Wilford Woodruff

Family Background

1807. March 1: Born in Farmington, Connecticut. He married Phoebe W. Carter in 1837, and later wed Mary Ann Jackson (1846), Mary Caroline Barton (1846), Mary Meek Giles (1852), Clarissa Hardy (1852), Sarah E. Brown (1853), Emma Smith (1853), and Sarah Delight Stocking (1857). Two of his plural wives divorced him: Mary Jackson (1848) and Clarissa Hardy (1853).

He was the father of sixteen daughters and seventeen sons, including Apostle Abraham Owen Woodruff. He was a father-in-law of President Lorenzo Snow.

Accident Prone

Wilford Woodruff recorded that he was involved in twenty-seven serious accidents during his lifetime, breaking every bone in his body except his spine and neck. He fell into a cauldron of scalding water, fell on his face from a barn beam, was gored by a bull, kicked in the stomach by an ox, nearly drowned in a river, split his instep with an ax, nearly froze to death, and was bitten by a mad dog.

Convert

1833. December 29: Wilford Woodruff attended a meeting in Richland, New York, where Zera Pulsipher proclaimed the restoration. "I thought it was what I had long been looking for. I could not feel it my duty to leeve the house without bearing witness to the truth before the people. I opened my eyes to see, my ears to hear, my heart to understand, and my doors to entertain him who had administered to us. Brother Pulsipher continued labouring with us for several days and on the 31th of December I with my Brother—Azmon Woodruff with two yong females which had been healed by the laying on of hands went forward in baptism."

A Freewill Baptist minister and several of his congregation followed the next day, and on January 2, 1834, Elder Pulsipher established a branch, ordaining Azmon Woodruff and the former minister elders, and Wilford Woodruff a teacher. "I truly felt that I could exclaim with the servant of God that it was better to be a door keeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness."

1834. April 1: Parley P. Pratt arrived in Richland to recruit members for Zion's Camp. Ten days later Wilford Woodruff sold his sawmill and gristmill and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he and the rest of the camp began the two- thousand-mile march May 1.

December 31: Wilford Woodruff consecrated "myself together with all my properties and affects unto the Lord." The inventory consisted of "One Due Bill payable in one year, One trunk and its contents principly books, Hat Boots and clothing, One Valiece, One english watch, One rifle and equpments, One sword, One pistol, Also Sundry articles, And Notes which are doubtful and uncertain"—total value $240.00.

Missionary

1835. January 13: A priest, Woodruff began a two-year mission to Arkansas and Tennessee, where he was ordained an elder by Warren Parrish. During 1835 he "traveled 3,248 miles, baptized forty-three people, held one hundred seventy meetings, and organized three branches."

1836. Ordained a seventy, he served a mission to the Eastern States and the Fox Islands (now Vinalhaven, off the coast of Maine.)

1840. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Wilford Woodruff served on the mission to Great Britain. During an eight-month period in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire, he converted 1800 people, including a 600-member United Brethren congregation.

He later presided over the European (1844-1845) and Eastern States (1848-1850) missions.

"Wilford the Faithful"

1838. Ordained an apostle in Missouri by Brigham Young while Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail.

1842. As business manager for the Nauvoo Times and Seasons, he was dubbed "Wilford the Faithful" by the Prophet.

1847. July 24: A member of the pioneer company, Wilford Woodruff viewed the Salt Lake Valley for the first time and wrote, "We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley."

1856. Appointed Church historian. Throughout his life Wilford Woodruff kept a detailed journal which has provided extensive records of the early history of the Church.

A Woodruff eulogizer, J. M. Tanner, said, "He loved to work. … To sweat, was a divine command, as much so as to pray." Whenever he could escape his responsibilities, however, he went fishing in the Jordan River.

In 1895 President Woodruff recorded that since he had joined the Church he had traveled 172,369 miles, attended 7,655 meetings, including 75 semi-annual conferences and 344 quarterly conferences, given 3,526 discourses, confirmed 8,952 people, received 18,977 letters and written 11,519.

