The House Where John Taylor Died

The third president of the Mormon church died in hiding. John Taylor — English-born, wounded at Carthage in 1844 beside Joseph Smith, a Utah pioneer of 1847 — led the church from 1880 as the federal government's anti-polygamy campaign closed in. To avoid arrest he spent his last two years moving between safe houses on what Latter-day Saints called the underground, and on July 25, 1887, he died in this Kaysville home, owned by Thomas Roueché, where he and his counselor George Q. Cannon had taken refuge the previous November. He was never taken.

What the plaque says

John Taylor, third President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born 1 November 1808 in Milnthorpe, England. He joined the Church in 1836 and was ordained an Apostle two years later. He served Church missions in America, England, and continental Europe. At Carthage, Illinois, he was wounded 27 June 1844 by the same mob that martyred Joseph and Hyrum Smith. In 1847 he was one of the Utah pioneers. As Church President, 1880-1887, John Taylor reorganized the Church's auxiliaries, directed the founding of Latter-day Saint settlements in Canada and Mexico, and dedicated the Logan Temple. Because of persecution against the Church at the time, he lived in several homes in Davis County in the two years before his death. On 22 November 1886, he and his First Counselor, George Q. Cannon, moved into this home owned by Thomas F. Roueche, a prominent local Church and civic leader. After a long illness, John Taylor died quietly here on 25 July 1887. His last words were "I feel to thank the Lord."

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lagoon Amusement Park — 4.2 mi
  A beloved family amusement park operating since 1886
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 6.9 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Antelope Island State Park — 13 mi
  A rugged island in the Great Salt Lake with free-roaming bison
• Ogden Union Station — 14 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex

More markers nearby

• Hector Haight Settlement on Haight's Creek — 1.4 mi
• Kaysville Tabernacle — 1.6 mi
• Weinel Mill — 1.7 mi
• Kaysville Presbyterian Church — 1.8 mi