140 years ago today - Mar 18, 1884

[James E. Talmage]

My Hashish eating friend gave me further details at odd times today. Three of us in the University have entered upon the study of the Narcotics in use..

[The Journals of James E. Talmage—Excerpts, Compiled by J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dOE6pgN6OkBJIq-X73JGpCdt0p5b8_UdfTfLREz4uTg/]

190 years ago today - Mar 18, 1834

Joseph Smith secretly ordains Lyman Wight as "Baneemy" which Wight understands as a military calling.

[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]

10 years ago today - 2014-03-17

Church PR Department rejected Ordain Women's Ticket Request

The Church PRDepartment published a letter in the Deseret News rejecting Ordain Women's request for 250 tickets to the Priesthood Session of Conference. The letter states that the press will be barred from Temple Square and states the Ordain Women should be relegated to the "Free Speech Zones" located outside of Temple Square. "

[Mormon Women's History Timeline, http://www1.chapman.edu/~remy/MoFem/mormonwomen.html]

55 years ago today - Mar 17, 1969

First Presidency Letter: "Where the military regulations are of a character that "hinders", that is, makes impossible the wearing of the regulation garments, either in training on the drill grounds or in combat zones, effort should be made to wear underclothing that will approach as near as may be the normal garment. Where military regulations require the wearing of two-piece underwear, such underwear should be properly marked, as if the articles were of the normal pattern. If circumstances are such that different underwear may be turned back to the wearer from that which he sends to the laundry, then the marks should be placed on small pieces of cloth and sewed upon the underwear while being worn, then removed when the underwear is sent to the laundry, and resewed upon the underwear returned. . . . Every effort should be made to protect the garments from the gaze and raillery of scoffers. . . . If the scoffing became unbearable and the wearer should decide that the Lord would
consider he was really "hindered" by the scoffers from wearing the garments, and if he should therefore lay them aside, then the wearer should resume the wearing of the normal garment at the earliest possible moment. A certain amount of curiosity and light comment may be frequently expected, wherever, for one cause or another, the garments are brought into view, but this is not the "hindering" of which the Lord spoke as excusing obedience."

125 years ago today - Mar 17, 1899

[Brigham Young Jr.]

God is blessing the people. I pray Him earnestly to open the way the Pres[ident] [George Q.] Cannon may go to the Senate for I believe he is the man that God wants there to defend His people from the assaults of of lunatic religionists and people here who are robbers and have one desire to drive us out & have our warm places.

[Brigham Young Jr. Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]

45 years ago today - Mar 17, 1979

In one of his nationally syndicated essays, political conservative William F. Buckley praises the LDS missionary program as "a kind of privately financed peace corps."

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

175 years ago today - Mar 17, 1849

Brigham Young instructs Council of Fifty regarding two imprisoned men: "He would show them he was not afraid to take their Head but do as you please with them." Council allows them to live.

140 years ago today - Mar 17, 1884

Future apostle James E. Talmage, at Johns Hopkins University, writes in his journal: "Mar 17. I have been engaged some time in the study of the effects of Narcotics upon the system, i.e. studying the same theoretically only. Today I found a gentleman who works in the same Laboratory as I, and who has for 2 years been addicted to the habit of eating Haschich or extract of Cannabis Indica. He was very willing to give me any data from his own experience; and gave me such." Five days later he includes himself as a subject by taking "Cannabis Indica" himself.

60 years ago today - Mar 16, 1964

Sharlene C. Wells (Hawkes), later the second Latter-day Saint to be crowned Miss America (1985), is born in Asuncion, Paraguay.

75 years ago today - Mar 16, 1949

The Church News reports that a paraplegic convert Mrs. Luett J. Standliff has been baptized while strapped to a stretcher in the Salt Lake Tabernacle baptistery.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

115 years ago today - Mar 16, 1909; Tuesday

[Heber J. Grant]

4:20 had a long talk with Brother A[lpha]. J. Higgs regarding the manifesto issued by the Church. I learned that some people think that there is a chance for plural marriages to be performed, notwithstanding this manifesto and all the declarations that have been made by the Presidency and the Apostles. Brother Higgs assured me that he would use his influence to correct any such impression as this.

[Heber J. Grant, Diary]

120 years ago today - Mar 16, 1904

[John W. Taylor to Joseph F. Smith]

I received telegram and letter about going to Washington [D.C.] for the purpose of testifying in the [Reed] Smoot case [Senate hearings], and I think I fully appreciate what you say upon the subject, and, I must ask you to excuse me from complying with your request in this respect, both on account of my business interests and my own positive disinclinations to do so. ...

