Roger Orton

Roger Orton (c. 1799 – c. 1851) was an early Mormon leader and member of the Presidency of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Roger Orton is a descendant of Thomas Orton from Windsor, Connecticut, 1641. His son, Pierpont Orton, helped to settle California.Orton was born in Genesco, New York and married Clarissa Mary Bicknell around 1823. Together they had six children. He was baptized about 1833, and in 1834 he left with Joseph Smith, Jr. and others on a mission to Pontiac, Michigan. He participated in Zion's Camp, where he served as a captain of the camp. During battle practice on the camp, he accidentally sliced open the hand of a participant. Later, through his negligence, he allowed several horses to run off. Instead of going after them himself, he simply informed the owners of what had happened, expecting them to go after the steeds. The horses turned up about ten miles away. The search for the horses delayed the camp's march by a day and earned Orton a "scathing rebuke" from Smith.cite web |url=http://www.gapages.com/ortonr1.htm |title=Roger Orton |accessdate=2008-04-06 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=Grampa Bill]

In 1837, Daniel S. Miles presented a complaint against Orton for "abusing Elder Brigham Young, and for a general course of unchristianlike conduct." Orton refused to respond, and he was excommunicated. Roger Orton, after the death of John Smith, did not support Brigham Young's advocacy for polygamy. He, like so many other first Mormons had left his family and property to follow John Smith's teachings. He was denigrated by his own church for not accepting a polygamist doctrine that conflicted with own values. He remained in Iowa disappointed with the church leadership and disillusioned with his own decisions that had compromised his family's holdings.

Orton was restored to the church sometime before April 1845, when he was named one of the Seven Presidents of Seventies. However, Orton, who had become an alcoholic, never showed up to be ordained and never actively served. He was dropped from the quorum about a year later. He died in Lee County, Iowa in either 1850 or 1851.

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