Scott Woodward:
Hi, this is Scott from Church History Matters. This series on Latter-day Saint temple worship is soon coming to an end, and we want to hear your questions. In two weeks we will be pleased to have as our special guest Dr. Richard Bennett to help us respond to your questions about the development of temple worship. Dr. Bennett has literally written the book on this topic, and so he’s more than ready to respond. So please send in your thoughtful questions anytime before May 9, 2024 to podcasts@scripturecentral.org. As always, let us know your name, where you’re from, and try to keep each question as concise as possible when you email them in. That helps out a lot. Okay, now on to the episode. Beginning in 1846, thousands of Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo, Illinois and trekked over 1,000 miles west to the Salt Lake Valley. Having of necessity abandoned the Nauvoo temple for which they had worked so hard and sacrificed so much, they were now a temple-centered people without a temple. Now, they certainly would go on to build more temples, the first of which would be the St. George Temple, completed in 1877. But how would they do temple-related work in the meantime? In today’s episode of Church History Matters, Casey and I walk through the unique story of how temple work continued during that thirty-year season in Utah of no temples, where church leaders used Ensign Peak, a multipurpose building called the Council House, a one-of-a-kind building called the Endowment House, and administrative offices for these purposes. We’ll also highlight some important takeaways from church leaders’ response to the crushing government legislation they faced in the late 1880s when forced with the decision of losing all temples or ending the practice of plural marriage. I’m Scott Woodward, and my co-host is Casey Griffiths, and today Casey and I dive into our seventh episode in this series about the development of Latter-day Saint temple worship. Hi, Casey. 

Casey Griffiths:
Hi, Scott. 

Scott Woodward:
Our temple saga continues today. 

Casey Griffiths:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And this is where we start to get into the territory that not a lot of people know very much about, which is what happens after Joseph Smith died. And this is kind of where I love—the Wild West sort of is where I like to explore things and sort of take an idea that originated in the early Restoration and then see how it developed over time. Just so fun to track these things. 

Scott Woodward:
It’s, like, literally the Wild West, right? That’s where these things develop is out in the Wild West. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. Yeah. This is like—temple work with no temple is a major thing what we’re talking about. Like, how do you do temple work when you don’t actually have a temple? How do you adapt temple ordinances to that kind of environment? And who are the key figures in creating this system of temple worship that we’re familiar with today? Because a lot of it originates with Joseph Smith, but then is taken and further refined, changed, and prepared by people that follow Joseph Smith. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah, it’s a really fun story. So we’re excited to get into all of that today. We’ll see how far we can get. 

Casey Griffiths:
Let’s recap. So there’s a lot to recap. So, Scott, give us an overview of what we’ve already talked about real quick, and then we’ll dive in. 

Scott Woodward:
Well, in our previous episodes we have traced the development of temple work to some of the earliest revelations given to the saints. We talked about the origins of the Missouri Independence Temple, where they plan to build a complex of twenty-four temples at the heart of the city of Zion, and that grew out of the Book of Mormon’s prophecies about the New Jerusalem. However, persecution forced the saints to leave their promised Zion, but they persisted and built their first temple in Kirtland, Ohio. It was the second temple commanded to be built in section 88, but the first one they actually do build. After only a short season where they were blessed immensely—we talked about the Kirtland endowment, the crucial keys especially that were received there under the hands of Moses, Elias, and Elijah, but shortly after that, they were forced from Kirtland as well, and they then planned to build temples in Far West, Missouri and Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, but again persecution raised its ugly head and forces the saints from these locations because neither of those temples are actually ever constructed, right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Far West gets a few cornerstones, and that’s it. So then the next temple to be built is in Nauvoo, Illinois, and even before that temple is announced Joseph Smith has initiated the practice of baptisms for the dead, which begins in the latter part of 1840 in the Mississippi River, and then during the time the temple was under construction there in 1842, Joseph Smith enlarged and updated the washing and anointing element of the endowment that was given in the Kirtland Temple, while at the same time also adding an entirely new piece to the endowment, what we typically think of today as the endowment ceremony, which appears to be an inspired synthesis of elements from Moses 2-6, his Bible translation, perhaps the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham, and Freemasonry, and so it’s clear that Joseph Smith is drawing from all of his revelations and his surrounding environment to put these sacred ordinances into place, and that’s most apparent with what we call the endowment ritual today. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
And then in 1843 he also introduced the ritual of temple marriage, of sealing spouses together. Not coincidentally, marriage sealings began happening concurrently with Joseph teaching the expansive theological concepts of the true nature of God, the reality of Heavenly Mother, the destiny of men and women to become like their Heavenly Parents, and the sealing up of couples unto eternal life, of making their calling and election sure, and all of that is essential sort of theological background to understand why marriage sealings are so important to Latter-day Saints today. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
We also spent some time in our last episode talking about some of the lesser-known temple-related practices that began in Nauvoo, such as the second anointing, which was a ritual that essentially sealed a married couple up unto eternal life. We talked about adoptive sealings, which was a ritual of having non-biologically related people sealed to generally apostles, as their sons and daughters into their family. We also talked about prayer circles that were being done outside the temple, in chapels and in other places, and now these have all been done away with or gone into complete obscurity, right? There’s still whispers that second anointings still happen occasionally, but we have no evidence to confirm that exactly. 

Casey Griffiths:
Well, we know that “Those who know don’t tell, and those who tell don’t know.” 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. And so that’s basically got us caught up to where we’re at now, but I did want to just talk for a second, Casey, before we really dive into what we want to do today. I wanted to just take a moment and talk about this group in Nauvoo called the Quorum of the Anointed.

Casey Griffiths:
Yes. 

Scott Woodward:
Before we get away from the Nauvoo temple, got to talk about the anointed quorum— 

Casey Griffiths:
Yes. 

Scott Woodward:
—a. k. a. “the quorum”, a. k. a. the Holy Order, a. k. a. “the priesthood.” 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And I want to point out that this isn’t just a Nauvoo thing. Like, the Quorum of the Anointed, the Holy Order, established in Nauvoo, is by and large the group that leads the church in Joseph Smith’s death. I mean, officially it’s Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve, and then they re-established the First Presidency, but the influence of this group, who—we call them the Quorum of the Anointed. In my classes, I’ll say they’re like the temple workers. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Like, they were trained to run the temple by Joseph Smith himself. You can’t underestimate their influence. And there is an excellent article on them that you can find in Gospel Library, Church History Topics, called “The Anointed Quorum,” so go and read that, and it’ll give you the basics on the background. And this actually is a really useful thing to know when you’re playing out the history of the church as it occurs throughout the remainder of the 19th century. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah, the Quorum of the Anointed is not talked about enough in my opinion, because this is a group that was the most trusted men and women in Joseph Smith and Brigham Young’s circle, right?

Casey Griffiths:
Yes. 

