Charles Kingston (Mormon)

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For other persons of the same name, see Charles Kingston (disambiguation).

Charles Kingston (1856-11-09 – 1944-07-20) was a English Mormon convert and a prominent leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in southwestern Wyoming.

Kingston was born in Peterborough, England. In the 1850s, KIngston's father Frederic was converted to Mormonism by the preaching of missionary Orson Pratt, and he became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1858, Frederic Kingston suffered financial difficulties and when he failed to pay his creditors, a warrant was put out for his arrest. Frederic stowed away on a ship bound for America and made his way to Utah Territory. Charles Kingston and his mother remained in England.

In 1879, Charles Kingston emigrated to Morgan, Utah Territory to reunite with his father. Although he was initially opposed to Mormonism, as he read literature of the LDS Church he came to believe in its truth, and he was baptized into the LDS Church on 1879-11-09. On 1883-01-07 he became an ordained elder in the LDS Church. On 1884-10-19 he was ordained a seventy in the church by Seymour B. Young, and in May 1886, he was began a two-year mission to England. When he arrived in England, he traveled to visit his mother, only to find that she had died earlier that year.

Upon returning to the United States, Kingston settled in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and later in Star Valley in Wyoming. He served in a variety of church positions in the Star Valley Stake of the church, including member of the high council and president of the stake Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. When the Woodruff Stake of the church was created in Uinta County, Wyoming, Kingston was asked to become a counselor to John M. Baxter in the stake presidency. In June 1897, U.S. President William McKinley appointed Kingston as the registrar of the U. S. Land Office at Evanston, Wyoming.

Later in his life, Kingston moved to Ogden, Utah, where he died and was buried.

Kingston and his wife Mary Priscilla Lerwill Tucker were the parents of Charles W. Kingston, who would become a leader in the Mormon fundamentalist movement and was the patriarch of the so-called "Kingston Clan" of Mormon polygamists.

[edit] References

  • Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia 1:331–332