Nauvoo City Council’s minutes of 1840s provide chaos, contention and lies

 

Originally published, in slightly different form, in January 2012 in StandardBlogs

---

The Nauvoo City Council and High Council minutes from 1839 to 1845, when accessible, were recorded. Signature Books, with the assistance of historian John Dinger, published almost a decade ago the minutes, along with notes, and they’re just plain fascinating for enthusiasts of history. Without spin, they lay out the controversy that swirled in Nauvoo prior to Joseph Smith’s murder and the LDS exodus west.

The documents lend credence to the belief that the then-secret doctrine of polygamy sparked much of the contention that roiled Nauvoo. Many of those associated with the anti-Smith publication, the Nauvoo Expositor, were accused of using polygamy as an excuse to commit adultery. In the city council meeting of June 8, 1844, Hyrum Smith is cited as claiming that Joseph Smith’s revelation on polygamy, read to the Nauvoo High Council on Aug. 12, 1843, “was in answer to a question concerning things which transpired in former days & had no reference to the present time.” 

As curiously noted, “Hyrum Smith married four plural wives in 1843.” It’s clear that Hyrum Smith had rationalized that it was OK to mislead. Also, on page 255 of the Nauvoo City Council minutes, the LDS prophet, and Nauvoo mayor, Joseph Smith, supports Hyrum’s incorrect words, saying that he had not preached the doctrine in public or private.

From reading the various minutes and notes commentary, polygamy was used as a cudgel in a conflict between the Smiths and their enemies, such as William Law, Wilson Law, Robert and Charles Foster, Chauncey and Francis Higbee, Sylvester Emmons, and others. These accusations were often judged in the non-secular, but equally powerful, Nauvoo High Council meetings. On May 24, 1842, “Chancy” Higbee was excommunicated by the high council after being judged guilty of adultery and for teaching “the doctrine that it was right to have free intercourse with women if it was kept secret …” Higbee, the minutes report, claimed “that Joseph Smith autherised (sic) him to practice these things.”

Other accusations used to discredit critics included counterfeiting, stinginess, and plots to kill Joseph Smith. The final accusation was probably closest to the truth, as the violence that was commonplace in that era made lynching and murder a real possibility. The City Council minutes note how the Smiths used Nauvoo civil law to construct a habeus corpus statute so far-reaching that it could blunt any attempt to have Smith or others extradited to Missouri or anywhere outside of Nauvoo. In fact, Smith used habeus corpus to initially avoid arrest for trashing the Nauvoo Expositor press.

The city council debate that preceded the Nauvoo police’s destruction of the Expositor press as a “nuisance” is very interesting. Anger from past atrocities against Mormons, notably the Haun’s Mill massacre, were used as rationales to destroy the Expositor’s press. Interestingly, one Nauvoo councilman, Benjamin Warrington, opposed destroying the press. He wanted to give the editors time to stop publishing and assess them a $3,000 fine.

Both Smiths spoke in opposition to Warrington’s proposal, Hyrum adding that he doubted the publishers had the money to pay the fine. Those in favor of the press’ destruction cited ” Blackwater’s Commentaries on the Laws of England,” a reference book widely used in that era. Nauvoo city attorney and councilman George P. Stiles used “Blackwater” as evidence, “{saying a} Nuisance is any thing {that} disturbs the peace of {the} community.”

The destruction of the Expositor began before the city council meeting authorizing the act had finished. As are most decisions made in haste and with excessive emotion, it backfired, increasing the danger to Joseph Smith and others. An attempt to use Nauvoo’s liberal habeus corpus law to escape legal heat failed, and to protect Nauvoo from armed mobs, Joseph and Hyrum agreed to be jailed in Carthage, Ill. Assurances of safety from a feckless governor, Thomas Ford, failed, and history records that both Smiths were murdered by a mob.

The Nauvoo City Council minutes after the Smiths’ murders are interesting. There is little of the anger or bluster that was part of the meeting that sanctioned the press’ destruction. It’s muted, and frankly reflects the shock and despair that must have surrounded Nauvoo and church members at the loss of their prophet. Much of the minutes cover discussion on how much the city must renumerate the Nauvoo Expositor for the destruction of its property. Hiram Kimball was assigned the task of dealing with the renumeration.

Also, it’s clear that city leaders were concerned that the mobs that had killed the Smiths were still eager to attack Nauvoo. The council endorsed pleas by Governor Ford and others to avoid violent reprisals.

“The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes” is a massive, indispensable treasure trove of Mormon history in Illinois. Some accounts were amusing; one recounts a man brought for church discipline because he sold his wife for her weight in catfish!

