W. W. Phelps (Mormon)
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BackGround: London Temple, London, England
Created 1 March 2010
William was born 17 February 1792 in Hanover, Morris, New Jersey and married first 28 April 1815 in Smyrna, Chenago, New York. Stella (Sarah) WATERMAN, the daughter of David Bassett WATERMAN and Jerusha CASE. She was born 24 July 1797 in Franklin, Delaware, New York. and died 1 January 1874 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He was married second 2 February 1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Laura STOWELL. She was born 7 July 1825 in Lincoln, Chenango, New York.
He was married third 2 February 1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Elizabeth DUNN. She was born 4 July 1828, in Alabama.
He married fourth 3 April 1853 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, Mary Roberts JONES. She was born 8 August 1837, in Georgetown, Glamorgan, Wales and died 22 September 1886.
He Married fifth 8 September 1856 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, Harriet Henrietta SCHRADER. She was born 10 August 1809 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennslvania and died 24 January 1892 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
He married sixth in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, Sarah Betsy GLEASON. She was born 29 September 1827 in Tipperary, Tipperary, Ireland and died 4 February 1916 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. William died 7 March 1872 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
William Wines Phelps (February 17, 1792 - March 7, 1872) was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was an assistant president of the church in Missouri, scribe to Joseph Smith, Jr., and a church printer, editor, and song-writer.
Born in Hanover, New Jersey, his father Enon Phelps and mother Mehitable Goldsmith moved the family to Homer, New York, in 1800. As a child, he attended public schools. As a young man, he traveled to Ohio, but soon returned to Homer, where he began publishing the Western Courier.
On April 28, 1815, he married Stella Waterman (later called Sally). He next moved to Trurnansburgh, Tompkins Co. New York, where in 1823 he founded the Lake Light. In 1827 he relocated to Canandaigua, New York, where he began publishing and edited the anti-Masonic newspaper Ontario Phoenix through 1828. Phelps has been referred to by Dean Jessee as "one of [the] founders" of the anti-Masonic.[1]:650-51
Well educated as a young man, Phelps was an aspirant for the office of lieutenant governor of New York at the time when he purchased a copy of the Book of Mormon from Parley P. Pratt on April 9, 1830—just three days after the early Latter Day Saint church was organized. On December 24, 1830 he met Joseph Smith and was convinced he was a prophet.[2] On April 29, 1831, he was imprisoned at Lyons, New York by a "couple of Presbyterian traders, for a small debt, for the purpose, as I was informed, of "keeping me from joining the Mormons."[2]
He visited Kirtland in 1831, was baptized on June 10, 1831, and established a print house in Independence, Missouri, where he published the Evening and Morning Star. On July 20, 1831, while working to publish the church's Book of Commandments, a mob of vigilantes attacked Phelps' home, seized the printing materials, destroyed many papers, destroyed the press, and threw his family and furniture out of doors.
Phelps was present near Jackson County, Missouri on 17 July 1831 when, according to Phelps' later testimony, church leader Joseph Smith, Jr. received the first revelation about plural marriage.In the early part of 1835, he and his son Waterman were called to Kirtland, where they made their home with the family of the Prophet Joseph Smith and assisted a committee appointed to compile the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. About this time, Elder Phelps subscribed USD$500 toward the erection of the Kirtland Temple. Phelps was the author of eleven popular early Latter Day Saint hymns. In Kirtland, Ohio, he helped print the first Latter Day Saint hymnal in 1835, which included "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning, which was sung at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. He was also instrumental in printing the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.