Scott Woodward:
In fact, I want to quote a little bit from that Gospel Topics entry, where it says this: “Members of the anointed quorum met together sporadically between May 1842 and September 1843 and then more regularly until 1845. Remember Joseph Smith’s death is June 1844, so this is going to be mostly before his death and then about a year and a half after. They’re typically meeting up in his Red Brick Store or in his house. What they’re doing in their meetings is outlined in this article as well. It says, “At their meetings they introduced temple ceremonies to new quorum members, sealed marriages for eternity, counseled with and received instructions from Joseph Smith, and prayed together as a group. As they met, the men and women of the quorum gained experience administering the endowment to others.” And I want to pause and just, like, emphasize what I just said: men and women in this quorum administering the endowment to each other. And Joseph Smith, after administering to them, would have them administer to each other, and he would give them feedback, etc., make sure they’ve really got these ordinances down, and then after Joseph’s death Brigham Young continues to invite more men and women to join this group until the Nauvoo Temple is completed, and then they go to the Nauvoo Temple attic, set things up for the endowment, and then let me quote more from this article. It says, “The men and women of the anointed quorum were the first temple workers administering to over 5,000 saints the ordinances they had received from Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and their fellow quorum members.” And so this group of about seventy, I think is how big it is by December of 1845, that group of seventy is administering the temple ordinances to 5,000 people. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yes.

Scott Woodward:
And the reason I think this is so important, among many reasons, is—I don’t know if you’ve been hearing lately, Casey, but a lot of people have been talking about women and the priesthood. 

Casey Griffiths:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
You’ve noticed this is in the air. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And that’s one of the most important aspects of this story, is to note that the Quorum of the Anointed was not just the most trusted men in Joseph Smith’s circle.

Scott Woodward:
No. 

Casey Griffiths:
It’s the most trusted men and women— 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
—in Joseph Smith’s circle. And they are functionally the leaders of the church from this point onward. If you look at the succession crisis and a lot of things that happen in and around this time, the Quorum of the Anointed is the silent backstory that’s informing a lot of the things that are occurring, and it has major relevance for the discussions we’re having about women and the role of priesthood today. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. And what’s so significant is that they are actually being brought into a group that’s called the priesthood. Like, here’s a statement from Brigham Young from his diary. He said, “Sisters Thurza Cahoon, Louise Cutler, and Phoebe Woodworth was taken into the order of the priesthood today.” This was October 1843. He mentions his wife, Mary A. Young, admitted to the priest order of the priesthood. We’ve got Heber C. Kimball talking about his wife Vilate and other females received into, “the holy order and was washed and anointed by Emma Smith.” Members of that group are calling this the quorum, the Holy Order, or the priesthood.

Casey Griffiths:
Yes. 

Scott Woodward:
And what that has roots in is the earliest priesthood we know in all of scripture. Like, if you look up the word priesthood, just do a computer search in the scriptures, you’ll find the very first reference to it is Exodus 40, verse—I think it’s 15 that’s referring to the sons of Aaron. It’s the Levites who Moses was to take to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and to wash them and anoint them and clothe them in a garment so that they could officiate in the priest’s office, and then it goes on to talk about how that group would become the priesthood going forward. In other words, the word priesthood in its original biblical context is referring to a group of temple workers. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
It’s a group of temple workers. That’s the definition of priesthood. And in ancient Israel there was only male temple workers, and we could maybe talk some other time and speculate why that was. In the New Testament there were only male temple workers. And yet, both in the Old and New Testament, the ideal that the Lord expressed in Exodus 19, and then Peter does it in his epistles, is that the house of Israel would eventually become a holy priesthood collectively, that all of us together would be this chosen generation, this royal priesthood, and so what’s unprecedented, what’s remarkable about Nauvoo, is that now women are being brought into the temple priesthood. That’s huge. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
In fact, I think this is a partial fulfillment of what the Lord told Joseph in D&C 124, verse 41 and 42, where he said, speaking of the Nauvoo temple, “I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times, and I will show unto my servant Joseph all things pertaining to this house and the priesthood thereof.” And if women being brought into the temple priesthood isn’t a fulfillment of that, I don’t know what is, at least a partial fulfillment. Like, this has never happened from before the foundation of the world. Like, this is unique to the dispensation of the fulness of times that there is going to be women in the temple priesthood. And so that’s not just true for Nauvoo. That’s going to be every temple going forward from Nauvoo to our present day. We’ve got women who are officiating in the washing and anointing and in the endowment ceremonies, and that is not insignificant, Casey Griffiths. Not at all. 

Casey Griffiths:
No. No, it’s hugely significant. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
And moving forward, we need to recognize that this is part of the story, too. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Brigham Young is leading the church. He’s got the keys. He’s the presiding officer. But women like Eliza R. Snow, who is sometimes referred to as the priestess of Zion, are playing just as huge a role in instructing women, helping them make covenants, and bringing them essentially into the presence of God. That from here on out, from Nauvoo onwards, is a huge part of the story of temple worship. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
It brings both men and women into the priesthood and clothing them in the garment of the holy priesthood. So, cool stuff. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. So now, going forward, any man or woman who’s endowed and is wearing the garment of the holy priesthood could, at some point, be a worker in the temple. They could join that temple priesthood and be part of those who officiate and mediate between God and man to help people make covenants and progress toward the presence of God.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
In scriptural history that’s always been men, exclusively, until the dispensation of the fulness of times, which is super cool. 

Casey Griffiths:
We should note, too, that the Quorum of the Anointed was not intended to be any kind of exclusive priesthood. The idea was, “I’ll introduce it to the small group, and then we will give it to everybody that qualifies for it.” 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
So with that little corollary, the Quorum of the Anointed is going to be working in the background here. Now we’ve got to talk about what happens when you try to do temple work with no temple. So, couple things to keep in mind: again, I think our whole series is addressing one question, which is, why do the ordinances of the temple change? And that’s based on, maybe, an incorrect assumption we make, which is that the ordinances of the temple don’t change—they’re exactly the same. Contrary to that, Brigham Young said that after he received his endowment, Joseph Smith took him aside and said, “Brother Brigham, this is not arranged perfectly. However, we have done the best we could under the circumstances in which we are placed. I wish you to take this matter in hand. Organize and systematize all of these ceremonies.” So Brigham Young is given the charge, essentially, to take the tools, the LEGOs that—sorry: I’m using your analogy here—and use it to construct a more systematized theology that exists, and he does that. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
What happens during Brigham Young’s presidency is that they continue to experiment with these temple ordinances and arrange them, and finally the whole picture that we’re familiar with and somewhat take for granted in the Church today isn’t first administered in the Nauvoo Temple: It’s administered in the St. George Temple, the first temple built in the Utah Territory. 

Scott Woodward:
And that’s not until, what, 1877? 

Casey Griffiths:
1877 is when the St. George Temple is dedicated, which is the year Brigham Young passes on as well. So you’ve got thirty years from when Brigham Young is sustained as president of the church and the First Presidency is reconstituted.

Scott Woodward:
1847. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. He functionally leads the church from 1844, but it’s 1847 when he finally reconstitutes the First Presidency, and then to 1877, thirty years, when he serves as the leader of the First Presidency of the church. 

