Zerah Pulsipher, a member of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy who is mentioned in Section 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants, is best remembered as the man who baptized Wilford Woodruff and helped guide early Latter-day Saint communities through some of their most challenging migrations. From organizing the Kirtland Camp to supporting the spiritual and practical needs of ordinary Saints, Pulsipher’s life reflects both devotion and complexity, including a later disciplinary trial over plural-sealing practices. In this interview, Chad Nielsen explores Pulsipher’s leadership, faith, and enduring influence, drawing on historical records and personal insights to bring his story vividly to life.
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Who Was Zerah Pulsipher?
Zerah Pulsipher (1789-1872) was an early convert to the Church of Christ who was baptized by Jared Carter on January 11, 1832. He was a visionary man who was deeply impressed by the Book of Mormon. After his baptism, he was ordained an elder and became the leader of the newly-founded congregation in Onondaga County, New York.
Within two years of his own conversion, Zerah would serve a brief mission where he met, taught, and baptized Wilford Woodruff. Zerah was ordained as a First President of the Seventy on March 6, 1838 (equivalent to the Presidency of the Seventy today). In that capacity, he helped lead the Kirtland Camp, a large exodus of poor Latter-day Saints from Kirtland to Missouri in 1838. He also served in other leadership capacities, including as a city councilor in Salt Lake City for several years. He was present for many of the major events of Church history in Kirtland, Missouri, Nauvoo, Iowa, Salt Lake City, and southern Utah.
Why did Zerah join the Church?
Zerah Pulsipher joined the Church after encounters with missionaries, and the Book of Mormon led to a personal vision.
Before his baptism, Zerah Pulsipher was a Baptist with some universalist leanings, but a visit from Solomon Chamberlain sparked a change that would shape much of Zerah’s life. As Zerah recalled,
[I]n the summer of 1830 I heard a Minister say in Public that a golden Bible or some ancient Records were found in Manches<ter> N.Y. the sentence thrild through my sistem Like a shock of Electricity I therefore watchd the movement of things and in septbr 1831 the Book of Mormon was brought into the Town I suceeded in Borrowing it I read it through three times and thought Posible it might be true[1]
When a copy of the Book of Mormon finally was brought into the town, Zerah and his wife, Mary, were excited to investigate it. Their oldest son, John, later recalled:
father got it & read it, he, with the neighbors, Elijah Cheney, S[hadrach] Roundy & others would Sit & read & talk day & night ’til they <read it> thro & thro. They believed it was brot forth by the power of God, to prepare the way for <the> second coming of the Son of Man—it was just what they were looking for.[2]
Mary wrote that “We borrowed it, read and believed it, but did not know anything more about it. Was very anxious to know more about it.”[3] When Jared Carter arrived in late 1831, they had their chance to learn more about the Book of Mormon.
Jared Carter’s arrival caused a fair amount of excitement in Spafford. As soon as Carter arrived, Zerah and two Methodist ministers came to him and began to question Jared about his beliefs. Zerah watched to see if he could find fault with the young missionary,[4] asking about “the principles of the ancient gospel with all its gifts belonging to it.” When Jared answered that he believed in them, Zerah pressed further and asked whether he had ever laid hands on the sick and they had recovered. To this, the missionary responded that he had done so in many instances.
Impressed, the Pulsiphers attended a service the following evening where Jared Carter preached to a crowded gathering. Jared told them that baptism by immersion was the only right way and that it was for the remission of sins. He also told them how the Book of Mormon was found and translated by Joseph Smith. The missionary held up a copy of the Book of Mormon and declared it to be a revelation from God. Even though Zerah had been watching to find fault with Jared, Zerah felt that “I Could not gainsay any thing he had said.”
When Jared sat down and gave liberty for remarks, Zerah perceived that those present seemed to be in a daze. Zerah arose and stated that:
[W]e have been hearing strang[e] things and if true they were of the utmost importan[ce] to us[.] if not true it was one of the greatest Impositions and as the Preacher had sd that he had got his Knowledge from heaven and was Nothing but a man and I the same that I had Just as good a right to obtain that Blesing as he[.] therefore I was determined to have that knowledge for my self which I Considered it My Privilege[5]
He prayed day after day, and soon had a vision of his own:
I think about the sevent[h] day as I was thrashing in my barn with doors shut[,] all at once there seemd to be a ray of Light from heaven which causd me to stop work for a short time but soon began it again[.] but in a few minints another Light Came above my head which Causd me to Look up[.]
I thought I saw the angels with <the> book of Mormon in their hands in the attitude of sho[w]ing it to me and saying this is the great Revelation of the Last days in which all thing spoken of by the Prophets must be fulfild[.] The Vision was so open and plain that I began to rejoice Exceedingly so that I walkd the the length of my barn Crying [“]glory hallalujah to god and the Lamb forever[”] for some time[6]
Not surprisingly, Zerah Pulsipher soon approached Jared Carter about his experience:
As soon as I saw the Preacher again I informd him that I knew the work to be of god and that the Book of Mormon was True[.] he then [said] if you believe then be Baptized[7]
After sharing his experience with the Baptist church and formally withdrawing from them, Zerah and Mary were baptized, along with all their children who were old enough to do so (Almira, Sarah, and Mariah).