-- Doug Gibson

A Mormon dissident in Nauvoo - The Writings of Oliver H. Olney

Review by Doug Gibson

Until recently, not many interested in Mormon history knew of Oliver H. Olney. Now, at least 170 years after his death, we can peruse the writings and life of a Nauvoo-era church member-turned-critic.

We are not even sure when this Mormon dissident in Nauvoo died. Probably about 1847 or 1848; and he'd left the city by then, says Dr. Richard G. Moore of BYU's Religious Studies Center. Moore merits respect for spending nearly a decade reading, deciphering, studying and editing Olney's writings, which are stored at Yale University. The result is "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney: April 1842 to February 1843 -- Nauvoo, Illinois," Greg Kofford Books, Salt Lake City, 2019. (Amazon link is here.)

It makes for interesting but very tough reading; Olney was mostly a poor writer. A few examples of his writings, which dominates the book, will be shared later. I have read the book once and watched a conversation with the author twice (link below in paragraph). Key historical nuggets are Olney's  knowledge and opinions of polygamy in Nauvoo, and plans of the church moving West. Olney was no major player in Nauvoo, and his ruminations on these issues, to me, indicate they were talked about in the city in greater detail earlier than history has assumed.

For me, Olney is the subject of Moore's book, more so than an account of life in 1842 Nauvoo. Other than one recollection that he was a strong man, picturing him is difficult. Trying to grasp his motivations, beliefs, his change, his candor, pride, and why he changed is the challenge. He seems a fascinating man with an impressive early LDS Church history. Yet he gradually became an obsessed, sometimes delusional Mormon apostate. Moore shares what we know of his life in a well-researched introduction. (I also urge readers to watch this interview with Moore at a Greg Kofford Books lecture series).

He married Alice Mary Johnson in 1820 and they were baptized about 11 years later. Alice was the sister of early LDS apostles Luke and Lyman Johnson. In the 1830s, Olney led the teacher's quorum in Kirtland, Ohio, and is listed as an elder and seventy in church records. His family moved to Missouri and later fled to Nauvoo. The Olney couple must have valued their dedication and sacrifices for the young church and its prophet, Joseph Smith.

The death of his wife, Alice, in the summer of 1841 must have broke Olney. As Moore notes, Olney was in Connecticut, likely on a mission. That's a harsh situation in which to learn your spouse has died. When he returned to Nauvoo, he changed from, by appearances, a devoted follower of the church hierarchy to harsh critic. Olney publicized his harsh revelations and criticisms, with a predictable result. He had his membership taken away in early-mid 1842, in a court led by the soon-to-be-discovered scoundrel John C. Bennett. Olney was slammed in the church newspaper Times and Seasons as one peddling revelations and preferring darkness and evil deeds, writes Moore.

But he was not the average, stereotypical dissident. His criticisms were of a populist nature. Olney was displeased by what he saw as an elite hierarchy of church leaders living off the hard work and sacrifice of poorer members. Furthermore, he charged these leaders with hypocrisy and sinful behavior, such as elitism, greed and polygamy. He believed that the interest in Masonry, and the new Relief Society, were also part of the elitism.

Moore adds Olney was later charged with stealing from Joseph Smith's store. According to Moore, he confessed, citing his poverty as an excuse. He escaped from incarceration, and as Moore adds, there's no record of the case resolution. It's a mystery that Olney continued to live close to a year longer in Nauvoo, attending Mormon meetings, and even marrying again, to a devout LDS woman named Phoebe Wheeler. Despite being out and about, Olney claimed his presence in Nauvoo was dangerous for him. Perhaps he lacked the means to leave. He was so poor that he wasn't always able to take care of his two daughters.

He also believed he would lead the church to repentance and restore its glory. He claimed heavenly visits with the Prophet Elijah and his wife, Jesus Christ, a group of heavenly beings, the "Ancients of Days," and even the slain early LDS apostle, David Patten. He must have known Patten in Missouri, talked with him and was likely impressed by him.

 Although he never collected any wealth, he claimed he would be led to riches to support his efforts. He also claimed God would rise him as a great leader after he reformed the church. Although he was a harsh critic of polygamy, Olney seems to contradict himself, claiming that God would provide him up to 60 women to be female companions and assist him. One of those women, Moore notes, was his future wife, Phoebe.

Here is a fragment of Olney's writing in April of 1842 indicating his disapproval of Joseph Smith: "... I see many by by Joseph directed he said by the Othoroty of the Father and son but I said in my hart he lied but we read that the sin of ignorance is to be winked at so it is not laid to his charge Altho I could a told him long since of his standing before God that had no more power with him than any other man ..."

From July, 1842, Olney describes his experience with the "Ancients of Days." "... They have put things in commotion that will cause a Revolution in this and foren lands Much is adoing that speaks of a savior That died that has taken a stand on the Earth A spirit of confusion discord disunion is the theme from this time forth But the time has ariven, That much is adoing to prepare for the coming of the son of man as he is soon a comming In power and Glory ... Dark shades must be removed in honour of the Savior ..."