Scott Woodward:
So what happens during those thirty years? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yes. So they continue to administer endowments. In fact, there’s some endowments performed at places like Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Winter Quarters, Wilford Woodruff even experiments with doing baptisms for the dead. So the ordinances of the temple are foremost in their mind, and the revelations that Brigham Young receives hearken back to temple covenants. Let each company bear an equal proportion. In section 136 is an obvious reference to their commitment to live the law of consecration. However, when they get to Utah there’s nothing. I mean, there’s no European settlements in Utah. There’s these wonderful Native American tribes that they hope to share the gospel with, but nothing to start with. 

Scott Woodward:
Lots of sagebrush. 

Casey Griffiths:
Lots of sagebrush. And so this is kind of cool, but the very first endowment which is performed in Utah is not carried out in a temple.

Scott Woodward:
Whoa. Where was it carried out? 

Casey Griffiths:
Ensign Peak, just north of Salt Lake City. 

Scott Woodward:
Ensign Peak. Yes. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. Everybody that can get there should hike Ensign Peak. It’s beautiful. Panoramic views. 

Scott Woodward:
Just behind the state capitol, if you ever want to. 

Casey Griffiths:
Just behind the state capitol. 

Scott Woodward:
Head up there. Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Lovely view of the Salt Lake Temple and surrounding environments.

Scott Woodward:
Super beautiful. Yes. 

Casey Griffiths:
Anyway, the record that we have is that Addison Pratt, who’s this very, very important missionary that serves in French Polynesia—if you’re reading Saints, the history the Church is publishing, Addison’s a big character in Saints. He missed the opportunity to get his endowment in Nauvoo because he was in the South Pacific serving a mission, and so they called him to go back to French Polynesia when he got there, and before he left, they wanted him to receive the temple endowment, so they take him to Ensign Peak. 

Scott Woodward:
They take him to Ensign Peak?

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. This is totally biblical, right? If you don’t have a temple, you find a Mount Sinai nearby.

Scott Woodward:
Let’s go to a mountaintop. Yes. 

Casey Griffiths:
And this is what they did. So this is from Devery Anderson’s book, The Development of Temple Worship, but he quotes minutes that on July 21st, 1849, Brigham Young, six members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other General Authorities, met on the top of Ensign Peak at 6 a. m., and then, according to the minutes, Brigham Young prayed and consecrated the spot for the present purpose of giving Pratt his endowment, “that he might have power to erect a standard that should be glorified in the eyes of all its beholders, that no unholy thing might come here, and that thy servants may come here to offer up prayers and obtain the ministration of the angels.” So there you go. If you’ve been to Ensign Peak, you’ve walked on consecrated ground, essentially. 

Scott Woodward:
The first temple spot in Utah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, first temple spot in Utah. However, that’s the only endowment we have record of happening on Ensign Peak. 

Scott Woodward:
So just Addison Pratt. That’s the only record we have. 

Casey Griffiths:
There may have been others, but no record exists outside of Addison Pratt, and probably the reason for that is by 1850 they’ve started to build buildings in the city, and they have a building called the Council House. Now this is maybe the funnest discovery I found in researching this, but the Council House was sort of like the state capitol and the temple and the university and the library. Like, there was a lot of stuff going on. This building was hoppin’.

Scott Woodward:
It’s pioneers getting as much use out of a place as they could. 

Casey Griffiths:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Stretching their dollar. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And you can look up pictures of it online. It’s really just kind of this square, two-story building with four chimneys and then, like, a nice little gable in the middle of the roof. The Council House doesn’t exist anymore, but in Salt Lake City, if you find the Beneficial Life Tower, the Gateway Tower West, that’s where it stood at the time, and this structure, as much as anything, kind of symbolizes how early Utah was a theocracy, man. It was like . . . 

Scott Woodward:
Government and church was all mixed together.

Casey Griffiths:
Brigham Young was the prophet, the governor, and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Like, all of the temporal— 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
—and ecclesiastical authority rests in one individual. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
And the Council House kind of reflects that. Like, this is where the territorial legislature met, and yet, in another part of the Council House, they would perform endowments. In fact, the records that we have indicate that there were fewer endowments taking place. Like, 5,600 is the number commonly associated with the endowments in the Nauvoo Temple. In the Council House, which was used for five years, roughly from 1849 to 1854, the number of endowments was 2,222, according to the records that we have. But the Council House isn’t nearly as big as the Nauvoo Temple and isn’t equipped specifically for the purpose, and they don’t refer to it as a temple in the records that we have. 

Scott Woodward:
But still, 2,222 endowments is a lot of endowments to do in a building that’s not a temple. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, and that’s nothing to sniff at, right? 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
And the type of people you would see in the Endowment House are people, like we mentioned, from the Quorum of the Anointed, where you’ve got people like W. W. Phelps, Wilford Woodruff. The records show that the three busiest women officiating in ordinances were Elizabeth Ann Whitney, this is the wife of Newell K. Whitney, presiding bishop of the church; Prescindia Huntington Buell Kimball; and Eliza R. Snow. So women are active in this, too. 

Scott Woodward:
There’s the temple priesthood in action. 

Casey Griffiths:
There’s the temple priesthood doing its thing. However, the understanding at the time is that the Council House is temporary. It’s not a temple. They’re going to build a temple, and it’s going to be a huge, massive temple that will last through the Millennium. 

Scott Woodward:
So it’s kind of a stopgap for temple endowments, kind of the way the Mississippi River was okay to do baptisms for the dead for a time, but— 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
—only until you’ve had enough time to actually build a temple.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And even though they do do baptisms for the dead briefly in City Creek in Salt Lake, they don’t do any baptisms for the dead in the Council House, as far as we know. In fact, Brigham Young, in 1852, in General Conference, actually addresses this. He says, “There are many in this congregation who are aware that we do not give all the endowments, neither can we legally, until we build a temple. Again, those parts that are already given, and will be given in the place we are at present use, will be given over again in the temple.” So he’s saying, you might be endowed here, but we might have to do it again when we build the temple. He goes on to say, “The endowments we now give are given merely by permission, as we have not a house in which to officiate these ordinances of salvation that is legal, though we’ve got a comfortable place which we have dedicated unto the Lord.” So he’s kind of saying, hey, this is the best we can do for now, but we might have to redo some of this, and by the way, the Council House is used until April 29th, 1854. Just interesting tidbit: the last group that goes through the last day includes a 14-year-old receiving his endowments named Joseph F. Smith. 

Scott Woodward:
On his way to Hawaii. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
To be a missionary. 

Casey Griffiths:
He’s in that last group that goes through the Council House. So what happens in the Council House is primarily endowments. Sealings are happening, too, but endowments and sealings don’t quite have the connection that we generally have today. 

Scott Woodward:
What do you mean? 

Casey Griffiths:
Well, it’s kind of like—and I think we’re getting away from this a little bit, but—it used to be that when my mom went to the temple, for instance, she was endowed and sealed on the same day. Like, it was this and this together. 

