Sidney Rigdon

Sidney Rigdon (1793-1876)

Sidney Rigdon was a Baptist and Campbellite minister, the prophet's spokesman, and founder of "The Children of Zion." Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives.

Family Background

1793. February 19: Born in Saint Clair Township, Pennsylvania. In 1820 he married Phebe Brooks; they had twelve children.

Baptist and Campbellite Minister

1824. A prominent Regular Baptist minister, Rigdon joined Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott in the "Disciples"—the Campbellite movement. He built up large congregations in Mantua and Mentor, Ohio.

1830. Rejecting Rigdon's proposal for an experimental economic community at the annual meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Campbell delivered a "bitter, scathing attack" on Rigdon, who grumbled, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor."

Convert

Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, and Peter Whitmer, Jr., on their way to an Indian mission in Missouri, visited Rigdon. Believing the Book of Mormon, he asked Phebe, "My dear, you have followed me once into poverty, are you willing to do the same again?" Mrs. Rigdon replied, "I have weighed the matter, I have contemplated on the circumstances in which we may be placed. I have counted the cost, and I am perfectly satisfied to follow you; it is my desire to do the will of God, come life or come death." They were baptized November 30 by Oliver Cowdery.

Immediately after his baptism, Rigdon visited Joseph Smith in New York and convinced him that the Church should remove to Ohio's "Western Reserve"—Kirtland. Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith were never thereafter more than a few miles apart until just before the Prophet's death.

Prophet's Counselor and Spokesman

Nine sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon.

1832. February 16: They envisioned "the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fullness. … This is the testimony … which we give of him: That he lives!"

March 8: Joseph Smith ordained Rigdon a counselor in the Presidency of the Church.

March 24: In the middle of the night, a mob seized Rigdon in Hiram, Ohio, dragged him by the heels across the frozen ground, and tarred and feathered him. In the morning, Joseph Smith, who had also been assaulted, found Rigdon out of his mind, asking his wife to bring a razor so he could kill the Prophet. When she refused, he asked Joseph for a razor so he could kill her. Church leaders later speculated that the Hiram mobbing caused Rigdon's periodic instability.

July: Rigdon apparently resented his subordinate position to the Prophet's other counselor, Jesse Gause. While Joseph Smith was out of Kirtland, Rigdon announced to a stunned congregation that God had taken "the kingdom" from Joseph and had given it to him.

The Prophet later told Rigdon, "You had better give up your license and divest yourself of all the authority you can, for you will go into the hands of Satan, and he will handle you as one man handleth another, and the less authority you have the better for you." But Joseph restored Sidney to fellowship three weeks later.

1833. March 18: Chosen first counselor to Joseph Smith in the First Presidency.

October 12: A revelation given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon announced that Rigdon should be "a spokesman unto this people; yea, verily, I will ordain you unto this calling, even to be a spokesman unto my servant Joseph" (D&C 100:9).

A contemporary, Amos S. Hayden, described Rigdon as an "orator of no inconsiderable abilities, his personal influence with an audience was very great ... While speaking, open and winning, with a little case of melancholy … his language copious, fluent in utterance, with articulation clear and musical."

1834. Rigdon was a member of the committee charged to "arrange the items of the doctrine of Jesus Christ for the Government of the Church." The result is now known as the Doctrine and Covenants. Rigdon was also a trustee of the "Kirtland School," where he taught penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, and geography.

Firebrand

1838. July 4: Visiting the beleaguered Saints in Missouri, Rigdon delivered an Independence Day "Call to Liberty" oration. "From this hour, we will bear it no more," he declared. "Our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity; the man, or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us." The oration helped precipitate Governor Boggs's "extermination order" and the expulsion of Mormons from the state.

October 31: Among eighty Mormons arrested on charges ranging from treason to murder, Rigdon was incarcerated for several months in the Richmond and Liberty jails. In Richmond he was "compelled to sleep on the floor with a chain and padlock around his ankle, fastened to six others." The abuse drove Rigdon beyond the breaking point, resulting in fits of uncontrollable laughter and incoherent speech.