From 1834 to 1838, Phelps was a counselor to David Whitmer in the presidency of the church in Missouri and in that capacity he helped found the town of Far West, Missouri. Phelps was excommunicated from the church on March 10, 1838 when he was accused of profiting from Far West land deals and reneging on a USD$2,000 subscription to "the house of the Lord" that was not paid. In June 1838, Phelps, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Lyman E. Johnson= were warned out of Far West "or a more fatal calamity shall befall you."[3]
A scribe to Joseph Smith Jr., for some time, in late 1838 Phelps was one of several who bore witness against Smith and other leaders, aiding in their imprisonment in Missouri until April 1839. In June 1840, Phelps plead for forgiveness in a letter to Smith. Smith replied with an offer of full fellowship, and ended with the famous couplet, "'Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first are friends again at last.'"[4]
It was decided that Phelps, along with Frederick G. Williams, could be ordained as elders and serve missions abroad. Phelps served a brief mission in the eastern United States in 1841. Phelps moved to Nauvoo, Illinois where on August 27, 1841, he replaced Robert B. Thompson (who had died) as Joseph Smith's clerk. Beginning in February 1843, Phelps became the ghostwriter of many of Smith's important written works of the Nauvoo period, including General Joseph Smith's Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys of November 1843, Smith's theodemocratic presidential platform of January 1844, and The Voice of Innocence which was presented to and unanimously approved by the Relief Society in February 1844 to rebut claims of polygamy in Nauvoo arising out of Orsimus Bostwick's lawsuit accusing Hyrum Smith of polygamy and other sexual misconduct with the women of Nauvoo.[5]
Phelps was endowed on December 9, 1843, received his "second anointing" promising him godhood on February 2, 1844, and was also made a member of the Council of Fifty. In Nauvoo, Phelps spoke out in favor of the destruction of an opposition newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. He believed that the city charter gave the church leaders power to declare the newspaper a nuisance. Shortly afterwards, the press and type were carried into the street and destroyed. Phelps was summoned to be tried for treason with Joseph Smith at Carthage, Illinois.
During the Mormon Succession Crisis in 1844, Phelps sided with Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was again excommunicated on December 9, 1848 for entering into an unauthorized polygamous marriage, but was rebaptized two days later. He took part in the Mormon Exodus across the Great Plains and settled in Salt Lake City in 1849. He served a mission in southern Utah Territory (as counselor to Parley P. Pratt) from November 1849 to February 1850. There he served in the Utah territorial legislature and on the board of regents for the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah). Phelps died on March 7, 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.
Today, William W. Phelps is probably best-known for his legacy of LDS hymns, many of which appear in the current edition of the LDS Hymnal.[6]
Adam-ondi-Ahman*
Come, All Ye Saints of Zion*
Come, All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth*
Come, Let Us Sing an Evening Hymn*
Gently Raise the Sacred Strain*
Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion
Hosanna Anthem
If You Could Hie to Kolob
Now Let Us Rejoice*
Now We'll Sing with One Accord*
O God, the Eternal Father*
Praise to the Man
The Books of the New Testament
The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning *
We're Not Ashamed to Own Our Lord*
Phelps also reworded popular hymns turning them into uniquely Latter Day Saint hymns.
Joy to the World! the Lord will Come*
Redeemer of Israel*
* Included in the first Latter Day Saint Hymnal in 1835.
1 Phelps, Oliver Seymour; Andrew T. Servin (1899). The Phelps Family of America
and their English Ancestors. Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Eagle Publishing Company.
2 a b "William W. Phelps (1792–1872)". Mormon History 1830-1844. Saints Without
Halos. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
3 Richard S. Van Wagoner (1994). Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
(Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) pp. 218–219.
4 Letter July 22, 1840, from Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Il, in History of the Church,
vol.4, pg 162-64
5 Samuel Brown, The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and William Phelps,”
Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (2008): 26-62.
6 "Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" Retrieved 2009-10-20.
