1812–1898

Born at Enfield, Connecticut on 2 May 1812 to Solomon and Bashua Amanda (Pease) Kingsbury, Joseph C. Kingsbury was raised in Ohio. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of twenty while living with the family of Bishop Newel K. Whitney at Kirtland, Ohio.

One year after serving a mission to New York, Joseph married Caroline Whitney in 1836. The couple left Ohio two years later and lived at Far West, Missouri, until moving to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1841. While at Nauvoo, Joseph made a copy for Bishop Whitney of Joseph Smith’s revelation on plural marriage, which was the official document given to Brigham Young in 1847.

After Caroline passed away in 1842, Joseph left Nauvoo to serve a mission to New England. Three years later he married Dorcas Moore and Loenza Pond, with whom he had ten and three children, respectively. Joseph and his families crossed the plains in 1847 in the Smoot-Wallace Company and settled at Salt Lake City. Several years later, in 1870, Joseph married another plural wife, Eliza Partridge, adding four more children to the family. Joseph served as bishop of the Salt Lake City Second Ward from 1851 to 1854, and was ordained a Patriarch in 1883.

After unsuccessful attempts as a farmer in Ogden, Joseph left Weber County in 1858 and thereafter was employed at the Tithing Store in Salt Lake City. He was also keeper of the tabernacle gate for many years. His son, Joseph T. Kingsbury, later became president of the University of Utah. When Joseph died on 15 October 1898 in Salt Lake City at the age of eighty-six, “his genial, kind disposition [had] caused him to be loved throughout the community” (Esshom, 990).

Bibliography

Cook, Lyndon W. Joseph C. Kingsbury: A Biography. Provo, UT: Grandin Book, 1985.

Esshom, Frank. Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1966.

Jenson, Andrew. Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia.Vol. 4. Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson Memorial Association, 1936.

Tullidge, Edward W. “History of Salt Lake City: Biographies.” In History of Salt Lake City and Its Founders. Salt Lake City: Edward W. Tullidge, 1886.