Diaries of the ‘cowboy apostle’ Ivins include secret Mormon plural marriages, political intrigue

On Sept. 12, 1932, Mormon apostle Anthony W. Ivins, first counselor to LDS President Heber J. Grant, made this diary entry. “On this date Prest. [Heber J.] Grant, who has been unwell for some time with prostrate gland trouble went to Chicago, for the purpose of undergoing an operation. He remained there for several weeks, during which time I was again alone in the office. [D]uring this time the October General Conference was held. I directed the [blank].” … According to editor, Elizabeth O. Anderson, Ivins stopped keeping a diary at this time, and died in 1934, at the then-very old age of 82.

Most of the entries in the latest Signature Books publication of early LDS leaders’ diaries are of the home, travel and work life “mundane.” Nevertheless, like other diaries, such as the 19th century Mormon apostle Abraham H. Cannon, “Cowboy Apostle: The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875-1932,” it is fascinating reading for history buffs as well as scholars (Link). A day-to-day glimpse into the leaders who shaped the LDS Church in the first century of its existence. Ivins, called the “Cowboy Apostle” because he was an impressive physical specimen for most of his life, was a contrast to a typical LDS leader 100 to 120 years ago. He was a monogamist who was nevertheless sent to head the church’s Mexican mission, and conduct secret polygamous marriages years after the first Manifesto was issued. He was an active liberal Democrat who mulled a run for Utah governor and also clashed with another Mormon apostle/monogamist, Sen. Reed Smoot, a Republican.

Ivins arrived in Utah as an infant and his family settled in St. George. A cousin of Heber J. Grant, Ivins married a daughter of Mormon apostle Erastus Snow. In his early years, he was both a lawman and a district attorney in Southern Utah. He also helped on church exploration trips to Arizona and New Mexico.

There are a lot of “sexy” parts (think controversial) in the diaries, and I’ll get to some, but I prefer the “mundane” duties, the experiences, a mission president or apostle conducts during his life. Even today, the LDS Church hierarchy live lives cloistered even from the most active of members. That obscurity provides them a type of celebrity status in the church. Reading Ivins’ accounts of bargaining with a Mexican general to get land for suitable mission quarters, or taking in a “cockfight,” of all things, or resolving a dispute between two subordinates in the mission, or reading, “… went to Tecalco where we held meetings, I met a number of my old converts all of who I was glad to see & they seemed to reciprocate my feelings … (1902)” This is the wheat that provides nourishment for history to be recalled and taught.

As mentioned, Ivins was involved in expeditions as a young man, often under the supervision of his father in law, the apostle Erastus Snow. This entry from January 1878 is typical of Ivins’ life at the time: “This morning Bro. [Erastus] Snow started on with our team to camp at Navajo Springs and wait for us there. There being no forge at the ferry we could not weld the broken tire. We took a piece of heavy iron an[d] riveted it on the outside and I took the wheel back to bring up the wagons while Bro. Hatch made an axle for the one he had broken.”

Ivins witnessed the execution of John D. Lee for the massacre at Mountain Meadows. “… their guns resting on the spokes, the posse fired and Lee sank back upon the coffin, without a struggle, dead.”

A fascinating part of the diaries deals with an expedition, associated with Brigham Young Academy, to try to find Book of Mormon history. The late novelist Samuel Taylor has described this unsuccessful journey, but Ivins provides first-hand diary recollections, detailing the anguish some of the missionaries felt as the expedition stalled long before it could move beyond Mexico and into South America. As Ivins relates in his diaries from 1900, LDS President Lorenzo Snow and other church leaders urged the expedition leaders to disband and return, adding the promise that they would be honorably discharged from their “mission attempt.” The leader of the expedition, Brother Benjamin Cluff Jr., at one point, writes Ivins, “… said he greatly desired to go forward,” (adding) “… if he returned now the expedition would be a failure & his reputation was worth [more] to him than his life.” Ivins relates how church leadership gently tried to reassure Cluff and others that the mission could be ceased.

