General Church Officers, October 1835–January 1838
The following charts list the general leadership of the
Church of the Latter Day Saints between October 1835 and January 1838.
Many of the charts reflect important changes to these organizations
during this
period.
Church Presidency
The general church presidency, or presidency of the high priesthood, was
the presiding body of the church. JS was ordained
president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832; six weeks later,
and were selected
and ordained “councillers of the ministry of the presidency of th[e]
high Pristhood.” Following Gause’s
excommunication in December 1832, was appointed to replace him. In an 18 March 1833 meeting, JS
ordained Rigdon and Williams as “equal with him in holding the Keys of
the Kingdom and also to the Presidency of the high Priest hood.” On 5 and 6 December 1834, , , and were ordained as assistant presidents in the
presidency of the high priesthood.
JS, , , , , and constituted the presidency of the high
priesthood during the majority of the period from October 1835 to
January 1838. Even though was ordained
as the ranking assistant president to JS in December 1834, JS, Rigdon,
and Williams were considered first presidents, constituting the First
Presidency.
In a 7 November 1837 general assembly meeting held in , Missouri, JS nominated to
continue as his counselor in the First Presidency, but the nomination
was objected to by four men, including of the . After some discussion, nominated to take Williams’s
place in the First Presidency, and those gathered at the meeting
unanimously approved the nomination. The assistant counselors, who had been
approved at a 3 September 1837 reorganization conference in , Ohio, were not presented at this Far West meeting
but retained their positions.
| 6 December 1834 | 16 January 1836 | 3 September 1837 | 7 November 1837 |
| President | President | First Presidency | First Presidency |
| Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. | Joseph Smith Jr. |
| Assistant Presidents | Assistant Presidents | ||
| Assistant Counselors | Assistant Counselors | ||
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was organized on 14 February 1835. JS initially referred to the quorum as a “travelling high
council” with responsibility to “preside over all the churches of the
saints . . . where there is no presidency established.” In a 16 January 1836
meeting, JS explained to quorum members that their authority in the
church was “next to” the church presidency. The composition of the quorum remained
the same until the end of December 1837, when and were excommunicated from the church. and were appointed to replace
them shortly thereafter, though they were not officially ordained to the
Quorum of the Twelve until December 1838. Quorum members are listed in order of seniority. For
original quorum members, seniority was determined based on age;
thereafter, new members were ordered based on ordination date.
was actually a year
older than , but Patten died in
1838 before the error was corrected.
| 14 February 1835 | 31 January 1838 |
Patriarch
was ordained patriarch in December 1834 and
began giving patriarchal blessings to members of the church that
month.
| December 1834 |
Presidents of the Seventy
In late February and early March 1835, JS and other church
leaders appointed a number of men to serve as “seventies.” JS’s spring
1835 “Instruction on Priesthood” indicated, “The seventy are to act
in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the twelve . . . in
building up the church and regulating all the affairs of the same, in
all nations”; the instruction also specified that the Quorum of the
Seventy was “called to preach the gospel, and to be especial witnesses
unto the Gentiles and in all the world.”
Unlike other ecclesiastical organizations presided over by a president
and two counselors, the Quorum of the Seventy was led by seven
presidents. It appears that the first seven presidents were appointed
between 28 February and 1 March 1835. In April 1837,
JS determined that the practice of
appointing as leaders of the Seventy was
“wrong, and not according to the order of heaven.” Six of the seven
presidents were asked to join the high priests quorum, and new
presidents were appointed in their stead on 6 April 1837. One of the six
removed, , was in at the time, and when he returned to , he informed church leaders that he had not in fact
been a high priest and should not have been removed. As a result, was asked to join the high priests quorum and Levi
Hancock was reinstated to his former position on 3 September 1837. On 13 January 1838, was excommunicated, along with several other
members of the Quorum of the Seventy, for “rising up in rebellion
against the church.” Gaylord was removed as a
president of the Seventy on 6 February 1838 and replaced by .
| 28 February–1 March 1835 | 6 April 1837 | 3 September 1837 | 6 February 1838 |
First Quorum of the Seventy
Between 28
February and 1 March 1835, JS and other church
leaders appointed forty-four men to serve in the Quorum of the Seventy
and designated seven of them as presidents of the quorum; the rest of
the quorum was appointed during the next year. The first
comprehensive list of quorum members appeared in a broadside published
circa April 1836. All of the men appointed to the quorum had
participated in the 1834
expedition. During summer and fall
1835, many of the Seventy left to preach in surrounding states. Though the composition of
the quorum remained largely the same from early 1835 to early 1838, four
members were moved to the
and replaced in April 1837, and in 1837 and 1838, seven men were removed
for apostasy and for “rising up in rebellion.” On 6 February 1838, the presidents of
the Seventy appointed new members of the First and Second Quorums of the
Seventy to replace those who had been excommunicated.