Scott Woodward:
You’d only get endowed right before you went on a mission or right before you got married. 

Casey Griffiths:
And now, in the last conference, we did hear people saying, like, no, you can get endowed when you feel like it. It doesn’t have to be before a major life event, like a mission or marriage. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Let’s say a woman in her twenties isn’t planning on serving a mission or getting married, but she feels like she wants to make these covenants. Go for it. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
That’s actually closer to what it was like in this era, where you would get your endowment, and sealing was sort of considered a separate ceremony that was conducted in a number of different places. So some were conducted in the Council House, but we also have records that a lot of sealings took place in Brigham Young’s office, that he would just perform the sealings there, and then various locations. For instance, the numbers that we have recorded by the church recorder, Thomas Bullock, were that from 1847 to 1855, 881 sealings, that’s about 41 percent of the records we have, were performed personally by Brigham Young. So this is a time when the church is relatively small. You had about a 41 percent chance that the prophet would be the person performing your ceremony. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, these are the counselors in the First Presidency, performed 780. That’s 36 percent. And they perform 76 percent of all the sealings, so if you were getting sealed, chances are a member of the First Presidency was performing the sealing. 

Scott Woodward:
And this was usually done in their offices, in Brigham Young’s office? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, usually in an official location like Brigham Young’s office, also the Council House, but there are records of even apostles, like, traveling to perform sealing. Like, the most prolific sealer we can find that traveled during this time was George A. Smith. This is the George A. Smith that’s Joseph Smith’s cousin and the grandfather of George Albert Smith, the president of the church. 

Scott Woodward:
St. George is named after him, right?

Casey Griffiths:
St. George. This guy’s all over southern Utah. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths:
You’ll hear dozens of stories about him, and that’s where I’m from, southern Utah. 

Scott Woodward:
St. George. 

Casey Griffiths:
And so we have records of him going to towns like Payson, Lehi, Springville, Parowan, Fillmore, and performing sealings under the direction of Brigham Young. So Brigham Young would perform sealings in his office, and then he would send people out, like George A. Smith, who would go to Parowan and perform sealings down there because he’s the presiding authority. George A. Smith even has a notation in the records that says that he dedicated a room in his home that was for prayer circles. So, again, we have prayer circles happening outside the temple here, too.

Scott Woodward:
Because there’s not a temple. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. So we start with Addison Pratt on Ensign Peak, but most people in the first, say, five, six years in the Utah Territory are going to go through the Council House. Then we have this next structure built that a lot of people have heard of called the Endowment House. The Endowment House is built in 1855. So they start in 1851. They build this two-story adobe structure, and this building, which is designed by Truman O. Angell, who’s going to be the architect of most of the Utah temples, is referred to as the House of the Lord, but it’s not a temple. It’s—some historians call it a temple pro tem, like it’s a temporary temple, and they’re acknowledging that it’s temporary. However, it does introduce a couple of interesting things, like the Endowment House is the first place anywhere where they build rooms specifically to represent the different phases of a person’s existence. So in Nauvoo, when we’re performing endowments, we’re all in the upper room of the Red Brick Store or the upper room of the Nauvoo Temple. The Endowment House has a room for washings and anointings. It has a garden room. It has a world room that represents the telestial kingdom. It has a terrestrial room. And then it has a celestial room on the upper floor, and so this idea of us moving through different rooms is found in the Endowment House, and the idea that as you move through the rooms you ascend, which is common in pioneer temples, is first introduced in this particular structure.

Scott Woodward:
So that’s interesting, because back in Nauvoo, when Joseph first introduced the endowment, he kind of simulated this in the upper room of the Red Brick Store. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
In fact, I have an entry about that right here. It says that he went first into his office. That’s where they did the washing and anointing and had garments placed upon that first group. This is on May the 4th, 1842. And then it says they went into the large room over the store in Nauvoo, and this account, I think this is actually Brigham Young who says, “Joseph divided up the room the best he could, hung up the veil, marked it, gave us our instructions as we passed along from one department to another, giving us signs, tokens, penalties with keywords pertaining to those signs. After we had got through, Brother Joseph turns to me,” Brigham Young, “and says, ‘Brother Brigham, this is not arranged right, but we’ve done the best we could under the circumstances.’” So the Endowment House seems like that idea 2.0. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Let’s actually create separate rooms instead of just hanging up some makeshift rods and putting some curtains there to simulate a bunch of different rooms. Let’s actually build separate rooms and create a structure that really feels like ascension into the celestial glory. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
So the prototype is in Nauvoo, but the first time that’s ever played out is here in the Endowment House. That’s fascinating. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And for those interested, Scott and I went to Nauvoo. It was during COVID, so we weren’t allowed in the Red Brick Store. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
But Scripture Central, the boys down at Scripture Central, our team, made a great computer simulation that’s found in that video of what the upper room of the Red Brick Store may have looked like while this is happening, based on the research we’ve been able to do, so . . . 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah, it’s super cool. 

Casey Griffiths:
The Endowment House is where that sort of idea that you’re progressing through different phases of existence is visualized by the arrangement of the rooms. Now, at the same time, too, it’s clear that with the Endowment House they’re wrestling with the question of, is this a temple or is this not a temple? 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
They refer to it as the house of the Lord. They don’t refer to it as a temple. And there’s some hesitation about, well, can we do baptisms for the dead? D&C 124, the Lord specifically instructs them not to do baptisms for the dead unless it’s inside a temple, and so at first the Endowment House doesn’t have a baptistry. Then, in 1856, they enlarge it, and they put in a baptistry, but it’s actually not until 1867, over a decade later, that they do start doing baptisms for the dead. So baptisms for the dead, with two minor exceptions at Winter Quarters and City Creek, both involving Wilford Woodruff, kind of goes on a hiatus until 1867, almost twenty years from when it was performed in the Nauvoo Temple. And, again, the primary reason we can think of here is that they’re not sure if they can do baptisms for the dead without a temple, but Wilford Woodruff convinces them. Wilford Woodruff seems to be the key figure here who commences doing baptisms for the dead in 1867. In Richard Bennett’s book, which we’ve made a lot of references here to, he tries to say, why 1867? There’s a couple things going on. 1867 is immediately post-Civil War. Deadliest, most bloody war in American history. And one of the side effects of the war was that just about every family lost somebody. Everybody’s thinking about the dead and their connection to the dead, and so there’s this spiritualism craze that kind of sweeps through the United States. Like, no less a figure than Mary Todd Lincoln held seances in the White House, trying to connect with her children that had died, and a lot of families were engaging in these spiritualist seances to try and connect with the dead. Even in Utah there’s a movement called the Godbeites, which is a whole other podcast for another day. The Godbeites are this faction that breaks off from the Church, and they reject things like—well, it’s, like I said, complex, but a major feature of them was spiritualism. Richard Bennett theorizes that baptisms for the dead may have been reinitiated as a way of saying, no, this is the correct way to connect with the dead. Don’t do seances. Use the powers that we’ve been given and the revelation we have, and do a baptism. That’s going to do more good than just communicating with the dead. You’ll actually be able to help them on their way. And so from that point on until 1876, when the St. George Temple is almost finished, the Endowment House, a major feature of it, was that you could also go there to perform baptisms for the dead. In fact, endowments for the living were performed there until 1884. That’s when the Logan Temple is dedicated. Sealings for living couples was performed until the Manti Temple was dedicated. That’s in 1888. But endowments for the dead were never performed. 

