Born in Campbell County, Kentucky; moved to Illinois, where he was baptized in 1832; gathered with the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois; served as member of Nauvoo City Council, Nauvoo Stake high council, and major general of Nauvoo Legion; immigrated to Salt Lake Valley in 1847; ordained an apostle in 1849, shortly before leaving on mission to California; traveled much of the way in company with GQC; issued mission calls to Hawai‘i to GQC and others in September 1850; led company of Latter-day Saints that settled San Bernardino, California, in 1851; returned to Utah in 1857; participated in defense of Utah Territory during the Utah War; served in presidency of European Mission along with GQC, 1860–62; helped settle the Bear Lake Valley, 1864; established home in Paris, Idaho, where he died. (See Jenson, BE, 1:102–3; Landon, To California in ’49, 185; Arrington, Charles C. Rich; Evans, Charles Coulson Rich; Lyman, San Bernardino, 463; Ellsworth, History of Louisa Barnes Pratt, 228–29; Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 393; GQC journal, frequent references, Sept. 1850–Sept. 1854.)