The life of Franklin D. Richards affords an example of steadfast devotion to duty and of success in the discharge of many varied and important responsibilities. Beginning his career amid humble surroundings, first as a farm boy, then as a missionary, he rose steadily to prominence both in civil and religious affairs, and died one of the most honored and most conspicuous figures in the community.

He was a native of the State of Massachusetts, born at Richmond, in Berkshire county, April 2, 1821; and was a youth of seventeen when he espoused the cause of Mormonism, being baptized by his father, Phineas Richards, in the waters of Mill Creek, in his native town. The original conversions to the faith in the Richards family had been brought about through the agency of their cousin, Brigham Young, one of the Apostles of the Latter-day Church, who with his brother Joseph, also a leading Elder, visited Richmond in the summer of 1836, taking with him the Book of Mormon. This record was carefully perused by his kindred, and by none more carefully than the youth Franklin, one of the most studious and thoughtful minds among them. Its perusal, in the intervals of farm labor, converted him, as it bad previously converted his father, Phineas Richards (1788-1874), his mother, Wealthy Dewey Richards, his uncles Willard Richards and Levi Richards, and other members of the family, some of whom, at the time of Franklin's baptism, (June 3, 1838) were with the main body of the Church, which was then moving from 0hio to Missouri.

In the fall of the same year he bade farewell to home and kindred and set out for Far West, the central place of gathering. The war between Mormons and Missourians was now raging, and the awful news of the atrocities committed upon the new settlers ,by the older inhabitants, reached the ears of the young convert, toilsomely trudging his hopeful way toward the scene of the prevailing troubles. As he passed through the trampled fields and smoldering ruins of once flourishing but now deserted homesteads, and at Hann's Mill stood upon the spot where nearly a score of defenseless settlers had leen butchered by an armed mob and their bodies thrown into an old well, he little knew that in that rude receptacle, covered up with rocks and soil, lay all that was mortal of his beloved brother, George Spencer Richards, one of the victims of the massacre.

It was in May, 1839, that Franklin joined his expatriated people at Quincy, Illinois. There he first met the Prophet Joseph Smith. Proceeding to Nauvoo, he received his first appointment to the mission field, having previously been ordained a Seventy of the Church, in April, 1840. The field assigned to him was Northern Indiana, where he labored zealously and successfully, converting and baptizing many.

At the town of La Porte he formed the acquaintance of Isaac Snyder and family, natives of the Eastern States, who had been converted to Mormonism in Canada, and had come as far as Indiana on their way to the new gathering place of their people. In their hospitable home the young missionary was nursed back to health from a severe spell of sickness, resulting from his arduous labors in that somewhat unhealthy climate. "Though active and quick to recuperate, he was never robust; his constitution, lithe and elastic, resembling the willow rather than the oak, more easily bent than broken. He was unmarried, and while at the Snyder home he selected the youngest daughter of the household for his future companion. Franklin D. Richards and Jane Snyder were married at the little village of Job Creek, near La Harpe, about thirty miles from Nauvoo, December 18, 1842.

The young wife was about to become a mother, when in the midst of the exodus of the Saints from Illinois her husband set out upon his first mission to foreien lands. A

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High Priest since 1844, he had been called during that year to preach the Gospel in Europe, and had gone as far as the Atlantic seaboard (discharging on the way a semipolitical duty in the interests of the Prophet) when he was recalled by the terrible tidings of the Carthage jail tragedy. He was given a special mission to the State o Michigan, where he gathered means for the completion of the Nauvoo Temple, to which he contributed the labor of his hands as carpenter and painter. Then came the second call to Europe. Leaving Nauvoo early in July, he sailed from New York in the latte part of September.

God is never cruel, but his providences, designed for man's development, sometime seem so. While Franklin D. Richards, homeless and almost penniless, was making his way eastward to the port where he would embark for a distant land, his invalid wife,' whom he had left at the camp of the exiles on Sugar Creek, westward bound, gave bird to a son, her second child, and the babe, after drawing a few faint breaths, pillowed i head in eternal sleep upon the breast of its broken-hearted mother. The sad news reached the young husband and father just as he was on the eve of sailing. During his absence, his only remaining child, a beautiful little daughter named Wealthy Richards, also died, as did his brother Joseph W. Richards. the former at Winter Quarters, on the Missouri river, and the latter at Pueblo, now in Colorado, while on his way to California, as a member of the Mormon Battalion.

Landing at Liverpool about the middle of October, Elder Richards was appointed to preside over the Church in Scotland. In January, 1847, he filled a brief interregnumbetween the departure of Apostle Orson Hyde and the arrival of Elder Orson Spencer-a president of the European Mission. He was chosen by the latter his counselor, and subsequently labored in the Bath, Bristol and Trowbridge conferences, which he re. organized as the South conference. At the head of a company of Saints, and with his brother Samuel, who had been his co-laborer in Scotland, he sailed from Liverpool February 20, 1848, and by way of New Orleans and St. Louis reached Winter Quarters where his wife awaited him. He was in time to cross the plains with the First Presidency, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, who led the main body of the migrating Church to Salt Lake valley that season. Franklin was captain over fifty wagons in the division commanded by President Richards. He reached hi journey's end on the 19th of October.

