President John Y. Barlow
John Yates Barlow was a man of quiet courage and unflinching loyalty in the service of God. His life spanned from the last quarter of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. He was a witness to the Spanish-American War, as well as World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict, but his battlefield was not on a foreign strand. His call to duty was of a different nature, and his valiant stand is yet unheralded to the world.
He was born March 4, 1874, to Israel Barlow, jr. and Hannah (Anne) Yeates Barlow. His childhood was spent in Bountiful, Utah, where his father was a civic leader, a farmer, and a nurseryman.
He learned to accept and bear responsibility at an early age. When he was 10 years old his father could send him and his younger brother, Ianthus, out for several days at a time to plow the land with a four-horse team. He assisted his father in breaking the brush on the "Sand Hills" area located where the city of Bountiful now stands. As a youth, age 14 to 19 years old, he spent a significant amount of time as herdsman for the cattle herds on Antelope Island, which is surrounded by the Great Salt Lake.
He was called on a mission to West Virginia, and later served again on a mission in the Northern States. He was sound in doctrine and frank in declaring the truth.
He was physically large and strong. In his younger years he enjoyed boxing, and was a champion in the wrestling matches. As a young man he had a serious chest injury, when his denim jacket was caught in the drive line to the thresher machine. He felt the effects of this accident the rest of his life. He had a ruggedness which helped him endure many hardships, but a gentleness which demonstrated a humble and tender-hearted man.
John Yates Barlow was affectionately called "Daddy" by his wives and children. He was confidently, respectfully known to his sons as "Dad". To the saints he was known as "Uncle John" or as "Brother Barlow."
As a boy he received a Patriarchal Blessing with a promise that he would, in due time, bear the fullness of the keys and power of Elijah. This calling of the Lord was to come affter many years of trials and training in preparation for such responsibility. He was dedicated and devoted to the cause of truth.
Of great importance to him was the confidence and love he shared with his father's father, Israel Barlow, Sr. This great counselor and friend was a trusted and intimate friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith and faithfully sustained him. Israel was the Prophet's disciple and bodyguard. He was a fellow member of Zion's Camp, and was called to be one of the first members of the Seventies Quorum. He was a member of the Nauvoo Legion, and following the Martyrdom was intensely loyal to President Brigham Young.
John Yeates Barlow was five years younger than his beloved friend, Joseph Smith Jessop. They both came to this earthly scene at a time when President Young revealed to the Saints that there were then being sent to the earth some of the greatest and noblest spirits that ever graced the footstool of God.
He was three years old when President Young died, eleven years old when President John Taylor went into hiding, and thirteen years old when President Taylor died.
He established a complete confidence with Presidents John and Lorin Woolley during an era, revealed by President Johnson, to be the darkest period in the history of the earth. Under the blessings of President Woolley, Brother Barlow's family was added upon. Indeed he was instructed to live the law of Celestial Marriage openly in a day when the leaders of the people were declaring it to be "an incident and never an essential." He was faithful as an elder, and fearless as a Prophet.
He was a farmer, a laborer, a merchant and an entrepreneur. Most of all he was a teacher who tutored and prepared such steadfast and valiant men as Leroy S. Johnson, Rulon T. Jeffs, Richard S. Jessop, Carl O. N. Holm, Fred M. Jessop, and a host of faithful saints, including wives, sons, daughters, and friends who have the opportunity to be the promised remnant of Jacob, foretold of old, to help "turn the battle at the gate."
He was a humble man, free from every vestige of haughty pride or ostentation. It was not his character to lavish or pretentiously display himself, his family, his friends, or his work merely to impress others. He was a man filled with the gift of discernment. He knew the scriptures well from searching them, even by study and also by faith.
He endured poverty in the extreme, yet was generous to all. He sustained ridicule, both publicly and privately, yet never wavered from his calling. He made the Lord of Hosts his friend and sought first the Kingdom of God and was abundantly blessed with riches in things everlasting.
He suffered Federal and State raids upon his home and people, and was subjected to vexatious lawsuits, slanderous press, unscrupulous lawyers, fading friendships, imprisonment, and ultimately false brethren.
His life in later years was a fulfillment of the expressions of the prophet of old who wrote: "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not the place; for yielding sacrificeth great offences. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler; folly is set in great dignity and the rich sit in low places."
He was inspired to set in motion the United Effort Plan, to give opportunity for the Priesthood followers to develop an understanding of the Holy United Order, that crowning principle, which, with the Celestial Law of Marriage, was declared by President Young to be the capstone principles in the quest for salvation and exaltation. He carried the weight of the Presidency of Priesthood from 1935 to 1949.
Following his arrest in the Federal Raid of 1944, and while the court cases were proceeding, he was for the third time called to the tender experience of laying to rest a faithful and devoted wife. On October 22, 1944, in Short Creek, Utah, a valiant and a faithful ordeal was concluded for his dear wife and help mate, Martha Jessop Barlow.
He spoke to the Saints in a meeting at the Priesthood Home on Lincoln Street in Salt Lake City, on November 5, 1944. His humble and tender remarks were thus:
"I am please to be with you. I have been away for a few Sundays. We all have our ups and downs in life, and the greatest blessing we have is contentment. When you see a person who isn't content, there is always trouble. So let us try to have the Spirit of contentment-for no matter what happens, God is at the helm." *****
"If the Lord sees fit to put trials upon me, I pray He will give me strength to bear them, and there isn't any of us but what has trials. We don't know one another's hearts and what they are going through every day of our lives. These trials and tribulations and sacrifices are the stepping-stones to exaltation. We have been told that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things has not a saving virtue in it."
"We are not fighting the Church, we are contending for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints, (Jude: V3) and we believe the Gospel as Joseph Smith taught it to us, through God explaining it to him, bringing it forth out of obscurity to the Church."
President Barlow's final days were spent at his home at 2157 Lincoln Street in Salt Lake City, Utah. His final and fading hours were comforted in knowing that his most trusted friend, President Leroy S. Johnson was safely back in the United States, returning from an eventful mission to Mexico.
He died on December 29th, 1949, in Salt Lake City. His remains were laid to rest in the Bountiful City Cemetery beside Ida and Ada, two of his wives who were called home long before, with three precious children, and not far removed from his father and noble grandfather. John Yates Barlow was indeed "A prince walking as a servant upon the earth."