Hosea Stout

Who was Hosea Stout?

Hosea Stout was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Mormon pioneer, and a lawyer and politician in Utah Territory.

Stout was born in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky into the large family of Joseph Stout and Ann Smith, both strict Quakers. As a child, Stout was temporarily put in a Shaker school due to his family's financial hardships. However, after four years in the school, his father's circumstances improved and removed him from the school.

In 1832, Stout enlisted with a group of rangers to fight in the Black Hawk War. During this time, he became acquainted with Mormonism and was taught by later apostle Charles C. Rich. In 1837 he sold his business and move to Caldwell County, Missouri where the Latter-day Saints had gathered after their expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri and Kirtland, Ohio. Here he married Samantha Peck. Shortly after this he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

During the Mormon War of 1838, Stout was a member of the Danites, a Mormon militia, and fought in the Battle of Crooked River. After the Latter Day Saints were forced to leave Missouri and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, Stout served as a bodyguard for Joseph Smith, Jr. During this period he was also a commander in the Nauvoo Legion and the Chief of Police of Nauvoo. He was further set apart as President of the eleventh Quorum of Seventies and made a member of the Council of Fifty, an organization created by Joseph Smith in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.