Samuel Nelson Alger

Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia Vol. 1

Samuel N. Alger a prominent Elder in Cleveland Ward, Emery County, Utah, is the son of John Alger and Sarah Pulsipher, and was born April 26, 1858, at Payson, Utah County, Utah. In 1862 he went with his parents to St. George. Samuel was called by Apostle Erastus Snow to go with Jacob Hamblin to locate and build a new road through the country south of St. George by way of what is now know as Pierce’s Ferry, on the Colorado River, to the settlements on the Little Colorado River, Arizona, in 1876. This labor he performed successful. In 1880 he went to Arizona where he remained four years. February 3, 1884 he married Ruth Elmina Pace and returned to Utah the same year. He settled in Emery County, where he took an active part in building the Cleveland canal. His was one of the two first families to settle at Cleveland. When a branch of the Church was organized there in 1886, he was called to preside over the same. He served in that calling ‘til 1890, when he went on a mission to the Southern States. Here he labored in the East Tennessee conference till 1892, when he returned home. In the fall of 1895 he was chosen and set apart as a president in the 81st Quorum of Seventy, which position he has held ever since. Bro. Alger has labored as a Ward teacher, a home missionary, a Sunday school teacer, and otherwise been actively engaged in Church work.