Review
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Title: Come Up Hither to Zion: William Marks and the Mormon Concept of Gathering
Author: Cheryl L. Bruno and John S. Dinger
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
Genre: Biography
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 324
Binding: Paperback, ebook
ISBN: 978-1589588028
Price: $24.99 – $32.95
Reviewed by Ryan Ward for the Association of Mormon Letters
The early years of the Mormon movement have been the subject of intense scrutiny. The period between the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the death of its founding prophet Joseph Smith and the assumption of the prophetic mantle by Brigham Young has been portrayed by various groups in ways that privilege specific aspects of the narrative and minimize others. As a result, the volatility of this period often doesn’t come through. Anyone who tries to follow the trajectory of the many men who entered, participated in, and were kicked out of the leadership hierarchy during this period, however, is likely to experience whiplash, as men are elevated to positions of leadership and influence to be just as quickly cut off from the church, sometimes reinstated.
In official histories of the LDS church, many of these men are painted with a broad brush that glosses over the specifics of their experiences, struggles and lives in the service of a faith-promoting narrative. Specifically, anyone excommunicated from the church or who left during any of the crises during its formative years, such as the banking failures in Kirtland or the massive rift torn in the church as a result of the practice of polygamy in Kirtland and later Nauvoo, are labeled apostate, while anyone who stood publicly by Joseph, defended him, or supported Brigham Young’s move to secure leadership of the church following Joseph’s death and followed him to Utah, are labeled faithful.
William Marks, the subject of this superbly written and illuminating biography by Cheryl Bruno and John Dinger, is one such man who has been swept under the rug of history, smeared as an apostate by the LDS church, praised as a faithful friend and companion of the prophet Joseph by the Reorganized church, and used by other Mormon sects for his influence and proximity to Smith to bolster their own restoration claims.
What is clear from reading this biography is that Marks was someone who was strongly converted to the gospel and stayed true to what he believed throughout his life. Amidst the turmoil and schisms of the early Mormon movements, he wanted nothing more than to live amongst the saints in fellowship and community. His principled stand against polygamy, something he abhorred, led to his being forced out of the LDS church following the moves by Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to consolidate power and authority after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom. He joined and left the restoration movements of James Strang and Charles Thompson before settling on the Reorganized church under Joseph Smith III where he spent his remaining years.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the book, despite it being impeccably written and rigorously researched and documented (with over 800 footnotes and two appendices of Marks’ writings), is how it brings the heretofore relatively unknown Marks to life on the page. Someone who has been mostly relegated to brief mentions or footnotes in previous treatments of these years is revealed to have played a crucial, if unsung role in the early church.
After joining the church at age 43, Marks ascended to the upper echelons of church and civil leadership. He was the Nauvoo stake president and the president of the high council, as well as a member of the Nauvoo city council. He served on the municipal court and was directly involved in many of the extradition cases against the prophet brought by Missouri. As a member of Joseph Smith’s inner circle, he was a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Quorum of the Anointed, the Council of Fifty, and the Nauvoo Legion. Thus, as noted by Bruno and Dinger “a study of Marks in Nauvoo gives a glimpse into almost every major ecclesiastical and civil organization.”
Despite being an unwavering supporter and ally of Joseph Smith, Marks’ position as the president of the high council put him in a precarious position following the sudden death of the prophet. The crisis was inflamed due to the fact that a number of people and leadership bodies appeared to have a legitimate succession claim. Ironically, the body that likely had one of the weakest claims to leadership, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, eventually ascended to power, consolidating its control and eliminating rivals, either by reorganizing the leadership hierarchy or drumming people out of the church.
In the case of Marks, who as stake president and president of the high council had arguably the strongest claim to succeed Joseph as the leader of the church (Emma Smith supported his claim), Brigham Young and the other apostles subjected him to a litany of humiliations and loyalty tests, eventually leading to his voluntary separation from the saints (although Young claimed to have been willing to “whittle” him out of town, a reference to threatening violence upon those the hierarchy deemed insufficiently loyal until they fled). For Marks, whose tenure in church leadership had been characterized by humble and dedicated service, this questioning of loyalty to Smith and the church was devastating.
Aside from his potential competing claim to succeed Smith as the leader of the church, the other thing that drew the ire of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and made him an unworthy successor in their eyes was Marks’ unyielding condemnation of polygamy. He had never accepted the doctrine when Smith was practicing, and he viewed its adoption and continuation under Young and the Twelve’s leadership as a sign the church had gone far astray. In fact, he hated polygamy so much that when other sects of Mormonism he joined in later years adopted the practice, he immediately abandoned them. Perhaps seeing firsthand the wreckage of polygamy, including its direct role in the death of the prophet, had led him to view it as non-negotiable even though he had grudgingly put up with it in Nauvoo.
After all of the years Marks spends wandering in search of a community of saints, there is a palpable relief when he at last finds a home in the Reorganized church under Joseph Smith III. At this point, he has served in and left at least three Mormon movements. In the Reorganized church, he played a role in helping Joseph Smith III assume leadership of the church, served as his counselor in the First Presidency, and was put in charge of obtaining Joseph Smith’s manuscripts from Emma and publishing his translation of the Bible. He also provided critical information to the councils of the Reorganized church regarding Nauvoo polygamy, and the RLDS church was vehemently opposed to the doctrine and practice from its founding, going so far as to repudiate the “doctrine of sealing, as relating to marriage for eternity, [as] a heresy” due to its ties to polygamy.
Following his death in 1872 at age 79, Marks was slandered in statements and publications by leaders of the LDS church, including George Albert Smith and B.H. Roberts, as an apostate and enemy of Joseph Smith. Some even went so far as to accuse him of plotting with the mobs to murder Joseph and Hyrum. In response, Joseph Smith III and other members of the RLDS church publicly praised him as a stalwart and staunch ally of Joseph Smith, who never wavered in his support even when he disagreed with some of the doctrines taught by the prophet. As a result, Marks is known to most members of the LDS church as an apostate who left the church after the martyrdom, often mentioned alongside William Law as a bitter and vengeful enemy of the saints. Some have claimed that he was excommunicated.
Despite his crucial role in much of early Mormon history, until now no one has given his life the careful consideration and due diligence it deserves. But as shown convincingly by Bruno and Dinger, Marks was an earnest seeker who found truth in the gospel as preached by Joseph Smith. He resonated strongly with the idea of Zion and a gathering of faithful saints to live together in community. He searched for and worked toward the realization of this goal for the last half of his life, eventually finding acceptance and fellowship in the Reorganized church.
Overall, Come Up Hither to Zion is a wonderful and necessary addition to Mormon studies. Bruno and Dinger are to be commended for shining thrilling, revelatory light on this previously unlit corner of early Mormon history. Their carefully crafted book puts flesh and blood on the skeleton of the previously vague contours of what can only be described as an unremarkably remarkable life, giving a powerful and emotionally resonant snapshot into the beliefs, hopes, service, and struggles of those who sought for gathering and fellowship among early Mormon restoration movements.