Brigham Young was born on June 1, 1801, in Witingham, Vermont to John Hayden Young, Sr. and Abigail Howe. Young married Miriam Works on October 8, 1824, in Aurelius, New York. Together they had two children. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1832, and moved to Kirtland, Ohio. Young practiced polygamy and had 52 wives and 56 children all together. In February 1846, he led the "Mormon Exodus" to the West. Young was sustained as the second president of the Church on December 27, 1847. Arriving in Utah, he settled in Salt Lake City. In 1849, Young was appointed as governor of the Utah Territory. Young passed away on August 29, 1877, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Philo T. Farnsworth, Sr. was born on January 24, 1826, in Burlington, Ohio to Lucinda Kent and Reuben Farnsworth III. He was one of eleven children. Farnsworth was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843. After being disgraced by his father, Farnsworth moved to Nauvoo, Illinois where he would later help with the erection of the Nauvoo Temple and a member of the Nauvoo Legion. In 1848, he took charge of Franklin D. Richards’ team crossing the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Philo married Margaret Yates, a member of his trekking company, on October 29, 1848, in Salt Lake City. They settled at Pleasant Grove in 1851. Together they had nine children. Farnsworth was later called to Fillmore, Utah and assisted in the erection of the State House there. In 1856, he and his family moved to Beaver, Utah. In 1857, he was ordained a bishop and assigned to preside over the Beaver ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He married Margaret Adams on August 24, 1857, and together they had seven children. He married his third wife, Agnes Ann Patterson, on December 10, 1858, and together they had ten children. On June 15, 1860, Farnsworth married his fourth wife, Mary Priscilla Griffith. Together they had four children. Farnsworth was a probate judge of Beaver County and a member of the Territorial legislature where his knowledge of non-English languages was used. He was able to function as interpreter for the Piute tribe. Farnsworth made his living as a farmer and a freighter. Farnsworth died July 30, 1887, in Beaver, Utah at the home of his first wife, Margaret Yates.

Daniel Hanmer Wells was born in Trenton, New York, on October 27, 1814, to Daniel Wells and Catherine Chapin. He and his family moved to Illinois after the death of his father in 1826, and arrived in Hancock County, Illinois in 1835. While in Illinois, Wells married Eliza Rebecca Robison in 1837, and they had one son.

Wells became a major landowner and justice of the peace in Commerce, Illinois, prior to the arrival of a large number of Latter-day Saints in 1839. Although not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until 1846, Wells defended the Church against its opponents and was a great friend of the Church and its leaders. In 1848 he emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley with other pioneers. His wife, Eliza, refused to join him, and later they were divorced. Between 1849 and 1852, Wells married six additional wives: Louisa Free, with whom he had eight children; Martha Givens Harris, with whom he had seven children; Lydia Ann Alley, with whom he had six children; Susan Hannah Alley, with whom he had four children; Hannah Corilla Free, with whom he had eight children; and Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney, with whom he had three children. Louisa Free, Hannah Free, and Emmeline Whitney were all previously married and divorced or widowed. Each had one or more children whom Wells adopted and reared as his own. Emmeline B. Wells would become the fifth General Relief Society president in 1910, and was a advocate for women's suffrage.

Wells was active in both ecclesiastical and civic roles. From 1848 to 1863, Wells was superintendent of public works for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and presided over the construction of the Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle. In 1849 Wells was elected Attorney General of the State of Deseret. He was ordained an apostle of the Church in 1856 upon the death of Jedidiah M. Grant, and set apart as Second Counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency. Wells was never sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, although he served as a Counselor to the Quorum upon Young's death in 1877. In 1866 he was elected mayor of Salt Lake City, and re-elected in both 1872 and 1874. Wells served twice as president of the European Mission of the Church, first in 1864-1865 and again in 1884-1887.

Daniel H. Wells died in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 24, 1891 at the age of 76.