If you answer the title question “Who was in the First Presidency of the High Priesthood?”, you are wrong if you say:
Joseph Smith
Frederick G. Williams
Sidney Rigdon…
The FIRST, First Presidency was:
Joseph Smith
Jesse Gause (Pronounced like house. No known photo of Jesse Gause)
Sidney Rigdon
I was visiting my good friend named Steven Blake at his home in Midvale, Ut this week. He is an amazing artist of historical items, especially of the Book of Mormon. He does not paint, he creates replicas of scriptures, canes, swords, knives, spears, leather bags of the pioneer days etc.
I have several of his replicas myself and they are very well done. Here are pictures of some of his work.
Steve Blake has been given permission from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and specifically Elder Dallin H. Oaks over 20 years ago, to create replicas of the Books of Mormon and was allowed to copy prominent peoples signatures to place inside of these books. Some of the signatures he was given to copy are seen below:
While I was looking inside of one of the pictures of signatures, I noticed his replica signatures had a name I had never know about. the name as a member of the First Presidency said, Jesse Gause. I was very surprised as I had not remembered hearing that name, so I began to investigate. That is why I share the information below in the article.
Presidency of the High Priesthood
This Presidency of the High Priesthood was the forerunner to the First Presidency of the Church. I asked Grok the question, “what was the first, first presidency of the Mormon church?” Here is what Grok said,
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the Mormon Church) was officially organized on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, New York. At that time, no formal three-man First Presidency existed. Instead, the highest leadership was simply:
Joseph Smith – sustained as First Elder
Oliver Cowdery – sustained as Second Elder
These titles come directly from Doctrine and Covenants 20:2–3 (revealed before the Church was organized) and were unanimously approved by the six founding members present.
For the first two years, Joseph Smith led the Church alone as its prophet and “first elder,” with Oliver Cowdery as his closest associate. A formal First Presidency of three was not organized until March 8, 1832, when Joseph Smith chose:
Jesse Gause (first counselor)
Sidney Rigdon (second counselor)
Gause was excommunicated later that year and replaced by Frederick G. Williams in 1833. So, in 1830 itself, the three key leaders people sometimes think of are Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and (later in the year) Sidney Rigdon, but Rigdon was not yet a counselor and the official First Presidency did not yet exist.” Grok AI Nov 4, 2025
QUESTION
“How do you explain the Church publishing D&C 81 with Frederick G. Williams’ name inserted, when the revelation was originally given to Jesse Gause? Didn’t Williams deserve his own revelation rather than this already “used” one?
Mission calls are also given through inspiration from heaven, but the First Presidency doesn’t find it necessary to create new wording for each one. The same instructions that were suitable for Jesse Gause were perfectly fine for Frederick G. Williams, who would fill the same position and have the same responsibilities.” https://latterdaysaintandhappy.com/points-to-ponder-in-dc-81-83/
Jesse Gause: Counselor to the Prophet D&C 81
by Robin Scott Jensen
“The early Church underwent significant changes to its organization in a relatively short period of time. Many of these changes can be tracked by reading the early revelations given to individuals in the Doctrine and Covenants. For modern readers, some of the earliest revelations reference lesser-known organizations or individuals. One such revelation, given on March 15, 1832 (now Doctrine and Covenants 81), was given to a relatively unknown figure from Church history: Jesse Gause. Born in 1784, Jesse Gause was raised in Pennsylvania and lived for a time in Delaware. He joined the Society of Friends (the Quakers) in 1806, married Martha Johnson in 1815, and had moved to Ohio by the following year. Five years later, he returned to Delaware. After the death of his first wife in 1828, he moved closer to his extended family—who were members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (the Shakers)—for help in supporting his children. By 1829, he had joined the Shaker faith. He remarried in 1830 to Minerva Eliza Byram and settled in a Shaker community in North Union, Ohio, just 15 miles from Kirtland, Ohio.
Exactly how Jesse came to be baptized is unknown, but he quickly gained Joseph Smith’s trust and rose to prominence in the Church. On March 8, 1832, at Hiram, Ohio, Gause and Sidney Rigdon were appointed counselors to Joseph Smith in the newly formed presidency of the high priesthood. Joseph’s own appointment as president of the high priesthood had taken place in January. This presidency was the forerunner to the First Presidency of the Church.
Gause not only acted as a counselor to Joseph Smith, but he also served a mission, traveled to Missouri on Church business, and served as a scribe on the Bible revision project, later known as the Joseph Smith Translation. Like many other members of the early Church, he showed his dedication to his new faith through his labors in helping the cause of Zion.
