Charles Ora Card

Charles Ora Card
Charles Ora Card (c. 1901)
BornNovember 5, 1839
DiedSeptember 9, 1906(1906-09-09) (aged 66)
Spouses
Children16
Zina Young Card Brown
Parents
  • Cyrus Williams Card
  • Sarah Ann Tuttle

Charles Ora Card (November 5, 1839 – September 9, 1906) was the American founder of Cardston, Alberta, the first Mormon settlement in Canada. He has been referred to as "Canada's Brigham Young".[1] Card was a Mormon pioneer as a teenager, traveling from the eastern United States to Utah Territory in the 1850s. After arriving in Utah, he supervised the construction of the Logan Utah Temple, served as a city councilman, and was appointed to the first board of trustees of Brigham Young College. Card was then tasked by leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to travel north to Canada and establish a Latter-day Saint colony there. He worked to make the community self-sufficient, participating in irrigation projects. Card was a practitioner of plural marriage, marrying a total of four wives and having sixteen children. He served in leadership positions within the LDS Church, mainly as stake president. He was the spiritual and economic leader of Cardston.