Ezra Thayer

(1791–1862)

Ezra Thayer was born in New York. Sometime before 1820, he married Elizabeth Frank. In the fall of 1830, Thayer was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In October of that year, Thayer was called to serve a mission (Doctrine and Covenants 33). In June 1831, while living in Kirtland, Ohio, he was ordained a high priest and called to serve a mission to Missouri (Doctrine and Covenants 52:22). That same month, he was admonished in a revelation to forsake his pride and selfishness (Doctrine and Covenants 56:8). Back in Kirtland, Thayer participated in the School of the Prophets in January 1833, and the following year, he marched from Ohio to Missouri as part of the Camp of Israel. In May 1835, his Church membership was suspended for an indeterminate amount of time. He served on the high council at Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, in June 1838. After briefly affiliating with James J. Strang’s movement at Voree, Wisconsin, in the early 1850s, Thayer was rebaptized into the Church in New York in September 1854. Six years later, he joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Galien, Michigan.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 33, 52, 56, 75

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers

Revelations In Context

• Ezra Thayer: From Skeptic to Believer