Brent Ashworth doesn’t remember much about his grandmother, but her legacy lives on in him. Referencing his vast collection of historical memorabilia, and with a touch of humor, he explains, “My story stems from my grandmother, who I don’t remember, but I feel like I know her because she was a real pack rat.”
Like his grandmother, Brent is a lover of things with a story. He has amassed a collection of artifacts from historical figures and events ranging from Napoleon to modern sports figures and notable leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A Collecting Legacy
“My grandmother saved everything,” Brent shares. “When Grandma died, I remember my grandfather saying that he sure wished he could pull his car in the garage, but he didn’t have the heart to go through her stuff.”
As a young boy Brent watched the majority of his grandmother’s collection go up in flames as his aunts and uncles cleaned out his grandparents’ house after they had both passed. Years later, he asked his mother if they had kept anything, and she brought down a small box from the attic. She didn’t want it, so she gave it to Brent.
Some might have dismissed it as junk, but, among other things, it contained twelve letters and one statement written by Heber J. Grant, who served as the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1918 to 1945.
Brent recognized the hidden value of the box’s contents.
Brent in his shop sharing his collection
Since the 1960s, Brent has been dedicated to finding and keeping the gems within the “junk.” He says, “Whether it’s artifacts or letters that they wrote, or photographs or even old newspapers, I collect everything. We have over a million items in our collection.” Brent continues, “I collect because it brings history alive and it gets me closer to the individuals. The more you learn about the item, the more you learn about the person.”
Brent believes that these unique items need a place to rest more permanently. He says, “We’ve donated for over 50 years to the Church, thousands of things, but we’re kind of reaching a point now that the better things are needing to find a home.”
As a collector, he works with different dealers and collectors, sometimes trading for items and sometimes paying for them. He also occasionally donates or sells the artifacts he finds to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints directly, and some find their way to the Church through more convoluted routes. For example, Frank Cannon gave a first edition Book of Mormon to Wilford Woodruff as a birthday present in 1898. This copy was one that Brent obtained from the family of a great-granddaughter of Wilford Woodruff who passed away. Later, Brent sold it to an individual who then donated it to the Church History Library so it could be preserved for all Church members.
The Process of Collecting
The process by which documents, books, pictures, and artifacts are found depends on the situation. Sometimes they are found in an attic, and sometimes they have passed through many hands over the years. Brent has learned how to determine the authenticity of documents and artifacts with questionable provenance; some family heirlooms become legendary or mythical as the stories and objects are passed down through generations, and individuals are disheartened to learn that something they thought was “carried across the plains by great grandma” was actually bought after their ancestor moved to Idaho in the 1900s.
Other documents, like the forgeries of Mark Hofmann, required years to unravel and cost Brent a lot of money and heartache—and perhaps almost his life. Brent first met Mark Hofmann in 1981, and over the course of the next four years purchased from or traded with Mark for many documents. Brent, along with other private collectors of historical and literary materials, and some of the most distinguished American historical institutions and antiquities specialists, eventually discovered that asking Mark Hofmann about a specific document or individual led to his made-to-order forgery operation.
Brent’s first inquiry to Mark was about his desire to find a letter signed by Joseph Smith. Mark responded that he just happened to know of a letter written by Joseph Smith to his wife Emma and worked out a deal with Brent to acquire it. Another document Brent purchased was a letter supposedly written by Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith; it was later proven to be a forgery. Mark Hofmann forged an unknown number of documents related to Latter-day Saint and American history, including signatures of the Declaration of Independence and a “new” poem by Emily Dickinson.
By 1985 Mark Hofmann was deeply in debt, and perhaps in an attempt to buy some time to create the documents he had promised to various collections, Mark Hofmann constructed three bombs. Two were set off on October 15, 1985, tragically killing Steven Christensen, a private collector, and Kathy Sheets, the wife of Gary Sheets who had worked with Steven Christensen. Brent was scheduled to meet with Mark on October 16, and Brent’s wife begged him not to go. That day, when Mark returned to his car, he accidentally detonated the bomb in his trunk. Brent believes the third bomb was intended for him. Some believe Mark’s motive for the forgeries was simply money and publicity, but Brent believes it was much more complicated than that: he believes Mark Hofmann wanted to alter Church history and by extension destroy the faith of Church members whose testimonies are tied to that history.
For Brent, the documents related to Church history tell a story, and the more documents we are able to find and share, and the more details we know about the individuals who were involved in the history of the Church, the better our understanding will be. Our understanding of God’s dealings with His prophets, and every individual seeking truth, will help us recognize God’s hand in our lives and how God works through imperfect people to accomplish His work.
A Testimony of the Prophets
After getting to know President Heber J. Grant through the letters to his grandmother, Brent wanted to find documents written by other Church presidents. “Most collectors have a set in mind. And so I’ve done that about 15 times, from Joseph Smith on down to now President Nelson,” Brent said.
While he has read the written works of all the prophets, even from their teenage years, he has never seen any evidence that they were not being prepared by God.
“Frankly, I’d hate to have anybody collecting stuff I’d written when I was a teenager. I can’t remember what I wrote, but I can imagine,” Brent says. “It finally dawned on me a few years ago. I’ve never seen anything written by any of them that detracted from the calling they later had. It may have made them human, but there was nothing out of line or immoral in any of their comments. And I thought that was kind of a testimony to me that the Lord does watch over us. Not just them, but all of us, and it gave me an incentive to keep collecting.”
