Born on Isle of Man; moved to Liverpool, England, around 1830, where he was baptized in 1842; immigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844; joined Mormon Battalion in 1846; member of sick detachment that arrived in Salt Lake Valley in July 1847; returned to Council Bluffs, Iowa, that autumn to be reunited with his wife and children; immigrated with his family to Utah in 1850; an original settler of Lehi; served mission to Hawaiian Islands, 1852–55; counselor to Philip Lewis, laboring primarily on island of Hawai‘i; spent last portion of his mission overseeing temporal affairs at Church settlement on Lana‘i; returned to Lehi, where he lived the remainder of his life. (See Jenson, BE, 4:750; Lewis, Thomas Karren Family, 1–18; Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men, 980; Larson, Database of the Mormon Battalion, 151; MMH, biographical sketches; Peterson, “Life of Thomas Karren”; Karren journal; GQC journal, frequent references, Mar. 1853–July 1854.)