Ezra Booth was an early member in the Latter Day Saint movement who became an outspoken critic of Joseph Smith and the Church of Christ.
25 Facts About Ezra Booth
1.
2.
Ezra Booth was "the first apostate to write publicly against the new Church".
3.
Ezra Booth left the church later in 1831, five months after his baptism.
4.
Ezra Booth proceeded to write a series of nine letters denouncing Mormonism that were published by the Ohio Star.
5.
Ezra Booth later moved to Ohio and attended the Methodist Episcopal Church.
6.
Ezra Booth became a deacon in the church on August 8,1818 and then became an elder in 1821.
7.
Ezra Booth married Dorcas Taylor from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on November 10,1819 in Portage County, Ohio.
8.
Almeda Booth later attended school at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute with future US president James A Garfield.
9.
Ezra Booth worked as a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church before becoming a farmer in Nelson, Ohio around the time Almeda was born.
10.
Ezra Booth's peers reported that he was an intelligent man; he was an avid reader of books and once "purchased a Greek lexicon" and taught himself the Greek language so that he could understand the Greek Bible.
11.
Ezra Booth had originally brought the Johnsons into the Methodist faith in 1826.
12.
Ezra Booth then traveled to Kirtland, Ohio, with Elsa and John Johnson in 1831.
13.
Oh June 4,1831, Ezra Booth was ordained to be a high priest by Lyman Wight in a "log school house" in Kirtland.
14.
Ezra Booth was reportedly possessed by a "foul spirit" during the meeting, and Joseph Smith "commanded it to depart".
15.
Ezra Booth was described as an "urbane" and "articulate" preacher.
16.
Ezra Booth was present for the laying of the cornerstone of the temple to be built at New Jerusalem.
17.
Ezra Booth had assumed that he would convert people through the performance of miracles, as had been his experience with Joseph Smith.
18.
On September 6,1831, Ezra Booth was "silenced from preaching as an Elder" by Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and others.
19.
Less than three days after being "silenced from preaching as an Elder" and after being a member for only five months, Ezra Booth renounced Mormonism in the first of nine letters to be published in the Ohio Star, beginning in November 1831.
20.
The letters were addressed to the Reverend Ira Eddy of the Methodist Church, whom Ezra Booth knew from his days as a Methodist minister and "circuit rider".
21.
The reasons Ezra Booth provided for writing the letters included preventing others from falling victim to the church and responding to requests to expose Mormonism that he'd received.
22.
In Norton Township, the effect of Ezra Booth's letters was such that "the public feeling was, that 'Mormonism' was overthrown".
23.
Ezra Booth's letters were later reprinted by E D Howe in his 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed.
24.
Ezra Booth died on January 12,1873, at the age of 80.
25.
Ezra Booth is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Cuyahoga Falls next to his wife, Dorcas, and daughter, Almeda.