Levi Richards

Background

Levi Richards was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and trained as a botanical physician.

Career

Richards was an older brother of church apostle Willard Richards. He joined the Church of the Latter Day Saints in 1836 and moved to Kirtland, Ohio to join the main gathering of Latter Day Saints. In the late 1830s, Richards served as a counselor to Joseph Fielding in the presidency of the church"s British Mission.

In 1840, Richards was still serving as a missionary in the British Mission.

Richards married Sarah Griffith on December 25, 1843, with Brigham Young performing the marriage. Foreign part of this mission, the Richards served in Wales, which was where Sarah Griffith had been born.

Foreign part of this time Richards served as the general supervisor of missionary work in Wales, which for all intents and purposes made him the mission president in Wales. Richards lived for several years in downtown Salt Lake City on the block where Crossroads Mall was later built.

In the early 1870s, he moved to the Avenues area of Salt Lake City.

He became a patriarch in the church in 1873 and died at Salt Lake City.

Achievements

• He was a member of the Council of Fifty and Anointed Quorum and served as a physician for movement founder Joseph Smith and others during the years the Latter Day Saints were established in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Membership

Richards served as a member of the Nauvoo City Council.