- John W. Woolley
John Wickersham Woolley (
December 30 ,1831 – December 1928) was an AmericanLatter Day Saint and one of the founders of theMormon fundamentalism movement.Early life
Woolley was born to Edwin D. and Mary W. Woolley, the first of Edwin's seven wives, in
Newlin , Columbia,Pennsylvania . Edwin Woolley was originally aQuaker farmer, but he was converted toMormonism in 1837. The Woolley family emigrated toUtah Territory with theMormon pioneers in the late 1840s. Edwin would later becomeBrigham Young 's business manager, as well as one of his closest friends, and a bishop inThe 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 peace , deputysheriff , deputy territorial marshal, and county commissioner. Within theNauvoo Legion (in theState of Deseret ), he served as aLieutenant ,Captain ,Sergeant andMajor . He participated in the Black Hawk War, and was one of the ten who crossed theLittle Mountain to meetJohnston's Army in 1857.Having been ordained a high priest of the LDS Church by Brigham Young, Woolley served on 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.Family
Woolley was married and sealed to his first wife, Julia E. Sirls, in March 1851 and was endowed 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.Cite web|url=http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/NEWFILES/WoolleyLineofAuthorityQuestions.htm|title=According to the Mormon Fundamentalism website|accessdate=2006-11-02]Woolley was uncle to LDS Church President
Spencer W. Kimball , and apostlesJ. Reuben Clark and John W. Taylor. He was also the stepfather to the (adult)B. H. Roberts , a member of theFirst 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 fromJoseph Smith, Sr. , who at the time was thePresiding 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.Fact|date=April 2008According 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 thatJesus Christ andJoseph Smith, Jr. allegedly visited Taylor on the night ofSeptember 26 ,1886 and where the following day Taylor allegedly set apart five men (including John, Lorin, andGeorge Q. Cannon ) as apostles, with a special commission to keep alive celestialplural marriage by granting them the authority to set apart others in perpetuity.Fact|date=April 2008 This account is disputed by Latter-day Saint scholars.Fact|date=April 2008In 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 theUnited States . Because certain members (Woolley among them) did not take The Manifesto seriously, in 1904 another proclamation, sometimes called theSecond Manifesto , was put forth by church presidentJoseph 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 in 1914.Fact|date=April 2008Some Mormon fundamentalistsWho|date=April 2008 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.
ee also
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List of Mormon fundamentalist leaders References
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