Friday, October 24, 2008

Orson Hyde and the 24th of October


I never knew this but this is kind of a wierd correlation. Orson Hyde did the dedicatory prayer for the return of the Jews on October 24th, 1841.

Three years earlier on the same day he had signed an affidavit with Thomas B. Marsh which describes the intentions of the Mormons was world domination. The Battle of Crooked River takes place the next day. Then the extermination order by Gov. Boggs goes into effect on the 27th of October.

I wonder if Orson did that on purpose to redeem himself from leaving the church just a few days earlier on the 19th. It is one thing to leave the church and it is another to persecute the church. So on the 3rd anniversary of signing his affidavit, he blesses Jerusalem.




The above photo is Orson Hyde Memorial Park in Jerusalem.

I also found a 500 page biography available at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Orson-Hyde-Olive-Branch-Israel/dp/1888106719/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1224786015&sr=11-1

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...I have never thought about it! It's a good thing you have an inquisitive mind. :)Stay tuned for Dad's official CES answer when he get's back! I don't think he could resist. :)

Zaphod said...

Orson regretted his failure in Missouri terribly. He lost his senority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Had he remained faithful, he would have been President of the Church in 1877 instead of John Taylor. Orson begged forgiveness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and received it with great enthusiasm on the Prophet's part. A couple of years later, he was given the assignment to go to the Holy Land with John E. Page. Brother Page abandoned his mission in Cincinati and Orson when on alone to England, France, Germany, Italy, and then to Lebanon and Palestine. It is clear from his account that not only had the Prophet Joseph Smith forgiven him for his transgressions against the Church, so had Heavenly Father.

When we went to Israel in 1982, we spent an afternoon on the Mount of Olives in the Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens. We had a testimony meeting there. Instead of bearing my testimony, I asked to read the dedicatory prayer. I was permitted to do so. It was one of three dreams that I had had about being in Israel. The other two had to do with being along the shore of the Sea of Galilee with your mother and the other had to do with the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. I literally experienced all three of the dreams.

Orson Hyde is a distant relative, a second cousin seven times removed. But we bear the surname because of a common ancestor, Orson's great-grandfather. We are probably more closely related to Thomas S. Monson.