Philo Dibble's Exhibitions Inspire Springville Art Movement and Museum

Springville Art Movement Inspired by Philo Dibble’s Exhibitions

Based on information from Vern G. Swanson, Springville Museum of Art: History and Collection,

http://smofa.org/files/pages/6fybl8l0.pdf

While living in Nauvoo, Illinois, Philo Dibble (1806–95) had a dream that motivated him to create “a fine arts museum or gallery to be established for the benefit of the Mormon people.”[i] Dibble commissioned artwork of early scenes in Church history; then he hosted several exhibitions. He later moved to Winter Quarters (today's Council Bluffs, Iowa) and displayed art in the Log Tabernacle. After Elder Wilford Woodruff deeply praised the exhibit on April 7, 1848, he expressed a desire that the Saints would “fit-up a gallery in Zion.”[ii]

Dibble moved west to Utah and then, during the Utah War in early 1858, he moved to the small town of Springville.[iii] For the next forty years,

He held several exhibitions in Utah County, particularly in his home which was, in essence, the first Springville Gallery of Art. Through . . . panoramic painting of religious and historical subjects [by Robert Campbell and William W. Major], his exhibitions of art and death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, as well as magic-lantern slide presentations of famous paintings, Dibble created a climate of interest for the visual fine arts in Springville within eight years of the founding of the City.

Though the dreams of “Father Dibble,” as he was called, for an art gallery were not realized for another fifty-five years, he continually pressed the idea in Springville until he died in 1895. According to a grand-niece, once during his rounds through town, Dibble plunged his sacred “Cane of the Martyrdom”[iv] into the ground at the corner of First East and Fourth South and said, “The school gallery shall be here.”[v] It is not known the precise date of the ‘dedication’ of this plot of land and prophecy of an art gallery, but it was certainly one of the earliest reckonings of an art museum in Utah. It was Dibble's continual talk . . . about an art gallery that planted the seed in the community’s consciousness. This message would find fertile ground with his young artist friends, Cyrus E. Dallin and John Hafen, and it would eventually lead to the genesis of the Springville Art Movement by the end of the nineteenth century. 

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[i] Dr. William C. Seifrit, notes, 1989, Marriott Library, University of Utah. Seifrit was an editor of the Wilford Woodruff journals and noted art historian of Utah art.

[ii] Wilford Woodruff Journal (April 7, 1848), 340.

[iii] Because of the approaching U.S. Army, in the spring of 1858 Brigham Young called the people of Salt Lake County and those in the settlements in the northern part of the Territory to move south of Point of the Mountain. The Dibbles lived in Bountiful and they moved as refugees to Springville as instructed in what became known as “The Move” in Utah history. During the summer Springville’s population swelled to 250 people. See Mary Jane Chase Finley, A History of Springville (1988), 32.

[iv]  This was a walking cane made from Joseph Smith, Jr.'s first oak coffin with a lock of the Prophet’s hair in the handle. It is now in the LDS Church Museum of History and Art in Salt Lake City.

[v] Cassette tape (1970s) of Rell Francis’ interview of Dibble’s great-grand-niece in San Francisco, SMA Library, given by Swanson to Dibble family representative in 2010. The grand-niece may have used the word “school” because in her time there was a school on that general location (First Ward schoolhouse on 300 south 200 east. But even in using this term “school,” if he used it, he would be prescient because it would be called the Springville High School Art Gallery.

Details of Art Exhibited by Philo Dibble

Excerpt from William Warner Major: Utah Pioneer Artist, by Jill C. Major

https://sites.google.com/site/jkmajor/artwork

1. Mural of scenes of Church History (Spring–Fall 1845)

History: Robert Campbell was commissioned by Philo Dibble to do the drawings for two murals. William W. Major and others helped to paint them.

a) The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith while under arrest. (Spring 1845)

The Diary of Hosea Stout records this entry on March 7, 1845, Friday: “In the morning went to Turley’s to get a pistol repaired from thence went with Br. Scovil to the Mansion then to see Br Major who was painting the scenery of the murder of Joseph & Hyrum at Carthage.” The Journal History records, “4 April 1845, Brother Wm. W. Major exhibited a painting of the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith by the mob at Carthage.” Just before she left Nauvoo for Winter Quarters, Patty Bartlett Sessions penned in her “day book” on 11 February 1846: “...in the evening went to the [Seventies] Hall to see the scenery of the massacre of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.”

b) Joseph addressing the Nauvoo Legion three days prior to his imprisonment in Carthage jail (September 1845). 