In August of 1842, Olney expresses his frustration with a church he believes is corrupt. After citing examples such as The Danites and John C. Bennett and other, unnamed church leaders, he writes: "... I have looked for their good deeds but they keep out of my sight or they have known that comes to light ... (Moore adds in a note that Olney probably meant "none,' not "known".)

In January of 1843, his disillusionment is near completion: "I again feel it my duty to write of a party that Is highly exalted for Piety and fame They have much a going and saying that looks to me strange for people that profess to be men of God As I am daily with them I am inclined to say that if they ever had wisdom it is flead ..."

Olney wrote songs and poetry. Late in his life he published two small books, anti-Mormon tracts on the absurdity of Mormonism and evil of spiritual wifery. Letters are included, one of encouragement allegedly by William Smith, church patriarch at the time, and soon to be excommunicated. Both books are included in "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney." They seem to have been edited; there's far more coherence in these than in other, more spontaneous writings.

The secret, in my opinion, of discovering Olney's populism, and his apostasy, lie in his admiration of President Andrew Jackson, and his probable deep reliance on his wife, Alice. Moore comments on both Jackson and Alice in the book and the online lecture. Alice Olney received a very reverent obituary from Eliza R. Snow. It's highly likely that she was a source of strength to her husband, and a widely admired church sister. Oliver and Alice had survived a lot of persecution, and it's easy to see Olney reaching to his wife to strengthen his faith. Her death, coupled with poverty and perhaps internal anger at his current state and exclusion from higher levels of the faith, gradually exiled Olney from the church.

His Jacksonian political beliefs, placing the common man as an opponent of wealthy, elite interests, respecting the Constitution, living a good, honest life, and not exploiting others for greed, would provide him sustenance as he moved from a church that he believed was corrupted. As an American Jacksonian, Olney would resist any situation in which he believed he was being discriminated against. Here is a portion of a poem Olney wrote about Jackson that is published in the book:

"... He soon took an honourable station
To defend a free Constitution
With weapons of war He moved in array
Against those that did oppose
The American wrights
He honoured his station
At home and abroad
By being honest valient
Upwright and Prudent. ..."

During his above-mentioned lecture, Moore offers another motivation for Olney's apostasy. "Olney wants the Kirtland church," he said. He adds that wanting "the Kirtland church" was shared by many members who became disillusioned with the church's history in Missouri and Nauvoo. The idea that "Nauvoo was a bad place" was shared by Olney who likely idealized what he saw as an earlier, more pure, uncontaminated church.

It's likely that academics and Mormon history buffs (I am among the latter) are perhaps the only people who will read "The Writings of Oliver H. Olney." But I hope it sells well, and gets in many libraries. I recall scholar Maxine Hanks, in a recent Dialogue, urging people to respect everyone's faith journey. It's possible that Olney's faith journey was not inappropriate given his life history, sacrifices and trials. I hope we can learn more about him. That's unlikely; but I can hope that he's at peace and loved by a deity who understands why he felt it important to take a shift away from the norm in 1842.

Orson Pratt was Mormonism’s first intellectual

Originally published at StandardNET in 2011.

In the 19th century, for many in the East Coast of the United States, Brigham Young may have been the image they saw when they thought of Mormonism, but the ideas they heard coming from the new religion came mostly from the Apostle Orson Pratt.

That’s a conclusion reached by Top of Utah author Breck England, in his still-important biography of Pratt, “The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt.” The book was published in 1985 by University of Utah Press. I picked up a copy at a local library and was fascinated by Pratt, who was considered a rationalist thinker who often clashed with President Brigham Young, who preferred a more “meat and potatoes” interpretation of the Gospel.

Pratt, the brother of the more flamboyant Parley, lifted himself out of poverty to become Mormonism’s top intellectual. He was blessed with an amazing brain. He authored an unpublished textbook on calculus and penned a text on algebra that was cited by academics of the era. He was responsible for creating an odometer that could accurately log miles accumulated by wagon trains. He was instrumental in mapping the Salt Lake valley after the pioneers arrived. In fact, England notes that the parcel allotted to Pratt is today prime commercial real estate just south of Temple Square.

One can speculate that Pratt’s natural interest in science attracted him to follow Joseph Smith. Later in his ministry he developed the intelligence-matter theory, inspired by Joseph Smith’s teachings. The theology of endless worlds and gods progressing in eternity was manna to Pratt’s mind, and he was a fervent advocate of it his whole life.

