Joseph White Musser
| Joseph White Musser | |
|---|---|
 The priesthood council with Joseph White Musser (lower right) | |
| Senior Member of the Priesthood Council | |
| December 29, 1949 – March 29, 1954 | |
| Predecessor | John Y. Barlow |
| Successor | Rulon C. Allred (Apostolic United Brethren) Charles Zitting (Priesthood Council) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 8, 1872 Amos Milton Musser Mary E. White |
Joseph White Musser (March 8, 1872 โ March 29, 1954)[2] was a Mormon fundamentalist leader.
Musser was born in
LDS Church service
On June 29, 1892, Musser was called to the 16th
On Thanksgiving Day 1899, in the company of four other couples, Musser and his wife, Rose Selms Borquist, received their
In November 1901, Musser was made president of the 105th Quorum of Seventy, and would later also serve as a high councilor in the Uintah, Wasatch and Granite Stakes (being set apart by president Joseph F. Smith). "On 16 February 1903 Patriarch John M. Murdock ordained Musser to the office of High Priest. He was then the husband to two women; both marriages were post-Manifesto".[4] Musser was also the Duchesne Uintah branch president beginning in 1906.[5]
Wives and post-Manifesto plural marriage
Musser married his first wife, Rose S. Borquist in the
According to Musser, in 1915 he was given authority to perform plural marriages by "an apostle." He was excommunicated from the LDS Church by the high council of the Salt Lake City-based Granite Stake on March 21, 1921[6] for attempting to take Marion Bringhurst as his fourth wife.
In May 1932, Musser married again, this time Lucy O. Kmetzsch, and on the May 14, 1929, he was ordained an apostle in the
In the 1930s and 1940s, Musser was responsible for editing the Mormon fundamentalist publication, Truth Magazine. His promotion and practice of plural marriage led to his incarceration by the U.S. federal government between May and December 1945.
Controversy
A concessionary document he and some of his fellow polygamist inmates signed (which they were told was limited to the period of their parole) during their time in prison led to some dissension between those who would sign and those who would not.
In late December 1949, with the death of
Musser was the leader of the Short Creek community during the Short Creek raid.
Upon Musser's death on March 29, 1954,
Works
- Musser, Joseph White (1895), Mormonism from its earliest phases to the present time, Northern Farmer and Fancier, OCLC 28355336
- —— (1934), The new and everlasting covenant of marriage, Truth Publications, OCLC 13962884
- —— (1935), An open letter to Heber J. Grant, April 15, 1935, OCLC 5948001
- ——; Morgan, Dale L (1939), Michael, Our Father and Our God, Truth Publications, OCLC 24039364
- —— (1944), Celestial or Plural Marriage, Salt Lake City: J.W. Musser, OCLC 1535179
- —— (1953), The Star of Truth, OCLC 365215002
- ——, Joseph W. Musser, 1872-1954 [journal], OCLC 34442527
- —— (1900s), The law of plural marriage, Truth Publications, OCLC 14758297
- —— (1900s), Economic Order of heaven, Truth Publications, OCLC 34455269
- —— (1989), Truth, OCLC 658826924
- —— (2008), It Is Written, Messenger Publications, ISBN 978-1-4382-5123-3
- —— (2008), The Sermons of Joseph W. Musser, Messenger Publications, ISBN 978-1-4382-5124-0
- —— (2010), Joseph W. Musser's book of remembrance, Mona, Utah: Hindsight Publications, OCLC 682193441
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Hales, Brian C. ""I Have Been Fanatically Religious" Joseph White Musser, Father of the Fundamentalist Movement". mormonfundamentalism.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
- ^ Ken Driggs (2005). "Imprisonment, Defiance, and Division: A History of Mormon Fundamentalism in the 1940s and 1950s" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought: 69.
- ^ Bradley (1996, p. 23)
- ^ Bradley (1996, p. 24)
- ^ Bradley (1996, p. 21)
- ^ Bradley (1996, p. 26)
- ^ http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/ChartLinks/JosephWhiteMusser.htm Archived 2013-12-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Joseph White Musser Death Certificate". State of Utah. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
References
- Bradley, Martha Sonntag (1996) [1993], Kidnapped from That Land: The Government Raids on the Short Creek Polygamists, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, OCLC 45728295.
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