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Thomas B. Marsh

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Thomas Baldwin Marsh (1799-1866) was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1835-1839. He was excommunicated from the church in 1839, and remained disaffected for much of his life. Marsh rejoined the church in July 1857, but never again served in church leadership positions.

Contents

Early Life

Marsh was born in the town of Acton, Massachusetts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts on November 1, 1799. His father was James Marsh. His mother was Mary Law. He spent his early life farming in Westmoreland, New Hampshire.

As a young man, Marsh developed a pattern of traveling and working for various employers. Marsh ran away at age fourteen to Chester, Vermont and worked as a farmer for three months. Then he left for Albany, New York, working as a waiter for eighteen months. He spent two years working at the New York City Hotel in New York City, New York, then returned to Albany for a year, and then back at the hotel for two more years. He spent eighteen months working as a groom for Edward Griswold in Long Island, New York.

At age twenty-one, he married Elizabeth Godkin on November 1, 1820 while employed for Griswold. After his marriage, he attempted unsuccessfully to run a grocery business for eighteen months. After that, he spent seven years working at a type foundry in Boston, Massachusetts.

During his work at the type foundry, he joined the Methodist Church. However, dissatisfied because Methodism did not correspond to the Bible in his mind, he left and joined a group of friends in what others called a Quietist sect.

Joining the Church

Marsh left his home in Boston and journeyed west, travelling with a Benjamin Hall. In his words, "I believed the Spirit of God dictated me to make a journey west." He stayed at Lima, New York in Livingston County, New York for three months before returning home. On the way home, he stopped at Lyonstown, where a lady informed him of the Golden Plates that Joseph Smith had obtained. She directed him to Palmyra, New York, and told him to seek out Martin Harris.

Marsh travelled to Palmyra and discovered Martin Harris at the printing office, working on the printing of the Book of Mormon. He was able to obtain the first sixteen pages as a printer's proof. He met Oliver Cowdery at this time as well.

Returning to his home, he showed the sixteen pages to his wife. They both were pleased and corresponded with Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith. After The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was formed on April 6, 1830, he moved with his family up to Palmyra to join them that September.

Shortly after his arrival, Marsh was baptized by David Whitmer in Cayuga Lake, and a few months later ordained an elder by Oliver Cowdery. From September 26 to September 28, 1830, Joseph Smith received Doctrine and Covenants section 31 directed at Marsh. In this section, he was called as the church physician.

Marsh moved with the church to Kirtland, Ohio in the spring of 1831. He was ordained a high priest and received a call to proselyte to Missouri with Ezra Thayer (See Doctrine and Covenants 52:22). Thayer delayed for a long time, and so Marsh went to Joseph Smith, who appointed Selah J. Griffin in Thayer's stead. (See Doctrine and Covenants 56:5).

Apostleship

Joseph Smith organized the first LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on the 14th and 15th of February 1835. Smith arranged the members by age. As there was confusion over David W. Patten's birth date, Thomas B. Marsh was identified as the eldest of the Quorum and so designated Quorum President. According to Marsh's autobiographical sketch, published in 1864:

In January, 1835, in company with Bishop Partridge and agreeable to revelation, I proceeded to Kirtland, where we arrived early in the spring, when I learned I had been chosen one of the Twelve Apostles.
May 4th, 1835, in company with the Twelve I left Kirtland and preached through the eastern states, holding conferences, regulating and organizing the churches, and returned September 25.
In the winter of 1835–36, I attended school, studied the first English grammar under Sidney Rigdon, and Hebrew under Professor Seixas (a Hebrew by birth)....

After these activities with the Twelve Apostles, Marsh returned to Fishing River, Clay County, Missouri, in April 1836. Severe difficulties between Mormons and the larger community continued to plague the LDS people in Missouri. Marsh was chosen as a delegate from his community to try to resolve these issues. Despite the efforts of church members, their Missouri neighbors decided that the Saints must leave Clay County.

