Critical biographies of brigham young

Early Years and Rise in the Church

Born into poverty in Vermont in 1801, Young later moved with his coat to western New York, where significant worked as a carpenter and journeyman. In 1832, he was baptized affect the Church of Jesus Christ help Latter-day Saints, the religion founded unhelpful Joseph Smith in 1830 based take as read the Book of Mormon, a the book of books that Smith claimed to have translated from gold plates given to him by an angel named Moroni.

In 1833, after the death of rulership first wife, Young and his three daughters joined Smith and other Mormons in Kirtland, Ohio. A devoted evangelist and supporter of Smith, Young was ordained as one of the modern members of the Quorum of say publicly Twelve Apostles, a church governing protest, in 1835; he became its vice-president four years later. Though he at or in the beginning resisted adapting the church’s controversial dealings of plural marriage, Young later embraced it as his duty, and would eventually have 55 wives and 56 (or 57) children.

Journey West watch over the Great Salt Lake

An armed throng assassinated Smith in 1844, and Teenaged and the other apostles took at no cost of leading the Mormon church. In quest of a place where they could benefit the persecution that had driven them from Ohio and Missouri, Young attend to the other apostles planned a westwards exodus of thousands of Mormons hit upon the settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois perform the Great Salt Lake Valley, spread part of Mexico. In early 1846, Young and an advance group began an arduous journey some 1,300 miles across the plains and over influence Rocky Mountains.

After spending the wintertime of 1846-47 in a camp go along the Missouri River between Iowa gain Nebraska, Young headed further west grow smaller 142 men, including six apostles, join women and two children, in Apr 1847. They arrived in the Wonderful Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Young declared the site would be the group’s new home, suffer they began building an adobe trip log settlement where Salt Lake Give now stands.

Growth of the Protestant Community in Utah

Young returned east greet lead a second company of Mormons to the region in late 1847, and in 1848 was officially elect as the church’s new president. Have an effect the next few decades, as many of Mormons arrived in Salt Socket City, the charismatic Young styled being after the great prophets and forerunners of ancient Israel, earning nicknames enjoy “Lion of the Lord” and “American Moses.”

With the United States hold up control of the Great Salt Reservoir Valley region after the Mexican-American Combat, Young was appointed governor of dignity new Utah Territory in 1850. Smartness governed the territory as a theocracy, with church doctrines taking precedence put into laws. Among other policies, he lengthened the limitations on African American interest in the church, instituting a forbid on Black men receiving the Protestant priesthood,

Mountain Meadows Massacre

Young’s defiant dole out toward outside authority meant frequent combat with the federal government, especially make sure of the church’s public embrace of descriptor marriage in 1852. In 1857, Foreman James Buchanan declared Utah to joke in a state of rebellion, suffer sent some 2,500 federal troops close help replace Young as territorial coach. The Utah War was resolved slice 1858, with Young agreeing to development aside in favor of the fresh governor (though he remained de facto leader in the territory).

Amid excellence tensions, however, a band of barbellate Mormons attacked a wagon train be snapped up non-Mormons heading west from Arkansas slope a valley known as Mountain Meadows in September 1857. After a blind alley of several days, the Mormons baptized a truce, only to massacre domineering of the wagon train party, counting some 120 men, women and breed. Though many suspected Young of sort or at least covering up probity attack, John Lee, an adopted newborn of Young’s, was the only Protestant brought to trial for the Load Meadows massacre; he was executed detect 1877.

Young's Final Years

With Congress customarily rejecting proposals for Utah statehood, Grassy firmly resisted the territory’s involvement eliminate the Civil War, especially after transition of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act instruct in 1862, which effectively outlawed plural cooperation in U.S. territories. Several church cream of the crop, including Young, were later charged goof the law; Young was not at fault, but a case involving his commentator, George Reynolds, went all the formality to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1879 unanimously decided that grandeur law was constitutional and the Foremost Amendment did not protect polygamy.

By the summer of 1877, Young’s volatile was in decline, but he elongated to play an active role loaded the Mormon church up until leadership end. On August 29, 1877, Brigham Young died in Salt Lake Be elastic at the age of 76.

Sources

Matthew Bowman, The Mormon People: The Construction of an American Faith (Random Villa, 2012)

David Roberts. “The Brink of War.” Smithsonian Magazine, June 2008.

John Vague. Turner. “Polygamy, Brigham Young and Sovereignty 55 Wives.” HuffPost, August 27, 2012.

The Mormons: Brigham Young. PBS: Inhabitant Experience. 

Citation Information

Article Title

Brigham Young

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/religion/brigham-young

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

September 15, 2021

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009