Daniel Stanton

Daniel Stanton, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a farmer and carpenter, migrated to Ohio in 1819. By 1830 he was a respected resident of Kirtland. Daniel was among the first to listen to the preaching of the four missionaries sent to the borders of the Lamanites. He was baptized on November 3, 1830 in Kirtland by Parley P. Pratt, and subsequently ordained a priest by Lyman Wight and an elder by the Prophet Joseph Smith. When he was ordained a high priest on October 25, 1831 by Oliver Cowdery, Daniel said, “I had a long time since covenanted to do the will of God in all things.” He also said that “it was his desire to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”¹

In January 1832 Daniel was called to serve a mission with Seymour Brunson before settling his family in Jackson County, Missouri (see D&C 75:33). When Daniel completed the mission, he was recommended to be a counselor to Bishop John Corrill by the Prophet Joseph Smith and appointed to watch over branch “Number 2” in Independence, Jackson County. He served in that capacity until religious persecution forced him to abandon his home and fields and flee to Clay County for safety.

Although much of what he had once owned remained in Jackson County, Daniel did not forsake his faith or religion. He accepted a call to serve a mission with Elias Eames in August 1834 to Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.

By 1838 Daniel had returned to Missouri and was serving on the Adam-ondi-Ahman High Council. When the extermination order was issued against Latter-day Saints residing in Missouri, Daniel assisted the Saints in Adam-ondi-Ahman to move out of the state before he packed his possessions and joined them in Quincy, Illinois.

Ezra T. Benson, a future apostle, recalled an incident that occurred between Sylvester Stoddard and Daniel Stanton in Quincy:

On Sunday the 19th of July [1839], we [he and his wife] went to the meeting in the afternoon. . . . During the meeting Sylvester B. Stoddard raised a quarrel over the communion table with Daniel Stanton, the president of the branch. My wife inquired what I thought of that. I answered that I thought it did not alter the truth of the work. At the close of the meeting we repaired to the Mississippi River and were baptized therein by Elder Daniel Stanton.²

Daniel later served on the high council in Lima, Illinois before being appointed by Brigham Young to go abroad and preside over branches of the Church. Before he was able to fulfill that assignment, religious persecution forced Daniel again to flee for his life. He fled across the Mississippi River and joined the Saints in Iowa. From there, he trekked across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Daniel resided in various locals in Utah before locating in Panaca, Nevada just before his death in 1872 at age seventy-seven.

1. Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., Far West Record Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1844 (Salt Lake City Deseret Book Co., 1983). p. 21.

2. “Autobiography of Ezra Taft Benson,” Instructor, March 1945.