Charles Livingston History
From LFAwiki
Author unknown
LIVINGSTON, CHARLES, one of the Presidents of the 57th Quorum of Seventies and an active Elder of the Eleventh Ward, Salt Lake City, is a son of Archibald and Helen Livingston, and was born March 16, 1835, at Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland, baptized in May, 1840, in Holytown Branch, Glasgow Conference, labored a short time as a Teacher and emigrated from Scotland December 16, 1854, crossed the sea In the ship "CHARLES BUCK" and arrived in Great Salt Lake City September 25, 1855. The first work he did In the Valley was helping to get the coping for the Temple Block wall. He was ordained a Seventy In the fall of 1857, and married Jane Harrocks May 25, 1861; was called by President Brigham Young to go on the regular police force of Salt Lake City in the year 1864. He had served as a special policeman more or less for two years previous. In 1869 he was called to go to Echo, in Summit County, to stop the lawless doings of the gamblers, garroters, hurdy-gurdy houses, and all the riotous traffic which was coming along with the building of the Union Pacific Railway. He was duly appointed a justice of the peace by the county court of Summit County, and received his commission as such from the governor of the Territory, January 16, 1869. During the three months he remained In Echo he had a very strong testimony of God's overruling providence In behalf of himself and those who labored with him In the interest of good morals, law and order. His next call was to go to Ogden, to help maintain the peace and order of that City against the lawless element which had gathered there after the completion of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railways to that point. It seemed as If the very worst elements of the country had followed up the construction of those roads. He remained in Ogden about four months, and after his return to Salt Lake City he resumed his duties as a member of the police force, continuing this until July, 1880, when he was appointed supervisor of streets for Salt Lake City. He was one among many others called out when Johnston's army was on the march to Utah; he spent 22 weeks of the winter and spring of 1858 in the mountains, being a captain often in the Utah militia. During the Indian War in 1866 he was called to go to Sanpete County to protect the settlers. At that time he held the commission of a 1st Lieutenant in the militia, and was gone on that expedition three months. November 21, 1870, he was arrested, together with C. R. Savage and others, on a charge of treason and confined in Camp Douglas, for having paraded to music furnished by a new band. This affair was subsequently spoken of as the "wooden gun rebellion." During the greatest part of the time he has served as a police officer, he has also acted as deputy city marshal for Salt lake City. January 4, 1885, he commenced to labor as a home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion. He was set apart as one of the Presidents of the 18th Quorum of Seventies, and at the time of the reorganization of the Seventies a few years ago, he was set apart as one of the Presidents of the 57th Quorum. Elder Livingston has many friends and but few enemies. His unassuming manners, his kind and pleasant ways, and his high sense of justice and equity has gained for him the good will and respect of both "Mormons" and "Gentiles." January 14, 1886, he was arrested on a charge of unlawful cohabitation, and was subsequently indicted by the grand jury. October 14, 1887, he was sentenced in the Third District Court to six months in the Utah Penitentiary and to pay a fine of $100 and costs of suit. He was released from prison on a pardon from President Cleveland, December 15, 1887. He was prisoner #290.