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Table of Contents

BIRTH AND GENEALOGY, 1807.

A Chosen Spirit.—Divine Guidance.—Genealogy.—A Miller by Trade.

Wilford Woodruff was the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He belonged to that class of men of whom the Lord said to Abraham, "These will I make my rulers." Of our primeval childhood that ancient Prophet informs us that the Lord stood among those that were spirits and He saw that they were good. Of these spirits the Lord said to Abraham, "Thou art one of them, thou wert chosen before thou wast born." If the Lord knew Abraham and Jeremiah before they were born in the flesh, He also must have known Wilford Woodruff in the spirit world. The latter's integrity and unbounded devotion to the worship and purposes of his God are not surpassed by any prophet of either ancient or modern times. Like those of ancient times, Wilford Woodruff was undoubtedly foreordained of God to a noble mission in life, and to the great responsibilities which he filled with honor and to the glory of God. To him there was a reality of the spirit world rarely enjoyed by men, he constantly felt the influence of spiritual associations which were above and beyond the ordinary affairs of life. That he had an existence prior to this probation in life, he never doubted. He felt that life was a mission to which he had been called and which in the goodness of God he had been permitted to fill. His own spiritual existence was never overshadowed by temporalities or by constant misgivings that so frequently beset the lives of other men.

Wilford Woodruff looked upon the brotherhood of men as a natural sequence of his assurance that God was the Father of our spirits in a former life. He understood that prayer of the Savior addressing Himself to His Father in heaven. His own spirit was in harmony with the revelations of Christ. In the light of scriptural declarations and of his own spiritual nature, he was simply here in life in the performance of great duties which had been assigned him before the world was. He sincerely believed that in returning again to the God who had given him life he would have to account for his talents and his time. Speaking of the Athenians, Paul said: "God that made the world hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."

In the life of Wilford Woodruff there was unfolded day by day the duties and obligations that linked him with the chain of eternal life. When the new revelation of God to men in this dispensation broke in upon him he was happily prepared to enjoy the new light. To be a Latter-day Saint from the outset seemed as natural as to breathe the air of heaven. He marvelled at the purposes of God but did not wonder, and doubt did not obscure from his vision the divine truth of this dispensation while he sojourned in the flesh. The love of God had always abounded in his heart, and the divine message found him eager and willing.

He was not among those who sought divine assurance and spiritual satisfaction in some one creed of the day. The Bible was his highest authority and he believed implicitly in the divinity of its teachings. He was a devoted student of Holy Writ and prayerfully sought the gifts and blessings bestowed upon the Saints of old. He was waiting for precisely that which came to him and he took up the new mission of life with a strenuous desire to serve God and to be a witness that he was the same God yesterday, to-day, and forever.

The story of Wilford Woodruff's life was consistent, faithful and in harmony with scriptural examples. The dealings of God with His children in other dispensations were always before his mind as illustrations and evidences. If the Bible had been the chief consolation of his youth and the best evidence of divine purposes, it became doubly so when he became a Latter-day Saint. Nothing that God had done in former dispensations was too insignificant for his earnest consideration. Henceforth he was to speak in the name of the Lord, and act by the authority of divine command. He loved the memory of the ancient Prophets and strove earnestly to emulate their example. His life, therefore, is marked by spiritual growth and a devotion to God's will that makes it an inspiration to all who knew him or who read the story of his life and teachings. He honored and magnified every office and calling conferred upon him from that of a teacher to the president of the Church. In this high station he laid down his life at the ripe age of ninety-one years.

Wilford Woodruff was born March 1st, 1807 in the town of Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut. He was the son of Aphek Woodruff. His grandfather was Captain Eldad Woodruff who was the son of Josiah Woodruff. Josiah was the son of Joseph whose father's name was John, the son of Mathew Woodruff. This is as far back as Wilford Woodruff's genealogy has been traced in America. It is claimed that John Woodruff of South Hampton, Long Island, is the first person in American history bearing the name of Woodruff. Whether he is related to Matthew Woodruff, the earliest known ancestor of Wilford in this country, has not been determined. President Woodruff says, that according to the ancient Book of Heraldry, one of his ancestors was Lord Mayor of London in 1579.

His mother's name was Beulah Thompson. The family on his mother's side, for generations lived at Farmington, Connecticut. The Woodruff family name is English and is derived from the occupation of its bearers who in the days of William the Conqueror guarded the woods and forests for the use of noblemen and who were considered among the most honored officers in the land. From Wilford Woodruff's account of his forefathers it appears that they were hardy and long-lived people. He says: "My grandfather, Josiah Woodruff, lived nearly one hundred years. He possessed an iron constitution and performed a great deal of manual work up to the time of his death. His wife's name was Sarah. She bore him nine children: Josiah, Appleton, Eldad, Elisha, Joseph, Rhoda, and Phoebe. There were two of this family whose names are not given. My grandfather, Eldad Woodruff, was the third son of Josiah. He was born in Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut in 1751. He likewise possessed a strong constitution and it was said of him that for several years he performed more labor than any man in Hartford County. From over exertion and hewing timber he was attacked with rheumatism in his right hip which caused a severe lameness for several years before his death. He married Dinah Woodford by whom he had seven children: Eldad, Elizabeth, Samuel, Titus, Helen, Aphek, and Ozem. My grandfather died in Farmington from spotted fever in 1806 at the age of fifty-five years. My grandmother, Dinah, died in the same place in 1824 from the effects of a cancer in her breast; her sufferings were very great.

"My father, Aphek Woodruff, was born in Farmington, November 11, 1778. He married Beulah Thompson who bore him three sons: Azmon, born Nov. 29th, 1802; Thompson, born December 22nd, 1804; and myself, born March 1st, 1807. My mother died from spotted fever January 11th, 1808 at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving me a babe of fifteen months. My father married a second wife, Azubah Hart. She bore him six children. He was a man of a strong constitution and did a great amount of labor. At eighteen years of age he began work in a flour mill and saw mill and continued at his occupation there for about fifty years. Most of that time he labored eighteen hours a day. He never made any profession of religion until I baptized him into the Church of Jesus Christ on the first day of July, 1838. He was a man of great charity, honesty, and integrity and made himself poor by giving to the poor. He was liberal in accommodating his fellow men by lending money and by becoming surety for his neighbors. He generally said yes to every man who asked a favor at his hands."

"I assisted my father in the Farmington mills until I was twenty years of age and continued in the occupation of a miller until I was thirty-one."