John W. Woolley – Apostle & Prophet
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Born: Apostle: President: Died: |
1831 1886 1918 1928 |
Little did his parents know at his birth the important role he would yet fulfill in the history of the Gospel, and that he would one day be a Patriarch, Apostle, Prophet, President of the Priesthood, Successor to Joseph F. Smith, father of a future Prophet, uncle to Church President Spencer W. Kimball, and Apostle's J. Reuben Clark and John W. Taylor, as well as being father-in-law to B.H. Roberts, President of the Seventy.
One of John's earliest memories was that of sitting on the Prophet Joseph's knee. Even at eight years old he was considered sufficiently prepared to receive his Patriarchal Blessing from Joseph Smith Sr, the Presiding Patriarch. In it he was promised he would “be called to responsible stations,” that it would involve having to “receive keys”, as well as “glory and honor” and “worlds of knowledge and power”, and that he would one day “be called the Lord's anointed.”
He was chosen to cross the plains with Brigham Young's group of pioneers. In his Blessing as a boy, it had said he would, “yet travel among the mountains of the west” and “bring the sons of Ephraim to the lands of their Inheritance.” In fulfillment of this he was among the first to meet the handcart companies in 1856, and in 1860 and 1863 he brought emigrants across the plains himself. On the last occasion Joseph F. Smith acted as the chaplain in his 'company', and they became lifelong friends, with President Smith having picnics with the Woolley family and speaking at his wife's funeral.
John Woolley held many responsible civil stations, such as Constable, Justice of the Peace, Deputy Sheriff, Deputy Territorial Marshal, and County Commissioner. Within the Nauvoo Legion (in the territory of Deseret) he served as a Lieutenant, Captain, Sergeant and Major. He participated in the Black Hawk War, and was one of the ten who crossed the Little Mountain to meet Johnston's Army in 1857.
Having been ordained a High Priest by Brigham Young, He served on a Bishopric, as a High Councillor in the Davis Stake, and was later ordained a Patriarch. He also was an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple, and he opened General Conference with prayer on more than one occasion. He was sealed to his first wife Julia E. Sirls in March 1851 and was Endowed at the same time. He went on later to marry Ann Everington in 1886, and in 1910 married Annie Fisher, Joseph F. Smith performing the ceremony.
When John Taylor was in hiding there were very few homes in which he felt his safety was secure, and very few people in whom he placed his confidence1. John Woolley was one of these men, and his son Lorin acted as a messenger and sometimes a bodyguard for President John Taylor. It was in John Woolley's home that Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith visited President Taylor on the night of September 26th, 1886, and on the following day set five men apart (including John, his son, and George Q. Cannon) as Apostles, with a special commission to keep alive Celestial Plural Marriage, and the authority to set apart others similarly.
As John Taylor prophesied he was cut off from the Church for performing the mission he had been called to, as were many of those who kept their covenant to keep alive God's laws after the Church had abandoned them. But he continued to carry out this mission under the direction of those who presided over him until just before the death of Joseph F. Smith in 1918. After President Smith's life ended, the responsibility fell upon Woolley (he being the most senior Apostle worthy and willing to keep alive all of the Gospel) of presiding over those keys and ordinances that the Church had rejected, just as his Patriarchal Blessing had predicted.
After John W. Woolley's death in 1928, his son Lorin succeeded him as President of the Priesthood, and to see that the work of God continued he called Apostles to ensure the fullness of Priesthood remained upon the earth, and its ordinances in the manner God had restored them to Joseph originally. This authority has continued to the present day.