Zebedee Coltrin

Zebedee Coltrin was an early member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was baptized on January 9, 1831, by Solomon Hancock and confirmed ten days later by Lyman Wight. John Whitmer ordained him an elder on January 21. He served a mission to Missouri with Levi W. Hancock (see Doctrine and Covenants 52:29). He also preached in the eastern States with John Murdock in 1833, and in Upper Canada in 1834 with Henry Harriman.

He was involved in historic moments of the early Church: he attended the School of the Prophets in 1833. He became a member of Zion's Camp. He attended the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. He also was a charter member of the Kirtland Safety Society.

While attending the School of the Prophets in the winter of 1832–33, he reported that at the school “I saw a personage passing through the room as plainly as I see you now [high priests in Spanish Fork]. Joseph [Smith] asked us if we knew who it was and answered himself, that is Jesus, our elder brother, the Son of God.” When the vision closed, Zebedee said, “Again I saw passing through the same room, a personage whose glory and brightness was so great, that I can liken it to nothing but the burning bush that Moses saw, and its power was so great that had it continued much longer I believe it would have consumed us.”[1]

Coltrin was ordained a Seventy on February 28, 1835, and placed in the First Quorum of Seventy. He was ordained president of First Quorum of Seventy March 1, 1835. Susan Easton Black wrote that while serving as one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “President Zebedee Coltrin . . . saw the Savior extended before him, as upon the cross, and a little after, crowned with glory upon his head above the brightness of the sun.”[2]

When it was determined that he had previously been ordained a high priest, he was released as president and member of the First Quorum of Seventy April 6, 1837.[3]

He served in the Kirtland stake presidency in 1841. He was ordained a patriarch in May 1873 by John Taylor.

He traveled west with the Brigham Young company, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. He returned to Winter Quarters in November 1847, then returned to Utah with his family. After living in Salt Lake briefly, he was called to settle near Spanish Fork, Utah, in 1852. He died there on July 21, 1887.

Coltrin was married twice. He and his first wife, Julia, had five children, all of whom died in infancy. After her death in 1841, he married Mary Mott in 1843 and they had eight children.