Lorin Calvin Woolley
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Lorin Calvin Woolley (October 23, 1856 – September 19, 1934) was a Mormon missionary and a proponent of Plural Marriage.
[edit] Early life
Woolley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the son of John Wickersham Woolley and Julia Ensign. The family moved to Centerville in 1863, where he was ordained an Elder by John Lyon on his sixteenth birthday. In 1883 he married his first wife, Sarah Ann Roberts in the Endowment House on Temple Square. They would have nine children together.
He served as a missionary in the Southern States mission from October 1887 to October 1889. He was later called to the Seventieth Quorum of Seventy (based in Centerville), and shortly thereafter served a four-month mission to the Indian Territories, starting in December 1896.
[edit] Plural Marriage
- See also: Apostolic United Brethren
Between October 1886 and February 1887 Woolley became a mail carrier for the LDS church leaders hiding from state authorities. In 1912 he wrote the first account of a September 1886 visitation of Joseph Smith to John Taylor at his father's home, in which President Taylor stated that Plural Marriage would continue despite the Church taking a different course.
Woolley was excommunicated from the LDS church in January 1924 for his beliefs in Plural Marriage, specifically (according to LDS church sources) his claims that Church leaders had taken plural wives after the 1890 Manifesto.
Upon his father's death in 1928 most Mormon Fundamentalists believe Woolley succeeded him as President of the Priesthood, and in the Spring of 1929 Woolley ordained a new quorum of apostles (sometimes called the Council of friends) which included Joseph Leslie Broadbent, John Yates Barlow and Joseph White Musser amongst others.
He married at least four plural wives, amongst whom were his cousins, Sarah Viola and Alice May Woolley by 1915, and Goulda Kmetzsch in 1932.
He died on September 19, 1934, having appointed Joseph Leslie Broadbent as his successor.
| Preceded by John Wickersham Woolley |
Mormon Fundamentalist Leaders 1928–1934 |
Succeeded by Joseph Leslie Broadbent |
