Called by Brigham Young | Name Jacob Gates | |
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Born May 9, 1811
St. Johnsbury, Vermont, United States ( 1811-05-09 ) Died April 14, 1892(1892-04-14) (aged 80)
Provo, Utah Territory, United States | ||
Jacob Gates (Mar 9, 1811 – April 14, 1892) was an early Mormon leader and member of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gates was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont and married Millie Snow in 1833. That same year, Orson Pratt baptized him. In 1834, the couple moved near Liberty, Missouri. In late 1836, they moved to Caldwell County, Missouri. In October 1844, he was made president of the fourth quorum of Seventy.
In 1849, Gates met with Oliver Cowdery shortly before Cowdery died. During their conversation, Cowdery said,
"Jacob, I want you to remember what I say to you. I am a dying man, and what would it profit me to tell you a lie? I know,' said he, 'that this Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God. My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched, and I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain imagination of the mind-it was real".
While in Liverpool, England, on a mission in 1859, Brigham Young wrote Gates to inform him he'd been called as one of the seven presidents of the Seventy. He was ordained in 1862, though he was sustained by the church on April 6, 1860. Following the death of Henry Harriman, Gates was the senior president of the Seventy from May 1891 until his own death in April 1892.
Gates served in the Utah Territorial Legislature, representing Washington and Kane counties, from 1864 to 1867. Gates practiced plural marriage and fathered 11 children. He died in Provo, Utah Territory.