Wilford woodruff, 1807 — 1898

Wilford Woodruff was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by Zera Pulsipher. He met Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio and in April,1834 he joined Zion’s Camp and traveled to Missouri to help the saints being persecuted in that area. He stayed in Missouri as a missionary, preaching in Arkansas and Tennessee before returning to Kirkland.

Upon his return to Kirtland, Ohio he married his first wife, Phebe Whittemore Carter. Soon after his marriage to Phebe he was called to serve a mission in New England. Joseph Smith called him to be an Apostle in July 1838, and he was ordained in April 1839. He then served a mission in England from August 1839 until April 1841, leading converts from England to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Woodruff was away promoting Joseph Smith’s campaign for President of the United States at the time of Joseph Smith’s death. After returning to Nauvoo, he and Phebe traveled to England, where he preached and supported local members. Wilford and Phebe returned to the United States just before the saints were driven out of Nauvoo, and he oversaw 40 families in Winter Quarters. He joined the advance company that traveled to Salt Lake Valley without his family in 1847. He then returned to Winter Quarters and he and Phebe left to preside over the Eastern States Mission.

In 1877 Wilford Woodruff became president of the St. George Temple, where endowment ordinances were first performed for the dead as well as for the living. He helped standardize the temple ceremony and taught that church members could act as proxy for anyone they could identify by name. He also ended the sealings members to unrelated priesthood holders.

In 1882, Woodruff went into hiding to avoid arrest for unlawful cohabitation under the Edmunds Act. During this period Woodruff visited Bunkerville, Nevada several times hiding from the US Marshalls. While in Bunkerville he would roam the fields hunting quail and doves and rabbits. He would sleep in the home of Bishop Edward Bunker or Thomas Dudley Leavitt, Sr. When the US Marshalls got tired of looking for him trusted companions from St. George would come to Bunkerville and take him back to Utah. Whenever he traveled between towns, he was accompanied by trusted men to protect him from arrest. 

At the death of John Taylor, third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Wilford Woodruff became the fourth President of the Church in July 1887, and served in that capacity until his death September 2, 1898 in San Francisco, California. His son-in-law, Lorenzo Snow succeeded his as Church President.

Wilford Woodruff’s time as President of the Church was filled with turbulence, fear, and a deep lack of trust towards the Federal government. Congress passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862 which made it illegal for religious entities to own property worth more than $50,000.00 in any territory, and the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 put forth the legal procedure for confiscating Church property. US Marshall Dyer was the appointed receiver of church property, and he confiscated the temple block, the Guardo House, and other offices. The Church was forced to pay rent to Marshall Dyer for the use of their offices. Also, federal judges in Utah stopped approving naturalized citizenship for Mormon immigrant residents in Utah Territory. Anti Mormon sentiment was so strong that $3,000,000.00 in church assets were confiscated in 1887. Any man or woman who practiced polygamy were denied the right to vote thus the church could no longer control political offices in Utah Territory and members of the Liberal Party achieved a majority over the People’s Party in 1890.

Henry W. Lawrence replaced Marshall Dyer and threatened to confiscate the temples in Logan, Manti, and St. George, as they were not used for public worship. Under this devastating flood of threats to the Church, President Wilford Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto, which officially ended the church’s support of plural marriage.