Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Samuel W. Richards's Reminiscences Concerning the Move to the Rocky Mountains and the Building of the Temple in Independence

In his journal for October 8, 1905, Anthony W. Ivins recorded Samuel W. Richards (1824-1909) sharing (albeit, late) reminiscences concerning the Saints moving to the Rocky Mountains and how the Temple in Independence (cf. D&C 84) would be built at the eschaton:

 

Sam[ue]l W. Richards said, he was intimate with the prophet Jos[eph]. In the winter of 1843 & 44 a messenger came and asked me if I would be one of a party to go and explore the Rocky Mountains, with 23 other men, to find a place where the Church could be established. He [Joseph Smith] relating a vision in which he saw the vallies of the Mountains, California & Northern Mexico, & then the building of a temple at Jackson Co. [Missouri] & the earth redeemed and filled with towns & villages & producing all that was necessary for the sustenance of man. (Anthony W. Ivins, Journal, October 8, 1905, in Cowboy Apostle: The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875-1932, ed. Elizabeth Oberdick Anderson [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2013], 362-63)

 

Further Reading:


Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies