Sidney Rigdon was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.
55 Facts About Sidney Rigdon
2.
Sidney Rigdon was the youngest of four children of William and Nancy Rigdon.
3.
Sidney Rigdon's father was a farmer and a native of Harford County, Maryland.
4.
Sidney Rigdon seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue's end and he got to be a great biblical scholar as well.
5.
Sidney Rigdon was as familiar with the Bible as a child was with his spelling book.
6.
Sidney Rigdon was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get.
7.
Sidney Rigdon remained on the farm until his mother sold it in 1818.
8.
On May 31,1817, Sidney Rigdon was baptized by Rev Phillips, and he became a member of the Peter's Creek Baptist Church of Library, Pennsylvania.
9.
In 1818, Sidney Rigdon moved to North Sewickley to become an apprentice to Baptist minister Rev Andrew Clark.
10.
Sidney Rigdon received his license to preach for the Regular Baptists in March 1819.
11.
Sidney Rigdon moved in May to Trumbull County, Ohio, where he jointly preached with Adamson Bentley from July 1819.
12.
Sidney Rigdon married Bentley's wife's sister, Phoebe Brooks, in June 1820.
13.
Sidney Rigdon remained in Ohio until February 1822, when he returned to Pittsburgh to accept the pastorate of the First Baptist Church there under the recommendation of Alexander Campbell.
14.
On January 28,1822, Sidney Rigdon arrived in Pittsburgh to become a minister at the First Baptist Church.
15.
Sidney Rigdon's ministry met with opposition from member Rev John Winter, and on July 11,1823, a schism split the congregation, with each side disfellowshipping the other.
16.
From 1824 to 1826, Sidney Rigdon worked as a journeyman tanner in Pittsburgh, while preaching Campbell's Restorationism on Sundays in the courthouse.
17.
Sidney Rigdon worked as a journeyman printer for the Philadelphia publisher Paterson.
18.
In 1826, Sidney Rigdon became the pastor of the more liberal Baptist church in Mentor, Ohio, in the Western Reserve.
19.
Sidney Rigdon read the Book of Mormon in fourteen days, proclaimed its truthfulness, and was baptized into the church on November 14,1830, in Mentor, Ohio.
20.
Sidney Rigdon proceeded to convert hundreds of members of his Ohio congregations.
21.
In December 1830, Sidney Rigdon traveled to New York, where he met Joseph Smith.
22.
Sidney Rigdon was then ordained a high priest on June 3,1831.
23.
Sidney Rigdon was a fiery orator, and he was immediately called by Smith to be the spokesman for the church.
24.
Sidney Rigdon served as a scribe and helped with Smith's re-translation of the Bible.
25.
Many of the doctrines Sidney Rigdon's group had experimented with found place in the combined movement, such as living with all things in common.
26.
Smith and Sidney Rigdon were tarred and feathered at the John Johnson Farm on March 24,1832.
27.
Sister Sidney Rigdon left the room, and he asked me to bring his razor.
28.
The noise being heard in the adjoining room, his family went in to see what was the matter, and found him going from one side of the room to the other, from the effects of which Sidney Rigdon was laid up for five or six weeks.
29.
Smith and Sidney Rigdon became close partners, and Sidney Rigdon tended to supplant Oliver Cowdery, the original "Second Elder" of the church.
30.
Sidney Rigdon became a strong advocate of the construction of the Kirtland Temple.
31.
Sidney Rigdon gave a "powerful discourse" in March 1836 at the temple's dedication.
32.
Sidney Rigdon supervised the church in Kirtland in Smith's absence, and taught at the Kirtland School.
33.
Sidney Rigdon reportedly "rushed into the ring, sword in hand, and said that he would not suffer a lot of men to break the Sabbath day in that manner".
34.
Sidney Rigdon was released on a writ of habeas corpus and made his way to Illinois, where he joined the main body of Mormon refugees in 1839.
35.
Sidney Rigdon continued to act as church spokesman and gave a speech at the ground-breaking of the Nauvoo Temple.
36.
On June 1,1841, Sidney Rigdon was ordained as a "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator".
37.
However, Smith and Sidney Rigdon's relationship began to deteriorate in Nauvoo.
38.
Sidney Rigdon did not reside in Nauvoo and served in a local church presidency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
39.
Charges were leveled that Rigdon had disloyal correspondences with John C Bennett, former Governor Carlin, and "the Missourians".
40.
Sidney Rigdon was accused to "leaguing with dishonest persons in endeavoring to defraud the innocent".
41.
In "indirect testimony" from Porter Rockwell's mother, Sidney Rigdon was accused of having had been responsible for informing others about Smith's visit to Dixon and instructing them to arrest him while there.
42.
Smith told the conference that, in light of the charges, Smith requested Sidney Rigdon be replaced as First Counselor.
43.
The Times and Seasons and the History of the Church both record that Sidney Rigdon addressed the conference, denied the charges and made a "moving appeal"; they record "the sympathies of the congregation were highly excited".
44.
When Smith began his campaign for the presidency of the United States in 1844, Sidney Rigdon was selected as his vice-presidential running mate.
45.
In 1841, Sidney Rigdon had been ordained by Smith as a "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator", as had all other members of the First Presidency and of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church.
46.
Sidney Rigdon refused to attend this trial, after which he, in turn, likewise excommunicated the members of the Twelve.
47.
Sidney Rigdon fled Nauvoo, claiming that he felt threatened by Young's supporters.
48.
The Latter Day Saints who followed Sidney Rigdon separated themselves and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
49.
Sidney Rigdon then reorganized the First Presidency and called his own Quorum of Twelve Apostles.
50.
Sidney Rigdon lived on for many years in Pennsylvania and New York.
51.
Sidney Rigdon maintained his testimony of the Book of Mormon and clung to his claims that he was the rightful heir to Joseph Smith.
52.
Sidney Rigdon died in Friendship, New York, on July 14,1876.
53.
The Brigham Young branch traveled west to Utah, while Sidney Rigdon traveled eastward to Pittsburgh.
54.
Sidney Rigdon's branch faced less success, modernly accounting for only a small fraction of practicing Latter Day Saints.
55.
Sidney Rigdon has been named as a potential author for the Book of Mormon.