Edward Lucian Whiting

The photograph above pictures children of Edwin and Almira Mehitable Meacham. L to R: Edwin Lucian Whiting, Sylvia Almira Whiting , Edwin Whiting, Cornelia Dolly Whiting, Elisha Franklin Whiting. Missing are: Ellen Emeret Whiting, Catherine Emeline Whiting, and Edwin Lafayette Whiting. Photo taken by George Edward Anderson. Original is available in the BYU Special Collections Library.

EDWARD LUCIAN WHITING, SON OF ALMIRA MEACHAM AND EDWIN WHITING, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 2, p.273/

Whiting, Edward Lucian, a High Councilor in the Union Stake of Zion, Oregon, was born Jan. 28, 1846, in Nauvoo, Hancock county, Illinois. He was the first son of Edwin Whiting and Almira Meacham and among the first polygamist children born in the Church.

Shortly after his birth, his father's house and other buildings were burned by a mob and the family was driven out of Nauvoo. They took up temporary quarters at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, with other exiled Saints.

In the spring of 1849 the family started across the plains for Utah and the mother had to drive her own team much of the way. The journey was completed late in the fall to Great Salt Lake City.

After a few days' rest the travel ﷓worn family with fifteen or twenty others was sent as pioneers into Sanpete Valley, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles. They were the first settlers south of Salt Lake City.

The first winter was spent in dugouts on the south side of the hill where the Temple now stands. The snow was so deep that the cattle nearly all perished and the emigrants almost starved from lack of food.

Edwin Whiting carried timber on his back and made chairs during the winter, and as soon as the road was passable in the spring he hauled his furniture to Great Salt Lake City, where it was bartered for grain seed, etc.

In 1861 the family moved from Manti to Springville, Utah County, where Edward was required to work in the canyons, on the farm and at other similar occupations.

He also freighted with a six﷓mule team to Montana, enlisted as a home guard in the Black Hawk war and worked on the railroad between Ogden and North Platte.

From 1869 to 1874 he worked on a ranch in Nevada. After his return to Springville he married Martha E. Alleman, Aug. 3, 1874, by whom he is the father of four children.

During 1899 he was a member of the Springville city council. He bought a farm in Springville and tilled it until 1900, when he sold it and moved to La Grande, Oregon, where he purchased a ranch. When the Union Stake was organized he was selected as an alternate member of the High Council and soon after became a regular member of that body, which position he still holds.

As a Ward laborer Brother Whiting has been engaged in Sunday school, Mutual Improvement and Ward teaching capacities, and was a home missionary for several terms.

His life has been spent in almost unceasing hard work as farmer, gardener, carpenter, etc. He is generous and hospitable to a fault, and has often stated that but few days of his married life have been spent without some one other than his family eating at his table.

The testimony he bears is that Jesus is the Christ and that Mormonism is the restored gospel of the Redeemer.