Benjamin Gifford: Linked to the Gifford Family — Whose Patriarch Alpheus Gifford Taught the Gospel to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball

The Gifford family is one of the remarkable seedbed families of the early Restoration. Alpheus Gifford (1793–1841) was a man of deep religious conviction who had previously been raised Quaker and had preached for the Reformed Methodist faith before his baptism on January 1, 1831.

After his conversion, Alpheus Gifford became one of the early missionaries who carried the Restoration to other searching souls. His most consequential act of ministry was teaching the gospel to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball — two men who would become the second President of the Church and one of his most beloved Apostles. This extraordinary result of Gifford's missionary faithfulness is noted in the Wilford Woodruff Papers.

Benjamin Gifford, associated with this family, inherited this rich tradition of faith. The Gifford name appears in the Church History records and Nauvoo-era documents, representing a family network deeply embedded in the early Church.

Alpheus Gifford's obituary in the Joseph Smith Papers (History C-1) records his faithful life and service. He died in 1841 and was mourned by the Church he had helped to build — including the two future leaders whose conversion he had enabled.

The Gifford family stands as a witness to the multiplication effect of sincere early missionary work: one faithful convert, who had himself sought the truth through multiple religious traditions, found the Restoration — and then led two of the giants of the dispensation to the same door.