Solomon "Wilbur" Denton (1816-1864)

Mormon History 1830-1844

Solomon "Wilbur" Denton (1816–1864)

One of two men allegedly sent by Joseph Smith to kill Grandison Newell in 1837.

Born	Solomon Wilbur Denton, 1816 in Fitchville, Huron, Ohio.	Source
Died	1864 in Pontiac, Oakland, Michigan.
Meets Joseph	1830 meets Joseph in New York.
Baptized	1831, moves to Independence, Missouri.
Lives with Joseph	After expulsion from Jackson county (November 1833), probably to 1835, lives with Joseph's family.
Zion's Camp	July 9, 1834 returns from Zion’s Camp with Joseph's party.
Elder	March 1, 1835 ordination blessing:
	We ordain you to be an Elder in the Church of Christ. You have seen affliction with the children of Zion. You shall see many days & great events rolling one after another and many scenes rolling together. If you desire it with all your heart you shall stand on the land of Zion when the Lord descends. You shall have much strength. Your mind shall be filled with wisdom. You shall be as those who are raised up from infancy in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You shall have the ministring of Angels to prepare you for your many duties. Amen.	Kirtland council, 180.
Lives with Joseph Smith	April or May 1835 was living at the prophet's home in when "Smith told him he wished to God the deed had been done, and hoped it would not be given up; that Heaven would reward the doers of a deed so just, &c."	PT, June 9, 1837. Source
Marriage	July 1835 marries Fanny M. Stanley.
Mission with Don Carlos	Spring and summer 1836 mission with Don Carlos Smith to Pennsylvania and New York.	MA. Aug. 1836, 368 //HC 4:393.
Printing office	Worked in the church's Kirtland printing office.	Items, Aug. 1889, 116.
Open letter	February, 1837 publishes a letter to the young men of Kirtland.
Dissenter	Included in Ebenezer Robinson's 1889 list of 1837 dissenters: Second Counselor Frederick G. Williams; David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses and president of the stake in Zion (Far West); Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses and financier of the Book of Mormon; apostles Luke S. Johnson, Lyman E. Johnson, Parley P. Pratt (h), William E. McLellin, and John F. Boynton (h); Roger Orton, a seventy; and S. Wilbur Denton, "printer, a high priest, who testified of having seen a great vision, during the time of the washings and anointings the preceding March."	Items, 1 (August 1889).
Excommunication	[April 1837] excommunicated "about two or three months" before Joseph's preliminary court hearing of June 9, 1837.	Sidney Rigdon testimony, PT, June 9, 1837. Source
Joseph: kill Newell	June 1837 testifies Joseph wanted him to kill Grandison Newell.	Did Joseph Plot to Murder Grandison Newell?
Michigan	1838–1844 co-editor of the Jacksonian in Pontiac, Michigan.
	1844–1848, 1853–1860 Pontiac postmaster.


	Journey with Joseph
Returns from Zion's Camp	[June 9, 1834 George A. Smith] we started on our return for Kirtland. The company comprised Joseph, Hyrum and William Smith, Frederick G. Williams, Orson Hyde, William E. McLellin, Ezra Thayer, Lorenzo Booth, Martin Harris, and his son, Solomon Wilber Denton, Jedediah M. Grant, Jenkins Salisbury, Almon W. Babbitt, Seth Johnson, Cyrus Smalling, Harvey Stanley and myself.	George A. Smith, George A. journal (abridged), 81:287.
	We had two two-horse wagons, a one-horse buggy and two extra horses.	For 17 people.
	We drove about 18 miles, crossed Fishing River at the Ford.
	I and some of our party waded through both of the streams in our boots. We estimated the height of the banks as between 40 and 50 feet.
	We put up for the night at the same place where the camp breakfasted on the 19th ultimo.
	Our host treated Joseph with respect and generously furnished us with milk, bacon, corn dodger and such other luxuries as he possessed, for which he would receive but a small compensation.

	YOUNG MEN OF KIRTLAND,	MA Feb. 1837, 455–456.
Cultivation of the mind	Permit me, through the medium of the Messenger and Advocate, to address you in a familiar and friendly manner, upon a subject, which, however much you may think to the contrary,—demands your most serious, candid and [456] undivided attention; I mean the cultivation of the mind.	MA Feb. 1837, 455–456.
Ignorance the soure of misery	That ignorance is the foundation or source of much, if not all misery, the history of past ages most clearly evinces. Indeed, were each individual to consult his own experience, or extend his researches through the vast expanse of human intelligence for proof in point, he would only learn, that a knowledge of every fact possible, whether relating to occurrences in the moral or physical world, is essentially necessary to the happiness and enjoyment of mankind, and that in proportion as ignorance abounds, vice and wretchedness must increase also.
Schools help, but must be own teacher	It is an error which perhaps may take years to eradicate from the minds of many that our present school systems are the only mediums through which instruction or education may be obtained; whereas it ought to be generally understood, that, though common schools are of vast utility, the man who would be wise, must be in a greater or less degree essentially and positively his own preceptor. There never yet existed a learned man who was not a prodigy of industry and economy in time saving.
Senseless parrots	You would esteem him a dull scholar indeed, who, although he might be capable of repeating every rule in arithmetic, should be unable to reduce them to practice in the common transactions of life; for you would say, and that correctly, that the senseless parrot might be taught as much: and yet, strange as it may appear, learning, in the present day, is made to consist of much the same materials.
Read, think	Young men of Kirtland, this will not do. We must put in requisition our own powers of perception and reflection. We must improve our leisure moments in perusing good books, in calculating and extending the operations of our own minds, and in acquiring that intelligence which can alone fit us for acting with honor to ourselves and usefulness to our country, that our names may be hailed by posterity among those of the benefactors of mankind, where we now recognize that of a Franklin, a Jefferson, and a Fulton.
Make time to read	But perhaps some will say they have no time to devote to reading. I would recommend to such a careful inquiry into the various ways and means by which their time, than which nothing can be more valuable,—is made to slip from them.
Instead of idle parading, lounging around	Let them examine and see if hours, days, and even whole weeks are not consumed in worse than idleness—in parading the streets, or perhaps in lounging about the shop of some honest mechanic, perplexing the industrious, and deranging business.—
Read history, natural science Or be forgotten	Let them devote the time thus prodigally squandered, in poring over some valuable history or treatise on the natural sciences, and past experience proves that in a very few years they might be climbing the highest hills of fame, while those whose days have been spent in idleness, would be grovelling their way through the changing scenes of life, destitute of character to themselves or usefulness to their fellow men; and when death, the common leveller of all, has overtaken them, they will go down to the tomb "unhonored and unwept."
Awake to intelligence Research and investigation	Young men of Kirtland, awake to intelligence, and slumber not. And as you expect to become useful to the world, arouse and brush away the cobwebs of slothful and degrading ignorance, improve your intellectual faculties by untiring research and investigation, and by so doing your light will ere long become extended like the spreading rays of the morning sun upon the mountains, and give guidance to the foot-steps of thousands of our race. Anon, by permission, you may hear from me again upon this subject. Till then, I am, as I shall ever be,	No mention of obedience, scriptures.
	S. W. DENTON.

	Family
Wife	Fanny M. Stanley, md. 1835.
Son	Solomon Wilber Jr. (b. 1850)
Biographies