Early in the his church membership, Pratt almost left Mormonism. The first was over a bank failure. The second was more serious and led to a short excommunication of Pratt and his wife. While he was away preaching, allegations were made in Nauvoo of impropriety between Smith, his associate John C. Bennett, and Pratt’s wife Sarah. Sarah Pratt claimed that Smith had asked her to be a plural wife. Smith claimed Sarah had had an affair with Bennett. 

Pratt initially sided with his wife. Eventually, Pratt and Sarah returned to fellowship in the young church and Bennett was excommunicated. He later became a prominent enemy of the church.

It is impossible to know what really happened, but apparently the bad feelings and scars never subsided. Years later, the Pratts separated and Sarah became an enthusiastic enemy of the LDS church, teaching her children to hate it.

Pratt’s excommunication reversed his placement in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and likely prevented him from becoming church president. For the rest of his life, he was a vigorous defender of Mormonism, the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He was often called to Europe to lead missions and church publications. While in Germany he denounced that nation’s refusal to allow any religions besides Catholicism a chance. Pratt also translated the Book of Mormon into the church-created phonetic language Deseret.

Late in his life, Pratt was more mellow and less eager to explore unique looks into Mormonism or Christian theology. This was probably in large part due to Young and other apostles publicly denouncing some of Pratt’s ideas. In fact, some of his books were hunted down and destroyed by church leaders. 

Pratt accepted these rebukes humbly and urged church members to ignore his writings that were condemned by Young. Perhaps the Nauvoo battle, with his near expulsion from the church and failed marriage had worn him down and he wanted peace. Or, perhaps he truly believed his painstaking research was now a detriment to the church.

According to Breck, Pratt left a legacy of philosophy to Mormonism. His belief in an energy of one and many attempts to rationalize science and theology have been explored countless times since his death.

-- Doug Gibson

Polygamy opponents were swept aside in Nauvoo turmoil after Joseph Smith’s death

The months in Nauvoo following the murder of the LDS Church founder Joseph Smith were not surprisingly, filled with turmoil and political intrigue. The publication of “The Nauvoo City and High Council Minutes” by Signature Books provides detailed accounts of the Nauvoo Stake’s high council meetings. It’s very interesting reading. The High Council was also a political body used to cast out prominent church members who did not support Brigham Young’s claim of leadership, or the church’s still-secret embrace of polygamy.

The purge of those who did not support Young in the months following Smith’s murder is an important part of LDS Church history. The Machiavellian tactics, while ruthless and arbitrary, ultimately underscored why the Mormons survived the Nauvoo disaster and thrived. They needed a “dictator,” — Young — not afraid to seize control and exercise it.

The Sept. 7, 1844 high council case of Leonard Soby, who publicly opposed polygamy in 1843 and helped publish The Nauvoo Expositor a year later, is a typical example of 1844 post-Martyrdom. Despite his past dissident status, which included an association with the anti-Smiths Nauvoo Expositor newspaper, Soby retained an uneasy status among the Nauvoo LDS religious hierarchy.

However, his support for Sidney Rigdon as church leader, and an altercation between Soby, Rigdon, Young and Orson Hyde on Sept. 3 over ordination authority for Rigdon, led to high council members “surprising” Soby with a motion that he be disfellowshipped. Soby protested vigorously, arguing that he was not a sinner, such as an adulterer or a moonshiner, but simply had honest differences with his high council colleagues.

It didn’t help. Soby may have been a bit naive, or disingenuous. By September 1844, among the Nauvoo High Council, any hesitancy to damn Rigdon as a false prophet trying to usurp authority was a one-way ticket out of the LDS Church. By the end of the night, Soby was effectively disfellowshipped. He followed Rigdon to his church in Pennsylvania, which eventually failed. Soby, 34 when drummed out of the LDS Church, died in 1891 in New Jersey. He remains a footnote in early LDS Church history.

For Young’s majority in the Mormon leadership, there was a far bigger fish to fry than Soby, or even Nauvoo Stake President William Marks, whose support for Rigdon and opposition to polygamy also ended his tenure later in 1844. On Sept. 8, 1844, in a public meeting, Rigdon would be kicked out of the church he had worked with Smith to build, with a litany of LDS Church apostles offering evidence against him.

As Brigham Young mentioned, Rigdon and Soby has been caught by Young and allies ordaining persons as “prophets” and “kings” etc. It was clear that Rigdon, who had already lost popular support in a contest with Young for church leadership, was attempting to take what members he could from Nauvoo with him to set up a rival church.

According to Young ally Orson Hyde, Rigdon, when asked that he surrender his license, threatened to publish “the history of this people since they came to Nauvoo of all their iniquity and midnight abominations.” Rigdon was referring to polygamy, and it was personal to him. His daughter, Nancy Rigdon, when 19, had resisted Joseph Smith’s efforts to make her a plural wife.

