Charles C. Rich
Charles Coulson Rich (August 21, 1809 - November 17, 1883) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Elder Rich was born in Campbell County, Kentucky to Joseph and Nancy O'Neal Rich. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1832. In 1838 he married Sarah D. Pea.
Rich was a leader in Caldwell County, Missouri and fought in the Battle of Crooked River. His log house is the only structure from the Mormon period in 1836-38 in Caldwell County, Missouri to have survived. After the LDS expulsion from Missouri, Rich settled in Nauvoo.
In October 1848 Charles C. Rich was made the president of the Salt Lake Stake.[1]
Brigham Young called President Rich to be a member of the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] on 12 February 1849.
Elder Rich helped form a Latter-day Saint settlement in San Bernardino, California. However, this settlement attracted many people who wanted to get away from the leaders of the church. The faithful members were called home in 1857 at the time of the Utah War.
In the early 1860s, Elder Rich served as president of the British Mission.
Elder Rich followed the church's principle of plural marriage, taking six wives in all and fathering 56 children.
Rich led a party of early Mormons to colonize parts of southeastern Idaho and the adjacent far northern parts of Utah. This was on the shores of Bear Lake, the Utah shores of which are in Rich County, named in his honor. The communities of Paris and Geneva, Idaho, as well as some other neighboring towns, were under his direction. He died there in 1883 at the age of seventy-five.
References
- ↑ Larson, Andrew Karl. Erastus Snow: The Life of a Missionary and Pioneer for the Early Mormon Church. (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1971) p. 188
- The Deseret Morning News: 2005 Church Almanac, Salt Lake City, UT.
