Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff
Whether it was a revelation or a practical, political decision, his edit ending plural marriages in the Mormon Church a hundred years ago elevated Wilford Woodruff to a place in church annals not far below Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. "On balance, he is arguably the third most important figure in all of Latter-day Saint history after Joseph Smith, who began Mormonism, and Brigham Young, who led the Saints to Utah and supervised the early colonization of the intermountain West," writes author-researcher Thomas Alexander in his newly published book Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, A Mormon Prophet. "A man for his season, Woodruff shepherded Mormonism out of a morass of persecution and isolation," Alexander writes, pointing to the prophet's 1890 "manifesto" that opened the way for Utah statehood and removal of an issue that had stigmatized the church. Woodruff, fourth of 13 Mormon presidents, who served from 1889 to 1898, is credited with saving the church by formally ending plural marriages in church teachings and thus appeasing the United States government, which threatened to dissolve the Mormon Church and confiscate its far-flung property. "What Wilford Woodruff did basically was to bring about this accommodation, which was necessary at the time with the rest of the United States," Alexander said, during a book tour stop in Mesa. "It allowed the church to continue to exist without being destroyed. It allowed the church to prosper." Woodruff, who is believed to have had nine wives over the course of his 91-year-life, "was essentially the architect of the Mormons' accommodation with the rest of the nation," Alexander said. Writing in his diary on Sept. 25, 1890, Woodruff said he had arrived "at a point in the history of my life as president of the church where I am under the necessity of acting for the temporal salvation of the church. The United States government has taken a stand and passed laws to destroy the Latter-day Saints upon the subject of polygamy or patriarchal order of marriage. And after praying to the Lord and feeling inspired by his spirit, I have issued (a) proclamation which is sustained by my councilors and 12 apostles." Plural marriages, which grew out of the teachings and revelations of Smith, were initially open only to the Council of the Twelve Apostles and other high leaders, he said. "It really wasn't open to the church membership until after 1852," he said. "It was resisted by most of the members of the church. It was contrary to their perceptions of normal Christian morality, which had been monogamous." For those who entered into plural marriages, the overwhelming arrangement was no more than two wives, Alexander said. Not more than 20 percent of Mormon men who married entered into polygamy, which hits its peak in the early 1880s. One church leader bemoaned that men entering polygamy needed more spiritual power and patience "to preside over that household" than "to go to the nations and preach the gospel." And, wrote Alexander, "Large families with multiple wives placed considerable strain on the marriage relationship because of demands for clothing and other goods and because of jealousy and family disputes. In February 1857, Woodruff "offered" his daughter Phebe Amelia, soon to turn 15, to Brigham Young, but the president said he "did not wish to marry any more young women" but would find another man for the girl. "On reflection, Woodruff saw some humor in old men chasing girls barely into puberty," Alexander writes. "Writing to George A. Smith, he said that nearly all are trying to get wives until there is hardly a girl 14 years old in Utah." --Associated PressThe trials, successes and failures of a pivotal figure in Mormon history are explored in this detailed biography by the director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Like many 19th-century New Englanders influenced by America's tradition of religious dissent, Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898) moved through phases of spiritual questing until he found a church that matched his scriptural interpretations. Becoming a Latter-day Saint in 1833, he rose to prominence among a community of beleaguered believers in Kirtland, Ohio. During his tenure as church president, he led a reform movement that abolished polygamy (he participated in plural marriages but eventually became monogamous), opened the Mormon community to commerce and worldly business, prepared for the eventual statehood of Utah. An international traveler, tireless in church work, Woodruff emerges here as a complex, often ambitious leader. This biography of "the third most important figure in all of LDS church history" will enhance the Mormon archive, but its appeal to the general reader is less apparent. --Publisher's Weekly