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Wilford Woodruff, Sr. (March 1, 1807 – September 2, 1898) was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1889 until his death. Woodruff's large collection of diaries provides an important record of Latter Day Saint history, and his decision to formally end the practice of plural marriage among the members of the LDS Church in 1890 brought to a close one of the most difficult periods of church history. Woodruff was one of nine children born to Aphek Woodruff, a miller working in Farmington, Connecticut. Wilford's mother Beulah Thompson died of "spotted fever" in 1808 at the age of 26, when Wilford was fifteen months old. He was raised by his step-mother Azubah Hart. As a young man, Woodruff worked at a sawmill and a flour mill owned by his father. Woodruff joined the Latter Day Saint church on December 31, 1833. At that time, the church numbered only a few thousand believers clustered around Kirtland, Ohio. On January 13, 1835, Woodruff left Kirtland on his first full-time mission, preaching without "purse or scrip" in Arkansas and Tennessee. Woodruff was always known as a conservative religious man, but was also enthusiastically involved in the social and economic life of his community. He was an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing and hunting. Woodruff learned to fly fish in England, and his 1847 journal account of his fishing in the East Fork River is the earliest known account of fly fishing west of the Mississippi River. As an adult, Woodruff was a farmer, horticulturist and stockman by trade and wrote extensively for church periodicals. ==Marriage and family== Like many early Latter Day Saints, Woodruff practiced plural marriage. He was married to nine women (some historians claim 10–12); however, not all of these marriages were concurrent. His wives: * Phoebe Whittemore Carter (8 March 1807 – 10 Nov 1885), m. April 13, 1837 * Mary Ann Jackson, (18 Feb 1818 – 25 Oct 1894) m. Aug 2, 1846 (later divorced) * Sarah Elinor Brown, (22 Aug 1827 - 25 Dec 1915) m. Aug 2, 1846 (left after 3 weeks) * Mary Caroline Barton, (12 Jan 1829 - 10 Aug 1910) m. Aug 2, 1846 (left after 3 weeks) * Mary Meek Giles Webster (6 Sept 1802 – 3 Oct 1852) m. March 28, 1852 * Emma Smith (1 March 1838 – 4 March 1912) m. March 13, 1853 * Sarah Brown (1 Jan 1834 – 9 May 1909), m. March 13, 1853 * Sarah Delight Stocking (26 Jul 1838 – 28 May 1906) m. July 31, 1857 * Eudora Young Dunford (12 May 1852 – 21 Oct 1921) m. March 10, 1877 (later divorced) Woodruff's wives bore him a total of 34 children, with 14 preceding him in death. Woodruff met his first wife, Phoebe Carter, in Kirtland shortly after his return from his first mission through Southern Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. Woodruff came to Kirtland on November 25, 1836, along with Abraham O. Smoot. He was introduced to Phoebe by Milton Holmes on January 28, 1837. She was a native of Maine and had become a Latter Day Saint in 1834. Woodruff and Phoebe were married on April 13, 1837, with the ceremony performed by Frederick G. Williams. Their marriage was later sealed in Nauvoo by Hyrum Smith. In the late 1840s, Phoebe was set apart as a missionary and served with Woodruff as he presided over the Eastern States Mission. Phoebe was later numbered among the "leading ladies" who helped organize the Relief Society in Utah Territory in the 1860s through the 1880s. During Woodruff's time as president of the LDS Church, his wife, Emma Smith Woodruff, accompanied him to public functions, and she was the only wife he lived with after Phoebe's death in 1885. She was a niece of Abraham O. Smoot. Although she married Woodruff, then age 46, when she was 15, she did not have the first of her eight children until she was 20. Emma was involved in the Relief Society, serving as both a ward and stake president for that organization. She also served as a member of the Relief Society General Board from 1892 to 1910. Among Woodruff's children was the LDS Church apostle Abraham O. Woodruff. Woodruff's daughter, Phoebe, was a wife of Lorenzo Snow, and Snow succeeded Woodruff as president of the LDS Church. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wilford Woodruff」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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