“Wight, you are a strange man; but if you will not [testify against Joseph Smith] you will be shot tomorrow morning at 8.” — General Moses Wilson¹

Lyman Wight, born on May 9, 1796, in Fairfield, New York, was a farmer and veteran of the War of 1812. He married Harriet Benton on January 5, 1823, and moved to Ohio around 1826. Baptized by Sidney Rigdon into the reformed Baptist faith in 1829, Wight joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 14, 1830, and was ordained an elder by Oliver Cowdery. He became a high priest under Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon on June 4, 1831. Wight served a mission to Jackson County, Missouri, and presided over the Big Blue settlement there.² He led an armed group of 100 Saints to Independence, Missouri to rescue prisoners, and when the prisoners were set free, the company disbanded.³ He also helped recruit men for the Camp of Israel that marched to Jackson County after the Saints had been driven out of the area.² Wight was a member of the Adam-ondi-Ahman stake presidency in Missouri and a member of the Danites. In 1838, General Moses Wilson from the Missouri mob tried to convince Wight to testify against Joseph Smith, threatening him with death, but Wight did not comply.¹ He later became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1841 and served several missions. Wight was also part of the Council of Fifty. In 1845, he led a group of Saints to Texas, but was excommunicated in 1848.²

1. Millennial Star, 1865 July 22 (No. 29), 457, Church, catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org

2. “Wight, Lyman,” josephsmithpapers.org

3. Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 17, 191-192; Saints, Volume 1, Chapter 18, 199-200