August 14th

Aug 14, 1683 - William Penn says in a letter, with reference to the Indian tribes whose territory bordered on the southwestern frontier of his settlement: "As to the origin of these Indians I am ready to believe them to be of the Jewish race."

Aug 14, 1830 - Justice Nathan Pierce issues an order to collect an unpaid judgment against Hyrum Smith.: "THESE are therefore to command you to levy on the goods and chattels of the said defendant (except such as are by law exempted from execution) the amount of the said judgment, and bring the money before me, on the 13th- day of September 1830 at my office in the town of Manchester. . . . And if no goods or chattels can be found, or not sufficient to satisfy this execution, then you are hereby commanded to take the body of the said defendant and convey him to the common Jail of the county aforesaid." The constable, Nathan Harrington, collects less than half the debt from Hyrum and when he returns later to collect the remainder he finds that Hyrum has moved away.

Aug 14, 1842 - Eliza R. Snow, secret plural wife of Joseph Smith, moves in to the Smith home. Six months later Eliza abruptly moves out and finds other lodgings, possibly due to Emma learning of her relation with Joseph.

Aug 14, 1844 - Lucien R. Foster, the first Mormon photographer, places an ad in NAUVOO NEIGHBOR. President of New York City branch (1841-43) and member of the Council of Fifty (1845-46), Foster's two daguerreotypes of the Nauvoo temple in 1846 are the most enduring images of the Mormon capital. He is excommunicated in 1846.

August 14, 1849 - At a conference in Manchester England the membership in England, Scotland and Wales is "17,902 members 350 branches, 929 Elders 1,185 Priests, 608 Teachers 341 Deacons."

Aug 14, 1856 -- Wyman's Saint Louis Museum advertises in the SAINT LOUIS MISSOURI DEMOCRAT that "two mummies from the Catacombs of Egypt" are on display. These mummies formerly belonged to the LDS church. They stay in St. Louis for fifteen years before being moved to Chicago. Papyri found with the mummies are also displayed at the museum. Leipzig Egyptologist Gustavus Seyffarth was able to read the name of the person for whom Facsimile No. 3 was made. A contemporary account reports: ". . . according to Prof. Seyffarth, the papyrus roll is not a record, but an invocation to the Deity Osirus, in which occurs the name of the person, (Horus,) and a picture of the attendant spirits, introducing the dead to the Judge, Osirus." When the original of facsimile No. 1 resurfaces in 1967 the hieroglyphs in the margins give "Horus" as the person for whom the scroll was written.

August 14, 1859 - Apostle Orson Pratt preaches: "The Lord now saw that there was one nation upon the earth where he could venture to begin the great work—where a theocracy could exist in an ecclesiastical form, being legally and lawfully entitled to all the rights and protection guaranteed in the great American Constitution, in common with all religious parties."

Aug 14, 1895 - Joseph Smith III, son of Joseph Smith Jr and president of the RLDS church writes, "Father had no wife but my mother, Emma Hale, to the knowledge of either my mother or myself, and I was twelve years old nearly when he was killed."

Aug 14, 1929 - Elder Yeates of Church of Christ, Temple Lot, asks Heber J. Grant for permission to solicit donations for construction of temple at independence, Missouri. President Grant declines "to assist in erecting a temple for a church with which we have no connection whatever."

Aug 14, 1938 - First Deseret Industries store opens with its dual purposes of providing low-cost used items as well as employment for disabled and elderly persons. Orson H. Hewlett patterns this after Goodwill Industries.

Aug 14, 1960 - Jerald Tanner is excommunicated from the LDS church at his own request. Tanner later states: "I believed very strongly that I belonged to the only true church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. When I was about 18, I had to face reality." Jerald, with his wife Sandra, later are a major force in publicizing the Church's problematic history.

Aug 14, 1976 - New York Times reports U.S. patent granted to Mormons G. Richard Jacobs, Cluff Peck, Dean G. Doderquist for "speaking mannequins" at LDS information centers.

Aug 14, 1977 - In an article in the Salt Lake Tribune General Relief Society President Barbara Smith is quoted as saying that she holds herself partly to blame for the confusion in the minds of many people between the conservative caucus activities and those of the Relief Society. As she put it, "I didn't say, 'Don't use the Relief Society.’” Later a Mormon scholar writes: "One wonders, however, whether the Relief Society's tolerance of the use of its informal machinery for right-wing purposes was as innocent as is implied. If instead of the anti-feminist Phyllis Schafly report, the caucuses had distributed the latest pro-abortion flyer, would the Relief Society have remained as passive?"

Aug 14, 1983 - CHURCH NEWS reports that Palestinian Suheil Abu Hadid has arrived in Utah as first Jerusalem Arab to serve full-time LDS mission.

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