1839. February: After pleading his own case before the court, Rigdon was discharged from custody. He was afraid the "mob was watching, and would most certainly take my life," and remained in protective custody ten more days. The sheriff then secretly led him to the place where his family was waiting, "telling me to make my escape, which I did with all possible speed."

Controversial Leader

1839. May: Appointed to petition the federal government for $1,381,044 in compensation for Church losses suffered in Missouri. Deteriorating health prevented him from completing the October trip with Joseph Smith and Elias Higbee. Sick and discouraged, Rigdon returned to Nauvoo and declared "he never would follow Brother Joseph's revelations any more, contrary to his own convenience."

1841. April: Joseph Smith effectively replaced Rigdon in the First Presidency by calling John C. Bennett as an added counselor because of Rigdon's "poor health."

October: Ordained a "Prophet and a Seer and Revelator, and to be equal with him [Joseph Smith] in holding the Keys and authority of this kingdom."

1842. May: Lasting difficulties were created between Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon when Rigdon's daughter Nancy, her brother John, and her brother-in-law George W. Robinson testified that the Prophet had proposed "spiritual marriage" to her. Joseph publicly denied the accusations.

Rigdon wished to keep the problems private: "On my part they were never mentioned to any person, nor a subject of discourse at any time or place." He wrote the Prophet, "I had hoped that all former difficulties had ceased forever."

1843. March 27: Joseph Smith accused Rigdon of "seeking to destroy me and this people" by attempting to turn the Prophet over to Missouri lawmen who sought his extradition.

August 13: Joseph Smith accused Rigdon of conspiring with John C. Bennett and other anti-Mormons, and a Church conference temporarily disfellowshipped him.

October 7: The Prophet proposed that Rigdon be dropped from the First Presidency because he had not fulfilled his Church responsibilities since their arrival in Nauvoo. But Stake President William Marks moved that Rigdon be sustained in his position, and the Church conference voted to retain him. "I have thrown him off my [p.237] shoulders," Joseph declared, "and you have put him on me; you may carry him, but I will not."

Joseph Smith's Vice-Presidential Running Mate

1844. Spring: Joseph Smith again extended a forgiving hand, admitting Rigdon to the Council of Fifty and to the endowment ceremonies of the Holy Order. He also selected him as his vice-presidential running mate, but this choice was apparently made only after other options had failed.

Just before leaving for Pittsburgh, Rigdon allegedly prophesied the death of Joseph Smith and the destruction of Nauvoo. "Poor Rigdon," the Prophet reportedly said, "I am glad he is gone to Pittsburgh, out of the way; were he to preside, he would lead the Church to destruction in less than five years."

Excommunication

1844. After the death of Joseph Smith, Rigdon presented himself to the Church as its "guardian." He was rejected in favor of the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve under Quorum President Brigham Young. Rigdon's continued efforts to make himself a rallying standard for the Church resulted in his excommunication in September.

The next thirty-two years of his life were erratic and pathetic. With great enthusiasm and a significant following, he organized a new Church of Christ in Pittsburgh in April, 1845. But the death of his daughter Eliza shortly thereafter seems to have affected his emotional balance. Prophesying that Cincinnati would soon be destroyed by an earthquake, and New Orleans and London "sink to the bottom of the sea," Rigdon proclaimed that he would soon "sit on the throne of England and lead 'little Vic' [Queen Victoria] by the nose."

Insisting his followers establish a communitarian society on Pennsylvania farmland, Rigdon threatened to wreak blood and vengeance upon opposing local residents. Despite his long opposition to polygamy and his [p.238] published condemnations of its practice, Rigdon introduced a form of polygamy within his declining commune,which totally disintegrated by 1847.

Founder of the Children of Zion

Rigdon retired to Friendship, New York, with his family. Aside from a single episode of preaching in 1859, he had ended his public ministry. But in 1856 he began a strange absentee leadership of a new religious organization. After corresponding with former followers of James J. Strang, Rigdon appointed Stephen Post to be his spokesman, writing him lengthy instructions, revelations, and sermons that were to be read on Rigdon's behalf at meetings of "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion." A small group of followers perpetuated the organization for a few years after Rigdon's death.

