Heber J. Grant
Heber J. Grant | |
---|---|
7th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | |
November 23, 1918 | – May 14, 1945|
Predecessor | Joseph F. Smith |
Successor | George Albert Smith |
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | |
November 18, 1916 | – November 23, 1918|
Predecessor | Francis M. Lyman |
Successor | Anthon H. Lund |
End reason | Became President of the Church |
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | |
October 16, 1882 | – November 23, 1918|
Called by | John Taylor |
End reason | Became President of the Church |
LDS Church Apostle | |
October 16, 1882 | – May 14, 1945|
Called by | John Taylor |
Reason | Reorganization of First Presidency and the death of Orson Pratt[1] |
Reorganization at end of term | Matthew Cowley ordained |
Personal details | |
Born | Heber Jeddy Grant November 22, 1856 Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, U.S. |
Died | May 14, 1945 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | (aged 88)
Resting place | Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′37″N 111°51′29″W / 40.777°N 111.858°W |
Spouse(s) | Lucy Stringham
(m. 1877; died 1893)Hulda Augusta Winters
(m. 1884)Emily Harris Wells
(m. 1884; died 1908) |
Children | 12 |
Parents | Jedediah M. Grant Rachel R. Ivins |
Signature | |
Heber Jeddy Grant[3][4] (November 22, 1856 – May 14, 1945) was an American religious leader who served as the seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Grant worked as a bookkeeper and a cashier, then was called to be an LDS apostle on October 16, 1882, at age 25. After the death of Joseph F. Smith in late 1918, Grant served as LDS Church president until his death.
The first president born after the exodus to Utah, Grant was also the last LDS Church president to have practiced
In business, Grant helped develop
Early life
Grant was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the son of Rachel Ridgeway Ivins and Jedediah Morgan Grant. His father was a counselor in the First Presidency to Brigham Young. Rachel Grant was a native of New Jersey, where she had converted to the LDS Church at about 20. Her cousin and later brother-in-law (he married her older sister Anna), Israel Ivins, was the first person baptized a Latter-day Saint in New Jersey.[5]
Jedediah Grant died when Heber J. Grant was nine days old. After Jedediah's death, Rachel married Jedediah's brother, George Grant, but he fell into alcoholism so she divorced him. Rachel became the dominant influence in Heber's life. She served for many years as president of the 13th Ward Relief Society in downtown Salt Lake City.
He was known for his determination to achieve goals that were seemingly beyond his reach. As a child, he wanted to join the baseball team that would win the Utah territorial championship, but others believed him to be too physically awkward to be successful. In response, he purchased a baseball and practiced throwing the ball for hours against his barn to improve. The team he joined later won the championship. In similar fashion, Grant expressed a desire to be a successful bookkeeper although many of his associates criticized his penmanship. He practiced his writing to the point that he was invited to teach penmanship at one of the local academies.
There were no free public schools in Salt Lake City when Grant was a child, but his mother kept him enrolled in various schools while he was growing up.[6]
Business activities
After working as a bookkeeper in the insurance business in 1877, Grant became an assistant cashier with
In the late 1890s, Grant served as the business manager for the newly-formed official LDS magazine, the Improvement Era.[8] Grant's insurance company advertised in the publication.[9]
Grant continued to be involved in business activities after his call as an apostle. He founded many new businesses, including a bank. He was a founder of the
Grant lost a large amount of money in the Panic of 1893 and never recovered from its adverse financial effects. He was also the main person to negotiate new financing to the LDS Church in New York at the time. His efforts kept the church going until Lorenzo Snow's late-1890s call for tithing placed the church in a better financial situation.
Early LDS Church service
Grant was made a block teacher (similar to the modern position of
In June 1875, when the first
At 26, he served a mission to the Native Americans from 1883 to 1884.[12]
Grant's early church assignments included service on the Church Salary Committee and the Sunday School General Board. Grant was made Second Assistant in the Superintendency of the General YMMIA in 1898. When Joseph F. Smith became president of the church and head of the YMMIA, Grant was made First Assistant, where he served until he became church president.[13]
In 1880, Grant became
In 1882, Grant was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Early in his service in the quorum, he made many trips to Arizona, earning the title "The Arizona Apostle".[6] Grant twice served missions among the Yaqui in Mexico.
In 1901, Grant was sent to Japan to open the church's Japanese Mission. He served as the mission president until 1903, when he returned home but was almost immediately sent to preside over the British and other European missions of the church. He returned from the British mission in 1906.
