Freeman Nickerson

Freeman Nickerson (February 5, 1779 – January 12/22, 1847)[1] was an early missionary in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a member of Zion's Camp.

Nickerson was born in South Dennis, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. He moved to Vermont in 1800 and shortly after that married Huldah Chapman. During the War of 1812 he served as a lieutenant in the United States military. After the war, Nickerson moved to Springville, Pennsylvania.

In 1824, Nickerson moved to what was then part of Perrysburgh, New York (in what is now the village of South Dayton). He later worked on the construction of the Erie Canal.

Nickerson was baptized a member of the Latter Day Saint church in April 1833 by Zerubbabel Snow. That fall, he served a mission in western New York and Upper Canada with Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon. On 12 October 1833, Smith received a revelation at Nickerson's home in Perrysburgh, New York.[2]

In 1834, Nickerson was a member of Zion's Camp. In 1835, he served as branch president in Perrysburgh, New York. In the winter of 1835–1836 Nickerson served as a missionary on Cape Cod. In 1839 he and his family moved west: they spent the winter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he baptized about 40 people and established the first branch of the church in that city. In 1840 he settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1841, he served a mission to Peoria, Illinois. In 1842 he served a mission in Boston. One of his converts, Abijah Tewkesbury, offered his shipping office located at 82 Commercial St to be used as the meeting place of the first branch of Mormons in Boston, which had about 30 members. <ref>

Nickerson died in 1847 along the banks of the Chariton River in Iowa as the Latter-day Saints were moving west.