthias F. Cowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Abraham Owen Woodruff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Rudger Clawson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Reed Smoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Hyrum Mac Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 George Albert Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Charles W. Penrose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 George F. Richards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Orson F. Whitney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 David O. McKay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Anthony W. Ivins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Joseph Fielding Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 James E. Talmage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Stephen L. Richards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Richard R. Lyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Melvin J. Ballard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 John A. Widtsoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Joseph F. Merrill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 VI Copyrighted Material
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Charles A. Callis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 J. Reuben Clark Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Alonzo A. Hinckley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Albert E. Bowen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Sylvester Q. Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Harold B. Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Spencer W. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Ezra Taft Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Mark E. Petersen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Matthew Cowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Henry D. Moyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Delbert L. Stapley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Marion G. Romney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 LeGrand Richards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Adam S. Bennion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Richard L. Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 George Q. Morris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Hugh B. Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Howard W. Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Gordon B. Hinckley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 N. Eldon Tanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Marvin J. Ashton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 Bruce R. McConkie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 David B. Haight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 James E. Faust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Neal A. Maxwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Joseph B. Wirthlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
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I
should first acknowledge that this book wasn’t originally written
with the intent of publication. It was written for a special audience and has been published only at that audience’s insistence—and yes, nagging. For three years (2008–2011), my wife, Wendy, and I served as assistant supervisors over the approximately five hundred hosts and hostesses (tour guides), who serve voluntarily at the Church Conference Center. On the third floor of the Center is displayed the painted portraits of all the deceased members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who have lived in this dispensation. Our hosts and hostesses walk past these portraits and gaze upon them every day. Some of these Brethren are familiar names in the Church, like Heber C. Kimball, James E. Talmage, and Neal A. Maxwell. But unfortunately, many of these names are virtually unknown to the general membership of the Church today, such as Albert Carrington, Marriner Merrill, and Charles A. Callis. Speaking at the April 2006 general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley reminisced about some of his experiences with general authorities who had since passed from this life. He observed, “The old, wise heads are passing IX Copyrighted Material
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on. They were my friends. In my brief time I have seen many of the great men of the Church come and go. Most of them I have worked with and known intimately. Time has a way of erasing their memory. Another five years and such names as Merrill, Widtsoe, Bowen—all powerful figures—will be forgotten by all but a few.” These brief biographical sketches were written in the hope of preventing that forgetfulness and keeping alive the memory of these great men in the hearts and minds of our hosts and hostesses. Obviously, the lives of any of these Brethren could occupy a large volume of work. The intent here is to give only a brief glimpse or insight into their characters and accomplishments. The segments included in each of the sketches have been chosen to give the reader a feel for the Apostles’ personalities, their strengths—and in some cases, their weaknesses— their unique experiences and contributions to the Church. Most importantly, it is hoped that the readers will feel a greater sense of familiarity with these Church leaders of the past and be able to learn from and apply their life lessons. In essence, these are neither biographies nor histories—space did not allow. Rather, they are brief introductions into the personalities of our past leaders.
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Born: November 1, 1799, Acton, Massachusetts Ordained Apostle: April 26, 1835 Sustained President of the Quorum of the Twelve: May 2, 1835 Excommunicated: March 17, 1839 Rebaptized: July 16, 1857 Died: January 1866, Ogden, Utah, at age 66
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t the time the Book of Mormon was being published,
