From Quaker To Latter-day Saint, Bishop Edwin D. Woolley by Leonard J. Arrington

From Quaker To Latter-day Saint, Bishop Edwin D. Woolley by Leonard J. Arrington
 This is the story of Edwin Dilworth Woolley-pioneer merchant, developer, and legislator; Latter-day Saint bishop for twenty-nine years; husband of six, father of twenty-six, and patriarch of a family that now numbers in the thousands, including many outstanding civic and church leaders.
 It is also the story of Mormonism, for tavern-keeper Woolley joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints early in its history after a “wild ride to Kirtland to meet Joseph Smith.” He missed the Prophet but followed him to Nauvoo, where the Woolleys contracted cholera with the rest of the Saints and where Edwin gradually reestablished himself as a prosperous businessman.
 But Edwin Woolley was not a rash man. As a young Quaker in Chester County, Pennsylvania, he had let his favorite sweetheart leave for Ohio with her father before making up his mind to ask for her hand. The first time he went to a Mormon preaching service Mary was peeved, but she was soon converted while Edwin deliberated for months.
 Edwin matured after the martyrdom, voted fro Brigham Young as Joseph’s successor, then followed the new leader west to start all over for the third time. When the Saints left Nauvoo in the dead of winter Edwin, by circumstance or plan, lingered until he had money and dried apples enough to keep his family from starving on the frontier.
 Bishop Woolley was Brigham Young’s friend and hard-working business manager for many years. They frequently crossed, both being strong-willed and out-spoken, but Edwin remained a bishop and maintained the respect and affection of President Young, though as a bishop he sometimes eyed “frivolous” new Church programs with skepticism until his superiors became exasperated with him-and he finally convinced himself of the worth of the programs.
 But Edwin Woolley was an astute bishop and too warmhearted to be disliked. He loved good talk and good times. The Mormons were nothing if not social and besides the Woolley family papers, the diaries of their friends and neighbors give flavor to this fascinating biography. They represent an honest, colorful people who suffered and prayed, laughed and dances, and shared hardship and success together. Modern Mormons do not know themselves until they know their precedent-setters-pioneers like Edwin D. Woolley and his family.