On
Sunday, 8 February 1835, Joseph Smith met with Brigham and Joseph Young to
inform them that the twelve apostles and the seventy would soon be called and
that Brigham would serve in the former and his elder brother, Joseph, would be
a president in the latter. In the Prophet's mind, the march of Zion's Camp
played an essential role in the selection of members of the twelve and the
seventy. Indeed, the Mormon paramilitary expedition to Missouri in 1834 was
regarded as something of a rite of passage for those who would become leaders. And,
it is perhaps noteworthy that, without exception, all of the 71 brethren called
to serve in the seventy in February 1835 were Zion's Camp veterans. (Lyndon
W. Cook, The Office of Seventy 1835-1845 [Provo Utah: Grandin Book Company,
2010], 13. 15, emphasis in bold added [p. 14 is an image])
On why there was 71, not 70 who
were called, Cook noted that:
Seventy-one,
instead of seventy, were called because Ezra Thayer, a civil engineer from
upstate New York, was judged unacceptable for the office after his ordination.
He found himself censured or excommunicated more than a few times in the 1830s
because of his defiance to Smith's authority. Thayer's call to the seventy
coincided with one of his rebounds, but ultimately he was dropped from the
roster (his church membership held in abeyance) and Cyrus Smalling was
installed in his place. (Ibid., 15)