1871. Rigdon wrote Brigham Young that he would like to visit Utah if the Church would pay for the trip. Brigham Young was agreeable, commenting that "if it were possible to do the old man any good by him coming here, he should be glad." But before arrangements could be completed, Rigdon wrote again, asking for $100,000 in gold coin in return for spiritual counsel. Counselor George A. Smith's feelings expressed the sentiments of the Church leadership: "He pitied the old gentleman, as he thought he was crazy, and if he had kept faithful, he might have accomplished a great deal of good."

Death

1876. July 14: Died at the age of eighty-three in Friendship, New York; buried in Friendship's Maple Grove Cemetery.

Sources
Chase, Daryl. "Sidney Rigdon: Early Mormon." Master's thesis, University of Chicago, 1931.
Gregory, Thomas J. "Sidney Rigdon: Post Nauvoo." Brigham Young University Studies 21 (Winter 1981):51-67.
History of the Church, 4:341; 5:8, 46, 532, 553-556; 6:47-49.
Hunt, James. Mormonism. Saint Louis: Ustick and Davies, 1844.

Keller, Karl, ed. "'I Never Knew A Time When I Did Not Know Joseph Smith': A Son's Record of the Life and Testimony of Sidney Rigdon." Dialogue 1 (Winter 1966):15-42.
Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate, 1 (January 1845).
McKiernan, F. Mark, The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness: Sidney Rigdon, Religious Reformer (1793-1876). Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1971.
Quinn, D. Michael· "Latter-day Saint Prayer Circles." Brigham Young University Studies 19 (Fall 1978):79-105.
_____. "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844." Brigham Young University Studies 16 (Winter 1976):187-233.
Rollmann, Hans. "The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio·" Brigham Young University Studies 21 (Winter 1981):37-50.
Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Reynolds Cahoon Diary.
_____. Stephen Post Papers.
_____. Sidney Rigdon Papers.
_____. Salt Lake City School of the Prophets Minutes.
_____. Brigham Young Papers.
Times and Seasons, 5:660-666.