Temple Worker

1877. Called to be the first president of the newly completed Saint George Temple, where it was revealed to him that work for the dead could be performed by persons not related. August 21, "I, Wilford Woodruff, went to the temple of the Lord this morning and was baptized for 100 persons who were dead," including the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Napoleon Bonaparte, Christopher Columbus, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and William Wordsworth. The only U.S. presidents excluded were Ulysses S. Grant (who was still alive), Martin Van Buren (who declined to intervene on behalf of Mormon losses in Missouri), and James Buchanan (who sent federal troops to Utah in 1857).

As president of the Church, Woodruff presided over the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1893.

President Woodruff changed the policy of "adoption," whereby many individuals had sealed themselves to prominent Church leaders, in 1894. "When a man receives the endowments, adopt him to his father; not to Wilford Woodruff, nor to any other man outside the lineage of his fathers."

Woodruff himself, according to the March 28, 1894 journal of Abraham H. Cannon, had previously had four hundred unmarried female ancestors sealed to him in a single day.

Fourth President of the Church

1889. April 7: Sustained as fourth president of the Church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors. Wilford Woodruff had served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve since 1880.

1890. September 25: "I have arrived at a point in the history of my life as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," he wrote, "where I am under the necessity of acting for the temporal salvation of the Church. The United States government has taken a stand and passed laws to destroy the Latter-day Saints on the subject of polygamy, or patriarchal order of marriage; and after praying to the Lord and feeling inspired, I have issued the… proclamation [Wilford Woodruff Manifesto] which is sustained by my counselors and the twelve apostles."

The Church had been disincorporated and all its property in excess of $50,000 confiscated by the federal government; more than a thousand men had been sentenced to prison for unlawful cohabitation. In February the Supreme Court had upheld the Idaho law which disfranchised anyone unwilling to take an oath denouncing plural marriage.

1891. October 19: Church leaders hoped that the Manifesto would unlock the door to statehood for Utah and provide relief from federal legislation. But testifying before the [p.400] Master in Chancery for the return of escheated Church property, President Woodruff extended the Manifesto beyond its original intent. When asked if the Manifesto prohibited "living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status," he replied, "I intended the proclamation to cover the whole ground—to obey the laws of the land entirely."

He had been "placed in such a position on the witness stand," he told the Twelve, "that he could not answer other than he did." But according to Abraham H. Cannon, it had previously been agreed that "any man who deserts and neglects his wives or children because of the manifesto, should be handled on his fellowship. … Men must be careful to avoid exposing themselves to arrest or conviction for violations of the law, and yet they must not break their covenants with their wives."

A few days later, President Woodruff reasoned with the Saints in northern Utah: "Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the head of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people … or after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law …?

"The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it … all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice."

For thirteen years the Manifesto was frequently interpreted as an inspired expedient. Though some, like Lorenzo Snow, ceased living with their plural wives, most continued to violate the unlawful cohabitation statute, and, until 1904, hundreds of new plural marriages were authorized in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

1896. Political differences among leading Church officials induced President Woodruff and his counselors to issue a "political manifesto" which stipulated that "men called to spend all their time in the ministry shall not run into politics to the neglect of their spiritual calling without being properly released for that purpose." During the final two years of his administration Wilford Woodruff changed Fast Day from Thursdays to Sundays, ordained his son Abraham Owen Woodruff to the Quorum of the Twelve, became the first president of the Church to make a voice recording, and officiated at the Pioneer Jubilee celebration, dedicating the Brigham Young Monument on South Temple Street [Brigham Street] in Salt Lake City.

Death

1898. Wilford Woodruff suffered from severe insomnia in his later years because of asthma. Occasionally he traveled to the Pacific Coast, where he could sleep better. He died in San Francisco from asthmatic complications at the age of ninety-one on September 2. Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Sources
Cowley, Matthias F. Wilford Woodruff. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909. Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Historical Company, 1901-1936.
Knight, Newell. Journal. Cited in Pearl Wilcox, The Latter Day Saints on the Missouri Frontier. Independence, Missouri: By the Author, 1972.
Quinn, D. Michael. "Organizational Development and Social Origins of the Mormon Hierarchy, 1832-1932: A Prosopographical Study." Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1973.
Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Abraham H. Cannon Journal, 28 March 1894.
_____. Wilford Woodruff Journal.
West, Emerson R. Profiles of the Presidents. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973.

