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Episode transcript:
This is Wilford Woodruff, who would later become the 4th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is actor Joel Edgerton, who’d better be playing Wilford Woodruff if there’s ever a movie about him. But if there is a movie, I can’t help but think it’s going to have kind of a Final Destination vibe because Wilford’s life was just one close call with death after the next.
Wilford was born in Connecticut in 1807, to Aphek and Bulah Woodruff. As a toddler, he fell into a cauldron of boiling water. In 1812, he fell down some stairs and broke his arm. In the same year, he fell off his uncle’s porch and broke his other arm. In 1814, he broke his leg in a sawmill accident. In 1816, his cousin thought he was dead after falling 15 feet from a tree. In 1819, he nearly drowned but was saved by a guy named Bacon. 1820: Almost froze to death in a blizzard. 1821: Accidentally split open his foot with an ax. 1823: Thrown from a runaway horse, breaking his leg and dislocating his ankles. 1827: Almost crushed by a water wheel. 1831: Almost crushed by a flour mill. 1841: Survived a shipwreck. 1843: Survived a train wreck. 1846: Crushed by a falling tree which broke 3 ribs, his breast bone, and caused internal injuries.
Guys, he’s not even 40 years old yet, and I’m giving you the abridged version. 1848: Survives another shipwreck. 1856: Poisoned by an infected animal. 1859: Severe lung fever. You get the point. The poor guy had a rough time, but at the end of the day, he credited divine providence for having survived and recovered from his various misfortunes. Now, let’s back up, but stay tuned because I’ve got a surprise for you at the end.
On December 29th, 1833, 26-year-old Wilford attended a public meeting where two Latter-day Saint missionaries were preaching. Wilford was what missionaries in my day would call a golden investigator. He later wrote, “I had been looking, praying, hungering and thirsting to find some man on the face of the earth who had the Priesthood, and who could teach me the Gospel. When I heard this sermon, I knew the voice; I knew the shepherd; I knew it was true.” He was baptized a couple of days later. He wrote, “The snow was about three feet deep, the day was cold, and the water was mixed with ice and snow, yet I did not feel the cold.”
In April of 1834, he moved to Kirtland, and in May, he was already trekking to relieve the persecuted Saints in Missouri as part of Zion’s Camp. In 1837 he married Phebe Carter in Kirtland. By the end of his life, Wilford will have had 10 wives (not all at the same time) and 34 children (12 of whom did not live past childhood). In 1838 Wilford received a call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which you can read about in D&C 118. Wilford was a powerful missionary. One book notes that “Ten of Wilford Woodruff’s first fifteen years in the Church were spent almost exclusively serving missions.”
One of my favorite stories from his life occurred in 1840 while Wilford was preaching in England. His meetings were drawing a significantly larger audience than the local parish, so the local clergyman sent the constable to one of the meetings to have Wilford arrested. After the meeting, instead of the constable arresting Wilford, Wilford was baptizing the constable. Wilford wrote,
“The constable went to the [clergyman] and told him that if he wanted Mr. Woodruff taken for preaching the gospel, he must go himself and serve the writ; for he had heard him preach the only true gospel sermon he had ever listened to in his life. The [clergyman] did not know what to make of it, so he sent two clerks of the Church of England as spies to attend our meeting and find out what we did preach. They both were pricked in their hearts, received the world of the Lord gladly, and were baptized and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The [clergyman] became alarmed and did not venture to send anybody else.”
When the Saints eventually moved west, Wilford was one of the first pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young’s advance group. If you visit the “This is the Place” monument in Salt Lake City, you’ll see that the guy to the right of Brigham Young is Wilford Woodruff.
Wilford witnessed just a massive chunk of early church history. He was there in Kirtland; he was there in Nauvoo; he was there on the Mormon Trail; he was there in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City Temple took 40 years to complete, and Wilford was there from beginning to end. And the cherry on top is that he left behind over 7,000 pages of journal entries that allow us to be a fly on the wall throughout early church history.
After the death of President John Taylor in 1887, the Quorum of the Twelve ran the Church for a time, as was the custom, and Wilford became the next president in 1889. The next year he issued The Manifesto of 1890, which aimed to put an end to new plural marriages in the Church. He served as president of the Church for 9 years before passing away in 1898 at 91 years old.
Now, you’ve made it this far—you deserve a special treat. Wilford Woodruff was the first president of the Church to leave behind for us an audio recording of his voice. On March 19th, 1897 (about 18 months before his death), Wilford Woodruff bore his testimony to a “talking machine,” which recorded his voice on a few hard wax cylinders. The full 4-minute recording is available online in the Church History Catalog, but here’s a snippet for you.
Learning More:
— All things Wilford Woodruff can be found in the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project: https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/
— Wilford Woodruff biography via the Joseph Smith Papers Project: http://tinyurl.com/2fe4f3k8
— A link to scans of Wilford Woodruffs’ journals, via the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project: http://tinyurl.com/228rtvfz
— “Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” via the Church’s website: http://tinyurl.com/2jf7n8x4
— “The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage,” via the Church’s website: http://tinyurl.com/yu54xz9j
— “Classic Stories from the Lives of Our Prophets,” compiled by Leon R. Hartshorn (the chapter on Wilford Woodruff: http://tinyurl.com/mpv6u75z
— “Cylinders preserve the first recording of a prophet,” by Michael De Groote in the Deseret News (June 3, 2010): http://tinyurl.com/4hdk42ds
— Info on Wilford Woodruff’s children: http://tinyurl.com/4tddmdm2
— Info on Wilford Woodruff’s wives: http://tinyurl.com/d6umhrjb
— Further reading:
— “Presidents of the Church: The Lives and Teachings of the Modern Prophets,” edited by Craig Manschill, Robert Freeman, & Dennis Wright.
— “Wilford Woodruff,” by Matthias Cowley.