WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
WILFORD WOODRUFF
(church leader)
BIOGRAPHY
TBDVISITS TO SOUTHERN UTAH
TBDFAMILY
TBDPHOTOS
Photos on the web:Photos of Wilford Woodruff
REFERENCES
Wikipedia article about Wilford WoodruffUtah History Encylopedia article on Wilford Woodruff
Autobiography of Wilford Woodruff
Life and teachings of Wilford Woodruff
A brief history of Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff basic facts
" In the Whirlpool: The Pre-manifesto Letters of President Wilford Woodruff to the William Atkin Family, 1885-1890"
Book edited by Reid L. Neilson with contributions from Thomas G. Alexander and Jan Shipps
Norman: Arthur H. Clark Company at the University of Oklahoma Press, 2011.
Political and religious turmoil in the late 1800s plagued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its leaders. As Utah statehood loomed, Congress aggressively moved against Mormons who engaged in polygamy. More than a thousand men were jailed and others were forced into hiding. One of those who went into hiding in 1879 was Wilford Woodruff, who became church president in 1887. Woodruff sought sanctuary with the family of William and Rachel Atkin and others throughout the 1880s. This never-before-published collection of Woodruff's letters to the Atkins reveals the church leader's political and spiritual conflicts in the five years leading up to his 1890 Manifesto, which officially disallowed polygamy. Woodruff's nearly 60 letters reproduced here depict a man "in the midst of a whirlpool." The church leader believed he and his people were being denied the basic American right to practice the religion of their choice, yet he recognized that polygamy was incompatible with American society. The letters also reveal Woodruff's humanity-his longing to be with friends, his sorrow over the loss of his first wife, and his struggle with illness.
Southern Utah Memories: Ghost town of Atkinville once served as defacto headquarters for LDS Church,
by Loren R. Webb, May 24, 2013