During the ensuing decade and later, Grant oversaw church education programs, the
Church president
Grant succeeded Joseph F. Smith as church president in November 1918. He was not
During his tenure as church president, Grant enforced the
Also under Grant, the first stakes outside the Intermountain West were organized. The first stake in Los Angeles was organized in the 1920s. Grant still operated on old methods, such as personally asking LeGrand Richards to move to California with the intention of calling him as a stake president there. He also personally negotiated the purchase of the land on which the Los Angeles Temple would be built.
In the 1930s, stakes were organized in New York and Chicago and in the 1940s in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, DC. Grant presided at the dedication of an LDS chapel in Washington, DC, in 1933, which was seen to mark a new phase of nationwide expansion in the church.
In 1935, Grant excommunicated members of the church in
One of Grant's greatest legacies as president is the church's welfare program, which he instituted in 1936: "our primary purpose was to set up, insofar as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people help themselves."
His administration also emphasized the practice of the LDS health code known as the
Despite being a
Roosevelt still won Utah in each of his four presidential elections. Grant regarded that as "one of the most serious conditions that has confronted me since I became President of the Church."[19] Later, when Utah voters agreed by plebiscite to become the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus completing the process of ratification and repealing prohibition, Grant was devastated. In a general conference, he told the Latter-day Saints, "I have never felt so humiliated in my life over anything as that the State of Utah voted for the repeal of Prohibition."[20]
Under Grant's administration, the position of
Death
Grant died in
Legacy
Grant's teachings as an apostle were the 2004 course of study in the LDS Church's Sunday Relief Society and Melchizedek priesthood classes.
Wives
Grant was the last LDS Church president to practice plural marriage. He married a first time in 1877 and then twice more in 1884. However, by the time he became church president, only one of his wives, Augusta, was still alive.
One of his grandchildren was longtime CBS News producer Leslie Midgley, last husband of Betty Furness.[22]
Lucy Stringham
Grant married Lucy Stringham (1858–1893) on November 1, 1877. She was a daughter of Briant Stringham, who came to the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in 1847.
Lucy had been closely associated with Grant essentially from her birth, and they attended Mary Cook's school together. Like Grant, she was a member of the 13th Ward.[6] It was not until Grant broke off his courtship with Emily H. Wells (see below) that he started actively courting Lucy.[7]: 32 Lucy was initially reticent to fully accept Grant's advances, seeing herself as just a temporary replacement for Emily, but after he regularly walked her home from church services for several weeks without being invited into the Stringham home, she gave up and invited him in. They married a few months later.[7]: 32–33 For a time, Lucy was a school teacher.
Grant felt very close to Lucy. On an early assignment as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in Arizona, he surprised his traveling companion, Brigham Young Jr., with how many letters he wrote to Lucy.[23]
Lucy and Grant would become the parents of six children. He praised her "business foresight and judgment" and credited her with much of his business success.[24] She died in 1893, after a long illness during which he gave constant, tender devotion to her, as he had throughout their marriage.[3]
Augusta Winters
Grant married Hulda Augusta Winters (1856–1952) on May 26, 1884. She was a school teacher for a time and was described as the ablest school teacher in Utah Territory.[23] In the late 1880s, Augusta took up residence in New York City to try and prevent Grant's arrest on polygamy charges. Augusta bore one daughter. She accompanied Grant to Japan when he was sent to open the Japanese mission in 1901. She would often travel with him when he was president of the church, especially when he went to address non-Mormon audiences. She died in 1952.
Emily H. Wells
Grant married Emily Harris Wells (1857–1908) on May 27, 1884. She was a daughter of Daniel H. Wells.
Emily and Grant were five months apart in age and from Emily's birth she had been Grant's next-door neighbor. They were among the most prominent young orators in Salt Lake society in the 1870s, both connected with the Wasatch Literary Association and Grant was a counselor to Emily's brother in the 13th Ward YMMIA presidency. The marriage of Grant and Emily was expected by all who knew them. However, Emily then announced publicly her opposition to polygamy, which caused a falling out between Grant and Emily.[25]: 6
Emily was a full sister of
Emily attended the
In 1889, to avoid being forced to testify in pending unlawful cohabitation charges against her husband, Emily went to Manassa, Colorado, where she stayed for a year and a half. Grant accompanied her on the train-ride from Pueblo, Colorado, to Manassa, having been on a different train on the previous part of the journey to avoid arrest. Grant stayed two weeks, setting up for Emily the most comfortable house in the town, and leaving his mother to help Emily.[25]: 5 She remained in Manassa until March 1891, when she returned to Salt Lake City.
