The First University

What was the first university west of the Mississippi?

a.      The University of Texas

b.      The University of Deseret

c.       Brigham Young Academy

d.      Brigham Young University

Yesterday’s answers:

1.      B   A gunshot

The following story is in reference to the ill fated Martin Handcart Company.

   On the morning of the fourth day after camping, one of the brethren related a dream he had that night. He told us that the Church teams would come that day, and just before we could see them we would hear a gun fired and they would come in sight. I think it was in the afternoon that we heard a gunshot, and in a minute the team came in sight, six in number.

Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1994), 79.

2.      C   Joseph Smith  

Wilford Woodruff made this statement in general conference a few years before his death.

After the death of Joseph Smith, I saw and conversed with him many times in my dreams in the night season. On one occasion he and his brother Hyrum met me when on the sea going on a mission to England. I had Dan Jones with me. He received his mission from Joseph Smith before his death; and the Prophet talked freely to me about the mission I was then going to perform. And he also talked to me with regard to the mission of the Twelve Apostles in the flesh, and he laid before me the work they had to perform; and he also spoke of the reward they would receive after death. And there were many other things he laid before me in his interview on that occasion. And when I awoke many of the things he had told me were taken from me, I could not comprehend them. I have had many interviews with Brother Joseph until the last fifteen or twenty years of my life; I have not seen him for that length of time. But during my travels in the southern country last winter I had many interviews with President Young, and with Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith, and Jedediah M. Grant, and many others who are dead. They attended our conference, they attended out meetings. And on one occasion, I saw Brother Brigham and Brother Heber ride in a carriage ahead of the carriage in which I rode when I was on my way to attend conference; and they were dressed in most priestly robes. When we arrived at our destination I asked President Young if he would preach to us. He said, “No, I have finished my testimony in the flesh, I shall not talk to this people any more. But (said he) I have come to see you; I have come to watch over you, and to see what the people are doing. Then (said he) I want you to teach the people-and I want you to follow this counsel yourself-that they must labor and so live as to obtain the Holy Spirit, for without this you cannot build up the kingdom: without the spirit of God you are in danger of walking in the dark, and in danger of failing to accomplish your calling as apostles and as elders in the Church and Kingdom of God. And, said he, Brother Joseph taught me this principle.” And I will here say, that I have heard him refer to that while he was living. But what I was going to say is this: The thought came to me that Brother Joseph had left the work of watching over this Church and Kingdom to others, and that he had gone ahead, and that he had left this work to men who have lived and labored with us since he left us. This idea manifested itself to me, that such men advance in the spirit world. And I believe myself that these men who have died and gone into the spirit world had this mission left with them, that is, a certain portion of them, to watch over the Latter-day Saints.

Journal of Discourses 26 vols., (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1974), 21:317-318.

3.      A   The Mormon Elders coming

Joseph Fielding’s brother James, an Independent (formerly Methodist) minister in Preston, England, wrote to his brother in Canada and invited him to come and preach his new religion in his chapel. So, upon arriving in Britain the missionaries went to Preston, thirty miles north of the port city of Liverpool, to preach to James’s congregation. Some people in that congregation had exercised such great faith and prayer that they had seen these American missionaries in dreams before their arrival in England. Beginning 23 July the brethren preached before three overflow crowds in Reverend Fielding’s church, the Vauxhall Chapel. As soon as several parishioners requested baptism, however, Reverend Fielding denied the brethren the use of his chapel any longer. He later lamented, “Kimball bored the holes, Goodson drove the nails, and Hyde clinched them.”

Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 3d ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967), 125.

4.      A. Sailing to North America

Leonora Cannon Taylor, in her youth, was not ignorant to the promptings of the spirit.  Early in life the spirit spoke to her to migrate from England to Canada, in fact a prophetic dream encouraged her to take this bold step to the new world. While living in the Toronto area she met the young Methodist minister, and future Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was only a matter of time when the two of them fell in love, prompting John to make a proposal of marriage.  At first Lenora rejected the offer, however, another dream was given in which she saw herself happily married to him, convinced her to go through with the marriage. The two married on January 28, 1833.

Lawrence R. Flake, George Q. Cannon, His Missionary Years (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998), 9.