Francis, Samuel, 1830-1906

Samuel Francis was born in Trowbridge, England on 3 July 1830 and joined the LDS Church on 8 February 1847 when he was seventeen years old. In 1850 he began a mission for the Church that would last the next ten years, taking him to England (including Sherborne and London), Italy, and Switzerland. While on his mission he met a young German girl by the name of Esther Charlotte Emily Wiesbrodt (1836-1913), whom he converted and married on 1 July 1857. Francis continued to serve as a missionary after he was married and was finally released when he and his family immigrated to Utah in 1860. They eventually settled in Morgan County where he served as Justice of the Peace, County Clerk and Recorder, Probate Judge, and County Attorney. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1858, then was elected to the territorial legislature for four terms and was a member of the Constitutional Convention when Utah was admitted to the Union. He served in the Stake Presidency of the Morgan Stake and later as Stake Patriarch. He died on 26 May 1906.