Scott Woodward:
In the Endowment House? 

Casey Griffiths:
In the Endowment House.

Scott Woodward:
Interesting. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. So the Endowment House, if you’ve heard mention of it, it’s probably in Official Declaration 1 in the Doctrine and Covenants where Wilford Woodruff actually says, we’re ending plural marriage. I’ve gotten sources that tell me that plural marriages have been happening in the Endowment House, so I’ve instructed the Endowment House to be taken down. And that’s when the Endowment House ends. I mean, from the 1850s until 1889, roughly, the Endowment House is sort of a temporary temple in the church, but everybody’s acknowledging it’s not the temple. It’s just preparatory. It’s not a capital-T temple. It’s a temple pro tem, if that makes sense. 

Scott Woodward:
And as far as the work for the dead goes, there has not been any endowments for the dead yet in this dispensation. Is that correct? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, that’s correct. That’s correct. 

Scott Woodward:
Not from Nauvoo all the way up until what, St. George temple, right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. 

Casey Griffiths:
So if you look up Alvin Smith, for instance, Alvin is our—he’s like our patron saint of work for the dead, right? It’s the vision of Alvin that causes Joseph Smith to reflect on what happens to people that die before they hear the gospel. Alvin, if you look up his temple records, is baptized in Nauvoo. Like, he’s one of the first people— 

Scott Woodward:
Right? 

Casey Griffiths:
—that they do baptisms for, but he’s not endowed until the 1890s. 

Scott Woodward:
In St. George? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, because they don’t have that idea to do endowments or sealings for the dead, with limited exceptions, until the St. George Temple is completed. 

Scott Woodward:
What do you mean limited exceptions? What do we know about exceptions to that? 

Casey Griffiths:
Well, they did do some sealings for the dead. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay, yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Like, we mentioned that that was a major factor in Hyrum Smith. 

Scott Woodward:
Hyrum Smith getting sealed to Jerusha. 

Casey Griffiths:
And accepting plural marriage, in Hyrum Smith’s mind, it was like, well, If I was married to two women, I need to be sealed to both of them, so there were some sealings for the dead that were carried out, but by and large it wasn’t a major practice. 

Scott Woodward:
But no endowments. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
So that leads us to the next part of this story. The initial attempt is to build a temple in Salt Lake, but, man, anything that can go wrong does go wrong. They’re just barely starting on the temple when the United States sends an army to Utah to remove Brigham Young as governor: the so-called Utah War. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
America’s first civil war, is what some historians call it. While that’s happening, they directly cover up the temple foundations. They actually cover it up and then make it appear to be a plowed field in the center of Salt Lake, and it takes time after that whole kerfuffle dies down for them to actually dig out the foundations, and when they do they find out that water has seeped into it, and the whole foundation has to be replaced. This is when Brigham Young says, we’re going to build it out of granite. I want this temple to stand through the Millennium. And we still treat the Salt Lake Temple in an exalted way. Right now it’s undergoing extensive seismic upgrades so that it could survive a really serious earthquake.

Scott Woodward:
So almost everything you just said is on Mountain of the Lord. You mean that video? I mean . . . 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, that’s an awesome video. 

Scott Woodward:
You don’t have to dig too deep into church history to know that. That’s a cool story. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. It’s a classic at the Woodward house. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. “Brethren, here we will build the temple of our God.” 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. Sticks his cane in the dirt. Bam. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. That’s an awesome video. Anyway, here’s a couple of things that Mountain of the Lord leaves out. 

Scott Woodward:
Uh-oh. Okay. Here it comes. 

Casey Griffiths:
After the whole kerfuffle with Johnston’s army, the Civil War breaks out, and during the Civil War a lot of church leaders felt like, this is how we’re going to get back to Jackson County. This is how we’re going to build the temple complex that we originally planned to build. Like, the Lord is going to clear out the wicked people that evicted us from Jackson County, and we’ll get to do that. And so that takes away a little bit of the fire to build the Salt Lake Temple, too. Like, there’s a little hesitance to say, should we really build the temple here when we know we have to build the temple in Independence?

Scott Woodward:
So war is going to clear the land in Independence of all of our enemies, and we’ll just head on back there and build the temple. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, and Richard Bennett and other historians say that may have taken a little bit of the, I guess, momentum out of the movement to build the Salt Lake Temple. 

Scott Woodward:
Wow.

Casey Griffiths:
It takes forty years to build the Salt Lake Temple. Like, it’s no small feat. 

Scott Woodward:
And that’s one of the reasons why. 

Casey Griffiths:
However, when things do start to calm down and the war ends, they realize, maybe we won’t be going back to Missouri immediately. Where can we build a temple here? And the first temple that they’re going to build is not in Salt Lake. It’s in St. George. So St. George, many of our listeners are familiar with St. George, this little town in the middle of the desert. It’s getting quite big now. In fact, right now St. George has two temples. As of this recording, St. George has the oldest functioning temple in the church and the newest functioning temple in the church at Red Cliffs. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
But there’s this hardy group of settlers that have been called there, and they make the decision to build the temple there. Now, why? John Taylor gives a discourse where he says this: “It was found that our temple in Salt Lake City would take such a long time to build, it was thought best to erect one down here. Why? Because there was a people living here who were more worthy than any others, who were more worthy of the blessings of the temple than those who had displayed the self-abnegation exhibited by the pioneers of the South.” Now, as a Southern Utah boy, that rings true to my soul. Like, he’s basically saying, we sent you guys to this God-forsaken desert, and you did it, and so we think you got the right stuff to build a temple, too. 

