Editing Brigham Young

{{Short description|American religious leader (1801–1877)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox Latter Day Saint biography
 | name                = Brigham Young
 | image               = Brigham Young by Charles William Carter (3x4 cropped).jpg
 | caption             = Young {{circa}} 1870
 | alt                 = Black-and-white head shot of Young facing left
 | birth_date          = {{birth date|1801|06|01}}
 | birth_place         = [[Whitingham, Vermont]], U.S.
 | death_date          = {{death date and age|1877|08|29|1801|06|01}}
 | death_place         = [[Salt Lake City]], [[Utah Territory]], U.S.
 | death_cause         = Ruptured appendix
 | resting_place       = [[Brigham Young Cemetery]]
 | resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|40.7703|-111.8856|type:landmark|display=inline|name=Brigham Young Cemetery}}
 | boards              =
 | spouse              = 56{{refn|name=FamilyNumbers}} (See [[List of Brigham Young's wives]]){{efn|name=WiveEstimates}}
 | children            = 57{{refn|name=FamilyNumbers}}
 | awards              =
 | signature           = Brigham Young Signature.svg
 | signature_alt       = Signature of Brigham Young
 | portals             = LDS
 | footnotes           =
 | position_or_quorum1 = 2nd [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|President]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]
 | predecessor1        = [[Joseph Smith]]
 | successor1          = [[John Taylor (Mormon)|John Taylor]]
 | start_date1         = {{start date|1847|12|27}}
 | end_date1           = {{end date|1877|08|29}}
 | position_or_quorum2 = [[President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]]
 | start_date2         = {{start date|1840|04|14}}
 | end_date2           = {{end date|1847|12|27}}
 | predecessor2        = [[Thomas B. Marsh]]
 | successor2          = [[Orson Hyde]]
 | end_reason2         = Became President of the Church
 | position_or_quorum3 = [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]]
 | called_by3          = [[Three Witnesses]]
 | start_date3         = {{start date|1835|02|14}}
 | end_date3           = {{end date|1847|12|27}}
 | end_reason3         = Became President of the Church
 | position_or_quorum4 = [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS Church]] [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostle]]
 | called_by4          = Three Witnesses
 | start_date4         = {{start date|1835|02|14}}
 | ordination_reason4  = Initial organization of Quorum of the Twelve
 | end_date4           = {{end date|1877|08|29}}
 | reorganization4     = No apostles immediately ordained{{efn|A year after Young's death, [[Orson Hyde]] died and [[Moses Thatcher]] was ordained an apostle. The [[First Presidency (LDS Church)|First Presidency]] was not reorganized until October 10, 1880, after which [[Francis M. Lyman]] and [[John Henry Smith]] were ordained. [[Orson Pratt]] died in 1881, and the Quorum of the Twelve did not have twelve members again until October 16, 1882, when [[George Teasdale]] and [[Heber J. Grant]] were ordained.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}}}
 | political_office1   = 1st [[List of Governors of Utah|Governor of Utah Territory]]
 | term_start1         = February 3, 1851
 | term_end1           = April 12, 1858<!--
 | appointer1          = [[Millard Filmore]] -->
 | office_predecessor1 = Position established
 | office_successor1   = [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]]
}}

'''Brigham Young''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|r|ɪ|ɡ|əm}} {{respell|BRIG|əm}}; June 1, 1801{{snd}}August 29, 1877)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWJH-9QN/brigham-young-1801-1877|title=Brigham Young (1801–1877) {{!}} FamilySearch|website=ancestors.familysearch.org|access-date=October 5, 2018}}</ref> was an American [[religious leader]] and politician. He was the second [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|president]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He also served as the first [[List of governors of Utah|governor of the Utah Territory]] from 1851 until his resignation in 1858.

Young was born in 1801 in Vermont and raised in [[Upstate New York]]. After working as a painter and carpenter, he became a full-time LDS Church leader in 1835. Following a short period of service as a [[missionary]], he moved to Missouri in 1838. Later that year, Missouri governor [[Lilburn Boggs]] signed the [[Mormon Extermination Order]], and Young organized the migration of the Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois, where he became an inaugural member of the [[Council of Fifty]]. In 1844, while he was traveling to gain support for Joseph Smith's [[Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign|presidential campaign]], Smith was [[Killing of Joseph Smith|killed by a mob]], igniting the [[Illinois Mormon War]] and triggering a [[Succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|succession crisis]] in the Latter Day Saint movement. After negotiating a ceasefire, Young was unanimously elected as the church's second president in 1847. During the [[Mormon exodus]], Young led his followers west from [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], via the [[Mormon Trail]] to the [[Salt Lake Valley]]. Once settled in Utah, he ordered the construction of numerous [[Temple (LDS Church)|temples]], including the [[Salt Lake Temple]]. He also [[Black people and Mormon priesthood|formalized the prohibition]] of [[Black people and early Mormonism|black men attaining priesthood]] and directed the [[Mormon Reformation]]. A supporter of education, Young worked to establish the learning institutions that would later become the [[University of Utah]] and [[Brigham Young University]].

