Benjamin L. Clapp

Benjamin Lynn Clapp served as one of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy, which was also designated as the First Council of Seventy at that time. Later it would be called the Presidency of the Seventy.[1] He was called to the First Council of Seventy in 1845 and served until 1859.

Clapp was born on August 19, 1814, in West Huntsville, Alabama. He was taught the gospel by Wilford Woodruff, who later ordained him a priest. He served as a missionary in Kentucky in 1838. Elder Woodruff recalls a missionary experience with Elder Clapp:

While traveling in the night, with Brother Benjamin L. Clapp and others, a tremendous storm of wind and rain overtook us. We came to a creek which had swollen to such an extent by the rain, that we could not cross without swimming our horses; several of the company were females. We undertook to head the stream, to ford it; but in the attempt, in the midst of the darkness and the raging of the wind and rain, we were lost in the thick woods, amidst the rain, wind, creeks and fallen treetops. We crossed streams nearly twenty times. I was reminded of Paul's perils by water; but the Lord was merciful unto us in the midst of our troubles, for while we were groping in the dark, running the risk of killing both ourselves and animals, by riding off precipitous bluffs, a bright light suddenly shone round about us, and revealed our perilous situation, as were upon the edge of a deep gulf. The light continued with us until we found a house, and learned the right road; then the light disappeared, and we were enabled to reach the house of Brother Henry Thomas, at nine o'clock, all safe, having rode twenty miles, five hours in the storm; and we felt to thank the Lord for our preservation.[2][3]

He left Kentucky in September 1836 with his family in company of the first group of Saints to emigrate to Far West, Missouri from Kentucky. En route, he participated in the Battle of Crooked River, and finally reached Nauvoo, Illinois in safety.

In 1843, when Joseph Smith was arrested in Dixon, Illinois, Clapp was part of the expedition that rescued the Prophet.

After serving a mission to Alabama, Clapp left Nauvoo with the Saints and settled in the Salt Lake Valley until he moved his family to Ephraim, Utah Territory. There he encountered a difficulty with Bishop Warren S. Snow, which was investigated by the First Council of the Seventy. Clapp was excommunicated for apostasy in April 1859 and was dropped from the First Council of the Seventy.

He died in Liberty, California, on October 31, 1865. Some of his wives and children had become members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.