Was Zerah Pulsipher visited by the angel Moroni?
We don’t have any records of Zerah being visited by the angel Moroni. The account of his vision of angels with the Book of Mormon as part of his conversion that was mentioned above led H. Donl Peterson and Glen L. Rudd to suggest that Moroni was among the angels that Zerah saw. Zerah, however, never indicated that Moroni was among the angels he saw, meaning that Peterson and Rudd’s statements about Zerah seeing Moroni should be seen as speculation and not a statement attributable to Zerah or his contemporaries.
How did Zerah Pulisipher baptize Wilford Woodruff?
The story of how Zerah found and baptized Wilford Woodruff is among the best-known stories of Zerah’s life, in part due to it being mentioned in Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[8]
Zerah kept busy after his baptism, serving as a branch president in Spafford and doing missionary work when he had time to do so. His journey to meet Wilford was a bit impromptu on Zerah’s part.
As Zerah’s son Charles Pulsipher recalled,
while working in the field the Spirit moved upon him to Start out and go north and preach the gospel[.] he Stopt and thought on it and finely concluded to work on untill night and then he would think more about it but the Spirit Soon told him to go north on a mission So he quit work and went home[,] told mother to get his close [clothes] ready for he was going on a mission in the morning. [“]where are you agoing[?”] [“]I dont know onley I am to go north[.”] [“]how long will you be gone[?”] [“]I dont know[.”] that he got Bro [Elijah] Cheney who had been ordained a teacher to go with him[.] they traveld two days about 80 miles from home and just before Sundown Father looked a head of them and Said [“]do you See that little house in the clearing their[?”] [“]yes[.”] [“]well that is where we are to Stop[.”] So they turned off to the house and Father Said to the Lady [“]can you keep two traveling preachers of the great Latter day gospel[?”] [“]Yes[,”] she said[, “]I guess so, we never turn away preach<ers>[.”]
So they went in and She prepaird Supper for them[.] directly her husband come in and they told him ther business and Father Said [“]do you think we can get a meeting tonight[?”] [“]I guess so, I will go out and See about it[.”] he give out the word and lit up the School house and the Brethren went to meeting[.] about that time Wilford Woodruff come in from his work and Said to his Sister in law [“]what is that light for in the School hous[e?”] She said [“]2 men come her[e] and Said they had the great latter day gospel and they are haveing a meeting tonight[.”] Bro Woodruff Said he did not want any supper and did not even take time to wash but went to the meeting[9]
Wilford Woodruff related what happened next:
Upon my arrival home my sister-in-law informed me of the meeting. I immediately turned out my horses and started for the schoolhouse without waiting for supper. On my way I prayed most sincerely that the Lord would give me His spirit, and that if these men were the servants of God I might know it, and that my heart might be prepared to receive the divine message they had to deliver.
When I reached the place of meeting, I found the house already packed. My brother Azmon was there before I arrived. He was equally eager to hear what these men had to say. I crowded my way through the assembly and seated myself upon one of the writing desks where I could see and hear everything that took place.
Elder Pulsipher opened with prayer. He knelt down and asked the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ for what he wanted. His manner of prayer and the influence which went with it impressed me greatly. The spirit of the Lord rested upon me and bore witness that he was a servant of God. After singing, he preached to the people for an hour and a half. The spirit of God rested mightily upon him and he bore a strong testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon and of the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I believed all that he said. The spirit bore witness of its truth. Elder Cheney then arose and added his testimony to the truth of the words of Elder Pulsipher.[10]
Wilford later stated that he “truly felt that it was the first gospel sermon that I had ever herd I thought it was what I had long been looking for I could not feel it my duty to leave the house without bearing witness to the truth before the people.”[11]
A few days after the sermon, Wilford decided to join the Church: “on the 31st of Dec I with my Brother Azmon Woodruff with two yong females which had been healed by the laying on of hands went forward in baptism.”[12]
How Was Zerah Called to Serve in the Seventy?
Shortly after being baptized, Zerah reluctantly agreed to be ordained to the priesthood by Jared Carter in order to preside over the branch in Spafford. Once Zerah moved to Kirtland in 1835, he no longer served as an ecclesiastical leader, but continued to serve as an elder in the Church (as attested in an 1836 license).
The original Quorum of the Seventy was organized in 1835. They were meant to be a missionary force, proselyting to the world as subordinates to the Quorum of the Twelve.[13] The Second Quorum of the Seventies was created from men in the elders’ quorums on February 7, 1836.[14] Zerah was a member of this second quorum by the end of the year, along with a few neighbors and friends from the New York years, including Wilford Woodruff, Shadrach Roundy and John Gould.[15]
Each quorum of seventy had seven presidents presiding over it, and a First Council of seven presidents was to lead all the seventies.[16] On March 6, 1838, Zerah was ordained as one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy. In 1838, after the Church experienced schisms and many of the high-ranking officers of the Church fled to Missouri, the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy met. Joseph Young—the senior president of the seven leaders of the seventy—recalled that the meeting was organized because Joseph Smith the Prophet had directed that all the councils of the priesthood in Kirtland should be “filled up.” Elders Salmon Gee and John Gaylord “sent word that they wished to be excused from any further service in the council” and Zerah was called to replace Salmon Gee.[17] Zerah served in the role until 1862.
