William B. Ide
| William Brown Ide | |
|---|---|
Photo purported to be of Ide
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| Commander of the California Republic | |
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In office June 14, 1846 – July 9, 1846 |
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| Preceded by | Andrés Pico as Governor of Mexican Alta California |
| Succeeded by | John D. Sloat as U.S. Military Governor of California |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 28, 1796 Rutland, Massachusetts |
| Died | December 1852 (aged 56) Red Bluff, California |
| Resting place | Monroeville Cemetery, Monroeville, Glenn County, California |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Ide |
| Profession | Farmer, politician, soldier |
| Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |
William Brown Ide (March 28, 1796 – December 19 or 20, 1852) was a California pioneer who headed the short-lived California Republic in 1846.
William Ide was born in Rutland, Massachusetts to Lemuel Ide, a member of the Vermont State Legislature. A carpenter by trade, Ide married Susan Grout Haskell (1799–1850) in 1820. He and his wife Susan lived at first in Massachusetts, but soon began moving westward—to Kentucky, then to Ohio and finally to Illinois. They farmed in Springfield, where Ide supplemented his income by teaching school.
Since at least as early as 1886 and as late as 1993, some historians have argued that Ide was never a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This argument was settled in 2014 in the affirmative, however, when researchers Roger Robin Ekins, Michael N. Landon and Richard K. Behrens--building on the work of David Freeman and Ronald L. "Smokey" Bassett--positively identified an unsigned letter in the archives of the LDS Church as being penned by Ide. Ekins has laid out all of the arguments on both sides of this controversy, positively concluding that Ide was baptized a Mormon in July 1837, was likely set apart as the President of the Springville Branch of the Church in July 1844 and was called on a mission to assist Joseph Smith's campaign for the Presidency of the United States on April 6, 1844. Accordingly, Ide and his family were the first known Mormons to enter California and Ide—as President of the short-lived Republic of California—was, arguably, the first LDS head of state.
In 1845, Ide sold his farm and joined a wagon train in Independence, Missouri headed for Oregon. On the advice of the mountain man Caleb Greenwood, Ide and a group of settlers split off and headed to Alta California, then a province of Mexico. They arrived at Sutter's Fort on October 25, 1845. Ide traveled north to work for Peter Lassen on Rancho Bosquejo.
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