- John F. Boynton
LDSApostleshipinfo
English name = John F. Boynton
birth_name=John Farnum Boynton
birth_date=birth date|1811|09|20
birthplace=Bradford,Massachusetts
death_date=death date and age|1890|10|20|1811|09|20
deathplace=Syracuse,New York
president_who_called=Three Witnesses
apostledate=death date and age|1835|02|15|1811|09|20
ordination_reason=Initial organization of Quorum of the Twelve
end_date=death date and age|1837|12|03|1811|09|20
end_reason=Excommunication for apostasy [Boynton was disfellowshipped and removed from the Quorum of the Twelve on1837-09-03 . However, Boynton remained an apostle until his excommunication.]
reorganization=No apostles immediately ordained [The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles did not have twelve apostles again until1841-04-08 , whenLyman Wight was ordained. Between Boynton's excommunication and then,John E. Page , John Taylor,Wilford Woodruff ,George A. Smith , andWillard Richards had been ordained and added to the Quorum to replace apostles who had been excommunicated or killed.]John Farnum Boynton (
September 20 ,1811 –October 20 ,1890 ) was an early leader in theLatter Day Saint movement . He was one of the original members of theQuorum of the Twelve Apostles .Boynton was born in Bradford,
Massachusetts to Eliphalet Boynton and Susan Nichols. He was married to Susan Lowell.Church service
Boynton was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by
Joseph Smith, Jr. in September 1832 in Kirtland,Ohio . He was ordained to the office of an Elder bySidney Rigdon .Boynton proved to be an effective missionary for the church. He initially served in Erie County,
Pennsylvania , withZebedee Coltrin , in 1832. The following December, Smith sent him on a mission toMaine . In an 1834 letter written fromSaco, Maine , Boynton states: "I have baptized about forty in this section; Elder Even M. Greene travelled with me from the 16th Jan., 1833, till October following; while together we baptized about 130." While in Maine and Massachusetts, Boynton also served with Horace Cowen.Boynton was chosen as one of the church's Twelve Apostles at the organization of the initial Quorum on
February 14 ,1835 . Soon after, he accompanied the Twelve on their 1835 mission through the churches in the east. He attended a Conference in Laboro',Upper Canada , with six other members of the Quorum on theJune 29 , 1835. Boynton returned to Ohio in the fall, and preached to a gathering of church members onOctober 18 . After this mission, he began a mercantile business in Kirtland with church associateLyman E. Johnson .Despite his dedication to the Church's religious message, Boynton broke with
Joseph Smith, Jr. andSidney Rigdon during theKirtland Safety Society banking controversy. In May 1837, U. S. PresidentAndrew Jackson ordered the U. S. Treasury to accept onlygold for public land, rejecting privately printed paper money such as the Safety Society and other unchartered community institutions produced. This ultimately caused the Kirtland bank to fail. The failure of the financial institution, originally founded with the support of Church leaders, led to widespread dissent in 1837. Two distinct factions developed in the community, with members of the Church's leadership aligned on both sides. Boynton explained that his difficulties with the Church resulted from "the failure of the bank" which he had understood "was instituted by the will & revelations of God, & he had been told that it would never fail." ["Kirtland Council Minute Book," pp. 184-86]A High Council trial on
September 3 , 1837 disfellowshipped and removed Luke Johnson, Lyman Johnson and Boynton from the Quorum of the Twelve. However, the dissenters, led by Boynton,Warren Parrish , Martin Harris, and Luke Johnson, had a strong local following and took physical control of theKirtland Temple , the major financial asset of the Church. They also sought to control the Church organization and led a competing High Council which excommunicated Smith and Rigdon, who left the city and fled to Far West,Missouri .In 1838, after Smith had relocated to Missouri, Boynton and other dissident Church leaders, including
Oliver Cowdery ,David Whitmer , Luke Johnson and Lyman Johnson were excommunicated. Boynton believed Smith to have become a "fallen prophet" and said toHeber C. Kimball ::"If you are such a fool as to go at the call of the fallen prophet, Joseph Smith, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast onVan Diemen's Land , I will not make an effort to help you."Boynton later became a member of Warren Parrish's reformed "Church of Christ", which took possession of the
Kirtland Temple .Although he never rejoined the faith, Boynton is reported to have later become less antagonistic toward his former associates. A. H. Hale, of Grantsville,
Utah , reported that Boynton visitedBrigham Young during a visit to Utah and counseledErastus Snow to continue his efforts and involvement with the Church.Inventions
After leaving LDS church activities, Boynton traveled throughout the
United States lecturing onnatural history ,geology , and other sciences. Between 1853 and 1854, he joined a U.S. government geological surveying expedition toCalifornia . During theAmerican Civil War , Boynton was employed by the U.S. to designtorpedoes and other weapons. He holds 36patent s in the U.S. National Patent Office, among others, he patented:
*A process to generate carbonic acid gas
*A soda fountain
*A vacuum process for extracting gold from ore
*Several small electrical appliances
*A process for converting cast iron to malleable steelBoynton died
October 20 ,1890 in Syracuse,New York .Published works
*cite book
author=Boynton, John F.
year=1884
title=A Treatise on Maiz, Clover, Silos and Ensilage
publisher=Columbia Press
id=ISBN B00089EPEKNotes
References
*Fred C. Collier (ed.), "The Kirtland Council Minute Book," Collier's Publishing Co., 2002.
External links
* [http://gapages.com/boyntjf1.htm Grampa Bill's G.A. pages: John F. Boynton]
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