The stress of the Nauvoo polygamy battle caused Rigdon further deterioration of a long-taxed body and mind. By late 1844, he was a feeble adversary for Young and his allies. Young, who had long lost patience with Rigdon, chastised Rigdon with contempt. Other apostles provided anti-Rigdon rhetoric similar to what apostle John Taylor, future prophet, offered. He said “… he (Rigdon) is in possession of the same spirit which hurled the devil & those who we{r}e with him from heave(n) down to perdition(.)”

Only Marks offered support for Rigdon. To what must have been a very hostile audience, the Nauvoo Stake president pointed out that over the course of years, allegations against Sidney Rigdon had always been unfounded. Marks also argued in favor of a first presidency-directed church, rather than one — as Young and others argued for — directed by the Quorum of the 12 Apostles.

Marks added, “… I do not know of any other man this day that has the same power to receive revelations as Sidney Rigdon(,) as he has been ordained to be a prophet unto this people, & if he is cut off from the body this day I wish to the man if there is any that has the same power as he (Elder Rigdon).”

Young caustically responded that “Sidney had done as much (as was needed to show his unworthiness) when he arrived from Missouri(;) he had done as much as would sever any man from the priesthood …” Various Young allies also began to charge that the late Joseph Smith had had very little regard for Rigdon, and that his reputation within the church had been overstated. This is not an uncommmon tactic to use, in war, business or religion, when a longtime member of a group is being deposed by a new generation.

As mentioned, the removal of Rigdon and allies such as Soby and Marks were needed if the Mormons were to survive as a religion. Rigdon was an ill man by 1844, both physically and emotionally. He had suffered great physical hardships due to persecution in the 1830s and severe depression and anguish brought on by the introduction of polygamy and attempts by Smith to marry his daughter. Had Rigdon somehow defeated Young as Smith’s successor the LDS Church would have withered away. Rigdon’s efforts to build his own church was a miserable failure, and he spent his later years as an obscure, almost iconic curio who few paid attention to. His eccentricities included long, rambling denunciations mailed to Brigham Young that were ignored or perhaps considered with bemusement by the Utah leader.

In fact, I suspect that support for Rigdon from Marks, Soby and others (several were excommunicated the same day that Rigdon was cast out) had more to do with disgust for polygamy and the knowledge that Young intended to continue the practice.

There’s no way to know if Joseph Smith — had he lived — would have abandoned his polygamy experiment.

Under Young’s leadership, however, it was here to stay, and opposition to “the principle” would not be tolerated.

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardBlogs

John C. Bennett was the Lucifer of early Mormonism

John Cook Bennett: most Mormons probably know him from LDS Church Almanacs as “assistant president of the LDS Church” for a year or so during the Nauvoo era. Those who know a bit more about church history know him as a proclaimed “Judas,” or “Lucifer,” who slithered into Nauvoo, deceived the Prophet Joseph Smith, seduced several women, married and single, was cast out, then made considerably more than 30 pieces of silver vilely blasting Smith at lectures and in a best-selling book. 

Bennett was so anathema to LDS Church leaders that in response to his death in 1867, an LDS Church publication released a scathing, false obituary which read, in part, “… He dragged out a miserable existence, without a person scarcely to take the least interest in his fate, and died a few months ago without a person to mourn his departure. …”

In reality, Bennett died in Polk City, Iowa, a fairly well off and respected man. He had recently served as surgeon in the Third U.S. Infantry during the Civil War. Yet, the Mormons’ loathing of Bennett was not without cause. Despite Bennett’s many talents and skills, he was often a scoundrel during his life. He was a serial adulterer and grifter at times, selling “diplomas” from a medicine school diploma mill. He may have even been a sociopath, albeit one who could remain fairly prosperous even after alienating many. 

I was surprised to discover a biography of Bennett’s life, “The SaintlyScoundrel: The Life and Times of Dr. John C. Bennett,” by Andrew F. Smith, published in 1997 by University of Illinois Press. It’s an interesting read. Bennett, born in 1804, grew up in southeastern Ohio and became a doctor in the early 1820s, learning medicine from his uncle, a prominent doctor and scientist. After marrying, Bennett practiced in several different areas and also was a lay preacher, favoring the reformist Campbellite doctrines. In fact, he had already met many prominent Mormons long before moving to Nauvoo.

Bennett enjoyed teaching and lecturing in medicine, and he tried setting up colleges and medical schools in several frontier states. This is also where much of his grifting began. At one college, Christian College, Bennett was hounded out by peers for blatantly selling diplomas. In fact, as author Smith surmises, Bennett may have been the first man to ever set up a diploma mill.