[John W. Taylor, Letter to Joseph F. Smith, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]

120 years ago today - Mar 16, 1904

Carl A. Badger, secretary to Apostle and U.S. Senator Reed Smoot writes a letter to a friend: "The people at home may be proud of the showing we have made here, but I am not. It was with humiliation that I heard the brethren acknowledge that the[y] had broken the law of God and of their country. I know that it is folly to condemn individuals when we all are in the same muddle. Public sentiment, the sentiment that you and I have helped create, has sustained them in what they have done. The great wrong is in an attempt to continue what we have promised to give up [polygamy]. I for one hope that the whole truth will come out; I am not in a mood to hide a thing."

125 years ago today - Thursday, Mar 16, 1899

Pres. Jos. F. Smith said a question had been asked in reference to baptism for the dead. Read from Alma (Book of Mormon), Chap. 34, Verses 32, 33, 34, and 35. How can these passages, it was asked, be reconciled with [the] principle of the baptism for the dead? After a few moments of animated discussion, the idea seemed to prevail among the brethren, that, at the time of uttering those words, Amulek could not possibly have been acquainted with the principle of baptism for the dead.

[Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson]

130 years ago today - Mar 16, 1894

[James E. Talmage]

After the Legislature cuts the University of Utah's allocated budget by half, Talmage writes the following in his journal:

Personally, I have never had a desire for the presidency of the institution, and I am loath to step on deck just in time to marshal all hands as the vessel goes down. […] Did I think that the actions of the last Legislature represented the voice and wishes of the people, I should despair of the University's life; but I am convinced that the people have its interests at heart. the University of Utah, under name of the University of Deseret, was founded by Latter-day Saints in the earliest days of the settlement of Utah, in the days of the people's direst poverty. I have faith that it will live. [Journal]

[Chronology of the Life and Work of James E. Talmage, J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MJsHY83JZL_n6CjWq11y1trT_CVXMMXAx2uYOWAwn0c/edit#heading=h.2zfdaoa]

140 years ago today - Mar 16, 1884

[James E. Talmage]

"In the course of my studies I have naturally been brought face to face with the alleged atheistic tendency of scientific thought and the conflict usually said to exist between Science and Religion. Now, I have felt in a dilemma—and begin now to fancy I see a way out. I have been unable to see the point of conflict myself:—my belief in a loving God perfectly accords with my reverence for science, and I can see no reason why the evolution of animal bodies cannot be true—as indeed the facts of observation make it difficult to deny—and still the soul of man is of divine origin. The dilemma which has troubled me is this—being unable to perceive the great difficulty of which Scientists, and Theologians, and Scientific-theologians refer—I have feared that my investigation of the subject was highly superficial, for when such great men as most of the writers upon this subject are—find a puzzle, it would be high egotism for me to say I find no puzzle. And the fancied exit
which I see has appeared from my reading some of John Stuart Mills' writings and I feel—that if I had none other idea of a Deity that those men have, viz., that of an unknown being, whose acts as Mill says "contrary to the highest human morality"—I too would hail atheism with delight.. I could never believe in such a God as theirs, not though one should rise from the grave to declare Him to me. And just as certainly do I perceive that there can be no antagonism between the true science as revealed and made easy by the Priesthood, and the God whose attributes and passions of love and mercy are also declared by that same Priesthood [...]"

[Chronology of the Life and Work of James E. Talmage, J. Trevor Antley, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MJsHY83JZL_n6CjWq11y1trT_CVXMMXAx2uYOWAwn0c/edit#heading=h.2zfdaoa]

145 years ago today - Mar 16, 1879

[John Gilbert]

.... I asked [Martin] Harris once if he had really seen the plates with his naked eyes?--his reply was, No, but with spiritual eyes. ...

[John H. Gilbert to James T. Cobb, 16 March 1879, Theodore A. Schroeder Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library, New York, New York., as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: John H. Gilbert To James T. Cobb]

180 years ago today - Mar 16, 1844

The last Relief Society meeting in Nauvoo is held. The Relief Society doesn't officially meet for ten years. Emma says "if thier ever was any authourity on the Earth she had it— and had yet." She has the sisters vote to sustain Joseph Smith's "Voice of Innocence," which promoted sexual fidelity, and that she wanted "to examin the conduct of their Leaders of this Society— that you may sit in judgement on their heads". Some of the leadership of the society were secretly married to her husband Joseph.

