Local Church Officers
Within a few years after the church’s organization, and , Ohio, became the two approved places for church
members to gather. In 1834 JS organized the
presidencies and in (the
church in Missouri) and the Kirtland of Zion. In Kirtland, where
the members of the resided, the First
Presidency served as the presidency of the stake. By the end of 1837, the First Presidency was
planning to move from Kirtland to . Before they moved, they appointed a presidency for
the Kirtland stake and emphasized their own role as the presidency
over the entire church.
Before the First Presidency arrived in Far West, the church there
deposed the Zion presidency and appointed two of the resident apostles
to serve as presidents pro tempore until the arrival of the First
Presidency. After arriving, the
First Presidency retained the new Zion presidency and reiterated the
First Presidency’s role of overseeing the entire church.
In the months after the First Presidency moved to , most of the Saints also made the journey, as directed in a revelation
JS dictated in January 1838. Several hundred of the
migrating Saints were directed to settle at ,
where JS established a stake. In 1839, after the Saints were
forcibly expelled from , they relocated to ,
Illinois, and across the in , Iowa
Territory; these areas were organized into stakes by the end of the
year.
Throughout the upheaval and displacement in 1838 and 1839,
the church essentially maintained a pattern of two communities approved
for Mormon settlement. Many of the same people served as the leaders in
these gathering centers. For example, JS appointed and as members of the
presidency and later appointed Smith the president of
and directed Marks to preside over the church in . In May 1839, Marks was appointed president of the
church in , and later that year was appointed president of the church in .
Kirtland Stake
The church organization at , Ohio, began disintegrating in late 1837, when
several leaders dissented from the course that JS and other leaders pursued. The Kirtland
further dissolved in 1838 after most loyal Latter-day Saints followed
the to . Although a few leaders stayed behind to oversee
stake matters and some of the other
leaders were replaced, the last recorded action of the occurred in April 1838. It appears that the Kirtland
presidency dissolved after left in
October 1838. In May 1839, members
at a general conference of the church voted that Kirtland be again
considered “a stake of Zion,” and was
appointed to preside. Because of widespread emigration and
the lack of records, the changing leadership of the stake can be tracked
only in part.
On 3 September 1837, ten men were sustained as members of
the high council. The council continued to function
through at least April 1838, but by that time nearly half of the council
members had left for or had become members of the Kirtland
presidency. As there are no
extant minutes of council meetings in 1838, there is no evidence that
additional counselors were called to replace those who left for
Missouri.
| Presidency | |
| President | Counselors |
| (appointed January 1838; departed October 1838) | (appointed January 1838; departed 5 April 1838) |
| (appointed 4 May 1839; certified 6 May 1839) | (appointed January 1838; departed circa March 1838) |
| [Hugh?] Cole (appointed by 22 July 1838) | |
| Hiram Kellogg (appointed by 22 July 1838) |
| High Council |
| Counselors |
| (in by April 1838) |
| (in by October 1839) |
| (departed circa late April 1838) |
| (departed after August 1838) |
| (appointed president over , 4 May 1839) |
| (in by December 1838) |
| (departed circa late April 1838) |
| (departed for 16 November 1837) |
| (in by late summer 1838) |
| (departed circa late April 1838) |
| Bishop |
| (departed fall 1838) |
| President of the High Priests Quorum |
| (appointed 15 January 1836; departed between 12 January and 7 May 1838) |
| Hiram Kellogg (appointed by 10 June 1838) |
| Presidency of the Elders Quorum |
| President |
| (appointed between 22 January and 26 February 1838; released 17 June 1838) |
| (appointed 10 June 1838) |
| First Counselor |
| (appointed before 26 February 1838; appointed president 10 June 1838) |
| Hezekiah Fisk (appointed 8 July 1838; departed before summer 1839) |
| Counselor (unknown whether first or second) |
| (appointed 26 February 1838; departed 5 July 1838) |
| Second Counselor |
| Lahasa Hollister (appointed 8 July 1838) |
Zion
In 1834, was appointed president of
the church in (), with and as assistant presidents. In early February 1838, the presidency members
were removed from office by a “general assembly” of the church, and
resident apostles and were appointed
presidents pro tempore. When Phelps and John
Whitmer were assistants to David Whitmer, they were also called
presidents. Similarly, the minutes of a 10 February 1838 council meeting
designate both Marsh and Patten as “Presidents, pro. tempor,” but it was
probably understood that Marsh, the president of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, was the preeminent president and Patten was his
assistant. On 6 April, a few weeks after JS and apostle arrived in
(the center of Zion in 1838), the church in Zion
appointed Marsh “President pro tempore of the Church in Zion,” with
Patten and Young as “his assistant presidents.” Marsh, Patten, and
Young were the three most senior apostles. On 8 July 1838, JS dictated a
revelation that appointed , who was then
in , to preside over the Saints in Far West. Marks,
however, did not arrive in Missouri prior to the armed conflict with
other Missourians that erupted in fall 1838 and was therefore never
ordained to the position. In late October
1838, during the height of the conflict, Marsh defected and Patten was
killed, leaving only Young in the presidency. On 16 January 1839, Young met with the Zion for the last time on record, presumably because on the same day, the
wrote a letter directing
the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to take charge of the church since
“the gathering of necessity [had] stopt.” The Missouri Saints were
emigrating from the state, and the organization of Zion was being
dissolved. Shortly thereafter, the high council was effectively
replaced by a committee directing the evacuation effort, further
indicating that the usual church leadership structure in Zion was being
disbanded.
