Albert Carrington

Early life

Carrington was born in Royalton, Vermont. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1833 and taught school and studied law in Pennsylvania. In 1839, he married Rhoda Maria Woods. The Carringtons were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Wiota, Wisconsin, on July 18, 1841, and in 1844 moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, to join the gathering of Latter Day Saints. In January 1846, Carrington took Mary Rock as a plural wife. Following the death of Joseph Smith, Carrington followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley.

In Utah Territory

Carrington was the editor of the LDS Church-owned Deseret News from 1854 to 1856 and again from 1862 until 1867. He was elected multiple times to the Legislative Council in the Utah territorial legislature until 1868.

While serving as Brigham Young's secretary, in 1849 Carrington was hired by Howard Stansbury to make a survey of the Great Salt Lake. Carrington accompanied Stansbury to Washington, D.C., in 1850 to report on the expedition's efforts and returned to Utah in 1851.

Church service

Carrington became an apostle and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve on July 3, 1870. He was the president of the European Mission four times—once prior to becoming an apostle (1868–70) and three times as an apostle (1871–73, 1875–77, 1880–82). Carrington was the tenth official Church Historian of the LDS Church between 1871 and 1874. From 1873 until 1877, he was a counselor to Young in the First Presidency and served as Young's personal secretary for more than 20 years.

Excommunication and readmission

Carrington was excommunicated from the LDS Church by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on November 7, 1885, for adultery, fornication, and "lewd and lascivious conduct". Carrington's extramarital relationships had begun in England while he was the mission president; he had hid these relationships from the leaders of the church for over 10 years and had lied to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about them when rumors about Carrington began spreading. (The Salt Lake Tribune first accused Carrington of adultery in 1875.) In 1885, Carrington argued before the Twelve that because he did not ejaculate inside the women he had sexual relations with, he had technically not committed adultery, but had simply committed "a little folly in Israel". The Quorum disagreed and excommunicated him.

Carrington was rebaptized on November 1, 1887. Upon his rebaptism, he was not reinstated as an apostle or as a general authority.

On his deathbed, Carrington received permission to be ordained an elder so that he could be buried in his temple robes. He died before the ordination could take place; Wilford Woodruff, the president of the church, authorized that he be ordained 15 minutes after his death. Carrington died at Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, at age 76, and was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Works