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents


	Family Background 1793. February 19: Born in Saint Clair Township, Pennsylvania. In 1820 he married Phebe Brooks; they had twelve children. Baptist and Campbellite Minister 1824. A prominent Regular Baptist minister, Rigdon joined Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott in the "Disciples"—the Campbellite movement. He built up large congregations in Mantua and Mentor, Ohio. 1830. Rejecting Rigdon's proposal for an experimental economic community at the annual meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Campbell delivered a "bitter, scathing attack" on Rigdon, who grumbled, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor." Convert Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, and Peter Whitmer, Jr., on their way to an Indian mission in Missouri, visited Rigdon. Believing the Book of Mormon, he asked Phebe, "My dear, you have followed me once into poverty, are you willing to do the same again?" Mrs. Rigdon replied, "I have weighed the matter, I have contemplated on the circumstances in which we may be placed. I have counted the cost, and I am perfectly satisfied to follow you; it is my desire to do the will of God, come life or come death." They were baptized November 30 by Oliver Cowdery. Immediately after his baptism, Rigdon visited Joseph Smith in New York and convinced him that the Church should remove to Ohio's "Western Reserve"—Kirtland. Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith were never thereafter more than a few miles apart until just before the Prophet's death. Prophet's Counselor and Spokesman Nine sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. 1832. February 16: They envisioned "the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fullness. … This is the testimony … which we give of him: That he lives!" March 8: Joseph Smith ordained Rigdon a counselor in the Presidency of the Church. March 24: In the middle of the night, a mob seized Rigdon in Hiram, Ohio, dragged him by the heels across the frozen ground, and tarred and feathered him. In the morning, Joseph Smith, who had also been assaulted, found Rigdon out of his mind, asking his wife to bring a razor so he could kill the Prophet. When she refused, he asked Joseph for a razor so he could kill her. Church leaders later speculated that the Hiram mobbing caused Rigdon's periodic instability. July: Rigdon apparently resented his subordinate position to the Prophet's other counselor, Jesse Gause. While Joseph Smith was out of Kirtland, Rigdon announced to a stunned congregation that God had taken "the kingdom" from Joseph and had given it to him. The Prophet later told Rigdon, "You had better give up your license and divest yourself of all the authority you can, for you will go into the hands of Satan, and he will handle you as one man handleth another, and the less authority you have the better for you." But Joseph restored Sidney to fellowship three weeks later. 1833. March 18: Chosen first counselor to Joseph Smith in the First Presidency. October 12: A revelation given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon announced that Rigdon should be "a spokesman unto this people; yea, verily, I will ordain you unto this calling, even to be a spokesman unto my servant Joseph" (D&C 100:9). A contemporary, Amos S. Hayden, described Rigdon as an "orator of no inconsiderable abilities, his personal influence with an audience was very great ... While speaking, open and winning, with a little case of melancholy … his language copious, fluent in utterance, with articulation clear and musical." 1834. Rigdon was a member of the committee charged to "arrange the items of the doctrine of Jesus Christ for the Government of the Church." The result is now known as the Doctrine and Covenants. Rigdon was also a trustee of the "Kirtland School," where he taught penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, and geography. Firebrand 1838. July 4: Visiting the beleaguered Saints in Missouri, Rigdon delivered an Independence Day "Call to Liberty" oration. "From this hour, we will bear it no more," he declared. "Our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity; the man, or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us." The oration helped precipitate Governor Boggs's "extermination order" and the expulsion of Mormons from the state. October 31: Among eighty Mormons arrested on charges ranging from treason to murder, Rigdon was incarcerated for several months in the Richmond and Liberty jails. In Richmond he was "compelled to sleep on the floor with a chain and padlock around his ankle, fastened to six others." The abuse drove Rigdon beyond the breaking point, resulting in fits of uncontrollable laughter and incoherent speech. 1839. February: After pleading his own case before the court, Rigdon was discharged from custody. He was afraid the "mob was watching, and would most certainly take my life," and remained in protective custody ten more days. The sheriff then secretly led him to the place where his family was waiting, "telling me to make my escape, which I did with all possible speed." Controversial Leader 1839. May: Appointed to petition the federal government for $1,381,044 in compensation for Church losses suffered in Missouri. Deteriorating health prevented him from completing the October trip with Joseph Smith and Elias Higbee. Sick and discouraged, Rigdon returned to Nauvoo and declared "he never would follow Brother Joseph's revelations any more, contrary to his own convenience." 1841. April: Joseph Smith effectively replaced Rigdon in the First Presidency by calling John C. Bennett as an added counselor because of Rigdon's "poor health." October: Ordained a "Prophet and a Seer and Revelator, and to be equal with him [Joseph Smith] in holding the Keys and authority of this kingdom." 