Almon W. Babbitt

Almon Whiting Babbitt[1] (9 October 1812[2] – c. 7 September 1856) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Mormon pioneer, and the first secretary and treasurer of the Territory of Utah.

He attempted to move to Missouri in 1838 but was among the Latter Day Saints who were driven out by unfriendly residents, eventually settling in Nauvoo, Illinois.

"[7] In 1841, Babbitt was appointed as the president of the church's Kirtland Stake,[4] where he was charged with shepherding the Latter Day Saints who did not have the financial resources to move to Nauvoo.

In 1843, Babbitt's tenure ended in Kirtland and he began actively practicing law in Nauvoo; he was frequently employed to defend Latter Day Saints in legal disputes.

[9] These clashes have been attributed in part to Babbitt's tendency to view himself as a representative of the United States federal government rather than an enabler of Young's pro-LDS Church policies.

[11] On 28 December 1835, Joseph Smith, Jr. submitted a complaint before the church's high council that Babbitt had been "misrepresenting" him to a number of Latter Day Saints.

"[17] In April 1856, Babbitt left Salt Lake City for Washington, D.C., on his twenty-second trip on government business from Utah to the capital.

Babbitt "stopped a week to gather up what could be found of the scattered property, purchased other teams, obtained drivers and start[ed] the train again".

[21] On August 4, 1856, and 12 miles east of Ash Hollow near Pawnee Swamp and Rattlesnake Creek, a group of defecting Latter-day Saints—the Margettses and Cowdys—had also been attacked and murdered by Cheyenne.

Because all three of Babbitt's party were killed, the information regarding his death came only from the Cheyenne Peace Chiefs who visited Indian Agent Thomas Twiss several times at Dripp's Trading Post after the series of Platte River Road raids in September 1856.