At a Church conference on May 6, 1839, the First Presidency authorized forty-five-year-old Oliver Granger to “take charge and oversight of the House of the Lord.” In Kirtland and to “preside over the general affairs of the Church in that place.” Granger had joined the Church in either 1832 or 1833 in New York and was a stalwart Latter-day Saint. According to the later account of his daughter, Oliver experienced a “heavenly vision” shortly after the publication of the Book of Mormon in which the angel Moroni told him that it was “a true record of great worth” and further instructed him to “testify of its truth.” He should, according to Moroni, “hereafter be ordained to preach the everlasting Gospel to the children of men.” This Oliver did, serving missions in New York and other eastern states in the mid-1830s.

In addition to being a missionary, Oliver was also a valuable agent for Joseph Smith and the Church. He had, for instance, been appointed Joseph’s agent in 1838 to settle business affairs in Kirtland after the removal of the Church and the First Presidency to Far West, Missouri. A revelation given on July 8, 1838, now canonized as section 117 of the Doctrine and Covenants assures Granger that his name “shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever” for his faithful and tireless service (Doctrine and Covenants 117:12).

One week after his May 6, 1839, appointment to oversee Church affairs in Kirtland, the First Presidency produced a second authorization for Oliver, whom they endorsed as “a man of the most strict integrity and moral virtue.” He was, the certificate read, “now authorized by a general conference to go forth and engage in vast and important concerns as an agent for the Church.” In that same authorization the Prophet recorded another revelation for Oliver similar to the one given a year previous. In it the Lord extolled Oliver for the “integrity of his soul” and promised to “beget for him a great name on the earth and among my people.” After transacting business for the Church in Iowa Territory, Oliver returned again to Kirtland, where he died in 1841.