Born in Mendon, Massachusetts; baptized in Quincy, Illinois, in 1840; ordained an apostle in 1846; member of vanguard pioneer company that entered the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in July 1847; called to gather to Utah the Latter-day Saints living along the Missouri River in 1851; served mission to Europe, 1856–57; called to preside over the Latter-day Saints in Cache Valley, Utah, in 1860; served short-term mission to Hawai‘i in 1864; died in Ogden, Utah. (See Jenson, BE, 1:99–102; Whitney, History of Utah, 4:42–44; Evans and Anderson, Ezra T. Benson; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men, 750; GQC journal, July 18, 1852.)