Erastus Snow

(1818–88)

Photograph of Erastus Snow.

Erastus Snow, ca. 1870, photograph by Charles R. Savage, Church History Library, PH 7189.

Erastus Snow was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in 1818. In February 1833, he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Charleston, Vermont. During 1834 and 1835, he served a mission to Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire. In December 1835, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he was ordained a Seventy and was a stockholder in the Kirtland Safety Society. During 1836 and 1837, he served missions to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. After joining the Latter-day Saints in Missouri, he married Artimesia Beman in December 1838. Between 1840 and 1843, Snow served proselytizing missions to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. By 1844, he joined the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was a member of the Council of Fifty. In 1847 Snow was called by revelation to organize a company of pioneers for the trek to the Salt Lake Valley, in Utah Territory (Doctrine and Covenants 136:12). In 1849 he was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The following year, he established the Church’s Scandinavian mission. In 1861 he founded St. George in Utah Territory.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 136

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers