Samuel Claridge (December 5, 1828 – September 11, 1919) was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a prominent early settler of the Muddy River Valley in Nevada and

Thatcher, Arizona Thatcher is a town in Graham County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 4,865. It is part of the Safford Micropolitan Statistical Area. Thatcher is the home of Eastern Arizona College (EAC), ...

. Claridge was born in

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is northwes ...

, Bedfordshire, England, to David Claridge and Elizabeth Pratt Hopkins. In 1849, he married Charlotte Joy and in 1851 they joined the LDS Church. In 1853, they emigrated to Utah Territory, settling in Nephi. In 1868, Wilford Woodruff appointed Claridge to preside over the Latter-day Saints living along the Muddy River in Nevada (then in Utah Territory). The eastern border of Nevada was later shifted east, and with the attempt to charge back taxes to those living there, the Latter-day Saints moved away. Claridge moved to Kane County, Utah. In 1875, Claridge was one of the founders of

Orderville, Utah Orderville is a town in western Kane County, Utah, United States. The population was 577 at the 2010 census. The town was founded and operated under the United Order of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This system allowed the com ...

. He left his wife and children there in 1877 to serve a church mission in Britain. After his mission, Claridge lived in Orderville until he moved to

, in 1883. He served as the bishop of the Thatcher Ward and later as the first patriarch of the St. Joseph

Stake Stake may refer to: Entertainment * '' Stake: Fortune Fighters'', a 2003 video game * ''The Stake'', a 1915 silent short film * "The Stake", a 1977 song by The Steve Miller Band from '' Book of Dreams'' * ''Stakes'' (miniseries), a Cartoon Netw ...

, which was headquartered at Thatcher. Among those who received

patriarchal blessing In the Latter Day Saint movement, a patriarchal blessing (also called an evangelist's blessing) is an ordinance administered by the laying on of hands, with accompanying words of promise, counsel, and lifelong guidance intended solely for the rec ...

s from him was

Spencer W. Kimball Spencer Woolley Kimball (March 28, 1895 – November 5, 1985) was an American business, civic, and religious leader who was the twelfth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The grandson of early Latter-day S ...

. Claridge's daughter, Elizabeth (1852–1924), was the wife of Alfred William McCune, Sr. (1849–1927) and a prominent benefactor of the operations of the LDS Church in the 1920s.

S. George Ellsworth Samuel George Ellsworth (1916–1997) was an American historian specializing in Western United States history and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a founding editor of the ''Western Political Quarterly''. ...

, a grandson of Claridge, wrote a biography of Claridge titled ''Samuel Claridge: Pioneering the Outposts of Zion''. Claridge's daughter, Charlotte "Lottie", married Brigham Young III, a son of

Brigham Young, Jr. Brigham Young Jr. (December 18, 1836 – April 11, 1903) served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church), president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) fr ...

and his wife Catherine Curtis Spencer.

Susa Young Gates Susa Gates ( Young, formerly Dunford; March 18, 1856 – May 27, 1933) was a writer, periodical editor, and women's rights advocate in Utah. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gates wrote the first lesson manual, was a member of ...

''Genealogy of the Family of Brigham Young''
''Utah Genealogical Magazine'': "some have incorrectly said that Lottie's husband was Brigham Spencer Young, but Brigham Spencer Young was actually the name of one of her sons" One of Claridge's sons,

David Claridge David Harmon Claridge was a politician from Arizona who served in the Arizona Senate for several terms. He was also a rancher, a farmer, and an Arizona pioneer. In the 1920s he stopped ranching and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, where he bec ...

, was a member of the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Senate. The House convenes in the legislative chambers at the Arizona State C ...

Notes

References

*
Utah State University bio on Claridge

review of Ellsworth's biography of Claridge
'' BYU Studies''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Claridge, Samuel 1828 births 1919 deaths 19th-century Mormon missionaries American Latter Day Saints British Latter Day Saints Converts to Mormonism English Latter Day Saints English Mormon missionaries English emigrants to the United States English leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mormon missionaries in the United Kingdom Mormon pioneers Patriarchs (LDS Church) People from Clark County, Nevada People from Kane County, Utah People from Leighton Buzzard People from Nephi, Utah People from Thatcher, Arizona