1842. May: Lasting difficulties were created between Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon when Rigdon's daughter Nancy, her brother John, and her brother-in-law George W. Robinson testified that the Prophet had proposed "spiritual marriage" to her. Joseph publicly denied the accusations. Rigdon wished to keep the problems private: "On my part they were never mentioned to any person, nor a subject of discourse at any time or place." He wrote the Prophet, "I had hoped that all former difficulties had ceased forever." 1843. March 27: Joseph Smith accused Rigdon of "seeking to destroy me and this people" by attempting to turn the Prophet over to Missouri lawmen who sought his extradition. August 13: Joseph Smith accused Rigdon of conspiring with John C. Bennett and other anti-Mormons, and a Church conference temporarily disfellowshipped him. October 7: The Prophet proposed that Rigdon be dropped from the First Presidency because he had not fulfilled his Church responsibilities since their arrival in Nauvoo. But Stake President William Marks moved that Rigdon be sustained in his position, and the Church conference voted to retain him. "I have thrown him off my [p.237] shoulders," Joseph declared, "and you have put him on me; you may carry him, but I will not." Joseph Smith's Vice-Presidential Running Mate 1844. Spring: Joseph Smith again extended a forgiving hand, admitting Rigdon to the Council of Fifty and to the endowment ceremonies of the Holy Order. He also selected him as his vice-presidential running mate, but this choice was apparently made only after other options had failed. Just before leaving for Pittsburgh, Rigdon allegedly prophesied the death of Joseph Smith and the destruction of Nauvoo. "Poor Rigdon," the Prophet reportedly said, "I am glad he is gone to Pittsburgh, out of the way; were he to preside, he would lead the Church to destruction in less than five years." Excommunication 1844. After the death of Joseph Smith, Rigdon presented himself to the Church as its "guardian." He was rejected in favor of the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve under Quorum President Brigham Young. Rigdon's continued efforts to make himself a rallying standard for the Church resulted in his excommunication in September. The next thirty-two years of his life were erratic and pathetic. With great enthusiasm and a significant following, he organized a new Church of Christ in Pittsburgh in April, 1845. But the death of his daughter Eliza shortly thereafter seems to have affected his emotional balance. Prophesying that Cincinnati would soon be destroyed by an earthquake, and New Orleans and London "sink to the bottom of the sea," Rigdon proclaimed that he would soon "sit on the throne of England and lead 'little Vic' [Queen Victoria] by the nose." Insisting his followers establish a communitarian society on Pennsylvania farmland, Rigdon threatened to wreak blood and vengeance upon opposing local residents. Despite his long opposition to polygamy and his [p.238] published condemnations of its practice, Rigdon introduced a form of polygamy within his declining commune,which totally disintegrated by 1847. Founder of the Children of Zion Rigdon retired to Friendship, New York, with his family. Aside from a single episode of preaching in 1859, he had ended his public ministry. But in 1856 he began a strange absentee leadership of a new religious organization. After corresponding with former followers of James J. Strang, Rigdon appointed Stephen Post to be his spokesman, writing him lengthy instructions, revelations, and sermons that were to be read on Rigdon's behalf at meetings of "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion." A small group of followers perpetuated the organization for a few years after Rigdon's death. 1871. Rigdon wrote Brigham Young that he would like to visit Utah if the Church would pay for the trip. Brigham Young was agreeable, commenting that "if it were possible to do the old man any good by him coming here, he should be glad." But before arrangements could be completed, Rigdon wrote again, asking for $100,000 in gold coin in return for spiritual counsel. Counselor George A. Smith's feelings expressed the sentiments of the Church leadership: "He pitied the old gentleman, as he thought he was crazy, and if he had kept faithful, he might have accomplished a great deal of good." Death 1876. July 14: Died at the age of eighty-three in Friendship, New York; buried in Friendship's Maple Grove Cemetery. Sources Chase, Daryl. "Sidney Rigdon: Early Mormon." Master's thesis, University of Chicago, 1931. Gregory, Thomas J. "Sidney Rigdon: Post Nauvoo." Brigham Young University Studies 21 (Winter 1981):51-67. History of the Church, 4:341; 5:8, 46, 532, 553-556; 6:47-49. Hunt, James. Mormonism. Saint Louis: Ustick and Davies, 1844. Keller, Karl, ed. "'I Never Knew A Time When I Did Not Know Joseph Smith': A Son's Record of the Life and Testimony of Sidney Rigdon." Dialogue 1 (Winter 1966):15-42. Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate, 1 (January 1845). McKiernan, F. Mark, The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness: Sidney Rigdon, Religious Reformer (1793-1876). Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1971. Quinn, D. Michael· "Latter-day Saint Prayer Circles." Brigham Young University Studies 19 (Fall 1978):79-105. _____. "The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844." Brigham Young University Studies 16 (Winter 1976):187-233. Rollmann, Hans. "The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio·" Brigham Young University Studies 21 (Winter 1981):37-50. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Reynolds Cahoon Diary. _____. Stephen Post Papers. _____. Sidney Rigdon Papers. _____. Salt Lake City School of the Prophets Minutes. _____. Brigham Young Papers. Times and Seasons, 5:660-666.