After arriving in Utah, Young founded [[Salt Lake City]] and established the [[State of Deseret]] before being appointed Utah's first territorial governor by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Millard Fillmore]] in 1850. As governor, Young allowed [[Mormonism and polygamy|polygamy]], supported [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and [[History of slavery in Utah|its expansion into Utah]], and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 [[Act in Relation to Service]], based on [[Mormonism and slavery|his beliefs on slavery]]. He exerted considerable power over the territory through his [[theocratic]] political system, [[theodemocracy]]. After President [[James Buchanan]] appointed a new governor of the territory, Young declared [[martial law]] and re-activated the [[Nauvoo Legion]], beginning the [[Utah War]]. During the conflict, the [[Utah Territorial Militia]] committed a series of attacks that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the [[Baker–Fancher party|Baker–Fancher]] immigrant wagon train, known as the [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]]. The following month, the [[Aiken massacre]] was perpetrated on Young's orders. In 1858, the war ended when Young agreed to resign as governor and allow federal troops to enter the Utah Territory in exchange for a pardon granted to Mormon settlers from President Buchanan.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Roberts |first1=David |title=The Brink of War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-brink-of-war-48447228/ |magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]}}</ref>

A [[Polygamy and the Latter Day Saint movement|polygamist]], Young had 56 wives{{efn|name=WiveEstimates|Estimates vary, and researchers state that not all of the fifty-six marriages were sexual relationships.<ref name="joj2" /> Young did not live with a number of his wives or publicly hold them out as wives, which has led to confusion on the number and their identities.<ref name="joj2" /> One source from the LDS Church's largest university estimates that thirty-one of his marriages were eternity-only ceremonies that did not involve sex.<ref name=Father/>}} and 57 children.{{refn|name=FamilyNumbers|<ref name="joj2"/>{{rp|p=62}}{{r|name=Father|page=23|q=During the years plural marriage was practiced by [the LDS Church], Brigham's family was one of the largest, consisting of fifty-six wives and fifty-seven children.}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=136}}}} His teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the ''[[Journal of Discourses]]''. His legacy and impact are seen throughout the [[American West]], including numerous memorials, temples, and schools named in his honor. In 2016, Young was estimated to have around [[Descendants of Brigham Young|30,000 descendants]].

==Early life==
[[File:Brigham Young and his brothers.jpg|thumb|left|The five sons of John and Abigail Young.<br />From left to right: Lorenzo Dow, Brigham, [[Phineas Young|Phineas H.]], [[Joseph Young|Joseph]], and John.]]
Young was born on June 1, 1801, in [[Whitingham, Vermont]]. He was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe. Young's father was a farmer, and when Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in [[Smyrna, New York|Chenango County]].{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=9}} Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Arrington |first1=Leonard |title=Young, Brigham (1801–1877) |year=2000 |url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-0801714 |publisher=American National Biography |access-date=March 28, 2022 |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0801714|isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 }}</ref> At age twelve, he moved with his parents to the township of [[Genoa, New York|Genoa]], close to [[Cayuga Lake]]. His mother died of tuberculosis in June 1815. Following her death, he moved with his father to [[Tyrone, New York]].

While there, Young's father remarried to a widow named Hannah Brown and sent Young off to learn a trade.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=13–14}} Young moved to [[Auburn, New York]], where he was an apprentice to John C. Jeffries. He worked as a [[carpenter]], [[glazier]], and [[House painter and decorator|painter]]. One of the homes that Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to [[Elijah Miller]] and later to [[William Seward]], and is now [[William Seward House|a local museum]]. With the onset of the [[Panic of 1819]], Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship, and Young moved to [[Port Byron, New York|Port Byron]], which was then called Bucksville.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=6–7}} Young reported having a strict [[Puritans|Puritan]]-style Christian upbringing. He used tobacco but did not drink alcohol. He refused to sign a temperance pledge, however, stating that "if I sign the temperance pledge I feel that I am bound, and I wish to do just right, without being bound to do it; I want my liberty."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cornwall|first1=Rebecca|last2=Palmer|first2=Richard F.|date=1978|title=The Religious and Family Background of Brigham Young|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43040765|journal=[[BYU Studies]]|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]|volume=18|issue=3|pages=303–305|jstor=43040765|issn=0007-0106}}</ref>