The 12th of the following February witnessed his ordination to the Apostleship, under the hands of the First Presidency; and in October of that year he started upon his second mission to Europe; this time to relieve President Orson Pratt, at Liverpool.

He established in that land the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, which in Utah he had helped to institute, and in 1852 he forwarded the first company of European Saints that emigrated under its auspices. The mighty work accomplished by him during this and his two subsequent foreign missions, can only be briefly summarized. Under him and his brother Samuel (who presided during the first interregnum) Mormonism in the British Isles reached the zenith of its prosperity. It had previously numbered some forty thousand converts in that country, and now, between the summers of 1850 and 1852 sixteen thousand additional baptisms were recorded. A more perfect organization of branches, conferences and pastorates was effected throughout the mission, new editions of the Hymn Book and Voice of Warning were issued, the Pearl of Great Price was compiled, the Book of Mormon stereotyped, and the business of the Liverpool office doubled. It was also planned to make the "Milennial Star" a weekly instead of a semi• monthly periodical, with an increase in the number of its issue, and to change the route of Mormon emigration from Liverpool, making it go by way of New York instead of by the old, perilous and sickly route via New Orleans and St. Louis.

Our Apostle returned to Utah in the summer of 1852. He attended the specialty conference held at Salt Lake City in August, when the principle of plural marriage which he had long since accepted and obeyed-was first publicly promulged; he spent the two following winters in the legislature, and in April, 1853, participated in the ceremony d1 dedicating the grounds and laying the corner stones of the Salt Lake Temple. Subse quently he made trips td Iron county, to establish the iron works projected by Presides Young, some of the arrangements for which had been made by himself and his fellow Apostle, Erastus Snow, while in Europe. During the winter of 1853-4 he was requested by the President to prepare to resume his missionary labors abroad. His letter of appointment authorized him "to preside over all the conferences and all the affairs of the Church in the British Islands and adjacent countries." This meant that he was to direct the work in the East Indies, in Africa, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe. Prior to his departure his uncle, President

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Willard Richards, died, and the Apostle Franklin succeeded him as the virtual head of the Richards family.

He arrived at Liverpool June 4, 1854, and as soon as practicable made an extended tour of the various continental branches. During a subsequent trip to the continent he organized the Saxon Mission, previously opened under his direction, and baptized Dr. Karl G. Masser, one of the most notable of the German converts. In 1855 he leased for the Church the premises known as 42 Islington, Liverpool, which have ever since remained the chief office and headquarters of the European Mission. Between 1854 and 1856 one thousand emigrants were shipped under his direction from Liverpool to New York. President Richards was a father to the Elders under his charge, and they loved him for his sunny affable nature. his gentlemanly courtesy and great kindness of heart. Everywhere the work throve amazingly under his administration, though he labored much of the time under bodily weakness and debility. President Orson Pratt, who succeeded him in July, 1856, in announcing that fact through the "Star," said of his predecessor: "A rapid extension of the work of the gathering has been a prominent feature of his administration, the last great act of which-the introduction of the practice of the law of tithing among the Saints in Europe-is a fitting close to his extensive and important labors. We receive the work from the hands of President Richards with great satisfaction and pleasure on account of the healthy and flourishing condition in which we find it."

He left Liverpool on the 26th of July and arrived at Salt Lake City on the 4th of October. He assisted in the reformation then in progress throughout the Church, and during the winter of 1856-7 was again in the legislature and was re-elected a regent of the University of Deseret. The following April he become a brigadier general in the militia and partook of the general experiences attending the invasion of Utah by Johnston's army. For several years he was active in ecclesiastical, political, military and educational work for the public, and in his spare time was engaged in farming and milling on his own account. In July, 1866, he was appointed upon another mission to Europe. Pursuant to this appointment he landed at Liverpool in September of that year. *He first made an extended tour through Great Britain, Scandinavia and other parts, acquainting himself thoroughly with the affairs of the mission, to the presidency of which he succeeded in July, 1867. The retiring President, Brigham Young, Jr. in announcing the installation of his successor, predicted that a fresh impetus would be given the work under his administration. The words were scarcely uttered when they began to be fulfilled. Rallying the Elders to his support and reinforcing their faith with his own infectious enthusiasm, he sent them forth with renewed zeal and determination. Within the next twelve months three thousand four hundred and fifty-seven souls were baptized in Great Britain alone, and in the same time two thousand three hundred were emigrated to Utah. Steamships were now used instead of sailing vessels for the Church emigration. On arriving home in October, 1868, the Apostle received from President Young a warm and appreciative greeting, and was congratulated upon his revival of the work in the British Mission.

