George J. Adams - Conversion and Early Church Service

Conversion and Early Church Service

Adams was born in Oxford, New Jersey of Welsh descent. By the 1830s, he had been trained as a Methodist preacher and was a merchant tailor. He was also an aspiring Shakespearean actor, but had little success in being cast in roles.

While travelling from Boston to New York City in February 1840, Adams heard the preaching of Latter Day Saint apostle Heber C. Kimball, and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the same week. Within a month he had become an elder in the church. In 1841, Adams travelled to England as a missionary for the church; he was successful in winning numerous converts and stayed in England for eighteen months.

In October 1843, church president Joseph Smith, Jr. asked Adams to travel with apostle Orson Hyde as a missionary to Russia. In 1844, Smith invited Adams to join the exclusive Council of Fifty. On June 7, 1844, Smith set apart Adams "to be an apostle and special witness ... to the empire of Russia", in preparation for the Mormon political kingdom. However, just prior to Adams' planned departure later that month, all church political efforts were suspended after Smith was killed and the church was thrown into turmoil. Adams returned to New England as a regular missionary, and, along with William Smith, Joseph Smith's surviving brother, created much turmoil among the branches there, claiming to be the "Thirteenth Apostle" and "greater than Paul," and therefore having more authority than any of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On April 10, 1845, Adams was excommunicated by the Quorum of Twelve Apostles for proposing that the church be led by Joseph Smith III (Joseph Smith's eldest son) under the guardianship of William Smith.

Back in Boston in 1847, Adams was the main witness in the sensationalistic trial of Cobb v. Cobb, in which Henry Cobb sued his wife, Augusta Adams Cobb, for divorce, for having committed adultery with Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young; she had married Young in November 1843 without first divorcing Henry. The court case went to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, presided over by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, and was widely reported in newspapers nationwide.