Elam Luddington

Who was Elam Luddington?

Elam Luddington, Jr. was a Mormon pioneer and was the first missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to preach in Thailand.

Luddington was born in Harwinton, Connecticut to Elam Luddington, Sr. and Lena Monger. Luddington met Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1840 and was baptized by him into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on May 16, 1840. Shortly thereafter, Smith asked him to preach as a missionary in Quincy, Illinois.

After Smith's death, Luddington followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory. During the Mexican-American War in 1846 and 1847, Luddington was a lieutenant in the Mormon Battalion.

In 1853, Young called four Latter-day Saints, Luddington, Chauncey W. West, Franklin Denny and Levi Savage, to serve LDS Church missions in India and Indochina. The four arrived by ship in Kolkata, India on April 26, 1853. Luddington and Savage tried to reach Siam via Yangon, Burma, but the ship sprang a leak and they were forced to return to India. After the ship was repaired, Luddington and Savage arrived in Yangon on August 10, 1853. In late September 1853 Matthew McCune and Elder Luddington severed Elder Savage from the church. This forced Elder Savage to depart Rangoon for Maulmain, Burma. While Elder Savage was in Maulmain, Elder Luddington departed Rangoon for Bangkok.