Scott Woodward:
You earned a temple. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And it’s opening up this idea, which we already saw in Missouri a little bit, of multiple temples in multiple locations. In Missouri they weren’t just going to build a temple in Far West. They were going to build one in Adam-ondi-Ahman. In Utah they’re building a temple in Salt Lake, and they’ve never given up on that, but let’s build a temple in St. George, since we have a sizable population who are dedicated and committed to the gospel. However, the temple in St. George is going to be markedly different than other temples that were previously built. It’s not only going to incorporate baptisms for the dead. It’s not only going to incorporate endowments and sealings. It’s going to do all these things for the dead as well: endowments for the dead, sealings for the dead—the whole slate of temple ordinances is first used in St. George. So Brigham Young actually uses this to kind of emphasize what’s going to make St. George special. He gives a discourse. This is right around the time St. George temple is dedicated. Wilford Woodruff records this: he says, “The Lord reared up a temple in Kirtland, but we had no basement in it, nor a font, or preparations to give endowments for the living or the dead. Joseph located the site for the temple in Jackson County, Missouri, and also laid the cornerstone for a temple in Far West, Caldwell County, but these temples were not built. We built one in Nauvoo. It’s true that we left brethren there with instructions to finish it, and they got it nearly completed before it was burned, but the saints did not enjoy it. This house was built here, in this place,” it’s the St. George Temple he’s referencing, “purposely where it is warm and pleasant in the wintertime, and comfortable to work also for the Lamanites. What do you suppose the fathers would say if they could speak from the dead? Would they not say, ‘We have lain here thousands of years here in this prison house, waiting for this dispensation to come? Here we are bound and fettered in the association of those who are filthy’? When I think upon this subject, I want the tongues of seven thunders to wake up the people. Can the fathers be saved without us? No. Can we be saved without them? No. If we do not wake up and cease to long after the things of this earth, we will find that we as individuals will go down to hell, although the Lord will preserve a people unto himself.” There’s several people that say when he said, “I want the tongues of seven thunders to wake up this people,” he slammed his cane down on the pulpit of the temple and pushed the knots in the wood down further. Like, we tried to get a photograph a couple of years ago, but the Church History department told us that the altar of the St. George temple that Brigham Young slammed is in storage, like, it was buried under a bunch of stuff, so they gave us a picture. Maybe we’ll put it up in the show notes. 

Scott Woodward:
Isn’t there also a Brigham Young slamming a pulpit story in the tabernacle at St. George as well? There used to be a pulpit there that you could go and see, and there’s a little divot in the podium where Brigham had smacked it with his cane. Was he a podium smacker? 

Casey Griffiths:
He was a podium smacker, fair to say. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. 

Casey Griffiths:
The next time you speak in church, smack the podium. It has a way of waking people up. Another thing about the St. George temple is not only does it incorporate all these ordinances for the dead, but it appears to be the first temple where the temple ceremony was written down and recorded. So part of the systemization is that it needs to be recorded so that it can be passed on. And it doesn’t seem like they were too loosey-goosey with the temple ceremonies. They just saw them as so sacred that they were transmitted orally: that you memorized it, essentially. 

Scott Woodward:
This was what the purpose of the Quorum of the Anointed was, at least one purpose, was for Joseph to oversee these people and make sure they got the temple ordinance down, make sure they got the wording right, make sure they’re doing the right essential things, right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
So now they could train up the next generation and the next generation through passing it on orally. Very fascinating. 

Casey Griffiths:
That’s correct. 

Scott Woodward:
So St. George Temple we get the first time this is committed to paper. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. So Wilford Woodruff’s journal is the big source here. He records, “President Brigham Young requested me to take charge of the temple, which I did.” Wilford Woodruff was the first president of the St. George Temple. Wilford Woodruff also records “He,” meaning Brigham Young, “also requested me to write all the ordinances of the church for the first baptism and confirmation through every ordinance of the church. George Q. Cannon assisted me some in his writing, and when I had finished it to the satisfaction of the president, he said to me, ‘Now you have before you an ensample to carry on the endowments in all the temples until the coming of the Son of Man.’” Then Wilford Woodruff kind of poignantly records, “I parted with Brigham Young for the last time in the flesh, 9:30 a. m. on April 16th, 1877, when he started for Salt Lake City.” That’s when Brigham Young passes away, right after the St. George Temple is finished. And Brigham Young is a prophet right to the end. He effects all these changes the last year of his presidency, but probably the most significant one is we’ve got a temple now. It’s got the full slate. Let’s go to work. 

Scott Woodward:
Now we can scale it, right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Because now you have, he says to Wilford Woodruff, this written down list of the ordinances that can now be carried on in all the temples until the coming of the Son of Man. Now we can scale. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. And so this starts kind of the next phase of temple worship, which is not just to get the living endowed and prepared in these covenants, but to also do it with the dead. And so it’s not surprising that the most famous incident that happens in the St. George temple, when Wilford Woodruff is there, happens just shortly after, when Wilford Woodruff says that the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States, appears. 

Scott Woodward:
Whoa. 

Casey Griffiths:
Now, this is a complicated story, and there’s several different versions of it. I decided to just pick the text that Wilford Woodruff gave in General Conference. 

Scott Woodward:
Can I read this one? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, please. Please. 

Scott Woodward:
I love this. So in General Conference he says, “I will here say, before closing, that two weeks before I left St. George the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, ‘You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.” And then President Woodruff says, “These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights. I thought it very singular that notwithstanding so much work had been done, and yet nothing had been done for them. The thought never entered my heart from the fact, I suppose, that heretofore our minds were reaching after our more immediate friends and relatives. I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence and fifty other eminent men, making 100 in all, including John Wesley, Columbus, and others. I then baptized him for every president of the United States except three, and when their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them.” Oh, man. 

Casey Griffiths:
That is my favorite part: the whole, I got baptized for every president of the United States except for three, and whenever I tell this in my classes, everybody’s like, whoa, who were the three? 

Scott Woodward:
Which three? 

Casey Griffiths:
Well, we know who the three are and why they got put in timeout. The three are, first of all . . . 

Scott Woodward:
Martin Van Buren. 

Casey Griffiths:
Martin Van Buren. 

Scott Woodward:
He’s number one. 

Casey Griffiths:
Martin Van Buren is the guy who refuses to help Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith goes to Washington, D. C. after the saints get kicked out of Missouri. Van Buren says, “Gentlemen, your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. If I did, I would lose the vote of the state of Missouri.”

Scott Woodward:
That’s, like, an exact quote. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
I mean, he’s paraphrasing: “When their cause is just, somebody will do the work for them.” That’s a rib at President Van Buren if I’ve ever seen one. 

Casey Griffiths:
I never connected that, but yeah, that was like— 

Scott Woodward:
He is jabbing. 

Casey Griffiths:
—spiritual shade being thrown here. So. 

Scott Woodward:
Who are the other two?

Casey Griffiths:
Second one is James Buchanan. 

Scott Woodward:
What naughty thing did he do? 

Casey Griffiths:
He sent Johnston’s army to Utah, without investigation. Buchanan is generally ranked pretty low when we assess the presidents of the United States. Not a great president, and not a friend of the saints, and that’s . . . okay. Bless his heart. The third is Ulysses S. Grant, and you might think, “Oh, no. General Grant’s a great guy.” He wasn’t dead. He was still alive. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. 

Casey Griffiths:
So . . . 

Scott Woodward:
That’s a good reason not to baptize him for the dead. 

Casey Griffiths:
They can’t do the work for him, and Ulysses S. Grant is the one that comes out here looking the best. Ulysses S. Grant lives until 1885, which is after this particular event happens.

Scott Woodward:
Now, we just have to say that we eventually do the work for those three presidents of the United States. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
We are a forgiving people, but sometimes it takes a little bit of time— 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
—to get there. Okay? All right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
We needed some time to work through it. 

Casey Griffiths:
Van Buren and Buchanan got put into timeout, essentially.

