John W Taylor LDS Biography-details Most People Overlook
- 01. Who was John W. Taylor in the LDS Church?
- 02. Early life and family background
- 03. Missionary service and early leadership
- 04. Call to the Quorum of the Twelve
- 05. Conflict over plural marriage and resignation
- 06. Excommunication and later years
- 07. Posthumous restoration and legacy
- 08. Timeline and key biographical data
- 09. Major themes in his biography
- 10. Children, family, and plural marriage
- 11. How historians view his legacy
- 12. Who was John W. Taylor in the LDS Church?
- 13. Was John W. Taylor related to other Church leaders?
- 14. Why was John W. Taylor excommunicated?
- 15. Did the LDS Church ever reconcile with John W. Taylor?
- 16. How many wives and children did John W. Taylor have?
- 17. How is John W. Taylor viewed in modern LDS historiography?
Who was John W. Taylor in the LDS Church?
John W. Taylor was a third-generation Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader, born May 15, 1858, in Provo, Utah, and died October 10, 1916, in Forest Dale, Salt Lake County. He served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1884 until his resignation in 1905, and he was later excommunicated in 1911 for persistent opposition to the Church's official cessation of plural marriage. His life overlaps with the turbulent federal crackdown on polygamy and the so-called "Second Manifesto," which pushed his disagreements with Church leadership into open conflict. In 1965 he was posthumously rebaptized and received the ordinance of the Restoration of Blessings by proxy, indicating a formal ecclesiastical reconciliation with the Church after his death.
Early life and family background
John Whittaker Taylor was the son of John Taylor, the third president of the LDS Church, and Sophia Whittaker, part of a prominent family in early Utah Territory. His birth in 1858 coincided with heightened tension over the approach of Johnston's Army, so the family initially lived in temporary displacement before settling in Salt Lake City. By age 14 he was ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood and later became a teacher, reflecting early immersion in Church organization.
As a youth, Taylor showed a strong aptitude for both physical and spiritual matters. He reportedly received several visions that reinforced his belief in Joseph Smith as a prophet and helped crystallize his own sense of an ecclesiastical calling. His friendships with other future leaders, such as Matthias F. Cowley (who also later served in the Quorum of the Twelve), began in childhood and carried through into shared missionary service and leadership roles. These early relationships would later shape the contours of his internal-church conflict over plural marriage.
Missionary service and early leadership
John W. Taylor's missionary service began in the 1880s, when he was called to the southern United States, where he joined a companion in Kentucky and boldly proclaimed that the family hosting them would receive confirming dreams "this very night." Historical accounts suggest that, within that night, the hosts reported vivid impressions that led to baptisms of multiple family members, underscoring the narrative of miraculous witness that later biographers highlight. Over several calls, he served in the South, West, Canada, and Mexico, claiming more than 250 baptisms in aggregate, a figure often cited in institutional histories.
During his missions he also represented the Church headquarters in diplomatic-style contacts with political figures, including then-President Grover Cleveland, President Porfirio Díaz of Mexico, and Premier McDonald of Canada. These interactions gave him a rare transnational experience for a young LDS leader and introduced him to the tension between Church autonomy and federal or national legal systems-a tension that would later define his stand on polygamy. His approach to proselytizing blended forthright doctrine with a personal, sometimes theatrical style that made him memorable among converts and fellow missionaries.
Call to the Quorum of the Twelve
John W. Taylor's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came on April 9, 1884, when he was just 25 years old. His father, President John Taylor, was at the time steering the Church through intense federal pressure over plural marriage, including the 1882 Edmunds Act, which criminalized polygamy and triggered mass prosecutions of prominent leaders. For many contemporaries, Taylor Jr.'s call was seen as a fulfillment of several informal prophecies given in tongues and local fast meetings, reinforcing the idea of a "chosen" lineage within Church leadership.
During his two decades in the Quorum he participated in the opening of new missions, including the Colorado mission in 1896, and contributed to the broader institutionalization of Church programs. He also continued to speak about revelation, visions, and the continuing authority of prophetic leadership, framing these experiences as part of his calling. However, his public teaching increasingly emphasized the importance of plural marriage as a covenantal, eternal principle, even as the Church's public stance began to shift toward cessation of the practice.
Conflict over plural marriage and resignation
The 1890 Manifesto, issued by President Wilford Woodruff, officially ended the authorization of new plural marriages in the LDS Church, a move driven by the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act and the threat of further dissolution of Church institutions. For Taylor, this was a profound rupture. He interpreted the revelation as temporary and warned that abandoning plural marriage could lead to the Church's spiritual collapse-a position that placed him in quiet but growing opposition to the First Presidency and the majority of the Quorum of the Twelve.
By 1904, after President Joseph F. Smith's "Second Manifesto" reinforced the prior directive and tightened discipline around existing plural relationships, Taylor's stance became untenable within the structure of Church discipline. He formally resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve on October 28, 1905, alongside Matthias F. Cowley, both citing deep disagreement over the implementation of the Manifesto. Their resignations were not revoked, and they remained under ecclesiastical censure, marking the first time in modern LDS history that two apostles had stepped down over doctrine-related conflict.
Excommunication and later years
John W. Taylor's excommunication occurred on March 29, 1911, after more than five years of contested status. Church sources describe his acceptance of the action as "without expressed protest and with no bitterness to the Church," a phrase that later appeared in the Improvement Era, the official periodical of the time. His separation from the Church coincided with a period of intense federal surveillance and prosecution of those associated with ongoing plural marriage, making his personal stakes both doctrinal and legal.
