Willard Richards
SUP Marker #4-E, located at the S.U.P. Building – see other S.U.P. Markers here.
WILLARD RICHARDS, born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, June 24, 1804. Died in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 11, 1854 at the age of 49.
Dr. WILLARD RICHARDS, founder of the Deseret News, “The Mountain West’s first newspaper”.
WILLARD RICHARDS, a cousin of Brigham Young, having read the Book of Mormon, traveled 700 miles to Ohio to meet Joseph Smith. He was a dentist and doctor of herbs.
WILLARD RICHARDS was baptized in the Chagrin River, near Kirtland, December 21, 1836, after the ice was broken over the river. One of the first four missionaries to England.
WILLARD RICHARDS was ordained an apostle April 14, 1840 at Preston, England with seven apostles present. Married his first English convert, Janetta Richards.
WILLARD RICHARDS was appointed by the Quorum of the Twelve in England to edit the Millenial Star.
WILLARD RICHARDS officiated at the first baptisms for the dead in the new Nauvoo Temple Twelve Oxen Font, and was the Editor of the Times & Seasons Newspaper published in Nauvoo.
WILLARD RICHARDS, in 1841 was the man Joseph Smith said he had been searching for all his life to trust with his business in all things, “The Keeper of the Rolls.”
WILLARD RICHARDS was General of the Nauvoo legion, Mayor of Nauvoo, largest city in Illinois, and Postmaster of Nauvoo.
WILLARD RICHARDS prepared with Joseph Smith the first three volumes of the History of the Church, for publication in the Times & Seasons.
WILLARD RICHARDS nominated Joseph Smith and his running partner, Arlington Bennett, for President and Vice President of the United States.
WILLARD RICHARDS, on the eve of martyrdom looked west and said “Out West perhaps, in the tops of the mountains, an ensign may be raised to the Lord.”
WILLARD RICHARDS said to the Prophet Joseph, “You didn’t ask me to go to Iowa, or come here to Carthage, but I am here, and I will hang for you if they will not release you.”
WILLARD RICHARDS was with the Prophet and Hyrum when they were murdered in Carthage jail.
WILLARD RICHARDS arrived in the Valley with Brigham Young, July 24, 1847, and was elected to the first Legislative Counsel of the Territory and served as its President.
WILLARD RICHARDS was the first Historian, Recorder, Postmaster and keeper of the Official Seal of the Territory of Deseret, and a member of the First Presidency of the Church.
WILLARD RICHARDS was the first Secretary of State of the established Territorial Organization.
