LDS Mormon Facts 141-150
Useful or not, they're still true.
Useful or not, they're still true.
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Author: Curtis Weller
To quote an Apostle of Jesus Christ (of Latter-day Saints);
'Some things that are true are not very useful.'
(Boyd K. Packer, "The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect," CES Symposium, 1981.)
This section of WhyMormons.net devotes itself to such factoids about the mainstream LDS Church and its history.
He said she said: The historical record suggests that Emma Smith, Joseph's wife, may have had such a jealous reaction to Joseph's plural wives, that she began encouraging multiple relationships with other men.
Their corpses: Seven months after Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed, their bodies were moved from the basement of the Nauvoo House and reburied under a little outbuilding near the Homestead. What many won't know is that their bodies were viewed again by many of the Mormon church leaders, having snippets of their burial clothes and their hair cut off as mementos.
This is the place? Mormon church leaders knew as early as 1845 that their 'main settlement will probably be in the neighborhood of Lake Tampanagos [sic, Utah Lake] as that is represented as a most delightful district and no settlement near there.' In fact, a resolution of the Council of 50 on September 9, 1845 resolved that 'a company of 1,500 men be selected to go to Great Salt Lake Valley.'
Brigham Young once offered to lease the Nauvoo Temple to the Catholics 'for a period of from five to thirty-five years, at a reasonable price.'
Brigham Young tried selling the Nauvoo temple before the Mormons left for Utah. Upon learning that he couldn't sell it, fears soon swelled that he would have it burned. Speaking of the Nauvoo Temple, Young stated in the Salt Lake Bowery in 1860, 'I hoped to see it burned before I left...I was glad when I heard of its being destroyed by fire.'
Mormon Trail? Stanley Kimball, historian of the Mormon Pioneer Trail Foundation refutes the idea that the Mormons blazed any such trail on their voyage from Missouri to Utah. Instead, he says, they invariably used roads and trails already used by previous travelers.
Begging Missions: One of the oddest missions men have been sent on, is that of procuring money for the impoverished Mormons in 1847. 150 men were assigned to go to the Eastern United States to ask for money from anyone who would give it, including random strangers they met on the streets. Their efforts weren't very successful.
Because there were no jails on the trek west or in early Utah, the Mormons imposed corporal punishment to deter criminal behavior. The price of stealing from another Mormon? Either pay the victim 4 times the value of the goods or receive 'not exceeding thirty-nine lashes.' The price of stealing from a non-Mormon? Repay the value of the goods and receive the lashing.
After the Nauvoo Temple was burned, the tourist sector in Nauvoo, Illinois diminished greatly. Emma Smith and her second husband, Lewis Bidamon, reported that their Mansion House hotel lost substantial tourist revenue - 'one-fourth the customer [business] it previously had.'
The first settler in Utah? Not a Mormon. He was a fur trapper from Connecticut named Miles Goodyear. He was nice enough to sell his 300 square miles of the new Mormon territory to Brigham Young for $1,950. You can still visit his restored cabin on the Ogden Temple grounds.
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Would you like to submit some facts for this section? Email CurtisWeller@WhyMormons.net with your facts. Please include verifiable source material and the name we should credit for the contribution.