After his excommunication, Taylor retreated into private life, focusing on providing for his large family-accounts record that he had six wives and 36 children, placing him within the upper echelon of large polygamous families in the period. He continued to affirm his belief in plural marriage publicly and privately, but he did not lead any break-off sect in the way some other disaffected leaders later did. He died on October 10, 1916, at age 58 from stomach cancer, living his final years in relative quiet but still within the orbit of Salt Lake-area LDS culture.
Posthumous restoration and legacy
Decades later, in 1965, Church leaders took the unusual step of rebaptizing John W. Taylor by proxy and restoring his blessings through the ordinance of "Restoration of Blessings" under the hands of President Joseph Fielding Smith, acting with the unanimous approval of both the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. This action effectively erased his formal status as an excommunicant in the ecclesiastical records, signaling that his doctrinal passion was not equated with apostasy in the long-term view of Church history.
Modern historians and apologists often describe Taylor as a "kind man of indomitable perseverance and strong convictions," a phrase drawn from period tributes. His legacy is thus complicated: he is remembered as a faithful, talented apostle whose loyalty to one principle-plural marriage-placed him in direct conflict with the institutional compromises required by federal law. His story is frequently cited in discussions of religious freedom, prophetic authority, and the costs of aligning revelation with legal reality in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.
Timeline and key biographical data
The following table summarizes key dates and milestones in John W. Taylor's life for quick reference.
| Milestone | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Born | May 15, 1858 | Provo, Utah Territory |
| Ordained deacon | ≈1872 | Early Aaronic Priesthood calling |
| Pioneering missionary service | 1880-1883 | South, Midwest, Canada, Mexico |
| Called to Quorum of the Twelve | April 9, 1884 | Aged 25 |
| First public tension with Manifesto | 1890 onward | After 1890 Manifesto |
| Resigned from Twelve | October 28, 1905 | Alongside Matthias F. Cowley |
| Excommunicated | March 29, 1911 | Age 52 |
| Died | October 10, 1916 | Age 58, Forest Dale, Utah |
| Posthumous rebaptism and restoration | May 21, 1965 | By proxy, Quorum-approved |
Major themes in his biography
Several themes recur in discussions of John W. Taylor's life:
- Family lineage and the weight of being a prophet's son, which shaped both his opportunities and expectations.
- The tension between strict doctrinal loyalty and institutional adaptation under federal pressure, especially around plural marriage.
- The role of visions and spiritual experiences in reinforcing his sense of calling and conviction.
- The personal cost of public conflict with Church leadership, including the loss of apostolic office and eventual excommunication.
- The long-term reconciliation through posthumous ordinances, which re-integrated his biography into the mainstream LDS narrative.
Children, family, and plural marriage
John W. Taylor's plural marriages produced six wives and 36 children, placing his household among the larger such families recorded in the period. Contemporary accounts and family histories emphasize the practical challenges of managing education, employment, and emotional support across multiple households, even as the Church leadership publicly moved away from the practice. Taylor's own writings and sermons indicate that he viewed plural marriage not simply as a legal or social arrangement but as a sacred covenant essential to the fullness of the gospel.
His family's experience also reflects the broader demographic pattern of late-nineteenth-century Utah, where plural marriage created extended kinship networks and complicated inheritance and residential patterns. By the time of his death in 1916, most of his children were young adults or adolescents, and many remained active in the LDS Church despite his excommunicated status, illustrating how doctrinal rupture did not automatically fracture personal or familial loyalty.
How historians view his legacy
Historians of Latter-day Saint history treat John W. Taylor as a case study in the intersection of doctrine, law, and personal conviction. Some scholarly analyses estimate that roughly 10-15% of active disciples in the Utah period had some direct connection to plural marriage by 1900, making Taylor's stance representative of a significant minority who felt the 1890 Manifesto as a traumatic shift rather than a necessary compromise. His resignation and excommunication, followed by later restoration, offer a concrete example of how institutions can both discipline and eventually reconcile with internal dissent.
Within popular LDS discourse, his complexity is often summarized in the phrase "a kind man of indomitable perseverance and strong convictions." This characterization attempts to hold together his gentler personal traits-his warmth with family and conversion--focused missionary work-with his unbending doctrinal stance, suggesting that the Church can honor both his fidelity and his error. His biography is thus invoked less as a model of obedience and more as a cautionary and empathetic portrait of the costs of doctrinal intransigence.
Who was John W. Taylor in the LDS Church?
John W. Taylor was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who later resigned and was excommunicated for opposing the Church's official cessation of plural marriage, then posthumously rebaptized and restored in 1965.
Was John W. Taylor related to other Church leaders?
Yes, John W. Taylor was the son of John Taylor, the third president of the LDS Church, and nephew-by-marriage to other prominent Utah-era leaders, placing him within one of the most influential families in early Church history.
Why was John W. Taylor excommunicated?
John W. Taylor's excommunication stemmed from his continued advocacy of plural marriage after the 1890 Manifesto and the 1904 Second Manifesto, which the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve had declared binding; his refusal to fully comply with the official policy led to his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve and, several years later, excommunication.
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Did the LDS Church ever reconcile with John W. Taylor?
Yes, in 1965 the Church leadership authorized his posthumous rebaptism by proxy and the Restoration of Blessings ordinance, effectively restoring his covenants and reintegrating his legacy into the official narrative of Church history.
How many wives and children did John W. Taylor have?
Historical sources indicate that John W. Taylor's plural marriages produced six wives and 36 children, a household size that situates him among the larger plural families documented in late-nineteenth-century Utah.
How is John W. Taylor viewed in modern LDS historiography?
Modern LDS historians generally portray John W. Taylor as a faithful but doctrinally intransigent leader whose life exemplifies the tension between revelation-based conviction and institutional accommodation under federal pressure, acknowledging both his contributions and his disciplinary conflict with Church leadership.