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Wilford Woodruff

Portrait of Wilford Woodruff
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Wilford Woodruff

Wilford Woodruff served as the fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 to 1898. His detailed diaries are a major record of early Church life. His presidency also marked the beginning of the Church’s formal transition away from plural marriage and a renewed focus on family history and temple sealing.

FEATURED QUOTE
“The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty.”
— Wilford Woodruff

Biography at a glance

  • From: Connecticut
  • Joined the Church: 1833
  • Church service: Apostle from 1839; President of the Church from 1889 to 1898
  • Historical records: Kept extensive diaries throughout his life

Missionary and record keeper

Woodruff joined the Church in the 1830s and served several missions. He took part in the Camp of Israel and was later called to the Twelve. His habit of recording daily events preserved details that historians still use. The Church’s history essay outlines both his ministry and the value of his journals.

Temples and the Manifesto

Woodruff became the first president of the St. George Utah Temple in 1877. As Church president, he issued the 1890 Manifesto, beginning a transition away from plural marriage. He later directed changes that encouraged Saints to be sealed to their own ancestors and supported the growth of genealogical research. These developments shaped temple and family history work for generations.

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Sources and further reading

Quotes by Wilford Woodruff

5 quotes

“How did we feel when we first heard [that] the living could be baptized for the dead? We all went to work at it as fast as we had an opportunity, and were baptized for everybody we could think of, without respect to sex. I went and was baptized for all my friends, grandmothers, and aunts, as [well as for] those of the male sex: but how was it? Why, by-and-by, it was revealed, through the servants of the Lord, that females should be baptized for females, and males for males.”

Journal of Discourses, 5:85

— Wilford Woodruff

When we get to the other side of the veil, we shall know something. We now work by faith. We have the evidence of things not seen. The resurrection, the eternal judgment, the celestial kingdom, and the great blessings that God has given in the holy anointings and endowment in the temples, are all for the future, and they will be fulfilled, for they are eternal truths. We will never while in the flesh, with this veil over us, fully comprehend that which lies before us in the world to come. It will pay any man to serve God and to keep His commandments the few days he lives upon the earth.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, p. 154

— Wilford Woodruff

“He [Joseph Smith] stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was filled as with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and he was clothed upon by the power of God. . . . ‘I have had sealed upon my head every key, every power, every principle of life and salvation that God has ever given to any man who ever lived upon the face of the earth. . . . Now, I have sealed upon your heads every key, every power, and every principles which the Lord has sealed upon my head. . . . I tell you, the burden of this kingdom now rests upon your shoulders; you have got to bear it off in all the world, and if you don’t do it you will be damned.’”

— Wilford Woodruff

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