[[File:Chair made by Brigham Young.jpg|195x195px|thumb|left|Chair made by Young, who was a carpenter early in his life]]

Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=18}} They first resided in a small house adjacent to a pail factory, which was Young's main place of employment at the time.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=15–16}} Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on September 26, 1825. According to William Hayden, Young participated in the Bucksville Forensic and Oratorical Society.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=15–16}} Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible. Upon joining the Methodists, he insisted on being [[immersion baptism|baptized by immersion]] rather than by their normal practice of [[aspersion|sprinkling]].{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=15}} In 1828, the family moved briefly to [[Oswego, New York]], on the shore of Lake Ontario, and in 1828 to [[Mendon, New York]]. Young's father, two brothers, and sister had already moved to Mendon. In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with [[Heber C. Kimball]], an early member of the LDS Church.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=19}} Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=9}}

=== Latter Day Saint conversion ===
[[File:Brigham Young portrait ca 1845.PNG|300x300px|thumb|left|1845 portrait displayed in the [[Nauvoo Temple]] [[Ordinance room#Celestial room|celestial room]]. Young titled the painting, ''Delivering the Law of the Lord.'' On the table are a Book of Mormon and Bible, and a third book titled, [https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/the-book-of-the-law-of-the-lord/1 "Law of the Lord,"] ]]
By the time Young moved to Mendon in 1828, he had effectively left the Reformed Methodist Church and become a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church possessing the true authority of [[Jesus Christ]].{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=9, 11}} Sometime in 1830, Young was introduced to the [[Book of Mormon]] by way of a copy that his brother, Phineas Howe, had obtained from [[Samuel H. Smith (Latter Day Saints)|Samuel H. Smith]]. Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=24}} In 1831, five missionaries of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]]—Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen—came from the branch of the church in [[Columbia, Pennsylvania]], to preach in Mendon. A key element of the teachings of this group in Young's eyes was their practicing of spiritual gifts like [[Speaking in tongues#Christianity|speaking in tongues]] and prophecy. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife, Miriam, and Heber C. Kimball to visit the branch of the church in Columbia.

After meeting [[Joseph Smith]], Young joined the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]] in April 9, 1832.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=16}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marquardt |first1=H. Michael |title=Setting the Record Straight: Brigham Young's Baptism Date |journal=[[Mormon History Association#Journal of Mormon History|Journal of Mormon History]] |date=2012 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=195–199 |doi=10.2307/23292637 |jstor=23292637 |s2cid=254494524 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23292637 |access-date=March 23, 2022 |issn=0094-7342|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He was baptized by Eleazer Miller. Young's siblings and their spouses were baptized that year or the year afterwards.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=15}} In April 1832, a branch of the church was organized in Mendon; eight of the fifteen families were Youngs.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=32}} There, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues, and in response, Young also spoke in tongues.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=32}} Young and Kimball spent the summer following their baptism conducting missionary work in western New York, while Vilate Kimball cared for Young's family. After Miriam died of consumption, Vilate continued to care for Brigham's children while he, Heber, and [[Joseph Young]] traveled to visit Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=30–31}} During the visit, Brigham spoke in a tongue that Smith identified as the "[[Adamic language]]".{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=32}}

After visiting Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Brigham set out to preach with his brother Joseph in the winter of 1832–1833. Joseph had been a Reformed Methodist preacher and the two made a similar "preaching circuit" in eastern Canada. They described the Book of Mormon as the "stick of Joseph", mentioned in Ezekiel 37.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=34}} Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833. Young and his two daughters moved to Kirtland along with the Kimball family later that summer. Here he became acquainted with [[Mary Ann Angell]], a convert to the faith from [[Rhode Island]], and the two were married in February 1834 and obtained a marriage certificate on March 31, 1834.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=35–36}}{{efn|Sources list February 18 as the marriage date,{{sfn|Arrington|1985}}{{sfn|Alexander|2019}} while another lists it as February 10.<ref name="joj2"/>{{rp|p=62}}}}

In May 1834, Young became a member of [[Zion's Camp]] and traveled to Missouri. He returned to Kirtland with members of the camp in August.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=39, 45}} After his return to Kirtland, Young did carpentry, painting, and glazing work to earn money. He also worked on the [[Kirtland Temple]] and went to a grammar school.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=47}}  His third child and first son, [[Joseph A. Young]], was born shortly after his return. Mary Ann, who was pregnant at the time, had provided for Young's two daughters and the children of her brother Solomon Angell and their friend Lorenzo Booth while Young was away with Zion's Camp.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=26}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=39}}

