Heman (aka Herman) Bassett

Heman (aka Herman) Bassett

Click here to go back to Heman on the genealogy pages when you are done reading here.

In October of 2003, I did some research in the Church History department of the Church Offices Building as I wanted to see as many original sources as possible about the Heman Bassett who is quoted in Doctrine & Covenants (hereafter D&C). That seems a logical place to start with my quotes. Next will be some background information on the time in which Heman was involved with the Latter Day Saints. Then comes the official LDS bio on Heman from Who's Who in the Doctrine & Covenants, followed by the sources to which it refers.

D&C section 52:37: In consequence of transgression, let that which was bestowed upon Heman Basset be taken from him, and placed upon the head of Simonds Ryder.

A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, Volume Two by Stephen E Robinson & H Dean Garrett.
Church Library Book Area - M223.04 R664c v.2 2001
The commentary starting with section 41 gives background for several sections.

"Even before their conversion to the gospel, some of the Saints in the Kirtland area had been trying, under the leadership of Sidney Rigdon, to live primitive Christianity - the pure and original Christianity of the New Testiment - by following the teachings of the New Testament and nothing else. When theyread in Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35 that the ancient saints "were together, and had all things common," they formed a communal society called "the family" and practiced group ownership of all individual resources. they called this arrangement having "common stock." When Sidney Rigdon joined the Church, he went to Fayette and invited the Prophet to Kirtland, but joseph sent John Witmer instead, and sidney stayed in Fayette to ast as scribe for the Prophet. Though most of "the family" in Kirtland had since joined the Church, they were still involved in living with "common stock" when John Whitmer arrived from Fayette to preside over the community. John, seeing the problems created by common stock, wrote to the Prophet and requested that he come to Kirland. Joseph inquired of the Lord and was told to go quickly.

According to Joseph Smith's account in History of the Church, he and Emma, in company with Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge, arrived in Kirtland, Ohio, around 1 February 831, and perhaps as early as 30 January. [...] On his arrival, Joseph Smith found a young, enthusiastic, branch of the Church in Kirland. His own observation was that the members were "striving to do the will of God, so far as they knew it, though some strange notions and false spirits had crept in among them. With a little caution and some wisdom, I soon assisted the brethren and sisters to overcome them. The plan of 'common stock,' which had existed in what was called 'the family,' whose members generally had embraced the everlasting Gospel, was readily abandoned for the more perfect law of the Lord; and the false spirits were easily discerned and rejected by the light of revalation."

John Witmer added the following information to Joseph's account: "About these days Joseph and Sidney arrived at Kirtland to the joy and satisfacton of the Saints. The disciples had all things common, and were going to destruction very fast as to temporal things; for they considered from reading the scripture that what belonged to a brother, belonged to any of the brethren. Therefore they would take each other's clothes and other property and use it without leave which brought on confusion and disappointment, for they did not understand the scripture." For example, when Levi Hancock was visiting "the family," Heman Bassett, one of its members, took Levi's pocket watch and sold it. He later explained that he had thought "it was all in the family."

Further on, the commentary on D&C section 52:37 says:

Heman Basset. One of the Kirtland Saints involved in "the family" before the arrival of Joseph Smith, Heman was one of those most caught up in the false spiritual manifestations discussed in Doctrine and covenants 46, 49-50. He had left the Church by May 1831, a month before this revelation was received. "that which was bestowed upon" him was the office of an elder in the Church and a call to preach the gospel in the Kirtland area.

Who's Who in the Doctine & Covenants by Susan Easton Black
Church Library Book Area - M223.095 B627w 1997 pgs 11-12

Heman A. Basset
D&C 52:37
Birth: 1814, Guildhall, Essex County, Vermont (proved wrong, see genealogy)
Death: 1876, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

The youngest men named in the Doctrine and Covenants were Joseph Smith and Heman Basset, both seventeen years old when first mentioned. The Prophet's name appeared in connections with the visitation of the angel Moroni (see D&C 2), and Heman's name was listed with his missionary call D&C 52:37).

In 1830 Heman was residing with one hundred individuals, known collectively as the "Family," sharing all things equally on the Isaac Morley farm in Kirtland.(1) In October 1830 he, along with many of the "Family," was baptized by the missionaries who had been sent to the Lamanites.

When the missionaries left the area, false spirits were detected among the new converts and "many strange visions were seen."(2) According to local historian Josiah Jones, Heman Basset had a vision that called him to "go into the workd and preach."(3) Levi Hancock was one of the first to observe Heman as he taught: "Bassett would behave like a baboon. He said he had a revelation he had received in Kirtland from the hand of an angel, he would read it and show pictures of a course of angeles declared to be Gods, then would testify of the truth of the work and I believed it all, like a fool."(4)

Not only was Levi deceived by Heman, but he was also robbed: "While I was in the room at 'Father Morley's' ... this same [Heman] Bassett came to me and took my watch out of my pocket and walked off as though it was his. I thought he would bring it back soon but was disappointed as he sold it. I asked him what he meant by selling my watch. 'Oh, said he, I thought it was all in the family.' I told him I did not like such family doing and I would no bear it."(5)

Despite his shortcomings, Heman was ordained an elder in the spring of 1831. He attended the fourth general conference of the Church, held on 3 Jun 1831 in a schoolhouse on the morley farm. At the conference he was sternly warned by the Prophet Joseph Smith, "Heamon Basset you sit still the Devil wants to sift you."(6) He did not heed the warning, and three days after the conference a revelation was given instruction Symonds Ryder to receive the missionary calling once meant for Heman: "In consequence of transgression, let that which was bestowed upon Heman Basset be taken from him, and placed upon the head of Simonds Ryder" (D&C 52:37).(7)

Heman Basset was among the first members of the Church to leave the fellowship of the Saints in Ohio. Little is known of his later life except that he managed a hotel at Petaluma, California, formany years before migrating across the country to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1876.

Notes:

1. See John Witmer, An Early Latter Day Saint History: The Book of John Whitmer, ed. F. Mark McKiernana and Roger D. Launius (Independance Mo.: Herald Publishing House, 1980), p.37 n.2 (LDS Library Reserved Book Area CL M273.2 W615 B 1980)

2. Joseph Smith, "Try the Spirits," Times and Seasons 3 (1 April 1842): 747. (copy online)

3. Joshiah Jones, "History of the Mormonites, Kirland, 1831," Evangelist 9 (1 June 1841): 135-36. (copy online)

4. Autobiography of Levi Ward Hancock, typescript, p. 18, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. (available on LDS Family History Suite CD)

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., p. 22

7. The correct spelling of Ryder's first name is Symonds.