William Grady, early LDS member
As I was driving home through Brookeville, MD a couple weeks back, I thought of my Grady ancestors. William Grady (1817 - 1906) lived for a time there and was a school teacher. Some of his family is buried there. I remembered how we have record of his LDS baptism in 1898 as an old man in Norwood, Md. I always wondered about the church at that point and how he came to it. The next day, I did some searches and came across an enlightening article on Deseret News (google search: William Grady Rockville). It is from 16 July 1897.
The third paragraph is the interesting one:
On Monday morning we separated for our fields of labor, with a renewed determination to serve the Lord, and do all in our power to spread the truth. After leaving the other Elders we called on an old gentleman by the name of William Grady, who joined the Church in 1839, in Philadelphia, and we found him feeling well and apparently as strong in the faith as ever. He says he is an Elder and presided over a branch of the Church, but his circumstances would not permit him to emigrate to Zion, so he drifted off by himself. But he says he has tried to live the life of a Latter-day Saint. He was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith, also Orson and Parley P. Pratt, Lorenzo Snow and other of the Apostles. He is now 81 years old. At his request we administered to him for his hearing, and as soon as we had removed our hands, he said he could hear much better.
Seriously fascinating! It is not just coincidence in 1841 that he named his Philadelphia-born son “Hiram Smith” Grady (the Prophet Joseph’s Smith’s older brother was Hyrum Smith) and his next daughter was named Emma (Emma was Joseph’s wife).
I heard before that LDS members would often be rebaptized. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, members were rebaptized as an act of rededication or as an act of healing. According to the article, the practice was discontinued in 1897, due to misuse by some Church members. William Grady was baptized again in 1898 – perhaps word of discontinuation took time to reach the members in Maryland.
As a member of the LDS faith, I found this news very heart-warming. My parents joined the church in 1976 right after I was born. Although we have no reason to believe that there are any other LDS William Grady descendants, I am seriously moved at the thought that my 4th great-grandfather knew the Prophet Joseph Smith, Orson and Parley P. Pratt, Lorenzo Snow and others.
The third paragraph is the interesting one:
On Monday morning we separated for our fields of labor, with a renewed determination to serve the Lord, and do all in our power to spread the truth. After leaving the other Elders we called on an old gentleman by the name of William Grady, who joined the Church in 1839, in Philadelphia, and we found him feeling well and apparently as strong in the faith as ever. He says he is an Elder and presided over a branch of the Church, but his circumstances would not permit him to emigrate to Zion, so he drifted off by himself. But he says he has tried to live the life of a Latter-day Saint. He was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith, also Orson and Parley P. Pratt, Lorenzo Snow and other of the Apostles. He is now 81 years old. At his request we administered to him for his hearing, and as soon as we had removed our hands, he said he could hear much better.
Seriously fascinating! It is not just coincidence in 1841 that he named his Philadelphia-born son “Hiram Smith” Grady (the Prophet Joseph’s Smith’s older brother was Hyrum Smith) and his next daughter was named Emma (Emma was Joseph’s wife).
I heard before that LDS members would often be rebaptized. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, members were rebaptized as an act of rededication or as an act of healing. According to the article, the practice was discontinued in 1897, due to misuse by some Church members. William Grady was baptized again in 1898 – perhaps word of discontinuation took time to reach the members in Maryland.
As a member of the LDS faith, I found this news very heart-warming. My parents joined the church in 1976 right after I was born. Although we have no reason to believe that there are any other LDS William Grady descendants, I am seriously moved at the thought that my 4th great-grandfather knew the Prophet Joseph Smith, Orson and Parley P. Pratt, Lorenzo Snow and others.
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