History: Concerning the Nauvoo Legion Painting, Hosea Stout wrote on September 8th 1845, “...at 5 met some officers of the Legion at Coolidges’ to see about the painting of the scenery of Joseph the Prophet addressing the Nauvoo Legion on the 18th day of June 1844. The officers were dissatisfied with the plan for Br. Dibble was about to put in the likeness of officers who were not present and also some men who were to be put in conspicuous places on the scenery who were not officers and moreover betrayed the prophet and patriarch to death and also other men who had disgraced their calling as officers to all of these things I made objections and declared I would not be seen portrayed in a group of such men for it would be a disgrace to my children and roughly handled the characters of certain characters in our midst which after the matter was laid over for future consideration.”

Description of both paintings: painted on canvas, 128 square-feet. A letter from Dibble makes it sound like it is 128 feet long, but according to Glen Leonard, “...it is 128 feet square. This is proven by the watercolor study of Joseph addressing the Nauvoo Legion which has pencil hatch marks around the edge which are in proportions that would create a 128 square-foot painting if enlarged.”

Location: These paintings were exhibited in Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, and Utah. . . . Later Dibble displayed lantern slides of the two paintings and a third painting of the Mormon Battalion’s Battle of the Bulls. . . . A small sketch of “Joseph addressing the Nauvoo Legion” which was painted by Robert Campbell, was used to make the murals. It is hanging in the Church Museum of History and Art.

Example of Exhibition in Springville, May 24, 1862

Except from “Philo Dibble’s Reminiscences of Early Church History and the Prophet Joseph Smith,” comp. Marilyn and Celia Smith (n.p., 1995)

http://www.allenbutlerhistory.com/pdf/smith-&-smith_1995_philo-dibble’s-reminiscences-of-early-church-history-and-the-prophet-joseph-smith.pdf

“Exhibition. On the 24th (May, 1862) ultimate, Mr. Philo Dibble favored the citizens of Springville with an entertaining exhibition of oil paintings, representing the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Prophet’s last address to the Nauvoo Legion, and the fight of the Mormon Battalion with the bulls. He also exhibited the busts of the two martyrs, as taken after their death. The explanatory lecture was historical and instructive, as we are informed.

“During the winter our fellow townsman, Philo Dibble, gave a number of illustrated lectures with his magic lantern. These were held in the White Meeting House which was dimly lighted with kerosene lamps. A heavy curtain was hung across the stage on which he showed slides of painted canvases depicting church history. Among these was an illustration of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage jail. The most unique attraction was pictures of the trip of the Mormon Battalion to Mexico, among which was one showing the stampeding of [bulls] when they attacked the long train of wagons. The spectators were held breathless as he showed the narrow escape of Levi Hancock as he was attacked by a bull. . . . A magic lantern is a optical instrument by means of which a magnified image of a picture on glass is thrown upon a white screen or wall in a darkened room.”

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The Gift of Eternal Life

All of the gifts of God are supernal, surpassing any gifts we might exchange on earth. Still, one gift surpasses all the rest. This ultimate gift is called by the Lord Himself “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7; see also 1 Nephi 15:36). In fact, this gift encompasses the rest of God’s gifts because it is the central purpose of the plan of happiness. This gift is the gift of eternal life, which is the central purpose of the plan of happiness.

