Leonard Rich

{{Short description|American Mormon leader}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox LDS biography|

| name = Leonard Rich|

| birth_date = {{Birth year|1800}}

| birth_place = Connecticut, United States

| death_date = {{Death year and age|1868|1800}}

| death_place = Kirtland, Ohio, United States

| portals = movement

| position_or_quorum1 = First Seven Presidents of the Seventy

| called_by1 = Joseph Smith

| start_date1 = March 1, 1835

| end_date1 = April 6, 1837

| end_reason1=Honorably released because he had already been ordained a high priest|

}}

Leonard Rich (1800–1868) was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the inaugural seven Presidents of the Seventy.

Rich was born in Connecticut in 1800 and was a farmer. He was married to Kezia Rich (1805–1853) and they had four children.{{cite web | author=Lisonbee, Janet | title=Rich, Leonard | work=Obituaries and Life Sketches of the Early Saints Who Lived and Died in the Kirtland, Ohio Area | publisher=Lake County Ohio GenWeb | url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohlake/bios/lifesketch/mema.html | access-date=2010-03-24}} In 1833, he baptized Truman Angell,{{cite book |last=Angell |first=Truman O. |author-link=Truman Angell |chapter=His Journal |editor=Kate Carter |title=Our Pioneer Heritage |volume=10 |year=1967 |publisher=Daughters of Utah Pioneers |location=Salt Lake City |pages=196 }} future architect of the Salt Lake Temple. In 1834, the Kirtland High Council rebuked him for "transgressing the word of wisdom and for selling the revelations [scriptures] at an extortionary price."{{cite book |editor=B. H. Roberts |editor-link=B. H. Roberts |title=History of the Church |year=1904 |publisher=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |volume=2 |pages=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0C7iJwjgUTEC&pg=PA27 |access-date=2010-03-24}} That same year he was part of Zion's Camp.

In January 1837, Rich signed the new constitution of the Kirtland Safety Society.{{cite news | title=Minutes of a meeting of the members of the 'Kirtland Safety Society' | work=Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate | volume=3 | issue=6 | date=March 1837 | page=476 | url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/NCMP1820-1846,7385 | access-date=2010-03-24}} On April 6 of that year, he and other presidents of the Seventy who were ordained high priests prior to their call were released. That fall, he dissented from the church{{cite book |author=B. H. Roberts |author-link=B. H. Roberts |chapter=Kirtland Debacle--Gloom |title=Comprehensive History of the Church |volume=1 |year=1930 |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |pages=405 }} and in December the church excommunicated him.{{cite book |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |title=Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power |year=1994 |publisher=Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |page=574 }}

Rich remained a resident of Kirtland for the rest of his life. In 1845, Reuben McBride reported that Rich was a leader of rioters who broke into and took possession of the Kirtland Temple.{{cite book |editor=B. H. Roberts |editor-link=B. H. Roberts |title=History of the Church |year=1932 |publisher=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |volume=7 |page=484 |quote=A letter was read from Reuben McBride, Kirtland, stating that the apostates were doing everything they could to injure the saints. S. B. Stoddard, Jacob Bump, Hiram Kellogg, Leonard Rich, and Jewel Raney are the leaders of the rioters; they have broken into the House of the Lord, and taken possession of it, and are trying to take possession of the church farm.}} In January 1847 Rich, along with William E. McLellin and Jacob Bump, organized the Church of Christ at Kirtland.[http://josephsmithpapers.org/person?name=Leonard+Rich Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104223232/http://josephsmithpapers.org/person?name=Leonard+Rich |date=January 4, 2012 }} of Leonard Rich, The Joseph Smith Papers (accessed January 13, 2012)

Rich's first wife died in 1853 and he married Marina Bassett at Kirtland March 7, 1858. He died in Kirtland in 1868.