Partridge, “Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa Lyman, 1832-1877” (reviewed by Andrew Hamilton)

Review
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Title: Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa Lyman, 1832-1877
Editor: Scott H Partridge
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Documentary History
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 1050
Binding: Cloth
ISBN: 978-1-56085-236-0
Price: $60.00

Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters

I have to admit, this was a very personal review because “Thirteenth Apostle” really affected me on a very intimate level. I was affected like this not only because this was a very good book and Amasa Lyman led a very interesting life, but also because I have been waiting for this book for nearly 25 years. I was on my LDS mission in 1992 when I first began to very seriously read LDS Church history. As I studied the founding years of the church and read about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the other early LDS leaders and pioneers, one of the individuals who I quickly became very captivated by was Amasa Mason Lyman.

There are many reasons why Amasa Lyman’s story was fascinating to me. Lyman was baptized a member of the Church of Christ just after it turned two years old on April 27, 1832, by future apostle Lyman E. Johnson. The next day he was confirmed by future apostle Orson Pratt. He then traveled some 700 miles just to try and meet Joseph Smith. After this meeting he became fiercely loyal to Smith and served many missions for the church. When Orson Pratt, one of the missionaries who had helped to convert him, and who had been called as one of the original members of Joseph Smith’s Quorum of 12 Apostles in 1835, became disaffected with Smith in 1842 and was excommunicated, Amasa Lyman was called to take his place[1]. Six months later, when Pratt returned to the Church and was given back his status in the Quorum of Twelve, Amasa Lyman became the “Thirteenth” Apostle in a “Quorum of Twelve”[2]. Since this did not work, Joseph Smith added Lyman to the First Presidency as an additional counselor.

All of this alone would make for a pretty interesting life and be adequate material for a great biography, but it is just the beginning. At Smith’s death, Amasa Lyman stayed loyal to Brigham Young and the Twelve, and was returned to his place in the Quorum. Because of his loyalty, his place in the hierarchy, and his closeness to Smith, Lyman married one of the deceased prophet’s widows, Eliza Marie Partridge[3].

After getting his families to Utah, for many years Lyman continued to be sent by Brigham Young on missions, including being sent to found and help lead the Church settlement in San Bernardino, California, and later a mission to Great Britain. Then, in 1867, after years of faithful service, all of those missions, leadership roles, the sacrifices, etc., Amasa Lyman was dropped from the Quorum of the twelve for preaching that the atonement of Christ was not necessary.

Then in 1870, after becoming associated with the “Godbeite” movement, Lyman was excommunicated from the LDS Church. During the 1860’s he also became interested in spiritualism and séances and was heavily involved in them by the time he was excommunicated.

It may have been in part that since I was a “full- time missionary” when I first learned about these details of Amasa Lyman’s life: his journey from “faithful” convert, to general authority in the very highest echelons of the Church, to “apostate,” his story became absolutely fascinating to me. The idea that someone could do so much in “the kingdom,” have all of those experiences and “spiritual confirmations” and then leave it all behind was hard for me to comprehend. More layers and fascination were added to his story when I learned that his son Francis and his grandson Richard followed him into the Quorum of the Twelve, with Richard himself being excommunicated in 1943.

Other interesting connections included his granddaughter-in-law Amy Brown Lyman (Richard’s wife) being called as the General Relief Society president, and great-great grandson James E. Faust being called as an apostle and later a counselor in the first presidency[4]. Twenty-five years of life and experience has given me a much more nuanced view of Lyman than I had when I was a 20 year old missionary, but his life and journey has continued to be very engrossing to me as I have struggled to find and understand my own little place in the universe and in the LDS faith.

