Warren Parrish (1803

Mormon History: 1830 to 1839

Warren Parrish (1803–1877)

Joseph Smith scribe, Kirtland Safety Society's Anti-Bank teller, leading Kirtland dissident.

Born		[1803] in New York.	1850 New York census of Mendon, New York, lists 47-year-old Warren Parrish, clergyman. Ancestry.com
Died		1870 in Emporia, Lyon county, Kansas.	Wikipedia has 1877
New York		1830 living in Alexandria, Jefferson County, New York.
Baptized		May 20, 1833 baptized, with David W. Patten's mother, brothers, and sisters, by Brigham Young at Theresa, Indian River Falls, New York.	BY history 25, no. 28 (July 11, 1863): 439–440 // ¶ David W. Patten (h)
Zion's Camp		May–June 1834 member, Zion's Camp.
Mission to Tennessee		September 12, 1834 starts from Clay County with David W. Patten on mission to Tennesssee. Headquartered in Paris, Tennessee, they baptize twenty between October and December.	¶ David W. Patten (h)
Wilford Woodruff		April 4, 1835 joins Wilford Woodruff in Humphrey county, Tennessee (Eagle Creek branch).	WWJ 1:26.
Kentucky		April 13, 1835 Wilford and Warren begin preaching in Graves county, Kentucky, baptizing 5 in Henry county on the 19th.	WWJ 1:27.
Return to Kirtland		June 23, 1835 receives letter requesting his return to Kirtland.	¶ Wilford Woodruff (h1)
Ordains Wilford		June 28, 1835 ordains Wilford Woodruff an elder before leaving for Kirtland. Together they had baptized "some forty persons."	WWJ 1:76. ¶ Wilford Woodruff (h1)
Seventy		August 17, 1835, First Quorum of Seventy.	¶ Minutes of August 17, 1835
Scribe		October 29, 1835 begins working for Joseph as his scribe, $15/month.	Diary-2, 10 // PWJS, 95; HC 2:293.
Joseph blesses Wisdom and sound mind Know ancient records, hidden languages Lord's Scribe		[November 14, 1835] . . . thus saith the ~~the~~ Lord unto my Servant Joseph concerning my servant Warren, behold [36] his sins are forgiven him because of his desires to do the work of righteousness therefore in as much as he will continue to hearken unto my voice he shall be blessed with wisdom and with a sound mind even above his fellows. behold it shall come to pass in his day that he shall <see> great things shew forth themselves unto my people, he shall see much of my ancient records, and shall know of hiden things, and shall be endowed with a knowledge of hiden languages, and if he desires and Shall seek it at my hand, he shall be privileged with writing much of my word, as a scribe unto me for the benefit of my people, therefore this shall be his calling until I shall order it otherwise in my wisdom and it shall be said of him in a time to come, behold Warren the Lords Scribe, for the Lords Seer whom he hath appointed in Israel: …	Diary-2, 35–36 // HC 2:311.
Marries		December 3, 1835 marries Martha H. Raymond.
Joseph delights in Warren's company		[December 30, 1835] He [Joseph] spent the day in reading hebrew at the council room, with his scribe, in whose company he delighted, & who had sufficiently recovered his health. to attend to his usual avocation.	1834�1836 history, 166. scribe: Warren Parrish

1836 illness	¶	[January 25, 1836] Brother Joseph: My great desire to be in your company and in the assembly of the saints where God opens the heavens, and exhibits the treasures of Eternity, is the only thing that has stimulated me, for a number of days past, to leave my house; for be assured, Dear Brother, my bodily affliction is severe. I have a violent cough more especially at night which deprives me of my appetite, and my strength fails, and writing has a particular lenaency to injure my lungs. while I am under the influence of such a Cough. I therefore with reluctance send your journal to you until my health improves. Yours in heart, Warren Parrish.	MH-B, 620.
	¶	PS Brother Joseph. Pray for me and ask the prayers of the class on my account also.
		Sylvester Smith takes over as scribe while Warren is ill.	MH-B, 620.