Eternal life means knowing the Father and the Son and becoming one with them (see John 17:3, 21). It means dwelling in God’s presence as an eternal family in eternal glory (see D&C 130:2). It means becoming even as God is and receiving all that He has—“glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!” (D&C 128:23). It means becoming kings and queens, priests and priestesses—serving under the direction of our Father in Heaven to accomplish His work and glory, namely, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Eternal life means much more than living forever, for the Lord calls that state “immortality,” a gift freely given to all people through the magnificent power of the Resurrection. Eternal life, however, is “the greatest of all the gifts of God,” writes Elder McConkie, “for it is the kind, status, type, and quality of life that God himself enjoys. Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation; they are sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, members of the Church of the Firstborn; they overcome all things, have all power, and receive the fulness of the Father.”[i]

Philo Dibble described Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon as they receive the Vision, now recorded as section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

A Vision of Our Eternal Potential

On February 16, 1832, the Father opened the heavens to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, who saw a vision while other eyewitnesses were present, including my ancestor Philo Dibble. The account, now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants section 76, states that those who receive eternal life will be called “the church of the Firstborn. They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things—they are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory; and are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (D&C 76:54–59).

This is deep doctrine, which the Prophet Joseph Smith shared with a congregation gathered at King Follett’s funeral in Nauvoo: “Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.”[ii]As with any child, we have the potential to become like our parents.

I love these inspired words of Christian writer C. S. Lewis, who wrote of our eternal potential: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would strongly be tempted to worship. . . . It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”[iii]

The Fulness of the Father

Eternal life means becoming a joint-heir with Christ. The Savior says in John 14:2, “In my Father’s kingdom are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Commenting on this verse, the Prophet Joseph Smith says it ought to read like this: “‘In my Father’s kingdom are many kingdoms,’ in order that ye may be heirs of God and joint-heirs with me.”[iv]

It is significant that even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, needed the gift of grace to receive of the fulness of the Father’s glory, for “he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace” (D&C 92:13). In essence, we offer to the Father our gift (our free will, or agency) for His divine gift (the enabling, exalting power of grace). We read that Jesus continued “from grace to grace, until He received a fulness” (D&C 92:13). As Latter-day Saints, we understand the concept of receiving the fulness to mean becoming like the Father and receiving His glory. We rejoice that this marvelous promise extends to us as well. In our own humble way, if we will keep the Father’s commandments, we grow each day, receiving “grace for grace” and eventually “of his fulness,” becoming glorified in the Son as the Son is in the Father (see D&C 93:20). By growing in faith, repenting of our sins, and freely offering our gift of agency to obey God, we become a little our Savior each day. “As many as believe in his name,” says John, shall receive of his fulness. And of his fulness have all we received, even immortality and eternal life, through his grace” (Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:16, Bible appendix).

We receive of the Father’s fulness as we grow from grace to grace—exercising faith in Christ, accepting baptism by immersion for the remission of our sins, receiviving the gift of the Holy Ghost and obeying His promptings, then living up to our temple covenants.

Patience in the Journey

Sometimes we are discouraged by our slow progress on our journey home. The Prophet offered the early Saints a sense of how long this journey will take. “When you climb up a ladder,” he says, “you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top, and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave.”[v]

Elder David A. Bednar added, “We will not attain a state of perfection in this life, but we can and should press forward with faith in Christ along the strait and narrow path and make steady progress toward our eternal destiny.”[vi] In other words, the direction we are traveling, not the speed, is what matters most.

We take hope, of course, in the small and steady incremental progress we make during our earthly sojourn. For example, think of a newborn infant. She can do very little but eat, cry, and mess her diaper. But then she grows up and increases in wisdom and knowledge, becoming at first a young woman and then perhaps a wife and mother. In the span of a few mortal years—the blink of an eye to our Father—this infant has become a mature and contributing woman.

With this eternal view, we hope that we can be transformed through the power of Christ into what our Maker intends for us. Regarding this process, President John Taylor wrote, “It is for the exaltation of man to this state of superior intelligence and Godhead that the mediation and atonement of Jesus Christ is instituted; and that noble being, man, made in the image of God, is rendered capable not only of being a son of man, but also a son of God, . . . and is rendered capable of becoming a God, possessing the power, the majesty, the exaltation and the position of a God. As it is written, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” [1 John 3:2.]”[vii]

Hope Offered in Holy Temples

This eternal perspective of our divine potential as children of God comes to us not only in the scriptures and the writings of modern prophets but also in holy temples. There we covenant to forsake sin and remain unspotted from the world. There we receive promises of our divine potential, that we may rule and reign under our Father’s direction if we are faithful to our covenants. There we seek the peace of the Spirit and find quiet dignity to face the challenges of life.

