An Interesting letter from Patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson to Elder Geo. S. Gibbs [photostat], July 1, 1911.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

An Interesting letter from Patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson to Elder Geo. S. Gibbs [photostat], July 1, 1911.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228769937

Photostat of an edited copy of a 1903 letter from Mormon patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson to George S. Gibbs. A one-page introduction by Charles S. Sellers, who transcribed and edited the letter in 1911, precedes the text of the letter. Johnson's letter describes some of the doctrinal views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, as well as personal details about the leaders and about his own life. The letter is sometimes cited to support the claim that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy many years before any official announcement of his revelation on the subject, and that his first plural wife was a young woman named Fanny Alger. Johnson also claims that Smith relinquished his responsibilities and powers to the Council of Fifty while still living, and that after Smith's death, Johnson witnessed a sort of transfiguration of Brigham Young and heard Smith's voice naming Young as his successor. Among other topics, Johnson also discusses the early persecutions of Mormons, Young's leadership on the trip West, and the question of whether a prophet (he discusses Jesus, Smith, and Young) can be changeable or commit errors.

23 pages.

Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7088517

Related Entities

There are 8 Entities related to this resource.

Council of Fifty (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cw0hqt (corporateBody)

Sellers, Charles S.,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64b5wqk (person)

Benjamin F. Johnson (1818-1905) was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835. He was a protégé and friend of the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, a member of the first Council of Fifty, a Western pioneer, and a Mormon patriarch. In 1903, George S. Gibbs, an assistant in the LDS Church Historian's Office, asked him to write down some of his memories of early Mormonism, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young. Charles S. Sellers created an edited...

Smith, Joseph, jr., 1805-1844

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c1xz1 (person)

First president of the Mormon Church and mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois. From the description of Arrest warrant, 1842. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 367395229 First president of the Mormon Church and Illinois militia leader. From the description of Letter, 1843. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145435774 Founder of the Mormon Church and its first president. From the description of Diaries, 1832-1844. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122609014 ...

Sellers, Charles S., fl. 1911.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bp2zm7 (person)

Johnson, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1905

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vt1wnh (person)

Benjamin F. Johnson (1818-1905) was a Mormon missionary and patriarch, farmer, orchardist, and freighter. He served as private secretary to Joseph Smith. From the description of Benjamin F. Johnson photograph, circa 1890. (Brigham Young University). WorldCat record id: 213457759 Benjamin Franklin Johnson, born 28 July 1818 in New York, was a patriarch in the LDS Church and personal friend of Joseph Smith Jr. From the guide to the Benjamin Franklin Johnson papers,...

Alger, Fanny, 1816-1889.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fb7x95 (person)

Gibbs, George S., fl. 1903.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6739m0w (person)

Young, Brigham, 1801-1877

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z42nqx (person)

Second president of the Mormon Church. From the description of Certificate, 1876. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122630973 American religious leader, second president of the Mormon Church, first governor of the Territory of Utah, and colonizer who significantly influenced the development of the American West. From the description of Cash ledger books, 1862-1877. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122480196 From the description of Cash ledger books 1862-1877 ...