Today in History: Abraham O. Woodruff Dies

I haven't blogged in over two years, but now that I have a job with internet access, I can do so. Today is June 20, 2014.

On this day 110 years ago, June 20, 1904, Elder Abraham Owen Woodruff of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dies in El Paso, Texas of smallpox at the young age of 31.

Ironically, Elder Woodruff said this around the year 1900: "I hope the Lord will take me home before I do anything that will deprive me of my salvation." [1] Woodruff was a staunch supporter of post-Manifesto plural marriage, & took a second wife himself on January 18, 1901, Eliza Avery Clark. [2] It seems that the Lord took Owen at his word & gave him his wish.

Owen was known for his "gentleness, kindness, & Godly charity." He & is wife Helen were modest people, even keeping a pleasantly-looking modest home (in between pages 297 & 299). He & Avery's home in Mexico was also similarly modest (page 27).

1. Driggs, Ken, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 23:2, https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V23N02_41.pdf, 44.
2. Herlin, Clark LeRay, "The Motivations Beyond the Manifesto: Post-Maifesto Polygamy, 189-1904", Utah Valley University digital collections, http://contentdm.uvu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/UVUTheses/id/631, 23.