Minutes, 19 February 1834
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Source Note
Minutes, , Geauga Co., OH, 19 Feb. 1834. Featured version copied [ca. 19 Feb. 1834] in Minute Book 1, pp. 36–39; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Minute Book 1.
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Historical Introduction
These minutes of a 19 February 1834 meeting detail the final steps in organizing the “ of the ”—later known as the high council—and the proceedings of the first case adjudicated by the council. Two days earlier, on 17 February 1834, a council of fifty-eight holders and church members initially organized the new council. Believing the minutes contained some errors, the organizing council charged JS with making “all necessary corrections” to the minutes of the meeting, which delineated the procedures the new council should follow when dealing with church members accused of transgression. Included in the minutes presented here is the council’s discussion and acceptance of the corrected 17 February minutes as well as JS’s declaration that the high council was “organized according to the ancient order, and also according to the mind of the Lord.” The newly organized high council then heard its first case, which concerned charges against Curtis Hodges Sr. for “loud speaking, and a want of clearness in articulation” at various meetings. Several witnesses supported the charges, though no extant contemporary record identifies the precise circumstances, locations, or dates of Hodges’s offenses.
Footnotes
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2
Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102].
Document Transcript
Footnotes
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1
On 17 February 1834, the council adjourned until ten o’clock Wednesday morning, 19 February. (Minutes, 17 Feb. 1834.)
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2
TEXT: Possibly “afterward,”.
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3
This action possibly hearkens to nineteenth-century parliamentary procedure, which held that the minutes of the previous meeting were to be read and approved (or corrected) at the opening of a meeting. (Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order, 132–133.)
Robert, Henry M. Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies. Chicago: S. C. Griggs, 1885.
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4
JS’s draft of the revised minutes evidently conflated the council of twenty-four high priests, from which the fifteen-man high council and its presidency were drawn on 17 February, with the larger, more inclusive council of priesthood holders and private members that “voted in the name, and for the church” in actually appointing the high council. The corrected minutes, copied into the Kirtland minute book, clearly distinguish between the two. (Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102:5].)
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5
Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams. (Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102:3]; see also “Ecclesiastical Organizational Charts.”)
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6
Jared Carter, John S. Carter, Joseph Coe, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Orson Hyde, John Johnson, Luke Johnson, John Smith, Joseph Smith Sr., Samuel Smith, and Sylvester Smith. (Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102:3].)
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7
Even though the minutes being approved at this 19 February meeting focused exclusively on the procedure that the high council should follow in hearing appeals on disciplinary cases, the wording here suggests that JS understood that the council’s responsibilities would be more extensive. (See Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102].)
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8
See 1 Samuel 3:10.
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9
This act of raising hands “in token of the everlasting Covenant” was similar to the action that those who participated in the Kirtland School of the Prophets were instructed to perform when entering the school. (See Revelation, 3 Jan. 1833 [D&C 88:132–135].)
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10
Minutes of earlier meetings during which the high council was initially organized, including a council held on 12 February 1834 and one on 17 February 1834, record JS’s teachings on the ancient order of councils. (Minutes, 12 Feb. 1834; Minutes, 17 Feb. 1834.)
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11
Hodges had originally been a member of the Methodist church. Along with his wife, Lucy, he was baptized in 1832 in Kirtland. Hodges or one of his sons had testified against Doctor Philastus Hurlbut in a preliminary hearing held in January 1834 that tried Hurlbut on charges that he had threatened to kill JS. (Shepard, “Notorious Hodges Brothers,” 281–282.)
Shepard, Bill. “The Notorious Hodges Brothers: Solving the Mystery of Their Destruction at Nauvoo.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 26 (2006): 260–286.
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12
Probably Aaron C. Lyon.
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13
Possibly Isaac Storey. (Minute Book 1, 11 and 23 Aug. 1834.)
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14
In 1864, George A. Smith provided more information on what Hodges had done. According to Smith, “While speaking in meeting [Hodges] had gone into Methodist spasm shouting and screams in such a manner as caused one of the elders to rebuke him.” (George A. Smith, Discourse, 15 Nov. 1864, in George D. Watt, Discourse Shorthand Notes, 15 Nov. 1864, Pitman Shorthand Transcriptions, CHL; Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 597.)
Pitman Shorthand Transcriptions, 1998–2013. CHL.
Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.
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15
Probably Erastus Babbitt. (Minute Book 1, 7–8 Mar. and 17 Aug. 1835.)
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16
Truman Wait was married to Hodges’s daughter Sarah.
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17
According to the revised minutes of the 17 February 1834 meeting that outlined the procedure the council was to follow when hearing a case, the counselors were to “cast lots by numbers and thereby ascertain who of the twelve shall speak first.” Those who drew even numbers were to “stand up in the behalf of the accused and prevent insult or injustice.” Those who drew odd numbers were to speak on behalf of the accuser. If the case was considered to be a simple one, only two counselors, one to represent the accused and one to represent the accuser, would be asked to speak. Cowdery and Coe had drawn numbers 1 and 2, respectively, at the initial organization of the council on 17 February 1834. (Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102:12–13, 17]; Minutes, 17 Feb. 1834.)
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18
According to the revised minutes of the 17 February 1834 meeting, the president’s decision needed to be ratified by a majority of the council in order for it to stand. (Revised Minutes, 18–19 Feb. 1834 [D&C 102:19–22].)