September 15th

Sept 15, 1818 - Timothy C. Strong, owner and editor of the PALMYRA REGISTER, and owner of a Palmyra bookstore advertises about 250 volumes.

Sept 15, 1824 - WAYNE SENTINAL (Palmyra, N.Y.) reports "A reformation is going on in this town to a great extent. The love of God has been shed abroad in the hearts of many, and the outpouring of the Spirit seems to have taken a strong hold. About twenty-five have recently obtained a hope in the Lord, and joined the Methodist Church, and many more are desirous of becoming members."

Sept 15, 1843 - William Clayton writes in his journal: "President Joseph told me he had lately had a new item of law revealed to him in relation to myself. He said the Lord had revealed to him that a man could only take 2 of a family except by express revelation and as I had said I intended to take Lydia he made this known for my benefit. To have more than two in a family was apt to cause wrangles and trouble. He finally asked if I would not give L[ydia] to him. I said I would so far as I had anything to do in it. He requested me to talk to her."
Lydia Moon, who had just turned 17, was the younger sister of two of Clayton's wives: legal wife Ruth Moon and his first plural wife Margaret Moon. Clayton had been courting Lydia to become his plural wife until Joseph Smith told him of the recently-revealed "new item of law." Clayton talked to Lydia Moon about becoming Joseph's plural wife but she never would agree to it. She later apostatized from the Church.

Sept 15, 1884 - Eliza R. Snow writes in EXPONENT, and LDS women's journal, of women blessing one another through laying on of hands and washing and anointing: "Any and all sisters who honor their holy endowments, not only have the right, but should feel it a duty, whenever called upon to administer to our sisters in these ordinances, which God had graciously committed to His daughters as well as to His sons; and we testify that when administered and received in faith and humility they are accompanied with all mighty power. . . . thousands can testify that God has sanctioned the administration of these ordinances [of healing the sick] by our sisters with the manifestation of His healing influence."

Sept 15, 1885 - LDS political newspaper SALT LAKE HERALD describes "FILTHY OUTRAGE" committed against local leaders of anti-polygamy crusade. Late Sunday night unidentified persons threw "a dozen fruit jars filled with a horrible mess of filth taken from privey vaults" through glass windows of residences of Prosecuting Attorney William H. Dickson, his assistant Charles S. Varian, and United States Commissioner William McKay. DESERET NEWS describes weapons as "glass jars filled with human excrement and possibly some other nastiness" and blames incident on anti-Mormons.

Sept 15, 1966 - BYU Political Science professor Ray Hillam is charged, by BYU president Ernest L. Wilkinson, with being pro-communist and disloyal to BYU at a formal hearing. These charges come from information gathered by the student spies and by others. Prior to a second hearing, Hillam and his colleague, Louis Midgley, contact one of the student spies, Ronald Hankin, who is willing to expose the "administration-organized spy ring." Hankin's public exposure leads to a major scandal at the University.

Sept 15, 1977 - LDS missionary Kirk M. Anderson, 21, of Orem, Utah, disappears on from the village of Epsom, twenty miles south of London. The disappearance sets off a two-day nationwide search by Scotland Yard. Two days later Anderson is released. He had been held, handcuffed and shackled, in a rented vacation cottage on an isolated farm. Two days after Anderson's release police arrested Joyce McKinney, 27, of Minneapolis, North Carolina. It is later revealed that McKinney, former Miss Universe contestant, manacled Anderson to a bed and forced him to have sex with her.

Sept 15, 1983 - Second counselor Gordon B. Hinckley dedicates temple at Santiago, Chile. Before this dedication, Chilean Mormons have prepared 115,000 names for vicarious temple ceremonies.

Sept 15, 1990 - Memorial service at Mountain Meadows, Utah, for descendants of victims and descendants of perpetrators.

Sept 15, 1992 - Avraham Gileadi, LDS scholar who had published commentaries on Isaiah, is excommunicated for apostasy. He is reportedly told he was excommunicated for teaching false doctrine, being predatory in teaching his theology, and for believing dead prophets over living ones.

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