Levi Savage Jr.

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Levi Savage Jr. (March 23, 1820 – December 13, 1910) was an early missionary for the LDS Church and a leader who helped the Willie Handcart Company reach Salt Lake City. He was the second of 15 children, born in Greenfield, Ohio, to Levi Savage Sr. and Polly Haynes. He grew up on a farm in southern Michigan and had some schooling. He later worked as a teamster, soldier, teacher, and farmer, and he kept a long journal.

In the early 1840s his family joined the LDS Church. They moved from Michigan to Nauvoo, Illinois, and then emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. While traveling, Levi joined the Mormon Battalion in July 1846, serving in Company D. The battalion marched about 1,400 miles from Iowa to California. His mother Polly died on the journey. Levi arrived in Salt Lake City on October 16, 1847, about three weeks after his family.

Levi married Jane Mathers on January 23, 1848. Their son, Levi Mathers Savage, was born January 11, 1851. Jane died December 29, 1852, leaving Levi Jr. to raise their child. On July 10, 1856, he joined the Willie Handcart Company as a sub-captain. At a meeting in Florence, Nebraska, he warned that leaving so late in the season was dangerous. He still vowed to help the group and to share their dangers, even if it meant dying with them. The company faced severe cold and hunger, and more than one-fifth died before reaching Salt Lake City on November 9, 1856.

After the rescue, Levi married Ann Brummel Cooper, a member of the Willie handcart Company. He later married Ann’s daughters, Mary Ann and Adelaide, after Ann died; he had children with Mary Ann: William, Riley, and Clara.

In October 1852, Levi began a four-year mission as a church missionary to Siam (now Thailand). He left his 21-month-old son with his sister and traveled by land and sea through Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and to India and Burma. He arrived in Calcutta in 1853 and preached in Burma as well. He returned home in 1855, traveling by the Cape of Good Hope and arriving in Boston in 1856.

Back in Utah, Levi worked as a teacher and served with the Nauvoo Legion during the Utah War. In 1858 he moved to Lehi and worked as a supplier for the U.S. Army at Camp Floyd. His journal shows many moments, with a late entry in 1903 noting he had not kept up with daily notes.

Levi Savage Jr. died on December 13, 1910, in Toquerville, Utah, and is buried there. He is portrayed by Jasen Wade in the film 17 Miracles, which tells the story of the Willie Handcart Company and the miracles they experienced.