An interesting tidbit from the diaries is Ivins’ recording a speech from Church President Joseph F. Smith which specifically denounced the already-old “Adam-God” doctrine that Brigham Young had preached with enthusiasm. Ivins’ writes on April 8, 1912 “… Prest. [Charles W.] Penrose spoke on tithing. Adam God theory. Prest [Joseph F.] Smith. Adam God doctrine not a doctrine of the Church. …”

In the appendix of the diaries, there is a list of marriages that Ivins performed in Mexico, including many plural marriages after the First Manifesto. However, after the Second Manifesto, from President Joseph F. Smith at the time of Smoot’s efforts to become a U.S. senator, the ban on polygamy was finally taken seriously. Ivins’ diaries record the discussions between leadership in dealing with these post 1900 marriages. He writes in 1910, “... I have been in council with my quorum. … The question of plural marriages were discussed & it was decided that cases … where plural marriages were entered into prior to 1904 the parties to such marriages should not be molested unless they be cases where the interests of the church are involved. Where men are in prominence in the Church who have taken plural wives since Prest. [Wilford] Woodruff manifesto be removed where it can be done without giving unnecessary offence.” Prominent apostles disciplined for late plural marriages were John W. Taylor and Matthias Cowley.

Ivins lived a fascinating life; the diaries support that statement. Late in his life he disagreed with a statement that political rival Senator Smoot had done more for Mormonism than “all the missionaries,” countering that “he {Smoot] was not the only man in the church.”

These Signature diaries are very expensive but a treasures for those who love delving through history. Hopefully, they are in libraries for those with smaller wallets and purses to enjoy as well. (Another excellent review of this book is from Andrew Hamilton of the Association for Mormon Letters.)

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardBlogs

Mormon one-size-for-all Sacramental goblet was a casualty of the progressive era

I was talking to an elderly woman in my LDS ward and I asked her if her father had mentioned partaking of the Sacrament in a large ward goblet, or chalice, or cup, where everyone, children to ancients, passed the cup around taking a sip. She replied that she’d heard tales of it as a child from her grandmother, who told her she didn’t enjoy taking sips from the cup after those old high priests, with their long beards, had taken hairy sips!

I’d wager most Latter-day Saints who take the Sacrament weekly and sip from tiny paper cups aren’t aware that for about 90 years, members sipping from a large ward Sacrament goblet was the norm in LDS chapels. Frankly, it was the norm in most protestant and Catholic congregations as well. In the fall 2012 “Journal of Mormon History,” Justin R. Bray, an archivist at the LDS Church History Department in Salt Lake City, has a fascinating article. “The Lord’s Supper During the Progressive Era, 1890-1930.” Bray explains that the gradual demise of the single-goblet Sacrament ritual in Mormon chapels was one of many sanitary reforms initiated during the “Progressive Era” in America.

As Bray relates, even before some church members began questioning the use of a large ward goblet, sanitary reformers were already at work initiating reform measures in the cities. One of the first disease-breeding “conveniences” to go were drinking mugs, usually chained next to water fountains in cities. Salt Lake City stopped using public drinking mugs in 1910, for example. The mugs were a health hazard. They allowed people ill with disease to pass on bugs to unlimited numbers of persons. Bray relates one case where an entire student body and faculty of a school was taken ill due to one sick student who drank from a public mug.

As Bray writes, “The Progressive Movement … was an attempt to cure the ills of American society left over from massive industrial growth in the late 1800s.” Reducing disease caused by factory conditions and unsanitary housing was part of the crusade. Many Mormons, including LDS Church President Heber J. Grant, considered themselves progressives. As early as 1900, Bray relates, Seldon Clawsen, a member of the 18th Ward in Salt Lake City, was lobbying LDS leader George Q. Cannon, to do away with the large sacramental cups. Cannon’s death postponed his efforts for about a decade, but by 1910, as Utah was reforming its public drinking locations, efforts were renewed, led by Clawsen, to replace the cups with individual tiny cups and trays.

