James Louis Barker (27 July 1880 – 29 May 1958) was an American historian and a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

He was alo an educator.

Early life

Barker's mother, the former Margaret Stalle, was a native of Italy, who was a Waldensian before she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Barker received his early education in the Weber County (Utah) School District and the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

(B.A., 1901). Barker then served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Swiss–Austrian

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

of the LDS Church. After his return from this mission in 1904, he began an extensive study of foreign languages in Europe. He studied at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and the Catholic Institute in Paris. He also studied at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

and at universities in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...

. In 1907, Barker along with Joseph Evans prepared the second edition of the French language Book of Mormon by dividing the text of the first edition (1852) into chapters and verses and adding cross references to reflect the format of the English version of the Book of Mormon.

Career

In 1906, Barker married Kate Montgomery. After his return to the United States, he was hired as Principal of Weber Academy (now

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

) and later as Chair of

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

's fledgling language department. In 1919, he was appointed head of the University of Utah's Modern Language Department, a position he held for almost three decades. He is the author of the book ''Apostasy from the Divine Church'' which is a scholarly account of what he viewed as the decline and fall of the Christian Church not too many years after the times of the early Apostles. His book cites extensively from early historical sources, not all of which are documented because of his death before the publication of the book. The point of view is that of the LDS Church, but it is not an official church publication. The book was published by Barker's wife in 1959, then went out-of-print for a number of years, was re-published in 1985, and is again out-of-print.

LDS Church service

In 1944, Barker was serving as the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

Mission of the LDS Church. In this year he organized the first

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk (botany), trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' ...

of the church in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. He continued to serve as president of the Argentine mission until 1944. From 1947 to 1950 Barker served as the president of the French Mission of the LDS Church. The mission included all of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

as well as French-speaking

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and the

Walloon region Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Barker also sent

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

into

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to try to contact church members there. In a talk in one of the 1951 General Conferences of the LDS Church Barker expressed a desire for missionaries of the LDS Church to soon share the gospel in Spain, Italy, Greece and other countries of the Mediterranean. After this

David O. McKay David Oman McKay (September 8, 1873 – January 18, 1970) was an American religious leader and educator who served as the ninth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1951 until his death in 1970. Ordain ...

gave Barker the assignment to work to reestablish the LDS Church in Italy. This effort was delayed by the death of Barker in a car accident in 1958.Toronto et al., ''Mormonsin the Piazza'', p. 224 In September 1947, Barker and his wife accompanied

Archibald F. Bennett Archibald Fowler Bennett (March 17, 1896 – August 28, 1965) was a longtime employee of the Genealogical Society of Utah who was such a figure in the promotion of family history research in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he ...

and James M. Black on their three-week trip to the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Region of northern Italy in which they

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

ed records for the

Genealogical Society of Utah FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is closely connected with the church's Family Histo ...

Notes

References