In the early 1830s, Bennett gained some prominence by touting the supposed health benefits of tomatoes, a fruit that many Americans didn’t eat at that time. Although Bennett’s and others’ claims about the healing powers of tomatoes were wildly overstated, for scores of years tomato pills, etc., were popular. Bennett also was an early advocate of Chloroform as a sedative for operations, although ether would prove to be a better alternative. During the 1830s, Bennett’s marriage collapsed due to his infidelity and allegations of spousal abuse.

His tenure as a Mormon leader, and its aftermath, is what Bennett is best known for. He ingratiated himself with Joseph Smith and into the highest levels of the Mormon Church, serving as mayor of Nauvoo, leader in the military Nauvoo Legion, town doctor, lobbyist for the city, and assistant president of the LDS Church. Like much of Bennett’s life, though, it was a short rise and fall. By his own admission, Bennett engaged in several affairs with Nauvoo woman. Whether the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was a participant with Bennett in this behavior is debated. At the time, the Mormon doctrine on polygamy was being taught in secret. Did Bennett try to convince women to marry Smith? Given his past, it’s likely Bennett exploited the issue for his carnal pleasure. Whatever the circumstances, the scandals roiled the Mormon Church. 

Among the women reviled for their charges against Smith and Bennett were Sarah Pratt, Nancy Rigdon and Martha Brotherton. LDS leaders Sidney Rigdon, George Robinson and Orson Pratt publicly opposed Smith amid the charges of adultery, fornication, “spiritual wifery” and abortion.

What’s clear is that after Bennett was kicked out of Nauvoo, he was angry enough to turn his claimed betrayal by Smith and Mormon leaders into a cottage industry where he lectured against the Mormons in major cities, wrote articles for newspapers calling for Smith’s arrest, and penned a best-selling novel, “The History of the Saints.” As a professional anti-Mormon, author Smith recounts that Bennett was often greeted with skepticism even by enemies of the church. Derided was his claim that he had never embraced Mormonism, but had infiltrated Nauvoo to expose the wickedness of “Joe Smith” and the church.

Smith recounts a final episode in Nauvoo — after Bennett had turned anti-Mormon — where Bennett went to Joseph Smith’s store and paid a longstanding debt. It’s an interesting anecdote that invites speculation that Bennett may have asked Smith for another chance. In any cases, neither the Mormon prophet or Bennett left a written record of the encounter.

Not many know that Bennett, a few years later, rejoined an offshoot of Mormonism, entering the hierarchy of James J. Strang’s church in Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, Bennett was eventually kicked out of Strang’s church but later, Strang — who was eventually assassinated — embraced polygamy. It’s possible that Bennett, tomcatting as usual, swayed Strang toward polygamy. With Strang, Bennett also helped set up a secret “Order of the Illuminati” within that church.

In his post-Nauvoo years, Bennett married a second time and as he got older, his life became less controversial and more sedate. He gravitated toward Iowa and gained a measure of fame for his work breeding chickens. He wrote a well-received book, “The Poultry Book,” that was very popular. Bennett was fortunate, as he developed this interest in breeding during a “poultry craze” that swept the U.S. a decade prior to the Civil War. As Smith relates, Bennett gave a copy of the book to U.S. President Zachary Taylor, who thanked him for the gift.

Although a military surgeon for the North during the Civil War, Bennett’s health prevented him from full activity. His health failed rapidly in the middle 1860s and he died in August of 1867, soon after having a stroke, Smith surmises. A large, prominent grave in Polk City marks his final resting spot.

-- Doug Gibson

Originally published at StandardBlogs

'American Crucifixion' a recap of murder of Joseph Smith

Alex Beam, Boston Globe columnist, has penned a new Mormon-themed history, “American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church,” 2014, PublicAffairs Books. This relatively slim volume, 334 pages, is not a scholarly book, and its exteriors -- including characterizations of major characters, including Smith and newspaper publisher Thomas Sharp -- lack depth. However, the events in Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed by a Warsaw, Ill. mob, goaded in part by Sharp and others, is covered well by the author. Also, the sham trial that exonerated “suspects” who were not among the chief murderers is also well-recapped by Beam.

Beam accurately describes how the enemies of the Mormon Church, once they had Hyrum and Joseph Smith in Carthage, deliberately and patiently lay in wait for the proper opportunity to strike. The courts were on their side; a faux charge was approved by a hostile judge to make sure the Smiths stayed in jail, avoiding a bond release. Thomas Ford, the weak, impotent, self-important governor of Illinois, accurately described by Beam as “pusillanimous,” was easily played by the mob. Ford, a truly ridiculous figure, was traveling to Nauvoo to make a pompous speech to the Latter-day Saints when the Smiths were murdered.

