Leman Copley

(ca. 1781–1862)

Leman Copley was born in Connecticut. Sometime after 1800, he joined the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly known as the Shakers. Sometime before 1820, he and his wife, Sally Cooley, moved to Thompson Township, Ohio. By 1831, Copley had been baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In May of that year, he was called by revelation to accompany Sidney Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt to preach the gospel to a group of Shakers in Ohio (Doctrine and Covenants 49). Copley allowed Latter-day Saints from Colesville, New York, to settle on his land in Ohio, but in June 1831, he rescinded this agreement (Doctrine and Covenants 54:4–5). When the main body of Latter-day Saints moved from Ohio to Missouri in 1838, Copley elected to stay in Ohio. He joined James Brewster’s Church of Christ in 1849, and later he joined Austin Cowles’s Church of Christ.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 41, 49, 54

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers

Saints, vol. 1, The Standard of Truth

Revelations In Context

• The Journey of the Colesville Branch