George A. Smith
Apostle of the LDS Church
George Albert Smith (June 26, 1817 – September 1, 1875) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Smith was a prominent leader in the settlement of many communities in southern Utah, and may have played a role in the chain of events preceding the Mountain Meadows Massacre on September 11, 1857. The city of St. George, Utah, has been said to have been named after him. He is also known as Potato Saint.
Childhood
George A. Smith was born in Potsdam, New York, the son of John Smith and Clarissa Lyman, and was brought up in the Congregational Church. His first cousin was Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. In September 1832, at age 15, George A. Smith was baptized into the Church of Christ, eight months after his parents had been baptized. The following year, John Smith and his family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, the church's new headquarters.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “George A. Smith” is apostle of the LDS Church. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through George, Smith and Apostle, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “apostle of the LDS Church” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5536005. VIAF identifies the subject as 13631350. The Library of Congress control number is n81055157. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1817, 1875, 1857 and 1832.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “George A. Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.