The period of this return witnessed the advent into Utah of the trans-continental railroad, which, after the welding ceremony at promontory, made Ogden the joint terminus of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines, under the surname of the "Junction City." There, by President Young's advice and appointment, President Richards made his permanent home, having charge for some years of the Weber Stake of Zion. It fell to him and his fellow citizens of Ogden to welcome the arrival of the "iron horse" two months before the meeting of the roads at Promontory. In February of the same year he was elected probate judge, and during the period of his official tenure-from March, 1869, to September, 1883-Weber county was greatly built up and improved. In January, 1870; he with others founded the "Ogden Junction," a paper of which he was for some time the editor.

Judge Richards' court had original and appellate jurisdiction in common law and chancery cases until 1874, when the Poland law limited the jurisdiction of the probate courts. Many important cases, both civil and criminal, were tried before him, and his decisions, when appealed from, invariably stood unreversed by the higher tribunals. The noted mandamus case of Kimball versus Richards, in which, during the autumn of 1882 it was sought to take from him his office under the provisions of the Hoar Amendment, and the failure of that attempt through the stout defense maintained by him as the virtual champion of hundreds of other officials throughout the Territory, are the subject of extended comment in the seventh chapter of the previous volume. Franklin D. Richards held the office of probate judge of Weber county until his successor, instead

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of being appointed by the Governor under a strained construction of the Hoar Amendment, was duly elected and qualified-the point for which he and his confreres had all along been contending.

The Apostle's time and talents, after his retirement from the judicial bench, were devoted almost exclusively to the duties of his sacred calling. In April, 1884, he was made the assistant to Wilford Woodruff, the Church Historian, whom he succeeded in that office five years later, when the latter became President of the Church. During the greater part of the anti-polygamy crusade-1884 to 1890-he was one of the very few Mormon leaders who were not compelled to go into retirement, and during most of that period he presided at the General Conferences and gave advice and direction to the Saints as the visible representative of the absent Presidency. We cannot speak of his wealth and vested interests; he had none; his life was not devoted to the accumulation of property.

The accession of President Lorenzo Snow to the chief place of authority in the Church made Franklin D. Richards the senior in the Council of the Twelve Apostles, and on September 13, 1898, he was sustained by that Council as its president. Thenceforth he continued in the active discharge of his Apostolic and other duties, laboring so zealously, especially in the great tithing reform movement, that it was, feared by his family and friends that he would break down under the burden. His silent reply to their expressed solicitude-a reply written in his private journal-was to the effect that he had never learned to shirk his duty and must continue along that line to the end.

The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve at the end of the nineteenth century (September 1898). Back row, left to right: Anthon H. Lund (1844-1921), John W. Taylor (1858-1916), John Henry Smith (1848-1911), Heber J. Grant (1856-1945), Marriner W. Merrill (1832-1906). Middle row: Brigham Young, Jr. (1836-1903), First Counselor George Q. Cannon (1827-1901), President Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901), Second Counselor Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918), Franklin Dewey Richards (1821-99). Front row: Matthias F. Cowley (1858-1940), Abraham Owen Woodruff (1872-1904)

The beginning of the end came in August, 1899, when his health failed, and he was forced to take the rest that he had hitherto denied himself. A trip to California, transiently but not permanently helpful, succeeded, and a few months after his return, at fourteen minutes past midnight, on the 9th day of December, his freed spirit passed to its eternal rest.

President Franklin D. Richards was one of the most studious, and propably the most widely read of the Apostles composing the Council over which he presided. He was a life long student of books and of human nature, keen, sagacious and thoughtful.

He read everything good in science, history and religion; following faithfully the admonition of the Prophet Joseph Smith: "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning by study and also by faith." He held with the Prophet that "the glory of God is intelligence," and was not afraid to bask in its light and warm himself in its rays; knowing that that intelligence, though reflected from many prisms, could have but one prime source. Huxley, Darwin, Spencer, Tyndall, with other scientists and philosophers, whose choicest works adorned his library and were perused by him with profound respect for the learning of their authors, only confirmed him in his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ and a convert to Joseph Smith. He contended for the necessary harmony of true religion with true science, and only cast away what he considered dross in both.

In all his wide and extended intercourse with men of all classes and conditions, he maintained his independence, never swerving from his convictions. His faitb-as re marked by one speaker at his funeral-"was strong enough to stand alone." Charitable to all and speaking evil of none, if men misjudged him he bore it patiently, knowing that time is the friend of innocence and that justice will inevitably vindicate the right. He was a patient man, one who endured much, and bore it uncomplainingly. During his last illness, even when sickest he would not complain, and when asked as to his condition, would answer, "Comfortable, comfortable;" though the loved ones about him knew it was to allay their anxiety that he thus replied, and that the comfort he referred to was more of the mind and heart than of the body. He was also a man who achieved much and will long be remembered for the noble works that he performed. An Apostle for fifty years; a legislator, many times re-elected; a University regent, a civic and military officer; Church Historian, President of the State Genealogical and Historical societies, and finally President of the Twelve Apostles; in every capacity he labored with intelligence, wisdom and zeal, carving out a name and fame more lasting than the archives of the Church and Commonwealth he so faithfully served.

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