| 197 "I always understood that Strang claimed to be the successor of Joseph Smith by virtue of an appointment which he had received from Joseph Smith, to be his successor.
"It was through and by virtue of that letter of appointment that Strang claimed to have received (that is what I understood his claim was based upon) a letter from Joseph Smith. And as soon as myself and others who had joined his organization found out that he had been teaching other things not authorized by the church, we discarded him; yes, sir, we did.
"Zenos H. Gurley, who raised up the branch at Palestine, and who I answered I thought was a member of the Strang Church in my examination in chief, was an authorized minister in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before the death of Joseph Smith, an elder in that church at least, and might have been one of the Seventy; but I cannot say that he was one of the Seventy or was not, still he might have been.
"He was made a President of the Seventy after the death of Joseph Smith, and I think from that, that it is altogether likely that he was a Seventy before the death of Joseph Smith; still, I do not know.
"He was an elder in the original church, there is no manner of question about that, and that would give him the right to organize that branch, being an elder in the original church; but whether joining with Strang invalidated that eldership is a question to be determined, I suppose; but I will say that at the reorganization and at no time since have we understood that it invalidated an eldership in the church.
"Gurley simply acknowledged Strang as his leader for a time, and when he found out his pretensions to be the leader of the church during his life, then Gurley rejected him and his leadership. That is the same way we looked upon and accepted the claim of William Smith. It was for a short time, and when we found out what his pretensions were, and that they were false, we repudiated him.
"I did not understand at that time that my authority to build up the church was derived from William Smith or
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