Born in Kingsbury, New York; baptized prior to August 1832, when he moved to Kirtland, Ohio; elected first city marshal for Nauvoo, Illinois; member of Nauvoo Stake high council; entered Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in July 1847 as member of vanguard pioneer company; surveyed and laid out Salt Lake City; member of first high council in Salt Lake Valley; went to California in 1852 to survey the new Latter-day Saint settlement at San Bernardino; accompanied Amasa Lyman to San Francisco in 1854 to try to finalize purchase of Rancho San Bernardino; returned to Utah because of Utah War; worked as Pony Express agent; returned to San Bernardino, where he died. (See Jenson, BE, 4:717–18; Cook, Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 274; Lyman, San Bernardino, 465; Barney, Mormon Vanguard Brigade, 396; GQC journal, Mar. 20, 1854.)