John Wickersham Woolley
Encyclopedia
John Wickersham Woolley was an American
Latter Day Saint and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalism movement.
and Mary W. Woolley, the first of Edwin's seven wives, in Newlin
, Columbia
, Pennsylvania
. Edwin Woolley was originally a Quaker farmer, but converted to Mormonism
in 1837. The Woolley family emigrated to Utah Territory
with the Mormon pioneers in the late 1840s. Edwin would later become Brigham Young
's business manager, as well as one of his closest friends, and a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1853 to 1881.
, deputy sheriff
, deputy territorial marshal, and county commissioner. Within the Nauvoo Legion
(in the State of Deseret
), he served as a Lieutenant
, Captain, Sergeant
and Major
. He participated in the Black Hawk War
, and was one of the ten who crossed the Little Mountain
to meet Johnston's Army
in 1857.
Having been ordained a high priest of the LDS Church by Brigham Young, Woolley served in a bishopric, as a high councilor in the Davis
Stake, and was later ordained a patriarch in the church. He also was an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple
and he opened meetings of the church's general conference with prayer on more than one occasion. Woolley was among the first to meet the handcart companies
in 1856, and in 1860 and 1863 he brought emigrants across the plains
himself. On the last occasion, Joseph F. Smith
acted as the chaplain in his "company", and they became lifelong friends, with Smith having picnics with the Woolley family and speaking at his wife's funeral.
at the same time. He went on later to marry Ann Everington in 1886. In 1910, the widowed Woolley married Annie Fisher, with Joseph F. Smith
performing the civil ceremony.
Woolley was uncle to LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball
, and apostles J. Reuben Clark
and John W. Taylor. He was also the stepfather to the (adult) B. H. Roberts, a member of the First Council of the Seventy.
At the age of 8, Woolley received a patriarchal blessing
from Joseph Smith, Sr.
, who at the time was the Presiding Patriarch of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Within this blessing, Woolley was promised he would “be called to responsible stations,” that it would involve having to “receive keys,” as well as “glory and honor” and “worlds of knowledge and power”, and that he would one day “be called the Lord's anointed.” Fundamentalist Mormons see this as a prophecy of the later role he would play as their leader.
According to an account given by his son Lorin C. Woolley in 1929, when John Taylor
was in hiding there were very few homes in which he felt his safety was secure, and very few people in whom he placed his confidence, Woolley was one of these men. His son Lorin acted as a messenger and sometimes a bodyguard for Taylor. It was in John Woolley's home that Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, Jr. allegedly visited Taylor on the night of September 26, 1886 and where the following day Taylor allegedly set apart
five men (including John, Lorin, and George Q. Cannon
) as apostles, with a special commission to keep alive celestial
plural marriage
by granting them the authority to set apart others in perpetuity. This account is disputed by Latter-day Saint apologists.
In 1890, LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff
issued what has become known as The Manifesto
, officially calling for an end to the practice of plural marriage by church members in the United States
. Because certain members (Woolley among them) did not take The Manifesto seriously, in 1904 another proclamation, sometimes called the Second Manifesto
, was put forth by church president Joseph F. Smith
, which stated that those who did not cease the continuation of the practice would be excommunicated from the church. Woolley did not comply and was excommunicated from the church on March 30, 1914.
Some Mormon fundamentalists believe that the excommunication was just a public act that was not privately accepted by Smith and that Woolley actually became Smith's rightful successor in the prophetic office. Other fundamentalists believe instead that Woolley was a successor to Wilford Woodruff
or John Taylor
. The LDS Church does not accept Woolley as a successor to Smith, Woodruff, or Taylor.
When Woolley died, his son Lorin Woolley succeeded him as a leader among Mormon fundamentalists.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Latter Day Saint and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalism movement.
Early life
Woolley was born to Edwin D.Edwin D. Woolley
Edwin Dilworth Woolley, Sr. was a Mormon pioneer, an early Latter-day Saint bishop in Salt Lake City, and a businessman in early Utah Territory who operated mills....
and Mary W. Woolley, the first of Edwin's seven wives, in Newlin
Newlin
Newlin is a surname, and may refer to:*Alice Newlin, or 'Alice Day', actress, older sister to Marceline*Colin Newlin, American actor and model*Diandra Newlin, American actor, singer, model*Kristen Newlin, Turkish-American basketball player...
, Columbia
Columbia, Pennsylvania
Columbia, once colonial Wright's Ferry, is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 28 miles southeast of Harrisburg on the left bank Susquehanna River across from Wrightsville and York County. Originally, the area may have been called Conejohela Flats, for the many islands and islets in the...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Edwin Woolley was originally a Quaker farmer, but converted to Mormonism
Mormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...
in 1837. The Woolley family emigrated to Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
with the Mormon pioneers in the late 1840s. Edwin would later become Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
's business manager, as well as one of his closest friends, and a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1853 to 1881.
Career and involvement with the LDS Church
Woolley held many responsible civil stations in Utah Territory, such as constable, justice of the peaceJustice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, deputy sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, deputy territorial marshal, and county commissioner. Within the Nauvoo Legion
Nauvoo Legion
The Nauvoo Legion was a militia originally organized by the Latter Day Saints to defend the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, . To curry political favor with the ambiguously-political Saints, the Illinois state legislature granted Nauvoo a liberal city charter that gave the Nauvoo Legion extraordinary...
(in the State of Deseret
State of Deseret
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, propositioned in 1849 by Latter-day Saint settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government...