John Taylor later gave the reason that Joseph's wife Emma "made use of the position she held [Relief society president] to try to pervert the minds of the sisters in relation to [plural marriage]."

185 years ago today - Mar 16, 1839

[Wilford Woodruff]

.... I Concluded to go & spent the night with Brother Hale & we had an interesting time together in talking about our travels together upon the Islands of the Sea & also Br Hale gave me an account of his sufferings & those of his family & all the Saints in Missouri during the past winter. For they have suffered much from the inhaditants of Missouri who have turned mob with Governour Bogs at their head. They came upon the Saints from time to time in battle aray. They shot the Saints down like wild beasts & butcherd others in cool blood &nocked the brains out of some after they [had] taken them prisioners. The soldiers shot down the cattle cows & hogs of the Saints for the purpose of destroying them.

The Saints at times stood in their own defence & some of their enemies fell befor them & In consequence of which the Governour Issued orders for the final extermination of the Saints out of the State & sent a general after his own heart to execute his orders forthwith ...

Elder David W. Patten one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Chosen to bear the keys of this last kingdom was one of the marters of the persecution in Missouri in the winter of 1838 he sealed his testimony with his Blood. He died strong in that faith that he had boldly declared through the U.S.A. for the last 7 years of his life &c.

[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

15 years ago today - Mar 15, 2009

HBO TV program "Big Love," about a Mormon Fundamentalist plural family, shows a dramatization of LDS temple Endowment ceremony. Photos of actors in Temple robes are printed in TV guide concerning the program. "Tokens" and veil ceremony are shown in detail.

[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

45 years ago today - Mar 15, 1979-Thursday

[Leonard Arrington]

Alice Smith telephoned this afternoon to say that she had changed her mind about the advice she gave me a month or so ago. At that time she had said that women's affairs in the Church in general and the Relief Society in particular were in such a bad state that she did not think it would be desirable to write a history of the Relief Society at this time. It would be too negative. Alice says that she has changed her mind. She thinks women's affairs in the Church have been down for three or four years but she thinks the pendulum has swung the other way. She had received some confidential information which she cannot reveal to me yet but will later, which suggests that things are on the up in women's affairs. ...

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

70 years ago today - Mar 15, 1954

O. Meredith Wilson is appointed as president of the University of Oregon. Other Mormons appointed as university presidents outside of the intermountain states are Vern O. Knudsen (UCLA, 1959), G. Homer Durham (Arizona State University, 1960), O. Meredith Wilson (University of Minnesota, 1960), Stanford Cazier (California State University at Chico, 1971), E. Gordon Gee (West Virginia University, 1981), David P. Gardner (University of California system, 1984), E. Gordon Gee (University of Colorado, 1985; Ohio State University, 1990), V. Lane Rawlins (Memphis State University, 1990).

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

75 years ago today - Mar 15, 1949

Thirty-one-year-old Harold Brown arrives in Buenos Aires as the new president of the Argentina Mission. He is a former FBI agent with experience as a U.S. Vice-Consul in Uruguay. Suspicious Argentine authorities arrest him temporarily on 9 Sept. This is the beginning of strategic church assignments given to Mormons with training in U.S. intelligence and security services.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

90 years ago today - Mar 15, 1934

[Heber J. Grant]

Had a splendid night's sleep and awoke at 4:45. After my usual forty-five minutes of exercises in bed, which I take nearly every day of my life ... Talked some letters to my dictaphone before getting out of bed.

[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]

135 years ago today - Mar 15, 1889

[Franklin D. Richards]

Apostle John W. Taylor is wrestling with an article for publication in the News'-making acknowledgments for his outlandish talk [that polygamy would not be abandoned] in Nephi [Utah] at conference on 3d inst.

[Franklin D. Richards Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]

180 years ago today - Mar 15, 1844

Joseph H. Jackson, R. D. Foster, William and Wilson Law, and Chauncy Higbee hold secret meetings opposing Joseph Smith.

[Hales, Brian C., Joseph Smith's Polygamy: History and Theology, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2013 (www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com)]

180 years ago today - Mar 15, 1844

Hyrum Smith, in TIMES AND SEASONS, publicly rebukes the Saints in China Creek, Hancock County: "some of your elders say, that a man having a certain priesthood, may have as many wives as he pleases, and that doctrine is taught here: I say unto you that that man teaches false doctrine, for there is no such doctrine taught here; neither is there any such thing practiced here. And any man that is found teaching privately or publicly any such doctrine, is culpable, and will stand a chance to be brought before the High Council, and lose his license and membership also: therefore he had better beware what he is about."

