27 Facts About Amasa Lyman

Amasa Mason Lyman was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and was an apostle.

Amasa Lyman was a counselor in the First Presidency to Joseph Smith.

Amasa Lyman was baptized a member of the Church of Christ on April 27,1832, by Johnson.

From Cleveland, Amasa Lyman walked the 45 miles to Hiram, where he was told Smith and his family were living.

On December 11,1833, Lyman was ordained a high priest by Lyman E Johnson and Orson Pratt, the same elders who had taught and baptized him in 1832.

Amasa Lyman returned to church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, in May 1835.

In 1836, Amasa Lyman received the "Kirtland endowment" in the Kirtland Temple.

In 1846, Amasa Lyman married four additional wives: Eliza Maria Partridge, Paulina Eliza Phelps, Priscilla Turley, and Cornelia Leavitt.

In 1851, Amasa Lyman married his eighth and final wife, Lydia Partridge, a sister of his wives Caroline and Eliza.

Amasa Lyman served several missions for the church, preaching in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Tennessee.

In 1838, Amasa Lyman followed Smith to Far West, Missouri, where Smith relocated the headquarters of the church.

Amasa Lyman participated in the Battle of Crooked River, a skirmish between Latter Day Saints and a Missouri militia unit from Ray County, which occurred on October 25,1838.

In 1839, Amasa Lyman traveled with the Latter Day Saints to their new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois.

In 1841, Amasa Lyman was appointed regent of the newly organized University of Nauvoo.

Amasa Lyman filled a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve created by the excommunication of Orson Pratt.

On February 4,1843, Smith called Amasa Lyman to serve as an additional counselor in the First Presidency.

In July 1844 while traveling, Amasa Lyman learned that Smith and his brother Hyrum had been killed by a mob at Carthage, Illinois.

On March 16,1862, Amasa Lyman preached a sermon in Dundee, Scotland, which all but denied the reality of and the necessity for the atonement of Jesus Christ, which is a central tenet of the LDS Church.

Amasa Lyman's speech appeared to have been overlooked for years, but on January 21,1867, Lyman was brought before his fellow quorum members to answer for his heretical words.

Amasa Lyman wrote a letter of apology to the general membership of the church, which was published in the Deseret News.

However, months later, Amasa Lyman began publicly preaching the substance of his 1862 Dundee speech.

However, in 1869, while not admitting any conversations to the Church of Zion, known as the Godbeites, Lyman began a relationship with William S Godbe, and began traveling to Salt Lake City to meet with Godbe and his associates.

Amasa Lyman associated constantly, preached, and even openly participated with the Godbeites.

Amasa Lyman's renewed activism spread through Salt Lake City, and rumors began to be circulated that Amasa Lyman would even become president of the Church of Zion.

On May 10,1870, three representatives from the Salt Lake Stake high council, where Amasa Lyman was residing, came to investigate his activism and the rumors.

Amasa Lyman died at Fillmore, Utah Territory on February 4,1877.

On January 12,1909, by direction of church president Joseph F Smith, Lyman was posthumously reinstated as a church member and an apostle, persuaded by assertions of mental illness.