Zenas H. Gurley, Sr.

Who was Zenas H. Gurley, Sr.?

Zenas Hovey Gurley, Sr. was an important leader in the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on April 1, 1838 and became an elder soon thereafter. By the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1844 he had been ordained a "seventy." He led a branch of the church in Yellowstone, Wisconsin that affiliated with James J. Strang in the early years after the succession crisis, but he broke with Strang over the issue of plural marriage.

Along with Jason W. Briggs, Gurley became an important early leader of the "New Organization" of the church that developed in the Midwest in the 1850s. In 1853, he was called as an Apostle in the RLDS Church, which is today known as the Community of Christ. Along with William Marks, Gurley ordained Joseph Smith III as president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1860.

Gurley's son Zenas H. Gurley, Jr. was called as an RLDS Church apostle in 1873.