[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

195 years ago today - about Sunday, Mar 15, 1829

Translation of the Book of Mosiah is complete.

[Watson, Elden, Approximate Book of Mormon Translation Timeline, http://www.eldenwatson.net/BoM.htm]

195 years ago today - Circa mid-March 1829

Lucy Harris brings suit against Joseph Jr. at Lyons (NY), during which Martin Harris and others testify. Case dismissed.

[Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents, Appendix B: Chronology, 1771-1831, http://amzn.to/T5nY8w]

115 years ago today - Mar 14, 1909; Sunday

I attended the regular conference of the Salt Lake Stake, and spoke 50 minutes, principally on Prohibition ... Some of my remarks were rather caustic with reference to the attitude of the federal officials, and their fight against prohibition.

[Heber J. Grant, Diary]

125 years ago today - Mar 14, 1899; Tuesday

The First Presidency received a call from Sisters Elmina S. Taylor and Maria Y. Dougall, who bore letters from Sister Susa Young Gates, informing them that Mrs. May Wright Sewall, President of the National Woman's Council of America, had invited Sister Gates to become a delegate to the Quinquennial International Council of Women, to be held in London [England] next June. Sister Gates and Sisters Taylor and Dougall as well, desired to know the mind of the Presidency upon this point. They felt that Sister Gates should accept the appointment. The subject assigned her is the same on which she spoke at the Trans-Mississippi Council of Women, namely, Household Economics, and because of the able manner in which she handled it on that occasion, Mrs. Sewall wanted her to speak upon it at the London Council. ...

Sister Anna, a Sandwich Island girl, who went to Washington [D.C.] with other sisters to attend the Council of Women, called and thanked the Presidency for sending her. She brought a message from Queen Lil- ex-monarch of Hawaii, who wished her to say to the Presidency that her presence and her speech in the Council had done more good for the Sandwich Island people than anything else on that occasion.

[First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes]

145 years ago today - Mar 14, 1879

[Wilford Woodruff]

14 We drove to Lees Ferry and Crossed. I here left Br Johnson who was the ferryman and at home. We then Crossed the Mountain Called Lees Back bone which we named the Hogs Back. It was the worst hill Ridge or Mountain that I Ever attempted to Cross with a team and waggon on Earth. We had 4 Horses on a waggon of 1,500 lb weight and for two rods we Could ownly gain from 4 inches to 24 with all the power of the horses & two men rolling at the hind wheels and going Down on the other side was still more Steep rocky and sandy which would make it much worse than going up on the North side.

I visited the Great Colorado for the first time in my life whare I went to the River. I found it runing between two Stone walls some 2,000 feet high perpendicular. The river itself looked small being such distance from the top of the Earth. We drove to the Navajos Spring watered our horses and drove mile and Camped. 16 M.

[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

180 years ago today - Mar 14, 1844

Lucian Woodworth a member of the Council of Fifty and Nauvoo House architect, is dispatched to Austin, Texas to begin negotiations with the Texas government over a place for Mormons to relocate.

180 years ago today - Mar 14, 1844 - Thursday

[Council of Fifty]

This day the council was together all day again, and the same subjects continued in discussion: as previously. The name of the council was discussed and the Lord was pleased to give the following Revelation; "Verily thus saith the Lord, this is the name by which you shall be called, The Kingdom of God and his Laws, with the keys and power thereof, and judgement in the hands of his servants.

Ahman Christ."

This was read to the council and a vote taken whether the members would adopt that as their name. the vote was unanimous in the affirmative. When this was given there was a general feeling of joy and gratitude ran through the brethren, every heart was satisfied and we had a season of rejoicing before the Lord. It was considered wisdom to burn the minutes in consequence of treachery and plots of designing men.—

[Joseph Smith Papers: Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844-January 1846]

180 years ago today - Thursday, Mar 14, 1844

[Benjamin F. Johnson]

About this time was organized his private council of Fifty,-the embryo kingdom of God upon the earth-an organization distinct from the Church, a nucleus of popular government which will exist for all people when heathen are given [up] for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as a possession "to Him whose right it is to reign"; a government formed of representatives from every nation, principality or tribe upon the earth; a government of God for the people and by the people, in which man will be taught to know his origin and to govern himself, which will continue through the millennial period as the outer wall or government around the inner temple of priesthood, until all are come to the knowledge of God.

