Daniel H. Wells

Daniel Hanmer Wells was born October 27, 1814 in Trenton, New York, to Daniel Wells and his wife Catherine Chapin. He married Eliza Rebecca Robison on March 12, 1837, in Commerce (later Nauvoo), Illinois. Later he would practice plural marriage (his seventh wife was Emmeline B. Wells). Though not yet a member of the Church, he was in Commerce to greet the struggling refugees from the horrors of the Missouri Persecutions. A landowner, he divided an eighty-acre tract into lots which he sold at low prices and attractive terms, thereby affording home ownership to many who otherwise could not afford it. His efforts brought comfort to many and he remained with the Saints for years. This was the original meaning of the epithet, "Jack Mormon," a nonmember who supported and helped the Saints, and Daniel fit the description well.

When, after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the mobs raged about Nauvoo, Squire Wells, as he was known, defended the city. Indeed he fought valiantly in the last battle of Nauvoo, serving as a leader of the defenders as they provided cover for the straggling evacuees. It would not be the last time he faced the mob. He was not baptized until August 9, 1846, a move not supported by his wife, who refused go west with her husband and the Saints.

Well respected for his many years of integrity, he was elected Attorney General of Deseret (later Utah) in 1849. He was elected mayor of Salt Lake City and served for a period of ten years, As such he would again face the mob as the unholy host raged about the city attempting to interfere with the election of 1874. Although physically assaulted and his coat torn, Daniel stood calmly on the balcony of city hall and read the official order to disperse.

Later when Jedediah M. Grant died at the age of forty, Daniel was ordained an Apostle and set apart as second counselor to President Brigham Young. Though an apostle, President Wells was never sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When President Young died in 1877, he was sustained as a counselor to the Twelve Apostles.

President Wells died in Salt Lake City on March 24, 1891, in Salt Lake City at the age of seventy-six.