==LDS Church service==
[[File:Brigham Young ca 1857.PNG|thumb|Young {{circa}} 1857]]
At a conference on February 14, 1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained a member of the [[Quorum of the Twelve|Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]].{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=27}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=48}} On May 4, 1835, Young and other apostles went on a mission to the east coast, specifically in Pennsylvania and New York. His call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=41}} In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of the [[Doctrine and Covenants]].{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=28}} He oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=45–46}} Shortly afterwards, Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England. On this mission, he visited the family of his aunt, Rhoda Howe Richards. They converted to the church, including his cousin [[Willard Richards]].{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=47}}{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=26}} In August 1837, Young went on another mission to the eastern states.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=33}} He then returned to Kirtland where he remained until dissenters, unhappy with the failure of the [[Kirtland Safety Society]], forced him to flee the community in December 1837. He then stayed for a short time in [[Dublin, Indiana]], with his brother Lorenzo before moving to [[Far West, Missouri]], in 1838. He was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=62–63}} He became the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the [[Battle of Crooked River]].{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=60}} When Joseph Smith arrived in Far West, he appointed Young, along with Thomas Marsh and David Patten, as "presidency pro tem" in Missouri.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=38}}

Under Young's direction, the quorum organized the exodus of Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois in 1838.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/joseph-smith-prophet-seer/saints-forced-exodus-missouri-1839 |title=The Saints' Forced Exodus from Missouri, 1839|access-date=July 1, 2024 |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Young also served a year-long mission to the United Kingdom. There, he showed a talent for organizing the church's work and maintaining good relationships with Joseph Smith and the other apostles. Under his leadership, members in the United Kingdom began publishing ''Millennial Star'', a hymnal, and a new edition of the Book of Mormon.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=66–79 [76]}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=80}} Young also served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo. He joined the Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first [[Baptism for the dead|baptisms for the dead]] in the unfinished Nauvoo temple. He joined the [[Freemasonry|Masons]] in Nauvoo on April 7, 1842, and participated in an early endowment ritual led by Joseph Smith that May and became part of the [[Anointed Quorum]].{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=83–85, 87}} Young and the other apostles directed the church's missionary work and the immigration of new converts from this point forward.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=99}} Young served another mission to the Eastern seaboard.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=105}}

During his time in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of plural marriage among church leaders. Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=83–85, 87}} Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England. Brotherton signed an affidavit saying that she had been pressured by Young and then Smith to accept polygamy. The affidavit was created at [[John C. Bennett]]'s request, after his excommunication and in conjunction with his distribution of false information combined with true information about the church's practice of polygamy. Brigham Young and William Smith discredited Brotherton's character, and Brotherton herself did not associate with the church afterwards.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=92–94}}{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=54–55}} Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy. He also helped to convince Hyrum to accept polygamy.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=97}}

Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife. Young knew her father, Isaac Decker, in New York. Lucy was still married to William Seeley when Young married her. Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo. Lucy and Young had seven children together.{{sfn|Smith|2008|pp=272–273}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=94}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=102}} Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=91}} While in Nauvoo, he married Clarissa Decker, Clarissa Ross, Emily Dow Partidge, Louisa Beaman, Margaret Maria Alley, Emmeline Free, Margaret Piece, and Zina Diantha Huntington. These wives bore him children after they moved to Utah. He also married in Nauvoo, but did not have children with Augusta Adams Cobb, Susannah Snively, Eliza Bowker, Ellen A. Rockwood, and Namah K. J. Carter.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=54–55}} Eight of Young's plural marriages in Nauvoo were to Joseph Smith's widows.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=121}}

Young traveled east with Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith from July to October 1843 on a mission to raise funds for the Nauvoo temple and its guesthouse. Young's six-year-old daughter Mary Ann died while he was on this mission.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pages=105, 108}} On November 22, 1843, Young and his wife Mary Ann received the [[second anointing]], a ritual that assured them that their salvation and exaltation would occur.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=103}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buerger |first1=David John |title="The Fulness of the Priesthood": The Second Anointing in Latter-day Saint Theology and Practice |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |date=Spring 1983 |volume=16 |issue=1 |page=23 |doi=10.2307/45225125 |jstor=45225125 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-fullness-of-the-priesthood-the-second-anointing-in-latter-day-saint-theology-and-practice/ |access-date=September 26, 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the [[Council of Fifty]], which later organized the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=56}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=109}}