I love this beautiful promise of the peace that comes with regular temple worship: “A temple is a retreat from the vicissitudes of life, a place of prayer and meditation providing an opportunity to receive inner peace, inspiration, guidance, and, frequently, solutions to the problems that vex our daily lives.”[viii] I testify that this is true.

For these reasons and many more, President Howard W. Hunter inspired us to “be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people,” adding, “We should hasten to the temple as frequently, yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow. . . . As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make the temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience.” The temple truly is the pinnacle of our earthly experience, and there we receive our greatest assurance of our eternal potential as children of God. 

How grateful we are for the promise of eternal life! The assurance of this promise is the Holy Ghost, who comforts us as we press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all mankind (see 2 Nephi 32:20).

Notes

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[i] Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1996), 237.

[ii] Joseph Smith, comp., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6:306.

[iii] C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 14–15.

[iv] Smith, History of the Church, 6:365.

[v] Smith, History of the Church, 6:306–7.

[vi] David A. Bednar, “Clean Hands and a Pure Heart,” Ensign, November 2007, 82.

[vii] John Taylor, The Mediation and Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1892), 140–41.

[viii] Franklin D. Richards, “Happiness and Joy in Temple Work,” Ensign, November 1986, 70.

Philo Dibble, Faithful Friend of the Prophet

Figure 1. Philo Dibble, who is buried in the Springville, Utah, Cemetery.

Philo Dibble showed faith and courage throughout his life. He was an early convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed the Mormons) and a close friend to the Prophet Joseph Smith who recorded several miracles and important events in Church history in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Utah.

He was born in Peru, Massachusetts, on June 6, 1806. Marrying Celia Kent in 1829, the couple moved to the Kirtland, Ohio, area (three miles west of Chardon). 

One fall morning in 1830, while the twenty-four-year-old Philo stood by his gate, two neighbors asked if he had heard the news about four missionaries with a new book called the Book of Mormon. One of those missionaries claimed to have seen an angel. Though the men ridiculed the idea of angels visiting the earth, Philo thought that if an angel had appeared, he wanted to know about it. He and Celia went to investigate.

The four missionaries were Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Parley P. Pratt, who were heading west to preach to the Native Americans on the western border of the United States. Attending a meeting in which Oliver taught the message of the restored gospel and bore his testimony, Philo, along with four others, believed and was baptized by Parley P. Pratt on October 16. That night, in the home of Frederick G. Williams, Philo could not sleep for joy and was filled with a heavenly influence “like fibers of fire” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 75).

Grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, he penned the words to “The Happy Day at Last Has Come.”

The happy day at last has come.

The truth restored is now made known.

The promised angel’s come again

To introduce Messiah’s reign.

    

The gospel trump again is heard.

The truth from darkness has appeared.

The lands which long benighted lay

Have now beheld a glorious day:

    

The day by prophets long foretold,

The day which Abram did behold,

The day that Saints desired so long,

When God his great work would perform,

    

The day when Saints again shall hear

The voice of Jesus in their ear,

And angels, who above do reign,

Come down to speak again with men.

(Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 32)

Figure 2. Elsa Johnson, whose arm was miraculously healed in 1831.

Philo witnessed Joseph Smith calling on the power of God to heal the lame arm of Elsa Johnson of Hiram, Ohio, in 1831:

When Joseph came to Kirtland his fame spread far and wide. There was a woman living in the town of Hiram . . . who had a crooked arm, which she had not been able to use for a long period. She persuaded her husband, whose name was Johnson, to take her to Kirtland to get her arm healed.   

I saw them as they passed my house on their way. She went to Joseph and requested him to heal her. Joseph asked her if she believed the Lord was able to make him an instrument in healing her arm. She said she believed the Lord was able to heal her arm.   

