John Alpheus Cutler (February 29, 1784 – June 10, 1864) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement who founded the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) in 1853. He had previously served in several church positions under Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, as well as captain of Smith's personal bodyguard and "Master Builder and Workman on all God's Holy Houses." Following the death of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Cutler at first followed the Twelve Apostles under Brigham Young, but later left Young's church to reorganize the Church of Jesus Christ, with himself serving as its first president. Cutler claimed that this was the sole legitimate continuation of Smith's organization, and he served as its leader until his death.
Early years
Cutler was born in Plainfield, New Hampshire, to Knight Cutler, a veteran of the American Revolution,Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, p. 9 and Elizabeth Boyd. He married Lois Lathrop of Lebanon, New Hampshire, on November 17, 1808.Biography of Alpheus Cutler, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed December 28, 2011) Lathrop was a descendant of Rev. John Lothropp (1584–1653), and thus a distant cousin of Latter Day Saint prophet Joseph Smith. Cutler fought as a private in the War of 1812, serving in Cpt. E. Smith's company of New York Militia from September to December 1812.Alpheus Cutler Military Records. Erroneously named as "Alpheus Cutler's Civil War Record;" Cutler served in the War of 1812, not the U.S. Civil War. Although later Latter Day Saint sources would refer to Cutler as "Captain Alpheus Cutler" and say that he had fought at the battles of Chippewa Falls and Lundy's Lane,Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, p. 10. his service record does not support either assertion.Alpheus Cutler Military Records.
Cutler was a stonemason by occupation. He stood over six feet tall, and was described by one biographer as being "heavy set," "powerfully built," "critical" and "sarcastic," while generally expressing himself in "an extremely candid, sharp and brusque manner.""Jorgensen, Danny, Ph.D.: The Old Fox: Alpheus Cutler. Quoted in Lannius, Roger D. Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, Univ. of Illinois press, p. 159. Some of Cutler's contemporaries would later refer to him as having a "natural parabolical, allegorical, symbolical, mysterious, secretive way of telling things."Jorgensen, Danny, Ph.D.: The Old Fox: Alpheus Cutler. Quoted in Lannius, Roger D. Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, Univ. of Illinois press, p. 166.
Conversion to the Latter Day Saint movement
Following the War of 1812, Cutler and his family were living in western New York, where they heard David W. Patten of the Church of Christ preach about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the ministry of Joseph Smith. Following what they claimed to be a miraculous cure of their daughter by Patten's prayers and laying on of hands, Cutler and his family were baptized by Patten on 20 January 1833.Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, pp. 12–13. He moved to the main Mormon settlement at Kirtland, Ohio, the following year.Alpheus Cutler .
An enthusiastic convert, Cutler was invited to attend Smith's School of the Prophets in Kirtland, and assisted in the construction of the Kirtland Temple there.Fletcher, pp. 15–16. Although brought before the Kirtland High Council on 15 March 1835 on charges of arguing with fellow member Reynolds Cahoon and complaining about not being paid enough for his work on the temple, Cutler weathered the storm and remained in Smith's good graces. During the building's dedication on 27 March 1836, Cutler claimed to have seen a vision of Jesus Christ descending down a long carpet into the temple; he claimed that Christ spoke to him, but did not record what he said.Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, pp. 17–18. He also claimed in this vision to have seen a large gold chain draped across the newly completed edifice."Jorgensen, Danny, Ph.D.: The Old Fox: Alpheus Cutler. Quoted in Lannius, Roger D. Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, Univ. of Illinois press, p. 160.
When Joseph Smith moved church headquarters to Caldwell County, Missouri, in 1837, Cutler followed him there and settled in adjacent Ray County. A victim of Governor Lilburn Boggs's "Extermination Order," Cutler was expelled from the state with the other Latter Day Saints during the winter of 1838–39. Together with members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and other leading Latter Day Saints, Cutler risked death and slipped back into Far West, where as the newly named "chief architect and master workman of all God's holy houses",Fletcher, pg. 25. See also Jorgensen, Danny L., Conflict in the Camps of Israel: The 1853 Cutlerite Schism , Journal of Mormon History, vol. 21, issue 1, pp. 25–64. Cutler laid the cornerstone for the (never-built) Far West Temple.Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, p. 25.
Relocating with his religious brethren to Nauvoo, Illinois, Cutler was appointed one of three members of a committee to oversee construction of the Nauvoo Temple on 3 October 1840. Directed to supervise the cutting of timber for the new edifice, Cutler led a group of workmen into the Pineries along the Black River in Wisconsin, where they spent the next year cutting logs and floating them down the Mississippi River to Nauvoo.
While in Nauvoo, Cutler served on the Nauvoo High Council,Doctrine and Covenants 124:132. All references are to the LDS Church edition of this work. and the Anointed Quorum; he was also named to Joseph Smith's Council of Fifty. Cutler received his endowment under Smith's hand on 12 October 1843,Saints Without Halos: Alpheus Cutler. Retrieved on 2009-08-11. and subsequently became only the sixth person to be given the rare Second Anointing on 15 November—a full week before Brigham Young received hisJoseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ed. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1977), p. 322. Quoted in Recreating Religion, ch. 3, p. 38.—which made him a "King and Priest" in Smith's still-secret Kingdom of God (see Council of Fifty). Cutler also served as captain of Smith's bodyguard.Jorgensen, Danny, Ph.D.:Building the Kingdom of God: Alpheus Cutler and the Second Mormon Mission to the Indians
Prior to Smith's murder in 1844, Cutler was called by Smith to undertake a mission to the "Lamanites" (as Native Americans were often called by the Saints during this time in history). However, he had not yet departed when Smith was killed on 27 June at the jail in Carthage, Illinois.Fletcher, Rupert J. and Daisy Whiting, Alpheus Cutler and The Church of Jesus Christ. Church of Jesus Christ, 1974, p. 43. Cutler was a pallbearer at Smith's funeral.
Events of 1844–51
Cutler remains in Nauvoo Smith's death produced a profound succession crisis in his movement, with members torn between competing claimants for Smith's prophetic mantle. These included the Quorum of the Twelve, led by Brigham Young; James Strang, a newly baptized convert from Wisconsin; and Sidney Rigdon, who had served as Joseph Smith's First Counselor in the First Presidency.
At first, Cutler threw in his lot with the Twelve. He continued to work on the Nauvoo Temple,Fletcher, pp. 36-41. where he was reportedly "sealed" to Lois on 14 February 1846.Johnson, G. Vaughn, Alpheus Cutler, p. 2. Cutler's followers deny that this event ever took place. LDS Church records indicate that Cutler was married to six other women during this timeframe, but the Cutlerite church adamantly denies this or any assertion that Cutler—or Joseph Smith, for that matter—approved of or practiced plural marriage.Fletcher, pp. 44-45, 247–58. Cutlerites tend to assert that these records were forged by individuals bent upon discrediting Cutler, after he founded his own organization. Cutlerites also deny the efficacy of eternal marriages as well, including those contracted in the Nauvoo temple. The names of Cutler's alleged wives, together with the LDS Church sources listing them, may be found at Saints Without Halos: Alpheus Cutler. Although the Nauvoo Temple would be dedicated on 1 May 1846 by apostle Orson Hyde, Cutler would later insist that it had not been finished by the "sufficient time" given in the revelation authorizing its construction;Fletcher, pp. 36-37. The revelation referred to is Doctrine and Covenants 124:31-32 (see below). Although the temple was dedicated, all sources agree that its second storey was never fully finished. See article on Nauvoo Temple. this proved pivotal for his own claims to legitimacy when he decided to commence his own church organization in 1853.
At this point, however, Cutler's loyalties were clearly with Brigham Young; he participated as a member of the High Council in the excommunication trials of Rigdon and Strang, as well as Joseph Smith's own brother, William, who had publicly endorsed Strang. During a discussion over the competing succession claims in the High Council, Cutler indicated that he "felt bound to sustain the Twelve, and all the Quorums of the Church with its present organization, for on that his salvation depended."Fred Collier, The Nauvoo High Council Minute Books, 156–57. Quoted in Recreating Religion, Ch. 3, p. 39.
Winter Quarters
When Brigham Young decided to commence the Saints' trek to the Salt Lake Valley, he appointed Cutler as Captain of "Emigrating Company No. 3," one of twenty-five such travelling units into which the Mormon pioneers were organized.Fletcher, pp. 40-41. Cutler established Cutler's Park, Nebraska, in 1846, and was appointed presiding member of the municipal High Council on 9 August of that year.Saints Without Halos. Barely a month later, he was asked to find a new location for a settlement; on 11 September he selected the site that would become Winter Quarters, Nebraska.Saints Without Halos; see also Johnson, G. Vaughn, Alpheus Cutler, p. 2.
Trouble begins Sometime prior to 1849, Cutler made a decision to withdraw from the main church body under the Twelve, and to go his own way. In the fall of 1847, Brigham Young had sanctioned his request to conduct the mission work among the Indians to which Joseph Smith had assigned him, and Cutler had commenced his efforts with nearby tribes.Jorgensen, pg. 35. In addition to preaching, Cutler and his associates built a mill and farmed land among the Indians. Jorgensen, p. 38; Fletcher, p. 43. All seemed well at first. However, the arrival of apostle Orson Hyde at nearby Kanesville, Iowa, in early 1848 changed the situation. Cutler soon became the subject of lurid rumors concerning his Indian mission, with spurious reports indicating that he had been elected as the "Generalissimo" of a union of "thirty-seven nations". Further allegations of disloyalty to the Twelve by Cutler among the "Lamanites" fueled the fire; a visit by Ezra T. Benson, George A. Smith and others to Cutler's mission only partially calmed the situation.Jorgensen, p. 38–41. Although Brigham Young wrote to Cutler, offering him aid to move west, a house in Salt Lake City and a warm welcome once he arrived,Jorgensen, p. 51. Brigham signed the letter: "your sincere friend and brother in time & all eternity". the "Old Fox" (as Cutler was affectionately called) refused to go.Cutler did author a reply in which he promised to move to Utah after completing his work among the Indians, but he never followed through on it. Jorgensen, p. 53.