Sidney Rigdon
| Sidney Rigdon | |
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President of the Church Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion |
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| April 6, 1845 – 1847 | |
| Predecessor | Joseph Smith |
| Successor |
Stephen Post William Bickerton (Reorganized church in 1862) |
| Reason | Death of Joseph Smith |
| First Counselor in the First Presidency Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints |
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| March 18, 1833 – Summer of 1844 | |
| Predecessor | Jesse Gause |
| End reason | Succession crisis after the death of Joseph Smith |
| Second Counselor in the First Presidency Church of Christ |
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| March 8, 1832 – March 18, 1833 | |
| Successor | Frederick G. Williams |
| Reason | Initial organization of First Presidency |
| End reason | Called as First Counselor in First Presidency |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 19, 1793 St. Clair Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | July 14, 1876 (aged 83) Friendship, New York, United States |
| Resting place | Maple Grove Cemetery 42°13′03″N 78°07′07″W / 42.2175°N 78.1186°W |
| Spouse(s) | Phoebe Brooks |
| Children | 11 |
Sidney Rigdon (February 19, 1793 – July 14, 1876) was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Rigdon was born in St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles south of Pittsburgh. (The area today is known as Library.) He was the youngest of four children of William and Nancy Rigdon. Rigdon's father was a farmer and a native of Harford County, Maryland.
Sidney's father William Rigdon died in 1810.
According to an 1875 account attributed to Sidney Rigdon's elder brother, as a child Rigdon had suffered an accident that caused a "contusion of the brain". His brother reportedly claimed that he "always considered Sidney a little deranged in his mind by that accident. His mental powers did not seem to be impaired, but the equilibrium in his intellectual exertions seemed thereby to have been sadly affected. He still manifested great mental activity and power, but he was to an equal degree inclined to run into wild and visionary views on almost every question." This account was not published until more than 60 years after the accident.
According to an account by his son John M. Rigdon, young Rigdon "borrowed all the histories he could get and began to read them. ... In this way he became a great historian, the best I ever saw. He seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue's end and he got to be a great biblical scholar as well. He was as familiar with the Bible as a child was with his spelling book. He was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get. He studied English Grammar alone and became a very fine grammarian. He was very precise in his language."
Rigdon remained on the farm until his mother sold it in 1818.
On May 31, 1817, Rigdon was baptized by Rev. Phillips and he became a member of the Peter's Creek Baptist Church of Library, Pennsylvania.
In 1818, Rigdon moved to North Sewickley to become an apprentice to Baptist minister Rev. Andrew Clark. Rigdon received his license to preach for the Regular Baptists in March 1819.
Rigdon moved in May to Trumbull County, Ohio, where he jointly preached with Adamson Bentley from July 1819. He married Bentley's sister Phoebe Brook in June 1820, and remained in Ohio until February 1822, when he returned to Pittsburgh to accept the pastorate of the First Baptist Church there under the recommendation of Alexander Campbell.
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Wikipedia