Q: Simeon Carter is mentioned in D&C 52:27 and D&C 75:30. Who was this celebrated missionary and what settlement did he help settle in Utah?
A: Simeon Carter was born in June 1794 in Connecticut. In 1830, Elder Parley P. Pratt left a Book of Mormon at Simeon Carter’s house in Amherst, Ohio, and, as he read, it wrought deeply upon Simeon’s mind. He went fifty miles to Kirtland to inquire more about the Church and was there baptized and ordained an Elder. He then returned to his home and commenced to preach and baptize. A church of about sixty members was soon organized at Amherst.
In June 1831 Simeon attended the fourth general conference where he was ordained a high priest by Lyman Wight. Four days later he was called by revelation to journey to Missouri with Solomon Hancock. They traveled through Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, baptizing, preaching, and instructing the Saints along the way. Several people were converted and baptized.
In January 1832, four months after returning to Ohio, Simeon was called to serve another mission with his brother Jared Carter and Emer Harris in Vermont. Better than one hundred people were brought into the kingdom in a few months. It was at Simeon’s home that Parley P. Pratt was arrested there on a “frivolous charge’ by officer Elias Peabody. The story of Parley’s escape the next day is a well-known story from Church history.
By 1833 the celebrated missionary Simeon Carter had moved to Jackson County, Missouri, and was presiding over a Branch there. As mobocracy raged, Simeon was forced to flee from Jackson to Clay County, and then back to Kirtland, where he joined Zion’s Camp in 1834. After the march, he returned to Missouri where he was wounded at the Battle of Crooked River and his brother Gideon Hayden Carter was killed in October 1838 while defending the Saints.
From 1846 to 1849 Simeon served a mission in England, where he had great success in teaching the gospel. In 1850 he migrated with English converts in Orson Hyde’s company to the Salt Lake Valley. In 1851 he was called by Brigham Young to settle at Box Elder Creek. Simeon died in 1869 at the age of seventy-four in the settlement he helped settle—Brigham City.
Source: Who’s Who in the Doctrine & Covenants by **Susan Easton Black
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