Wilford Woodruff: 4th President and Prophet of the LDS Church

Wilford Woodruff was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then often called the Mormon Church. He was known for his missionary work, the formation of the Genealogical Society, his witness of church history extensively recorded, and for writing the manifesto that officially prohibited plural marriage within the Church.

Early Life

Wilford Woodruff was born on March 1, 1807, in Farmington, Connecticut. His mother died when he was only fifteen months old, but his father, Aphek, remarried three years later and his stepmother raised him. He grew up on a farm, went to school, and helped his father run his sawmill. At age 14, he learned the trade of a miller.

During his early years, he encountered many accidents. “It has seemed to me at times as though some invisible power were watching my footsteps in search of an opportunity to destroy my life. I, therefore, ascribe my preservation on earth to the watchcare of a merciful Providence, whose hand has been stretched out to rescue me from death when I was in the presence of the most threatening dangers.”[1]

In 1832, he went to Richland, New York, and purchased a farm and saw mill, and “settled into business.”[2]

His Search for Gospel Light

Wilford Woodruff pondered religious things and became convinced that the Church of Christ was no longer on the earth in its pure form. He said,

I could not find any denomination whose doctrines, faith or practice, agreed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or the ordinances and gifts which the Apostles taught. Although the ministers of the day taught that the faith, gifts, graces, miracles and ordinances, which the ancient Saints enjoyed, were done away and no longer needed, I did not believe it to be true, only as they were done away through the unbelief of the children of men. I believed the same gifts, graces, miracles and power would be manifest in one age of the world as in another, when God had a Church upon the earth, and that the Church of God would be re-established upon the earth, and that I should live to see it. These principles were riveted upon my mind from the perusal of the Old and New Testament, with fervent prayer that the Lord would show me what was right and wrong, and lead me in the path of salvation, without any regard to the opinions of man; and the whisperings of the Spirit of the Lord for the space of three years taught me that he was about to set up his Church and kingdom upon the earth in the last days (“History of Wilford Woodruff,” [from his own pen], Millennial Star, XXVII, 182).

My soul was drawn out upon these things. In my early manhood I prayed day and night that I might live to see a prophet[3]. I would have gone a thousand miles to have seen a prophet, or a man that could teach me the things that I read of in the Bible. I could not join any church, because I could not find any church at that time that advocated these principles. I spent many a midnight hour, by the river side, in the mountains, and in my mill … calling upon God that I might live to see a prophet or some man that would teach me of the things of the kingdom of God as I read them (Collected Discourses, ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols., 4).

When he was 26 years old Wilford Woodruff heard a sermon given by a Latter-day Saint missionary. President Woodruff knew he had found what he was looking for. He was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 31, 1833, just two days after hearing the sermon.

To read more about him: MormonWiki