[Benjamin F. Johnson autobiography, 87, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)]

45 years ago today - Mar 13, 1979-Tuesday

[Leonard Arrington]

Reflections on Dedicatory Service at Logan Temple

... No blacks that I could see, but a few Indians and Japanese.

... As many women as men here in the Priesthood Room.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

135 years ago today - Mar 13, 1889

At the First Presidency residence, Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith, Franklin D. Richards, John Henry Smith, Moses Thatcher, and Heber J. Grant met to reprimand John W. Taylor for making public remarks that polygamy was not a dead issue and would not be abandoned. Confronted by Wilford Woodruff, Taylor insists that anyone who claimed that polygamy was not mandatory misunderstood the principle. Taylor makes a number of other accusations, but under pressure from colleagues he eventually agrees to make things right. In light of recent federal legislation the church was trying to eliminate public acknowledgment of new plural marriages. President Wilford Woodruff and counselor George Q. Cannon visits the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, "There were over 100 of the Saints there including a Dozon Bishops. They all looked Clean & Comfortable for a Prision."

165 years ago today - Mar 13, 1859

Two members of the Twelve, Charles C. Rich and Wilford Woodruff assist a team of doctors in removing a gall stone. "Cloriform at 7 minutes before 3 oclock. We first Consecrated a bottle of oil & administered it to him by laying on of hands. We gave him an ounce of Cloriform & some 3 oz of Either [ether]. We were 45 minutes giving him the Cloriform. . . . They run a tube up the penus into the bladder, then Cut into the body by the side of the tube in the bladder. He was 10 minutes cutting to the Stone & 14 minutes taking it away making 24 minutes in the operation. The stone was of a dark sand stone Couler, vary rough surface."

[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

175 years ago today - Mar 13, 1849

Apostle George A. Smith writes sixteen-year-old Joseph Smith III, asking him to come to Utah, with or without his mother.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

180 years ago today - Mar 13, 1844

The Council of Fifty appoints Amos Fielding as theocratic ambassador to England. Ambassadorial appointments to the Republic of Texas, the United States, France, and Russia soon follow.

[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]

200 years ago today - Mar 13, 1824

Large revivals in Palmyra area - Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum, Sophronia and Harrison join Presbyterians.

[Natural Born Seer, Richard Van Wagoner p. 208; Chronology of Mormon History, http://followtheprophets.com/chronology-of-mormon-history/]

40 years ago today - Mar 12, 1984

BYU's DAILY UNIVERSE letter to the editor concerning four drawings by undergraduate artist Bob Adams which were removed from a student art exhibition by officials as being "potentially offensive:" "LDS artists cannot and should not ignore the [human] figure, for that would be admitting that the body is evil. . . . If the viewer sees [the drawings] as [erotic, suggestive, or pornographic], perhaps she should examine her own thoughts"

[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

135 years ago today - Mar 12, 1889 (Tuesday)

In the First District Court, at Provo, Thos. Didriksen, of Spanish Fork, was sentenced by Judge Judd to 65 days' imprisonment, and Hans Nielsen (who had just served a term in the Penitentiary, for u.c. [Unlawful Cohabitation, I.E. living with a polygamous wife]) to 125 days' imprisonment, for "adultery." Nielsen petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, representing that he was being punished twice for the same offense. The writ was refused, and the case appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

[Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology]

145 years ago today - Mar 12, 1879

[Joseph F. Smith]

Council of apostles agree to have Orson Pratt publish new edition of Doctrine and Covenants in English with margin notes and index.

[Joseph F. Smith Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]

170 years ago today - Mar 12, 1854

After the funeral of Second Counselor Willard Richards, Heber C. Kimball councils the family: "He advised the family all to hold together & remain as they were on his inheritants & not marry again but to keep themselves for him . . ." Richards was survived by eleven widows. Richards is the first member of the Twelve Apostles or First Presidency to die of natural causes. The first General Authority to die of natural causes was Patriarch Joseph Smith Sr.

[On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

175 years ago today - Mar 12, 1849

Disregarding the newly created Constitution of the State of Deseret, the Council of Fifty holds elections with a slate of unopposed candidates. The Church paper the MILLENIAL STAR reports: "The Election Came off to day and resulted in the unanimous choice of Brigham Young as Governor, Willard Richards Secretary, N[ewell] K. Whitney Treasurer, H[eber] C Kimball Chief Justice, John Tailor and N[ewell] K. Whitney Associate Judges, Daniel H. Wells Attorney General Horace Eldridge Marshall, Albert Carrington Assessor and Collector Joseph L Heywood surveyor of Highways And the Bishops of the several wards as magistrates."