Joseph put her off till the next morning, when he met her at Brother [Newel K.] Whitney’s house. There were eight persons present, one a Methodist preacher, and one a doctor. Joseph took her by the hand, prayed in silence a moment, pronounced her arm whole, in the name of Jesus Christ, and turned and left the room.   

The preacher asked her if her arm was whole, and she straightened it out and replied: “It is as good as the other.” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 79)

Figure 3. The John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio, where “the Vision”  (Doctrine and Covenants 76) was received on February 16, 1832.

On February 16, 1832, Philo went to the Johnson home while the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were receiving a marvelous vision of the Father and the Son and the afterlife. He said that although Joseph wore black clothes, his clothes appeared gloriously white, and his face glowed “as if it were transparent” (“Early Scenes in Church History,” 81). Philo offered a first-person testimony of these events:

The vision which is recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants was given at the house of “Father Johnson,” in Hiram, Ohio, and during the time that Joseph and Sidney were in the spirit and saw the heavens open, there were other men in the room, perhaps twelve, among whom I was one during a part of the time—probably two-thirds of the time—I saw the glory and felt the power, but did not see the vision. . . . Joseph would, at intervals, say: “What do I see?” as one might say while looking out the window and beholding what all in the room could not see. Then he would relate what he had seen or what he was looking at. Then Sidney replied, “I see the same.” Presently, Sidney would say, “What do I see?” and would repeat what he had seen or was seeing, and Joseph would reply, “I see the same.” (Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 303)

While Philo and the others waited in silence, Joseph and Sidney conversed with each other: “During the whole time not a word was spoken by any other person. Not a sound nor motion made by anyone but Joseph and Sidney, and it seemed to me that they never moved a joint or limb during the time I was there, which I think was over an hour, and to the end of the vision. Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory, but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag, observing which, Joseph remarked, smilingly, ‘Sidney is not used to it as I am’” (Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 304). Joseph seemed as “strong as a lion,” while Sidney was as “weak as water” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 81). However, Sidney stayed up that night recording the events. Their testimony is recorded in section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants:

                The Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about.

                And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness;

                And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

                For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

                That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:19–24)

Although early reactions were mixed, the Latter-day Saints eventually embraced the vision:

Nothing could be more pleasing to the Saints upon the order of the Kingdom of the Lord, than the light which burst upon the world through the foregoing vision. Every law, every commandment, every promise, every truth, and every point touching the destiny of man, from Genesis to Revelation, where the purity of the Scriptures remains unsullied by the folly of men, go to show the perfection of the theory [of different degrees of glory in the future life] and witnesses the fact that that document is a transcript from the records of the eternal world. The sublimity of the ideas; the purity of the language; the scope for action; the continued duration for completion, in order that the heirs of salvation may confess the Lord and bow the knee; the rewards for faithfulness, and the punishments for sins, are so much beyond the narrow-mindedness of men, that every honest man is constrained to exclaim: “It came from God.” (“Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Historical Record, January 1888, 402)

A Missouri Mob and a Miracle

In 1832 the Dibbles moved to Missouri and homesteaded on the Whitmer Settlement, where Philo worked a twenty-acre farm. Trouble soon erupted between the locals and the newcomers, who saw the Saints as a political and economic threat. Most of the Whitmer Settlement Saints were driven from the county by mid-November 1833. Many crossed the Missouri River north into Clay County or east into Lafayette County, while some fled elsewhere.

While fighting a Missouri mob in the fall of 1833, Philo was shot in the stomach, and the bullet lodged in the small of his back. In great pain, he went to the home of Joshua Lewis, where he spent the night. Fearing that the mob members would find him, he left to hide in Aaron Wild’s house in the woods. Ironically, the mob leader, James Campbell, knew Philo and brought a physician to attend to the wound. Dr. Marsh said it was hopeless; Philo could not possibly live. 

Shortly thereafter, Newel Knight came by. Without saying a word, Brother Knight laid his right hand upon the head of the wounded man. As he did so, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Philo, filling his body from his head through his fingers and toes. He later testified, “I immediately arose and discharged three quarts of blood or more, with some pieces of clothing that had been driven into my body by the bullets. I then dressed myself and went out doors. . . . From that time not a drop of blood came from me and I never afterwards felt the slightest pain or inconvenience from my wounds except that I was somewhat weak from the loss of blood” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 84). Thereafter he could feel the bullet under the skin of his back, but he never had it removed, keeping it as a reminder of his miraculous healing.

