William Appleby: New Jersey's Pioneer Poet

William Ivins Appleby (1811 Egypt, Monmouth, New Jersey - 1870 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory) lived in Recklesstown (now Chesterfield), Burlington, New Jersey, when he joined the Church.

Don't miss the post Kent Larsen wrote about Appleby:

Lines suggested by reflections on Joseph Smith

Besides his occasional literary series at Times & Seasons, Kent Larsen wrote a blog called "Mormons in New York City," which has been an inspiration. Here's his brief biography of Appleby: 

This poem, written 3 years after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom, is by William I. Appleby, a New Jersey native born in 1811. When he joined the Church in 1840 he was already a Justice of the Peace and Town Clerk in Recklesstown, New Jersey. Appleby jumped into the Church with both feet. He travelled to Nauvoo in 1841, met Joseph Smith, and returned home anxious to serve. He built up branches in central New Jersey, and was eventually named president of the Eastern States Mission, first temporarily in 1847, before he took his family to Utah in 1849, and then later returning to the East as the permanent mission president and immigration agent from 1865-1868.

Sources

Chesnut/Behunin Descendant [psued.], "William Ivins Appleby Gravesite," digital [image], FindAGrave, March 10, 2012, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=73793592.

Larsen, Kent "Literary DCGD #37: Lines suggested by reflections on Joseph Smith," Times & Seasons [blog], September 22, 2013, accessed September 22, 2013, http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2013/09/literary-dcgd-37-lines-suggested-by-reflections-on-joseph-smith/.