A missionary preaching at a temperance hall in Wolverhampton, England is asked by a man in the audience how many wives he had. The missionary answers "enough to leave his neighbors alone." (1)
-- Jul 12, 1875
In England missionary and future apostle John Henry Smith dreams "that Prest. J[oseph] F. Smith and I and some others took tea with the Prince of Wales and wife in one of the Palaces in London." (1)
-- Jul 18, 1875
Apostle Orson Pratt preaches in Salt Lake City that rebaptism "seems to be a kind of standing ordinance for all Later-day Saints who emigrate here, from First Presidency down; all are rebaptized and set out anew by renewing their covenants. After his counselor Daniel H. Wells euloguzes Emmeline Free Young, Brigham Young stuns those at funeral by instructing her children and grand children not to follow his plural wife's "bad example." In her manuscript "My Father's Wives," Susa Young Gates explains that "Aunt Emmeline became addicted to morphine in the later years of her life." (1)
-- Aug 23, 1875
Joseph F. Smith writes, "From my childhood-for twenty years and upwards I chewed the filthy weed. I never saw the moment during the whole time that I was not inwardly ashamed of it, insomuch I endeavored to keep it to myself, using great caution. One day I went into the president's [Brigham Young] office. He whispered to me, I was obliged to whisper back. He smelt my breath, and started in surprise. "Do you chew tobacco?" I could have shrunk out of existence, or anihilated myself from very shame, and he saw I was ashamed of myself, and pitying me said, "Keep it to yourself"!- In the 1860's Brigham Young also struggled with an addiction to chewing tobacco. (1)
-- Aug 31, 1875
[Sermon] Brigham Young: Present Revelation Necessary to Lead the Church - The Apostleship - Present Revelation Necessary for All - Evils of Waste, Intemperance, and Extravagance - True Reformation is to Cease From Doing Evil, JD 18:70 - 77 (2)
Footnotes:
1 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
2 - Journal of Discourses, http://jod.mrm.org
LDS History Chronology: the Word of Wisdom
Mormon Timeline: the Word of Wisdom
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
