Minutes, 1 September 1831

The 30 August revelation that called for Whitney’s appointment as agent also instructed him to raise funds for land purchases in Missouri. Cowdery was to accompany Whitney on his fund-raising journeys. (Revelation, 30 Aug. 1831 [D&C 63:46].)  

An early convert in Kirtland, Fuller had engaged in what many considered to be spiritual excesses. One account claimed that Fuller “while lying on the floor has been seen to jump up and cling to a beam for a while and then drop like a log on the floor.” This same account stated that Fuller and others received their commission to preach “on a roll of paper handed to them from above,” rather than from a group of elders as outlined in the “Articles and Covenants” of the church. On 6 June 1831, Fuller was called in a revelation to travel to Zion with Jacob Scott. Along the way, Scott “threw down the Book of Mormon And jumped on it and said he would go to hell before he would preach it.” (Jones, “Mormon Bible.—No. V,” 135–136; Hancock, Autobiography, 96; Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:64]; Revelation, 6 June 1831 [D&C 52:28].)  

Jones, Josiah. “Mormon Bible.—No. V.” The Evangelist 9 (1 June 1841): 132–136. Cordell, Vera, Alice McMillan, and Genevieve Smalling, comps. Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Colchester Twp., Colchester, Ill. Macomb, IL: McDonough Co. Genealogical Society, 1983.

Hancock, Levi. Autobiography, ca. 1854. Photocopy. CHL. MS 8174.

Little is known about Carter, but he was also called in the 6 June revelation to travel to Zion, in company with Wheeler Baldwin. What then transpired is not entirely clear. A late nineteenth-century history states that Jacob Scott, Fuller, and Carter “apostatized” and “refused to go” to Zion. Jared Carter wrote in 1833 that David Johnson, whom Fuller had baptized about summer 1831, requested rebaptism because Fuller had been “under the influence of an evil spirit” when he performed Johnson’s baptism. In a copy of minutes from a June 1831 conference that Ebenezer Robinson included in Minute Book 2, “denied the faith” appears next to both Fuller’s and Carter’s names. These parenthetical redactions were probably added after the creation of the original document. (Revelation, 6 June 1831 [D&C 52:28, 31]; History of the Reorganized Church, 1:195; Carter, Journal, 66–67; Minute Book 2, 3 June 1831.)  

The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 8 vols. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1896–1976.

Carter, Jared. Journal, 1831–1833. CHL. MS 1441.

Apparently, the conference withdrew Fuller’s and Carter’s authority to preach as elders in the church, probably by taking their elders’ licenses. According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, to “silence” meant “to restrain from preaching by revoking a license to preach.” (“Silence,” in American Dictionary [1828].)  

An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.

Page attended the June 1831 conference in Kirtland and was listed in the minutes as a priest. (Minutes, ca. 3–4 June 1831.)