In 1844, Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his [[Joseph Smith 1844 presidential campaign|presidential campaign]]. In June 1844, while Young was away, Joseph Smith was [[Death of Joseph Smith|killed by an armed mob]] who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason. Young did not learn of the assassination until early July.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=107–108}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=111}} Several claimants to fill the leadership vacuum emerged during [[Succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|the succession crisis]] that ensued.{{Sfn|Coleman|2004|p=137}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=112}} Church members gathered at a meeting on August 8, 1844, with the intent to choose between two claimants, Young and [[Sidney Rigdon]], the senior surviving member of the church's [[First Presidency]].{{Sfn|Coleman|2004|p=138}} At the meeting, Rigdon argued no one could succeed Smith and that he (Rigdon) should become Smith's "spokesman" and guardian of the church. Young argued that the church needed more than a spokesman and that the twelve apostles, not Rigdon, had "the fullness of the priesthood" necessary to succeed Smith's leadership. Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=112}} The majority of attendants voted that the Quorum of the Twelve was to lead the church.<ref name=Manifestations>{{Cite book |last=Jorgensen |first=Lynne Watkins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXXZAAAAMAAJ |title=Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 |publisher=[[Brigham Young University Press]] and [[Deseret Book]] |year=2017 |editor-last=Welch |editor-first=John W. |editor-link=John W. Welch |edition=2nd |location=Provo and Salt Lake City |pages=395–507 |chapter=The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brother Brigham: One Hundred Twenty-nine Testimonies of a Collective Spiritual Witness |isbn=978-0-8425-2607-4 |chapter-url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3162&context=byusq |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240524033510/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3162&context=byusq |archive-date=May 24, 2024}}</ref> Many of Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts (the earliest in 1850 and the latest in 1920) that when Young spoke to the congregation, he miraculously looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=112–113}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=114–115|ps=. "Some of those present were startled by an occurrence that they regarded as miraculous ... However one tries to explain it—the downcast spirits of the Saints, who had mourned Joseph's passing for forty days; their yearning to be comforted by their lost leader, their disappointment with Rigdon, whose ambition had diluted his sincerity; their surprise at the presence of 'Brother Brigham' who was thought by many to still be on his way back from Boston, and Brigham's talent for mimicry—the diaries, letters, and later recollections of many of those present testify to an experience that persuaded them that Brigham was the new Joseph."}}{{efn|Historians have come to different conclusions on whether contemporary records support this "transfiguration of Brigham Young" (also sometimes called the "mantle phenomenon") as an authentic experience, whatever its causation. One source is skeptical of the "mantle phenomenon" as historically authentic.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Van Wagoner |first=Richard S. |author-link=Richard S. Van Wagoner |date=Winter 1995 |title=The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V34N0102_171.pdf |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.2307/45226132 |jstor=45226132 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108180352/https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V34N0102_171.pdf |archive-date=November 8, 2020}}</ref> Another church source considers the "mantle phenomenon" historically authentic.<ref name=Manifestations/> Van Wagoner argues that of the contemporary accounts, "none ... references an explicit transfiguration, a physical metamorphosis of Brigham Young into the form and voice of Joseph Smith", and that later reminiscences simply parroted each other as "a 'contagious' thought ... spread through the populace to create a 'collective mind'" to uphold the Latter-day Saints' claims of succession from Smith. Jorgensen argues that two 1844 accounts stating respectively that "Elijah's mantle had truly fallen upon the 'Twelve'" and that "Young 'favours Br Joseph both in person, manner of speaking more than any person ever you saw looks like another" (412) provide contemporary "mantle accounts". Jorgensen also notes that the two earliest reminiscences which comprehensively described the "mantle experience" were written in 1850 by Caroline Barnes Crosby and Emily Smith Hoyt, not male priesthood leaders, but women in the church's laity.}} Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency. He also led the Anointed Quorum.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=113, 117}} Young led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve until December 5, 1847, when the quorum unanimously agreed to organize a new First Presidency with Young as president of the church. A church conference held in Iowa sustained Young and his First Presidency on December 27, 1847.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=153}}

Not all church members followed Young. Rigdon became the president of [[Rigdonite|a separate church organization]] based in [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania, and several other potential successors emerged to lead what became other denominations of the movement.{{sfn|Gutjahr|2012|pp=68–80|ps=. In the nineteenth century, in addition to Rigdon such claimants included [[William Bickerton]], [[Jason W. Briggs]], [[Joseph Smith III]], and [[James Strang]]. Gutjahr reports that "since Joseph's death in 1844, there have arisen some seventy different Mormon sects, nearly fifty of which still exist[ed]" as of 2012.}}

Before departing Nauvoo, Young focused on completing the Nauvoo temple. After the exterior was completed on December 10, 1845, members received their temple endowments day and night, and Young officiated many of these sessions.<!--ALL of the sessions?--> An estimated 5,000 members were endowed between December 10, 1845, and February 1846.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=65}} With the repealing of Nauvoo's charter in January 1845, church members in Nauvoo lost their courts, police, and militia, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by mobs. Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on the outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo. Young negotiated with [[Stephen A. Douglas]] and agreed to lead church members out of Nauvoo in the spring in exchange for peace.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=120, 124–125}} Some Mormons counterfeited American and Mexican money, and a grand jury indicted Young and other church leaders in 1845. When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Young, he sent William Miller out in Young's hat and cloak. Miller was arrested but released when it was discovered he was not Brigham Young. Young himself condemned the counterfeiting. John Turner's biography states: "it remains unclear whether Young [...] had sanctioned the bogus-making operation".{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=66}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=127}} The indictment of Young and other leaders, combined with rumors that troops would prevent the Mormons from leaving, led Young to start their exodus in February 1846.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|p=67}}

