Episode 115: BONUS EPISODE: History of the LeBaron Family

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:26)
Hi, friends, this is Bryan here. Today, we've got a special episode of the Sunstone Mormon History Podcast for you. In this one, our friend Dr. Cristina Rosetti and I discussed the early history of the LeBaron family to give background to the series, Daughters of the Cult, that recently showed on Hulu.
So go ahead and listen to this. If you're new, we are a podcast that takes Mormon history chronologically.
Right now, we're in the early Utah period, but we thought it would be fun to take a little detour and talk about this series that was number one on Hulu. So it was quite a big deal. We hope you enjoy this and we hope that you'll come back and listen to the rest of our series.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:21)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:23)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:24)
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** (1:33)
Thanks for watching. This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:57)
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** (2:05)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Hello, friendly listeners. Glad to have you with us. I'm Bryan Buchanan coming to you from the sunny confines of benchmark books, which I have to say is a fun place to find things LeBaron.
You may recognize my melodious voice. I am the co-host of the Sunstone History Podcast with Lindsay Hansen Park. If you don't know about us yet, we would highly suggest coming and finding us wherever you get your podcasts. We treat Mormonism and Mormon history chronologically. Right now, we're in the early Utah period. We will eventually get to the LeBaron part of the story, but that feels like it's about 22 years from now. Glad to have you with us tonight. Hopefully, you've had a chance to watch the series by now. If you haven't, this will still give you some background. We're very happy to have Dr. Cristina Rosetti with us tonight. She is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Utah Tech. So go fight in scanners. That's us. I would never denigrate Brooks the Bison in that way.
Cristina, tell us a little bit about yourself.

**Cristina Rosetti** (3:33)
Well, that's my entire personality.
I am an Assistant Professor at Utah Tech. I teach Humanities. I wrote a book on Joseph Musser, editing his diaries with Bryan, live in the dream.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:46)
Again, I have to say, your background on the court is very on point tonight, so good work.

**Cristina Rosetti** (3:54)
This is gifted by the one and only Bryan Buchanan. Actually, when I finished-

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:58)
I recognize that framing job back there.
Well, let's start here. We will not bore you listeners with a terrible joke to start with how Ervil is just evil with a pirate twist. We wouldn't do that to you. We're all serious here.
But to understand the LeBaron story, we need to do what historians do best. We need to back up. Get in the time machine of your choice and let's go back a couple of generations to a man named Benjamin F. Johnson, who was the grandfather of Dale LeBaron, who was the family patriarch, the father of Berlin, Joel, Ervil, all the other siblings.
Benjamin Johnson was born in New York in 1818 and then moved to Kirtland, Ohio in the early 1830s where he was baptized. His family is right at the center of early Mormonism. One of his brothers was a poet and one of his works, High on a Mountain Top, is a very beloved Mormon hymn. Two of his sisters married Joseph Smith's plural wives. Benjamin himself married a woman named Melissa Bloomfield LeBaron, and then they settled in a little town called Remus, that was later renamed Macedonia, that's just east of Nauvoo in Illinois. Joseph Smith was really good friends with Benjamin, and he would go out there to visit him frequently. Occasionally, while he was there, he would teach him about his gradually unfolding Nauvoo theology. For example, in 1843, he talked about the nature of God, and that was a time when he very clearly indicated that God and Jesus both had physical bodies. If that sounds familiar, it's because those teachings out there were canonized as Section 130 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants.
Then a month after that visit, he returned back to Ramus and then taught Benjamin and Melissa more about polygamy. He was slowly introducing to his followers, and he's probably on that occasion where he sealed them for eternity. Interestingly enough, that was the setting for when he taught this idea of there being three heavens in the celestial glory. But to enter into that highest one, you had to enter into this order of the priesthood, which of course was Code 4 polygamy. That has been canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 131 Then a year after that, Benjamin Johnson was added to the ultra-secret Council of 50 Yeah, Benjamin F. Johnson was right at the thick of things.