King Follett and the Twenty-Three Others: A Congregation of Early Witnesses Anointed Together in the Kirtland Temple (Individual Records)

The Kirtland Elders' Quorum Record documents a remarkable gathering of early Church members who received sacred anointings together in January 1836. Beyond the names already documented separately, the following elders were present at the January 25, 1836 anointing and deserve to be named as individual witnesses of the Kirtland outpouring:

JONATHAN STEVENS — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

WILLIAM DRAPER — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

EDMUND BOSLEY — He donated land to the Church (referenced in Joseph Smith Papers index) and was among those anointed.

JAMES WEBB — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

ISAAC McWITHEY — Elder; his brother Joel McWithey was also anointed that same day.

JOEL McWITHEY — Elder; brother of Isaac McWithey; both anointed together.

SAMUEL CANFIELD — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

JOHN GOULD — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

STEPHEN STARKS — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

SAMUEL PHELPS — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

EZRA THORNTON — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

SELAH J. GRIFFIN — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

JOSEPH ROSE — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

ROBERT CULBERSON — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

GIDEON ORMSBY — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

SAMUEL NEWCOMB — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

BLAKE BALDWIN — Elder, present at the 1836 Kirtland Temple anointings.

Following their anointings, the record states: 'the Lord poured out his spirit, and some spake with tongues and prophesied.' These men were present when heaven touched earth in the Kirtland Temple — ordinary elders whose names are preserved in the official minutebook of the Church as witnesses of an extraordinary Pentecostal outpouring.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Second Edition) and The Joseph Smith Papers, Journal, 1835–1836):

To Monday [January 25, 1836]: In the evening the high priests and elders, all who did not belong to the quorums, met in the Lord’s house, and also the Lesser priesthood, with the bishops at their head, to receive instructions relative to washing and annointing. a large number of elders convened; more than I had supposed resided in Kirtland. . . . To this end, washing, anointing, and blessing the presidents of quorums began 21 and 22 January 1836. In the coming weeks, these rituals were administered in hierarchal order to each church officer in the House of the Lord. The ordinances were accompanied by exclamations of “hosanna” in unison. They remained in the House of the Lord through the night, prophesying, speaking in tongues, and seeing visions. Many felt that the promise of an endowment of spiritual power had been fulfilled, and elders began leaving Kirtland the following day to perform missions.