Review
Title: William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet
Author: Daniel P. Stone
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Biography
Year Published: 2018
Number of Pages: 400
Binding: Cloth
ISBN: 978-1-56085-268-1
Price: $35.95
Reviewed by Reed Russell for the Association for Mormon Letters
Daniel P. Stone, a PhD candidate in American religious history, has written a magnificent new biography of William Bickerton, the founding president of the church now known as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). Stone’s biography of Bickerton is a very welcome, and much needed, contribution to the dearth of scholarship heretofore available concerning Bickerton.
Having been granted access to a wealth of archived materials that have previously gone unpublished, Stone has skillfully presented a comprehensive biography of the founder of the third largest Latter Day Saint church in the world.
English immigrant William Bickerton came to America in 1831. He worked the coal mines of (now) West Virginia and later settled near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He never met Joseph Smith personally, but he came in contact with Sidney Rigdon (who was in Pittsburgh as a vice-presidential candidate) just after the death of Joseph Smith and the ensuing succession crisis.
Rigdon’s charisma, his tremendous eloquence in public speaking, and his views on spiritual gifts and communitarianism captivated Bickerton. He’s introduced to the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s restoration work and he has now found the foundations for the rest of his long life of ninety years.
The Civil War plays an important backdrop to Bickerton’s story. Stone deftly portrays how Smith’s 1832 prophecies concerning the Civil War all come to pass in front of his eyes and he sees the war as a catalyst for the ushering in of a new millennial utopia.
In 1874, Bickerton initiates a missionary endeavor of the church in what is now St. John, Kansas – the edge of Indian territory. He proclaims the area “Zion Valley” and it will be his home for the rest of his life.
Stone concludes the book with sixteen pages of the “Testimony of William Bickerton.” Bickerton wrote the autobiographical reminiscence in 1903 at the age of eighty-eight. It now appears in print for the very first time.
Readers of restoration history will certainly appreciate this fascinating contribution. Stone’s prose is exceptionally engaging and readable. The fourteen chapters of this 400-page book are a pleasurable reading experience. There are twenty-eight wonderful photographs and illustrations included at the end of the book and the only minor quibble I have with the book is that I would have loved to have seen them distributed throughout the text. A few good maps would also have been a welcome inclusion.
Next to Bickerton’s grave in St. John, Kansas there is a memorial – a lectern and book, open like a pulpit Bible, with the engraved words, Successor to Joseph Smith. Noble, visionary, generous, forgiving. All speak of him. He walked with God.