Scott Woodward:
Yeah, that’s it. 

Casey Griffiths:
However, the list of people that Wilford Woodruff does do the work for is fascinating, because it’s not just the signers of the Declaration of Independence, which, by the way, includes Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams. No disparagement on Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, but this seems to suggest there’s some great repentance happening in the Spirit World. Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever read a biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scott, but he was a . . . 

Scott Woodward:
He was a colorful man. 

Casey Griffiths:
He was a colorful guy. Let’s say that. 

Scott Woodward:
There were many facets to his persona. 

Casey Griffiths:
There were. John Adams, who gets criticized in Hamilton quite a bit, actually great guy, faithful to his wife. Wonderful man. No surprises there. In addition to that, a number of eminent men, I’m just going to highlight a couple: Edward Gibbon, who writes The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. And again, we don’t know if these people appeared to Wilford Woodruff. They were just part of the list of names of people he did work for during this time. Washington Irving. Stonewall Jackson from the Civil War. Daniel Webster. I was thrilled to see Daniel Webster on this list. I love Daniel Webster. Martha Washington, most of her family, most of George Washington’s family, and Martin Luther. There were also a number of eminent women. And let me just mention a couple. And again, we don’t know if these women appeared to Wilford Woodruff, just that they’re on the list. So Jane Austen is in there. Charlotte Brontë, Emily Barrett Browning, Rachel Donaldson Jackson, who was the wife of Andrew Jackson, who—man, I was kind of happy to see her on the list because Rachel was sort of criticized. There was kind of, like, this scandal that Rachel was not divorced from her first husband when Andrew Jackson became president, and the strain of the scandal killed Rachel and made Andrew Jackson into one of our angriest, most bitter presidents. I was—it was nice to see her included in this, but . . . 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
This is Wilford Woodruff. Like, hey, these individuals appeared to me. And by the way, in some sources it’s a dream. In some sources it sounds like a vision. We’re not really sure the manner of appearance. 

Scott Woodward:
You mentioned that this was a little complicated, so what’s complicated about the visitation? Tell us the backstory of why this might be more problematic or complex than we understand. 

Casey Griffiths:
We quoted from Wilford Woodruff’s general conference address, which I felt was—it’s a public statement. It’s the most responsible source to quote from. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths:
But he does describe this on multiple occasions, and on some of the sources, he says things like, “in the dreams of the night.” 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. 

Casey Griffiths:
And I don’t know if there’s a difference between a dream or a vision. Like, in the Book of Mormon, Lehi says, “I have dreamed a dream, or in other words, I have seen a vision.” 

Scott Woodward:
To-may-to, to-mah-to. 

Casey Griffiths:
Wilford Woodruff doesn’t say, was this a direct spiritual apparitional appearance or was it a dream that he had? And it doesn’t matter. I mean . . . 

Scott Woodward:
His language was, “Two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me”— 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
—“wanting to know why we did not redeem them. So, yeah, that could have been in a dream or in a waking vision. 

Casey Griffiths:
Correct. 

Scott Woodward:
He doesn’t really say. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, so we’ve got to be cautious with that, and, again, there’s these other eminent men and women, and sometimes I’ve heard people say, “Oh, Jane Austen appeared to Wilford Woodruff.” I don’t know. Wilford Woodruff was an incredibly well-read person. He was the founder of the Utah Polyphilosophical Society, and he was really, really kind of a cosmopolitan figure who read and studied a lot, and it’s likely that some of these people were his literary heroes. They were people that he liked their writing. It could also be that they did appear to him, but the sources don’t indicate either way. So we’re just trying to be responsible historians here. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths:
The next temple to be dedicated is the Logan Temple. So temple’s built in Logan. This is after Brigham Young. John Taylor dedicates the Logan Temple. And Logan Temple is huge. I would say Logan and Manti are very much twin temples, because they both have this twin-spire, castellated look, where they look like castles. The Manti Temple is the next one built, and this was my temple growing up as a kid, Scott. And I’m just going to address—I don’t know if this has to stay in or not, but, was the site of the Manti Temple dedicated by Moroni?

Scott Woodward:
Oh, yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
So— 

Scott Woodward:
That is part of the lore of the area. 

Casey Griffiths:
That is part of the lore, right? 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
So there is a source, and it was published in the Ensign, that Warren S. Snow said that Brigham Young visited Manti, took him to the southeast corner of this temple site, and said, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here. We can’t move it from this spot.” Now, when I went to the temple, there was actually, like, a painting of Brigham Young seeing Moroni in vision, and down below the temple, in a little park, there was a statue of Moroni. I just recently went through the open house of the Manti Temple. That painting’s not there anymore. That statue’s not there anymore. No comment on why. 

Scott Woodward:
So that’s a secondhand source. So Warren S. Snow said that Brigham Young told him.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, and I’m just going to come out and say I believe that it’s true, but . . . 

Scott Woodward:
Whoa. Why do you believe it’s true? 

Casey Griffiths:
Because it’s the Manti Temple, Scott. Like, it’s my temple. 

Scott Woodward:
Is it because it’s cool? 

Casey Griffiths:
It’s cool. 

Scott Woodward:
That’s why it’s true? 

Casey Griffiths:
I just like to go there and stand and say, hey, maybe I’m standing where Moroni stood. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. All right. So you’re a believer. 

Casey Griffiths:
I’m a believer. And I’m just putting that out there. 

Scott Woodward:
All right. 

Casey Griffiths:
So Manti is the biggest, most expensive temple built—built up to that point, I should say. In fact, let me pull up the figures. The St. George Temple, roughly estimated, costs a million dollars. The Logan Temple $770,000. This is in 1880s money. 

Scott Woodward:
Yeah. 

Casey Griffiths:
Not adjusted for inflation. Manti Temple, a million dollars, and the Salt Lake Temple, at least $4 million, which is crazy, crazy numbers for the 19th century. 

Scott Woodward:
Wait, so Manti cost the same amount as St. George? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Okay. 

Casey Griffiths:
And now there’s three temples operating, the Salt Lake Temple is getting close to being finished, and this is where maybe we need to get to sort of the central point here. These temples are now becoming the center of all worship in the church. 

Scott Woodward:
Rightfully so. 

Casey Griffiths:
You go to the temple, you make covenants with God. That directs you to Jesus Christ. However, the dedication of these temples is happening around the same time that federal persecution linked to plural marriage is reaching its apex as well. 

Scott Woodward:
Edmunds-Tucker Act, et cetera. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. Yeah. The Edmunds-Tucker Act is passed in 1887. The Manti Temple is dedicated in 1888. And just a few days after the temple was dedicated, Wilford Woodruff, who’s now president of the church, directs them to not do any plural sealings in the Manti Temple, because he’s worried that if they do that, the federal government will confiscate the temple. 

