History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CHURCH RECORDS.
for immediate necessity ; but remember the city to be
presently built, and be prudent. 12 And now from the
shaking quakers came one Lemon Copley and accepted
the gospel, though not in its fullness, as he retained
persecutions and general history. The one in charge of this duty is called by
us "the historian and general church recorder." The first who occupied this
position was John Whitmer, until 1838, when he was excommunicated from
the church for transgression, and took portions of the church records with
him.' Richards' Bibliography of Utah, MS., 2. 'The earliest clerk service
rendered the prophet Joseph, of which there is any account, was by Martin
Harris; Joseph's wife, Emma, then Oliver Cowdery, who, as is claimed, wrote
the greater portion of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, as he
translated it from the gold plates by the urim and thummim which he obtained
with the plates. In March 1831 John Whitmer was appointed to keep the
church record and history continually, Oliver having been appointed to other
labors. Whitmer was assisted, temporarily, on occasions of absence or illness
by Warren PaiTish. At a meeting of high council at Kirtland, Sept. 14,
1835, it was decided that "Oliver Cowdery be appointed, and that he act
hereafter as recorder for the church," Whitmer having just been called to be
editor of the Messenger and Advocate. At a general conference held in Far
West April 6, 1838, John Corrilland Elias Higbee were appointed historians,
and George W. Robinson "general church recorder and clerk for the first
presidency." On the death of Elder Robert B. Thompson, which occurred at
Nauvoo on the twenty-seventh of August, 1841, in his obituary it is stated:
" Nearly two years past he had officiated as scribe to President Joseph Smith
and clerk for the church, which important stations he filled with that dignity
and honor befitting a man of God. " During the expulsion from Missouri, and
the early settlement of Nauvoo, James Mulholland, William Clayton, and
perhaps others rendered temporary service in this line until the 13th of
December, 1841, when Willard Richards was appointed recorder, general
clerk, and private secretary to the prophet, which offices he occupied until
his death, in March 1854, when he was succeeded by George A. Smith, who
held it until his death on the first of September, 1875, with Wilford Woodruff
as his assistant. Soon after, Orson Pratt succeeded to the office, retaining
Woodruff as his assistant, until his demise on the third of October, 1881.
Directly after President Woodruff was appointed to the office, and in January
18S4, Apostle Franklin D. Richards was appointed his assistant.' See Times
and Seasons, v. 401; Millennial Star, v. 82; Richards' Narrative, MS., 94-8.
12 Of the future of this city there were many revelations and many conjectures.
' It was said that it would in a few years exceed in splendor everything
known in ancient times. Its streets were to be paved with gold; all
that escaped the general destruction which was soon to take place would
there assemble with all their wealth; the ten lost tribes of Israel had been
discovered in their retreat, in the vicinity of the north pole, where they had
for ages been secluded by immense barriers of ice, and became vastly rich;
the ice in a few years w T as to be melted away, when those tribes, with St
John and some of the Nephites, which the book of Mormon had immortalized,
would be seen making their appearance in the new city, loaded with immense
quantities of gold and silver. Whether the prophet himself ever declared
that these things had been revealed to him, or that he had seen them through
his magic stone or silver spectacles, we will not say ; but that such stories
and hundreds of others equally absurd were told by those who were in daily
intercourse with him, as being events which would probably take place, are
susceptible of proof.' Hoive's Mormonis7n Unveiled, 127-8. 'Kirtland was
never intended to be the metropolis of Mormonism; it was selected as a temporary
abiding place, to make money in reference to a removal farther west.'
Ferris' Utah and. the Mormons, 72.
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