Daniel Cathcart

One of the earliest missionaries to Tennessee was Daniel Cathcart. Daniel was born in 1803 in New Jersey. I don't see when he was baptized.

In 1832 he served his first mission to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio with Joshua Fairchild. In Missouri along with George Hinckle and James Johnson, they baptize the Allred family and the Ivie family, along with others, and organize the Salt River Branch. He later works with Calvin Beebe.

He was part of Zion's Camp, which is a whole other subject.

His second mission was from 1835 to 1838 in Tennessee and Kentucky where he serves with Elder Elias F. Well. He periodically served along with Wilford Woodruff. and later with Benjamin Boydston.

But one entry in church history records intrigued me. On May 28, 1836, at a conference in Tennessee, Elder Daniel Cathcart was brought before an Elders Council for "unchristian conduct & fals Teachings & being led by evil spirits." and for a mistaken interpretation of "the Law of the Church." David W. Patten sat as chair for the council. Elder Cathcarth confessed and agrees to repair wrongs in the branches. That was just enough information to tell me there was so much more to that story. So I loked around and I found Abraham O Smoot's version which was a little more enlightening.

At 6 o'clock in the evening a Council of Elders was convened, and the following charge was preferred against Elder Daniel Cathacart viz. an "un-christian-like conduct" which was signed by Elias H. Wells, Elder, D. W. Patten, Chairman & W. Parrish, Clerk. Teacher B. Clapp testified that Brother Cathacart told one of the sister that he had a secret which he wished to communicate to her, which was this that our Elders were charged of walking out with colored women, and that our Church heed long communion with the Indians, also endulging in teaching. Elder Boydston testified that he concurred in the former statement; also that Brother Cathacart carried a trace of pistols and often exhibited them and boasted of what he had done and would do, and at times manifested a Spirit of bigotry & c. He was also accused of being dogmatical in his teachings especial concerning the Word of Wisdom. Elder Woodruff testified that Elder Cathacart carried apothecary medicines and that his teaching was harsh and over-bearing; also that John the Baptist was not a heir of the Celestial Kingdom. Elder Cathacart then arose and answered to the several charges preferred against him: he received a charp reproof from Elders Patten and Parrish, and at last confessed his faults and asked forgiveness of the Council and agreed also to confess his faults in public in his Branch. A vote on the matter was called and Elder Cathacart was received into fellowship and had permission to retain his License.

Elder Cathcart continued his mission in Tennessee. On June 17, 1838 he baptized John D Lee.

After his mission he went to Missouri where his name appears signed on a covenant to help the poor leave Missouri. He is also on a list of those held in prison without bail in Missouri following the expulsion of the saints from that state, and on a petition to Congress for redress for the persecution in Missouri. He also marries Olive Howard in Missouri.

The last LDS reference I found is on Apr 10, 1843 where he and William A Brown are called to preach in Pensacola, Florida. But there appear to be no evidence of whether they fulfilled their mission. Instead he and his wife moved back to White County, Tennessee. In 1847 his wife died and he remarries the next year to Mary Howard

In 1848 he married his second wife in Tennessee. Sometime after their third child is born in 1855 and before the 1860 Federal Census they move to Falling Spring, Douglas County, Missouri.