Milo Andrus (March 6, 1814 – June 19, 1893) was an early leader in

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

Biography

Andrus was born in

Wilmington, New York Wilmington is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 1,253 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the nearby town of Wilmington, Vermont. Wilmington is on the county's northern border and is southwest of Plat ...

, to Ruluf Andress and Azuba Smith. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1832 in Florence, Ohio. He was one of the members of

Zion's Camp Zion's Camp was an expedition of Latter Day Saints led by Joseph Smith, from Kirtland, Ohio, to Clay County, Missouri, during May and June 1834 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain land from which the Saints had been expelled by non-Mormon settle ...

. He helped build the Kirtland, Nauvoo, Salt Lake, and

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. He served as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

for the Church of Jesus Christ in England in the early 1840s. He led three wagon trains of pioneers from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley (1850, 1855, and 1861). He was a Bishop (Church of Jesus Christ) in Nauvoo, a

Stake President A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name "stake" derives from the Book of Isaiah: "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine ha ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, a member of the

Quorum of the Seventy Seventy is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Traditionally, a church member holding this priesthood office is a "traveling minister" and an "especial witness" of Je ...

, and was serving as a

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

at his death. In 1854, Andrus recommended that a new outfitting site for emigrants going to Utah be situated four miles west of the soon-to-be-town of

Atchison, Kansas Atchison is a city and county seat of Atchison County, Kansas, United States, along the Missouri River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,885. The city is named in honor of US Senator David Rice Atchison from Missouri ...

. Cholera at previous outfitting sites necessitated this new location. It was called Mormon Grove and was near the Missouri River and Atchison. Atchison needed laborers to build, and the emigrants needed work to earn money to outfit themselves for the overland trip to Utah—so this was a good place for an outfitting site. Milo Andrus oversaw the site in 1855. One hundred-sixty acres were obtained and a sod fence was built around it. Thirty to forty acres were planted so that the incoming emigrants would have food. The planted acreage was called the Perpetual Emigration Farm and soon Mormon Grove became a tent city. That year 2,041 people and 337 wagons left for Utah with Andrus leading one of the wagon trains. While in St. Louis, he preached many sermons. Among those who joined the church due to his preaching was Heinrich Eyring, who would later become a long-serving president of the Indian Territory Mission in Oklahoma, and who was the grandfather of the chemist Henry Eyring. Andrus was a major in the

Nauvoo Legion The Nauvoo Legion was a state-authorized militia of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, United States. With growing antagonism from surrounding settlements it came to have as its main function the defense of Nauvoo, and surrounding Latter Day Saint ...

during the

Utah War The Utah War (1857–1858), also known as the Utah Expedition, Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the US go ...

and was a chaplain of the

Utah State Legislature The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term li ...

. He built many roads in Utah and Southern Idaho. Like many early Latter-day Saints, Andrus was a

polygamist Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

; he had eleven wives and fifty-seven children.

References

;Sources * * ''Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint Church History'', p. 27

External links

The Milo Andrus Family Organization
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrus, Milo 1814 births 1893 deaths 19th-century Mormon missionaries American Mormon missionaries in England American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Converts to Mormonism History of the Latter Day Saint movement Latter Day Saints from Ohio Latter Day Saints from Utah Mormon pioneers Nauvoo Legion Patriarchs (LDS Church) People from Wilmington, New York