author
Wilford Woodruff
1807–1898
A careful record-keeper and early Latter-day Saint leader, he left behind journals that became one of the richest firsthand accounts of the church’s early history. He later served as the church’s fourth president and is especially remembered for the 1890 Manifesto that ended the public practice of plural marriage in the LDS Church.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Farmington, Connecticut, in 1807, Wilford Woodruff joined the early Latter-day Saint movement in 1833 after hearing missionaries preach in New York. He became known for tireless missionary work in the United States and Britain and for his habit of keeping detailed journals, which preserved an extraordinary day-by-day record of people, events, and religious life in the 19th century.
Woodruff was a close associate of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and took part in many of the major movements of early church history, including the migration west. In 1889 he became the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He is most often remembered for issuing the 1890 Manifesto, a turning point that formally ended the church’s public practice of plural marriage. He died in 1898, but his sermons, letters, and especially his journals still shape how historians and readers understand the early Latter-day Saint experience.