Comments on: “Young Man, Do You Want SAL-vation?”: Joseph E. Taylor’s 1849 Mission

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:05:34 +0000

That was no typo, Clark -- he was called as a missionary at age 18, and spent nearly nine years there. Here's an Ensign story by Reid Neilson with an overview of his extraordinary mission.

By: Clark

Clark — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:28:23 +0000

Is that a typo in comment #12, or was it really a 9 year mission? (Such things were not unheard of in that period.)

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:49:56 +0000

Alma O. Taylor’s diaries are available here at the BYU Library missionary journal website. They make for extraordinarily fascinating reading–but I’d be happy to have a printed, edited version!

I’ll have to pick up a copy in Utah this weekend.

(I just read a few entries, chosen at random from his journal. In April 2006 he was in Sapporo, on Hokkaido, the northernmost of the main Japanese islands. On the train out of Sapporo–I presume he was returning, eventually, to Tokyo, he saw some amazing things:

He wrote: “I must of [sic] seen 1000000000000000 fish”–the results of the herring catch of which the Sapporo newspapers had been full. (Of stories, not fish.)

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:26:29 +0000

Nice. I’ve been wanting to read those diaries.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:23:55 +0000

Oh, I’ve run into Alma O. Taylor as a missionary, and didn’t realize he was Joseph’s son! He’s the missionary whose diaries told me so much about Tsune Nachie. Thanks, Jeff.

By: Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:16:28 +0000

Taylor passed on his dedication to missionary work and the Gospel to his son, Alma O. Taylor, who went to Japan with Heber J. Grant leaving Salt Lake City 24 July 1901 and returning 26 April 1910. His diaries, edited by Reid L. Neilson and published by the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for LDS History, are very interesting.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:09:43 +0000

Yeah, that obituary is a little curious. It says Taylor was survived by 21 of his 22 children, 50 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, AND two sisters, but no mention of how he managed to accumulate that many descendants. If new Family Search is to be believed, four wives had 29 children, and all four of those wives survived him for many years.

Great post, Ardis. What a wonderful story. It reminds me of an elder in my mission. He was street contacting and a German student brushed him off. As the student walked away, the elder called after him, “Coward!” Not something the missionary would have learned to do in the MTC, and certainly not a missionary technique anyone in their right mind would recommend, but it resulted in a baptism.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:58:03 +0000

What I loved best was that this 80-year-old patriarch took the time to record this. And with such personality! Wow.

(I read his impressive obit, but was surprised there was no mention of a wife/wives. Did I miss it?)

I’m fascinated by these Saints whose lives straddle the 19th and 20th centuries: these good people who never knew Joseph, who were converted enough to come to Zion in the West, who suffered through the anti-polygamy period, who lasted through the Manifestos, and who remained faithful through it all, are, in my book, some of the very best Saints. Thanks for this.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:41:56 +0000

Sorry, it was actually Charles F. Martineau, not James Matineau who served in Tennessee in the 1880′s. So much for flawless recall.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:42:01 +0000

Clark,

Is that the same James Martineau who served in Tennessee in the 1880′s? He is on my list of missionaries to find out more about. I was wondering from where you know of him.