David Wyman Patten (November 14, 1799 – October 25, 1838) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

[4]: 1  [6] Patten allied himself with the local Methodist congregation during this time, all the while professing a belief that there was "no true religion on the earth.

Excited, David rode three hundred miles to his brother's house in Fairplay, Indiana, to investigate the church.

[7] Patten served several short missions for the church, and was one of the first missionaries to visit the southern United States.

[3] Two days after his baptism, Patten was ordained an elder by Elisha H. Groves, and soon after sent on a mission to Michigan Territory.

[4]: 4–7 At the end of 1832, several missionaries, including Patten, were sent to states on the east coast in response to a revelation received by Joseph Smith in September of the same year.

He returned home on February 15, 1833, and within a month was called on his third mission, this time to preach near Theresa, New York, where his mother and some of his siblings lived.

During one of these visits, a heckler interrupted a meeting in Avon, New York, ridiculing the missionaries and refusing to be quiet.

Patten answered "In the name of the Lord, I will" and picked the man up with both hands, took him to the back door, and reportedly threw him ten feet into a wood pile.

The interpreted hymn was mailed to Independence, MO where W.W. Phelps published it, unattributed, in the May 1833 edition of the Evening and Morning Star.

In the time following his mission, he worked on constructing the Kirtland Temple and moved his family from Michigan to Ohio.

[4]: 22–31 Altogether, Patten served twelve short missions for the church in the eastern United States in 1832 and 1833 and in Tennessee with Warren Parrish in 1834.

[7] Nancy Alexander Tracy, an early member of the church who converted at age sixteen, wrote of Patten: "I could at a glance see the noble spirit he possessed beaming in his countenance, and when he began to speak it was with such force and power.

"[4]: 29 Patten became one of the original apostles of the Church of the Latter Day Saints on February 15, 1835, receiving his ordination from Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, jointly known as the Three Witnesses.

"[4]: 165 Doctrine and Covenants section 114, delivered April 17, 1838, is directed to Patten, in which he is called to serve another mission.

The account states that Cain, the son of Adam from the Bible, had earnestly sought death but was denied it, and that his mission was to destroy the souls of men.

Crying, "God and liberty," Patten ordered a charge and led the Mormon militia in the attack.

[1] In Doctrine and Covenants section 124, a revelation states, "David Patten I have taken unto myself; behold, his priesthood no man taketh from him.