a high priest by Lyman E. Johnson and Orson Pratt, the same elders who had taught and baptized him in 1832. Lyman returned to church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, in May 1835. At a conference of the church in June, Lyman was called by Smith to be a member of the newly organized First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1836, Lyman received the "Kirtland endowment" in the Kirtland Temple. Marriage and family In 1835, Lyman married Louisa Maria Tanner in Kirtland. They had eight children. In April 1844, Smith taught Lyman the principle of plural marriage. "As he warmly grasped my hand for the last time," Lyman later recalled, "[Smith said] brother Amasa, go and practice on the principles I have taught you, and God bless you." Soon Lyman married his first and second plural wives, Diontha Walker and Caroline Partridge. In 1846, Lyman married four additional wives: Eliza Maria Partridge (one of numerous widows of Smith and the 25-year-old sister of Lyman's wife Caroline), Paulina Eliza Phelps, Priscilla Turley, and Cornelia Leavitt. In 1851, Lyman married his eighth and final wife, Lydia Partridge, a sister of his wives Caroline and Eliza. Additional missions Lyman served several missions for the church, preaching in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Tennessee. In 1838, Lyman followed Smith to Far West, Missouri, where Smith relocated the headquarters of the church. Lyman participated in the Battle of Crooked River, a skirmish between Latter Day Saints and a Missouri militia unit from Ray County, which occurred on October 25, 1838. In 1839, Lyman traveled with the Latter Day Saints to their new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1841, Lyman was appointed regent of the newly organized University of Nauvoo. On August 20, 1842, Smith called Lyman to serve as an apostle of the church. Lyman filled a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve created by the excommunication of Orson Pratt. Five months later, on January 20, 1843, Pratt was rebaptized and restored to his former position in the Quorum of the Twelve. As the most junior and "thirteenth" apostle, Lyman was excluded from the Quorum. On February 4, 1843, Smith called Lyman to serve as an additional counselor in the First Presidency. Due to the turbulence of the years 1843 and 1844 for the Latter Day Saints, especially after Smith's death, Lyman was never sustained at a conference of the church to