Joseph Beecroft: 'Old Brother' from London Who Led the Oxen Camps (c. 1855)

Joseph Beecroft was a faithful Latter-day Saint elder from London, England, who 'had charge of the camp and those that were driving the oxen' in the great work of moving the Saints and their supplies westward. His diary, preserved in the Church History Library (entries from 1854–1855), records the hard, faithful labor of gathering the Saints by wagon and ox team, and he served among the early 'pastors' of the Church in the 1850s. Brother Beecroft's life is a faith-promoting witness of the quiet Saints who, by their practical labors and consecrated leadership, kept the great gathering moving forward, one camp at a time.