Chauncey West
#269,483 Most Popular
About
Remembered best for heading the Utah Territory's branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this nineteenth-century Mormon leader also participated in an LDS mission to Sri Lanka.
Before Fame
Born and raised in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, he became a member of The LDS Church when he was in his mid teens and subsequently lived in Illinois, Nebraska, and finally Utah.
Trivia
He secured construction jobs for his fellow Utah Mormons during the period in which Central Pacific's Transcontinental Railroad was being built.
Family Life
In accordance with his church's practice of plural marriage, he took nine wives and fathered nearly forty children.
Associated With
He and Parley Pratt were both 19th-century Mormon leaders.