Book of Abraham scribe		February 22, 1836 Joseph's scribe in translation of Egyptian scrolls.	HC 2:298.
Scribe		March 27, 1836 scribe with Warren A. Cowdery for dedication of the House of the Lord.	HC 2:411.
Tennessee		May 27, 1836 joins David W. Patten (h) and W. Woodruff in Benton County, Tennessee for conference on the 28th with representatives of Taropen, Clark's River, Blood River, Academy, Chalk Level, Cypress, and Eagle Creek branches, then travels with them through Tennessee and Kentucky.	WWJ 1:72–73.
Ordain Wilford		May 31, 1836 Warren and David ordain Wilford to the High Priesthood "and also as one of the Second Seventy & sealed up unto Eternal LIFE."	WWJ 1:74.
Tennessee		June 10, 1836 Warren and David W. Patten start for middle Tennessee, Wilford Woodruff and Abraham O. Woodruff remain in Kentucky.	WWJ 1:78.

Mob, trial for promising Holy Ghost	¶	June 19th. About forty men armed with deadly weapons, led by Sheriff Robert C. Petty, and a Colonel and Major, with some other officers, and a Methodist priest with a gun on his shoulder; and the Sheriff informed the brethren that he had a States' warrant for D. W. Patten (h), and W. Woodruff, issued on complaint of Mathew Williams the Methodist priest, who swore that those brethren had put forth the following false and pretended prophecy: "That four individuals should receive the Holy Ghost within twenty-four hours."	MS 26 no. 28 (July 9, 1864): 439–441.
		They are bound over for trial on June 22 on a $2,000 bond by Seth Utley and Albert Petty.	WWJ 1:83.
	¶	Early on the 22nd Elders Patten and Parrish had their trial. The mob gathered to the number of 100 all fully armed, they took from brother Patten his walking stick and a penknife; they went through with a mock trial, but would not let the defendants produce any witnesses, and without suffering them to say a word in defence, the Judge pronounced them guilty of the charges preferrred.	WWJ 1:83.

Home next to Whitney store		Warren's home is adjacent to the N. K. Whitney & Company store.
Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company		January 2, 1837 serves as secretary at the reorganization meeting of the Kirtland Safety Society. He becomes the bank's first teller, responsible for maintaining the stock ledger book.	Kirtland Safety Society Articles of Agreement Hearken, 465.
Debt		January 1837 Warren is deeply in debt by the time the Kirtland Safety Society opens and in the first week of operations takes out loans of $1, $117, and $500. He continues to borrow until as late as July.	Hearken, 520, citing Frederick G. Williams account book,
Dissenters Lying and deception		[March 25 Stephen Burnett:] … three weeks since in the Stone Chapel gave a full history of the church since I became acquainted with it, the false preaching & prophecying etc of Joseph together with the reasons why I took the course which I was resolved to do, and renounced the Book of Mormon with the whole scene of lying and deception practiced by J. S & S. R in this church, believing as I verily do, that it is all a wicked deception palmed upon us unawares	Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson (April 15, 1838) Stone Chapel: House of the Lord three weeks since: March 25, 1838 ¶ Argument to Argument
Warren Parrish, Luke Johnson, John Boynton	¶	I was followed by W. Parrish Luke Johnson & John Boynton (h) all of who Concurred with me,
Failed church court		May 29, 1837 Kirtland high council meets to try Presidents David Whitmer and F. G. Williams and Elders Lyman Johnson and Parley P Pratt (h) and Warren Parrish for conduct "injurious to the Church of God in which they are high officers." Warren objects that the the complaint is "not in accordance with the copy of which they received of the charge preferred against them." Frederick objects that the high council does not have jurisdiction over church presidents. Parley objects to being tried by Sidney or Joseph "in consequence of their having previously expressed their opinion against him." Meeting ends "in confusion."	Meeting of May 29, 1837