“Thirteenth Apostle” is not the first project about Amasa Lyman. In 1957 descendant Albert R Lyman published the biography, “Amasa Mason Lyman, Trailblazer and Pioneer From the Atlantic to the Pacific.”[5] In 1983 Loretta L. Hefner published an article called “From Apostle to Apostate: The Personal Struggle Of Amasa Mason Lyman” in Dialogue[6]. In 2009 descendant Edward Leo Lyman published a biography titled “Amasa Mason Lyman: Mormon Apostle and Apostate – A Study in Dedication”[7]. And most recently descendent Dennis Lyman and Utah radio personality Glenn Rawson produced a video in the “History of the Saints” series called “A Labor of Love: The Story of Amasa Mason Lyman.”

These are all great resources that try to give everything from “faith promoting” to “scholarly” descriptions of Amasa Lyman’s life, BUT “Thirteenth Apostle” is the first time that Amasa’s story has been available in his own words outside of the previously restricted LDS Church archives[8].

Before I give my thoughts on the “Thirteenth Apostle” let me provide a physical description of the book. At 1050 official pages this book is very, very fat. In fact, it is so thick that the paper bound Advanced Reading Copies that were sent out by Signature Books had to be printed in two halves to keep them from falling apart[9]. The text of the book includes a “Publisher’s Note,” an “Introduction,” a section on “Editorial Procedures,” the text of the diaries[10], an Appendix that contains the March, 1862 “Dundee Sermon” that led to Lyman’s eventual dismissal from the Quorum of the 12, a “Biographical Register,” a “Bibliography,” and the “Index.”

The texts of the diaries are broken up into 13 chapters of varying lengths. Yearwise the longest chapter is the first which covers a period of 12 years. Three chapters cover one year each (these are the years where Lyman wrote the most detailed entries: the years 1860, 1861, and 1862). Most chapters cover one to two years’ worth of entries. Each chapter begins with an introduction that highlights important events in Lyman’s life in the year/years covered in the chapter and each chapter contains a copious amount of very interesting and informative footnotes (the footnotes alone are worth the price of the book).

The pages of the book are of a high quality paper. The dust jacket is a fairly plain two tone blue and white design (especially when compared to the decorative covers of Signature Books’ recently concluded “Significant Diaries” series). The dust jacket and chapter headings both incorporate a grey scale stripe design that represents the years in Lyman’s life.

One thing about the physical presentation of this book did surprise me a little (this is not a criticism, more of a head scratcher). As I mentioned above, Signature Books recently concluded their award winning and well loved “Significant Diaries” series. This series started in 1987 with the release of “American Prophet’s Record: The Diaries of Joseph Smith” edited by Scott Faulring, and ended with the thirteenth volume “Cowboy Apostle: The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875-1932” edited by Beth Anderson, which was released in 2013. Books in the Significant Diaries series are very distinguishable by their unique cover design which has the look of hand drawn cursive script on a colorful background. The titles of the books were also done in a distinctive text block design that was the same on each book of the series.

“Thirteenth Apostle” is the inaugural book in Signature Books’ new series which will be called the “Legacy Series.” Now *obviously* this is the first book in the series so there is nothing to compare it to, but with that said, if I had not been told that this was the first book in a new series, I never would have known this because there is nothing printed on or in the book that lets on that it is part of a series. Again, this is not a criticism nor does it take anything from the book. I just found it a little odd that it is a part of a series but does not indicate to the reader that it is part of a series.

While the name of the series may have changed, “Thirteenth Apostle” is definitely a “significant diary.” This book and these diaries are significant *not* because they provide any special insight into early Mormon leadership meetings or functions, in fact quite the opposite. Readers who buy this book because they are hoping for juicy tidbits, gossip, and the details of closed door meetings held by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the other first generation LDS leaders will be sorely disappointed. Lyman wrote about none of those things.

“Thirteenth Apostle” is significant and engaging because it presents the unvarnished lived experiences of a man who is just trying to make it through day by day in the world of 19th century frontier Mormonism. Sometimes he has very interesting insights, often he is pretty ordinary. He tries to understand his world, he tries to better his world, and he tries to survive his world. And as a reader studying about how Lyman tried to understand his place in the 19th century Mormon world, I personally gained a lot of insight into my place in the 21st century Mormon world. “Thirteenth Apostle” really allowed me to connect with Lyman’s life and in doing so connect more deeply with my own.