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


	Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898)

				Wilford Woodruff was the fourth president of the Church. Photograph courtesy Utah State Historical Society.


	Family Background 1807. March 1: Born in Farmington, Connecticut. He married Phoebe W. Carter in 1837, and later wed Mary Ann Jackson (1846), Mary Caroline Barton (1846), Mary Meek Giles (1852), Clarissa Hardy (1852), Sarah E. Brown (1853), Emma Smith (1853), and Sarah Delight Stocking (1857). Two of his plural wives divorced him: Mary Jackson (1848) and Clarissa Hardy (1853). He was the father of sixteen daughters and seventeen sons, including Apostle Abraham Owen Woodruff. He was a father-in-law of President Lorenzo Snow. Accident Prone Wilford Woodruff recorded that he was involved in twenty-seven serious accidents during his lifetime, breaking every bone in his body except his spine and neck. He fell into a cauldron of scalding water, fell on his face from a barn beam, was gored by a bull, kicked in the stomach by an ox, nearly drowned in a river, split his instep with an ax, nearly froze to death, and was bitten by a mad dog. Convert 1833. December 29: Wilford Woodruff attended a meeting in Richland, New York, where Zera Pulsipher proclaimed the restoration. "I thought it was what I had long been looking for. I could not feel it my duty to leeve the house without bearing witness to the truth before the people. I opened my eyes to see, my ears to hear, my heart to understand, and my doors to entertain him who had administered to us. Brother Pulsipher continued labouring with us for several days and on the 31th of December I with my Brother—Azmon Woodruff with two yong females which had been healed by the laying on of hands went forward in baptism." A Freewill Baptist minister and several of his congregation followed the next day, and on January 2, 1834, Elder Pulsipher established a branch, ordaining Azmon Woodruff and the former minister elders, and Wilford Woodruff a teacher. "I truly felt that I could exclaim with the servant of God that it was better to be a door keeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." 1834. April 1: Parley P. Pratt arrived in Richland to recruit members for Zion's Camp. Ten days later Wilford Woodruff sold his sawmill and gristmill and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he and the rest of the camp began the two- thousand-mile march May 1. December 31: Wilford Woodruff consecrated "myself together with all my properties and affects unto the Lord." The inventory consisted of "One Due Bill payable in one year, One trunk and its contents principly books, Hat Boots and clothing, One Valiece, One english watch, One rifle and equpments, One sword, One pistol, Also Sundry articles, And Notes which are doubtful and uncertain"—total value $240.00. Missionary 1835. January 13: A priest, Woodruff began a two-year mission to Arkansas and Tennessee, where he was ordained an elder by Warren Parrish. During 1835 he "traveled 3,248 miles, baptized forty-three people, held one hundred seventy meetings, and organized three branches." 1836. Ordained a seventy, he served a mission to the Eastern States and the Fox Islands (now Vinalhaven, off the coast of Maine.) 1840. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Wilford Woodruff served on the mission to Great Britain. During an eight-month period in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire, he converted 1800 people, including a 600-member United Brethren congregation. He later presided over the European (1844-1845) and Eastern States (1848-1850) missions. "Wilford the Faithful" 1838. Ordained an apostle in Missouri by Brigham Young while Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail. 1842. As business manager for the Nauvoo Times and Seasons, he was dubbed "Wilford the Faithful" by the Prophet. 1847. July 24: A member of the pioneer company, Wilford Woodruff viewed the Salt Lake Valley for the first time and wrote, "We gazed with wonder and admiration upon the vast rich fertile valley." 1856. Appointed Church historian. Throughout his life Wilford Woodruff kept a detailed journal which has provided extensive records of the early history of the Church. A Woodruff eulogizer, J. M. Tanner, said, "He loved to work. … To sweat, was a divine command, as much so as to pray." Whenever he could escape his responsibilities, however, he went fishing in the Jordan River. In 1895 President Woodruff recorded that since he had joined the Church he had traveled 172,369 miles, attended 7,655 meetings, including 75 semi-annual conferences and 344 quarterly conferences, given 3,526 discourses, confirmed 8,952 people, received 18,977 letters and written 11,519. Temple Worker 1877. Called to be the first president of the newly completed Saint George Temple, where it was revealed to him that work for the dead could be performed by persons not related. August 21, "I, Wilford Woodruff, went to the temple of the Lord this morning and was baptized for 100 persons who were dead," including the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Napoleon Bonaparte, Christopher Columbus, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and William Wordsworth. The only U.S. presidents excluded were Ulysses S. Grant (who was still alive), Martin Van Buren (who