 Brigham Young 1852
Young, Brigham, second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born June 1, 1801, in Wittingham, Windham county, Vermont. Like his predecessor he was of purely American stock, dating back many generations. His father, John Young, fought in the revolutionary war, and his grandfather in the French and Indian war. His family relations on both sides were among the staunchest supporters of freedom in the American colonies. He was the ninth child in a family of five sons and six daughters. They were inured to hard labor and were strictly moral in their habits. He was trained in piety, but joined no denomination until the age of twenty-one, when he identified himself with the Methodist church, to Which his parents were allied.
At the age of sixteen he commenced business for himself. He learned the trades of carpenter, joiner, painter and glazier, and exhibited traits [p.9] of a practical character which in afterlife were brought into such a broad field of activity among the people of God, being quickened by the inspiration of the Almighty. In the meantime his parents had moved to Chenango county, New York. Oct. 8, 1824, he married Miss Miriam Works and located in Cayuga county, New York, where he followed his occupation of carpenter, painter, joiner and glazier.
Early in 1829 he removed to Mendon, Monroe county, New York, where in the spring of 1830 he first saw a copy of the Book of Mormon, which was brought to that neighborhood by Elder Samuel H. Smith, brother of the Prophet. The contents of this sacred record he carefully read with a prayerful desire to know the truth. His investigation resulted in a firm conviction that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the living God and the Book of Mormon a divine record. Although a Methodist of sincere piety and confronted with frowns and opposition, he had the courage of his convictions, being baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day day Saints April 14, 1832, by Elder Eleazer Miller. He was ordained an Elder by Brother Miller the same day. Three weeks later, his faithful wife was baptized. She died in the faith Sept. 8, 1832, leaving him two little girls as the result of their union.
From the day of Elder Young's baptism he became a most indefatigable and fearless advocate of the pure principles of the gospel revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. His parents, brother Joseph, and several other members of the Young family also embraced the gospel and became active workers in the Church. During the summer subsequent to his baptism, he did much preaching in the regions about Mendon, baptizing a goodly number and organizing several branches of the Church. In this vicinity also his life-long friend, counselor and associate, Heber C. Kimball, received the gospel. With Elders Kimball and Joseph Young, Brigham Young visited Kirtland, Ohio, in the fall of 1832, and for the first time in life saw and became acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith.
They were mutually impressed with the integrity of each other. In the evening of the day they first met, the Prophet called upon Brother Brigham to pray. While praying he spoke in tongues. The Prophet received the interpretation and said it was the pure language spoken by Adam in the Garden of Eden. After Brigham had left the room Joseph Smith uttered the prophecy, "The time will come when Brother Brigham will preside over this Church." In the winter of 1832-3 Brother Brigham, with his brother Joseph Young, labored as missionaries in and near West Laboro, Canada.
They were successful in baptizing numbers of people and organizing several branches of the Church. His labors continued the following spring and part of the summer in Canada and northern New York, with encouraging success. In July, 1833, he conducted a small company of Saints to Kirtland. This may be called the commencement of his great labors in the capacity of a pioneer leader, which he so fully accomplished in latter years. In the fall of 1833 he removed with his family to Kirtland, and was ever afterward an important personage in the growth and development of that city.
In February, 1834, he married Mary Ann Angell, who took faithful care of his motherless children. She bore several children to him, among them the present Apostle, Elder Brigham Young. When Zion's Camp was organized in [p.10] 1834 to carry supplies and encouragement to the driven Saints in Missouri, and which needed men of integrity, endurance, faith and courage, Brigham Young was among the foremost of the faithful few to accomplish that wonderful pilgrimage to and from Missouri, doing his work cheerfully, and was never known to murmur against the providences or Prophet of the Lord.
On his return to Kirtland, having journeyed two thousand miles on foot, he occupied the remainder of the year working on the printing office, school room and Temple. When the first quorum of Twelve Apostles this dispensation, Feb. 14, 1835, were chosen, Brigham Young was numbered among them; from then until 1837, he spent his summers, preaching, baptizing, organizing branches, as a missionary, and his winters working at his trade upon the Kirtland Temple, the painting and finishing of which he skillfully superintended in the spring of 1836. He also attended the Hebrew school in Kirtland in the winter of 1835-36.
When the Temple was dedicated he attended the solemn assembly and received his blessings in the House of the Lord. Soon after this he performed a faithful mission in the Eastern States, with Dr. Willard Richards. He returned in May, 1837, and later the same year filled another short mission in the State of New York. During the financial panic of 1837, when apostasy ran so high in Kirtland and several of the Twelve Apostles turned against the Prophet, with false accusations, and sought his overthrow, Brigham Young stood firm and loyal, declaring in the face of bitter enemies, that Joseph Smith was true and faithful and still a Prophet of God.
