Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"...Richard Ballantyne (August 26, 1817 – November 8, 1898) was the founder of the Sunday School of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having begun the program in December 1849.He was also a Mormon pioneer and missionary.

Ballantyne was born in Whitridgebog, Roxburghshire, Scotland, where he was a Sunday school teacher in the Relief Presbyterian Church. In December 1842, Ballantyne became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, being baptized in the Firth of Forth at Leith. In 1843 he and a number of his family members emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the majority of the Latter Day Saints were gathering. On February 17, 1847, Ballantyne married Hulda Meriah Clark, and they emigrated to Utah Territory in 1848 with the Mormon pioneers..."

"...Like many early Latter-day Saints, Ballantyne practiced plural marriage. He married Mary Pierce in 1855 and Caroline Sanderson in 1857. He was the father of 23 children..."

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Richard Ballantyne', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 January 2011, 02:15 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Ballantyne&oldid=...> [accessed 1 February 2011]

Additional Biographical Summary:

Richard Ballantyne (1817-1898) was a native of Scotland, where he taught Sunday School in the Presbyterian Church. He began Sunday Sabbath instruction for LDS children in his Salt Lake City home in 1849. He later organized Sunday Schools in other communities where he lived. His success inspired a church wide movement. Courtesy the Utah State Historical Society.

by J. Hugh Baird

Richard Ballantyne was born in Whitridgebog, Roxburgshire, Scotland, on August 26, 1817, to David Ballantyne and Ann Bannerman. He was strong-minded, and ever worked for justice for the oppressed and mercy for the sinner and the weak. In his early days, Richard was frugal, somewhat austere, and honest in his business; in later years, he displayed sympathy and affection. His concern for the moral and spiritual welfare of children led him to establish the first LDS Sunday school, in 1849, in Salt Lake City.

Ballantyne was brought up in the Relief Presbyterian Church. As a youth he worked on his parents' farm. Between the ages of nine and fourteen he occasionally attended school during the winter. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a baker; subsequently, he bought the business and managed it until he left Scotland.

In December 1842, at age twenty-five, Ballantyne was baptized into the Church at Leith, in the waters of the Fifth of Forth. The following year he, his mother, two sisters, and a brother immigrated to Nauvoo, where he managed several businesses and engaged in farming along the Mississippi River. In Nauvoo he suffered persecution along with many of the Saints. In the summer of 1846, he and four other men were kidnapped by a mob, held hostage, and threatened with death. After two weeks, the mob bargained with Church leaders and returned the men to Nauvoo to avoid being charged with the kidnapping.

That same year, Ballantyne was ordained a seventy and, soon after, a high priest. At the exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, he remained behind to help settle the Saints' affairs. In September of that year, having completed his assignment, he moved to winter quarters. On February 17, 1847, he married Hulda Meriah Clark. They entered Utah in 1848, their first son having been born while they were crossing the plains.

Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, Ballantyne immediately considered the possibilities of schooling for the children. He asked for and received his bishop's permission to establish a Sunday School. Because no suitable meeting place was available, he added a room onto his home and held the first Sunday School in the Church on December 9, 1849. Approximately fifty students attended. Later this Sunday School was moved to the Fourteenth Ward meetinghouse. When asked why he had been so desirous of organizing a Sunday School, he replied:

   I was early called to this work by the voice of the spirit, and I have felt many times that I have been ordained to this work before I was born, for even before I joined the church I was moved upon to work for the young. Surely no more joyful nor profitable labor can be performed by an Elder [Jenson, Vol. 1, p. 705].

In the fall of 1852, Ballantyne was called on a mission to India, and arrived in Calcutta on July 24, 1853. Although the work was very discouraging, he worked hard until his release and return to Utah in September 1855 (See The Church in Asia)

He married Mary Pierce on November 27, 1855, as a plural wife, and about two years later married Caroline Sanderson. He and his three wives had twenty-two children and more than one hundred grandchildren.

During his life in Utah, Ballantyne managed several businesses, including two railroads, a newspaper, and several merchandising companies. He was a member of the Weber County Court for fourteen years. At the time of his death, November 8, 1898, he was a senior member of the high council of the Ogden Utah Stake.

(See Daily Living home page; Church History home page)

1871 Scotland Census

Name : 

Richard Ballantyne

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 5 2017, 18:19:30 UTC

Son of David Ballantyne and Ann Bannerman

Married Huldah Meriah Clark, 17 Feb 1847, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa

Children - Richard Alando Ballantyne, Delecta Annie Jane Ballantyne, David Henry Ballantyne, Meriah Cedina Clark Ballantyne, John Taylor Ballantyne, Annie Ballantyne, Roseltha Ballantyne, Isabella Ballantyne, Joseph Ballantyne

Married Mary Pearce, 27 Nov 1855, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Zachariah Ballantyne, Mary Elizabeth Ballantyne, Jane Susannah Ballantyne, James Edward Ballantyne, Eliza Ann Ballantyne, Heber Charles Ballantyne

Married Caroline Albertine Sanderson, 6 Mar 1857, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Thomas Henry Ballantyne, Caroline Josephine Ballantyne, Bertha Matilda Ballantyne, Catherine Mena Ballantyne, Jedediah Ballantyne, Brigham Ballantyne, Laura June Elizabeth Ballantyne

History - Richard Ballantyne was born in Whitridgebog, Roxburgshire, Scotland, on 26 August 1817. His parents were of Scottish descent and his father died before his family heard of the restored gospel, brought to the British Isles by the followers of Joseph Smith, Jr. Young Richard was in his twenty-sixth year when his family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1843. He had finally accepted the message of Mormonism in December 1842, allowing Henry McCune to baptize him into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Prior to his conversion he had worked as a farmer and also as a baker. Both employments left little time for school, and what education he had received was during the winter months. After arriving in Nauvoo, he became the manager and bookkeeper of the Coach and Carriage Association, and in 1846 he was involved in the closing of John Taylor's printing establishment in Nauvoo. He participated in the Mormon Exodus in 1846, staying in Winter Quarters until May 1848, when he migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in September. Before leaving Nauvoo he had advanced in the priesthood, first to a seventy and then to a high priest. He married Huldah Meriah Clark in 1847 and thus became a "family man" (their first son was born while they were crossing the plains) when he entered the Salt Lake Valley.

During his first year in the Great Basin he engaged in farming. In December 1849 he held the first Sunday school class in the Church. He thus engaged himself until the fall of 1852 when he was called on a mission to Hindostan, India. His mission to East India lasted until September 1855, after which he returned to the Salt Lake Valley.

He arrived home during the "Reformation" and was immediately called on a "home mission." These experiences undoubtedly led to his plural marriages: to Mary Pearce in 1855 and to Caroline Sanderson in 1857. He spent the remainder of his life in farming and business, and for a short time (May 1877 to November 1878) he owned and operated the Ogden Junction. After this, he engaged first in railroading and then in the lumber business. Some successes in these enterprises led him into real estate, but the Panic of 1893 left him a poor man. He died in Ogden on 8 November 1898.

He is best remembered for his work in the Sunday Schools of the Church, a work he continued throughout his life.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Brigham Young Company (1848); Approximate age at departure: 30

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Richard Ballantyne Company (1855); Age at departure: 37* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 27 2021, 15:59:49 UTC