There is no way for me to write about everything that I loved in the 1050 pages of “Thirteenth Apostle” without writing a book of my own. Nor would I want to do so and ruin all of the surprises that come when reading it, but I do want to give a few highlights. Some books have introductions that are quite boring. Some have introductions that have some interesting material but you can skim through them and hurry on to the good stuff. And far too many books have introductions that are little more than padding that you can skip all together and never know the difference. This is *not* so with “Thirteenth Apostle.” The introduction is itself a masterwork. Read it. It is indispensable and filled with great information and insights.

Scott Partridge could have easily published the introduction as a standalone work on Amasa Lyman in scholarly historical publications such as Dialogue, The John Whitmer Historical journal, or the Journal of Mormon History. In it Lyman provides thoughts and insights on Lyman’s “puzzling” excommunication, his status as the “third wheel: the thirteenth apostle,” his polygamous relationships, his lack of connection with his families, his struggles with feeling useful when not on missions, his struggle with Brigham Young and his theocracy, Lyman’s “thoughts on the nature and mission of Jesus,” his “drift toward theological heterodoxy,” and how he and his family were affected by his excommunication.

Also very important are the footnotes which were started by Partridge, and, if I understand the “publisher’s note” correctly, finished by John Hatch and Ron Priddis after Partridge’s death. Lyman could be a frustratingly brief diarist. While some days, especially during the time that he was on his European mission from 1860 to 1862, have entries that go on for paragraphs and even pages, many of them get single lines and some only two or three words. Sometimes two or three months are covered in about as many pages. April to May of 1848 fit on about two pages and include entries such as “April 4, 1848; Tuesday. I purchased a trunk set at $12.00.” Because of this, if the reader had to rely on what Lyman wrote alone, they would often miss out on important historical details. Here Partridge and those who assisted him come to the rescue. I’ll share just a few great examples. Lyman’s entry for February 23, 1856 simply says, “Attended court again.” The footnote adds all of this detail:

“This bizarre case grabbed the attention of church leaders, who attended the trial and heard Margaret Williams testify that a man had approached her about plural marriage, then introduced her to another man who asked her to be a plural wife without a ceremony. After they had engaged in intercourse three times, the man alternated between threatening to murder her and paying her to be quiet. It appears that the jury could not decide on a verdict and the two men and one woman were all let go.”

Here is another example of a footnote adding very interesting historical context. The entry for September 21, 1868 mentions Lyman having dinner with a George Wood. This entry is much longer than the previous one that I cited, but the footnote offers the following interesting background information on George Wood:

“Six year earlier, George Wood killed Olive Coombs Higbee and maimed her thirteen-year-old daughter, Emily, saying the daughter had tried to seduce his eighteen-year-old son. The community defended Wood to the governor, who pardoned him, but historians suspect the real motive was that Olive, a school teacher, had learned too much about the 1857 Mountain Massacre.”

There *was* one footnote that I felt was incomplete and inaccurate to its cited source. The entry for July 25th, 1861 mentions infamous Manti bishop Warren Snow. The following footnote is provided as background on Warren Snow:

“Warren S. Snow, the former bishop of Manti, Utah, is known for having ordered twenty-four year-old Thomas Lewis castrated in 1857 for interfering with Snow’s courting of Lewis’s girlfriend. Brigham Young disapproved of the bishop’s actions, telling him that ‘the time for such measures was still in the future, and not to be implemented in the here-and-now’”.

The cited source is John A Peterson, “Warren Stone Snow, A Man In Between: The Biography of a Mormon Defender” which was written as a BYU Master’s thesis in 1985, pages 113-114 and 126-133[11]. There are several problems with this footnote. This is just one of two versions of the story of Lewis being castrated by Snow. The other version is that Lewis was guilty of sexual misconduct and was being escorted on a winter night to the territorial penitentiary when Snow and others ambushed him and castrated him as retribution for his alleged crime and left him lying in the frozen snow.

