John Pack

John Pack (May 20, 1809 – April 4, 1885) was a member of the Council of Fifty and a missionary in the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Biography

Pack was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. He married his first wife, Julia Ives, in 1832 in Watertown, New York. In 1836, Pack was baptized a member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

Pack moved to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. He was a member of the Nauvoo Legion holding the rank of Captain. Pack also served as a policeman in Nauvoo.

Pack was in the first company of Mormon pioneers to cross the plains with Brigham Young. He held the ranks of Captain of Fifty in the company as well as Colonel in its military organization. At the time of Joseph Smith's death, Pack was serving as a missionary in New Jersey with Ezra T. Benson.

The University of Deseret, the predecessor of the University of Utah, began in the home of John Pack.

Pack served with John Taylor as one of the first Mormon missionaries in France beginning in 1849. Pack was in this mission until 1852, but he spent most of his time preaching in the Channel Islands.