Sylvester Smith (Latter Day Saints)

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Sylvester Smith (born March 25, 1806) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the inaugural seven Presidents of the Seventy.

Smith was born in Becket, Massachusetts. He was a farmer, teacher, and carpenter by trade.^[1] He was baptized into the Mormon church some time before May 1831. Oliver Cowdery ordained him a high priest on October 25, 1831.

Smith was a member of Zion's Camp, where in the words of Heber C. Kimball he displayed "refractory feelings."^[2] During Zion's Camp he was blamed for "confrontations with Joseph Smith, insubordination, threatening Joseph's dog, arguing with him, and refusing to share bread."^[3] In September 1834 he reconciled with the high council and was dropped from the council without protesting.^[4]

On February 14, 1835, Smith attended the Zion's Camp meeting where the inaugural Quorum of the Twelve was called, and later that month was named a Seventy. The next month he was named one of the presidents of the Seventies.^[5]

As he had previously been ordained a high priest, in November 1835 he was asked to return to the high priests quorum, along with Hazen Aldrich, Leonard Rich, Zebedee Coltrin, and Lyman Sherman.^[6] By 1837, George A. Smith reported that Sylvester was numbered among the dissenters.^[7]

[edit] Footnotes

^ Quinn, D. Michael (1994). Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, 2, Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, 592.
^ "Extract from the Journal of Elder Heber C. Kimball". Times and Seasons. 6, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1845): 771–773.
^ Kirtland High Council Minutes (December 1832–November 1837). Selected Collections, 1:19. Original, Church Archives, MS 3432, 63-73.
^ Kirtland High Council Minutes (December 1832–November 1837). Selected Collections, 1:19. Original, Church Archives, MS 3432, 74-76.
^ in B. H. Roberts: History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News, 2:204.
^ "Minutes of May 2, 1835". Kirtland High Council Minutes (December 1832–November 1837). Selected Collections, 1:19. Original, Church Archives, MS 3432, 74-76.
^ Smith, George A., Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Jan. 10, 1858, Journal of Discourses, 7:111–116.