E64: Marking Marks

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:08)
Tiffany Amber Thiessen, Kelly Kapowski, Jason Alexander, George Costanza, Alan Alda, it's Hawkeye, Ben Affleck, it's Larry Geely. Some people are just forever associated with one role. For early Mormon William Marks, that role was stake president. Now you may be asking, so? And what does that have to do with anything? I'm so glad you asked.
Oh, and content warning, there will be poop wiping in this episode.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:39)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:41)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:43)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:10)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:15)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:23)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:47)
As we continue looking at the various candidates to succeed Joseph Smith, we are looking at an unlikely option and no, not Samuel Smith who we just talked about.
This is an unlikely option, at least from a Mormon perspective.
We're looking at the stake president. This is your periodic reminder that the structure of things was very, very different in the early days. Stakes were a lot different and their roles were a little bit different too. The idea that your stake president, you know, the nerdy looking CPA that does your parents' taxes, that guy? Picture if he could be the successor for Joseph Smith. Yeah, the stake president. Let's do some background first though. Who is William Marks, this famous, this famous Navu stake president?

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:28)
Oh, Billy Marks was born in 1792 And that's actually of interest because that puts him in the group slightly older than Joseph Smith with guys like Sidney Rigdon, Altheus Cutler, more on those two soon, and Lindsay's favorite, WW Phelps.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:41)
Such a poet, the serpent himself.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:43)
The greatest Satan, the best Satan of his generation. And Marks was born in Vermont, which was quite the exporter of important Mormons. You probably remember that Joseph Smith was born there, but several others were too. Brigham Young, Oliver Cowdery, Heber Kimball, Dan Lafferty. Wait, sorry, got other things on the brain. Scratch Lafferty.
Sadly, we know almost nothing about his early years. The first Miles Post that we do know comes in 1813 when he married Rosanna Robinson. And she's interesting, her family has connections. At least one of her siblings was connected to Mormonism.
Her youngest brother, George W. Robinson, later married Athalia Rigdon, whose daughter of, of course, Sydney Rigdon.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:20)
Okay, Bill, hurry up and become Mormon so we can know something about you.
So William Marks was likely baptized early 1835 and he starts to show up in the records that spring. Funny enough, the very first time he appears in something, he's reporting to Brigham Young, the 12 apostles specifically described as the traveling high council, which sounds super fun. I wonder if they had a band.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:44)
That will be important.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:46)
The traveling high council in the minutes were in New York to visit the Freedom Conference. Remember that fun thing?
No, this isn't some Tim Ballard fever dream with fireworks and George Strait in the stadiums of Provo. The little town in New York was actually called Freedom.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:59)
I'm just gonna have to interrupt you right there. This is so fun to make the connection because some of my people were also from Freedom. And they were baptized the exact same time as Marks, which made researching this even more fun.
Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:13)
The best we can tell, Warren Cowdery was patient zero in the area. Warren, as you've probably guessed already, was the brother of our guy, Oliver Cowdery. He did not have the luxury of helping to translate the Book of Mormon, so he's not baptized until 1834 He wrote a letter to Brother Oliver that was published in the church newspaper, The Evening in the Morning Star, where he talks about the Mormons in the Freedom area. He requested some to come and preach there because there are prospects for more converts.
Get over here, come help me out, I need backup. Seems like missionaries did come to Freedom and had some success, not baptizing 1,000 people in Hawaii's success though. How many did you baptize in your mission?

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:51)
Well, they didn't have to eat sour and maggoty poi, so that's a win.