|
LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 3, p.161
McCune, Matthew, a High Councilor in the Juab Stake, Juab county, Utah, was born July 27, 1811, on the Isle of Man, Great Britain, the son of Robert McCune and Agnes Jelly. As an infant he moved with his parents to Scotland, and in 1835 he left Scotland and traveled to London, where he joined the British Army and went to India with his young wife Sarah Elizabeth Caroline Scott, whom he had married in 1835. Bro. McCune served in the army until 1856. He belonged to a religious organization known as the Plymouth brethren, and while holding a meeting at Bro. McCune's house one evening two sailor boys (Benjamin Riches and George Barber) asked for admittance. They were admitted, and after the meeting they told Bro. McCune and Dr. James P. Meik and Maurice White (who were present) that they had heard and accepted the true gospel of Christ as it had been revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in America. They further stated that they had been baptized, but had as yet not received the Priesthood. The hearts of the three were pricked and they immediately wrote to Apostle Lorenzo Snow in Liverpool, England, for gospel literature, and three months later they wrote another letter to Bro. Snow requesting that a missionary be sent to India; they promised that his expenses would be paid by the three investigators. Bro. Joseph Richards, a sailmaker in the British Merchant Marine, was consequently sent from Great Britain to India, and while his ship lay at anchor at Calcutta June 22, 1851, he baptized Dr. James P. Meik, Maurice White, and Matthew McCune as the first fruits of the preaching of "Mormonism" in India. These three brethren were subsequently ordained Elders by Bro. Richards and Matthew McCune was sent as a missionary to open up the gospel door to the inhabitants of Burmah, being a member of the army. There he labored as opportunity afforded from 1854 to 1856 and preached the gospel mostly at night. Emigrating to America together with his family, he sailed from Calcutta, India, Dec. 10, 1856, in the ship "Escort," Capt. Alfred Hussey, and landed in New York March 3, 1857. He crossed the plains in the so-called Delaware company, of which Jacob Hoffeins was the captain, and arrived in Salt Lake City Sept. 21, 1857. The family spent the following winter at Farmington, Davis county, and during "the move" in 1858 they went to Nephi, Juab county, which became the permanent family home. Bro. McCune filled two missions to Great Britain, the first in 1862-64 and the second in 1870. For over thirty years he acted as a High Councilor in the Juab Stake of Zion and remained faithful and true to the Church until the time of his death, which occured at Nephi in October, 1889. About the year 1859 Bro. McCurie married Ann Midgley and about six years later he married Isabella Chalmers. By his three wives he had nineteen children, among whom are Henry F. McCune, a well-known Temple worker, and Alfred W. McCurie, a distinguished mining and railroad man. |
Biographies 
