Emer Harris

(1781–1869)

Emer Harris was born in Cambridge, New York, in 1781. He married Roxana Peas in 1802, but they divorced in 1818, and Harris married Deborah Lott the following year. Deborah died in 1825, and Harris married Parna Chapell in 1826. Harris was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 1831. Later that year he was ordained a high priest and appointed to serve as Joseph Smith’s scribe. In January 1832, he and Simeon Carter were instructed by revelation to “be united in the ministry” (Doctrine and Covenants 75:30), and in 1832 and 1833, he served missions to Pennsylvania and New York. Harris lived in different parts of Ohio from 1831 to 1838, and in 1835 he labored on the Kirtland Temple. He migrated to Missouri in October 1838, but along with other Latter-day Saints, he was soon expelled from that state and forced to resettle in Commerce, Illinois, which was later renamed Nauvoo. He labored on the Nauvoo Temple and became part of the Nauvoo Legion. In 1852 he migrated to Utah Territory, where he served in several Church callings, and ultimately settled in Logan, where he died in 1869.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 75

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers

Saints, vol. 1, The Standard of Truth