So intense was the hatred against Brigham Young for this bold stand that he was obliged to leave Kirtland to escape the fury of the mob. He left Dec. 22, 1837, and arrived among the Saints in Far West, Mo., March 14, 1838. Soon after this the entire Church moved from Ohio to Missouri. In the meantime the Prophet Joseph and other brethren were betrayed by apostates, threatened with death and cast into prison. During this period the coming Prophet, Brigham Young, was industrious and improving the land, and laboring diligently in the duties of his Apostleship, especially in preparing and planning for the exodus of the Saints from Missouri under the cruel order of extermination issued by Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs.
In this exodus Brigham Young exemplified those gifts of organization and pioneering, which Providence destined him so thoroughly to amplify in the great exodus of the Latter-day Saints a decade later. Brigham Young not only directed, but worked as hard in a practical way as those over whom he was called at this critical juncture temporarily to preside. He left his own family no less than eleven times to return with teams to bring up the poor and helpless. With President Heber C. Kimball he had entered into this covenant, that they " would not cease their efforts until all who would should be delivered from Missouri and safely harbored in a more hospitable State. This covenant they most faithfully kept.
April 18, 1839, with others of the Twelve, he left Quincy to fulfil a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith July 8, 1838, to the effect that the Twelve should take their departure on their mission to England from the Temple site in Far West. The mob had sworn that this should not be fulfilled, but under the protection of the Almighty, with Brigham Young at the head of the Twelve, this revelation was signally fulfilled. He returned to Quincy May 3rd, and met with Joseph and Hyrum Smith the first time since their escape from their enemies in Missouri. On the 16th of the same month he left for Nauvoo, and a week later moved his family across the river to Montrose, where he secured a room in some old military barracks as a temporary home for himself and family.
The climate was sickly in Nauvoo and his health was poor, but Brigham Young was constantly doing all in his power to establish the Saints and build up the city of Nauvoo. He continued this labor until Sept. 14, 1839, when he started "without purse or scrip" to perform his mission in England. He was sick when he started, leaving a babe only ten days old, his wife and the children being ill, with no means of support in sight. On his way to New York he did much teaching and preaching, sailing from New York March 9, 1840, arriving in England April 6th. July 1. 1841, he arrived in Nauvoo from his mission in England, and was cordially welcomed by the Prophet Joseph Smith. During [p.11] his absence, while laboring in the British Isles, thousands of souls were added to the Church in that foreign land, and a permanent shipping agency was established.
At the first council of the Twelve held in a foreign land Brigham Young was unanimously sustained as president of that quorum. Under his direction steps were taken to publish 3,000 hymn books, 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon, and the "Millennial Star" was published, with Apostle Parley P. Pratt as its first editor. In a revelation given through the prophet Joseph Smith, Jan. 19, 1841, the Lord says: "I give unto you my servant, Brigham Young, to be a president over the Twelve traveling council, which Twelve hold the keys to open up the authority of my kingdom upon the four corners of the earth, and after that to send my word to every creature."
The Quorum of the Twelve stands next in authority to the Presidency of the Church, and in case of the decease of the Prophet the Twelve preside over the Church with their president at the head, and thus was brought to the front Brigham Young, the man whom God designed should succeed the Prophet Joseph Smith. On the return of Brother Brigham to Nauvoo he became active in building up the city, as well as constantly diligent in attending to the duties of his Apostleship. In July following the call of president Young to preside over the Quorum of the Twelve, the Prophet Joseph requested the Twelve to take the responsibility of the Church in Nauvoo, especially in practical matters.
They attended to the selling of its lands, locating the incoming Saints, and attending to such other labors as would relieve and lighten the burden resting upon the Prophet Joseph Smith. In all this labor Brigham Young was energetic and efficient, proving himself to be a great help to the Prophet of God in all the labors incident to those trying times. He also served with ability as a member of the city council of Nauvoo. July 7, 1843, he started on a mission to the Eastern States, one chief purpose being to gather funds for the building of the Temple and the Nauvoo house. He was absent until Oct. 22nd the same year. From this time until May 21, 1844, he was busy in his calling, often in council with the Prophet and other leading men, constantly alive to the interest of Zion and the spread of the gospel throughout the world. On the date last named he went on a short mission to the east.
While absent, learning of the sad news of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, he immediately returned to Nauvoo. This was the first time in this dispensation the Church had been called to mourn the loss of their Prophet, Seer and Revelator. The people were young in experience. False brethren sought to establish themselves as the rightful guardians of the Church, Sidney Rigdon making such a claim at a conference held in Nauvoo Aug. 8. 1844 When the Twelve were sustained as the presiding authority of the Church, Brigham Young arose to speak, and in the presence of the multitude was transfigured by the spirit and power of God so that his form, size, countenance and voice appeared as those of the martyred Prophet.