many rumors were circulating concerning Joseph Smith and his golden bible. Thomas B. Marsh, his curiosity raised over these rumors, traveled to Palmyra, where he met Martin Harris at the Grandin printing shop. Martin gave Thomas proof sheets of the first sixteen pages of the Book of Mormon and then took him to the Smith home. There, over the next two days, Oliver Cowdery taught him about Joseph and the Restoration. Thomas then returned to his home in Massachusetts, where he showed the pages to his wife and told her of the things he had learned. Both believed. When Thomas heard that the Church had been organized, he moved his family to Palmyra and was baptized by David Whitmer in September 1830. Shortly thereafter he was called on a mission. 1 Copyrighted Material
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In 1832 Thomas led a company of Saints to Jackson County, Missouri. In 1835 he was called as one of the original Twelve Apostles. When the Quorum of the Twelve was organized, Joseph Smith established member seniority by age. Thomas, being the oldest, became president of the quorum. In 1837 he accompanied Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon on a mission to Canada. The following year he and David W. Patten were appointed as temporary presidents over the Saints in Missouri until such time as the Prophet Joseph could arrive. In 1838, when the spirit of apostasy took hold in the Church, Elder Marsh fell away and turned traitor against the Saints. An incident occurred in February of that year that has become well-known in Church history. As told by Elder George A. Smith, Thomas’s wife, Elizabeth, and Lucinda Harris both wanted to make a cheese, but neither possessed enough cows to produce sufficient milk. They therefore agreed to take turns exchanging milk and strippings so each would have enough. Lucinda honored her part of the agreement, but when it was Elizabeth’s turn to give Lucinda her milk, she kept part of the strippings. The matter went before home teachers, the bishop, the high council, and eventually the First Presidency, all deciding in favor of Lucinda. But Elizabeth would not admit to her wrongdoing, and Thomas “declared that he would sustain the character of his wife, even if he had to go to hell for it.”1 It was about this time, according to Heber C. Kimball, that Thomas received a revelation, which he wrote down. “There were from three to five pages of it,” observed Elder Kimball, “and when he came out [of the printing office], he read it to brother Brigham and me. In it God told him what to do, and that was to sustain brother Joseph and to believe that what brother Joseph had said was true. But no; he took a course to sustain his wife and oppose the Prophet of God, and she led him away.”2 Becoming bitter toward the Church and its officials, Elder Marsh drafted and signed an affidavit claiming the existence of a Church organization called the “Danites,” whose main purpose was to carry out retribution against the enemies of the Church, and stating that Joseph planned to take over the land by blood and sword, if necessary. This affidavit increased persecutions against the Saints and eventually lead to Governor Boggs’s infamous extermination orders. 2 Copyrighted Material
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Consequently, Thomas was excommunicated. Regarding his treachery, Joseph Smith remarked that Thomas B. Marsh “had been lifted up in pride by his exaltation to office and the revelations of heaven concerning him, until he was ready to be overthrown by the first adverse wind that should cross his track, and now he has fallen, lied and sworn falsely, and is ready to take the lives of his best friends. Let all men take warning by him, and learn that he who exalteth himself, God will abase.”3 During the ensuing eighteen years, Thomas became a vagabond, without a resting-place and without peace. According to John Taylor, Thomas was “a poor, decrepit, broken down, old man. He has had a paralytic stroke—one of his arms hangs down. He is . . . an object of charity, destitute, without wife, child, or anything else. . . . He has been all the time . . . afraid for his life—afraid the Mormons would kill him; and he durst not let them know where he was.” Elder Taylor went on to say that Marsh, meeting with some apostates, said to them, “You don’t know what you are about; if you want to see the fruits of apostasy, look on me.”4 It became Thomas’s desire to reunite with the Saints in Utah, but with all his efforts he only managed to raise $5.10. Looking upon his small sum, he said, “Lord, if you will help me, I will go.”5 Before leaving Missouri, he had managed to obtain $55.05. He concluded that the Lord was with him and started west. In July 1857, he was rebaptized at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Arriving in Salt Lake City in early September of 1857, Marsh spoke before the Saints gathered in the Bowery. “Many have said to me, ‘how is it that a man like you, who understood so much of the revelations of God as recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, should fall away?’ I told them not to feel too secure, but to take heed lest they also should fall.” Regarding his own apostasy, he explained, I became jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double and overlooked everything that was right, and spent all my time in looking for the evil. . . . I saw a beam in Brother Joseph’s eye, but it was nothing but a mote, and my own eye was filled with the beam. . . . I talked to Brother Brigham and Brother Heber, and I wanted them to be mad 3 Copyrighted Material
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like myself; and I saw they were not mad, and I got madder still because they were not. Brother Brigham, with a cautious look, said, “Are you the leader of the Church, Brother Thomas?” I answered, “No!” “Well then,” said he, “why do you not let that alone?” Well, this was about the amount of my hypocrisy—I meddled with that which was not my business.6
Following his remarks, Church members unanimously voted to receive him into full fellowship in the Church. His physical health broken and his mental faculties impaired, Thomas lived in obscurity and died in Ogden in January 1866, at the age of sixty-six.
