page_title: Charles C. Rich
section_title: Church leadership
hierarchical_section_title: Charles C. Rich / Biography / Church leadership
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles C. Rich, an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Albumen print, 2.375 × 3.875 in.
context_page_description: Charles Coulson Rich was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He led one of the first groups of Mormon pioneers west from Illinois under the leadership of Brigham Young after Joseph Smith's murder.
  Rich was chosen and served as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under Brigham Young after the Church settled in Utah Territory. President Young asked Rich to open up San Bernardino, California for settlement in 1850, and Bear Lake Valley, located in Utah and Idaho, in 1863. Rich founded many communities in Bear Lake Valley, including Paris, Montpelier, Fish Haven, Ovid, Georgetown, St. Charles, Bloomington, Bennington, Wardboro, Dingle, Glencoe and Pegram in Idaho, and Garden City, Meadowville, and Laketown in Utah.
context_section_description: Rich was a leader in Caldwell County, Missouri, and fought in the Battle of Crooked River in 1838. His log house is the only structure from the Mormon period in 1836–38 in Caldwell County to have survived to this day. After the expulsion of the Latter Day Saints from Missouri, Rich settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was made an original member of the Council of Fifty. He also served as a member of the Nauvoo High Council, and as a brigadier and major general in the Nauvoo Legion.
  After the death of Joseph Smith, Rich followed the leadership of Brigham Young and the surviving Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and his family migrated to what became Utah with the main body of the church in 1847, leading a pioneer company that arrived October of that year. When Young and the other apostles returned that winter to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, Rich served as a counselor to John Smith, who presided over the early pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. In October 1848, Rich was made the president of the Salt Lake Stake.
  Brigham Young appointed Rich a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on February 12, 1849.
  Rich helped form a Latter-day Saint settlement in San Bernardino, California. However, this settlement attracted many people who wanted to avoid Young and other leaders of the LDS Church. The members who supported Young were asked to return to Utah in 1857 at the time of the Utah War. At the request of President Brigham Young, Charles C. Rich settled the Bear Lake (on the Utah–Idaho border) region and is the namesake of Rich County, Utah and St. Charles, ID.
  In the early 1860s, Rich served as president of the British Mission of the church.
caption: Charles C. Rich
  in 1880
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