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Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1807 - 1898

Biographical History

Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898) served as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 to 1898.

Wilford Woodruff was born March 1, 1807. He was raised in Connecticut. Woodruff was a miller by trade. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1833 and served two missions before being ordained an Apostle in 1839. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, he completed four additional missions, presided over the temple in St. George, Utah, and served six years as Church Historian. He was sustained as Church President on April 7, 1889. As President of the Church, he dedicated temples in Salt Lake City and Manti, Utah, oversaw the organization of the Genealogical Society, and reemphasized the value of historical record keeping. He also received a revelation that the Latter-day Saints should cease the practice of plural marriage. In 1890, he wrote the Manifesto, testifying that the Church had ceased teaching the practice of plural marriage. Woodruff died in San Francisco on September 2, 1898.

Citation:
The illustrated story ... c1982 (1983 prtg.): t.p. (Wilford Woodruff [in title]) p. 5 (b. Mar. 1, 1807; d. Sept. 2,1898)

Woodruff, Wilford. In the whirlpool, 2011: ECIP t.p. (Wilford Woodruff) ch. 1 (once used the moniker Lewis Allen while in hiding)

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1992: p.1580-1582 (Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898), fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; born Farmington, Connecticut on March 1, 1807; April 1834 arrived in Kirtland, Ohio; Zion's Camp; missionary to England; missionary to Southern States in 1835; Quorum of the Twelve in 1839; member of the Nauvoo City Council, chaplain of the Nauvoo Legion, member of the council of Fifty; member of pioneer company of Latter-day Saints to arrive in the Great Basin on July 24, 1847; served in the Utah Territorial Legislature for 22 years; Utah territorial council for 21 years; board of directors of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI); 1889 sustained as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Wikipedia, website viewed 14 October 2010 (Wilford Woodruff, born March 1, 1807 Farmington, Connecticut; Died September 2, 1898, San Francisco, California; LDS Church President, ordained April 7, 1889; LDS Church Apostle, ordained April 26, 1839)

Church History website, via WWW, March 19, 2013 (Wilford Woodruff; b. March 1, 1807; raised in Connecticut; was a miller by trade; joined Church in 1833; ordained apostle in 1839; sustained as Church President April 7, 1889; died. Sept. 2, 1898)

Found in 9 Collections and/or Records:

Myron Alma Abbott autobiography

 File — Box 1: [Barcode: 31197232504610]
Identifier: MSS 661
Scope and Contents Handwritten autobiography of Abbott written in 1917. Includes a description of Abbott's life including his birth in Weber County, and life in Tocquerville and Plymouth, Utah, before moving to Bunkerville, Nevada, in 1877. He describes the stay of the Mormon Apostle, Wilford Woodruff, when he was in Bunkerville while dodging federal officials for polygamy. Also includes Abbott's marriage to Mary Leavitt in 1881 and life in Annabella, Sevier County, Utah, from 1886-1910, where he was involved...
Dates: 1917

H. H. Cluff cartes-de-visite and tintypes

 Collection — Box 1: [Barcode: 31197233607321]
Identifier: MSS P 282
Scope and Contents

Collection includes 170 photographs and four tintypes. All images are cartes-de-visite of Provo and Utah residents. Includes images of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and Emma Smith. Collection also includes a photocopy of the complete album as originally created by H.H. Cluff, available in the collection case file.

Dates: approximately 1860-1916

Scott G. Kenney research materials

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 2022
Scope and Contents

Photocopies of correspondence, minutes, journals, and subject research files of Scott Kinney. These materials relate to Joseph F. Smith (1832-1918) sixth President of the LDS Church. The bulk of the collection deals with the years 1870 to 1918. These research files are documentation for Kinney's proposed biography of Smith.

Dates: 1820-1984

Lorenzo Snow Lyman collection

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230328814]
Identifier: MSS SC 2976
Scope and Contents Correspondence and certificates of Lorenzo S. Lyman and Lyman family papers. The correspondence deals with 19th and 20th century Utah politics; references to Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, the St. George Temple, and Utah mining and politics; Family History; family activities in various locations (San Bernardino, California and Fillmore and Parowan, Utah); and letters from Francis M. Lyman about being an apostle and travels (a visit to Egypt and Palestine in 1902)....
Dates: 1853-1964

Photographs of Wilford Woodruff

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS P 422
Scope and Contents

Collection includes photographs, including cartes-de-visite, prints, and photocopies of images, of Wilford Woodruff and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also includes images of a statue of Woodruff. Photographs were taken between the 1870s and the 1940s.

Dates: approximately 1870-1949

Wilford Woodruff correspondence

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230312958]
Identifier: MSS SC 1541
Scope and Contents

Photocopies of letters exchanged between Wilford Woodruff and his brother, Asahel. Wilford describes baptising their family members into the Mormon Church and establishing a branch of that Church in Farmington, Conn. He announces the 14 July birth of his daughter and outlines preparations to migrate to Missouri. He bears testimony to the truthfulness of the Mormon Church.

Dates: 1838

Wilford Woodruff diary excerpt

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230348218]
Identifier: MSS 1342
Scope and Contents

Photocopy of a handwritten diary excerpt that includes a copy of an unattributed vision or a dream which Woodruff had obtained. The vision claimed to foresee of the last days in which a great loss of life and a great destruction would befall the the cities of the eastern United States. Photocopy includes entries from June 14 to 22, 1878.

Dates: 1877

Wilford Woodruff family letters

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 8173
Scope and Contents Letters written between Wilford Woodruff and members of his family. Letters are to his wife Emma S. Woodruff and to his children Clara and Blanch. Also included are letters from Emma Woodruff to Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Beebe as well as letters between Emma Woodruff and her daughter Clara. Letters talk about family activities and contain advice from Wilford Woodruff to his family. One letter is written shortly before Woodruff died in San Francisco. Another is written while Wilford Woodruff was in...
Dates: 1877-1909

Wilford Woodruff letters

 File — Folder 1: [Barcode: 31197230342716]
Identifier: MSS 818
Scope and Contents This is a collection of photocopies of letters written by Wilford Woodruff and several miscellaneous items. Woodruff signed 14 of the letters as Lewis Allen, a pseudonym used by him during the time he was on the underground, hiding from federal officials. The letters were addressed to Thomas P. Cottam, at that time bishop of the St. George Fourth Ward and a prominent civic and LDS Church leader in St. George, Utah. Also enclosed are two letters to "Grand Pa Cottam" one of which is signed...
Dates: 1887-1889