It was due to this role that Zerah gained his one mention in the Doctrine and Covenants. In the January 19, 1841 revelation that is Section 124 in the modern Doctrine and Covenants, the general and local officers are named, along with their duties and quorum affiliations. When it came to listing the leaders of the seventies, we find Zerah’s name mentioned:
And again, I give unto you Joseph Young, Josiah Butterfield, Daniel Miles, Henry Herriman, Zera Pulsipher, Levi Hancock, James Foster, to preside over the quorum of seventies; which quorum is instituted for traveling elders to bear record of my name in all the world, wherever the traveling high council, mine apostles, shall send them to prepare a way before my face. (D&C 124:138–139.)[18]
This mention, along with Zerah’s baptism of Wilford Woodruff, are the two main things for which Zerah Pulsipher is remembered.
What Role Did Zerah Play in the Kirtland Camp?
The Kirtland Camp was a migration of several hundred impoverished Latter-day Saints from Kirtland, Ohio to Far West, Missouri. The expedition was noted by Elder B. H. Roberts of the Seventy as being “perhaps the greatest work achieved by the First Council of the Seventies, in their organized capacity” during the early days of the Church.[19]
Prior to this time, the rapid influx of poor Latter-day Saints into the community led to cramped living conditions. One observer in this era recalled that: “They came, men, women, and children, in every conceivable manner, some with horses, oxen, and vehicles rough and rude, while others had walked all or part of the distance. The future ‘City of the Saints’ appeared like one besieged. Every available house, shop, hut, or barn was filled to its utmost capacity. Even boxes were roughly extemporized and used for shelter until something more permanent could be secured.”[20] This led to a shanty town of log and small frame houses, particularly in the northwestern section of the township.[21] It was among these poorer Latter-day Saints that the Pulsiphers likely lived.
When the Kirtland Safety Society failed and rumors of Joseph Smith’s experimentation with proto-polygamy led to conflicts and schisms in the Church, most of those Latter-day Saints who remained loyal to Joseph Smith who could afford to do so left to settle in northern Missouri. The hundreds of poor Latter-day who could not afford to leave were largely left to fend for themselves.
With the members of the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency either fleeing town or apostatizing and the Kirtland stake presidency being tied up in settling debts and legal matters for the Church, the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy took on leading the poor who wished to leave town.
Zerah recalled, “After the most of the saints were gone to Missouri I remained in Kirtland with about four of the first President of seventies[.] we continued to hold our metings in the Temple.”[22]
Initially the plan was that the members of the seventy would “Put our Property together and all fare alike and move to Missouri helping each other with all we had till we got through.”[23] When other members of the community who felt they were too poor to leave on their own heard about it, according to Zerah, they “wanted to join us and get out of that Hell of persecution Therefore we could not reject them for all there was against them that they were poor and could not help them selves we continued to receive them.”[24] As a result, the proposed company swelled to upwards of six hundred individuals.
The challenge of leading a mass migration of Mormons too poor to afford to make a long journey proved daunting to the leadership of the Seventy. Zerah explained: “we soon found that we had got a Job on hand that was not so easily got along with becaus those poor were in as good felloship with the Church as those that had gone. . . . This seven [the presidents of the Seventy] set themselves at work to remove the Poor from Kirtland . . . without means ourselves or knowing where it should come from.”[25]
During this difficult time, Zerah recalled that he had another visionary experience. He wrote that:
one day while we were on our knees in prayer I saw a Mesenger apearently like an old man with grey hair down to his shoulders he was a very large man near seven feet high drest in a while <robe> down to his ancles he looked on me then turned his eyes on the others and other to me and spoke and said [“]be one and you shall have enough[“] this gave us great joy.[26]
Zerah felt “great satisfaction to find that the Heavenly mesengers were interested on our behalf,”[27] and the council soon set to work to prepare for departure. Eventually, enough supplies were assembled for the company to start on its way.
The company moved forward, with frequent delays due to illness, broken wagons and equipment, river crossings, poor traveling conditions, problems with animals, and food shortages. Still concerned about violence directed towards Latter-day Saints, “Every man had a gun and hung them on the out side of the Waggons and some had pistols we always kered [carried] a few indors to go on. . . . we always kept gards by night.”[28] The Kirtland Camp was able to proceed with few issues with violent opposition until they got to Missouri.
Although they successfully avoided violent confrontations, the Kirtland Camp encountered different difficulties. By the time they reached Dayton, Ohio, the company was running low on money. This was a problem, according to Zerah, because: “Everything they needed pasturage, etc. had to be paid in cash,”[29] and “the <people> would take nothing of us but money for our expenses and at a high price too.”[30] The company members were offered a job to build part of a turnpike (toll road), which brought in $1,200. The man who had given them the job offered more work, but the company moved onwards, feeling that it was the Lord’s will to do so. Due to the constant delays the company faced, the company gradually became strung out and dispersed along the path or left the company altogether. By the time it reached Springfield, Illinois, there were only 260 members left in the main company.[31]
While they avoided violence on the journey west, the members of the Kirtland Camp were not so lucky in Missouri. The main party of the Kirtland Camp arrived in Davies County very shortly before the Missouri Mormon War reached the area. In fact, Zerah didn’t even live in the house he built for his family for a full week before being evicted by Missourians. And some who had split off from the main company of the Kirtland Camp stayed at Haun’s Mill and were among victims of the massacre that took place there on October 30, 1838.[32]
Why Did Zerah follow Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles after Joseph Smith’s death?