==Migration west==
{{See also|Mormon pioneers}}
Repeated conflict in Nauvoo led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to the [[Salt Lake Valley]], which was then part of Mexico. Young organized the journey that would take the [[Mormon pioneers]] to [[Winter Quarters, Nebraska]], in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=71}} By the time Young arrived at the final destination, it had come under American control as a result of [[Mexican–American War|war with Mexico]], although U.S. sovereignty would not be confirmed [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo|until 1848]].{{sfn|Gibbons|1981|page=157}} Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, a date now recognized as [[Pioneer Day (Utah)|Pioneer Day]] in Utah.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=76}} Two days after their arrival, Young and the Twelve Apostles climbed the peak just north of the city and raised the American flag, calling it the "Ensign of Liberty".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Ronald W. |date=Winter 1993 |title="A Banner is Unfurled": Mormonism's Ensign Peak |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N04_89.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N04_89.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |volume=26|issue=4 |pages=71–91 |doi=10.2307/45228700 |jstor=45228700 |s2cid=254321480 }}</ref>

[[File:Brigham Young's Home Property, surveyed March 12, 1862. Located in Plat E, SLC Survey.png|thumb|left|Young's home property, surveyed in 1862]]
Among Young's first acts upon arriving in the valley were the naming of the city as "The City of the Great Salt Lake" and its organization into blocks of ten acres, each divided into eight equal-sized lots.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=78}} On August 7, Young suggested that the members of the camp be re-baptized to signify a re-dedication to their beliefs and covenants.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=169-170}}  Young spent just over a month in the Valley recovering from [[Colorado tick fever|mountain fever]] before returning to Winter Quarters on August 31.{{sfn|Gibbons|1981|page=145}} Young's expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks, and he made various trips back and forth between the Salt Lake Valley and Winter Quarters to assist other companies in their journeys.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/brighamyoung.html|title=Brigham Young|website=historytogo.utah.gov|access-date=February 29, 2016|archive-date=March 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301163659/http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/brighamyoung.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After three years of leading the church as the [[President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]], Young reorganized a new [[First Presidency (LDS Church)|First Presidency]] and was [[Common consent|sustained]] as the second president of the church on December 27, 1847, at Winter Quarters.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=173-174}} Young named Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor and Willard Richards as his second.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=173}}{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=81}} Young and his counselors were again sustained unanimously by church members at a church conference in Salt Lake City in September 1850.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=206}}

==Governor of Utah Territory==
[[File:1853 Brigham Young Daguerreotype.jpg|thumb|upright|left|An 1853 daguerreotype of Young]]
The Utah Territory was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850. As founder of [[Salt Lake City]], Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indian]] affairs by [[Millard Fillmore|President Millard Fillmore]] on February 3, 1851.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/tgm14&CISOSHOW=102598&CISOPTR=102457 | title=Utah's new capitol grows from humble beginning; first political sessions were held in council house; fight for statehood | newspaper=Salt Lake Telegram | date=October 22, 1916 | access-date=May 14, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226070235/http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2Ftgm14&CISOSHOW=102598&CISOPTR=102457 | archive-date=February 26, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=217}} He was sworn in by Justice Daniel H. Wells for a salary of $1,500 a year and named as superintendent of Indian Affairs for an additional $1,000.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=217}} During his time as governor, Young directed the establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts, and irrigation projects; established public welfare; organized a militia; [[Battle at Fort Utah|issued a "selective extermination" order against male Timpanogos]];<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Christy|first=Howard A.|date=Summer 1978|title=Open Hand and Mailed Fist: Mormon–Indian Relations in Utah, 1847–52|url=https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=422592|journal=[[Utah Historical Quarterly]]|volume=46|issue=3|pages=216–235|doi=10.2307/45060624 |jstor=45060624 |s2cid=254437351 |via=Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and after a series of wars, eventually made peace with the Native Americans. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]] stock, for the construction of the [[First transcontinental railroad]]. He also authorized the construction of the [[Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881)|Utah Central]] railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=353-354}} Young organized the first [[1st Utah Territorial Legislature|Utah Territorial Legislature]] and established [[Fillmore, Utah|Fillmore]] as the territory's first capital.

