Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Samuel Roskelley- The Nephite Warriors

Samuel Roskelley was the recorder at the Logan Temple for about 19 years. Durning the years that the federal government was determined to stop polygamy amongst the Mormons many of our top leaders were arrested. Including Samuel who was put on trial but acquitted for some strange reason even though he had six wives. But back to the story. During those years of stress in the church a US marshal with accompanied government employees were headed for the Logan Temple. Samual became aware that hey were coming to the temple to get the records of marriages so they could know who to arrest for polygamy. Apparently the temple was closed at he time and Samuel locked all the doors to the temple and stayed inside. he lived in Smithfield and so had a small living area in the temple so that he could stay overnight on selected evenings. The Marshal pounded on the door of the temple and would not leave. Finally grandfather opened the door and spoke to the officer. The Marshal demanded entrance into the temple and confiscation of the records. Samuel refused and closed the door and locked it but the Marshal said he would reutrre with force and knock the door down. As Samuel moved through the temple he was amazed to see Nephite soldiers dressed in their ancient military clothing with swords in hand standing by the doors that lead to the records and was told that they were there to protect the records. Samuel could let his mind be at peace for the records were sfe. The records never were disturbed and remains sage in the temple thereafter. 

Samuel Roskelley- Heavenly Messengers and the Glowing Logan Temple


When the Hale family worked in the Logan Temple in the winter of 1888-89, they arranged with Brother Samuel Roskelley to prepare the sheets for temple work. A great deal of temple work was done during the following years …. [Some time later] Brother Roskelley’s health began to fail, and he decided to give up all his record work. He brought the Hale records to sacrament meeting one Sunday and gave them to Father [Alma H. Hale] and told him it would be necessary to get someone else to take over the books.”
During the following week, Father was very depressed and worried all the time, and was hardly able to work or eat. He could not decide what to do, for neither he nor any of the Hale family knew how to proceed with the work. A great deal of information had been gathered, and the family made it a matter of prayer, morning and evening, for a whole week.”
The next Sunday at meeting, Brother Roskelley came to Father and said, `Bring the records back to me. I have to finish them.’ Then he told Father and me this story:
“Friday evening as I was returning from the Temple, near Hyde Park, a messenger on a white horse appeared by the side of my buggy and said he wanted me to finish the Hale record. He assured me that the work was done right and that it was all being accepted. He said thousands of members of the Hale family were anxious that the work go on. I explained that I was too busy to do any more record work, and that my health would not permit it. Then the messenger made me this promise: that if I would continue, the Lord would bless me with health and strength, and the way would be opened so I would have the necessary time to do the work. He stayed by my side until I finally promised to do it, and then he blessed me and disappeared.”
When Brother Roskelley described his messenger to Father, he answered, “Why, that was my own father, Jonathan Harriman Hale, the first of the Hales to join the Church in 1834. He died in 1847 at Winter Quarters.”
When Brother Roskelley finally finished the record, he said that the greatest load he had ever carried was lifted off his shoulders. He had made a promise to a heavenly being and couldn’t rest until the work was completed. He enjoyed much better health and found more time for the work than he had ever hoped for.”
- From Jonathan H. Hale’s journal; Copy Church History Library
The Hale Family’s sacrifice to have the temple work done for their ancestors was well known. Heber Q. Hale wrote,
It was Authoritatively recognized that up to the time Aroet, Alma and Solomon (Heber’s uncles and father) had completed their personal ministrations in the Logan Temple, their labors in behalf of their progenitors had far exceeded that performed by any other family in the Church, at least in that Temple. It was at this juncture, upon the completion of their record of sealings of husbands to wives and children to parents, following a Hale program in the Logan Temple one evening in February, 1896, that a strange phenomenon was reported; the sacred structure, it is said, became suddenly illuminated ‑ flooded from dome to found ation with a blaze of light. Apostle Marriner W. Merrill, who was then president of the Temple, observed the phenomenon as he was traveling on the highway that night from Logan to Richmond. It was likewise observed by many residents of Logan.”
“President Merill viewed the occurrence with some concern,” the account in the Desert News read, “and he made anxious inquiry the following morning to determine the cause. There were no electric lights in Logan at that time and no means were provided for illuminating the Temple in any such manner. Furthermore, he had closed the Temple for the night and was on his way home. He could find no physical means by which to answer his interrogations. The following night, however, the Temple was again flooded with illumination, the same as the previous night.”
President Merrill finally concluded and announced to the general assembly in the Temple that this beautiful and glorious manifestation was a spiritual phenomenon. The mater was subsequently called to the attention of President Wilford Woodru ff the account continued, who declared it to be an assembly of the great Hale family from the spirit world, who had gathered within those sacred walls in exultation over their liberation through the bene cent ministrations in their behalf.”
- From Heber Q. Hale’s book Bishop Jonathan H. Hale of Nauvoo: His Life and Ministry; Pages 170-171
(From January 1889 to 28 February 1896, there were ordinances performed as follows: 1,075 endowments, 1,202 sealings of couples, 2,055 baptisms, and 319 children sealed to 55 sets of parents. These children sealings were the first done by the Hale family and were all done in the preceding two weeks prior to the early evening closing on 28 February 1896. The Logan Temple records clearly indicate that all eligible names were done for seven generations of Hale ancestors by this date. No other date in the whole one hundred years of Hale temple activity was as important as this one.”
- From Alma Hale’s journal; Copy Church History Library)