Priesthood Line of Authority

This last Sunday, Kyle had the Aaronic Priesthood "conferred" upon him and was "ordained" to the office of Deacon. My dad, Kent, provide Kyle a nice card with Kyle's Priesthood Line of Authority. A few years ago I was exploring my own Priesthood Line of Authority and thought that I had come across an error, but had since forgotten about it. This morning, Dad and I were talking about it, so I did a little online research and discovered that there was indeed an error in that Joseph F. Smith was ordained an Apostle by Brigham Young, not by Heber C. Kimball. Anyway, while doing this research I found a blog entry from a guy mentioning that you could request your official line of authority from LDS Church headquarters. I typed up the email with the requested information and fired it off. Within four minutes I received a .pdf file with my official Priesthood Line of Authority. It was somewhat different from what we have been passing along through family tradition. There was some helpful and interesting information included in the letter from Church headquarters. Apparently, the office of Patriarch is not considered on the official line, but rather the office of High Priest. The same goes for Bishop and Seventy.

Here is the L.o.A. we have traditionally used in the family with my recent correction:

• Robert Keith Mortensen was ordained an Elder by his father Robert Kent Mortensen on August 20th, 1995 in Nampa, Idaho 
• Robert Kent Mortensen was ordained a High Priest by his brother-in-law Thomas Kendall Harward on December 3rd, 1989 in Nampa, Idaho 
• Thomas Kendall Harward was ordained a High Priest by his father-in-law Glen Martin Carlson
• Glen Martin Carlson was ordained a Patriarch by LeGrand Richards 
• LeGrand Richards was ordained an Apostle by David O. McKay 
•  David O. McKay was ordained an Apostle by Joseph F. Smith 
• Joseph F. Smith was ordained an Apostle by Heber C. Kimball Brigham Young
• Heber C. Kimball Brigham Young was ordained an Apostle by Martin Harris (three witnesses) 
• Martin Harris was ordained by Joseph Smith 
• Joseph Smith was ordained by Peter James, and John  
• Peter, James, and John were ordained by Jesus Christ. 

Here is the official Priesthood Line of Authority from the Church:

• Robert Keith Mortensen Elder 20 Aug 1995
• Robert Kent Mortensen High Priest 3 Dec 1989
• Thomas Kendall Harward High Priest 30 Sep 1984
• Glen Martin Carlson High Priest 24 Apr 1949
• Joseph Fielding Smith Apostle 7 Apr 1910
• Joseph Fielding Smith Apostle 1 Jul 1866
• Brigham Young Apostle 14 Feb 1835
• The Three Witnesses 14 Feb 1835 Called by revelation and set apart by the First Presidency to choose and ordain the Twelve Apostles: Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris
• Joseph Smith, Jr Apostle 1829
• Peter, James, and John Apostle Who were ordained Apostles by the Savior during His earthly ministry.

So why is any of this important?

Some faith traditions claim a direct line of priesthood (the authority to teach and act in God's name) from Christ to Peter down to modern day clerics in an unbroken line. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we claim that the church established by Jesus Christ and Apostles while they lived on the earth disintegrated because of apostasy, martyrdoms, rebellion, unrighteousness, and disobedience. That early Christian church became corrupted to the point that new apostles were not called and the priesthood authority to govern Christ's Church on the earth ended. Without that divine authority, mankind was left to his own devices which lead to further disintegration of doctrine and practices. We claim that the Priesthood and Christ's Church were "restored" in our time through the prophet Joseph Smith. Hence we claim our Priesthood Line of Authority back to Jesus Christ himself to act in God's name and the authority to perform ordinances such as baptism and communion (sacrament).

Russell King Homer Family

When it comes to my pioneer ancestors, I expect that none of them cross the plains as many times as Russell King Homer. Russell King Homer first came across the plains with the SAMUEL GULLY/ORSON SPENCER COMPANY (1849) with his brother Benjamin Thomas Homer, but not exactly as members of this company, but rather as employees driving freight for the non-Mormon merchants Livingstone-Kincaid company. Russell King Homer later led a pioneer company in 1858 and another group of Scandinavian emigrants in 1859 about which very little is known.

Records suggest that there were 60 people in the Russell King Homer Company of 1858, but lists only show 33 known individuals. The major event associated with their travels was a lightning storm in which several people were injured, a couple severely. Here is a snippet from the narrative:

"About August 10, as the emigrants camped just above the Grand Island of the Platte, a violent storm burst upon them, with thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. More than a dozen people crowded into the cook tent, seeking shelter. Suddenly, lightening struck the tent. Everyone inside it was stunned (one boy did not recover until the next day), but the most severely injured was Captain Homer's wife, whose shoes were torn off and whose feet, legs, and clothing were burned."

