| 676 In the fall of 1877, upon his request he was released and permitted to labor as circumstances would permit, increasing family care making missionary work more arduous, he thought thus to be less of a burden. But his soul was not satisfied; the service seemed half-hearted, though it was not. In 1878 he again received conference appointment, being burdened with the charge of his former appointment, Northern Missouri and Southern Iowa. In 1879 the whole of Missouri was added. From October, 1880, it was simply Missouri until the following April, when he was given Illinois in addition. In 1883 he was still retained in charge of his birth-state, Missouri, and the state of Kansas.
The time came for another distant mission. Leaving his family (wife and nine children) in their home in Independence, Missouri, in 1885, he took charge of the Pacific Slope, returning in the spring of 1886. From this sunny field he was directed to minister to the Saints in a field comprising Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Manitoba. His charge kept him in touch with the people of the North until 1890. Then in connection with Elder E. C. Briggs, there were added Northern Indiana, Michigan, and Northwest Ohio. He returned to the Rocky Mountain Mission in 1892 with Elder Joseph Luff as associate. In 1893 he was associated with Elder William H. Kelley in the Eastern States.
In 1890, April 15, he was ordained president of the Quorum of Twelve, by Joseph Smith and W. W. Blair, which office he held until 1897, when he was called as counselor to the President of the church, and patriarch and evangelical minister unto the church. Acting in the office of such calling and ordination, and in the discharge of obligations imposed by revelation to the President of the church, April, 1901, he left his home in Lamoni, Iowa, for a mission to Australia, the Society Islands, and Hawaii. Spending some months in the Islands, he proceeded to Australia, where in April, 1902, he received a cable message to ordain C. A. Butterworth to the office of an apostle, the revelation authorizing such ordination, also lifting from him the responsibility of counselor to the President of the church by placing another in his place, thus leaving
(page 676) |