Leaving out the conflicting version of the story and only relating the more sordid version is the first problem that I have with this footnote. The second is that the source doesn’t relate to the version of the story told. The quoted masters thesis by Peterson actually tells the version of the story where Lewis is being escorted to prison when he is castrated and never mentions the fight over a girlfriend version of the story. The version of the story where Lewis was castrated because Snow wanted to steal his girlfriend actually comes from the tell all book “Mormonism Unveiled” by John D. Lee which written after his conviction for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Historian David Bigler, a man who could never be called an apologist for the LDS Church, described the Lee version of this story as a “colored account,” and stuck to the goingto prison version of the story in his book “Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West”[12].

The final criticism that I have for this note relates to the mention of Brigham Young. Warren Snow was not actually present when Young said, “the time for such measures was still in the future, and not to be implemented in the here-and-now.” The men who were with Young at the time were his brother Joseph Young and James Snow, the Utah Stake President[13], who was Warren’s brother. Also, while young *did* say that quote, he actually *did approve* of Snow’s actions. Along with the quoted statement he also told the two men, “the day would come when thousands would be made eunuchs for them to be saved in the kingdom of god” and “I will tell you that when a man is trying to do right & does something that is not exactly in order I feel to sustain him and we all should.[14]”

I apologize for the long criticism of one footnote but I wanted to be thorough as to why I was disappointed in it. Other than that one incomplete footnote I thought that every other one was excellent and made a great addition to the text. In fact, my problem with that one footnote is the only real criticism that I have of the whole book.

I will add one more footnote comment, not a criticism, but just a note of a lost opportunity. The entry for April 22, 1857 makes a reference to Francis A. Hammond and a footnote is provided about Hammond mentioning his time as a whaler, his conversion to Mormonism, his time in Hawaii as a Mormon missionary, and his time as a stake president in Southern Utah. I honestly have no idea how publishing schedules work at Signature Books and who knew what when, but at nearly the same time that “Thirteenth Apostle” was released, Signature books also released a biography called, “Island Adventures: The Hawaiian Mission of Francis A Hammond, 1850-1865”[15]. This is another *excellent* book that I highly recommend. I was surprised that the Signature Books editors did not use this chance to mention this other book of theirs in this footnote!

A few fun things that I learned about Amasa Lyman from “Thirteenth Apostle” was that he had a wry sense of humor and that at times he really loved to use romantic language. As an example of his sense of humor, while travelling the plains to get to his mission in Europe in 1860, one day he recorded this detail about the results of a hunting party’s efforts:

“We ate none of their [the animals’] meat for the good reason that it was not caught.” (p. 257)

Lyman especially waxed poetic and romantic during his European mission. Here are a few examples of this romanticism in his description of journeys through the European countryside:

“While from dense forests of pine were gracefully curling upward the white wreaths of smoke from the residences of hardy woodsmen that nestled in the midst of the surrounding oceans of living green. In the rear of our point of observation the green hills were lifting their towering sumits far above us as if keeping their sleepless vigils over the surrounding country” (p. 187, spelling in original).

“In the evening took a short walk to the hill that comands a view of town and a fine view sea-ward below…The ocean expance was spread out beneath us in placid beauty and inviteing loveliness. The gentle zephyr that breathed its softest evening music over the smo[o]th unruffled bosom of the deep disturbed not its rest but ^as^ ^a^ blessing to the waiting mariner its peaceful impulses swelled the broad-spread bosoms of his waiting sails” (p. 392, spelling in original).

Before concluding I want to mention one more thing that I learned about Amasa Lyman that I found interesting, and a sad contrast to it. Some of Lyman’s most detailed writing occurred during his European mission that took place in the early 1860s. The entries that he wrote for 1860, 1861, and 1862 are long enough, that as I mentioned earlier in the review, each those years gets their own chapter, while most chapters are made of two to three years or more. Lyman was very observant during this time and recorded in detail the places that he visited, the people he met, and the meetings and duties he attended to.

