| 634 repeated assertions regarding polygamy, showing the true facts of history upon this point.
The annual reunion convened at Garners Grove, Iowa, October 5. W. W. Blair, Charles Derry, and M. H. Forscutt presided; Elders H. A. Stebbins and J. F. McDowell were chosen as secretaries. Others of the ministry present and participating were as follows: J. R. Lambert, G. A. Blakeslee, S. W. L. Scott, William Chambers, John A. McIntosh, C. E. Butterworth, J. S. Roth, John Pett, David Chambers, H. O. Smith, J. C. Crabb, J. M. Putney, E. C. Brand, W. D. Bullard, J. Turner, J. W. Chatburn, Joseph Seddon, Henry Garner. The minutes of the meeting closed with the following comments:
Thus closed one of the most profitable and spiritually blessed meetings of reunion held in the West. The audience was large and orderly throughout. Every one seemed in good humor and all things passed off pleasantly. The weather was delightful, all that could be desired. There were over two hundred tents on the grounds. The baptisms numbered fifty-five, the majority being adults. The Holy Spirit attended them and also the confirmations. Many children were blessed, and a number of sick benefited through administrations. The preaching was attended by the Holy Spirit's presence and power.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 36, p. 719.
October 6, at the semiannual conference of the Utah church, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, three vacancies in the Quorum of Twelve were filled by placing therein Mariner W. Merrill, Anthon H. Lund, and Abraham H. Cannon.
October 7, at the conference of the Kent and Elgin District, held at Chatham, Canada, Emanuel Eaton, a colored man, was ordained to the office of elder by John H. Lake, E. L. Kelley, and Arthur Leverton. This was the first elder of the negro race ordained in the church. Some had previously been ordained to lower offices, but none to the Melchisedec priesthood.
The Herald for October 12 contains an editorial review of a work entitled, "Life of Joseph the Prophet," by George Q. Cannon, a member of the First Presidency of the church in Utah. The review questions, and produces reasons for doubting, the correctness of some of the items presented in the book as history.
(page 634) |