Initially, there was strong opposition to the idea of replacing the large communal cup, with traditionalists arguing that the Lord would not allow illness to result from his Sacrament. Eventually, an 18th Ward committee recommended ending the large communal cup practice to the bishop and the stake president of the Ensign Stake, where the 18th Ward was located. The stake president cautiously referred the matter to church leadership.

Then-LDS President Joseph F. Smith handled the matter more like a politician than a spiritual leader. As Bray’s article relates, he was”impressed” with the tiny cups but felt that most members would oppose a change. Also, Smith was worried he would be blamed if the tiny cups idea failed.

Eventually, though, as Bray relates, quoting Clawsen’s notes, “President Smith … looked at the floor for a minute or two, then he looked at us and smiled and said, ‘I have it. I’ll turn the matter over to the Council of the Twelve. Then they can take the blame for the failure.’”

Eventually, the Quorum of the Twelve allowed the 18th Ward to use the tiny cups, so long as the ward handled the costs. After a little while, every ward in the Ensign Stake was using tiny cups instead of a large cup.

It wasn’t long before the First Presidency of the LDS Church began recommending, but not mandating, that members use the tiny cups. In an interesting bit of marketing, the LDS Church leaders recommended that wards buy metal sacrament cups and trays patented by a church member, Jacob Schaub, who sold his cups and trays through the Sunday School Union Bookstore. Despite the endorsement, Bray relates that Schaub’s Sacrament set was never very popular with wards, which were not afraid to buy sacramental sets not affiliated with the LDS Church. The article includes old ads from Schaub, and another competitor, Daynes Jewelry Company, that were advertised in LDS church periodicals. Ironically, Brays relates that one objection to the Schaub tray and cups was that they failed to meet sanitation standards. Nevertheless, Schaub prominently placed in his ads that his Sacrament set was “Recommended by the First Presidency.”

For six years, the use of the trays and tiny cups were largely restricted to the Salt Lake City area. LDS President Joseph F. Smith did little to promote a change, church-wide, from the traditional large cups. As Bray relates, what hastened the end of of large, communal Sacrament cups in LDS wards for good was the Spanish Influenza epidemic after World War I. Returning U.S. soldiers brought it to America, where 675,000 Americans died; 21 million across the world. In October 1918, Utah banned all public gatherings, and many residents wore protective masks over mouths. Bray writes, “Whole cities were quarantined. Some cities, like Ogden, allowed people to enter only with a doctor’s certification of good health.”

Ironically, the Spanish flu epidemic claimed the life of LDS President Joseph F. Smith, who died of pneumonia “caused by the influenza virus.” Because of the epidemic, the next LDS president and prophet, Heber J. Grant, was not sustained until June 1919, in a delayed LDS General Conference.

As mentioned, Grant was “progressive by temperament, diligently campaigning for ‘better city ordinances and state laws on the question of proper sanitary conditions,’” writes Bray. During the same conference that sustained him as church president, Grant said that 1,000-plus LDS church members had died from the Spanish flu epidemic in nine months. It wasn’t long before ads for trays and tiny cups became ubiquitous in LDS Church publications, thereby helping sales of trays and cups outside of the Salt Lake valley. In 1923, as Bray relates, a 13-step guide for LDS wards on handling the Sacrament was published in the LDS periodical “The Improvement Era.” As Bray relates, “these instructions stressed that the sacramental water must be distributed in ‘individual glasses’ and ‘carried in trays.’”

No mention was included of a common sacramental cup. After nearly 100 years, the practice of a large common Sacrament cup, passed around to babies, ancients, tobacco users and delicate lips, had ended.

Afternote: For those interested, here’s a 1911 article from The Improvement Era on the LDS Sacrament. Also, the Daynes ad below is from this blog site.

