[Apostle Marriner W. Merrill Diary] Sunday. My health continues very poor. Plasterers ale at work plastering the Richmond Tabernacle. I sent Preston $100.00 today. Almira, my wife, quite ill and has been so for several days; confined to her bed the most of the time. Alva Retta and Orella have both been sick also. (1)
-- Jan 10, 1906
First Council of Seventy instructs B. H. Roberts to go to Los Angeles for "recuperation from a weakness for liquor that had fastened itself upon him." Roberts confessed his problem to Council in 1901, and its senior president writes in 1908 that he "has been many times much the worse for Liquor in so much that his brethren of the Council have had to take up a labor with him." (2)
-- Tuesday, Feb 20, 1906
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Washington, D.C.
I had breakfast with Vice President [Charles W.] Fairbanks. Two of his sons and a daughter in law was at table with us. Our meal consisted of Baked apples & cream, corn cake and butter, Hominy & Cream, Fried Eggs and French fried Potatoes and Coffee. I met Senators [Francis G.] Newlands of Nevada, C. M. Depew of N.Y. and Canute Nelson of Minnesota. The later is warmly attached to Reed Smoot. (3)
-- Thursday, Jul 5, 1906
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
All of the First Presidency and Francis M. Lyman, Myself, Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, Hyrum M. Smith, George Albert Smith, Charles W. Penrose, Geo. F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney and David O. McKay, Patriarch John Smith and Geo. F. Gibbs met at 10 a.m. in the [?].
Routine business was gone through and Reports were made.
We partook of the Sacrament, Prest. Joseph F. Smith blessing it. Water and not wine was used. (3)
-- Jul 5, 1906
First Presidency, Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and Presiding Patriarch begin consistently using "water and not wine" in their own sacrament. Apostle John Henry Smith specifically notes in his diary: " We partook of the Sacrament, Prest. Joseph F. Smith blessing it. Water and not wine was used." Joseph F. Smith personally stopped drinking wine at temple meeting sacrament in Dec. 1902. When this first came up for discussion by apostles on Jan. 7, 1903, Hyrum M. Smith criticized this practice. However, most apostles in 1903 preferred to continue using wine in temple. (4)
Footnotes:
1 - Notes from the Miscellaneous Record Book, 1886-1906: Selected diary notes from the journal books of Marriner Wood Merrill, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
2 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
3 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
4 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
LDS History Chronology: the Word of Wisdom
Mormon Timeline: the Word of Wisdom
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