After Joseph Smith the Prophet’s death in 1844, the matter of who was his legitimate successor was an important—and hotly debated—topic. The strongest option that presented itself was the Quorum of the Twelve, with Brigham Young at its head.
Zerah, along with wife and children, chose to follow Young’s leadership, leaving Illinois with him in February 1846 and remained faithful disciples until their deaths several decades later. This eventually resulted in a split in the family, since Zerah’s sister, Sybil, would choose to stay in Iowa with her family and later joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[33]
One early example of Zerah’s loyalty to Brigham Young came in a sermon preached shortly before they left Nauvoo, in which Zerah spoke of the Lord preserving the Quorum of the Twelve, and affirmed his support for following them, stating that: “Certain principles are enjoined on us at this time—to uphold the heads [the Quorum of the Twelve]—let there be a universal awareness that there is perfect safety and that they will live to a good old age and go down to their graves like shocks of corn fully ripe.”[34]
Later—after Brigham Young had officially become President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Zerah recorded his conviction that the new prophet “stood at the head on all power on Earth for the Church of Latter day saints,”[35] and consistently spoke of him as such.
When Zerah wrote his autobiographical sketches later in life, he also recorded a claim that Brigham Young had been transfigured to sound like Joseph Smith in a famous August 1844 meeting:
at the time the Most of the Twelve were absent on missions Sidney Rigdon who aspired for the Presidency Came and Cald the Cald the Church Together and present his Claim <as> for the Presidency but the Twelve soon Came home and appeared on the stand[.] at the day appointed for Chusing Sidney made his plea[.] Brigham young began to speak and answer to him[.] at that time I sat with my Back towards the <stand> as did many others I heard his voice and supposed it was Joseph was some supprised and Turned round to to see him and Behold it was Brigham speaking in Josephs voice for Behold Joseph Mantle had fallen on him the people understood it in the same way[36]
The accuracy of the story this recollection describes is debated by scholars, who have pointed out that there is no contemporary documentation of Brigham Young’s transfiguration, but that recollections of the event were widespread in Utah when they did surface.[37] What we do know is that Zerah did believe in and follow Brigham Young’s leadership.
What we do know is that Zerah did believe in and follow Brigham Young’s leadership.
What was Zerah’s role in the journey across Iowa in 1846?
As a leader in the Church, Zerah Pulsipher was among the first group of Latter-day Saints to leave Nauvoo in February 1846. After going back and forth from their camp at Sugar Creek to Nauvoo to manage the sale of his property and assisting his family in their evacuation, Zerah left with the main company crossing Iowa that spring:
as soon as the spring opened we went on from Shugar Creek in the spring but <storms> and tempests opposd our march till Late in the Season I went on with them and frequently went forward to Pineer [pioneer] the way and organize places for the poor to stop that was not able to go any farther[38]
Zerah worked with other Church leaders, such as Orson Pratt and Parley Pratt, to scout settlement sites along the way.
The going was not easy. In a humorous recollection, Zerah recorded the difficulties they experienced:
such a flood storm and rain follo[w]ed us as I never saw in any Country I was advisd to take ten waggons and go a head and asist in making roads the highest and driest Land that was in the Country <was> soakd with water so that it was difficult to get a long with a waggon[.]
one Morning got on my horse and rode back a few miles to se how <the> Company were geting along. It raind Like shot. I saw a man a head walking with a box Coat on o[f] indorubbber [likely a Mackintosh coat]. when I Came up with him I found it was Br. Brigham. I askd him how they got along. He s[aid]d first rate, he s[ai]d. He put his hand in his pocket for his handkerchief and his pocket was full of water.[39]
Zerah and his family were among those who settled and suffered in Winter Quarters after the arduous trek across Iowa.
He put his hand in his pocket for his handkerchief and his pocket was full of water.
How Did Zerah’s relationship with Wilford Woodruff affect his migration to Utah?
Due to poor health during their stay in Winter Quarters, Zerah Pulsipher and his family waited until 1848 to travel to Salt Lake City (a year after the initial companies moved west). Wilford Woodruff oversaw the company in which they traveled, possibly because he had become an adoptive father to Zerah.
The idea of performing adoption sealings had been introduced in Nauvoo. At the time, the Latter Day Saints believed that they needed to be sealed to men who had a continuous priesthood line of authority in their line of sealed families. Not leaving things to chance, men began to be sealed as sons to men high in authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Those men would, in turn, be sealed to Joseph Smith.
