Edward Stevenson, December 1833

 Here are the first converts to the church on the Cardon side of the Family.  Elizabeth and Edward were baptized at the same time, but most of the information here is about Edward. I will do a post for Elizabeth next time.

Edward Stevenson 1833

Stevenson was born on May 1, 1820, in Gibraltar, the fourth son of Joseph Stevenson and Elizabeth Stevens. In 1827, at the tender age of seven, he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling first in New York and then in Michigan. In 1831 his father passed away, leaving him in the care of his mother and siblings. In 1833, three years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in upstate New York, missionaries Jared Carter and Joseph Woods evangelized in Michigan. Although still a young man, Stevenson believed their words and embraced their teachings. He was baptized on December 20, 1833, and his mother and several siblings also joined the church. As a family they gathered with the Latter-day Saints in Missouri and endured the trials that followed the church and its members across that state. While living in Far West, Stevenson became more acquainted with Joseph Smith, having first met him while living in Michigan. Stevenson was eventually exiled from Missouri with the body of the church and moved to the temporary safety of Nauvoo, Illinois. There he married his first wife, Nancy A. Porter (the sister of his future missionary companion Nathan T. Porter), in 1845 and was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple in 1846. He crossed the plains in the Charles C. Rich company in 1847, his first of nearly twenty crossings over the plains on behalf of the church as a leader and missionary.

Stevenson also made six missionary journeys, for up to five years at a time. These included three missions to Europe, two missions to the southern United States, and one mission to Mexico. 

Stevenson was a polygamist and had four wives, and we are descended from the third, Emily Electa Williams. All together, Edward Stevenson had 28 children according to Family Search (Wikipedia says he had 7 wives, and 24 children). 

In 1870, Edward Stevenson traveled to Ohio to meet Martin Harris.  He helped him move to Utah, and there rebaptized him. 

Stevenson wrote and self-published a biography of Joseph Smith in 1893, entitled Reminiscences of Joseph, the Prophet.  It is available on Project Guttenberg. 

In October 1894, Stevenson was called to serve as one of the first seven presidents of seventies, a position he honorably fulfilled until his passing in Salt Lake City on January 27, 1897.