Wilford Woodruff · 1872 April General Conference · 1872-04-08
Published in Journal of Discourses, Volume 15, pp. 77-81. Reported by David W. Evans in Pitman shorthand; the speaker did not review this text before publication. Text transcribed from the printed JD. Session repair (Samuel Baird, 2026-07-16): neither the JD heading nor [redacted legacy mirror] gives a session designation, and this discourse is JD Vol. 15's only 1872-04-08 item (no same-volume sibling to page-compare against). The Deseret News proceedings summary at historicalgeneralconferences.weebly.com/1872-april.html lists only two sessions for Monday April 8 — Morning (G. A. Smith, Erastus Snow) and Afternoon (Joseph Young, sustaining of authorities, mission calls) — with no Woodruff entry in either; by elimination from the Morning roster (which is fully accounted for and excludes him), assigned Monday Afternoon Session. Flag for reconsideration if a firmer source surfaces.
Pitman shorthand by David W. Evans; speaker did not review. BYU ContentDM's item-detail page currently fails to render in modern browsers (loads, then a client-side script redirects to the generic lib.byu.edu collections page; reproduced 2026-06-30, site-wide BYU bug, not link-format specific). Re-promote to preferred/source_url once BYU fixes this.
Page-anchored scan witness for Journal of Discourses volume 15, page 77. Currently the only reliably clickable link for this talk; BYU ContentDM is the institutionally preferred citation but its item pages are currently broken client-side (see the BYU witness note).
Carruth CR 100 912 inventory item cr-100-912-0781. Scholarly re-transcription of John Q. Cannon's original Pitman shorthand report of this sermon, preserved in David W. Evans' shorthand notebooks, BYU Library MSS 6857 box 2 folder 2 item 1 images 44-47, catalogued at the Church History Library. Sermon in Journal of Discourses 15:77. Transcribed by LaJean Purcell Carruth 26 October 2017. Carruth's footnote records that JD dates the sermon 8 April 1872 while the Deseret News and the sermon's placement in the shorthand notebook both date it 9 April 1872. Recorded as a separate witness per docs/ingestion.md's Carruth policy; the printed Journal of Discourses 15:77-81 text stays preferred until this transcription is reviewed against it.
Carruth CR 100 912 inventory item cr-100-912-0782. Scholarly re-transcription of David W. Evans' original Pitman shorthand report of this sermon -- the reporter the printed Journal of Discourses page itself credits. David W. Evans Shorthand Notebooks, BYU Library MSS 6857 box 2 folder 3 item 1 images 22-58, catalogued at the Church History Library. Sermon in Journal of Discourses 15:77. Transcribed by LaJean Purcell Carruth 13 October 2017. Recorded as a separate witness per docs/ingestion.md's Carruth policy; the printed Journal of Discourses 15:77-81 text stays preferred until this transcription is reviewed against it.
Proofread against the source text.
Proofread against the official/CHL/JSP source plus scan/OCR witness; confirmed clean, no changes needed.
Collated word-by-word against the original scan.
Heavyweight pass: no official churchofjesuschrist.org or CHL digitization exists for this pre-1880s discourse, so BYU ContentDM JD 15:77-81 remains the best verified source. Speaker, date, and theme (comprehensiveness of the latter-day work, agriculture, manufacturing, testimony of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young's succession) independently confirmed against [redacted legacy mirror] with no discrepancies found. Talk boundaries are clean.
This is a living critical edition. If you find a transcription, metadata, or sourcing error in this talk, report it to the editors →Reports are collated against the page scan and land as corrections in the vault.