), he served as a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, Captain, Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
and Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
. He participated in the Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War (Utah)
The Black Hawk War, or Black Hawk's War, from 1865 to 1872, is the name of the estimated 150 military engagement between Mormon settlers in the Four Corners region and members of the Ute, Paiute, Apache and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute chief, Antonga Black Hawk...
, and was one of the ten who crossed the Little Mountain
Little Mountain
Little Mountain may refer to:In the U.S.:*Little Mountain *Little Mountain, South Carolina, a town*Little Mountain , a mountain*Little Mountain *Little Mountain , a mountain...
to meet Johnston's Army
Utah War
The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between LDS settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 until July 1858...
in 1857.
Having been ordained a high priest of the LDS Church by Brigham Young, Woolley served in a bishopric, as a high councilor in the Davis
Davis County, Utah
Davis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2010 the population was 306,479, a 28.2% increase over the 2000 figure of 238,994. It was named for Daniel C. Davis, captain in the Mormon Battalion. The county is part of the Ogden–Clearfield Metropolitan Statistical Area as...
Stake, and was later ordained a patriarch in the church. He also was an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple
Salt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known of more than 130 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the sixth temple built by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth operating temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,...
and he opened meetings of the church's general conference with prayer on more than one occasion. Woolley was among the first to meet the handcart companies
Mormon handcart pioneers
The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used handcarts to transport their belongings...
in 1856, and in 1860 and 1863 he brought emigrants across the plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
himself. On the last occasion, Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
acted as the chaplain in his "company", and they became lifelong friends, with Smith having picnics with the Woolley family and speaking at his wife's funeral.
Family
Woolley was married and sealed to his first wife, Julia E. Sirls, in March 1851 and was endowedEndowment (Latter Day Saints)
In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
at the same time. He went on later to marry Ann Everington in 1886. In 1910, the widowed Woolley married Annie Fisher, with Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
performing the civil ceremony.
Woolley was uncle to LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer Woolley Kimball was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1973 until his death in 1985.-Ancestry:...
, and apostles J. Reuben Clark
J. Reuben Clark
Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr. was an American attorney, civil servant, and a prominent leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Born in Grantsville, Utah Territory, Clark was a prominent attorney in the Department of State, and Under Secretary of State for US president Calvin Coolidge...
and John W. Taylor. He was also the stepfather to the (adult) B. H. Roberts, a member of the First Council of the Seventy.
Involvement with Mormon fundamentalism
Woolley is perhaps best known as the father of Mormon fundamentalism and amongst most fundamentalists is considered an apostle, prophet, and president of the priesthood.At the age of 8, Woolley received a patriarchal blessing
Patriarchal blessing
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a patriarchal blessing is a blessing or ordinance given by a patriarch to a church member. Patriarchal blessings are modeled after the blessing given by Jacob to each of his sons prior to his death...
from Joseph Smith, Sr.
Joseph Smith, Sr.
Joseph Smith, Sr. was the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Sr. was also one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated by Joseph Jr. from the Golden Plates. In 1833 Joseph Sr...
, who at the time was the Presiding Patriarch of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Within this blessing, Woolley was promised he would “be called to responsible stations,” that it would involve having to “receive keys,” as well as “glory and honor” and “worlds of knowledge and power”, and that he would one day “be called the Lord's anointed.” Fundamentalist Mormons see this as a prophecy of the later role he would play as their leader.
According to an account given by his son Lorin C. Woolley in 1929, when John Taylor
John Taylor (1808-1887)
John Taylor was the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States....
was in hiding there were very few homes in which he felt his safety was secure, and very few people in whom he placed his confidence, Woolley was one of these men. His son Lorin acted as a messenger and sometimes a bodyguard for Taylor. It was in John Woolley's home that Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, Jr. allegedly visited Taylor on the night of September 26, 1886 and where the following day Taylor allegedly set apart
Setting apart
Setting apart is an ordinance or ritual in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whereby a person is formally chosen and blessed to carry out a specific calling or responsibility in the church....
five men (including John, Lorin, and George Q. Cannon
George Q. Cannon
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow...
) as apostles, with a special commission to keep alive celestial
Celestial marriage
Celestial marriage is a doctrine of Mormonism, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.Within Mormonism, celestial marriage is an ordinance associated with a covenant that always...
plural marriage
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...
by granting them the authority to set apart others in perpetuity. This account is disputed by Latter-day Saint apologists.
In 1890, LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
issued what has become known as The Manifesto
1890 Manifesto
The "1890 Manifesto", sometimes simply called "The Manifesto", is a statement which officially disavowed the continuing practice of plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, officially calling for an end to the practice of plural marriage by church members in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Because certain members (Woolley among them) did not take The Manifesto seriously, in 1904 another proclamation, sometimes called the Second Manifesto
Second Manifesto
The "Second Manifesto" was a 1904 declaration made by Joseph F. Smith, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , in which Smith stated the church was no longer sanctioning marriages that violated the laws of the land and set down the principle that those entering into or...
, was put forth by church president Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, which stated that those who did not cease the continuation of the practice would be excommunicated from the church. Woolley did not comply and was excommunicated from the church on March 30, 1914.
Some Mormon fundamentalists believe that the excommunication was just a public act that was not privately accepted by Smith and that Woolley actually became Smith's rightful successor in the prophetic office. Other fundamentalists believe instead that Woolley was a successor to Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
or John Taylor
John Taylor (1808-1887)
John Taylor was the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States....
. The LDS Church does not accept Woolley as a successor to Smith, Woodruff, or Taylor.
When Woolley died, his son Lorin Woolley succeeded him as a leader among Mormon fundamentalists.
External links
- John W. Woolley. Biography of John W. Woolley located at www.fldstruth.org (official FLDS website)