George Leroy Dockstader papers, 1843-2001

George Leroy Dockstader was born on 18 December 1880 in Kingston, Utah. During a time of familial instability, Leroy lived in Coyote (Antimony), Utah, and in Arizona prior to moving to Salt Lake City in 1900 when he obtained a job to work in the Temple. Dockstader attended schools in Garfield county and Provo's B.Y.U. Academy. After leaving Provo, he was employed briefly as a sheep shearer in Bountiful after which he decided to move to Idaho in the autumn of 1902. On October 1, 1902, Leroy married Inez F. Hendricks. Although lacking a university degree, he was hired as an elementary teacher in Marysville, Idaho. During his residency in Idaho, Dockstader engaged in numerous occupations, including cattle rancher, homesteader, Yellowstone Park cook, grain elevator manager, welfare director, law office clerk, justice of the peace, probate judge, and real estate partner. By 1936 Leroy had moved his family to Brigham City, Utah where he worked in the Box Elder county recorder's office. Five years later, Dockstader's peregrinations continued as he arrived in Short Creek (Colorado City), Arizona and commenced to teach in the local school, serving as its principal for over five years. Realizing the necessity of acquiring a university teaching degree, Leroy enrolled in undergraduate classes at Arizona State College, the University of Nevada, and the University of Utah during the years of 1945-1953.

Religious experiences and ideas played a very important part of Dockstader's life. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Leroy taught Sunday school and seminary classes to L.D.S. students in Driggs and Rupert, Idaho, and held the position as a clerk for the High Council in the Minidoka stake. According to a letter which Dockstader intended to send to his son Theral (see box 4, folder 48), Leroy experienced an epiphany in 1936 when he concluded that L.D.S. leaders had been lying to the faithful about a number of important issues. This religious transformation was related to the impact of Leroy's reading the 1934-1935 correspondence between Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of Twelve and Elder Eslie D. Jenson (see box 1, folder 8 and box 12, folder 42) as well as the influence of the Mormon fundamentalist leader Joseph W. Musser and the formation of a legal mindset, which was a by-product of Leroy's activities in Idaho. In 1941 President Musser called Dockstader to come to Short Creek where he soon was appointed operational manager of the Glenn Johnson Saw Mill Company. By 1957 Leroy had met several upper echelon members of the newly-formed and LeBaron family-led Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times and had joined the congregation. From 1957 until 1960, Dockstader presided over the Utah Mission of the Church of the Firstborn.

George Leroy Dockstader died on October 9, 1970.