The charts for the various Quorums of the Seventy list the
members in alphabetical order, except that new members are listed in the
place of the men they succeeded.
| By circa April 1836 | 6 February 1838 |
| Henry Beaman | Henry Beaman |
| Libbeus Coons | Libbeus Coons |
| David Evans | Sherman Gilbert |
| Levi Gifford | Levi Gifford |
| True Gliddon | True Gliddon |
| Michael Griffith | Michael Griffith |
| Levi Nickerson | |
| Jesse Huntsman | |
| Elias Hutchings | Elias Hutchings |
| Charles Kelly | Charles Kelly |
| Elias Wells | |
| Justus Morse | |
| Darwin Richardson | Darwin Richardson |
| James Thompson | |
| Henry Shibley | Henry Shibley |
| William Carpenter | |
| Daniel Stevens | Daniel Stevens |
| Hiram Stratton | |
Second Quorum of the Seventy
Shortly
after calling the and designating men as
seventies in February and March 1835, JS told a grand council
of church officers, “If the first Seventy are all occupied, and there is
a call for more laborers it will be the duty of the seven presidents of
the first seventy to call and ordain other Seventy and send them forth
to labor, in the vineyard until if need be they set a part apart seven
times Seventy.” At least one individual,
Sherman Gilbert, was told in an August
1835 blessing that he would be “numbered with the 2d 70,” but the Second Quorum of the Seventy
was not officially organized until early February 1836. Its seventy
members were selected primarily from the newly organized
. The
quorum remained relatively stable through early 1838, with nearly
three-quarters of quorum members remaining the same. Four quorum
members—, , , and —were selected as presidents of the Seventy on 6 April
1837.
was appointed to the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles in late December 1837. Also in late
December 1837 or early January 1838, five men were removed for “rising
up in rebellion,” and seven members were moved to the First
Quorum of the Seventy to replace those men who had moved to the high
priests quorum or the presidency of the Seventy or who had been
excommunicated. On 6 February 1838,
the presidents of the Seventy appointed new members of the First and
Second Quorums of the Seventy to replace those who had been
removed.
| 8–11 February 1836 | 6 February 1838 |
| Frederick Vanleuven | |
| William Carpenter | Lorenzo Wells |
| Giles Cook | Alanson Pettingall |
| Robert Culvertson | Robert Culvertson |
| Stephen Shumway | |
| James Dayley | James Dayley |
| Daniel Bowen | |
| Garland Meeks | |
| Benjamin Sweat | |
| Sherman Gilbert | |
| Benjamin Webber | |
| Joshua Grant | Joshua Grant |
| John Herritt | John Herritt |
| Edmund Marvin | Edmund Marvin |
| Joel McWithy | Joel McWithy |
| Dana Jacobs | |
| Levi Nickerson | Otis Shumway |
| Ebenezer Page | Ebenezer Page |
| Samuel Phelps | Samuel Phelps |
| William Redfield | William Redfield |
| Elijah Reed | Elijah Reed |
| Almon Sherman | Almon Sherman |
| Stephen Starks | Stephen Starks |
| Arial Stephens | Arial Stephens |
| William Terney | William Terney |
| Charles Thompson | Charles Thompson |
| Chauncey Webb | Chauncey Webb |
| Edmund Webb | Edmund Webb |
| Levi Woodruff | Levi Woodruff |
Third Quorum of the Seventy
The first
twenty-seven members of the Third Quorum of the Seventy were ordained on
20 December 1836; other members were ordained over the succeeding
months. By 3 May 1837, approximately forty-nine men had been ordained to
the quorum. Two members of the
quorum, and , were ordained to the
presidency of the Seventy on 6 April 1837. Nine others were moved to the
First or Second Quorums of the Seventy in 1837 or early 1838 to replace
those men who had moved to other quorums or been excommunicated. Their
replacements were not specified by February 1838 in extant records.
The table below lists known members of the Third Quorum of the Seventy
during the period covered in this volume. Blank spaces in the second
column reflect apparent vacancies in the quorum.
| By 3 May 1837 | 6 February 1838 |
| Blake Baldwin | Blake Baldwin |
| Daniel Bowen | |
| Willard Fisher | Willard Fisher |
| Benjamin Gifford | Benjamin Gifford |
| John Goodson | John Goodson |
| Joel Haskins | Joel Haskins |
| James Holman | James Holman |
| Daniel Jackson | Daniel Jackson |
| Dana Jacobs | |
| Elam Meacham | Elam Meacham |
| Garland Meeks | |
| John Olney | John Olney |
| Amos Orton | |
| Alanson Pettingall | |
| William Presley | William Presley |
| Enoch Sanborn | Enoch Sanborn |
| Otis Shumway | |
| Stephen Shumway | |
| James Snow | James Snow |
| Benjamin Sweat | |
| James Thompson | |
| Frederick Vanleuven | |
| Lorenzo Wells | |
| Charles Wightman | Charles Wightman |
| Levi Wilder | Levi Wilder |
| Abraham Wood | Abraham Wood |
Other Seventies (Quorum Unknown)
Church
records document several other individuals who were appointed as
seventies, but those records do not indicate the quorum to which they
were assigned. Below is a list of those individuals, ordered by date of
ordination.
| March 1835–February 1838 |
| Joseph Winchester |
| George Rose |
| David Nobleman |
| Jeremiah Willey |
| Henry Stevens |
| Dominicus Carter |
| Samuel Parker |
| Amos Jackson |
| Lewis Eager |
| Russell Potter |
| David Dixon |
| Benjamin Ellsworth |
| Cheney Van Buren |