One of the things that he really noticed during this time and wrote of frequently was the abject poverty that many of the European people were living in. See for example pages 278, 289, 292, 300, 328, 330, 338, 358, 362, 379, and 400. Poverty is in fact mentioned enough in Lyman’s 1861 entries that the chapter for 1861 is named “Poverty Encircles Heaven’s Brightest Gems.” Some of the comments that Lyman makes at this time include “poverty was in the streets filthy and rag[g]ed,” “…the squalid representative of the most abject poverty[,] want[,] and wretchedness. Such is Hamburgh,” “…a stil more raged and squalid victim of poverty was awaiting for us to evince our pity by another draft of our limited funds,” “the poverty of the saints is great,” and “As we…passed through the stables of his Majesty and saw the provisions that ^his majesty^ has made for ^his^ horses which far exceed in comfort what is enjoyed by thousands of his reasoning subjects” (“his majesty” in this case was the king of Denmark).

At one point, hoping to understand the poverty of the people better, Amasa Lyman and his travelling companions even took it upon themselves to conduct a little experiment: they travelled on a rail journey to Leeds in the third class accommodations. Lyman said that they did this “In order to decend below all that we might be beter able to appreciate the true conditions of the varied classes of humanity” (p. 400, spelling as in original). I’ll just say that the experiment didn’t go very well, and Lyman and his companions were *not* impressed by the smells! As much as they wanted to relate to the people, they decided to never repeat the experience.

Some of these entries are heartrending. Lyman saw some truly abject poverty. It touched his heart and he really wanted to help the people. He also really believed in his heart that the gospel of Christ that he was preaching as found in Mormonism held many of the answers for eliminating the poverty that the people were experiencing. He really believed that if only the people would convert to Mormonism and gather to “Zion” all would be well. Unfortunately, while Lyman was good at noticing poverty as experienced by others, he seemed oblivious to the poverty being experienced by his own families. On February 13, 1862 Lyman got a letter from his wife Lydia. Lyman said of it that “The news was good and cheering.” A footnote accompanies this entry that says:

“Lyman loved to hear from his family but seemed unaware of their struggle as they relied on the goodwill of neighbors and friends in his absence” (p. 436).

An interesting contrast that shows Lyman’s seeming obliviousness to the sufferings of his own family because of poverty, while paying so much attention to how it impacted others, can be had in the book “Eliza Marie Partridge Journal” [16]which was also edited by Scott H. Partridge. Eliza Marie was one of Lyman’s plural wives. Here are several of her entries about her famly’s sufferings during Amasa Lyman’s many travels.

“April 13th, 1849. Br. Lyman started for California in company with O.P. Rockwell and others…Br. L. has left us, that is Paulina, Caroline and I without anything to make bread, it not being in his power to get any” (p. 47).

“Thursday [April] 19th [1849]. I sold a ball of candle wick for three and a half quarts of corn, sold another ball for three and a half quarts of meal, which has to be divided between Paulina Lyman, Mother, and my family” (p. 48).

“Friday, April 7, 1854. My brother E. Partridge called to go on a mission to the Sandwich Islands, which will leave us without man or boy to do anything, but it is all right” (p. 68).

“March 18th 1856. We eat our meals without bread for the very good reason that we have none, although we have a pound or two of flour for the children who are having the measles” (p. 77).

“1860. Some time in the spring of 1860, Br. Lyman started on a mission to England, leaving us to do the best we could, which was not very well, as we were in our usual poor circumstances. We had poor health and no means to help ourselves with.

“August 26th, 1860. My daughter Lucy Zina born…my sister Caroline very sick…She had a babe who was also very sick…and not even flour in the house to eat, or soap to wash our clothes with. We were at last reduced to the necessity of calling on the missionary fund for help…This is always very trying to me” (p. 80).

“July 1863. Br. Lyman and a part of his family moved to Fillmore…He left his family mostly to their fate, or to get along as best they could” (p. 81).

