Rufus Allen: Original 1847 Pioneer, Camp Guard, and President of the Seventy (1814–1887)

Rufus Allen was born March 22, 1814, in Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Gideon and Rachel Hand Allen. He joined the Church at an early age and was in Carroll County, Missouri, when a mob of 150 armed men attacked the Mormon settlement—an experience that tested the faith of the early Saints. In 1846 he was chosen to be part of the original 1847 pioneer company and was assigned to be a camp guard. Allen helped establish the new settlement in the Salt Lake Valley before returning to Winter Quarters. He later settled in Ogden, Weber County, Utah, and in 1857 was called as a senior president of the 53rd and 54th Quorums of the Seventy. He died in Ogden on December 4, 1887, at age 73. (His nephew, Rufus Chester Allen, accompanied Parley P. Pratt on a missionary journey to Valparaíso, Chile.)