2073. Sally7 Waterman (David Bassett6, Flavius5, Ebenezer4, Thomas3, Thomas2, Robert1) was born July 24, 1797 in Franklin, Delaware County, New York, and died January 02, 1874 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She married William Wines Phelps April 28, 1815 in Smyrna, Chenango County, New York, son of Enon Phelps and Mehitabel Goldsmith. He was born February 07, 1792 in Dover, New Jersey, and died March 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Notes for Sally Waterman:
She married at Smyrna, Chenango County, N.Y. April 28, 1815 to William Wines Phelps, born at Dover, N.J. February 1792, died at Salt Lake City, Utah, March 6, 1872. He was the son of Enon and Mehitabel (Goldsmith) Phelps. Mr. Phelps moved as a child to Homer, Cortland County, N.Y. From there he moved to Ohio, but returned to Homer, where he started a newspaper. Then he moved to Chanandaigua, Ontario County, N.Y., where he published a paper opposed to Masonry, called the Ontario Phoenix. It was in Chanandaigua that he became familiar with the "Book of Mormon" , quit the paper, and took his wife to Ohio where he joined the Latter Day Saints. He went to Missouri with the first Mormon missionaries. He came back for his family and purchased a printing press in Cincinnati, and moved to Independence, Jackson Co., Missouri. In 1833, the family went to Colville County, Missouri, then to Hancock, Illinois and then to Salt Lake City.
More About William Phelps and Sally Waterman:
Marriage: April 28, 1815, Smyrna, Chenango County, New York.
Children of Sally Waterman and William Phelps are:
3199 i. Sabrina8 Phelps. She married Joseph K. Bent July 03, 1837 in Caldwell County,
Missouri. More About Joseph Bent and Sabrina Phelps: Marriage: July 03, 1837,
Caldwell County, Missouri
3200 ii. Son8 Phelps, born July 17, 1818; died July 17, 1818.
3201 iii. Mehitabel8 Phelps. She married Willis C. Fallis October 02, 1840 in Dayton, Ohio.
More About Willis Fallis and Mehitabel Phelps: Marriage: October 02, 1840, Dayton,
Ohio.
3202 iv. Jerusha8 Phelps, died January 13, 1822 in Homer, New York.
3203 v. William Waterman8 Phelps, born January 23, 1823. He married (Unknown) Brewster.
3204 vi. Mary8 Phelps, died November 21, 1831 in on the Missouri River.
3205 vii. Princetta8 Phelps, died August 31, 1838 in "The far west".
3206 viii. Henry Enon8 Phelps, born October 31, 1828 in Canandaigua, New York; died March 02,
1901 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
3207 ix. Lydia8 Phelps, born March 15, 1835 in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. She married
(1) Thomas S. Williams. She married (2) Jeremiah Varney.
CHILDREN of William Wines PHELPS and Stella (Sarah) WATERMAN
1. SABRINA b: 20 Aug 1816; Homer, Cortland, New YOrk.
md: 3 Jul 1837; , Caldwell, Missouri.
Joseph Kilborn BENT
d: 10 Apr 1887; , , .
2. UNNAMED SON b: 17 Jul 1817; Homer, Cortland, New York.
d: 17 Jul 1817; Homer, Cortland, New York.
3. MEHITABEL D b: 3 Jul 1819; Wooster, Wayne, New York.
md: 2 Oct 1840; Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio.
Willis C FALLIS
d: 1877; , , .
4. JERUSHA b: 1 Nov 1821; Homer, Cortland, New York.
d: 13 Jun 1822; Homer, Cortland, New York.
5. WILLIAM WATERMAN b: 23 Jan 1823; Cortland, Cortland, New York.
md: ; , , .
Lydia Caroline BREWSTER
6. SARAH b: 19 Jul 1825; Homer, Cortland, New York.
7. HENRY ENON b: 13 Oct 1828; Canandaigau, Ontrio, New York.
md: 17 Sep 1863; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
Mary Catherine MIEKELJOHN
d: 2 Mar 1901; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
8. MARY b: 19 Nov 1830; Canandaigau, Ontrio, New York.
d: 21 Nov 1831; Canandaigau, Ontrio, New York.
9. JAMES b: 22 Sep 1832; Independence, Jackson, Missouri.
10. LYDIA b: 15 Mar 1835; Liberty, Clay, Missouri.
md: 16 Mar 1851; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
Thomas Steven WILLIAMS
md: 16 Nov 1956; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
Jeremiah VARNEY
d: 24 Mar 1923; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.
11. PRINCETTA b: 20 Mar 1837; Far West, Caldwell, Missouri.
d: 31 Aug 1838; Far West, Caldwell, Missouri.
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