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In 1835, the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, chose and ordained the church’s original council or quorum of Twelve Apostles. Initially these men functioned as heads of the church’s missionary program.
Over time, however, their prestige and authority increased, and when Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844, members of the church in Nauvoo voted for the Twelve Apostles to assume control of the church in place of the First Presidency. In 1847, the president of the quorum, Brigham Young, officially became president of the mainline faction of the church, now the LDS Church headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
However, of the church’s original Twelve Apostles, only four — Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, and Orson Pratt — followed Young to Utah. Another apostle, David W. Patten, had been killed in the Battle of Crooked River during the 1838 Mormon Missouri War.
Lost Apostles tells the fascinating stories of the remaining six members of the original quorum: Thomas B. Marsh, William McLellin, Luke Johnson, William B. Smith, John F. Boynton, and Lyman E. Johnson.
Publisher: John Whitmer Books
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