Alex Baugh used this letter to try to clarify the sequence of events between the font’s dedication on November 8 and the first public baptismal service on the 21st.3 I also quote the letter in my book on the Nauvoo Temple for its scene-setting details. Baugh and I come to different conclusions about exactly when Reuben was baptized.4 He argues Reuben’s baptisms were part of an informal private service, likely held the night of the dedication, and not on the 21st. I think it possible that Reuben was baptized by Young on the 21st and that McBride’s mention of a dedicatory prayer was a matter of him confusing another prayer given on the occasion of the first baptisms. Young was present on both occasions.
While looking through the recently opened collection of President John Taylor’s incoming correspondence at the Church History Library, I happened on a letter from Reuben McBride to President Taylor in which he tells substantially the same story, but adds a few new details.5 The letter to Taylor was written on February 7, 1880, putting it six and a half years closer to the events in question. The letter was one in a series of requests McBride made to Church leaders to obtain a record of the names of family members for whom he was baptized. Here is a transcription (original spelling preserved):
[page 1] Fillmore Feb 7th 1880
President John Taylor
Dear Brother
I wish to call you attention back as far as 1841 in Nauvoo I was appointed at the fall Conference to act in the Place of Oliver Grainger Diseased I was appointed to go back to Kirtland Ohio and take charge of the Temple and Church Property You was Josephs Clerk and done the business you gave me Two Powers of attorney one for the Church and one for Joseph & Emmas own private business before I started back Joseph made a bee and had the Font filled with water he wished me to be Bapt before I went back to Ohio, the Font [page 2] was filed, I was the first one Baptised in the Font in this Dispensation I think it was on Saturday evening Joseph spoke a short time the Font was Dedicated and Joseph appointed Bro, Brigham Young to Bapt me I was Bapt for my Dead Relitives I do not recolect how many wheather you was presant or not I do not recolect I did not know but you was Clerk that Evening the water was very Cold Joseph put his Cloak round me and took me in his Cariage and Caried me Home I spoke to Prest Young about it he said he would have his Clerks hunt up the Record of it, this was a Short time before his Death I have not been to the City since whether they found the Record or not I do not know [page 3]
Bro Brigham told me who the clerk was that evening at the Font it seems some as if, it, was Sloan but I do not recollect whoever it was Prest Young said he had apostasised and I, do not
I want a Copy of that Record to go on my Family & Church Record I have wished I had taken a Record of it at the time
I do not wish to be Bapt again for those I was bapt for then I do not
Please Send me a Copy of the Record and let me know as soon as convenient
I Remain your Brother
In the New and Everlasting
Covenant
Reuben McBride
What does this letter add to our understanding? First, the gathering does not appear to have been as small and informal as Baugh inferred from the letter to Martha.6 McBride recalls the presence several people, including a clerk or recorder. Young remembered it being Nauvoo City Recorder James Sloan, who was given charge of the temple baptismal records, though this may have been an assumption. Some record appears to have been kept, because by the time Reuben writes his letter to Martha in 1886, he knows that he was baptized for six relatives and may have included their names in his letter to Martha.7
Both letters indicate that Joseph Smith “made a bee.” Baugh thinks may refer to a piece of wood bolted to the font.8 The phrase “make a bee” was also an idiomatic expression meaning to gather a group of key people.9 I believe this indicates the presence of a larger group. McBride doesn’t recall how many were present nor whether Taylor was among them, indicating that the group was probably larger than three or four. He also says Joseph Smith "took a good deal of pains" to make the gathering happen.
McBride’s recollection of the date in the 1880 letter—November 1841—is more accurate in this earlier letter than the one he gives in his letter six years later. But he states that he believed the baptisms took place on a Saturday. This is problematic because Clayton’s much earlier record dates the dedication to Monday, November 8, and Wilford Woodruff’s diary dates the first public opening of the font to Sunday, November 21. It seems likely that McBride misremembered the day. As far as I know, the precise date McBride departed for Kirtland is unknown. We only know that he received his letter of attorney on November 2.10
The letter adds the detail that the water in the font was cold, which is unsurprising. It also contradicts the later letter on McBride’s and Joseph Smith’s destination after the ceremony. Otherwise the two letters tell almost identical stories.
This letter provides minimal additional circumstantial evidence for a November 21 date for Reuben’s baptism; not enough to make it an iron-clad argument by any means. Regardless, future histories of this event should cite the letter to Taylor because it is a few years earlier, is missing no pages, and contains the more complete account.
Notes
1. The text of the first page of the letter is as follows: “Fillmore Nov 1[st]/86 [Page 1st] Dear Sister Martha: I Received your kind and welcome letter Some time ago, but circumstances has been Such that hindered me till now the Subject you wrote uppon is one of the greatest importance the first Work that I done for our Dead Relitives was done in Nauvoo I think in the fall of 42 but you know for you was there.9 Bro. Joseph Smith made a bee and had the Font in the Temple filled with water from the Wells.11 He Said he, wished me to be Baptised in the Font before I went back to Ohio. we met. Joseph, Spoke and the Font [was] Dedicated and he Joseph Said Blessed is the first, man Baptised in this Font. Brigham Young Baptised me. I was Baptised Six times. Joseph took off his mantle and Wrapt it around me took me in his Carrage and, drove to your House He talked all the way goeing to your House and”. Reuben McBride to Martha McBride Knight, November 1886, Marion Adaline Belnap Kerr Family Papers Collection, Church History Library.2. Clayton’s history of the Nauvoo Temple is included as an appendix in George D. Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 592.
3. Alexander L. Baugh, "'Blessed Is the First Man Baptised in This Font': Reuben McBride, First Proxy to Be Baptized for the Dead in the Nauvoo Temple," Mormon Historical Studies 3 (Fall 2002), 253-261.
4. Matthew S. McBride, A House for the Most High: The Story of the Original Nauvoo Temple (Salt Lake City: Kofford Books, 2007), 74-75.
5. Reuben McBride to John Taylor, February 7, 1880, John Taylor First Presidency Correspondence, Church History Library.
6. Baugh, 258.
7. Pages two and three of the 1886 letter are missing. Page four contains some family sealing information.
8. Baugh, 261, note 10.
9. See John Galt, Lawrie Todd (London: Richard Bentley, 1832), 98.
10. Letter of Attorney to Reuben McBride, 2 November 1841, in Joseph Smith Letterbook 2, 213–214; Joseph Smith Collection, Church History Library. See http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-of-attorney-to-reuben-mcbride-2-november-1841
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