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Born: November 14, 1799, Theresa, New York Ordained Apostle: February 15,1835 Killed: October 25, 1838, Battle of Crooked River, Missouri, at age 38
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orn November 14, 1799, David left home when but a
boy and traveled to Michigan, where he built a small log home. When he was twenty-one years of age, he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost to repent of his sins. During the following three years, he lived close to the Lord, receiving dreams and visions. On one such occasion it was made known to him that the Church of Christ would be established upon the earth during his lifetime. From that time on, he anxiously looked forward to that day. In 1830, he first saw a copy of the Book of Mormon but only had the opportunity to read its preface and the testimonies of the witnesses. Then, in 1832, his brother John wrote to him that the gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored to the earth. David got on his horse and rode the 300 miles to Fairplay, Indiana, where he was taught and baptized by his brother. Two days later he was ordained 5 Copyrighted Material
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an elder and sent to preach the gospel in Michigan. This would be the first of many missions. While serving on his missions, he discovered that he had the gift of healing. His style of healing the sick was unique to him. He would teach the sick the principles of the gospel, testify of its truth, and promise them they would be healed if they would accept baptism. Abraham O. Smoot stated that he never knew of an instance where David’s petition in the behalf of the sick was not answered. Throughout his missions, his reputation for healing spread to where people would come from afar to have him administer to them. Almost daily he healed the sick, many who had been infirm for years, and even those near death’s door. On many occasions, they were healed instantly. On one occasion, he healed a young woman, May Ann Stearns, who had suffered chronic heart disease for many years, promising her that she would be completely restored to perfect health. She later became the wife of Parley P. Pratt and lived until eighty-two years of age without any further heart problems. David would later record: “The Lord did work with me wonderfully, in signs and wonders following them that believed in the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, insomuch that the deaf were made to hear, the blind to see, and the lame were made whole. Fevers, palsies, crooked and withered limbs, and in fact all manner of diseases, common to the country, were healed by the power of God, that was manifested through his servants.”1 When David was a missionary, the Lord sustained him in other ways. Once when he was preaching to a group, a man who had disrupted many meetings began to heckle David. When asked to be quiet, he refused and defied any man to put him out of the house. David, moved upon by the Spirit, told the man to be quiet or he would remove him. “You can’t do it,” said the man. David replied, “In the name of the Lord I will do it.” David then grabbed the man with both arms, carried him to the door, and threw him ten feet into a wood pile. The saying soon went out that Patten had “cast out one devil, soul and body.”2 On another occasion, an armed mob had gathered outside the building where David was preaching. After the meeting, David went out and faced the mob, telling them to shoot him if they wished. Although David had only a walking stick, the 6 Copyrighted Material
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mob fled. In Tennessee, a mob took him and his companions before a judge for a mock trial that found them guilty of charges. David stood and rebuked the mob and the proceedings. One companion, Warren Parrish, later said, “My hair stood up straight on my head, for I expected to be killed.”3 They were released, but that night as they slept, David was warned in a dream that they were to leave, for the mob would soon arrive at the house. Through his missions David brought many into the Church, establishing branches along the way. Happily, among those he baptized were his mother, two brothers, and two sisters. His preaching had the ability of leaving deep and lasting impressions upon those who heard him. By chance, he happened to ride horseback for 25 miles with a young man who was on his way to Oberlin College. The young man’s name was Lorenzo Snow. According to Lorenzo’s sister, Eliza Snow, their conversation opened her brother’s mind to a new way of thinking and had a lasting impression upon him that was never erased. It would prove influential in his later joining the Church. David also had the gift of prophecy. Threatened by a mob while preaching in Paris, Tennessee, he boldly denounced them and prophesied that many of them would live to see the streets of Paris run with the blood of its own citizens. This was literally fulfilled approximately twenty-six years later during the Civil War, when General Morgan conducted his famous raid through Kentucky and Tennessee. In Ohio, the Spirit of the Lord said to him, “Depart from your field of labor and go unto Kirtland, for behold I will send thee up to the land of Zion and thou shalt [serve] thy brethren there.”4 Arriving in Kirtland, he was sent by the Prophet Joseph to Missouri, to deliver dispatches to the brethren. Arriving in Clay County on March 4, 1834, he remained there until the arrival of Zion’s Camp. In February 1835, he was ordained one of the Twelve Apostles. Following other missions, he returned to Kirtland at a time of great apostasy in the Church, only to be disheartened when his good friend and brother-in-law, Warren Parrish, tried to turn him against the Prophet. Again he was sent to Missouri, where, with Thomas B. Marsh, he presided over the Saints until Joseph Smith arrived. In Missouri, his courageous defense of the Saints against mobs earned him the title of “Captain Fear Not.” 7 Copyrighted Material
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David’s faith was such that he once expressed to the Prophet Joseph the desire to die a martyr’s death. The Prophet was deeply moved and expressed extreme sorrow, saying to David, “When a man of your faith asks the Lord for anything, he generally gets it.”5 This prophetic utterance came to fulfillment when, on October 24, 1838, word came that a Missouri mob had taken three Church members captive near Crooked River. Elder Patten led seventy-five men to intercept the mob and rescue the brethren. During a confrontation with the mob the next morning, a battle ensued in which the prisoners were freed, but Patten was mortally wounded, receiving a large ball in his bowels. In severe pain, he was carried to the home of Stephen Winchester, where he died that night. On the day of Elder Patten’s funeral, Joseph went to the Patten home where friends had gathered. Pointing to Patten’s lifeless body, Joseph testified, “There lies a man who has done just as he said he would: he has laid down his life for his friends.”6 Joseph later recorded, “[David W. Patten] died as he lived, a man of God, and strong in the faith of a glorious resurrection, in a world where mobs will have no power or place.”7
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