The high council consisted of twelve high
counselors. , as the oldest member of the
council, was designated its president in 1836 and continued in this role
until being released on 6 October 1838. On 12 April 1838, the council
clarified that the president was “to receive charges and give notice to
the defendant, also, to call the Council together and organize
them.” The president of the high council
presided at council meetings except when a member of the Zion presidency
or JS was present and presided. As counselors moved away from , they were released and other men were called in
their stead. Clerk was also replaced because
of dissension, which ultimately led to his excommunication. Substitutes
also served frequently in the place of permanent counselors who were
unavailable. When Murdock was released because he had moved to to help establish a new Mormon settlement there, was appointed to the council and may have been
designated president because he was the oldest high counselor. After the Saints were driven from De
Witt, Murdock rejoined the high council. The last recorded meeting of
the Zion high council occurred on 16 January 1839.
, who had been president
of the quorum of in , followed JS in migrating to . In October 1839, he was sustained as president of
the quorum in at a general church conference in ,
Illinois, suggesting that he replaced
after arriving in Far West, possibly between 6 and 8 July 1838. Smith
served a fund-raising mission from September to December 1838.
By 15 March 1838, Bishop received
authorization from the high council to organize the Aaronic, or lesser,
priesthood quorums in . As bishop, Partridge had authority to preside over
the priests quorum. Additionally, as in 1836, a member of the quorum may
have been appointed as a president of the quorum. Whereas extant records
identify the president of the teachers quorum, extant sources do not
name the president of the deacons quorum.
Presidency
| 7 July 1834–9 February 1838 | 10 February–6 April 1838 | 6 April–circa 20 October 1838 | 25 October 1838–16 January 1839 |
| President | Presidents pro Tempore | President pro Tempore | Acting President |
| (possible served as an assistant to Marsh) | |||
| Assistant Presidents | Assistant Presidents | ||
High Council
| By 7 November 1837 | 6 April 1838 | 7 April 1838 | 6 October 1838 | 13 December 1838 | 16 January 1838 |
| President | President | President | President | President | President |
| ? | ? | ? | |||
| Counselors | Counselors | Counselors | Counselors | Counselors | Counselors |
| Clerk | Clerk | Clerk | Clerk | Clerk | Clerk |
Bishopric
| Bishop |
| (appointed February 1831; sustained 7 November 1837) |
| Counselors |
| (appointed 3 June 1831; sustained 7 November 1837) |
| (appointed 1 August 1837; sustained 7 November 1837) |
| Keeper of the Lord’s Storehouse |
| (appointed 22 May 1837; disaffected October 1838) |
Other Known Melchizedek Priesthood
Leaders
| Patriarch |
| (appointed 7 November 1837) |
| Presidency of High Priests Quorum |
| , president (appointed by 20 August 1837) |
| ?, president (possibly appointed between 6 and 8 July 1838) |
| , counselor (date of appointment unknown; until 6 October 1838) |
| President of Elders Quorum |
| Harvey Green (appointed between 20 August 1837–not after 6 October 1838) |
| (appointed 6 October 1838) |
Other Known Aaronic Priesthood
Leaders
| President of Priests Quorum |
| President of Teachers Quorum |
| (appointed 15 March 1838) |
Licensing Officers
| 6 December 1837–10 February 1838 | 10 February 1838–8 April 1838 |
| Chairman | Chairman |
| (possibly) | |
| Chairman pro Tempore | |
| Clerk | Clerk |
| (possibly) | |
| Clerk pro Tempore | |
| Recording Clerk | |
Other Officers
| Clerk and Recorder |
| (appointed 6 April 1838) |
| Recorder of Patriarchal Blessings |
| (appointed 6 December 1837; excommunicated 12 April 1838) |
| (appointed spring 1838; appointment rescinded 16 January 1839) |
Adam-ondi-Ahman Stake
As , Missouri,
filled with Latter-day Saints, immigration was steered northward to ,
Daviess County, Missouri, where a was organized on 28 June
1838. Because stake records are not extant,
little is known regarding leadership changes before the stake was
dissolved in mid-November 1838, when the state militia forcibly evacuated the Latter-day
Saints from the .
| Presidency |
| President |
| First Counselor |
| Second Counselor |
| High Council |
| John Lemon (excommunicated 10 August 1838) |
| Isaac Perry |
| Bishop pro Tempore |
De Witt Stake
On 23 June 1838, and
, two members of the
, purchased half of the lots in the town plat of , Carroll County, Missouri, under the direction of the
high council and JS. Shortly afterward, Hinkle and
Murdock relocated there with their families. Church member later reported that the intended
to make De Witt “the fourth ‘Stake of Zion,’” after , , and . On 17
September, JS and wrote a letter stating that
De Witt had been recently appointed a . Though designated as a stake,
De Witt was apparently never formally organized with a presidency, high
council, bishopric, or other stake officers.
Charles H. Hales, a Latter-day Saint living in De
Witt, later wrote that George M. Hinkle served as the “president of the
” at De Witt.
Removal and Settlement Committees
Of the several ad hoc committees established throughout the
period covered in this volume, two were especially important: (1) the
committee that supervised the evacuation of the Latter-day Saints from
and (2) the committee that helped the Saints
resettle in . These committees served as interim
organizations for the church after the Saints were forced from their
homes in Missouri and before they established new settlements in
Illinois.
Removal Committee (29 January–14 April
1839)
| 29 January 1839 | 1 February 1839 |
Settlement Committee (circa January 1839–circa March
1839)
| (became sick and never served) |
Commerce
Following the Saints’ expulsion from in spring 1839, they
regrouped in . After JS escaped from state custody and arrived in Illinois in
April 1839, he began to reorganize the Saints at
(later ), Illinois, and
across the river in . On 6 May 1839,
members at a church conference appointed a president and bishop—the two
essential positions of organization—for the church members in
Commerce. Commerce was formally organized as a stake in October
1839.
| President |
| Bishop |