Orson Spencer

Born in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts; graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York,1824; joined Baptist Church, 1827; enrolled in theological seminary in Hamilton, New York, later that year; began career as Baptist minister, 1829; baptized, 1841; served mission to England, 1846–1849, during which he was publisher of Millennial Star and published Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; called on mission to Prussia, 1852; contracted fever while a missionary to the Cherokees; died in St. Louis, Missouri. (See Jenson, BE, 1:337–39; Whitney, History of Utah, 4:320–23; Rogers, Life Sketches, 9–152; Sadler, “Life of Orson Spencer”; GQC journal, Mar. 11, 1853.)