- Edward Stevenson
Edward Stevenson (
27 January 1820 –1 May 1897 ) was a prominentMormon missionary of the 19th century. He also served as ageneral authority inThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) underBrigham Young , as one of the seven presidents of the Seventy.Stevenson was born in
Gibraltar to British parents. His family moved to theUnited States when he was young. As a young man, he was living in Pontiac,Michigan when he was contacted by a group ofLatter Day Saint missionaries, includingJoseph Smith, Jr. , who were on a return leg of a trip toUpper Canada . Stevenson joined the Latter Day Saint church and relocated to its headquarters in Kirtland,Ohio in 1834. He later relocated with the main body of Latter Day Saints toMissouri , thenNauvoo ,Illinois , and finallySalt Lake City ,Utah Territory .Stevenson also made six missionary journeys, for up to five years at a time. These included three missions to
Europe , two missions to thesouthern United States , and one mission toMexico . He is recorded as having traveled the most miles under his own expense of any missionary in the history of the LDS Church.Fact|date=March 2008Stevenson settled in Salt Lake City with the first group of
Mormon pioneers in 1847, and spent the first five years there getting established, and traveling Utah with Brigham Young and other church authorities to help oversee the establishment of several new settlements, before leaving on one of his missions in 1852.Stevenson also served as the co-leader of one of the Utah pioneer teams in 1855, and served as the leader of a second one in 1859.
Like most prominent Mormon leaders at the time, Stevenson practiced
plural marriage , eventually marrying seven simultaneous wives, including two sets of sisters. He also ended up with a large number of children, at least 24.He is also notable for writing a memoir of Joseph Smith in 1893, which ended up being the earliest surviving documentary source supporting the story of Joseph Smith having taught prior to 1836 that he had seen
God andJesus Christ as two separate beings in hisFirst Vision .A large collection of Stevenson's journals are still available and have served as a significant historical resource. They are kept at the Special Collections department of the
Harold B. Lee Library atBrigham Young University .One of the buildings at the LDS Church's main
Missionary Training Center inProvo ,Utah is named the Edward Stevenson Building, and his portrait hangs in the lobby.External links
* [http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/0,15791,4018-1-17817,00.html Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868: Stevenson, Edward] part 1, from the LDS Church History Library and Archives online
* [http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/0,15791,4018-1-21444,00.html Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868: Stevenson, Edward] part 2, from the LDS Church History Library and Archives online
* [http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompany/0,15797,4017-1-69,00.html Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868: Seth M. Blair/Edward Stevenson Company (1855)] , from the LDS Church History Library and Archives online
* [http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompany/0,15797,4017-1-291,00.html Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868: Edward Stevenson Company (1859)] , from the LDS Church History Library andExternal links
* [http://gapages.com/stevee1.htm Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Edward Stevenson]
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