Farnsworth, Moses Franklin, chief recorder in the Manti Temple, was born Feb. 5, 1834, in Edinburgh, Johnson county, Indiana, and is the son of Reuben, being in the sixth generation in descent from the emigrant ancestor to America. He received a common school education, was brought up to the mercantile business, and became a proficient salesman, bookkeeper, etc. He came to Utah in 1853, driving an ox-team from Indianapolis, Ind., to Salt Lake City, a distance of nearly seventeen hundred miles. He started March 8, 1853, and arrived at his destination Sept. 9, 1853, and had all the experience that a trip through the mud, slush and snow over the prairies of Indiana and Illinois and the waste plains of Iowa could give in that early day, as well as the hardships of the plains. Upon arriving in Utah, he located at Pleasant Grove, Utah county, and was almost immediately enrolled in Capt. Thorit Peck's company of militia, and served in the Blackhawk war. He was orderly sergeant, and arose to the rank of third lieutenant in company B, battalion of infantry, of Pleasant Grove military district, and was commissioned as such by Gov. Brigham Young, taking rank Nov. 24, 1854. He taught school [p.523] during the winter of 1853-54 and 1854-59, took part in the Echo canyon campaign, and was commissioned first lieutenant in Company B, first battalion, third regiment, infantry of Nauvoo Legion, Sept, 28, 1857. He was called to take a mission to England in 1862, and again in 1868, both of which missions he faithfully performed. In 1870 he was called to help form the settlement of Kanab, Kane county, to which call he responded. In all the offices of trust and confidence held by him he has always discharged his duties faithfully, and he is one of Utah's workers for the good of all. He has indeed shared in the joys and sorrows of the people of Utah since his first arrival there. In June, 1877, he was called to St. George, and entered upon the duties of recorder in the St. George Temple; he continued there until May 9, 1888, when he started for Manti, and was appointed to the same position in the Manti Temple, which he still retains. He was ordained a Teacher May 16, 1856; a Priest May 16, 1855; an Elder Nov. 9, 1855; a Seventy May 3, 1862, and a High Priest May 1, 1885. He commenced gathering the genealogy of his father's house in 1877, and was very successful in its compilation; he Published the same under the title of "The Farnsworth Memorial," in 1897, as the first book of its kind ever published in Utah; it compares favorably with any similar work published in the East. He gathered the material and wrote the history of Manti, as published in the local newspaper there; has done a very extensive work in the Temples for his kindred dead and is still active and energetic in his labors.