Alexander Badlam Sr. (November 28, 1809November 30 or December 1, 1894) was an early leader in the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by J ...

and a

Mormon pioneer The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...

. Badlam was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was a coachmaker by trade. In 1833, Badlam married Mary Ann Brannan in

York County, Maine York County is the southwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Maine, along the state of New Hampshire's eastern border. It is divided from Strafford County, New Hampshire, by the Salmon Falls River, and the connected tidal estuary—the Pi ...

. The couple became members of

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, ...

's Church of Christ and moved to the

Kirtland, Ohio Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,937 at the 2020 census. Kirtland is known for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saint movement from 1831 to 1837 and is the site of the movement's first t ...

, region. In 1834, Badlam was a member of the

Zion's Camp Zion's Camp was an expedition of Latter Day Saints led by Joseph Smith, from Kirtland, Ohio, to Clay County, Missouri, during May and June 1834 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain land from which the Saints had been expelled by non-Mormon settle ...

expedition that traveled from Lake County, Ohio, to Jackson County, Missouri. On February 28, 1835, Badlam became one of the inaugural members of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1835, he settled in Missouri and became a member of the church's Missouri high council. In 1839, after the " extermination order" was issued, Badlam fled Missouri with the other Latter Day Saints was issued and settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. Badlam was admitted as a member of the

Council of Fifty "The Council of Fifty" (also known as "the Living Constitution", "the Kingdom of God", or its name by revelation, "The Kingdom of God and His Laws with the Keys and Power thereof, and Judgment in the Hands of His Servants, Ahman Christ") was a La ...

on March 11, 1844, but was dropped from the council on February 4, 1845. In 1847 and 1848, Badlam presided over the

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

of the church in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. In 1849, he traveled from Boston by ship to

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, to participate in the California Gold Rush. In 1850, he returned to Boston and he and his family traveled by ship to

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

via California as

s. After arriving in Utah, Badlam was readmitted to the Council of Fifty. By 1855, Badlam had abandoned

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

, and by 1860 he had moved back to Sacramento. By 1880, he was living in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, where he died. Badlam was the brother-in-law to

Samuel Brannan Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 5, 1889) was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the '' California Star'', the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is considered the first to publici ...

, California's first millionaire.

References

External links

"Badlam, Alexander Sr."

Joseph Smith Papers ''The Joseph Smith Papers'' (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Badlam, Alexander 1809 births 1894 deaths American general authorities (LDS Church) Converts to Mormonism Former Latter Day Saints Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts Members of the First Quorum of the Seventy (LDS Church) Mormon pioneers People from Dorchester, Boston Religious leaders from Massachusetts