Edward Stevenson

Edward Stevenson (May 1, 1820 – January 27, 1897) was a prominent Latter-day Saint missionary of the 19th century. He also served as a general authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as one of the seven presidents of the Seventy. Early life Stevenson was born in Gibraltar to British parents. His family moved to the United States when he was young. As a young man, he was living in Pontiac, Michigan when he was contacted by a group of Latter-day Saint missionaries, including Joseph Smith, who were on a return leg of a trip to Upper Canada. Stevenson joined the Latter-day Saint church and relocated to its headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio in 1834. He later relocated with the main body of Latter Day Saints to Missouri, then Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. LDS Church service Stevenson also made six missionary journeys, for up to five years at a time. These included three missions to Europe, two missions to the southern United States, and one mission to Mexico. He is recorded as having traveled the most miles under his own expense of any missionary in the history of the LDS Church. Stevenson settled in Salt Lake City with the first group of Mormon pioneers in 1847, and spent the first five years there getting established, and traveling Utah with Brigham Young and other church authorities to help oversee the establishment of several new settlements, before leaving on one of his missions in 1852.