declined to intervene on behalf of Mormon losses in Missouri), and James Buchanan (who sent federal troops to Utah in 1857). As president of the Church, Woodruff presided over the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1893. President Woodruff changed the policy of "adoption," whereby many individuals had sealed themselves to prominent Church leaders, in 1894. "When a man receives the endowments, adopt him to his father; not to Wilford Woodruff, nor to any other man outside the lineage of his fathers." Woodruff himself, according to the March 28, 1894 journal of Abraham H. Cannon, had previously had four hundred unmarried female ancestors sealed to him in a single day. Fourth President of the Church 1889. April 7: Sustained as fourth president of the Church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as counselors. Wilford Woodruff had served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve since 1880. 1890. September 25: "I have arrived at a point in the history of my life as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," he wrote, "where I am under the necessity of acting for the temporal salvation of the Church. The United States government has taken a stand and passed laws to destroy the Latter-day Saints on the subject of polygamy, or patriarchal order of marriage; and after praying to the Lord and feeling inspired, I have issued the… proclamation [Wilford Woodruff Manifesto] which is sustained by my counselors and the twelve apostles." The Church had been disincorporated and all its property in excess of $50,000 confiscated by the federal government; more than a thousand men had been sentenced to prison for unlawful cohabitation. In February the Supreme Court had upheld the Idaho law which disfranchised anyone unwilling to take an oath denouncing plural marriage. 1891. October 19: Church leaders hoped that the Manifesto would unlock the door to statehood for Utah and provide relief from federal legislation. But testifying before the [p.400] Master in Chancery for the return of escheated Church property, President Woodruff extended the Manifesto beyond its original intent. When asked if the Manifesto prohibited "living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status," he replied, "I intended the proclamation to cover the whole ground—to obey the laws of the land entirely." He had been "placed in such a position on the witness stand," he told the Twelve, "that he could not answer other than he did." But according to Abraham H. Cannon, it had previously been agreed that "any man who deserts and neglects his wives or children because of the manifesto, should be handled on his fellowship. … Men must be careful to avoid exposing themselves to arrest or conviction for violations of the law, and yet they must not break their covenants with their wives." A few days later, President Woodruff reasoned with the Saints in northern Utah: "Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the head of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people … or after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law …? "The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it … all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice." For thirteen years the Manifesto was frequently interpreted as an inspired expedient. Though some, like Lorenzo Snow, ceased living with their plural wives, most continued to violate the unlawful cohabitation statute, and, until 1904, hundreds of new plural marriages were authorized in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. 1896. Political differences among leading Church officials induced President Woodruff and his counselors to issue a "political manifesto" which stipulated that "men called to spend all their time in the ministry shall not run into politics to the neglect of their spiritual calling without being properly released for that purpose." During the final two years of his administration Wilford Woodruff changed Fast Day from Thursdays to Sundays, ordained his son Abraham Owen Woodruff to the Quorum of the Twelve, became the first president of the Church to make a voice recording, and officiated at the Pioneer Jubilee celebration, dedicating the Brigham Young Monument on South Temple Street [Brigham Street] in Salt Lake City. Death 1898. Wilford Woodruff suffered from severe insomnia in his later years because of asthma. Occasionally he traveled to the Pacific Coast, where he could sleep better. He died in San Francisco from asthmatic complications at the age of ninety-one on September 2. Buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Sources Cowley, Matthias F. Wilford Woodruff. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909. Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Historical Company, 1901-1936. Knight, Newell. Journal. Cited in Pearl Wilcox, The Latter Day Saints on the Missouri Frontier. Independence, Missouri: By the Author, 1972. Quinn, D. Michael. "Organizational Development and Social Origins of the Mormon Hierarchy, 1832-1932: A Prosopographical Study." Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1973. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Abraham H. Cannon Journal, 28 March 1894. _____. Wilford Woodruff Journal. West, Emerson R. Profiles of the Presidents. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973.