Brigham Young

Brigham Young , 1801-77, American religious leader, early head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, b. Whitingham, Vt. Brigham Young was perhaps the greatest molder of Mormonism, his influence having a greater effect even than that of the church's founder, Joseph Smith , in shaping the Mormon faith as it exists today (see Latter-Day Saints, Church of Jesus Christ of ).

Early Life

He was a painter and glazier in Mendon, Monroe co., N.Y., when he was first attracted to the new religion. Baptized as an adult in 1832, he led a group to the Mormon community at Kirtland, Ohio, and in 1835 became one of the Council of Twelve (the Apostles). When the Mormons were persecuted in their Missouri Zion in the late 1830s, Young was one of the few Mormon leaders not placed under arrest, and his abilities as an organizer came to the fore. He was one of the chief figures in the move to Nauvoo, Ill. Sent as missionary to England, he started a community that eventually brought approximately 40,000 émigrés to the United States between 1841 and 1870.

Mormon Leader

After Joseph Smith's assassination (1844), Young was the chief factor in maintaining the unity of the church in the Council of Twelve. From that time forward, he served as the Mormons' spiritual leader. He led the great migration west in 1846-47 and was the director of the settlement at Salt Lake City. He exercised supreme control in the communal theocracy of Mormonism, and his genius, as much as anything else, led to the phenomenal growth of a prosperous community. After the creation of Utah's provisional government, he was also made territorial governor and superintendent of Indian affairs.

When the Mormon practice of polygamy and a more general fear and hatred of Mormon power led to hostilities between the United States and the Mormons, Young defended Mormon interests, particularly during the military expedition against the Mormons called the Utah War (1857-58). He lost his post as governor, but through his able statesmanship, he avoided a real break with the United States. In his old age, he was arrested on charges of polygamy and murder, but he was acquitted and his influence increased rather than diminished until his death.

The exact number of his wives—still a contested figure—and the extent of his fortune were the objects of curiosity and idle rumor nationwide. Accusations of sensuality leveled against him by people who were ignorant of the basic principles of Mormon doctrine were not justified. The most serious charge that can be brought against him is that of condoning the massacre at Mountain Meadows . He did not instigate that crime, but it seems probable that he did protect its perpetrators.

Bibliography

See Susa Young Gates (his daughter) and L. E. Widtsoe, The Life Story of Brigham Young (1930); C. Stott, Search For Sanctuary (1984); L. J. Arrington, Brigham Young (1985); N. G. Bringhurst, Brigham Young (1986).

Young, Brigham (1801–77), born in Vermont near the birthplace of Joseph Smith, of a poor, semi‐literate frontier family, was baptized as a Mormon (1832). He became a leading missionary in both the U.S. and England, and upon the assassination of Smith (1844) had himself elected president of the church. He led the mass migration from Illinois to the valley of Great Salt Lake in the present Utah (1846–47). Developing the agriculture there, he made the colony a strong theocratic state and ruled it dictatorially. He had little effect on the theological beliefs, but proved himself a successful social and economic administrator of the church. Young was constantly embroiled with the U.S. government, but when his colony was made into a territory he became its first civil governor (1850–58) and controlled his successors. Although he was harsh with both Mormons who disagreed with him and all outsiders, he acted with pure realism as a utilitarian whose one aim was to preserve his church. He was extremely moral, although his concept of morality included polygamy, and he is said to have had at various times between 19 and 27 wives, many of them holding that position in name only for doctrinal purposes. Young's sermons appear in his Journal of Discourses (26 vols., 1854–86). He appears in the accounts of many travelers to the Far West, including the works of foreigners, such as Sir Richard Burton's City of the Saints, and such different American views as Samuel Bowles's Across the Continent and Mark Twain's Roughing It. Studies include M.R. Werner's Brigham Young, Ray B. West's Kingdom of the Saints, and Wallace Stegner's The Gathering of Zion. He appears as a character in the novels The Lions of the Lord by Harry Leon Wilson and Children of God by Vardis Fisher.