As Jennifer Mackley explained it,
Being sealed, through marriage or by adoption, to a worthy man ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood was vital to the Saints’ eternal membership in the kingdom of God. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime the only sealings into priesthood lineage were of women. Men were not adopted into the priesthood lineage of other men until the Nauvoo Temple was completed in December 1845. …
In practice, the integration of priesthood lineage in-to the sealing rituals meant that, in addition to the sealing of husbands to wives and children to parents, a priesthood link had to be established through a separate sealing ordinance.[40]
Jennifer Mackley, Wilford Woodruff and the Development of Temple Doctrine
Mackley explained more about the logic of the adoption sealing ordinance and why Joseph Smith was so important in the family and priesthood network that was being created through those sealings:
At that time, Brigham explained that if the priesthood had been retained through every generation, the law of adoption would not have been necessary—all would have been included in the covenant without it. …
Later, Wilford Wilford explained to the Saints that Joseph Smith came through the loins of ancient Joseph and, as his literal descendant, was heir to the priesthood keys by birthright. When Joseph Smith was adopted into the priesthood line, by virtue of his ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood by Peter, James and John, he bridged the gap created between the dispensations when apostasy occurred and the priesthood was taken from the earth.
Logically it followed then that, just as one must be adopted into the House of Israel through baptism in order to become an heir to Abraham’s blessings, one must be adopted to Joseph as head of this dispensation to inherit the blessings of the fulness of the priesthood.[41]
After abandoning the temple in Nauvoo, the formal ordinance was no longer performed. An informal version of adoption took its place and was used to organize companies heading west. Mackley explained it this way:
Once the Saints left Nauvoo, there were no formal adoptions, but the idea of “adoption” into the family of a righteous priesthood leader was applied to facilitate the exodus from Nauvoo and the organization of “Captains of 50” and “Captains of 100.”
Rather than official adoptions, the apostles gathered their “adopted families” together and after they explained the rules they would agree to as members of the family, they raised their hands and covenanted to keep those rules and sustain each other.[42]
Significantly, Wilford Woodruff recorded that on January 19, 1847, he did this type of covenanting and organization with the people under his care:
I Wilford Woodruff organized my family company this night at my own house consisting of 40 men mostly head men of families. Those that joined me entered into a covenant with uplifted hands to Heaven to keep all the commandments & statutes of the Lord our God and to sustain me in my office
the following are the nam[es] of those who were present with me in this organization Wilford Woodruff, Aphek Woodruff, John Fowler, Abraham O Smoot, William C. A. Smoot, John Grierson, Chancy W. Porter, John Benbow, Simeon Blanchard, Jacob Burnham, Little John Utley Samuel Turnbow Eligah F. Sheets, Jacob F Secrist, Benjamin Abers, Andrew J Allen, Ezra Clark, Edward Stephvenson, Zerah Pulsipher, John M Wolley Albert Dewey Wm Stewart, Thomas Clark, Hezekiah Peck. being 24 persons in all that were present, the remainder were absent on business.
we dismissed and parted in good spirits & feelings[43]
Zerah served as a captain of 100 in Wilford Woodruff’s company.
What was Zerah’s life like in Utah Territory?
Zerah settled in the area south of Salt Lake City and lived there until 1862. He continued to serve as one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy and also was a city council member in Salt Lake City for many years. He maintained a tradition of gathering his family together for a family reunion for many years, during which members of the family ate dinner and pie and were given opportunities to share testimony and advice, which Zerah often did.
After 1862, Zerah moved to Hebron in southern Utah, where he served as a branch president and as a patriarch. Hebron was a difficult place to eke out a living due to its cold and arid climate and its isolation. One neighbor told his daughter that “Hebron wasn’t exactly a paradise, though we did all have pretty good health there. … The main fault there is that it was so cold, too cold to raise fruit and garden stuff.”[44]
Zerah wrote, “I found it to be a very heathy Location and have enjoyed my self very well Considering the Obsurety [obscurity] of the place and the great distance we are from the abodes of of the White man.”[45]
Did Zerah Pulsipher practice plural marriage?
Yes. After 1857, Zerah Pulsipher had three living wives—Mary Brown (1799–1886), Prudence McNanamy (1803–1883), and Martha Hughes (1843–1907). Mary was his legal wife and bore eleven children (and also helped to raise Zerah’s daughter Harriet, who was born to his first wife). Prudence was in her fifties when they were married and they never had children together. Martha was thirteen years old at marriage and bore five children while Zerah was alive, beginning the year after they were married.
It seems like Zerah Pulsipher and his wife Mary were reluctant to practice plural marriage. His daughter, Mariah, wrote that when they heard rumors of the practice after Joseph Smith’s death, she “saw in a vision the beauty and glory of plurality of wives,” and had an angel tell her, “Your mother and your sister, Sarah, do not believe in plurality. Almira knows it is right. Tell them what you know and they will all believe you.”[46] Zerah also recalled later on that “When I first heard of the Plurality I thot it could not be Possible that it was right.”[62]
It’s not clear to what extent Mary Pulsipher reconciled herself to the idea, as the records she left behind do not acknowledge her husband’s other wives. We do know that despite being a high-ranking officer in the Church and telling his family that he believed in the principle, Zerah waited a decade to marry a plural wife and that this first marriage seems to have been the sort that was focused on economic support and kinship for an older widowed woman.
While he was only under the intense pressure of the Mormon Reformation of 1857 that he married a younger wife and had children with her.
