The Oakleys in America - The Long Island, New York Branch and published the "Nauvoo Neighbor," a strong pro-Mormon newspaper. He was city councilman, a regent of "Nauvoo University," and judge advocate of the Nauvoo Legion. When in June 18944 Joseph and Hyrum Smith were imprisoned in the jail at Carthage, Illinois, Taylor and Willard Richards, another apostle, accompanied them "as friends." In the attack on the jail by the lynching mob seeking the Prophet, Taylor was seriously wounded, but recovered.

"In the controversy over the successorship to Smith, Taylor, like most of the Twelve Apostles, threw in his lot with the Brigham Young faction. He trekked across the plains to Utah, assisted in colonizing there, and was always ready to defend his Church against all critics. He was a member of the Territorial Legislature from 1857 to 1876 and served as speaker of the lower house for five successive sessions, beginning in 1857. From 1868 to 1870, he was probate judge of Utah County, and in 1877 he was elected Territorial Superintendent of Schools. After Brigham Young's death in 1877, Taylor, who was head of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, directed the affairs of the Church for three years in the capacity of acting president. It was not until October 1880 that he was officially sustained by the semi-annual conference as "President of the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church in all the world."

"In 1849 he as dispatched to France and later to Germany to carry the Mormon gospel to these countries. He arranged for both the German and the French Translations of The Book of Mormon.

"Taylor accepted the doctrine and practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo. He had seven wives, four of whom outlived him. These women bore him thirty-four children. After the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker act in 1882, Taylor tried to assuage the federal prosecution by maintaining his official residence in the Gardo House in Salt Lake City with his sister as his housekeeper, while his wives and children remained in semi-seclusion in their respective households. In spite of this public gesture of compliance, and in spite of his public admonition to his followers to "be quiet" in the face of federal prosecution, Taylor himself was forced in 1884 to go into voluntary exile to escape arrest. His health rapidly declined and he died in 1887 in Kaysville, [Davis County], Utah. For nearly three years he had directed the Church while in effect a fugitive from justice. He published a theological work entitled, "An Examination into and an Elucidation of The Great Principles of the Mediation and Atonement of Our Lond and Savior Jesus Christ," (1882), and was the author of numerous pamphlets, editorials, and letters.

Sources:

A. Oakley, David Arthur; Oakley, Arthur; and Scow, Marlene Oakley, "The Oakley Ancestral History - The Long Island Branch," West Jordan, Utah, 1996, pg. 187, which see for further information.

B. "Dictionary of American Biography," Volume IX, pgs. 333 & 334, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, Copyright 1935, 1936, 1963 and 1964; which see for further information and which gives an alternative place of death.

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