Copyright Richard L. Saunders 1989 All Rights Reserved
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
1 Copyright Richard L. Saunders 1989 All rights reserved. i FRANCIS GLADDEN BISHOP AND GLADDENISM: A STUDY IN THE CULTURE OF A MORMON DISSENTER AND HIS MOVEMENT by Richard LaVell Saunders A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in History Approved: ____________________________ _______________________________ Major Professor Committee Member ____________________________ ________________________________ Committee Member Dean of Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 1989 ii For my father, Dr. LaVell E. Saunders who instilled in his boy the love of learning, whose own thesis this will stand beside; who always wanted a successful son, but who will have to settle for a smart one. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe to a good many individuals sincere thanks for advice, timely criticism, and support. My committee, particularly Chas Peterson and A.J. Simmonds, deserve special mention for their interest and direction, pointing out sources and interpretations and particular problems. Too, gratitude is offered the staffs of the LDS Family History Library, LDS Church Historical Department, RLDS Church Library- Archives, and Utah State University Special Collections (where I was employed for five years), for answers to questions, generous flexibility within a researcher's time restrictions and occasionally tracking down items that hadn't seen daylight for decades. To the person to whom I owe the most I can express my feelings only shallowly. To my wife, Carrie--who began a marriage with a husband whose attention was in the midst of the nineteenth century, who tolerated stacks of notes and revisions strewn over living room floors, who basically shared her spouse with a dead man--to her, rightly, belongs a depth of gratitude that may only be expressed heart to heart. Richard Saunders iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION . .ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. .iii NOTE ON CAPITALIZATION STYLE . vi ABSTRACT. .ix INTRODUCTION . 1 Chapter Part I I. A FARMER'S SON. 7 II. A BUDDING BRANCH. 22 III. MISSIONARY, HERETIC . .34 IV. SPIRITUAL FIRE. 51 V. THE LATER MISSIONS. .64 VI. THE NAUVOO APOSTATE . .79 Part II VII. THE MORMON DIASPORA . .101 VIII. SEVEN MOVEMENTS IN SEVEN YEARS. .111 IX. MORE A MOVEMENT THAN AN ORGANIZATION. 127 v X. THE KINGDOM OF GOD ESTABLISHED. .157 XI. THE BRANCH BROKEN . 171 XII. CONCLUSIONS: MORMONISM, THE DIASPORA, AND THE REORGANIZATION. 187 ENDNOTES. 192 WORKS CITED . .242 APPENDICES. .255 Appendix A. Isaac Gates Bishop Family. 256 Appendix B. Individuals Known To Have Had a Connection To or Association With Francis Gladden Bishop and His Organizations. 257 Appendix C. Gladdenist Organizations and Their Members. .262 Appendix D. A Bibliography of Gladdenism . .265 vi NOTE ON CAPITALIZATION STYLE In writing this work I became acutely conscious of the intricasies of organizational nomenclature. The section heading to "Religious Names and Terms" in the thirteenth edition of the Chicago Manual of Style notes: In few areas is an author more tempted to overcapitalize or an editor more loath to urge a lowercase style than in that of religion. [This] is probably due to unanalyzed acceptance of the pious customs of an earlier age,. .or to fear of offending religious persons. .1 Seeking to avoid value judgments on the validity of Mormonism's competing truth- claims, the following capitalization policy will be followed in my thesis. Each convention is identified by a Chicago Manual of Style section citation and/or prose explanation. — "Mormons" and "Mormonism" will be capitalized as cultural designations derived from a proper name. (7.66, 7.79) — "Mormon Diaspora" will be capitalized as a distinctive historical period. (7.61) — "Mormon church" will not be capitalized because it is not properly the name of any of the sects claiming authority from Joseph Smith. (7.81) The reader should understand that the term was assigned derisively early in its history and after about 1860 was directed most narrowly at the followers of Brigham Young in Utah. — "The Church" will be capitalized because of vernacular usage referring to the larger body of Mormons before the death of Joseph Smith and to the larger scope of Mormon tradition. This differs somewhat from the Manual because of cultural convention. It 1University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th rev. ed., (Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1982), 208. vii is not intended as a slight to other denominations, it is simply a short title or, if you will, a "personal" pronoun. While it is common for any believers to refer to their denomination as "the Church," the historian faces a problem when dealing with conflicting claims: to capitalize is to suggest the legitimacy of a particular claim, creating a value judgment on the part of the writer. When "Church" is capitalized it will refer to the