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published in StandardBlogs

90 years ago, book by Davis author served as gift to missionaries from LDS prophet

More evidence that the bookshelves and basements of Latter-day Saints’ homes provide historical value: I’m holding in my hands a book titled, “Flashes From the Eternal Semaphore,” written by Leo J. Muir, published by The Deseret News Press, third edition, 1928. What’s most interesting is the right hand page next to the inside cover, a June 1, 1929 signed note from then-LDS Church President Heber J. Grant to missionary, Raymond D. Kingsford, soon to be sent to the LDS Western States Mission, according to his daughter, Lou Ann Hirsch, who has preserved her late-dad’s gift from a prophet.

The note, on President Grant’s letterhead, reads, Elder Raymond D. Kingsford, (stamped)

Dear Brother:

This excellent book

is presented to you with the

compliments of the author,

Leo J. Muir, and myself. I feel sure you will thoroughly

enjoy its contents and that

it will be an inspiration to

you while on your mission.

Sincerely your brother,

(Heber J. Grant’s signature)

A semaphore is, according to most definitions, “a system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags or poles in certain positions according to an alphabetic code.” (Online Free Dictionary). Muir’s “book” is more or less a collection of inspirational quotes, legends, and stories designed to promote honesty, integrity, and spirituality. Sort of a 1920s’ version of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” It was apparently sent to hundreds of young elders who served missions for the LDS Church long ago.

I think its main historical value is its place as a preferred non-Scripture reference for LDS missionaries of that era. Whether officially endorsed by a prophet or not, every generation of missionaries likely have favorite church-related books that are packed in their bags next to suits, ties, garments, Scriptures, etc. When I was a missionary 29 years ago, I recall buying a small book that included a debate on Mormonism that involved two missionaries and representatives from other faiths. The “judge” was a rabbi, I recall. The book was popular among missionaries, although I can’t recall the title. The LDS debaters won, of course, and even the rabbi judge was converted.

Out of curiosity, I look for this book from time to time at LDS bookstores and can’t find it, although I’m sure I could track it down if I made a serious Deseret Industries/online sales effort. It seems to have run its course — long ago — as a missionary-preferred tool. Some books that never grow out of favor for missionaries are, of course, the LDS Standard Works scriptures, plus books such as “The Articles of Faith” and “Jesus The Christ,” by the early 20th Century apostle James A. Talmadge, who probably knew Leo J. Muir, personally. (“Articles of Faith,” by the way, was a thick, sturdy volume that also served as a sure weapon against flying cockroaches in Peru.)

As for Muir’s “Flashes From the Eternal Semaphore,” here are a few of the nuggets found within the 112 pages:

• “Let us scan at random the lives of great men

and observe how firmly they have mastered

their lives towards the ends they hold dear.

The canny Scotchman, Carnegie, expressed the

philosophy of the captains of industry in this

wise sentence:

‘Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.’

That is the strait and narrow path in business.” (31)

Or,

• “… Moderation and simplicity in

foods, in fashion and in faith lead always to

health, happiness and religious peace of mind.” (32)

Or,

• “The lewdster who amuses himself and others

in this base pastime is seldom aware of the dire

mischief hidden in his speech. Obscenity is

the hostile enemy of all noble virtues.”

One more,

“And well might every youth give solemn

heed to this prophetic counsel:

‘Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth

instruction; but he that regardeth reproof shall be

honored.”

The book is arranged in seven sections, with an Introduction, Five Semaphore Flashes (The first is “The Pursuit of Easy Things Makes Men Weak,” the last, “He That Soweth to the Flesh Shall of the Flesh Reap Corruption,” and has a Conclusion, titled, “The Majesty of Law.”

The author, Leo J. Muir, (1880-1967) was an educator in Davis County for much of his life. He was the first principal of Davis High School and eventually Utah superintendent of schools. When this book was published in the 1920s, Muir lived in California and was an LDS stake president and later the Northern States LDS mission president. A prominent Democrat, Muir was mayor of Bountiful. In 1960, he provided the benediction — following John F. Kennedy’s presidential nomination acceptance speech — at the Democratic National Convention. In Bountiful, there is an elementary school named for him.

-- Doug Gibson

-- Originally published at StandardBlogs