William E. McLellin
Encyclopedia
William Earl M'Lellin (often modernized to McLellin) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement
. One of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
, M'Lellin later broke with church founder, Joseph Smith, Jr.
, a son of Charles M'Lellin. He married for the first time on July 30, 1829, but his wife, Cynthia Ann M'Lellin, died young and he was a widower by 1832. He married second Emeline Miller on April 26, 1832 in Hiram, Portage Co, OH. Emeline was born September 4, 1809 in Pomfret, Windsor Co, VT to Martin Miller and Rebecca Jacobs. Emeline died November 1, 1907 in Grayson Co, Texas. William and Emeline were the parents of 4 sons and 2 daughters: Charles William, Sarah E., James Martin, Helen Rebecca, Albert Eugene, and Marcus Nelson.
during 1831. He traveled to Missouri
to further investigate the Church, and was baptized and ordained an elder in 1831. During 1831, he also traveled with Hyrum Smith
, and preached in Tennessee. He then relocated to Kirtland
, Ohio
.
In 1832 and 1833, M'Lellin served a mission for the church, traveling with Parley P. Pratt
. However, in a revelation
to Joseph Smith, Jr. on March 8, 1833, it was said that the Lord was "not pleased with my servant William E. M'Lellin" (Doctrine and Covenants 90:35).
An experienced schoolteacher, and self-proclaimed physician, M'Lellin taught penmanship in the Kirtland School for Temporal Education in 1834. He served as a member of the Church's high council
in Clay County, Missouri, also in 1834, and was chosen and ordained to be one of the church's original twelve apostles on February 15, 1835, at age 29.
When the Book of Commandments
was about to be published, some Latter Day Saints criticized the wording of some of the revelations. According to Joseph Smith, the Lord issued a challenge to see if the wisest member of the church could write a revelation comparable to the least of Smith's revelations. If they could, then the members of the church would be justified in claiming that the revelations did not come from God. M'Lellin, who was trained as a schoolteacher, was selected by the critics for the challenge. According to Smith's history, M'Lellin failed to produce a credible "revelation", and the controversy died away.
. This may have been due to the mismanagement of Kirtland's financial institution, the Kirtland Safety Society
in 1837. M'Lellin was excommunicated on May 11, 1838 and subsequently actively worked against the Latter Day Saints. According to members of the church, M'Lellin ransacked and robbed Joseph Smith's home and stable while Smith was being held in jail, pending charges on the Safety Society's financial problems. No charges were ever filed against Smith or against M'Lellin.
A contemporary account revealed the following incident:
Previous to that incident, Joseph Smith authored a letter to the church from Liberty Jail
on December 16, 1838, in which he repeatedly insults M'Lellin, calling him an "ass" and "poor ass", and calls M'Lellin's close friend David Whitmer
a "dumb ass". In the letter, Joseph Smith further likens M'Lellin to the biblical magician Balaam
whose donkey ("ass"
) refused to help Balaam curse the leadership of the ancient Israelite church, in the era of Moses
. That letter and other insult-trading may have been what provoked M'Lellin to want to fistfight Joseph Smith. Although early and modern Mormons
are accustomed to reviling M'Lellin, nevertheless outside the group headed by Joseph Smith, M'llelin was a well-respected citizen, a devout Christian
who never renounced his belief in the Book of Mormon
and the doctrine of a "Mormon Zion"
in the American Midwest.
After Smith's assassination
in 1844, M'Lellin first accepted the succession claims of Sidney Rigdon
and was appointed one of the Twelve Apostles in Rigdon's organization
on April 8, 1845. In 1847, at Kirtland, Ohio, he joined with several others to create a reorganization of the church, designated the "The Church of Christ
." M'Lellin called on David Whitmer
to assume the presidency, claiming that Whitmer had been ordained by Joseph Smith as his successor on July 8, 1834. This organization was short lived. M'Lellin was also briefly associated with the movement led by James J. Strang, but more closely associated in the last two decades of his life with the movement led by Granville Hedrick
. Although he was only briefly a member of Hedrick's organization in 1869, media reports from the 1870s describe M'Lellin as an enthusiastic but unofficial "tour guide" for the "Temple Lot" property which the Hedrickites purchased from 1867 to 1877. He died April 24, 1883, in Independence
, Jackson County, Missouri
.
. In the early 1980s, collector Mark Hofmann
claimed to have obtained the M'Lellin collection, which he described as embarrassing to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). This generated interest that allowed Hofmann to sell it to two simultaneous buyers before being exposed as a counterfeiter when he killed two people to cover his crimes.
In the aftermath of these crimes, the LDS Church discovered M'Lellin's writings were already in the church's possession, having been acquired and forgotten in 1908. These were later published in two works, The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836, edited by Jan Shipps
and John W. Welch
in 1994, and The William E. McLellin Papers, 1854-1880, edited by Stan Larson and Samuel J. Passey in 2007. However, these collections did not contain a certain notebook, which was known from photographs in a 1920s newspaper published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In January 2009, this notebook was located and acquired by Brent Ashworth, one of the original collectors interested in Hofmann's M'Lellin collection.
