...Badger, Rodney – (14th Ten) Born Feb. 4, 1823, at Waterford, Caledonia Co., Vt., to Rodney and Lydia Chamberlain Badger. His family accepted the gospel about 1838, the year his father died. At age 15, Rodney Jr. assumed responsibility for his family and moved them, including his invalid mother, to Nauvoo, where she died. He married Nancy Garr on March 9, 1845. In 1847, he joined the first company, and his attributes as woodsman, scout and swimmer were utilized. He was among five from the original company, who, when they reached Green River in Wyoming, volunteered to return east to help guide the companies that were behind them. He joined his wife in a company at the Sweetwater River, and came with them into Salt Lake Valley on Oct. 2. He was sustained in the bishopric of the Fifteenth Ward, served in the Nauvoo Legion in defending the city and settles against Indian attacks, and was sheriff of Great Salt Lake County. On April 29, 1853, he was assisting an emigrant company in fording the swollen Weber River when one wagon carrying a mother and six children floated off its bed. He immediately plunged into the river to help rescue them and was lost in the swirling waters. Badger was 30 at the time of his death. On April 29, 1996, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office posthumously recognized him as the first of their office to die in the line of duty...