In 1850, he became a shipbuilder's apprentice in
Woolwich. It was from fellow apprentices that he first heard of the LDS Church and was baptized on November 27, 1850. In 1854, he sailed on the
Clara Wheeler to
New Orleans, then onto
St. Louis, where he worked for
James Eads. In 1855, he married
Oxfordshire native Mary Georgina Huckvale, then left for the
Utah Territory, first settling in
Bountiful, then in
Willard. The couple had 9 children. The family ultimately settled in
Bloomington, Idaho in 1864, where Osmond died in 1913. He served as
bishop in Bloomington for seven years, and then as a counselor to
William Budge in the presidency of the Bear Lake
Stake. From 1884 to 1886, Osmond served as a
Mormon missionary in England during which time he was assistant editor of the
Millennial Star. From 1890 to 1892, he was again on a mission to the
British Isles, during which he served first as president of the Scottish
District and then as president of the London District. Shortly after returning to the United States in 1892, he was called as president of the newly organized Star Valley Stake. At various times, Osmond served as a probate judge and a justice of the peace. From 1899 to 1905, he served two terms as a member of the
Wyoming State Senate as a
Republican from
Uinta County, Wyoming. As did the majority of Mormon men, Osmond practiced
polygamy.
Family On September 8, 1881, he married 19-year-old Christina Lovinia Amelia Jacobsen while he was still married to Mary; the couple had 6 children. Their son, Rulon, was the father of
George Virl Osmond, patriarch of the Osmonds of pop music fame.
Aaron Osmond followed his great-great-grandfather and became a politician. The Osmond family established farms in Utah, including a dairy farm owned by Rulon's son Rulon Jr. Travis Osmond, George's great-great-grandson through Rulon, George Virl and
Merrill, has carried on the family's agricultural tradition. Mary was buried with Osmond when she died in 1922. Christina died in 1946 and was buried in Wyoming. == External links ==