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
. One of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is one of the governing bodies in the church hierarchy...
, M'Lellin later broke with church founder, Joseph Smith, Jr.
Biography
M'Lellin was born in Smith County, TennesseeTennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, a son of Charles M'Lellin. He married for the first time on July 30, 1829, but his wife, Cynthia Ann M'Lellin, died young and he was a widower by 1832. He married second Emeline Miller on April 26, 1832 in Hiram, Portage Co, OH. Emeline was born September 4, 1809 in Pomfret, Windsor Co, VT to Martin Miller and Rebecca Jacobs. Emeline died November 1, 1907 in Grayson Co, Texas. William and Emeline were the parents of 4 sons and 2 daughters: Charles William, Sarah E., James Martin, Helen Rebecca, Albert Eugene, and Marcus Nelson.
Church service
M'Lellin first had contact with the missionaries of the Latter Day Saint Church of Christ in Paris, TennesseeParis, Tennessee
Paris is a city in Henry County, Tennessee, United States, west of Nashville, on a fork of the West Sandy River. In 1900, 2,018 people lived in Paris, Tennessee; in 1910, 3,881; and in 1940, 6,395. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 9,763. It is the county seat of Henry...
during 1831. He traveled to Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
to further investigate the Church, and was baptized and ordained an elder in 1831. During 1831, he also traveled with Hyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr....
, and preached in Tennessee. He then relocated to Kirtland
Kirtland, Ohio
Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, USA. The population was 6,670 at the 2000 census. Kirtland is famous for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Origins of Kirtland:...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
In 1832 and 1833, M'Lellin served a mission for the church, traveling with Parley P. Pratt
Parley P. Pratt
Parley Parker Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. He served in the Quorum with his younger brother, Orson Pratt...
. However, in a revelation
Revelation (Latter Day Saints)
Latter Day Saints teach that the Latter Day Saint movement began with a Revelation from God . They also teach that revelation is the foundation of the church established by Jesus Christ and that it remains an essential element of His true church today...
to Joseph Smith, Jr. on March 8, 1833, it was said that the Lord was "not pleased with my servant William E. M'Lellin" (Doctrine and Covenants 90:35).
An experienced schoolteacher, and self-proclaimed physician, M'Lellin taught penmanship in the Kirtland School for Temporal Education in 1834. He served as a member of the Church's high council
Presiding High Council
In the Latter Day Saint movement, there are two Presiding High Councils, one said to be "standing," and the other "traveling." The Traveling High Council is generally known as the Quorum of Twelve Apostles...
in Clay County, Missouri, also in 1834, and was chosen and ordained to be one of the church's original twelve apostles on February 15, 1835, at age 29.
When the Book of Commandments
Book of Commandments
The Book of Commandments is the earliest published volume said to contain the revelations of Joseph Smith Jr. Text published in the Book of Commandments is now considered scripture by Latter-day Saints as part of the larger Doctrine and Covenants....
was about to be published, some Latter Day Saints criticized the wording of some of the revelations. According to Joseph Smith, the Lord issued a challenge to see if the wisest member of the church could write a revelation comparable to the least of Smith's revelations. If they could, then the members of the church would be justified in claiming that the revelations did not come from God. M'Lellin, who was trained as a schoolteacher, was selected by the critics for the challenge. According to Smith's history, M'Lellin failed to produce a credible "revelation", and the controversy died away.
Disassociation with the church
M'Lellin's association with the Latter Day Saint church came to an abrupt halt in 1838, when he declared that he had no confidence in the presidency of the churchFirst Presidency
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency was the highest governing body in the Latter Day Saint church established by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1832, and is the highest governing body of several modern Latter Day Saint denominations...
. This may have been due to the mismanagement of Kirtland's financial institution, the Kirtland Safety Society
Kirtland Safety Society
The Kirtland Safety Society was a quasi-bank organized in 1836 by leaders and followers of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. According to KSS's 1837 "Articles of Agreement", it was intended to serve the banking needs of the growing Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio...
in 1837. M'Lellin was excommunicated on May 11, 1838 and subsequently actively worked against the Latter Day Saints. According to members of the church, M'Lellin ransacked and robbed Joseph Smith's home and stable while Smith was being held in jail, pending charges on the Safety Society's financial problems. No charges were ever filed against Smith or against M'Lellin.
