Robt. L. Campbell,

Thos. Bullock,

John V. Long.

(Copy)

There has been some question as to the number that had been baptized previous to the organization of the Church on the 6th day of April, 1830. David Whitmer in his "Address to All Believers in Christ," a pamphlet of seventy-five pages, published in 1887, says that there were six Elders and about seventy members before April 6th, 1830. Others have estimated the number at thirty, thirty-five, and forty. These estimates, however, are beyond all question too large. In the minutes of the second conference of the Church, held at Fayette, New York, on the 26th of September, 1830, this statement is made: "Number of the several members uniting to this Church, since the last conference, thirty-five: making in whole now belonging to this Church, sixty-two." "The last conference," referred to was one held on the 9th of June, 1830. If there were but sixty-two members in September, 1830, and thirty-five of them were added since the conference of the Church held on the 9th of June of that year, then there were but twenty-seven in the Church on the said 9th of June. In the last week of May, 1830, Newel Knight was baptized—one; on the 18th of April, 1830, Oliver Cowdery baptized seven, (the names are given on p. 81), on the 11th of April, Oliver baptized six persons (their names are also given on p. 81); on the 6th of April, 1830, the same day that the Church was organized, there were four persons baptized, two of whom were the father and mother of the Prophet (see p. 79). This makes a total of eighteen baptized between the 9th of June conference and the 6th of April meeting; and as there were but twenty-seven in the Church on the 9th of June, the number that had been baptized up to the 6th of April, 1830, must have been but nine. The Far West Record, containing the minutes of the conferences of the 9th of June, and the 26th of September, was kept by the clerks of the High Council in Missouri, and the minutes of the two conferences above referred to, and which give the information here set forth, occupy pages one and two of that record. The accuracy of the minutes of the conference of the 26th of September, 1830, which fix the membership of the Church at that time at sixty-two, is confirmed by the following remark of the Prophet, to be found in his history in December of that same year, which remark immediately precedes extracts from the prophecy of Enoch in this volume (ch. 12): "To the joy of the little flock, which in all, from Colesville to Canandaigua, New York, numbered about seventy members, did the Lord reveal the following," etc. When it is remembered that the Prophet is here speaking of conditions existing in December, 1830, and the figures given are exclusive of the additions which had been made in Kirtland, Ohio, it strongly sustains the correctness of the minutes of the conference of September 26th, which record the membership of the Church at that time to be but sixty-two. The correctness of this number is also still further confirmed by a brief historical sketch of "The Rise and Progress of the Church of Christ," published in the Evening and Morning Star under date of April, 1833, where it is said: "In October 1830, the number of disciples had increased to between seventy and eighty." (p.169.)

[5]. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 21.

[6]. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 22.

[7]. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 23.