John S. Carter (Latter Day Saints)

John Sims Carter (c. 1792 – June 24, 1834) was an American leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement. In the Church of the Latter Day Saints based in Kirtland, Ohio, Carter was one of 12 members of the first presiding high council established in 1834 by church founder Joseph Smith.

Carter was born in Killingworth, Connecticut, to Gideon Carter and Johanna Sims, and had moved with his family to Benson, Vermont, in the late 1700s. In 1813, he married Elizabeth ("Betsey") Kinyon in Benson.

Carter was introduced to Mormonism by his brother Jared, who had been baptized into the new faith in 1831. John Carter was baptized in 1832, was ordained an elder, and proselytized with his brother on a mission in Vermont, where they established congregations in North West Bay and Bolton. In early 1833, Carter moved to Bolton, where he became a leader of the church.

In September 1833, Carter moved to Jackson County, Missouri, the location that Smith had identified as the gathering place of Latter Day Saints. Later, he moved to church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio, and became a high priest. When the presiding high council was established by Smith on February 17, 1834, Carter and his brother Jared were selected as two of its inaugural members. Three days later, Carter was appointed by Smith to serve a mission to the eastern United States with Jesse Smith.

Carter did not immediately leave on this mission, but instead volunteered to be part of Zion's Camp, an expedition of Latter Day Saints that intended to walk from Kirtland to Jackson County, Missouri, in an attempt to regain land that members of the church had been expelled from by non-Mormon settlers. The march proved difficult and there was some dissension among its participants. On June 20, 1834, after three men had contracted cholera, Smith reportedly warned the group:

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