Partly printed baptismal certificate filled in manuscript issued to Ephraim Emmet Brown (1844-1934), when he joined the Church of the Latter Day Saints, listing the names of the elders who authorized the baptism. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 3 May 1903. 1 page, 7 x 10 inches. 

Born in Otto, Cattaraugus County, New York on March 10, 1844, Brown was studying in Pennsylvania at the outbreak of the Civil War. He returned to Otto and enlisted on December 7, 1861 and mustered into Co. C, 64th New York Infantry. Brown's regiment participated in  the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, where he was wounded. Brown survived the war and returned to Otto before relocating to Plainfield Township, Michigan, where he worked asa farmer and fruit grower. 

After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, several breakaway sects of Mormonism emerged as religious leaders vied for control within the faith. James Strang (1813-1856), an elder in Nauvoo, Illinois, claimed that Smith had designated him as his successor and attracted a large following, known as the Strangite Movement.  He established a "Mormon Kingdom" on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, where his sect flourished. By the turn of the 20th century, the popularity of the Stragite Movement had spread throughout the state, notably to Grand Rapids and the surrounding area of Kent County.

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