A contemporary account revealed the following incident:
- "While Joseph was in prison at Richmond, Mo., Mr. McLellin, who was a large and active man, went to the sheriff and asked for the privilege of flogging the Prophet; permission was granted, on condition that Joseph would fight. The sheriff made McLellin's earnest request known to Joseph, who consented to fight, if his irons were taken off. McLellin then refused to fight, unless he could have a club, to which Joseph was perfectly willing; but the sheriff would not allow them to fight on such unequal terms."(Jenson, Vol.1:83)
Previous to that incident, Joseph Smith authored a letter to the church from Liberty Jail
Liberty Jail
Liberty Jail is a former jail in Liberty, Missouri, USA where Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of Latter Day Saint movement, and other associates were imprisoned from December 1, 1838 to April 6, 1839 during the 1838 Mormon War...
on December 16, 1838, in which he repeatedly insults M'Lellin, calling him an "ass" and "poor ass", and calls M'Lellin's close friend David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
a "dumb ass". In the letter, Joseph Smith further likens M'Lellin to the biblical magician Balaam
Balaam
Balaam is a diviner in the Torah, his story occurring towards the end of the Book of Numbers. The etymology of his name is uncertain, and discussed below. Every ancient reference to Balaam considers him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and the son of Beor, though Beor is not so clearly identified...
whose donkey ("ass"
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
) refused to help Balaam curse the leadership of the ancient Israelite church, in the era of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
. That letter and other insult-trading may have been what provoked M'Lellin to want to fistfight Joseph Smith. Although early and modern Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
are accustomed to reviling M'Lellin, nevertheless outside the group headed by Joseph Smith, M'llelin was a well-respected citizen, a devout Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
who never renounced his belief in the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
and the doctrine of a "Mormon Zion"
Zion (Latter Day Saints)
Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion is often used to connote a utopian association of the righteous. This association would practice a form of communitarian economics called the United Order meant to ensure that all members maintained an acceptable quality of life, class distinctions were...
in the American Midwest.
After Smith's assassination
Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States...
in 1844, M'Lellin first accepted the succession claims of Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Baptist background:...
and was appointed one of the Twelve Apostles in Rigdon's organization
Rigdonite
Rigdonite is a name given to members of the Latter Day Saint movement who accept Sidney Rigdon as the successor in the church presidency to movement founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. The early history of the Rigdonite movement is shared with the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, but as of the...
on April 8, 1845. In 1847, at Kirtland, Ohio, he joined with several others to create a reorganization of the church, designated the "The Church of Christ
Church of Christ (Whitmerite)
The Church of Christ was a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement based on the claims of David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates....
." M'Lellin called on David Whitmer
David Whitmer
David Whitmer was an early adherent of the Latter Day Saint movement who eventually became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.-Early life:...
to assume the presidency, claiming that Whitmer had been ordained by Joseph Smith as his successor on July 8, 1834. This organization was short lived. M'Lellin was also briefly associated with the movement led by James J. Strang, but more closely associated in the last two decades of his life with the movement led by Granville Hedrick
Granville Hedrick
Granville Hedrick was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1863, Hedrick became the founding leader of the Church of Christ , which is one of many churches that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. Although he was only briefly a member of Hedrick's organization in 1869, media reports from the 1870s describe M'Lellin as an enthusiastic but unofficial "tour guide" for the "Temple Lot" property which the Hedrickites purchased from 1867 to 1877. He died April 24, 1883, in Independence
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County, Missouri
Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. With a population of 674,158 in the 2010 census, Jackson County is the second most populous of Missouri's counties, after St. Louis County. Kansas City, the state's most populous city and focus city of the Kansas City Metropolitan...
.
Personal writings
M'Lellin kept journals and notebooks during and after his time in the Latter Day Saint church. Because he was such a prominent insider in the early church, these were of great interest to Latter Day Saint historiansLatter Day Saint Historians
Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement are a diverse group of historians writing about Mormonism. Historians devoted to the History of the Latter Day Saint movement may be members of an LDS faith or non-members with an academic interest...
. In the early 1980s, collector Mark Hofmann
Mark Hofmann
Mark William Hofmann is an American counterfeiter, forger and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement...
claimed to have obtained the M'Lellin collection, which he described as embarrassing to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). This generated interest that allowed Hofmann to sell it to two simultaneous buyers before being exposed as a counterfeiter when he killed two people to cover his crimes.
In the aftermath of these crimes, the LDS Church discovered M'Lellin's writings were already in the church's possession, having been acquired and forgotten in 1908. These were later published in two works, The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836, edited by Jan Shipps
Jan Shipps
Jo Ann Barnett "Jan" Shipps is an American historian specializing in Mormon History, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century to the present. Shipps is generally regarded as the foremost non-Mormon scholar of the Latter Day Saint movement, having given particular attention to The...
and John W. Welch
John W. Welch
John Woodland "Jack" Welch is an LDS law and religion scholar who currently teaches at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University .- Biography :...
in 1994, and The William E. McLellin Papers, 1854-1880, edited by Stan Larson and Samuel J. Passey in 2007. However, these collections did not contain a certain notebook, which was known from photographs in a 1920s newspaper published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In January 2009, this notebook was located and acquired by Brent Ashworth, one of the original collectors interested in Hofmann's M'Lellin collection.