Even non-members were struck with amazement and expected to see and hear the departed Seer. From that moment doubt and uncertainty were banished from the hearts of the faithful and they were fully assured that the mantle of Joseph Smith had fallen upon Brigham Young. After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, persecution did not cease: the Prophets were slain but truth did not die. The man who stood as the earthly head was taken away, but the authority which he held had been conferred upon others. The work of God went on and in the midst of persecution and bitter hatred Brigham Young stood calmly performing his duties, counseling the Saints, caring for their wants, and pushing with zeal the completion of the Nauvoo Temple, which was dedicated and used for sacred ordinances before the final exodus from Nauvoo.
Brigham Young labored much in the Temple until February, 1846, when he left the beloved city, and joined the emigrating Saints on the west side of the Mississippi. This was a trying time. Twenty thousand Saints were dispossessed of their homes, and turned out upon the prairies of Iowa in winter. It required not only a great man to be their leader, but one whose greatness consisted in his faith in God and title to the right that God should be his strength and source of inspiration. Such a man was Brigham Young, a veritable "Lion of the Lord" in the [p.12] face of persecution and trial, yet childlike, humble and dependent on the Lord. The Saints were seeking a country they knew not where. They were poor and some were sick. Several babies were born in camp, just after leaving Nauvoo. To counteract melancholy, and aid them to the exercise of cheerful hope, President Young would have them meet around the camp fire, and engage in songs and instrumental music.
To aid the Saints less well equipped than others he established two resting and recruiting points. Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah. The main body, with President Young at their head, reached Council Bluffs, on the Missouri river, in June. While here he was requested by the government to furnish a battalion of five hundred men, to engage in the war with Mexico. This was promptly complied with, taking many of the most able-bodied men from the camp of the Saints. After fitting out the Mormon battalion, he crossed the Mississippi to the Nebraska side and established Winter Quarters, since called Florence, about five miles north of Omaha. Here he laid out streets and blocks, upon which comfortable log houses were built, erecting a grist mill, and in numerous ways providing for the comfort of the Saints, while himself and a chosen few should fathom the unexplored regions of the Rocky Mountains quest of a home for an exiled people.
In April, 1847, President Young and 147 others, among whom were three noble women, full of faith, commenced their perilous journey across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake Valley July 24, 1847. President Young was sick and riding in the carriage of Apostle Wilford Woodruff, when his eyes rested upon the valley, he said "This is the place." It was a barren desert, but God had shown him in vision the place to rest, and he knew the valley when he saw it with his natural eye. President Young immediately directed the laying out of a city with ten acre blocks, with eight lots in each, one and one-fourth acres in size, the streets eight rods wide, to have a sidewalk on either side one rod wide, and subsequently when water could be obtained, a beautiful row of trees to adorn and shade the same, watered by a crystal stream on the outside of the walk.
This was the pattern, and most of the cities in Utah bear the main characteristics of the pioneer city of Salt Lake. In August President Young started on his return to Winter Quarters, on the way meeting about two thousand Saints, who reached Salt Lake valley in the fall of 1847. At Winter Quarters Dec. 5, 1847, President Young was unanimously sustained by the Twelve, President of the Church, and on Dec. 27th by all the authorities and Saints assembled in general conference at Council Bluffs. May 26th he started with his family on his return to Salt Lake valley.
At Winter Quarters he left a home, mills and other property. This was the fifth time he had left home and property for the gospel's sake. This year he superintended the emigration of over two thousand souls, arrived in Salt Lake City Sept. 20, 1848, and began at once giving counsel and planning for the general welfare. At a conference held Oct. 8, 1848, he was unanimously sustained as President of the Church, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, who had also been sustained in the conference at Council Bluffs, as his counselors.
A new era now dawned upon the Church, a thousand miles from bigoted intolerance and mob violence. The Saints found themselves in a desert, but free and happy, notwithstanding the task before them of reclaiming a wilderness. No man in the Church, before or since, was better adapted to lead in colonizing and building up a great commonwealth, than was Brigham Young. He served as the first governor of Utah, from 1851 to 1858, to the satisfaction of the people of the Territory, and to the President of the United States, who appointed him.
When Johnston's army was sent to Utah for the purpose of suppressing an imaginary rebellion, which the lying Judge Drummond had induced President Buchanan to believe existed, President Young declared that if the army persisted in entering Salt Lake valley as a hostile foe, they would find it, as the Latter-day Saints had found it, a barren waste. Accordingly torches were prepared to burn down all the houses and property in Salt Lake City, and the body of the Saints moved southward. The move was made, but through kind Providence and the intervention of Col. Thos. L. Kane, the administration was convinced that no [p.13] rebellion existed among the "Mormons," and that Judge Drummond had basely lied about the Latter-day Saints. The judge had reported that the "Mormons" had burned the court records.
