Like Mother, Like Daughter

 

Diantha Morley Billings

You can imagine that the calls extended during the pioneer years of the Church aren’t quite what they are now. Life was different and therefore the calls just seemed to match the lifestyle. What calling did Diantha Morley Billings and her mother receive on the same day under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith?

A)     Midwives

B)     Candle makers

C)     Bonnet makers

D)     Butter makers

Yesterday’s answer:

1.      (B)   The State of Missouri

According to Journal accounts, the Prophet Joseph taught the location of the ancient City of Manti, mentioned in the Book of Mormon during the march of Kirtland Camp:

On September 25, 1838, having passed through Huntsville, Randolph County, Missouri the Prophet stated that this place was where “the ancient site of the city of Manti.”

Andrew Jensen, The Historical Record, Vol. 7, 601.

Additional interesting information:

Samuel D. Tyler writes the following dated September 25, 1838:

   We passed through Huntsville, Co, seat of Randolph Co, Pop. 450, and three miles further we bought 32 bu, of corn off one of the brethren who resides in this place. There are several of the brethren round about here and this is the ancient site of the City of Manti, which is spoken of in the Book of Mormon and this is appointed one of the Stakes of Zion, and it is in Randolph County, Missouri, three miles west of the county seat.

Journal of Samuel D. Tyler, Sept. 25, 1838, filed in Church Historian’s Office

Again, from the records of Kirtland Camp:

   The camp passed through Huntsville, in Randolph County, which has been appointed as one of the stakes of Zion, and is the ancient site of the City of Manti, and pitched tents at Dark Creek, Salt Licks, seventeen miles.

Millennial Star, vol. 16, 296.

What’s interesting is Huntsville exists today. You can find it 42 miles northwest of Columbia, Missouri.

2.      (A)    Carthage, Illinois and Warsaw

In answer to one of these letters, Brigham Young revealed a lack of confidence in the colony’s future, stating, “we cannot afford to spare good men enough to sustain such a place as that is soon likely to be.” In another letter addressed to [Elder] Rich at the end of 1855, President Young cited a Brother Lewis as comparing current troubles in their midst to the bitter anti-Mormon conflict in Illinois at the time of Joseph Smith’s assassination, saying San Bernardino was “just half way between Carthage and Warsaw.” The highest Church leader predicted that either the San Bernardino Church members would incline to the ways of their neighbors and the “spirit of the world” or else the past history of cupidity, hate, and violence would repeat itself.

Edward Leo Lyman, “The Rise and Decline of Mormon San Bernardino,” BYU Studies, Fall 1989, 54.

Additional interesting information:

In a June public address in Salt Lake City, referring to San Bernardino, he [Brigham Young] stated, “Hell reigns there, and . . . it is just as much as any ‘Mormon’ can do to live there, and that is about time for him and every true Saint to leave that land.”

Deseret News, 10 June 1857

After 1857-58, there was no organized branch of the Church in San Bernardino for more than a half-century. Agents of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [Currently the Community of Christ] did establish a branch in the area.

Edward Leo Lyman, “The Rise and Decline of Mormon San Bernardino,” BYU Studies, Fall 1989, 63.

3.      Lehi (Dry Creek), Alpine (Mountainville), American Fork (Lake City), Pleasant Grove (Battle Creek), Mapleton (Hobble Creek), Salem (Pondtown), Payson (Peteetneet), Santaquin (Summit Creek), Nephi (Salt Creek)

Richard D. Poll, “The Move South,” BYU Studies, Fall 1989, 79.