Young established a gold mint in 1849 and called for the minting of coins using gold dust that had been accumulated from travelers during the Gold Rush. The mint was closed in 1861 by [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]], gubernatorial successor to Young.<ref>{{Cite news |first1=Carter|last1= Williams |title=Looking back at 'Mormon Gold' coins, other historical Utah currencies |url=https://www.ksl.com/article/41207623/looking-back-at-mormon-gold-coins-other-historical-utah-currencies |date=August 25, 2016 |website=KSL.com |publisher=[[Deseret Digital Media]]}}</ref> Young also organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://utahhistory.sdlhost.com/#/item/000000011019614/view/33 |title=The Beginnings of the University of Utah |first=Yvette D. |last=Ison |date=January 1995 |journal=History Blazer |publisher=[[Utah State Historical Society]] |access-date=September 18, 2013 |archive-date=October 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20131021165803/http://utahhistory.sdlhost.com/#/item/000000011019614/view/33 |url-status=dead }}. [http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/thebeginningsoftheuniversityofutah.html Online reprint] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111023133628/http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/thebeginningsoftheuniversityofutah.html |date=October 23, 2011 }}, with permission, at HistoryToGo.utah.gov by the Utah Division of State History, Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, State of Utah.</ref> It was established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret; its name was eventually changed to the [[University of Utah]]. In 1849, Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the ''[[Deseret News]]'' periodical.<ref name="Voice in the West">{{cite book|title=Voice in the West: Biography of a Pioneer Newspaper|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGNAAAAAIAAJ|last=Ashton|first=Wendell J.|publisher=[[Duell, Sloan and Pearce]]|location=New York City|year=1950}}</ref>{{rp|3–4}}

In 1851, Young and several federal officials—including territorial Secretary [[Broughton Harris]]—became unable to work cooperatively. Within months, Harris and the others departed their Utah appointments without replacements being named, and their posts remained unfilled for the next two years.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=89}} These individuals later became known as the [[Runaway Officials of 1851]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Randal S. |last=Chase |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OvnSO8VKD0EC&pg=PA85 |title=Church History Study Guide, Part 3 |date=2012 |page=85|publisher=Plain & Precious |isbn=9781937901066 }}</ref>

Young supported slavery and [[History of slavery in Utah|its expansion into Utah]] and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 [[Act in Relation to Service]], based on [[Mormonism and slavery|his beliefs on slavery]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, of the ... Annual Session, for the Years ..., Volume 1|author=Utah Legislative Assembly|year=1852|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PH1DAQAAMAAJ|pages=108–110}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mit.irr.org/brigham-young-we-must-believe-in-slavery-23-january-1852|title=Brigham Young: We Must Believe in Slavery (23 January 1852)|website=mit.irr.org|date=March 6, 2014}}</ref> Young said in an 1852 speech, "In as much as we believe in the Bible{{nbsp}}... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses{{nbsp}}... which they have brought upon themselves."<ref name="Young Collier">{{cite book |title=The Teachings of President Brigham Young: Vol. 3 1852–1854 |editor-first=Fred C. |editor-last=Collier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkRZGQ8oO8IC|year=1987 |first=Brigham |last=Young |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher=Colliers Publishing Company |isbn=0934964017 |oclc=18192348 |pages=26–28}}</ref> Seven years later in 1859, Young stated in an interview with the ''New York Tribune'' that he considered slavery a "divine institution{{nbsp}}... not to be abolished".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brigham Young|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/USAbrigham.htm|access-date=April 8, 2021|website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref>

In 1856, Young organized an efficient mail service known as the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which transported mail and passengers between Missouri and California.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=250}} In 1858, following the events of the [[Utah War]] and [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]], he stepped down to his gubernatorial successor, [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]].<ref>{{citation |url=http://archives.utah.gov/research/guides/governor-young.htm |title=Brigham Young |publisher=Utah State Archives |access-date=December 18, 2013 |archive-date=October 22, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022154403/http://archives.utah.gov/research/guides/governor-young.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==LDS Church president==
Young served for 29 years as the LDS Church president and is the longest-serving in that role.

