Benjamin L. Clapp
Overview
 
Benjamin Lynn Clapp was an early Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 leader and member of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Clapp was born in West Huntsville, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 and married Mary Schultz in 1832. He was baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 at some point before February 26, 1836, when Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...

 ordained him a priest. He served with Woodruff as a missionary
Mormon missionary
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, where Woodruff recorded the following experience:

"While traveling in the night, with Brother Benjamin L.
Quotations

Nor bigots who but one way see,Through blinkers of authority.

The Grotto, l. 165. (1732)

To cure the mind's wrong bias, Spleen,Some recommend the bowling green;Some, hilly walks; all, exercise;Fling but a stone, the giant dies.

Line 89.

Fling but a stone, the giant dies.

Line 93.

Avarice, sphincter of the heart.

Line 697.

Thus I steer my bark, and sailOn even keel, with gentle gale.

Though pleased to see the dolphins play,I mind my compass and my way.

 
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