Rich was born in on August 21, 1809, in Campbell County, Kentucky, to Joseph Rich and Nancy O'Neal.[2] As an adult he reached six feet, 4 inches in height, and was considered a tall man for the time period.[citation needed] Rich was baptized into the early Latter Day Saint church on April 1, 1832,[2] after having been taught by Lyman Wight in 1831.
In 1838, Rich married Sarah D. Pea, whom he had previously proposed to by letter, the two never having met.[3] Rich followed the church's principle of plural marriage, taking six wives and fathering a total of 51 children.[2]
In 1863, Rich led a party of early Mormons to colonize parts of southeastern Idaho, which at the time was thought to be part of Utah Territory. The communities of Paris and Geneva, Idaho, as well as some other neighboring towns, were under his direction.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] He also served as a member of the Nauvoo High Council,[5] and as Brigadier-General in the Nauvoo Legion.[2]
Charles C. Rich in 1880
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.[6]
Rich helped form a Latter-day Saint settlement in San Bernardino, California.[2] 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,[citation needed] Charles C. Rich settled the Bear Lake (on the Utah–Idaho border) region and is the namesake of Rich County, Utah[2] and St. Charles, ID.
In the early 1860s, Rich served as president of the British Mission of the church.
After suffering from paralysis, Rich died on November 17, 1883, in Paris, Idaho. He has been remembered as "a man of strength and great power of endurance."[2] His granddaughter, Ada May Rich, became the mother of Laraine Day, who became an actress.[7]
Mill burrs sold to Charles C Rich by Brigham Young in exchange for a pair of mules in 1876 to make flour for the people of Bear Lake Valley.
They were made in France and moved across the plains by ox cart and used in Salt Lake City prior to being sold to Rich. They were embedded in a walkway south of the Paris Idaho Tabernacle in 1937.
Sermons
[edit]Bust of Charles C. Rich outside of the Paris Idaho Tabernacle.
"Privileges Better Appreciated By Absence—Present Salvation," Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, pp. 353–54
"Sufficiency of the Gospel—Obedience to Truth," Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, pp. 296–300
"Present Opportunities of Obtaining a Knowledge of the Principles of Truth—Importance of Improving Them," Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, pp. 90–95
"Building the Temple—General Duties of the Saints," Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, pp. 160–63
^Major, Jill C. “Artworks in the Celestial Room of the First Nauvoo Temple.” Brigham Young University Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, Brigham Young University, 2002, pp. 47–69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43044321.
^Larson, Andrew Karl, Erastus Snow: The Life of a Missionary and Pioneer for the Early Mormon Church (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1971) p. 188.