The committee who preceded the army to Salt Lake City found the court records intact, while life and property in Salt Lake City was as safe to all classes, as in any other part of the Union. In this trying circumstance, the courage and prompt action of President Brigham Young displayed the character of the man. In April, 1853, the cornerstones of a great Temple were laid in Salt Lake City, which was completed forty years later. Before its completion President Brigham Young laid the foundation of three others, in St. George, Manti and Logan.
The one in St. George he lived to dedicate to the Lord and complete the organization of the Stakes of Zion, so far as population required it to be done. In the St. George Temple he explained the order and duties of the various offices in the Holy Priesthood. During his life-time in Utah, from 1847-1877, he labored most industriously in both spiritual and temporal matters for the welfare of all inhabitants of the Territory, and indeed for the benefit of all mankind. He built mills, factories and granaries, etc., and encouraged every form of home industry, which the facilities of this region would justify.
In the developments of mines alone, he exercised a check, stating that the time had not come to develop them to any considerable extent. The wisdom of this suggestion is appreciated by the Latter-day Saints, who know what a rapid development of mining interests at that time would have brought to Utah an element of speculators and political demagogues, who would have waged a bitter warfare against the Saints when their numbers and strength were too limited to maintain their foothold in this region. President Young was the prime mover in the building of the Utah Central and Utah Southern railroads.
He was a contractor on a large scale in building the Union Pacific and the telegraph line across the plains, also in building the Deseret telegraph line to local points in the State. Brigham Young and his associates rounded the Deseret University, now called the University of Utah, and one of the very best educational institutions west of the Missouri river. In later years, to aid the children of the Saints to obtain an education in religious truths, as well as in secular branches, he rounded and endowed the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, and the Brigham Young College in Logan. He was in all respects the friend and promoter of all true education, though limited himself in youth to eleven days' schooling.
He founded settlements in Arizona, Idaho and Nevada. During his administration of thirty years as President of the Church, he made frequent tours, accompanied by his associates in the Priesthood, to the settlements of the Saints throughout the length and breadth of the land. He was diligent in sending the gospel abroad, opening up new fields of labor in various parts of the earth. He was a man of God and a man of the people. He loved God and all mankind. He must always know the truth and righteousness of a movement before he would espouse and aid it.
Like his predecessor, Joseph Smith, and nearly all great men, he had bitter enemies. His character and course in life were traduced and vilified. He was cast into prison on false charges, and the weapon of the assassin was prepared to shed his blood. But God "delivered him out of them all." Though he did not utter so many distinct prophecies, he built [p.14] faithfully upon the foundation laid through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and all his movements and counsels were prophetic, as fully demonstrated by subsequent events. He was a Prophet, statesman, pioneer and colonizer.
The saying is attributed to William H. Seward, secretary of state under the administration of Abraham Lincoln, that America had never produced a greater statesman than Brigham Young. His policy with the Indians was one of peace. "It is better to feed them than to fight them," was his theory, and he carried it out fully. The Indians loved and respected him. It cannot be denied truthfully that the policy of Brigham Young and his people and the Indians has saved to our nation life and treasure in Utah and Arizona. In his family he was kind and indulgent. Indeed he was a philanthropist to all who would receive his counsel and kind acts, for he was not only the husband of several wives like the Patriarchs and Prophets of old, and the father of fifty-six children, but he provided means for the support and education of orphans and others destitute of the comforts of life.
He believed, however, in the strictest industry, that it was false policy to feed men in idleness if work could be provided for them. In the face of calumny and opposition he was calm and serene, and bore persecution with that submission and patience which stamped him not only a broad-minded and great-hearted man, but truly a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He departed this life peacefully at his home in Salt Lake City, Aug. 29, 1877.
His funeral was attended by about 30,000 people, both of his faith and non-Mormons. He was a true and undaunted friend in life to the Prophet Joseph Smith, for whom he offered his life, wherever opportunity afforded, and it is not wonderful when the spirit was taking flight from his temple of clay, if Joseph, the Prophet, appeared to him and welcomed him home to the spirit world, for the last words be uttered were, "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph! Joseph," and Brigham Young had finished his earthly mission.—Matthias F. Cowley. (For further details see "Deseret News,"(weekly) Vols. 7 and 8; "Millennial Star," Vols 25 and 26; History of Brigham Young by Edward W. Tullidge, and the early Church publications generally.)
LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p.13
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