The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

WOODRUFF, Azmon (1802-1889) and (first wife) Elizabeth Norton Hart (1796-1851) and (second wife) Harriet Newell Cole (1823-1870) and (third wife) Elizabeth Barber Pierce (later DeGarmo) (1801-1891)

A brother of Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Azmon Woodruff was a Seventh-day Adventist for almost 20 years before returning to the LDS Church. 1EGWLM 912.3

In 1833 Azmon and his younger brother, Wilford, were baptized into the LDS church in Richland, Oswego, New York, and the following year Azmon was ordained as a local elder. Whereas Wilford stayed with the LDS movement, eventually reaching high office, Azmon left the church in 1834. Receipts and letters appearing in the Review indicate that Azmon Woodruff joined the Sabbatarian Adventist movement about 1851 and left about 1870, subsequently rejoining the LDS church in Utah. His brother, Wilford, noted with satisfaction in 1876 that he “had the privilege of going into a baptismal font with my eldest brother, Azmon Woodruff, and my children, to redeem our dead.” Both Azmon's second and third wives were Sabbathkeepers for a number of years: in the case of Elizabeth B. (née Pierce), from 1851 until 1871, when she was disfellowshipped from the West Monroe, New York, Seventh-day Adventist Church “in consequence of departing from the doctrines of the Bible and embracing ‘Mormon views’ and being baptized into the same.” 1EGWLM 912.4

In 1858 Ellen White responded to a letter from Woodruff (not extant) in which he apparently expressed concern about “wrangling and strife” among members in Oswego County, New York. 1EGWLM 913.1

See: 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Elizabeth N. Woodruff,” New York, Oswego County, Richland, p. 234; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Elizabeth Degarmo,” New York, Oswego County, Parish, p. 5; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “Harriet Woodruff,” New York, Oswego County, West Monroe, p. 95; search terms “Azmon Woodruff,” “Elizabeth Norton Woodruff,” “Harriet Newell Woodruff,” and “Elizabeth Barber Woodruff” in www.findagrave.com; Matthias Foss Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, History of His Life and Labors (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Deseret News, 1909), p. 4; Alfred Andrews, Memorial, Genealogy, and Ecclesiastical History of First Church, New Britain, Conn. (Chicago: A. H. Andrews, 1867), p. 283; Richard E. Bennett, “Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept: Reflections on the 1877 Commencement of the Performance of Endowments and Sealings for the Dead,” BYU Studies 44, no. 3 (2005): 59; Lyman D. Platt, “Early Branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830-1850,” Nauvoo Journal 3 (1991): 38; “S.D.A. Church Book, West Monroe, N.Y.” (undated), Ellen G. White Estate, DF 285c, entry for Dec. 11, 1871; Ellen G. White, Lt 2, 1858 (Mar.); search term “Woodruff” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org. 1EGWLM 913.2