Young (BRIGHAM an American Mormon)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

BRIGHAM, an American Mormon; born in Whitingham, Vt., June 1, 1801. His father was a farmer, and he himself learned the trade of painter and glazier. Early in life he joined the Baptists, but when about the age of 30 was converted to Mormonism, and openly joined the sect at Kirtland, O., in 1832. In 1835 he was ordained an elder and sent forth among the 12 apostles, the New England States being the district assigned to him. Here he is said to have been very successful in his proselytizing labors. On the death of Joseph Smith, in 1844, he was unanimously chosen president and prophet, though he had three competitors for the office, one of whom, Sidney Rigdon, he soon afterward excommunicated. On the forcible expulsion of the sect from Nauvoo, Ill., President Young led them through toils and dangers, which nothing but the most admirable energy could have conquered, 48.1 over the plains and table-lands to the splendid valley in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, where, between the Wasatches and the Great Salt Lake, he founded (July, 1847) the present Salt Lake City. His immediate followers forming a nucleus, others poured into "the Promised Land," and in 1849 an attempt was made to organize a State, to be called the State of Deseret, that being the official name given by the Mormons to the district. The United States Government refused to sanction the new State, but Utah was organized as a territory, and Young appointed governor. The appointment of a "Gentile" governor in 1854 led to serious troubles, as Young and the other Mormons refused to recognize his authority, and it was not till a force of 2,500 troops was sent out in 1857 that the United States Government could enforce its laws on the turbulent sectaries. Young was the founder of polygamy as an institution, and was among the first to practice it. In 1852 he promulgated the "celestial law of marriage," which he declared to have been revealed ミ BRIGHAM YOUNG to Joseph Smith nine years before. A large party, among whom were Smith's wife and sons, in the Church opposed the innovation, and declared the revelation to be a forgery, but Young's influence carried the day. He himself had from 15 to 18 actual wives, besides numerous spiritual wives who were formally "sealed" to him. He was twice indicted for polygamy, but each time the case fell through. His 15th wife sued for a divorce in 1875. The barbarous Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1858 was brought to the notice of the law in 1875. In it a train of 136 emigrants, who had come into collision with the Mormon settlers, was practically exterminated, only a few children being allowed to escape. The court exonerated Young from complicity in the affair, though the suspicion was never satisfactorily cleared away, but "Bishop" Lee, a leading Mormon, was condemned to death in 1876, and shot in March, 1877, on the scene of the massacre. Brigham Young was a man of undoubted ability, strength of character, and shrewdness. He died in Salt Lake City, Aug. 29, 1877. See MORMONS.