pre-1845 church organization and to the larger culture of Mormonism following Smith's death and the division of his following, not to a particular succession group. The problem of identity is compounded following the division of the Church after Smith's death in 1844. Some claimants gave their followings new titles; many kept the formal name of the Church, creating a multiplicity of organizations with the same name and competing claims; and some assumed earlier organizational names. To those unfamiliar with the intricacies of Mormon history this hodge-podge of titles may appear nit-picking and confusing. Rightly so, but semantics make a world of difference, for one may be confusing two entirely different groups, related only by a distant claimed heritage. Consistent with the Manual will be the lowercasing of the use of "church" to refer to particular sects within Mormonism. (7.82) — "The Restoration" or "the Restored Gospel," as it refers to the concept in Mormonism of a reissuing of divine truth, will be capitalized. (7.81) — Priesthood offices, except when used as titles, will not be capitalized (7.20). — Consistent with the accepted citation of Bible and scriptural references, in all save formal citations the names of Mormon scriptures will not be italicized and abbreviations will be used for the individual subordinate books (7.85, 14.34). — Joseph Smith's designation as "the Prophet" will be capitalized consistent with the appellation of revered persons (7.78), except when the term "prophet" is used generically (7.20). I have used interchangeably terms and names by which Joseph viii Smith, prophet-leader of the Mormons, was known to his people during his lifetime. He was to those who knew him, the Prophet Joseph Smith, Brother Joseph, the Prophet, and simply, Joseph. ix ABSTRACT Francis Gladden Bishop and Gladdenism: A Study In The Culture of a Mormon Dissenter and His Movement by Richard L. Saunders, Master of Science Utah State University, 1989 Major Professor: Dr. Charles S. Peterson Department: History Francis Gladden Bishop joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1832, served widely as a missionary, and was excommunicated in 1842 for heresy. Following Joseph Smith's death in 1844, Bishop proclaimed his prophetic call to the scattered Mormon groups around the United States. This biography examines the experiences, particularly divine communications, that shaped his beliefs. Looking in detail at his experiences and claims to divine authority, the study examines the dynamics of dissent in an authoritarian religion. More specifically, it provides a case study of the tensions in Mormonism as the movement sought to create a unified social and cultural tradition. It also examines Bishop's leadership and his followers' role as a schism sect during the Mormon Diaspora (1844–1865), relating particularly to mid-nineteenth century Mormon Utah. (280 pages) 6 INTRODUCTION In the closing years of the Depression, the early 1940s, the Utah Section of the Works Progress Administration published a nearly comprehensive calendar listing of church records for Utah denominations. Pains were taken to survey the records from every known non-Mormon religious group that might have generated records during its tenure of existence.1 One group listed in the record was a small band with the odd name of the Gladdenites. No church records were located, and of this small religious group the record reads: "More a general movement than an organized church."2 Four decades earlier in a historical discussion of groups with Mormon heritage, one who had known the sect's leader personally had to admit that of him "we have no authentic account . ., so we can safely give him but a casual mention as the leader of one of the many movements of the time."3 It is true that the small band of believers probably generated no church records, at least none that have survived in Utah. In light of their brief tenure in Utah, it is only less true—though no less important—that they existed as more than "a general movement." Their shepherd, who to Joseph Smith, son of the ninteenth-century Mormon prophet, was a little-known Mormon schismatic who spent nearly his entire adult laboring vainly to convince the scattered Mormons in the U.S. of his divine call. Francis Gladden Bishop lived a life full of contradictions. Attested as they are by the above quotes, Bishop accomplished nothing notable--or of record--in his lifetime, yet he had an impact on the faith he subscribed to. His thoughts were confusing and changed with the circumstance in which he found himself, yet they contributed to the development of a new religion's social and ecclesiastical culture and 7 personified many of the tensions in the Mormon tradition. He was a faithful, if heretical, Church member living on the fringes of the religious society. Taken in retrospect it may be suggested that the life and labors of Francis Bishop are perhaps an example of the whole being less significant than the separate values of the parts.