Born in Delaware County, New York; moved to Ohio; baptized along with his wife, Julia, by Parley P. Pratt in Kirtland in 1830; became widower in 1831 with five young children; gave his newborn twins to Joseph and Emma Smith to raise; sent other three children to other families; actively involved in missionary work in various parts of U.S., 1832–36; ordained bishop of Fifth Ward in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842; immigrated to Salt Lake Valley in 1847; set apart as bishop of Fourteenth Ward, of which GQC was a member, in 1849; called on mission to the Pacific in 1851; assigned by Parley P. Pratt to begin missionary work with Charles Wandell in Australia; returned to Utah and made his residence in Lehi in 1852; moved to Beaver, Utah, where he died. (See Jenson, BE, 2:362–64; Murdock, John Murdock; Newton, “Father of Joseph’s Daughter”; Newton, Southern Cross Saints, 279; GQC journal, Oct. 15, 1852.)