Sidney Rigdon, who had been baptized in Ohio in late 1830 and had served as a scribe for Joseph Smith, had already been the subject and recipient of several revelations. The revelation that is now Doctrine and Covenants 81, however, was the first one to address Jesse Gause directly. While it is unclear whether Gause specifically requested a revelation from Joseph Smith, the text gives important clarification of Gause’s duties, not just as a member of the Church but as a counselor to Joseph Smith.
The revelation informed Gause (and future readers) that the “keys of the kingdom” belong to the office of the presidency of the high priesthood—in this case, to Joseph Smith himself. It also said that Gause would be blessed if he was “faithful in counsel, in the office” to which he was appointed.
Gause was to “do the greatest good unto [his] fellow beings,” including praying publicly and preaching the gospel to members and nonmembers alike. This, he was told, would “promote the glory of him who is your Lord.” And if he remained “faithful unto the end,” he would receive a “crown of Immortality.”
Perhaps surprisingly, Gause was excommunicated from the Church less than a year after the revelation admonished him to endure to the end. His virtual disappearance from the historical records following his missionary labors with Zebedee Coltrin in August 1832 make it difficult to understand why he left. Given his background in both the Quaker and Shaker faiths, it is possible that he came to have theological disagreements with Joseph Smith or other Church members—particularly as Joseph continued to update the doctrine of the Church through revelations.
Modern-day readers of Doctrine and Covenants 81 will find Jesse Gause’s name only in the section heading. By the time the revelation was published in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, Gause’s name had been replaced with that of the man called to take his place: Frederick G. Williams. Subsequent editions of the Doctrine and Covenants retained Williams as the recipient of this revelation. Williams, who replaced Gause as a counselor in January 1833, had been an early convert and supporter of Joseph Smith. Like Gause and Rigdon, Williams also acted as a scribe and clerk to Joseph Smith.
The written records of Joseph Smith’s early revelations underwent changes when early leaders of the Church prepared those revelatory texts for publication in the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835. The changes were logical because some of the revelations no longer reflected the current state of Church organization or doctrinal understanding. As the editors prepared the revelations for print, they likely viewed the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 81 not merely as counsel to an individual, but rather as a more general revelation to a counselor who was to support Joseph Smith. And because Jesse Gause had left the Church, it is understandable that the editors would have substituted the name of Williams instead.
In some ways, the early revelations were snapshots in time, providing modern readers with a window to the way continuing revelation shaped the early Church. In other ways, the revelations have broader applications. Doctrine and Covenants 81 can be read today not only as an intimate revelation to an early member of the Church, but also as counsel to anyone who is willing to support the prophet.”
D&C Section 81
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Hiram, Ohio, March 15, 1832. Frederick G. Williams is called to be a high priest and a counselor in the Presidency of the High Priesthood. The historical records show that when this revelation was received in March 1832, it called Jesse Gause to the office of counselor to Joseph Smith in the Presidency. However, when he failed to continue in a manner consistent with this appointment, the call was subsequently transferred to Frederick G. Williams. The revelation (dated March 1832) should be regarded as a step toward the formal organization of the First Presidency, specifically calling for the office of counselor in that body and explaining the dignity of the appointment. Brother Gause served for a time but was excommunicated from the Church in December 1832. Brother Williams was ordained to the specified office on March 18, 1833. D&C 81 Heading
“1 Verily, verily, I say unto you my servant Frederick G. Williams: Listen to the voice of him who speaketh, to the word of the Lord your God, and hearken to the calling wherewith you are called, even to be a high priest in my church, and a counselor unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun.;
2 Unto whom I have given the keys of the kingdom, which belong always unto the Presidency of the High Priesthood:
3 Therefore, verily I acknowledge him and will bless him, and also thee, inasmuch as thou art faithful in counsel, in the office which I have appointed unto you, in prayer always, vocally and in thy heart, in public and in private, also in thy ministry in proclaiming the gospel in the land of the living, and among thy brethren.
4 And in doing these things thou wilt do the greatest good unto thy fellow beings, and wilt promote the glory of him who is your Lord.
5 Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.
6 And if thou art faithful unto the end thou shalt have a crown of immortality, and eternal life in the mansions which I have prepared in the house of my Father.
7 Behold, and lo, these are the words of Alpha and Omega, even Jesus Christ. Amen.” D&C 81
Other articles about Jesse Gause:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43040570
https://rsc.byu.edu/prophets-apostles-last-dispensation/jesse-gause
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1722&context=byusq