In the years that followed, the Missouri Saints sought legal help to regain their lands, but to no avail. On July 4, 1838, the Saints gathered to speak of the freedoms they sought but did not possess. A liberty pole had been erected at Far West, but during the course of the day a thunder cloud passed over, and a bolt of lightning struck the pole, shattering it into splinters. As the Prophet walked around the shattered pole, he said, “As that pole was splintered, so shall the nations of the earth be!” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 88).

Tragedy in Illinois

In the spring of 1840, Philo moved to the Church’s new gathering place: Commerce (Nauvoo), Illinois. The next year his wife died and left him with five children: two daughters and three sons. Discouraged, he decided to find homes for his children and then travel and preach the gospel. On February 11, 1841, he married Widow Smith from Philadelphia. The Prophet Joseph performed the ceremony, and Emma Smith gave them a wedding supper.

On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the Carthage Jail and killed Joseph and his brother Hyrum. George Cannon (father of future Church leader George Q. Cannon) cast the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and Philo kept the masks safe for forty-one years.

Figure 4. The death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were kept by Philo for forty-one years. Photo by Kenneth R. Mays.

The Utah Years

Although the Saints began leaving Nauvoo in 1846, Philo and his family lacked money to travel, and they lingered there for many years. They eventually crossed the plains with Philemon C. Merrill’s wagon company in 1851 and settled in Bountiful, Utah. 

Philo married three times and became the father of eight children. He served as director of a co-op store in Centerville, Utah (Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, s.v. “Philo Dibble”). He also traveled around showing a gigantic mural of scenes from Church history along with relics from the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

In 1857, when President James Buchanan sent federal troops to put down a supposed rebellion in Utah, the Dibbles moved south to Springville, Utah, and decided to settled there.

Philo's oldest daughter, Eliza Ann, married Mormon Battalion veteran Henry Wells Jackson, who eventually fought and died in the Civil War, becoming the first known Latter-day Saint Civil War death and the only Utah battle death in that war.

Figure 5. Receipt showing sale of the death masks on November 1, 1885, to Harris (Harrie) Brown of Logan, Utah. Courtesy of Alexander L. Baugh.

Eighty-nine-year-old Philo Dibble died on June 7, 1895. That very day the Deseret News offered a fitting tribute to this faithful friend of the Prophet:

     Elder Philo Dibble, an aged and respected Utah veteran, died at his home in Springville at 2 o’clock this morning. Elder Dibble had been failing for some time past and was perfectly resigned to his position. He was in the ninetieth year of his age, and had very remarkable career.

     In his death it is thought the oldest member of the Church has passed from mortality. He was baptized [October] 15th 1830 by Parley P. Pratt. He was wounded by a mob during the troubled times of 1833 in Jackson County, Missouri. He was shot in the abdomen. The ball passed through his body and lodged near the backbone just beneath the skin where it remained up to the time of his death. On May 27th, he was visited by some Elders of the Church and among other things he said at that time: “I know, he said, the Church was established by divine revelation, Joseph Smith being God’s Prophet, Seer and Revelator. With him I was familiar and closely associated during his life from 1833 until 1844. When I beheld him as a martyr, shot with four bullets, even unto death; and I now lie here on my death bed with lead in my body at the age of 89, and I shall soon go to meet the martyr, for I now feel that my work here on earth is done, and my desire is that I may soon go in peace where I shall see many others who, like myself, have suffered many tribulations for Christ’s sake.”

References

“An Old Respected Veteran Passed to His Final Rest at Springville This Morning.” Deseret Evening News, June 7, 1895.

Dibble, Philo. “Early Scenes in Church History.” In Four Faith Promoting Classics. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968.

———. “Philo Dibble’s Narrative.” In Early Scenes in Church History. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1882.

———. Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 303–4.

———. The Happy Day at Last Has Come.” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 32. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985.

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