Joseph: company to swallow up banks		February 5, 1838 writes Painesville Republican that Joseph said "that the audible voice of God instructed him to establish a Banking-Anti-Banking Institution, which, like Aaron's rod, should swallow up all other banks … and grow and flourish and spread from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and survive when all others should be laid in ruins."	W. Parrish to the editor, Feb. 5, 1838, in "Mormonism," Painesville Republican, Feb. 15, 1838. Source "Joseph Smith's figure, as provided by Parrish, roughly fits with the evidence derived from dates and serial numbers on surviving banknotes for the initial January issue. Parrish's $150,000 figure, however may have provided an approximate amount for circulation near the end of the operation." Hearken, 480.
Joseph's financial misrepresentations		I have been astonished to hear him declare that we had 60,000 Dollars in specie in our vaults, and $600,000 at our command, when we had not to exceed $6,000 and could not command any more; also that we had but about ten thousand Dollars of our bills in circulation, when he, as Cashier of the institution, knew that there was at least $150,000. Knowing their extreme poverty when they commenced this speculation, I have been not a little surprised to hear them assert that they were worth from three to four hundred thousand Dollars Cash, and in less than ninety days after, became insolvent without any change in their business affairs.

Wilford Woodruff's reaction	¶	[April 5, 1838 in Vinalhaven, Maine, Wilford Woodruff:] The worst difficulties in the saints warfare are perils among & from fals Brethren. I walked to Mr John Kents store & Post Office & he presented me with a letter containing two sheets from Mr Warren Parrish at Kirtland Ohio who had been an Elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints & had travled with me in the ministry many miles. He had now made ship reck of faith was cut of from the church & he with some others in like circumstances are now making every exertion against us & the cause, & the letter alluded to was teeming with [237] falshood against Joseph & the Church.	WWJ 1:236–237. ¶ Wilford Woodruff (h3)
	¶	O Warren Parish how art thou fallen. Thy former letters will stare thee in the face make thee blush & pierce thy soul. The letter is believed by our opposers & causes persecution to rage.
		1850 clergyman in Mendon, Monroe county, New York.
		1870 living in Emporia, Lyon county, Kansas

		"Kirtland Apostasy"
Warren Parrish and others feigned repentance	¶	In the past summer [1837], I journeyed from this place, in company with Wm. Smith and D. W. Patten, to Kirtland, for the purpose of meeting in Conference there, with the twelve. On our arrival, we soon learned the difficulties that then existed there: these, however, were all apparently settled, previous to my leaving Kirtland: And W. Parrish, who has since become an unbeliever in revealed religion, affected to repent and become satisfied with Br. Joseph and the Church. Others also did the same:—But this settlement was not of long duration.	Thomas B. Marsh to Wilford Woodruff, Elders' Journal 1, no. 3 (July 1838): 36–37.
Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney, others to Far West		Soon after this, President Hyrum Smith and myself left Kirtland for the upper Missouri, and President Joseph Smith, President Sidney Rigdon, and Wm. Smith, soon followed us to Far West:	Joseph and Sidney left Kirtland, September 27, 1837, arriving in Missouri a month later.
Plot overthrow		and during their absence, it seems that Parrish, J. F. Boynton (h), Luke S. Johnson, Joseph Coe, and some others, united together for the overthrow of the Church.
Joseph returns December 1837 Dissenters renounce LDS Denounce Joseph		President Smith, [37] and his company returned on or about the 10th of December, soon after which this dissenting band openly and publicly renounced the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, and claimed themselves to be the old standard, calling themselves the Church of Christ, excluded that of Saints, and set at naught Brother Joseph and the whole church, denounced them as heretics.	After two weeks, they returned, arriving in Kirtland on December 10.

