David Wyman Patten – Born November 14 1799 in Theresa, Jefferson County, New York and died during October 1838 in Caldwell County Missouri. He was buried October 27, 1838 at Far West Missouri. David Patten married Phoebe Ann Babcock of Dundee, Monroe County Michigan during 1828. They had no children.
The second most senior of the original Latter-day Apostles was David Patten who lived in Michigan when he was baptized on June 15, 1832 by his brother John Patten. He was baptized in Greene County, Indiana. Shortly after baptism David Patten began a mission to Southeastern Michigan Territory with Brother (probably Joseph) Wood as a companion. He states 16 people were baptized near the Maumee River. On October 18, 1832 David Patten took a steamer from Detroit on his way to Kirtland.
The original Quorum of Apostles was placed in seniority by age with Thomas B. Marsh being most senior, David Patten second and Brigham Young third. They were called by recommendation of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon in February 1835 at Kirtland, Ohio.
David Patten left Kirtland on November 9, 1832 and was accompanied part of the time with John Murdock and part of the time by Reynolds Cahoon. He journeyed to Springfield Pennsylvania and met with Hyrum and William Smith near Philadelphia.
He had a gift of healing and at times healed people almost daily in his missionary efforts which helped make him a very successful missionary as people flocked to him. Once he, through his faith, instantly healed a woman who had had an infirmity for 20 years.
Brother Patten arrived back in Kirtland during the fall of 1833 and for a time worked on building the Kirtland Temple. He and William Pratt left Kirtland on December 28, 1833 and arrived in Clay County Missouri on March 4, 1834 after much cold and fatigue. Clay County is immediately north across the Missouri river from Jackson County from which the Saints had recently been evicted by mobs and their condition was deplorable.
David remained in Missouri until the Zion’s camp group arrived from the east in June 1834 with provisions for the suffering Saints. He left with Warren Parish on September 12, 1834 and traveled and taught through northern Missouri and Tennessee.
On his return to Kirtland he was named one of the original Apostles during February 1835. From there he traveled to the eastern United States and Canada as a missionary where he introduced future Church President Lorenzo Snow to the Restored Gospel. He returned to Kirtland in September 1835 and stayed until the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in March 1836.
From Kirtland he and his wife Phoebe left on a mission to Tennessee and on to Missouri where he would be killed. For a time he and Thomas B. Marsh shared leadership of the Church in Missouri.
David Patten was shot and killed in the battle of Crooked River in Caldwell County Missouri as the Saints attempted to defend themselves from mobs. As he was running toward a mob group that had fled from them one combatant had stopped behind a tree to rest and turned to shoot Brother Patten as he approached. For a time he was given a succession of Priesthood blessings that kept him alive but he objected to the blessings and requested that they stop so he could die.
Brother Patten had earlier expressed a desire to die as a martyr for the gospel and it was reported that the entire citizenry of Far West Missouri wept as they followed his body to the gravesite where he was buried.