The Mormon Reformation was an attempt by church leaders to rekindle faith and testimony throughout the church. Brigham Young encouraged leaders to “figuratively, . . . have it rain pitchforks, tines downwards, from this pulpit,”[47] and one of the subjects leaders pushed for more conformity was plural marriage.
Pressure to marry became so intense that Ellen Spencer Clawson noted that in early 1857, leaders were insisting that “the brethren here . . . take more wives, whether they want to or not . . . Indeed this is the greatest time for marrying I ever knew.”[48] Wilford Woodruff added that “Nearly all are trying to get wives, until there is hardly a girl 14 years old in Utah but what is married or just going to be.”[49]
Statistics indicate that the number of plural marriages in relation to the population was 65 percent higher in 1856–57 than in any other two-year period in Utah history.[50]
Kathryn M. Daynes noted that this pressure to marry resulted in a lower age of marriage for women in Utah:
The large number of women entering plural marriage in the frontier period, particularly in 1856 and 1857, adversely affected the availability of mates for men by creating a scarcity of marriageable women. It also had an impact on the age at which women married. Finding few women at the usual ages for marriage, men sought wives among increasingly younger women, thus intensifying the decline in women’s mean age at marriage.[51]
Martha Hughes was 13 years old when she married Zerah, which is at the lower end of the spectrum, but not unheard of at that time. Still, it could be considered an example of what Brittany Chapman Nash had in mind when she observed that “the hysteria of the Reformation, with its mismatched spousal ages and fear-motivated marriages, negatively affected plural marriage and its image for many years.”[52]
Why was Zerah released from the first seven Presidents of the Seventy?
Watch for my forthcoming article in Journal of Mormon History about this to get more details. Zerah would repeatedly be considered for release from his role in the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy. This included a disciplinary trial in 1862 at which Zerah was released for performing plural marriages that hadn’t been fully authorized.
It is a very hard loss in his old age.
Zerah Pulsipher doesn’t seem to have been a favorite of his superiors in the Church hierarchy and it was suggested that he should retire on multiple occasions. On 28 November 1845, the Quorum of the Twelve decided to release him and have him enter the high priest’s quorum (a polite way to release a seventy, since being a seventy and being a high priest were mutually exclusive at that time), but for some reason, the action was not carried out.[53]
During the Mormon Reformation of 1856-1857, both Jedediah Grant and Heber C. Kimball suggested that Zerah wasn’t living up to his calling or was guilty of some sort of sin (their evidence being that people fell asleep while Zerah preached).[54] Because of this, Wilford Woodruff, along with two other members of the Quorum of the Twelve, “advised the first presidents of the seventies to go forward & present a resignation of their Presidency to President Young & let some men take the place who could magnify it.”[55] Zerah did so, in company with his peers in the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy, but Brigham Young’s response was: “to go and magnify our caling ourselves.”[56]
In 1862, however, Zerah Pulsipher was called in for a disciplinary trial. Sometime around February of 1862, President Brigham Young had been alerted to two polygamous marriages performed by Zerah Pulsipher without proper authorization. Young requested more information on the matter from Zerah’s bishop, Frederick Kesler, who gathered details of the incidents and reported his findings in a letter to President Young.
Kesler’s report states that Zerah performed two polygamous marriages for a Wm Bailey. The first took place in the summer of 1856, when Zerah married a widow by the name of Hannah Hughes to Bailey, though that marriage later ended in a divorce. The second took place in November of 1861 with a girl named Harriet Porter. In both of these cases, Kesler noted that “all this marrying has been done over Jordan under the jurisdiction of the 16th ward with out my approbation or concent in the least.”[57]
The second of the two marriages was more problematic in the eyes of church officials. Kelser stated that:
Wm Bailey asked me for a recommend to you [Brigham Young] fer to get another wife. I told him to call again, which he did accompanied with the girl which he intended to marry (a Harriet Pareter) they were on their way to your office. I did not feel justified in giving him a recommend & referred him to you in person. He accordingly saw you & returned home[,] took the girl[,] called on Zera Pulsipher & he married them on the 28th day of Nov. 1861.[58]
According to Zerah’s son-in-law, John Alger, what happened between Bailey’s visit to President Young’s office and the wedding was that: “Old man baly came to father [Zerah] Puslipher some time a go and told him that President Young told him to go to him father Pulsipher and that the he should marry a cirtain girl to him Baly which father Pulsipher done.” Alger called this an “over sight” on Zerah’s part.[59]
The result was that Zerah was released from his calling as one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy. Wilford Woodruff was involved in the trial and recorded what happened:
[A]t 1 oclok I went to the seventies Hall and attended the trial of Zera Pulsipher, who had been sealing women to men without Authority. He was required to be rebaptized & had the privilege of Being ordained into the High Priest Quorum.[60]
(Latter-day Saint rebaptism, it should be noted, was a sign of repentance and recommitment at the time and not an indication that Zerah was excommunicated, while the proffered ordination the office of high priest was likely a way to release Zerah in a way that would allow him to save face.)