		George A. Smith Recollection
Dissident leaders		The Church had increased in numbers, and the Elders had extended their labours accordingly; but the apostacy commenced in high places. One of the First Presidency, several of the Twelve Apostles, High Council, Presidents of Seventies, the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, Presidents of Far West, and a number of others standing high in the Church were all carried away in this apostacy; and they thought there was enough of them to establish a pure religion that would become universal.	¶ Doings and Sayings
Led by Warren Parrish		This attempted organization [of the Church of Christ in 1837] was under the direction of Warren Parrish, who had been a Travelling Elder in the Church, and who sustained a high reputation in the Southern States as an eloquent preacher, and had for a short time been employed by Joseph as a clerk. He undertook to organize those elements into a church, and I was told by them that all the talented men among the Elders were ready to join them.
Talented men		They named, for instance, Lyman Johnson, John F. Boyington [Boynton], William E. McLellin, Hazen Aldrich, Sylvester Smith, Joseph Coe, Orson Johnson, W. A. Cowdery, M. F. Cowdery, and others, amounting to something like thirty, who had been prominent Elders in the Church.
Purpose to unite all Christian churches		They were going to renounce the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and take the "Mormon" doctrines to overthrow all the religions in the world, and unite all the Christian churches in one general band, and they to be its great leaders.
Warren Parrish becomes Baptist minister		What success did this great apostacy meet with? Brother Kimball, when on a mission in 1844, (this apostacy took place in 1837–8,) while crossing Fox River on the ferry, encountered Warren Parrish. He was a grave-looking man—a straight-jacketed fellow, dressed in black, with a white handkerchief around his neck. Says he, "Elder Kimball, will you have the goodness not to say to the people here that I ever was a Mormon. I am a Baptist minister. I am preaching at that meetinghouse for a salary of $500 a year. If they find out I have been a Mormon, it would hurt my influence very much indeed."
Warren a counteifeter		Where was the big church he had tried to build up? He had tried pleading law; that failed: peddling bogus money, and that failed, like his big church speculation. And where was the origin of this?
Overhears Warren Adultery?		I recollect waking up late one evening when I was quite a young man, and hearing my father and one of the brethren talk. Being a little disposed to listen, I learned that there had been considerable of a difficulty between Parrish and one of the brethren. This was when he was in good standing in the Church. He had been too kind with the brother's wife. Then I learned the commencement of his apostacy.
		You may go to every one of these men—I care not which one; you cannot put your finger on any one of these thirty men but what you will find that the spirit of adultery or covetousness had got possession of their hearts; and when it did, the Spirit of the Lord left them. They had not sense enough to repent and put away their iniquity, but suffered themselves to be overthrown with the spirit of darkness; and they have gone to hell, and there they may lift up their eyes, asking for some relief or benefit from those they once tried to destroy; but if they get the privilege of waiting on a servant to those who have kept the laws of heaven, they will be exceedingly thankful and fortunate.

Kirtland Safety Society bank teller Embezzled $100,000 with others Caused bank failure		Warren Parrish was the teller of the bank, and a number of other men who apostatized were officers. They took out of its vault, unknown to the President or cashier a hundred thousand dollars, and sent their agents around among the brethren to purchase their farms, wagons, cattle, horses, and every thing they could get hold of. The brethren would gather up this money put it into the bank, and those traitors would steal it and send it out to buy again, and they continued to do so until the plot was discovered and the payment stopped. It was the cursed apostates—their stealing and robberies, and their infernal villainies that prevented that bank being conducted as the Prophet designed. If they had followed the counsel of Joseph, there is not a doubt but that it would have been the leading bank in Ohio, probably the nation. …	George A. Smith, Ogden tabernacle, Nov. 15, 1864, JD 11:11–12.
Claim Joseph not a prophet Parrish party of 30 Included many leaders Reject Book of Mormon Intend to unite Christianity		Parrish and his coadjucators professed to have discovered that Joseph was not a Prophet, and commenced making a noise about it, and went so far as to organize about thirty of the Elders, into a new church called the Parrish party, many of them had been a long time in the church. … a man that would stand up in the streets and say he was Joseph’s friend, could not get a greater compliment than being called a lick skillet. … among the leading Elders of the Church in Kirtland the High Council, one of the members of the first Presidency, some of the seven Presidents of the seventies, and a great many others were so darkened that they went astray in every direction. … Their plan was to take the doctrines of the Church, such as repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, throw aside the Book of Mormon, the Prophet and Priesthood, and go and unite the whole Christian world under these doctrines.

		Family
Wife		Martha, b. [1805])	1850 New York census of Mendon, New York, lists 45-year-old Mary living with Warren Parish. Ancestry.com
Children		Mary, b. [1828] Martha, b. [1837]	1850 New York census of Mendon, New York, lists 22-year-old Mary and 13-year-old Martha with Warren Parish. Ancestry.com
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