Brigham Young

Nabby Young taught her ninth child to read and write because nobody in Chenango County was going to do it for her. She died of tuberculosis in June 1815, just after he turned 14. His father remarried and sent him off to learn a trade. In Auburn, New York, he apprenticed to John C. Jeffries and worked as a carpenter, glazier and painter, and one of the houses he painted later belonged to William Seward. The Panic of 1819 ended the apprenticeship. He married Miriam Angeline Works in October 1824, joined the Reformed Methodists and insisted on being immersed rather than sprinkled, and was baptized into Joseph Smith's church on April 9, 1832. Miriam died of consumption not long after.

Ordained an apostle at 33, he had run the Quorum of the Twelve for five years when Joseph Smith was killed at Carthage in June 1844. Young was in the East and did not hear for weeks. At a meeting in Nauvoo on August 8 the membership chose him over Sidney Rigdon, and what came after is a matter of maps: the crossing, the valley, the ditches, 350 towns planted across the Great Basin, the territorial governorship, the army Buchanan sent to take it back. BriefHistory carries that record whole. This page is about what it cost other people.

In Utah he barred men of black African descent from priesthood and temple, a line Joseph Smith had not drawn, and taught they carried the curse of Cain. In January 1852 he told the legislature no property could exist in slaves. Two weeks later he called himself a firm believer in slavery. In 1863 he said a white man who mixed his blood with the seed of Cain faced death on the spot. He maintained the ban was God's decision, not his. In September 1857, while he was governor and had promised Washington safe passage for migrants, militiamen killed more than 120 of the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows. How much he knew is still argued. Wilford Woodruff recorded that he visited the site in 1861 and proposed a new inscription: vengeance was his and he had taken a little.

He died in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, of what is generally taken to be peritonitis from a burst appendix, calling Joseph Smith's name. Twelve to fifteen thousand people came to the Tabernacle funeral. He left roughly 600,000 dollars, the largest fortune in Utah, and a church that has spent the years since taking apart pieces of what he taught. Blood atonement was repudiated in 1889 and the Adam-God doctrine disowned. Polygamy went in 1890. The priesthood ban held until June 1978, and in 2013 the church disavowed every explanation ever advanced for it, which left the origin sitting with him. Utah's marble statue of him has stood in the Capitol since 1950.

Brigham Young's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Millennial Star other
  Started on his mission to Britain, with a hymnal and a new edition of the Book of Mormon 1840
• Salt Lake Temple building
  He designated the site four days after reaching the valley and presided at the groundbreaking on April 6, 1853 1853
• Endowment House building
  A temporary temple used while the permanent one went up 1855
• Relief Society, reorganized company
  Followed by organizations for young women in 1869 and young men in 1875 1867
• Brigham Young Academy company
  He deeded land and buildings in Provo on October 16, 1875. It became Brigham Young University 1875

• June 1815 aged 14 His mother dies of tuberculosis and his father sends him out to a trade He was 14. She had taught him to read and write herself.
• October 1824 aged 23 Marries Miriam Angeline Works at Port Byron, New York
• April 9, 1832 aged 30 Baptized into Joseph Smith's church by Eleazer Miller Miriam died of consumption soon afterward, and Vilate Kimball took in his daughters.
• February 14, 1835 aged 33 Ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
• August 8, 1844 aged 43 The Nauvoo membership chooses him over Sidney Rigdon Smith had been killed in June. Young was in the East and learned of it in early July.
• December 27, 1847 aged 46 Sustained as president of the church
• September 1857 aged 56 Territorial militiamen kill more than 120 of the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows He was governor and had promised the federal government safe passage for migrants. His own role is disputed.
• October 16, 1875 aged 74 Deeds land in Provo for an academy It became Brigham Young University.
• August 29, 1877 aged 76 Dies in Salt Lake City, calling Joseph Smith's name

• Joseph Smith 1805–1844
  Founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, one of the most consequential religions to originate in the United States. succeeded
• Millard Fillmore 1800–1874
  Thirteenth president who signed the Compromise of 1850 including the Fugitive Slave Act. made him territorial governor
• James Buchanan 1791–1868
  Fifteenth president who failed to halt Southern secession in the months before the Civil War. sent an army against him
• Mark Twain 1835–1910
  Author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often called the father of American literature. wrote about him in Roughing It
• Stephen A. Douglas 1813–1861
  Illinois senator whose popular-sovereignty doctrine and debates with Lincoln framed the crisis over slavery. negotiated the exodus from Nauvoo with him