I do not meant to detract from a review of “Thirteenth Apostle” by quoting so much from another book containing the journal of one of Lyman’s wives. But to me this contrast of focus by husband and wife is absolutely fascinating. I think that with both of these resources now available (and perhaps with some augmentation from a trip to the archives to read Lyman’s sermons and correspondence), an enterprising individual could put together a very interesting paper for sharing at a future Mormon History Association meeting, or the Sunstone Symposium, or in Dialogue or some similar resource relating to Mormon history. This is just one example of the research possibilities that “Thirteenth Apostle” has opened up to students of Mormon history.

In what I have written in this review, as long as it is, I have only mentioned a few of the very interesting things that will be learned by reading this book. There are far more stories than I have taken the space to mention. Serious stories, humorous stories, unusual stories, you name it. I have not even touched on the entries about séances and spiritualism. I leave those to readers to discover for themselves.

I want to conclude by saying that “Thirteenth Apostle” is excellent, top notch, primo, fantastic. It lived up to all of my expectations (25 years worth). It gains an honored place in my library. In a year that has been filled with excellent books on Mormon history, this is certainly one of the best. It fills in a hole and adds rich detail to the story of one of the truly fascinating individuals in Mormon history.

I think that every student of Mormon history can learn from this book. Not only that, it is a great anthropological study and provides excellent insight in to the human condition generally. In the “publisher’s note” it mentions that the original goal had been to round out the volume by including Amasa Lyman’s letters and sermons in the book. But as the book topped 1000 pages these had to be left out, with the exception of the “Dundee Sermon” that was included as context for Lyman’s excommunication. I really, really hope that someone at Signature books is working on transcribing and compiling those letters and sermons for a future publication and I hope that I don’t have to wait another 25 years before I can read that book! Until then, I commend this book to all.

[1] Lyman Johnson, his other missionary and also a former apostle, had been excommunicated and replaced in the Quorum of Twelve in 1838.
[2] See “Thirteenth Apostle,” Introduction p. xii
[3] Eliza Marie Partridge was the daughter of Edward Partridge, the First Bishop. For more details on her life and marriages see Todd Compton, “In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith” published by Signature Books.
[4]Another interesting fact, James E. Faust, during his time as a general authority, mentioned ancestor Edward Partridge (the first LDS Bishop) in his sermons but he never once mentioned Lyman.
[5] Available as a pdf at http://mormonpolygamydocuments.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/JS0276.pdf
[6] Available as a pdf at https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V16N01_92.pdf.
[7] Some reviewers have accused Edward Leo Lyman of making Amasa’s fascinating life “boring”.
[8] According to John Hatch (Hatch was assigned by Signature Books to edit “Thirteenth Apostle” for publication) at an event on “Thirteenth Apostle” held at Benchmark Books, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEWYzRXE3ZM ) and according to the “publisher’s note,” when Scott Partridge started transcribing and editing “Thirteenth Apostle” the originals were still restricted by the LDS Church Archives and he had to seek special permission as a descendent to even see them. Later, scanned versions of the holographs were made available on the 74-disc DVD set titled “Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” that was released in 2003. The holographs are now available on the Church History Library website.
[9] This does not apply to the for sale cloth bound editions of “Thirteenth Apostle.”. It is sold as a single volume.
[10] 940 pages
[11] Available as a pdf here http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6041&context=etd
[12] See “Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the West, 1847 to 1896,” Written by David Bigler and edited by Will Bagley. Published in 2005 by the Arthur H. Clark Company as Volume Two of the “Kingdom in the West” series.
[13] The Utah Stake was in Provo, Utah.
[14] See “Warren Stone Snow, A Man In Between: The Biography of a Mormon Defender” pages 113-114 and “Forgotten Kingdom” pp 132-133.
[15] Author John J. Hammond.
[16] “Eliza Marie Partridge Journal,” edited by Scott H. Partridge, published by Grandin Book Company in 2003, limited to 225 signed and numbered copies. The next several quotations all come from this book