William M. Allread (1819-1901) was an Mormon convert who met many early church leaders and crossed the plains with the early saints to Utah.

William M. Allred was born to Isaac and Mary Calvert Allred on December 24, 1819, in Bedford County, Tennessee, 50 miles south of Nashville. His parents moved to Missouri when he was ten or eleven years old. He heard Hyrum Smith and John Murdock preach. He and his family were baptized in 1832, and suffered severe persecution as a result. He first saw the Prophet Joseph Smith when Smith was leading Zion’s Camp. He was present when the Nauvoo Expository was destroyed and for Joseph’s last speech. Allred’s journal contains many things Joseph Smith taught. Two of his brothers fought in the Mormon Batallion—they were so hungry at times that they had to eat very unpleasant things.

Allred met Orson Pratt’s sister-in-law, Orissa Angelina Bates at singing practice. He married her at Orson Pratt’s home on January 9, 1842. Joseph Smith was present for the wedding. They had twelve children.

Allred crossed the plains with his family in 1851. Allred was in charge of Orson Pratt’s teams, which were mostly wild cattle and very hard to control. His son, Lansing, was not yet nine years old, but he drove the family’s oxen while Allred helped out with other teams. His six-year-old daughter, Mary Adaline, had an eye condition that required her to stay in the dark. His wife gave birth to a stillborn daughter; they named her Amelia Lorinda before burying her. Also, his four year old son miraculously escaped what would have been a tragic injury.

After reaching Utah, Allred bought a home near the Temple block. He took care of Orson Pratt’s affairs while Orson went to Washington on a mission. His daughter’s eyes were healed by the power of the Priesthood. He moved to Grantsville, Utah, in 1856. He took Martha Jane Martindale as a second wife around February 1857 (other sources list July 1856). Johnson’s Army came against Utah in 1857 and Allred volunteered to go to Echo Canyon to stop them.

Martha Jane gave Allred one son, Edgar Martindale (1858-1925). Her second daughter, also named Martha Jane (1860-1860), only lived for a few hours. Her mother died a few days later, in November 1860. His oldest daughter was also married in 1860, his oldest son in 1867. In 1871, grasshoppers destroyed the Saints’ crops. President Brigham Young told the Saints that the grasshoppers would leave if the Saints did right. In 1878, his wife passed away. He married Mary Eleanor Osbourn that same year. In 1883, smallpox spread through Montpelier, Idaho where he was living.

He passed away on June 8, 1901, four years after this journal ran out of space for him to write. Although he passed away in Fairview, Lincoln County, Wyoming, he was buried in St. Charles, Bear Lake, Idaho (on June 11).