John Alger—Zerah’s son-in-law—wrote a letter to some of his family in which he noted that “I was at the Council & so was Thomas we were well satisfiede with the council on that ocasion as they shoed [showed] every respect towards him possible under the cercumstances,” though the Bailey sealings “caused him to loos his standing in the Presidency.” Alger went on to state that: “We are all very sorry that he commited such an over sight But it is as it is and cant be helped it is a very hard loss in his old age.”[61]
Where is Zerah Pulsipher buried?
Zerah Pulisipher is buried in Hebron, Utah. After the 1862 trial, Zerah moved to southern Utah with his wives to live with his children. His sons were among the initial settlers called to settle St. George. Shortly afterwards, they established a small settlement named Hebron in the mountains north of St. George to raise cattle for the folks in town. It was in Hebron that Zerah lived until he passed away on January 1, 1872, at age 82.
His gravesite is in Hebron, though the settlement is a ghost town today—most of the remaining settlers moved to Enterprise, Utah in the early twentieth century after an earthquake damaged Hebron.
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About the Scholar
Chad L. Nielsen is an independent historian and writer specializing in early Latter-day Saint history, documents, and Church leadership. His research focuses on nineteenth-century Mormon migration, priesthood administration, and the lived experiences of early Church leaders. He is the author of multiple essays and articles exploring figures such as Zerah Pulsipher. Chad is the author of Fragments of Revelation: Exploring the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and he has been published in The Journal of Mormon History, Element: A Journal of Mormon Philosophy and Theology, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. His work is informed by extensive use of primary sources and Church historical records. With this background, he brings a nuanced perspective to the life and legacy of Zerah Pulsipher, situating Pulsipher’s experiences within the broader social and religious context of the early Latter-day Saint movement.
Further Reading
- What Have Scholars Learned About the Book of Mormon?
- Who Was Jacob Hamblin?
- Who is Another Example of Practicing Unauthorized Plural Marriages?
- What Was Latter-day Saint Rebaptism?
- What Are Keys of the Ministering of Angels?
Zerah Pulsipher
- The Pulsipher Papers Project (Pulsipher Papers Project)
- Zerah Pulsipher and the Regulation of Plural Marriage (Journal of Mormon History)
- Wilford Woodruff Papers (Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation)
- Fragments of Revelation: Exploring the Book of Doctrine and Covenants (By Common Consent Press)
- Zerah Pulsipher and the Angel (Times and Seasons)
Footnotes
[1] “Zerah Pulsipher autobiographical sketch,” undated. MS 753.3. Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. See also Rhean Lenora M. Beck, Life story of Sarah (King) Hillman and Her Husband, Mayhew Hillman, and Their Children (independently published, 1968) for the identification of Solomon Chamberlain as the man who preached about the Book of Mormon..
[2] John Pulsipher, “A Short Sketch of the History of John Pulsipher,” in Part of the Life and Doings of John Pulsipher, From 1827 to 1874 (unpublished manuscript in possession of David Pulsipher), 1.
[3] Rhonda Seamons, “That we May all, in Glory dwell,” in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume One, 1775-1820, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 259 – 270.
[4] See Brigham Young, April 6, 1860, Journal of Discourses, 8:38.
[5] Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878, Zerah Pulsipher Autobiography, Draft 2.
[6] Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878, Zerah Pulsipher Autobiography, Draft 2.
[7] Zerah Pulsipher autobiographical sketch,” undated. MS 753.3. Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[8] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1996), 30, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/our-heritage/chapter-three?lang=eng.
[9] Pulsipher, Charles, 1830 – 1915. Charles Pulsipher reminiscences, MS 6919, Church History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, UT.
[10] Cited in Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: History of His Life and Labors as Recorded in His Daily Journal (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1909), 33.
[11] Wilford Woodruff, “Journal (December 29, 1833 – January 3, 1838),” December 1, 1833, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed July 17, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/Q67.
[12] “Journal (December 29, 1833 – January 3, 1838),” December 31, 1833, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed July 17, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/RPL.
[13] See Chad Nielsen, “Instituted for travelling Elders”, Times and Seasons, October 30, 2021, http://archive.timesandseasons.org/2021/10/instituted-for-travelling-elders/.
[14] Leonard J. Arrington, “Oliver Cowdery’s Kirtland, Ohio, ‘Sketch Book,’” BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1972): 7.
[15] Journal History, December 31, 1836, see Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1830-2008; 1830-1839; 1836; Church History Library, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/21b15ced-3b30-4e68-9ab6-9bb99cf1e818/0/557?lang=eng (accessed: August 8, 2024).
[16] See James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2nd edition(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1992), 90–91.
[17] Joseph Young, “History of the Organization of the Seventies” (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News Stream Printing Establishment, 1878), 4-5.
[18] Compare with Revelation, 19 January 1841 [D&C 124], p. 14, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed August 8, 2024, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-19-january-1841-dc-124/12.
[19] B. H. Roberts, The Seventy’s Course in Theology, First Year (Salt Lake City, UT: The Deseret News, 1907), 8.
[20] History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio (Philadelphia: Williams Brothers, 1879), 248, https://archive.org/details/oh-geauga-lake-1879-williams/page/n409/mode/2up.
[21] See Milton J. Backman, Jr. “Kirtland, Ohio” in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 795. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/4391.