Scott Woodward:
And let’s just remind our listeners, the Edmunds-Tucker Act that was passed in 1887 officially disincorporates the church and threatens to seize all church property over $50,000. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
That would certainly include all of the temples.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
They would be confiscated. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah, and church leaders try to find legal ways around this. Like, they tried to create temple associations where they could say, hey, the Manti Temple is owned by the temple association, not the church, so you can’t confiscate it. But it’s clear that the federal government knew what they were doing and the right pressure point to push, and one of the biggest ones, if not the biggest one, was ownership of the temples. And so Wilford Woodruff really had that weighing on his mind. In fact, when Edmunds-Tucker starts to be enforced, Wilford Woodruff says that federal marshals literally show up at the office of the First Presidency, take the keys, lock the doors. So even, like, the office of the First Presidency wasn’t able to be used. It was confiscated. Their biggest worry is, “Will this happen to the temples?” So this is a huge worry. John Taylor goes into hiding. He dies in exile. Wilford Woodruff becomes president of the church, and it’s clear that what’s really weighing on him is the question of, okay, plural marriage is illegal now. The laws have been passed. In the manifesto, he actually says they’ve been passed and upheld by the court of last resort, by the Supreme Court. Are we going to give up the temples to defend the principle of plural marriage, which is now illegal? 

Scott Woodward:
So this is the real issue. Plural marriage or the temples?

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Which one? One of them’s got to go. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Which one’s more fundamental? 

Casey Griffiths:
Which one’s more fundamental to the church? And they start having debates over that, too. Like, a number of leaders of the church say, “You know what? It’s eternal marriage, not plural marriage that’s essential to the church. Wilford Woodruff issues the Manifesto on October 6, 1890, and that is the beginning of the end for plural marriage. That’s where he mentions, we took down the Endowment House as a show of faith because there had been plural marriages practiced there. Now, you can’t just end plural marriage on a dime. There are questions that linger for decades after the manifesto is issued, but it is the start of the end of plural marriage, and if you look at Official Declaration 1 in your Doctrine and Covenants, underneath there’s excerpts from several addresses given by Wilford Woodruff. Now, I want to emphasize, these aren’t canonized addresses, but they’re placed in the Doctrine and Covenants as commentary on what’s happening by the church, so they’re about the next closest thing you could have to canonization. They’re not the scriptures, but they’re effective commentary. This is how he frames the argument: So this is found in your Doctrine and Covenants. It’s an address Wilford Woodruff gives about a year after the manifesto is issued, and this is how he frames the question. He says, “The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice,” referring to plural marriage. “If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for any of the men in this temple at Logan. All ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel. Many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice. Now the question is whether it should be stopped in this manner or in the way the Lord manifested to us and leave our prophets and apostles and fathers free men and the temples in the hands of the people so that the dead may be redeemed. And shall the work go on or stop? This is the question I lay before the Latter-day Saints. You have to judge for yourselves. I want you to answer it for yourselves. I shall not answer it, but I say to you that it is exactly the condition we as a people would have been in if we had not taken the course that we have. I saw exactly what would come to pass if there was not something done, [and] had this spirit upon me for a long time, but I say this: I [would] have let all the temples go out of [their] hands. I would have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write. . . . I leave this with you, for you to contemplate and consider. The Lord is at work with us.” And so him phrasing the question this way illustrates how the construction of the St. George, Logan, Manti, and near completion of the Salt Lake Temple had shifted things in the church. Wilford Woodruff essentially says the temple is more important than plural marriage. And this was to a group of people that had spent decades defending plural marriage. 

Scott Woodward:
Sacrificing so much for it.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. They had used it as a real test of their faithfulness, and now President Woodruff is saying, it’s important, and I’m not downplaying your sacrifice, but temples are more important. This is, I think in my mind, the moment when the temple becomes kind of the center of our worship of Jesus Christ and the thing that’s most fundamental to us as a religion. So it’s a huge milestone. 

Scott Woodward:
And we won’t go down the rabbit hole to say that there was a dissenting group who actually, ironically, named themselves the Fundamental Latter-day Saints, right? The FLDS, the fundamentalists. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
Because they said, no, what’s fundamental is plural marriage and effectively cut themselves off from the ordinances of the house of the Lord.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
And so there was a path diverging in the woods at this point, and the majority, thankfully, took the one that keeps the temples intact. 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
But that’s an important, I think, thought to kind of step back and to say, you know, how fundamental are the temples to what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does, and could we continue to operate? Could we fulfill our mission without the temples? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
And as we think about the trajectory of the whole church from the very beginning, as we’ve been trying to tell the story in this series, I can’t think of a way to be able to say yes to that question, Casey. Like, it seems like the mission could not be fulfilled without temples. This is the crowning piece. This is where everything has been going from the very beginning, right? 

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. 

Scott Woodward:
From the First Vision onward, it’s been about the restoration of the fullness of the gospel, from the coming of Moroni, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the whole story as we’ve told it. Like, it wasn’t obvious at first, but by the time we get to Nauvoo, and certainly by the time we get to the 1890s, it’s clear that the temple is what this is all about.

Casey Griffiths:
Yeah. That’s the path that the Lord really leads the Saints down, and they get to this point to where the temple becomes central, and then everything else happens after that. Like, you could say that 1890 was a real turning point in many ways for the church. Now we’ve got temples. We’re going to build temples at a number of locations. We’re going to make the temple the great symbol of our membership in the church, as President Howard W. Hunter would say. So that’s not the end of the story. We’re still going to cover a little bit more, because one of the big themes we’ve been dealing with here is the evolution of temple ordinances. How do they change? Some of these changes are brought about for theological reasons, some for historical reasons, some for just practical reasons. So next time we’re going to be going through changes in the temple in the twentieth century. The timeline’s going to accelerate a little bit, but I think you’ll see that a lot of these changes, like I said, are theological, some are historical, some are just practical. And the experience we have in the temple, though the core of it is the same as it was going all the way back to Nauvoo, is very much different today for a number of different reasons. That’s our discussion for next time. 

Scott Woodward:
Stay tuned. We’ll see you all then. Thank you for listening to this episode of Church History Matters. Next week Casey and I try to bring this series all the way up to the present day by discussing ongoing changes in temple worship which have taken place during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. If you’re enjoying Church History Matters, we’d appreciate it if you could take a moment to subscribe, rate, review, and comment on the podcast. That makes us easier to find. Also, we’d love to hear your suggestions for a future series on this podcast, so if there’s a church history topic you think would be worth exploring for multiple episodes, send us your idea to podcasts@scripturecentral.org. We’ll consider all suggestions. Today’s episode was produced by Scott Woodward and edited by Nick Galieti and Scott Woodward, with show notes and transcript by Gabe Davis. Church History Matters is a podcast of Scripture Central, a nonprofit which exists to help build enduring faith in Jesus Christ by making Latter-day Saint scripture and church history accessible, comprehensible, and defensible to people everywhere. For more resources to enhance your gospel study, go to scripturecentral.org, where everything is available for free because of the generous donations of people like you. And while we try very hard to be historically and doctrinally accurate in what we say on this podcast, please remember that all views expressed in this and every episode are our views alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Scripture Central or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us.