El Capitan above Short CreekHistorical Short Creek

Moroni Jessop

People

In the record

1874–1952

Moroni Jessop

The Moroni Jessop who dictated his testimony to Arnold Boss in 1942, including what he had been told of John W. Woolley, Lorin C. Woolley, and an eight-hour meeting in September 1886. He was born in Millville, Utah, in 1874 and died in 1952. He is not a later man of the same name.

In the interview, Jessop said he was born on 3 November 1874 in Millville, Cache Valley, Utah, and that on 26 February 1942 he was 67 years old and lived at 741 South 8th East in Salt Lake City.1 The cover of the same archive copy records that he died on 22 February 1952.2

He called Joseph S. Jessop his brother, and he recalled the 1923 funeral in Millville of Genevive Jessop, “the daughter of my brother Joseph S. Jessop.”3 Joseph Smith Jessop, also born in Millville, is recorded independently as the son of Richard Jessop (1838–1899) and Mary Ellen Shaffer (1848–1928).4 In a later addition to the interview, Jessop recalled Lorin C. Woolley speaking of “grandma Jessop” as an elect lady, in a passage the typescript associates with Ellen Shaffer.5 A FamilySearch child record for this Moroni was not in the local genealogy extract used for these pages, so his parents are given here through that brother and that Shaffer identification, not from a separate FamilySearch page in his own name.

This is not the later Moroni Jessop, a son of Farah Barlow Jessop and Paul Jessop, who appears in a modern family record, nor the later men named Moroni Barlow or Moroni Jessop Barlow in recordings and funeral files from the 1980s onward.6

Jessop told Boss he first met John W. Woolley in the fall of 1919 on the Temple Block in Salt Lake City, introduced by Israel Barlow, and that he first met Lorin C. Woolley at East Mill Creek in the fall of 1922. He worked at the Baldwin Radio Plant, where he also met John Y. Barlow. He said he had been intimately associated with the Woolleys and had worked for and lived with them.7

In the same testimony he recounted what he had been told of an eight-hour meeting in September 1886. He said Dan Bateman asked Lorin C. Woolley’s permission to tell what had taken place there, and that Lorin recited things President John Taylor taught in that meeting against the proposed Manifesto.8 There is no separately titled Moroni Jessop journal in the catalog.

He spoke, as Brother Moroni Jessop, in Salt Lake general meetings recorded in the minute books for 1942, 1943, and 1944.9 A diary note by Boss dated 5 December 1951 records that Jessop’s family had moved him to an aged home in Salt Lake City, and that Boss continued to visit him there.10

Appearances

1942

  1. InterviewInterview of Moroni Jessop by Arnold Boss, 1942–1951
  2. DocumentSalt Lake meeting minutes, Volume 2 (1942)

1943

  1. DocumentSalt Lake meeting minutes, Volume 3 (1943)

1944

  1. DocumentSalt Lake meeting minutes, Volume 4 (1944)

Sources

  1. Moroni Jessop, testimony dictated to Arnold Boss, 26 February 1942: born 3 November 1874, Millville, Cache Valley, Utah; age 67; residence 741 South 8th East, Salt Lake City. Reading copy, page 2.
  2. Cover of the archive copy of the interview: “Moroni Jessop died 22 Feb. 1952.” Page 1.
  3. Same interview: “my brother Joe” / “my brother Joseph S. Jessop,” and the death of Genevive Jessop, daughter of Joseph S. Jessop, in the early fall of September or October 1923, with the funeral at Millville. FamilySearch records for Joseph Smith Jessop’s daughter Sarah Genevieve Jessop (KWZM-D1K, 1890–1923) match that name and year.
  4. Joseph Smith Jessop person page, citing Wikipedia and FamilySearch pull-01: born 25 January 1869, Millville; parents Richard Jessop (KWJQ-SL4, 1838–1899) and Mary Ellen Shaffer (KWJK-LHF, 1848–1928).
  5. Additional dictation, 29 November 1943, under the heading “My Mother,” recalling Lorin’s words about grandma Jessop and Ellen Shaffer. Reading copy, page 40.
  6. Family Matters / genealogy master record FM0069, Moroni Jessop, son of Farah Barlow Jessop and Paul Jessop, a later living relative. Later catalog titles also use “Moroni Barlow” and “Moroni Jessop Barlow” for twentieth-century recordings and funerals after 1952. Those are different people.
  7. Interview, 26 February 1942, on first meeting John W. Woolley (fall 1919, Temple Block, introduced by Israel Barlow) and Lorin C. Woolley (fall 1922, East Mill Creek); work at the Baldwin Radio Plant and meeting John Y. Barlow; Boss’s preface that Jessop had worked for and lived with John W. Woolley and Lorin C. Woolley. Pages 2–4.
  8. Interview, on Dan Bateman asking Lorin’s permission to tell what took place at the eight-hour meeting in September 1886, and Lorin reciting what President John Taylor taught there against the proposed Manifesto. Reading copy. No person or event page for the Woolleys or for 1886 has been published.
  9. Salt Lake general meeting minutes, Volumes 2–4 (1942–1944), speaker headings “Brother Moroni Jessop.” Series index.
  10. Arnold Boss diary note, 5 December 1951, at the end of the archive copy. Page 56.