[22] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #2, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[23] “Zerah Pulsipher autobiographical sketch,” undated. MS 753.3. Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[24] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #2, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[25] “Zerah Pulsipher autobiographical sketch,” undated. MS 753.3. Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[26] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #2, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[27] “Zerah Pulsipher autobiographical sketch,” undated. MS 753.3. Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[28] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #3, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[29] Journal History, July 6, 1868, p. 3. CHL.
[30] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #2, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[31] Allen and Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints, 125
[32] See Alexander L. Baugh, “Kirtland Camp, 1838: Bringing the Poor to Missouri,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 22, No. 1 (2013): 60–61.
[33] Sybil was baptized RLDS on 4 August 1861 at Indian Creek Mills, Iowa. See Susan Easton Black, Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center Brigham Young University, 1993), 4:590.
[34] Minutes of 11 January 1846, Meeting of Seventies, notes by Thomas Bullock, in Historian’s Office general church minutes 1839-1877, CR 100 318_1_48_5, Church History Library (Church Archives), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[35] Zera Pulsipher record book, circa 1858-1878 MS 753 1, Church History Library (Church Archives), Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2.
[36] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #3, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[37] See Richard S. Van Wagoner, “The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter 1995): 1–24, https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-making-of-a-mormon-myth-the-1844-transfiguration-of-brigham-young-2/. Compare with Lynne Watkins Jorgensen, “The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brother Brigham: A Collective Spiritual Witness,” BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4, Article 8 (1996), available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol36/iss4/8.
[38] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #2, Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[39] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #3, see Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[40] “Wilford Woodruff and the Development of Temple Doctrine,” From the Desk: By Study and Faith, June 1, 2023, https://fromthedesk.org/wilford-woodruff-temple-doctrine-development/.
[41] “Wilford Woodruff and the Development of Temple Doctrine,” From the Desk: By Study and Faith, June 1, 2023, https://fromthedesk.org/wilford-woodruff-temple-doctrine-development/.
[42] “Wilford Woodruff and the Development of Temple Doctrine,” From the Desk: By Study and Faith, June 1, 2023, https://fromthedesk.org/wilford-woodruff-temple-doctrine-development/.
[43] “Journal (January 1, 1847 – December 31, 1853),” January 17, 1847 – January 19, 1847, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed February 14, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/9rj8.
[44] Juanita Brooks, Quicksand and Cactus: A Memoir of the Southern Mormon Frontier (Salt Lake City and Chicago: Howe Brothers, 1982), 43.
[45] Zerah Pulsipher Autobiographical Sketch #3, see Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878.
[46] Mariah Pulsipher, “Autobiography of Mariah Pulsipher,” in Kenneth Glyn Hales, comp. and ed., Windows: A Mormon Family (Tucson, Arizona: Skyline Printing, 1985).
[47] Brigham Young, “The Necessity of the Saints Living Up to the Light Which Has Been Given Them,” March 2, 1856, Journal of Discourses, 3:222.
[48] Ellen Spencer Clawson to Ellen Pratt McGary, February 15, 1857. Cited in B. Carmon Hardy, Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: Its origin, practice, and demise (Norman, Oklahoma: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2007), 119–120.
[49] “Letter to George Albert Smith, 1 April 1857,” p. 2, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed August 8, 2024, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/K7yn.
[50] Stanley S. Ivins, “Notes on Mormon Polygamy,” Western Humanities Review, 10, no. 3 (Summer 1956): 231.
[51] Kathryn M. Daynes, More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840‒1910 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 106‒07.
[52] Brittany Chapman Nash, Let’s Talk About Polygamy (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 32.
[53] D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 574.
[54] Wilford Woodruff, 7 October 1856, “Journal (January 1, 1854 – December 31, 1859),” October 7, 1856, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed February 14, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/gzZ; Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 4:139-140.
[55] “Journal (January 1, 1854 – December 31, 1859),” December 22, 1856 – December 24, 1856, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed February 15, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/GZ9L.
[56] Church History Library in Salt Lake City, MS_753_f0001_item_1-Record_book_circa_1858-1878, Zerah Pulsipher Autobiography, Draft 2.
[57] Frederick Kesler letter to Brigham Young, February 7, 1862, Brigham Young office files, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[58] Frederick Kesler letter to Brigham Young, February 7, 1862, Brigham Young office files, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[59] John Alger letter, 13 April 1862, in Zerah Pulsipher Papers, circa 1848-1874, MS 753 fd 2, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[60] Wilford Woodruff Journal, April 12, 1862. “Journal (January 1, 1860 – October 22, 1865),” April 8, 1862 – April 14, 1862, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed April 20, 2023, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/58Ov
[61] John Alger letter, 13 April 1862, in Zerah Pulsipher Papers, circa 1848-1874, MS 753 fd 2, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[62] John Pulsipher notebook, 1848-1884; Notebook photocopy, 1848-1884; Church History Library, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/84d9f5c3-fcd2-429b-9d83-e6c41ddda028/0/49?lang=eng.
2 replies on “Who Was Zerah Pulsipher?”
Thank you so much for this history of my Grandfather Pulsipher’s conversion story and his testimony! It was well written and researched.
Thanks! He’s an ancestor of mine as well.