Born in Greenwich, New York; baptized along with other family members in New York, 1831; moved to Kirtland, Ohio; joined 1834 march of Zion’s Camp to Jackson County, Missouri; served mission to eastern U.S., 1835–1836; entered into plural marriage in 1847 after Saints were expelled from Nauvoo, Illinois; immigrated with his family to Salt Lake Valley in 1848, settling in South Cottonwood; called on mission to Hawai‘i, 1852; arrived in the islands the following year; served as counselor to Philip Lewis and labored primarily on O‘ahu and Hawai‘i; went to California in 1854 to purchase a vessel to transport Saints from Hawai‘i to California; fulfilled another mission to eastern U.S., 1869; died at the home of his son in Granger, Utah. (See Jenson, BE, 4:691–92; Tanner, John Tanner and His Family, 251–58; Whitney, History of Utah, 4:635–38; MMH, biographical sketches; Tanner journals; Lyman, Payne, and Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home, 178, 261–62; GQC journal, frequent references, Mar. 1853–Aug. 1854.)