Greater Love Hath No Man: Deputy Sheriff Rodney Badger's Sacrifice in the Weber River (April 29, 1853)

Rodney Badger was fourteen when his family joined the Church in Vermont in 1838, the year his father died. A year later the boy assumed responsibility for his family and moved them, including his invalid mother, to Nauvoo. He joined the first pioneer company of 1847 at twenty-four, where his gifts as woodsman, scout, and swimmer were put to use, and he was among the five members of the original company who, on reaching the Green River in present-day Wyoming, volunteered to turn around and travel back east to guide the companies following behind them. He joined his own wife's company at the Sweetwater River and entered the Salt Lake Valley with her on October 2, 1847. He served in the bishopric of the Fifteenth Ward, in the Nauvoo Legion, and as sheriff of Great Salt Lake County.

On April 29, 1853, Deputy Sheriff Badger was on assignment from Brigham Young assisting emigrant companies at the treacherous Weber River ford. Several wagons waited along the banks of the ice-cold, fast-running river. The first wagon crossed safely. The second, carrying an immigrant family with six children, was too light for the crossing; the father was warned by both the wagon master and Deputy Badger to ford the river without his family. He ignored the warnings. As the wagon entered the current it was dragged uncontrollably downstream, overturned, and spilled the mother and children into the frigid water.

Without hesitation, Badger dove in and rescued the mother and four of the children. Ignoring his own safety, he swam back out for the remaining two children. The elements overcame him, and he disappeared from sight, giving his life at thirty years of age. The river also claimed the two children he attempted to save. Eighteen months passed before his remains were found on an island a mile and a half below the place he entered the water, and were returned to Salt Lake City to his wife, Nancy Garr Badger, and their four children.

Eyewitness William H. Hooper wrote the letter that carried the news to her. On April 25, 1996, 143 years after his death, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office posthumously awarded Rodney Badger its Purple Heart and Medal of Honor, recognizing him as the first Utah law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty. A Sons of Utah Pioneers historical marker at Henefer, Utah, erected in 1998, commemorates his sacrifice under the scripture: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)