Marsh traveled to LDS congregations in other states, including Tennessee and Kentucky, gathering loans at an interest of 10 percent to help the Clay County Saints obtain new property. The diary of Apostle Wilford Woodruff contains an account of part of that journey:

Aug. 20th.--Elder [David] Patten preached at the house of Randolph Alexander, and after meeting baptized him and his wife. Brother T. [Thomas] B. Marsh arrived in Tennessee on his mission to collect means, and attend a Conference with the brethren laboring in Tennessee and Kentucky, which was held on Damon's Creek, Callaway County, Kentucky, Sept. 2nd 1836. T. [Thomas] B. Marsh presided. Seven Branches were represented containing 133 members....
Sept. 19th.--Elders T. [Thomas] B. Marsh, D. [David] W. Patten, E. H. Groves and Sister Patten left the Saints in Kentucky and Tennessee and started for Far West, Missouri, where they arrived in peace and safety." (Woodruff, Wilfred - Diary, August 20th,and Sept. 19, 1836)

In September of 1836, he returned to Missouri and joined the Saints in their new location, a city called Far West in Missouri. The accumulated funds were turned over to the presidency of the Missouri Stake, consisting of David Whitmer, William W. Phelps and John Whitmer. In a church court in early February 1838, this presidency was called to account for the mismanagement of the funds, among other failings. After these men were released from their positions, Thomas Marsh was named as President of the LDS church in Missouri, with David W. Patten, and Brigham Young, as Assistant Presidents, on April 6, 1838.

Falling Away

An almost petty occurrance in August or September of 1838 would have lasting effects on Marsh's involvement in the LDS Church. His wife and a Mrs. Harris fell into an acrimonious dispute over the exact division of shared cream from a group of cows. Resolution of the argument was taken from the lowest level of church leadership, through several layers, to the Prophet Joseph Smith. When judgment against Mrs. Marsh was confirmed at all levels, Marsh is quoted by George A. Smith as saying that he would uphold the character of his wife ...even if he had to go to hell for it. (Ludlow, Doctrine and Covenants, p. 363.)

Marsh later wrote:

About this time I got a beam in my eye and thought I could discover a mote in Joseph's eye, though it was nothing but a beam in my eye; I was so completely darkened that I did not think on the Savior's injunction: "Thou hypocrite, why beholdest thou the mote which is in thy brother's eye, when a beam is in thine own eye; first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, then thou shalt see clearly to get the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Shortly after this incident, on October 19, 1838, Thomas B. Marsh left the association of the Church. Marsh drafted and signed an legal affidavit against Joseph Smith on October 24, 1838. This affidavit accused Smith of trying to take over the world by force and of organizing the "Danites" to murder those who opposed him. Marsh convinced Apostle Orson Hyde to also sign the affidavit, which was submitted to law enforcement authorities in Richmond, Missouri.

This statement apparently resulted in three significant actions against the Mormon people. The following day, on October 25, 1838, the Battle of Crooked Creek occurred. David W. Patten, the second apostle in the Quorum, was among the church members killed. On the 27th of October, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, basing his decision on the allegations within the affidavit, signed the Extermination Order. Three days later, the Mormon settlement of Haun's Mill was attacked by a mob of armed men. The Haun's Mill Massacre, which left 17 LDS men and boys dead, underscored the seriousness of Bogg's order. Marsh was excommunicated from the LDS church in absentia on March 17, 1839 in Quincy, Illinois.

Rejoining

In 1857, Thomas Marsh was rebaptized into the Utah based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Marsh wrote an autobiography in 1864, recounting his church service and rebellion. It was published in the Millenial Star of that year. However, his religious affiliation still may not have been fixed. According to Elder Thomas Job, a missionary of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ) serving in Utah, shortly before his death Marsh attended an RLDS conference in Salt Lake City, and there claimed that Young Joseph (Joseph Smith III) was a prophet and bore a strong testimony to the truth and necessity of the Reorganization. He said that he would move east to join them if Young Joseph would send for him.

Thomas B. Marsh passed away in Ogden, Utah in January of 1866. He is buried at the Ogden Cemetary. The grave is adorned with a plank of wood, on which can barely be read "T. B. M.".

Modern Opinion

In the modern era, Marsh is rarely mentioned in instructional classes, discourses on religion or sermons in the LDS church. Marsh's conversion story is occasionally cited as an example of how powerful the Book of Mormon can be in convincing people of the truthfulness of the church. When his apostacy is mentioned, he is often referred to either as an example of pride or as an example of one who failed to fulfill his calling to serve the church. Had Marsh been faithful and swallowed his pride, he could have eventually become the next president of the church instead of (the third apostle) Brigham Young.

References

  • Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1976. ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
  • Ludlow, Daniel H., A Companion to Your Study of the Doctrine and Covenants, Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1978. ISBN 1-57345-224-6.
  • Ludlow, Daniel H., Editor. Church History, Selections From the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, UT, 1992. ISBN 0-87579-924-8.

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Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13