John Cheese: The Herefordshire Convert Who Became a Local Missionary and Baptized Dozens for Wilford Woodruff

John Cheese was one of the earliest converts in Herefordshire, England, baptized during Wilford Woodruff's extraordinary 1840 mission to the Benbow Farm area. He became so trusted and effective that Woodruff ordained him an Elder shortly after his baptism and left him to carry on the work of teaching and baptizing in the region.

Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal on a spring 1840 day: 'Ordained one Elder John Cheese' — placing him in the ranks of local leaders almost immediately after his conversion. Woodruff's 'Record of Baptisms, 1840' specifically names John Cheese as one of those besides himself who were actively 'teaching and baptizing' throughout the Stoke Lacy and surrounding Herefordshire area.

One account records a remarkable incident connected to Cheese: a man named Williams had taunted and mocked the missionaries, but after investigating the gospel himself, Williams was so converted that he sought out John Cheese to baptize him — and Williams was soon ordained as a teacher. The very man who had tried to stop the work became a worker in it, baptized by the local convert Elder.

John Cheese was among the first to join the Church in Herefordshire, and he appears to have died in Nauvoo — one of those quiet, faithful converts who traveled across the ocean to gather with the Saints and whose name is preserved in Woodruff's careful records as a man who taught and baptized in the great 1840 harvest.