John Grant Luce (1817 - 1881)

Ancestors

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This profile is part of the Luce Name Study.

Biography

John became a member of the LDS Church between 1830 - 1848.

He converted to Mormonism and went to Nauvoo with his parents about 1841. He became a Seventy. His name appears on the membership records of the Mormon church between 1840 and 1848 (Newell). He and his wife were members of Nauvoo's 4th Ward. He appears on the 1842 tax list of Nauvoo (p. 232), living in Township 6 North Range 8 West. He was commissioned a Captain in the Nauvoo Legion on 1 April 1843 (1st Company, 2nd Cohort, 3rd Regiment, 1st Battalion). In the records of the Nauvoo Legion his name appears as both John G. Luce and John G. Loose. John Luce and his wife Harriet, of Nauvoo's 3rd Ward, signed the 1843 Redress Petition to Congress for injuries suffered by the Mormons in Missouri. He received his Patriarchal Blessing on 5 December 1844 in Nauvoo.

He was among those who left Nauvoo for Salt Lake the first year. On 16 April 1847 he was named to the Standing Guard and on 17 April, the following day, was appointed to the Gun Detachment (Carter, Members of the Standing Guard). He was re-baptized in Salt Lake City on 8 August 1847 by Erastus Snow and confirmed by Wilford Woodruff (ECH). He later returned to Illinois. He appears in Sonora Township in 1870 and 1880, living near his brother Thomas. In 1880 he was postmaster.

John Luce was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

For many years this man has been mis–identified as Franklin G. Losee. The mistake seems to have started with William Clayton when he first recorded the members of the company in his journal. However research in other journals (e.g., Thomas Bullock), rebaptisms in Salt Lake, and U.S. census records proves that the man who for years was thought to be Franklin G. Losee, was in fact, John G. Luce. A month after arriving in Utah, he went back to return to his family with the eastbound returning pioneers. It appears that he never returned to Utah as he and his family were in Maine in 1850 and he showed up in Nauvoo in 1870 and 1880.

Sources

• https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneers/53108/john-grant-luce
• http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/1,15791,4018-1-53108,00.html
• Wood, David Lyle; "Utah's Forgotten Pioneer of 1847"; Journal of Mormon History; April 2015; pages 226-258.