The first six Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, courtesy of Brent Ashworth
Learning from Wilford
An important part of Brent’s collection of Latter-day Saint history comes from Wilford Woodruff, a prolific keeper of records and faithful journal writer. He has many of Wilford and Phebe Woodruff’s letters, a saddle made for Wilford Woodruff, Wilford’s fly-fishing kit, some of Wilford’s books, and much more. Other items that belonged to Wilford Woodruff, including his personal copy of the Book of Mormon, have passed through Brent’s hands but now have other good homes.
1831 document written by Wilford Woodruff, courtesy of Brent Ashworth
“Wilford kept all his letters, and I’m glad somebody preserved them,” Brent notes. “He filled in most of the gaps. His journals are the best we’ve got on the early history of the Church, and part of his unique history, I think, are his letters and other things he saved along the way.”
Brent’s time collecting writings of Wilford Woodruff and other Church leaders has taught him about the importance of record keeping. “If you don’t write, you’re forgotten. And Wilford knew that, I’m sure, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. Not just to be remembered, but to remember his testimony, to remember what he lived for, what his children died for, what his family put up with, and all of our families, basically. He was writing for everybody. That’s what I like about Wilford, and his testimony is hard to beat.”
Brent notes that Wilford Woodruff could have gone down in history for many things. “The first fly fisherman west of the Mississippi, he had more accidents than any other prophet and survived them. He survived them because the Lord was looking after him. His life could have easily ended any time earlier than that, but he was preserved for this purpose, and you can see why as you follow his life history,” he shares.
Some of the stories Brent has possession of include deep thoughts of Wilford Woodruff’s heart— pieces of his testimony, evidence of God preparing Wilford to accept the gospel, and the intimate struggles of his family. He has a set of letters between Wilford and his wife Phebe bearing the news of their daughter Sarah Emma’s death at two years old. Wilford’s response to hearing the news is an example of the treasures we can find in historical collections: “In the midst of this affliction, meditation and sorrow I truly rejoice before the Lord, I rejoice that God hath taught us the principles of life and death, time and eternity, the resurrection and the judgment. I rejoice that we are not called to mourn without hope, but that we have the fullest assurance that we shall meet our child in the first resurrection.”[1]
Wilford Woodruff also wrote a memorandum of sorts on liberty and the Founding Fathers two years before he was baptized. Brent said, “It’s so ironic that 47 years later he’d be the one to baptize and do the work for them.”
Here is an excerpt from the memorandum, written without him yet knowing of the restored Church: “But where now are those noble men that turned the wheels of American independence? We hope and trust their names are enrolled on that golden list of everlasting life and their immortal spirits in that society whose glory will never tarnish, but will grow brighter and brighter long after the spheres of nations stand still.”[2]
Brent seeks out these documents and items as a collector, but also as a protector. He hopes these items will be preserved and kept safe. He says, “I just say, please, nobody just throw that to Deseret Industries, or recycling.” He knows that many people may not even recognize the precious artifacts that are contained in what looks like a stack of old papers or junk in their grandparents’ basement or their parents’ attic. Luckily, Wilford Woodruff’s great-great-granddaughter opened the trunk that had been stored in her mother’s basement and realized that it held his journals and many other unique records—or these documents that help form the backbone of nineteenth-century Church history would have been lost forever.
A Small Part
Brent has generously shared his collected documents and artifacts related to Wilford Woodruff with the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, a contribution that has made a huge difference in the progress of the Project. A total of 48 libraries, religious organizations, state archives, Woodruff family members, and private collectors like Brent have allowed access to over 13,600 documents, adding up to more than 45,000 pages of personal and Church history now being transcribed and made universally accessible and searchable through the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project.
“I’m excited anytime anybody takes an interest because I have original documents and I think you have a duty to share those,” Brent says. “I didn’t get in it for the money. I got into it for the history and for being able to make a contribution.”
When asked what he would tell someone considering sharing digital images of documents or artifacts with the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation to enable access to them at wilfordwoodruffpapers.org, Brent responded, “Do it. We want to fill in all the gaps. Mine is a small contribution, but I think it’s important for these things to be shared.”
Brent Ashworth’s part in the progress of the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project is nowhere near small—the world is better for his role in bringing history to life for everyone else. He says, “I don’t think I’m anything important, but I’m a guy that loves history and loves to share it.”
The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation’s mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seeks to make Wilford Woodruff’s records universally accessible to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ and live His gospel. See wilfordwoodruffpapers.org.
If you have digital images of any historical documents or Woodruff-related artifacts that you are willing to share with the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project, please send a message to co*****@*******************rs.org.
Lyndie Jackson is working toward a degree in Public Relations at Brigham Young University. Originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, Lyndie served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hermosillo, Mexico, where she developed a love for the Spanish language and the Mexican people. She was drawn to the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project by a desire to learn more about Church history and enjoys being part of the organization’s efforts to touch lives through the messages in Wilford Woodruff’s records.
Notes:
[1] Letter from Wilford Woodruff to Phebe Whittemore Carter Woodruff, October 30, 1840, p. 1, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/letter/1840-10-30. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization standardized.
[2] Composition on Patriotism, 1831, p. 1, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/education/composition-on-patriotism. Spelling and punctuation standardized.
