Question: In 1853, where did Daniel Garn go on a mission and what happened to him there?
Answer: Daniel Garn was born December 13, 1802, at St. Clair, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Susannah Cable Garn.
Daniel was with the Saints from the beginning of the Church, being the 35th man to be baptized. He was baptized by Hyrum Smith and confirmed by Peter Whitmer. He was prominent in the activities of the Church in Nauvoo. In 1845, the Nauvoo Mercantile and Mechanical Association was organized in a meeting held at the Seventies’ Hall in Nauvoo, Illinois. John Taylor was elected chairman, and Daniel Garn was made one of the trustees. He also served as one of the body guards for the Prophet Joseph.
On August 20, 1842 the High Council of Nauvoo decided to divide the city of Nauvoo into ten wards, and Daniel Garn was made Bishop of the Sixth Ward. On Thursday October 7, 1844, the German brethren of Nauvoo met and chose Bishop Daniel Garn as their presiding elder and organized to have preaching done in their own language.
Daniel Garn was married to Margaret Moses in December 2, 1824. She was the mother of nine children, one of whom died in Nauvoo. In March 1847, at Winter Quarters he was married to Priscilla Marsteller, who never had any children. He, with his two wives and children crossed the plains in 1848 in Brigham Young’s Company. His first wife drove one team and his oldest son, Sam, drove the other, while he helped along with the company on a saddle horse. In Echo Canyon his first wife, Margaret, became sick with mountain fever, and she died at the foot of Big Mountain.
Daniel Garn finished the first log house in the valley. Shortly after he came to the Valley he went on a mission to Germany. On January 12, 1853, he was arrested in Hamburg, Germany for preaching the Gospel, and soon afterwards was ordered out of Germany.
On February 22, 1854, the ship “Windermere” sailed from Liverpool, England, with 477 Saints under Daniel Garn’s direction. He was president of the mission at that time. The ship arrived in New Orleans April 23, 1854, after a very difficult journey due to bad weather. Many died of small pox on the way. On October 1st of the same year Daniel Garn’s company of Saints arrived in Salt Lake City. There were a number of Germans in the company. While on this mission he translated the Book of Mormon into the German language.
In September 1855, he married his third wife Eliza Eharnes. She had no children. On January 31, 1856, he married Wilhelmina Wagner, who had five children. He married his fifth wife, Mahala Garn, his niece, on July 12, 1862 in the endowment house in Salt Lake City. She was the mother of seven children. He was the second bishop of the 9th Ward in Salt Lake City 1849-1851. He later moved to Sugar House, then called “Big Field Survey.’
By trade, Daniel Garn was a millwright. He built the first grist mill in Utah, located in City Creek Canyon. He also engaged in farming, and at the time of the coming of Johnston’s Army, he was employed at the State Penitentiary. He brought the first apple trees to Utah from Germany. His Sugar House home was located on the southwest corner of 9th East and 17th South. This is where he died on April 20, 1872 of paralysis, and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Source: Excerpts from “Sketch of the Life of Daniel Garn, A Utah Pioneer of 1847,’ as told by his son, Philip Garn, February 15, 1934, FamilySearch.org; FindAGrave.com
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