Born in New Salem, Tennessee; moved to Hancock County, Illinois; baptized after the Latter-day Saints settled near his home; immigrated to Salt Lake Valley in 1848; married his cousin Patty Perkins; called on mission to the Pacific islands in 1851, his wife accompanying him; traveled to California in company with Philip and Jane Lewis, Francis and Mary Jane Hammond, John and Elvira Woodbury, and others; sojourned in San Francisco with his wife and Elvira Woodbury because of wife’s illness; arrived in Hawai‘i in November 1851; labored primarily on island of Moloka‘i; returned to the U. S. in 1852; called to help strengthen the Latter-day Saint mission established along the Salmon River in present-day Idaho in 1856; with his wife left Salt Lake City for southern Utah in 1861; helped establish the settlements of St. George and Kanarraville. (See MMH, biographical sketches, Nov. 30, 1851; Apr. 8, June 6, Sept. 10, 1852; Conquerors of the West, 3:2007–8; “Missionaries,” Deseret News, Feb. 27, 1856; GQC journal, frequent references, Dec. 1851–Oct. 1852.)