a brief mission in the eastern United States in 1841. He then moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where he donated $1,000 to the construction of the Nauvoo Temple and worked there in as an ordinance worker. On August 27, 1841, he replaced Robert B. Thompson as Smith's clerk. Beginning in February 1843, Phelps became the ghostwriter of many of Smith's important written works of the Nauvoo period, including "General Joseph Smith's Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys" of November 1843; Smith's theodemocratic presidential platform of January 1844; and "The Voice of Innocence", which was presented to and unanimously approved by the Relief Society in February 1844 to rebut claims of polygamy in Nauvoo. Phelps also worked alongside John Taylor in editing the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor and Willard Richards in compiling Joseph Smith's personal history. The latter effort eventually became History of the Church. Phelps was endowed on December 9, 1843 and received his "second anointing" on February 2, 1844, promising him exaltation. He was also made a member of the Council of Fifty and the Nauvoo City Council. In Nauvoo, Phelps spoke out in favor of the destruction of an opposition newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. He believed that the city charter gave the church leaders power to declare the newspaper a nuisance. Shortly afterwards, the press and type were carried into the street and destroyed. After the death of Joseph Smith, Phelps gave the eulogy at his funeral. During the succession crisis in 1844, Phelps sided with Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve. In an effort to maintain order in the church, "he used his considerable influence in August and September 1844 to sustain the Twelve Apostles as leaders during the succession crisis." In 1846, he entered into plural marriage, marrying Laura Stowell and Elizabeth Dunn on February 2, 1846 in Nauvoo. He was excommunicated for the third time on December 9, 1847, for entering into an unauthorized polygamous marriage, but he was rebaptized two days later. Westward exodus, death, and legacy Phelps took part in the Mormon Exodus across the Great Plains and settled in Salt Lake City in 1848. In November 1849, he left Salt Lake to explore southern Utah Territory with Parley P. Pratt. Phelps also served in the Utah territorial legislature from 1851 to 1857 and on the board of regents for the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah). He