Chandler Holbrook

The Kingdom of God is once more upon the earth. Men and women are needed who will stand firm, steadfast, and immovable in defense of God and his prophets.

Chandler Holbrook was born in September of 1807 to Moses and Hannah Morton Holbrook in Florence, New York. When he was just a lad of six his father passed away and he and his brother Joseph went to live with their grandfather in Massachusetts. Then in 1833, Chandler’s cousin, Mary Ann Angell gave the brothers a copy of the Book of Mormon. Both of them read the book and knew it was true. Notwithstanding the opposition of family and friends, they were baptized by Aaron Lyon and John P. Greene.

In 1834, in a show of great faith and courage, Chandler and Joseph, with their wives and children marched with Zion’s Camp to Missouri. On that march they partook of all the hardships of that great journey.

By the summer of 1838, Chandler and his wife Eunice had moved their family to Far West, Missouri. In early November, Chandler was one of 64 Latter-day Saint men to be arrested in the aftermath of the Mormon\Missouri War and taken to Richmond, Missouri for a Court of Inquiry. Joseph Smith’s enemies were looking for anyone among the Mormons who would turn and testify against Joseph, and sadly, many did. Chandler was threatened that “he would remain [in prison] until he would testify against [Joseph].”  To which Chandler replied, then “I will stay in this dungeon until the worms carry me out the keyhole, and then I won’t.”

At the end of the hearing no evidence was brought forth to connect Chandler Holbrook to any crime and he was set free. Chandler would live out his days firm in the faith—a pioneer, a patriarch, a loyal saint.

Source: Bryant S. Hinckley, That Ye Might Have Joy, (Salt Lake City), Bookcraft, 1958, p. 24.