History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Religion
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1
Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
There has been some question as to the number that had been baptized
previous to the organization of the Church on the 6th day of April,
1830. David Whitmer in his "Address to All Believers in Christ," a
pamphlet of seventy-five pages, published in 1887, says that there were
six Elders and about seventy members before April 6th, 1830. Others
have estimated the number at thirty, thirty-five, and forty. These
estimates, however, are beyond all question too large. In the minutes
of the second conference of the Church, held at Fayette, New York, on
the 26th of September, 1830, this statement is made: "Number of the
several members uniting to this Church, since the last conference,
thirty-five: making in whole now belonging to this Church, sixty-two."
"The last conference," referred to was one held on the 9th of June,
1830. If there were but sixty-two members in September, 1830, and
thirty-five of them were added since the conference of the Church held
on the 9th of June of that year, then there were but twenty-seven in
the Church on the said 9th of June. In the last week of May, 1830,
Newel Knight was baptized--_one_; on the 18th of April, 1830, Oliver
Cowdery baptized _seven_, (the names are given on p. 81), on the 11th
of April, Oliver baptized _six_ persons (their names are also given
on p. 81); on the 6th of April, 1830, the same day that the Church
was organized, there were _four_ persons baptized, two of whom were
the father and mother of the Prophet (see p. 79). This makes a total
of eighteen baptized between the 9th of June conference and the 6th
of April meeting; and as there were but _twenty-seven_ in the Church
on the 9th of June, the number that had been baptized up to the 6th
of April, 1830, must have been but _nine_. _The Far West Record_,
containing the minutes of the conferences of the 9th of June, and
the 26th of September, was kept by the clerks of the High Council in
Missouri, and the minutes of the two conferences above referred to,
and which give the information here set forth, occupy pages _one_ and
_two_ of that record. The accuracy of the minutes of the conference of
the 26th of September, 1830, which fix the membership of the Church
at that time at _sixty-two_, is confirmed by the following remark
of the Prophet, to be found in his history in December of that same
year, which remark immediately precedes extracts from the prophecy
of Enoch in this volume (ch. 12): "To the joy of the little flock,
which in all, from Colesville to Canandaigua, New York, numbered
about _seventy members_, did the Lord reveal the following," etc.
When it is remembered that the Prophet is here speaking of conditions
existing in December, 1830, and the figures given are exclusive of
the additions which had been made in Kirtland, Ohio, it strongly
sustains the correctness of the minutes of the conference of September
26th, which record the membership of the Church at that time to be
but _sixty-two_.
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