Wilford Woodruff
The journal-keeper who preserved the Restoration, built temples for the dead, and received the Manifesto
A Man Who Wrote Everything Down
Wilford Woodruff kept a journal for more than sixty years — beginning in 1833 and continuing until shortly before his death in 1898. In that time he filled 31 volumes with daily entries: meetings he attended, sermons he heard from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, missionary experiences, administrative decisions, impressions of the Spirit. His journals are among the most valuable primary sources for early Latter-day Saint history.
He understood that preserving the record was itself a spiritual act — that future generations would need to know what had happened in the foundational years of the Restoration. He was right. Much of what we know about the early Church comes through Wilford Woodruff’s careful, consistent witness.
The Temple Dead
Woodruff had a particular fire for temple work. In 1877, while serving as president of the St. George Temple, he received a vision of the Founding Fathers of the United States — men like Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin — who appeared to him and requested that their temple ordinances be performed. He performed proxy baptisms and endowments for all of them, along with other notable figures from history.
This is a defining moment in Latter-day Saint theology about the redemption of the dead. The Founding Fathers were not random choices — they were men who had risked and sacrificed to establish a nation with the religious freedom that would allow the Restoration to occur. Woodruff understood that their work and the Restoration’s work were connected, and he saw to it that the connection was sealed.
The Manifesto
Woodruff became the fourth president of the Church in 1889. The Church was under severe federal pressure over polygamy — with properties seized, leaders imprisoned, and the institution of the Church itself under threat of dissolution. In 1890, he received what he understood as divine guidance to cease the practice:
Official Declaration 1 (Excerpted)
“The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice… I have done my duty and the Lord will not hold me responsible.”
The Manifesto — Official Declaration 1 in the Doctrine and Covenants — was issued in 1890. It was a decision made under pressure, but Woodruff insisted it came through revelation, not capitulation. He is one of the examples most often cited by Latter-day Saints when explaining how revelation through a living prophet can alter church practice in response to changed circumstances. He did not find it easy. He found it necessary — and he recorded it faithfully in his journal, as he recorded everything else.