William Brown Ide (b. March 28, 1796 in Rutland, Massachusetts; d. 1852) was a Mormon pioneer and president of the short-lived California Republic. His father, Lemuel Ide, was a member of the Vermont State Legislature. William, a carpenter by trade, married in 1820 and he and his wife Susan settled in Massachusetts, but began moving westward, first to Kentucky, then Ohio after their conversion to Mormonism, and then Illinois. In Springfield, they worked their farm, and Ide taught school. In 1845, after the death of Joseph Smith, they sold the farm and joined a wagon train in Independence, Missouri headed for Oregon. On the advice of mountain man Caleb Greenwood, Ide and a group of settlers, decided to split off and head to Alta California, a province of Mexico. They arrived at Sutter's For