Richards and his family left Nauvoo in February 1846 and spent the year at Winter Quarters. He traveled with the first company of saints to the Salt Lake Valley, returning to Winter Quarters that fall. When the First Presidency of the church was reorganized in the fall of 1847, he was made second counselor to Brigham Young. As the Saints settled in the Salt Lake Valley and organized the provisional government of the State of Deseret, Richards was appointed the territorial secretary. In 1850 he was appointed the founding editor of the Deseret News. He died 11 March 1854 at the age of forty-nine.

See: Claire Noall, Intimate Disciple: A Portrait of Willard Richards (1957).

H. Dean Garrett