The Papers
Reference
About
General Church Officers, February 1838–August 1839
From 1837 to 1839, church leadership underwent substantial
changes. In late 1837 and early 1838, JS oversaw or approved
the removal and replacement of several officers because of their
disaffection from or dissent against JS and other leaders. Also,
beginning in early 1838, several officers in , Ohio, followed JS in migrating to . The migration of leaders and the majority of other
Latter-day Saints resulted in the need to fill positions in Kirtland and
Missouri. The dynamics of leadership in the church’s ecclesiastical
organization were further disrupted by the imprisonment of JS and other
leaders, the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Missouri, and the
resettlement effort in and .
The following charts provide information regarding the
church and other relevant organizations between 1837 and 1839,
particularly during the period covered in this volume: February
1838–August 1839. The charts depict the organizations and offices of the
general leadership of the church and identify the men known to hold
those offices. The charts also identify several local
ecclesiastical leaders in , , and , as well as traveling
authorities and other significant offices within the church’s
organization. Charts also identify offices in civic
governments in ,
Missouri, which was widely recognized as a county set aside for Mormon
settlement; the Caldwell County regiment of the state militia; the
Society of the Daughter of Zion (also known as the Danite society); and
the Mormon military.
This information has been compiled from minutes of
meetings, other contemporaneous records, and later documents. In
general, the charts present officers in the order they were listed in
founding documents or as they were most commonly listed in documents
from the period. Because not all organizational minutes and other
administrative records are extant, in many cases the information in the
charts has been pieced together from personal letters, journals,
autobiographies, and other available documents.
Church Structure, 1838–1839
General Church Officers
First Presidency
JS, as “President of the High
Priesthood,” and the men who served as to him in that office
formed a . This general church presidency, which was also
called the , oversaw all other
administrative bodies in the church. Initially, the presidency was
composed of JS as president and two other men as counselors. In 1834, the presidency was expanded to
include additional members.
On 3 September 1837, in a reorganization conference held in , Ohio, JS was sustained as president of the church
with two counselors and four assistant counselors. A revelation JS dictated on 26 April 1838 referred to , , and other
counselors, but extant minutes and other documents show no sign of men
functioning as assistant counselors after JS moved from to
in early 1838. The chart below tracks the membership
of the First Presidency and their scribe from 3 September 1837 through
August 1839.
| 3 September 1837 | 7 November 1837 | 6 April 1838 | 12 April 1838 | 28 June 1838 |
| President | President | President | President | President |
| Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. |
| First Counselor | First Counselor | First Counselor | First Counselor | First Counselor |
| Second Counselor | Second Counselor | Second Counselor | Second Counselor | Second Counselor |
| Assistant Counselors | Assistant Counselors | Assistant Counselors | Assistant Counselors | Assistant Counselor |
| Scribe | Scribe | Scribe | ||
Other General Officers
| Patriarch | Clerk and Recorder | Historians |
| (appointed 6 December 1834) | (appointed recorder 17 September 1837; appointed clerk and recorder 6 April 1838) | (appointed 9 April 1831; excommunicated 10 March 1838) |
| (appointed 6 April 1838; disaffected November 1838; excommunicated 17 March 1839) | ||
| (appointed 6 April 1838) |
Agents and Scribe for JS and the
Church
As president of the church, JS appointed several men to act as scribes and agents.
Scribes kept JS’s journals, copied his correspondence, worked on his
history, and produced and copied other papers. Agents acted on JS’s
behalf to purchase land and pay debts. After JS and left for in January 1838, church
agents and worked to resolve JS’s and Rigdon’s debts in
Kirtland and to oversee church property there. As
Latter-day Saints gathered in and , agents
purchased land for Mormon settlement, under the direction of church
leaders.
| By February 1838 | Circa April 1839 | Circa June 1839 |
| Scribe |
| (circa 4 September–circa 5 October 1838; 22 April–3 November 1839) |