Description

Consecration in Action

On the 20 th of January 1816, Frederick Kesler, was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania to Frederick and Sarah Lindsay Kesler. His father was a trapper by trade and moved his young family around depending on where the furs were plentiful. Young Frederick grew up in the pristine forests along the rivers and streams in homes most picturesque.

When still a lad his mother died, and his father gave out the six children to other families. Frederick’s father then went out to the far west to trap furs and was never seen again. Frederick grew up separated from his family—a lonely orphan.

When Frederick was 15, he realized there was no one to take care of him and that he “would have to shift for myself,” he said. He learned the trade of a millwright and soon established himself in eastern Iowa in a place called Augusta. There he married Emeline Parker.

Frederick became well-acquainted with the saints in Nauvoo and especially the Prophet Joseph Smith describing him as “a man of fine physical organization, standing a little over six feet in height, with broad shoulders and weighing in at 210 pounds with a prominent nose, large blue eyes, and long eyelashes. His
features were sharp. His hair was light, his face bearing a light beard and was always clean-shaven. His disposition was mild, pleasing, affable, and kind. His appearance, manners, and conversation were all calculated to impress those that came in contact with him. Thus, he was indeed an extraordinary person and left a very favorable impression on those who saw and heard him converse.”

Shortly after, Frederick and Emeline were baptized. He was there at the laying of the cornerstones of the Nauvoo Temple, “and stood near the Prophet when he laid the S. E. cornerstone. The martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph struck Frederick with a pain that he said was “Simply intense. I wept like a child.”

In 1845, President Brigham Young made special request of Frederick that he move his family from Augusta to Nauvoo to work on the Temple. “As requested,” Frederick said, “I immediately went to work on our temple.” On January 9, 1846, the Kesler’s were endowed and sealed in the Nauvoo Temple they helped build.

Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in 1851, Frederick determined to build a mill for himself and set himself up in business. He went to discuss the matter with President Brigham Young who listened attentively and then told him he could no doubt accomplish the enterprise and be successful, if not wealthy, but then, Frederick said, “He wished me to superintend mill building for himself and that the
Church would have considerable work in my line which he wished me to look after as well, and that my services would be of more benefit to the Church than for me to go off and build for myself, and that I should be more abundantly blessed by so doing so. He wished me to get a lot and locate in Salt Lake City which I did at once by purchasing a lot in the 16 th ward and in the early spring of 1852 commenced business for himself and the Church as he had requested.”

This is the law of consecration in action. Frederick established his home and then went to work building waterpower on the Temple Block to run machinery. Not long after he was called to serve as Bishop of the Salt Lake 16 th ward—a position he would hold for the next 43 years.

Source:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWJC-293