The Carthage Greys, a militia hostile to Mormons, were “guarding” the Carthage jail. One June 27, 1844, the Greys were uncharacteristically slow to defend an attack on the jail by two Warsaw militias. As Beam recounts, the Smith brothers were not in a secure cell, but in a guest room. While companions John Taylor and Willard Richards helped try to keep the mob out, Hyrum Smith was killed by shots through the door. Joseph Smith, who had a small firearm, wounded some of the attackers but was overwhelmed and shot by attackers in the jail and outside firing through a window. Smith, mortally wounded, fell from a second-floor window and was later riddled with bullets. Taylor was badly wounded but survived; Richards suffered only a scratch.

As Beam notes, the murders occurred in minutes, and Carthage was soon emptied of mob participants, now worried that thousands of Mormons would hunt them to avenge the Smiths’ deaths. However, church members were in shock after the violent deaths, and exhortations from Richards not to avenge the murders were overwhelmingly accepted. The Mormons instead focused on a long series of discussions and disputes over who would succeed Smith as church leader. After the murder trial which exonerated Sharp and other Mormon-haters, the anti-Mormon persecution resumed until the majority of Mormons left Nauvoo to go west with Brigham Young.

I have problems with Beam’s portrayal of Joseph Smith and the Mormons of Nauvoo. I’m not looking for a hagiography, and I’m as tired as anyone of the Mormon-themed films that portray Smith as if he has a halo. But Beam casts Joseph Smith as an extreme narcissist, a one-dimensional mixture of lechery, deceit and megalomania. I’m sure many see him that way but one should be allowed a better depiction of an historical figure as complex and gifted as the Mormon Church’s founder. To Beam, Smith appears no better than scoundrels such as Dr. John Bennett, or ill-fated “successor” James J. Strang. They are appropriately historical footnotes, Smith’s legacy includes a church of 14 million.

Smith had faults, and he merits a complex overview. The man who created a city of 10,000 and a church of 20,000, and whose death did not destroy his church, or heartfelt devotion among members to the controversial doctrine of polygamy, needs a deeper study than Beam allows. One tactic used by the author is the “freak show” depiction, in which visitors to Nauvoo who were repelled by Smith are provided as sources; one is a future mayor of Boston, one the son of a U.S. president. This tactic was used often against Utah Mormons in the 19th century, with condescending visitors to Salt Lake City later trashing Young, Parley P. Pratt, or others in articles or books.

Beam does a good explaining the destruction of an anti-Mormon newspaper, started by Mormon leader turned dissident William Law. Smith’s approval of this unwise act served as the prelude to the murders. Nevertheless, the term “rabid anti-Mormons” is not enough to wonder why the antipathy was so deadly. Much of the blame falls to the yellow journalist Sharp, but his character is never explored in sufficient detail. Beam, in an effort to set the scenario prior to the deaths, includes Nauvoo-strife anecdotes, but they are curiously lifeless, with the characters seeming to play roles rather than acting spontaneously.

Despite my concerns, I recommend “American Crucifixion” to readers. Like the Joseph Smith biography, “Rough Stone Rolling,” it does in part convey the isolation of Illinois, as well as the savage bloodlust that was allowed to flourish. The recap of the murders are terrifying. It captures the deliberate killings, as well as the temporary satiation of deadly impulses that the deaths accomplished.

Beam has included a couple of odd footnotes. On page 98, the author claims that Mormon apologists hid polygamy for decades after Nauvoo. But if the author had merely read easily accessible church publications, he would learn that the Mormons were advocating polygamy openly by 1852. Beam’s source for this claim is from “Elder” Ebenezer Robinson, long after Nauvoo. But he was no longer a Utah Mormon. In short, this source is in no position to support Beam’s claim of a long polygamy cover up.

Also, a key source of Beam’s, one Isaac Scott, is listed as a Mormon missionary in 1844 Nauvoo. Besides other quotes, Scott is used by the author to refute historical accounts that Joseph Smith thought he would not survive his jailing in Carthage. Smith is reputed by stronger sources than Scott as believing both he and Hyrum would be murdered. Also, Scott was a critic of Mormonism by early 1844 and subsequently emerged as an enemy as harsh of Smith as Law or Francis Higbee, former members turned apostates. Scott, who eventually became a follower of Strang, seems a poor choice to comment on Smith’s emotions as his death neared. He would not have had access to such information.

Nevertheless, as mentioned, the book’s account of the murders and the ensuing trial makes it worth a read.

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardNet

Assassination of Joseph Smith takes narrative approach to history

“The Assassination of Joseph Smith: Innocent Blood on the Banner of Liberty,” (Cedar Fort, 2015) takes a narrative approach to the murders of Mormon church founder Smith and his brother Hyrum, in 1844. Author Ryan C. Jenkins, a  former Davis County resident, now lives with his family in Columbia, Missouri.