Accounts of the Samuel Gulley / Orson Spencer Company of 1849
Thomas Atkin
Margaret Jane McIntire Burgess
Elizabeth Hyde
Ruben Miller

Accounts of the Russell King Homer Company of 1858
Lyman Littlefield
Christopher Olsen Folkman
William H. Homer, son of Russell King Homer.

Additional Links:
Biography of Russell King Homer
Biography of Eliza Williamson Homer

Bickmore - Kidd Family

Alexander Kidd and his wife Phidelia/Fidelia Bickmore and her parents William M. Bickmore and Christena Bagley came across the plains in 1852 with the Joseph Outhouse Company. Alexander is listed as the captain of the third ten and family. The Bickmore family had quite an entourage of relatives numbering around two dozen relatives as far I as can tell from the list of travelers in this company thus making up about half of the company.

Alexander & Fidelia's family is recognized as being among the earliest settlers of Herriman, Utah and their graves are found at the reconstructed Fort Herriman cemetery.

William Barton's account of John Outhouse indicates that there was a lot of contention in this company with Captain Outhouse threatening to resign regularly as things weren't going well. Thomas Day called him a "genuine crank" and confirms that many of the families in the company split off of the main company during the journey. It is reported that Outhouse left the church and took his family to California upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.

More fellow company reminiscences...
Thomas Day
Ann Rogers Snow
William Lang
Mary Jane Bethers York
Jonathan Socwell Page
John Spiers
Lyman Stephen Wood

Lind Family

Jens Christian Anton Lind

Mariane Nielsen Lind

Jensina Katrina Lind Mortensen

My 2nd Great-Grandmother Jensina Katrina Lind (Mortensen) and her parents (my 3rd Great-grandparents), Jens Christian Anton Lind and his wife Mariane Nielsen (Lind) crossed the plains as part of the the John G. Holman Comany - in September of 1868. This group is known as the very last wagon train of pioneers as the railroad would be completed the following spring. They had left their native Denmark in June of 1868 along with many other Danish converts on the ship the Emerald Isle upon which ship they were badly abused by the crew. Interestingly, Jensina's future husband Peder Mortensen was another Danish convert aboard this very ship. The emigrants traveled by rail from New York arriving at the end of the tracks (terminus) in Benton, Wyoming on Sept 1st. From there they took ox-trains (wagons) into the Salt Lake Valley arriving on Friday Sept 25th, 1868 around 9 a.m.. They camped for a night in the "Tithing Yard" where the Hotel Utah was later built which is now known as the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was about a four month journey from Denmark to Salt Lake City. Read the brief narrative here.

Interestingly, Peder Mortensen was ill upon arriving in New York and may not have traveled with the Lind's by train at that time. Peder is not listed as an overland pioneer, so I assume he must have traveled the same route, but just a bit later, and perhaps after the railroad was connected all the way to Utah in May 1869. We don't know how well, if at all, the Linds knew Peder Mortensen at this time, but Jensina remembers Peder, being ill and being carried off of the Emerald Isle. Peder and Jensina were married in the Salt Lake Endowment House on Oct 30th, 1871, so three years after arriving in Salt Lake.

The Holman Company was the last immigration train in the year 1868. Ox-train passenger list.

For additional glimpses and stories into the travels of the Lind family, below are links to reminiscences of fellow passengers, leaders, and from the ox-train crew from Utah who went out to help bring in the saints:

Hans Jensen Hals
George Beard
Annie Bertlesen
Willard Carroll
Ane Kirstine Christiansen
George Hilton
John Johnson
William Lindsay
Christian Nielsen Lund
Thora Emilie Nelson
Hans Jorgenson - indicates that some who were delayed at the hospital in New York were able to catch up with the group by the end of August. I wondered if Peder had come in this group, but as he is not listed in the Holman Company, I still find it unlikely.

Pioneer Ancestors

The youth of Linder Ward of the Meridian Idaho Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is preparing to do a handcart pioneer reenactment in July of 2013. This reenactment is commonly called "Trek". Preparations have already begun.

My son Kyle, will be twelve in February and will be able to attend Trek. As part of his preparation, he and I have begun researching our pioneer ancestors. All of our ancestors are pioneers in one way or another as they were the first to join the LDS Church, or the first to cross the sea to the new world, or they crossed the plains as Mormon Pioneers. For the sake of this exercise, I want to focus on the strict definition of the overland pioneers who crossed the plains between 1847-1868. After 1868, the railroad was in place and pioneers no longer had to travel the entire distance by wagon or handcart. At a future date I will look at how each of my family lines came to America and came to join the LDS Church.

My hope is to provide a brief biographical sketch for each of our pioneer ancestors. Because of the convenience of the internet, I may simply provide links to existing sites where the stories are written.