The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Young, Brigham

YOUNG, Brigham, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the “Mormon” Church) from 1844 to 1877; b. Whittingham, Vt., 1 June 1801; d. Salt Lake City, 29 Aug. 1877. In early life he moved to Cayuga County, N. Y., where be followed the occupation of carpenter and glazier. In 1829 he moved to Mendon, N. Y., where he obtained from Samuel H. Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, the prophet, a copy of the Book of Mormon. His investigation resulted in his conversion and he joined the Church, being baptized and confirmed 14 April 1832. He was ordained an elder and immediately began active service in the ministry, preaching and baptizing in the regions about Mendon. When the main body of the Latter-day Saints settled in Kirtland, Ohio, he also made his residence there, and was actively engaged traveling and laboring in the ministry. He also spent much of his time as a carpenter and builder, assisting in the erection of the Kirtland Temple in 1833-36, and having the supervision of much of the work on that building. When the Council of the Twelve Apostles was organized in 1835, he was chosen as a member of that body, and, following the death of David W. Patten, became president of that council, which is the second council in the Church. He passed through the persecutions in Missouri in 1838-39 and led the members of the Church from that State to their refuge of safety in Illinois, following the exterminating order given by Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri. In the fall of 1839 he started on a mission to Great Britain, where, with other members of the Council of Apostles, he labored until 1841, preaching and organizing branches throughout the British Isles, where thousands of converts joined the Church. Following the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, in 1844, Brigham Young, by virtue of his position as president of the Twelve Apostles, became the presiding officer of the Church, and when the Council of the First Presidency was again organized, he was unanimously chosen president, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as his counselors. On the forcible expulsion of the Church from Illinois in 1846, he led the Latter-day Saints through toils and dangers, which nothing but the most untiring energy could have conquered, over the plains and tablelands to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Here, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, he founded Salt Lake City, 24 July 1847, in a land most uninviting. Due to untiring industry and determined perseverance, this exiled people, under his direction, soon made the deserts blossom and the waste places fruitful and a pleasant habitation. In 1849 an attempt was made to organize a State, to be called the State of Deseret, that being the name given by the Latter-day Saints to that region. The United States government refused to sanction the new State, but in 1850 the Territory of Utah was organized and Brigham Young was appointed governor by President Fillmore. He served in that capacity until 1858, when he was succeeded by Alfred Cummings of Georgia. A false report having reached Washington that the “Mormons” had burned the court records and were in rebellion, President Buchanan sent out an army to the Territory. President Young declared that the Latter-day Saints had been driven and persecuted by armed forces so many times that they would not be so driven again. If an army with hostile intent entered the Territory they would find it a barren waste, in the condition in which the pioneers found it in 1847. The body of the people journeyed to the southern portion of territory, leaving in Salt Lake City only enough forces to apply the torch to every substance, including their homes, that would burn. When it was discovered that the records were intact and that the report of a “Mormon” rebellion was false, the matter was amicably settled.

During the administration of President Young, the doctrine of marriage for eternity, including plural marriage, was openly taught. This doctrine was based on a revelation given to Joseph Smith and recorded in July 1843. The practice of plural marriage brought on opposition, and laws were later passed by Congress against the doctrine, which finally resulted, during the administration of President Wilford Woodruff, in the abandonment of the practice by the Latter-day Saints.

Brigham Young was the friend of true education and with his associates founded the University of Deseret, now the University of Utah; the Brigham Young Academy, now the Brigham Young University in Provo, and the Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah. He encouraged and assisted in the building up of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads and the telegraph line across the plains, and in various other ways was the prime mover in the great development of the West. See Mormons.