The book tackles roughly the final five years of Joseph Smith’s life, beginning with his imprisonment in Missouri and eventual escape to Illinois. As events draw near to his martyrdom, the action passes in days, and sometimes hours. Jenkins’ pace of the book is brisk and there is tension and emotion as Illinois mobs, enabled by a weak governor, draw closer to the Smiths in a Carthage jail. In fact, the novel-like format reminds me of the series of “Killing Lincoln, ... Kennedy, ...Jesus and ...Patton” books, co-written by commentator Bill O’Reilly, that are popular. However, Jenkins’ “Killing Joseph Smith” is far more spiritual than O’Reilly’s books.

The narrative format defines historical characters more sharply, and more easily maintains a consistent point of view. “The Assassination of Joseph Smith” is written by a staunch Latter-day Saint who presses the point that the murders at Carthage were the inevitable result of a prophet being killed by wicked enemies, sealing his testimony with their bloodshed. 

A strength of the book is its ability to effectively portray the noose of murderers that led Joseph and Hyrum Smith to a a poorly secured room in Carthage jail. The quick action of mobs, once Illinois governor Thomas Ford abandoned the Smiths in Carthage, is a quick, violent account. Like Richard Bushman’s “Rough Stone Rolling,” the anarchic lawlessness of frontier Illinois in 1844, and mob demagoguery— including newspaperman Thomas Sharp, arguably chiefly responsible for the murders — is conveyed.

Jenkins has made some interesting points, some I agree with, others I believe are debatable or not historically definitive. His claim that Nauvoo’s habeas corpus option preventing Smith from out-of-area arrest warrants prolonged his life for years is accurate. He implies, however, that Illinois Governor Thomas Ford was complicit in the martyrdom of the Smiths. I have little use for Ford. He was a political hack, but I don’t think murderer or even associate to murder can be tagged to his name. He was a ridiculous blowhard, loudly scolding the Saints in Nauvoo as the murders occurred, and deserved his obscure future.

Likewise, Jenkins accuses prominent Mormon apostates William and Wilson Law, and others of planning the death of Joseph Smith. His chief sources are two young Nauvoo Mormon men who claimed to hear of the plot while assigned by Smith to secretly infiltrate the group. The Law brothers and others, including Charles and Robert Foster, Chauncey and Francis Higbee, and others became severe enemies of Smith and Mormonism, and provided rhetorical ammo for men capable of murder, such as Sharp and militia members, but I think it remains inconclusive on whether these particular apostates were plotting Smith’s murder.

Jenkins portrays Smith as a man resigned to a violent death, and chiefly concerned that his brother Hyrum avoid the same fate. There is poignancy as Joseph Smith listens to brother Hyrum’s ill-fated optimism as their lives wind down in Carthage. Smith was perceptive enough to realize that apostates — those who had accepted the faith and then turned from it — were his most dangerous enemies, as actions against them were used by Sharp and others to inflame passions.

The destruction of the apostates’ press, “The Nauvoo Expositor,” was a crucial error by Smith. It allowed his enemies to whip enough emotion to force the Smiths from the safety of Nauvoo. Jenkins notes there was council opposition to this action being taken, adding that destroying a press was not unusual in that era. Nevertheless, it was as deeply unpopular then as it is today, and a fatal decision for Smith. A better way of muzzling the Expositor would have been, as suggested, to fine it into bankruptcy.

Jenkins’ book is interspersed with day-to-day activities of the Mormon prophet in Nauvoo, and his opportunity to greet various dignitaries, including scions of prominent politicians. He paints probably an accurate picture of the LDS founder, a gregarious, confident, assertive leader, of athletic build, combative at times, but with a forgiving nature after a dispute. Smith’s introduction of polygamy is covered. In what may be considered ironic, characters such as William Law are criticized as “adulterers” by the author, the same charge that Law accused Smith of.

An interesting overview of Smith’s concept of “theodemocracy” is provided. It’s a democratic government that sets as its standards those established by God. “I teach my people correct principles and they govern themselves,” is a quote from Smith in the book. A portion of the book also deals with Smith’s presidential candidacy, ended by his death, in 1844. I’m not as optimistic as Jenkins on how well Smith would have done had he lived, but I do believe his vote tally would have exceeded five figures.

The book also covers various doctrines Smith revealed, particularly as his death neared. For example, the King Follett sermon, in which the nature of God to man was explained, is covered in detail. 

“The Assassination of Joseph Smith” is a strong addition to faith-promoting accounts of the Mormon founder’s life. As mentioned, its narrative style makes for an interesting, quicker read. Although there is a bibliography and a note that author Jenkins will provide citations upon request, the book I read needs an index; perhaps another edition will include one. Author Jenkins has a website here. I interview him here.

-- Doug Gibson

This review was originally published at StandardNET.