Snow, Erastus Fairbanks, 1818-1888

Utah pioneer, civic leader, and an apostle in the Mormon Church.

Apostle in the Mormon Church an a colonizer of the American West.

Apostle in the Mormon Church.

Erastus Fairbanks Snow was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on November 9, 1818. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1830s, and after residing in Kirtland, Ohio, accompianied the first Mormon company to arrive in Utah. There he was made a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1849, and that same year led a mission to Scandinavia along with Peter O. Hansen. Snow baptized the first Icelanders to join the Mormon Church. In 1861 he was placed in charge of the Southern Utah settlements and played a leading role in the Mormon colonization of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and established settlements for raising cotton along the Rio Virgin and Santa Clara River. Snow died in Salt Lake City on May 27, 1888.

Utah pioneer, colonizer, and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Mormon Church.

Erastus Snow (1818-1888) was born at St. Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Vermont on 9 November 1818. He was the son of Levi and Lucina Snow. In 1832 two Elders from the LDS Church visited the area of Vermont where the Snow family lived. The Family consisted of seven brothers and two sisters. With the exception of two brothers and the father the rest of the family joined the LDS Church.

In 1834 when Erastus was 16 he began preaching the LDS gospel and extending his missionary labors into the states of New York and New Hampshire. In 1835 he traveled to Kirtland Ohio where he met the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. Snow continued preaching and traveling and converting many to this new faith. Performing extensive missionary work for his church was to be the pattern of his life. He often went for years on end leaving behind his wives and children.

His first wife was Artimesia Beaman. In 1846 he married a second wife, Minerva, and afterwards took additional wives. Later in 1846 he, along with other in the pioneer camp, left for what was to become Great Salt Lake City entering the valley on 21 July 1847. For about six weeks this advance party plowed and planted Fields and built cabins around the Fort Block. On 12 February 1849 he was called and ordained an Apostle by Brigham Young. He helped to organize the provisional government for the State of Deseret. In the October 1849 Conference he was called on a mission to Denmark to introduce the gospel. He left Salt Lake on 19 October 1849.

At the October Conference in 1853 he was called, along with George A. Smith, to strengthen the settlements in Iron County, Utah. In 1854 he organized a Stake of Zion in St. Louis Missouri and assisted in the emigration of the Saints across the Plains. He performed an additional mission to Europe and spent the last years of his life engaged in traveling among the Saints in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado continuing to build the church. He died in Salt Lake on 27 May 1888.

Artimesia Beaman Snow (1819-1882) was born on 3 March 1819 at Livonia, Livingston County New York to Alva Beaman and Sarah Burtts. She was baptized into the LDS Church in an early day and moved with her parents to Kirtland, Ohio where her father died in 1837. Her mother and two sisters, Mary and Louisa moved with the Saints to Missouri. She was married to Erastus Snow at Far West on 13 December 1838 by Apostle Heber C. Kimball. She became the mother of eight sons and three daughters. She died on 22 December 1882. Her funeral was held in the St. George tabernacle.