John Whittaker Taylor

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For other persons named John Taylor, see John Taylor (disambiguation).

John W. Taylor

John Whittaker Taylor (May 15, 1858–October 10, 1916) (commonly known as John W. Taylor) was the son of John Taylor (the third President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and Sophia Whittaker. He was born in Provo, Utah while his parents were taking shelter there, along with other church members, during the Utah War.

Taylor married in 1883 and moved to Cassia County in Idaho, where he worked as a farmer and in his father's sawmill. He also worked as a county clerk, and a newspaper editor, among many other things.

He died of cancer at his home in Forest Dale, Salt Lake County, Utah, on October 16, 1916, at 58 years of age.

Samuel W. Taylor, a noted Mormon historian, is perhaps his most famous child. Samuel wrote a biography of his father called Family Kingdom. Samuel W. Taylor also wrote a number of teleplays and stories that were adapted to film, including the short story "A Situation of Gravity" on which the movies The Absent-Minded Professor and Flubber were based.

[edit] Church service and conflict

The younger Taylor became a church leader in his own right. He was ordained as a deacon circa 1872 and a teacher in 1874. He also served as missionary. Taylor was ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church on May 15, 1884, on his 26th birthday.

Taylor was a staunch believer in the doctrine of plural marriage, and had six wives and thirty-six children. Although the Church officially forbade the practice with the 1890 Manifesto, Taylor continued to privately marry additional wives and consequently resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve in April of 1905 (followed by the resignation of Elder Matthias F. Cowley in October of the same year). Early next February, Elder Marriner W. Merrill died. The three new vacancies were filled in the April General Conference of 1906 by George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, and David O. McKay.

John Taylor disputed with the Quorum of the Twelve often after his resignation. He was finally excommunicated from the Church in 1911, but he was not bitter with the Church and remained a believer, even up to his death.

In August 1916, John W. Taylor was posthumously baptized by proxy and reinstated into the Church by two Stake Presidents. However, a year later, the First Presidency officially stated that the reinstatement was null and void. He was later officially rebaptized and reinstated under the direction of Church President David O. McKay, in 1965.