El Capitan above Short CreekHistorical Short Creek

Joseph W. Musser

People

In the record

Portrait of Joseph W. Musser

1872–1954

Joseph W. Musser

Joseph White Musser was born in Salt Lake City in 1872, edited the periodical Truth, and, after John Y. Barlow’s death, was described in published accounts as the senior member of the priesthood council.

Joseph White Musser was born on 8 March 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of Amos Milton Musser and Mary E. White.1 In the 1930s and 1940s he edited the fundamentalist periodical Truth.2 He was imprisoned by federal authorities from May to December 1945.3

After the death of John Y. Barlow on 29 December 1949, published accounts describe Musser as the senior member of the priesthood council.4 In the 1961 recordings, speakers still talked about him in the past tense. On 5 November, Alma A. Timpson, speaking about Guy H. Musser, called Joseph W. Musser “his earthly father, our great father,” and said that “until Joseph’s death, Brother Guy carried the weight of this work very largely.”5 On 8 January, J. M. (Marion) Hammon spoke of “Joseph Musser and Brother Barlow” “standing in the gap here in Salt Lake City in 1944.”6

Published histories of the period describe a division in 1951–1952 over new council appointments, after which the Short Creek community and a Salt Lake group went different ways.7 Musser died in Salt Lake City on 29 March 1954.8

On 9 November 1942 he signed the Declaration of Trust for the United Effort Plan and was named a trustee, secretary, and treasurer.

Appearances

1940

  1. DocumentSalt Lake meeting minutes, 1940–1945

1942

  1. DocumentDeclaration of Trust of the United Effort Plan

He is named in the 1961 recordings. The remarks quoted above are from those meetings. Recordings coming as more years open.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” birth, parents, and death (citing a Utah death certificate).
  2. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” on his editing of Truth in the 1930s and 1940s.
  3. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” imprisonment May–December 1945; see also Ken Driggs, “Imprisonment, Defiance, and Division,” Dialogue 38, no. 1 (2005).
  4. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” on his becoming senior member of the priesthood council after Barlow’s death.
  5. Remarks by Alma A. Timpson, Salt Lake general meeting, 5 November 1961. Open the 1961 year.
  6. Remarks by J. M. Hammon, Salt Lake general meeting, 8 January 1961. Open the item.
  7. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” on the 1951–1952 council appointments and the later division between Short Creek and a Salt Lake group.
  8. Wikipedia, “Joseph White Musser,” death on 29 March 1954 in Salt Lake City.