Emily and Grant were the parents of four daughters and a son. The son, Daniel Wells Grant, died while he was still a child.[7]: 31 Emily's last child was born in 1899, when she was 42, the same year Grant pleaded guilty to unlawful cohabitation and paid a $100 fine.[26]
Emily accompanied Grant when he served as mission president in England, bringing her four daughters and two of Lucy's daughters. Because of their daughters' presence, the Grants relocated the mission home to a more respectable part of Liverpool.[27]
Emily developed stomach cancer in 1907, which caused her death in 1908.[28] At the time of her death, she was considered one of the most prominent women in Salt Lake City.[29]
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Grave monument of Heber J. Grant
Ancestry
8. Joshua Grant Jr. | |||||||||||||||
4. Joshua Grant III | |||||||||||||||
9. Mary Morgan | |||||||||||||||
2. Jedediah Morgan Grant | |||||||||||||||
10. Joseph Howard | |||||||||||||||
5. Athalia Howard | |||||||||||||||
11. Elizabeth Davies | |||||||||||||||
1. Heber Jeddy Grant | |||||||||||||||
12. Caleb Ivins | |||||||||||||||
6. Caleb Wright Ivins | |||||||||||||||
13. Sarah Wright | |||||||||||||||
3. Rachel Ridgway Ivins | |||||||||||||||
14. Barzillai Ridgeway | |||||||||||||||
7. Edith Ridgeway | |||||||||||||||
15. Rachel Murrell | |||||||||||||||
Works
- Grant, Heber J. (1941). Gospel Standards: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Heber J. Grant. compiled by OCLC 10242816.
- —— (1970). A Japanese Journal. Compiled by OCLC 16635136.
- —— (2011) [2002]. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant. OCLC 54500103.
See also
References
- ^ Grant and George Teasdale were ordained apostles on the same date. After their ordinations, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles again had twelve members.
- Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 1899-09-09, p. 1.
- ^ OCLC 54500103
- ^ a b "Grant, Heber Jeddy", Utah Division of Archives and Records Services, retrieved June 19, 2013
- BYU Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, pp. 17–42
- ^ OCLC 24502140
- ^ OCLC 4804896
- ^ Todd, Jay M. (February 1976), "A Status Report on Church Magazines", Ensign
- ^ "When Your Home Burns" (advertisement). November 1931. p. 52. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ Seventies were then a local priesthood office considered between that of elder and high priest. There are virtually no cases of the LDS Church ordaining men to the Melchizedek priesthood before 18.
- BYU Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, pp. 463–484
- ^ "Heber J. Grant: Seventh President of the Church". Presidents of the Church Student Manual. LDS Church. 2012. pp. 112–29.
- ^ LDS Church Almanac, 2010 Edition, p. 144[full citation needed]
- OCLC 54500103
- ^ Alexander, Thomas G. (2003). "The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement" (PDF). Dialogue. 14. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
- ^ Allen and Leonard, p. 524
- ^ a b "MORMON CHURCH OPPOSES PLACING MX MISSILE IN UTAH AND NEVADA". New York Times. May 6, 1981. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
- ^ Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, October 1919, p. 19.
- ^ a b Winder, Michael Kent (2007). Presidents and prophets: the story of America's presidents and the LDS church. Covenant Communications.
- ^ "Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, October 1934, p. 129". Retrieved September 17, 2018.
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(help) - ^ Quinn 1980, p. 180
- ^ "Leslie Midgley Pioneering Television News Producer" ldsfilm.com (August 19, 2002); retrieved August 29, 2022
- ^ a b Walker, Ronald W. (July 1979), "Jedediah and Heber", Ensign
- ^ Richard R. Lyman (1919), "President Grant and his Family", The Young Women's Journal, vol. 30, retrieved July 23, 2014
- ^ JSTOR 40169046
- ^ Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 1899-09-09.
- ^ Walker, Ronald W. (2004), "Heber J. Grant's European Mission, 1903-1906", BYU Studies, 43 (1), Provo: 264
- ^ Millennial Star article on the death of Emily Wells Grant
- ^ Salt Lake Telegram article on Emily's death Archived October 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Heber Jeddy Grant family tree". FamilySearch. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
- Johnson, Sherrie Mills (January 2004). "Heber J. Grant: A Prophet for Hard Times". Ensign: 57.
- ISBN 0-87579-924-8.
- Quinn, D. Michael (Winter 1980). "The Council of Fifty and Its Members, 1844 to 1945". BYU Studies. 20 (2): 163–98. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018.
External links
- Media related to Heber J. Grant at Wikimedia Commons
- Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Heber J. Grant Archived February 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- Diary Excerpts of Heber J. Grant, 1887-1899
- Heber J. Grant Papers, MSS 433 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University