===Educational endeavors===
[[File:Brigham Young by Charles Roscoe Savage, 1855.jpg|thumb|upright|Young photographed by [[Charles Roscoe Savage]], 1855]]
During time as prophet and governor, Young encouraged bishops to establish grade schools for their congregations, which would be supported by volunteer work and [[Tithing in Mormonism|tithing payments]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Jed Arthur |date=1968 |title=Brigham Young – Educator |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1490381 |journal=Peabody Journal of Education |volume=45 |issue=5 |pages=296–298 |doi=10.1080/01619566809537550 |jstor=1490381 |issn=0161-956X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Young viewed education as a process of learning how to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth, and at the core of his "philosophy of education" was the belief that the church had within itself all that was necessary to save mankind materially, spiritually, and intellectually.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Buchanan|first=Frederick S.|date=1982|title=Education among the Mormons: Brigham Young and the Schools of Utah|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368068|journal=History of Education Quarterly|volume=22|issue=4|pages=435–459|doi=10.2307/368068|jstor=368068|s2cid=145609963 |issn=0018-2680|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

On October 16, 1875, Young deeded buildings and land in [[Provo, Utah]], to a board of trustees for establishing an institution of learning, ostensibly as part of the University of Deseret.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sloan|first=Robert W.|title=Utah Gazatteer and Directory of Logan, Ogden, Provo and Salt Lake Cities, for 1884|publisher=Sloan & Dunbar|year=1884|page=[https://archive.org/details/utahgazatteeran00sloagoog/page/n290 278]|url=https://archive.org/details/utahgazatteeran00sloagoog}}</ref> Young said, "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country."<ref name="dusenberry" /> The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became [[Brigham Young Academy]] in 1876 under the leadership of [[Karl G. Maeser]],<ref name="dusenberry">{{cite news |first=Sarah |last=Bills |url=http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/43900 |title=Warren Dusenberry (1875–1876) |newspaper=[[The Universe (BYU)|The Universe]] |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |date=April 16, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207182134/http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/43900 |archive-date=February 7, 2012 }}</ref> and was the precursor to [[Brigham Young University]].{{sfn|Arrington|1985|page=368}}

Within the church, Young reorganized the [[Relief Society]] for women in 1867 and created organizations for [[Young Women (organization)|young women]] in 1869 and [[Young Men (organization)|young men]] in 1875.{{sfn|Arrington|1985|pp=352–353, 370–371}} The [[Young Women (organization)|Young Women]] organization was first called the Retrenchment Association and was intended to promote the turning of young girls away from the costly and extravagant ways of the world. It later became known as the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and was a charter member of the National Council of Women and International Council of Women.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of L.D.S., from November 1869 to June 1910, p. 93 |url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/26700 |access-date=April 21, 2022 |website=contentdm.lib.byu.edu |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref>

Young also organized a committee to refine the [[Deseret alphabet]]—a phonetic alphabet that had been developed sometime between 1847 and 1854. At its prime, the alphabet was used in two ''Deseret News'' articles, two elementary readers, and in a translation of the [[Book of Mormon]]. By 1870, it had all but disappeared from use.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=249}}

===Temple building===
Young was involved in [[Temple (LDS Church)|temple]] building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president. Under Smith's leadership, Young participated in the building of the [[Kirtland Temple|Kirtland]] and [[Nauvoo Temple|Nauvoo]] temples. Just four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Young designated the location for the [[Salt Lake Temple]]; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6, 1853.<ref name="EoM">{{citation |last=Hanks |first=Marion Duff |author-link=Marion D. Hanks |contribution=Salt Lake Temple |url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/4155 |pages=1252–1254 |editor1-last=Ludlow |editor1-first=Daniel H |editor1-link=Daniel H. Ludlow |title=Encyclopedia of Mormonism |location=New York |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishing]] |year=1992 |isbn=0-02-879602-0 |oclc=24502140 |via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> During his tenure, Young oversaw construction of the [[Salt Lake Tabernacle]] and announced plans to build the [[St. George Utah Temple|St. George]] (1871), [[Manti Utah Temple|Manti]] (1875), and [[Logan Utah Temple|Logan]] (1877) temples. He also provisioned the building of the [[Endowment House]], a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple [[ordinance (Latter Day Saints)|ordinances]] to church members while the Salt Lake Temple was under construction.

===Teachings===
The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the ''[[Journal of Discourses]]''. The LDS Church's [[Doctrine and Covenants]] contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/136?lang=eng|title=Doctrine and Covenants 136|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>

{{LDSpolygamy}}

==== Polygamy ====
Though [[plural marriage|polygamy]] was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng|title=Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org}}</ref> the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as the [[Community of Christ]], consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy".<ref>{{citation |author=Richard and Pamela Price |title=Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy: How Men Nearest the Prophet Attached Polygamy to His Name in Order to Justify Their Own Polygamous Crimes |place=Independence, Missouri |publisher=Price Publishing Company |year=2000 |chapter-url=http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp4.htm |chapter=Vol. 1, Ch. 4: Brigham Young: The Father of Mormon Polygamy |isbn=1891353063 |oclc=42027453 |lccn=99041763 |type=[[self-published]] |access-date=October 30, 2010 |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716072007/http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp4.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watt|first=G. D.|date=September 21, 1856|title=The People of God Disciplined By Trials – Atonement By the Shedding of Blood – Our Heavenly Father – A Privilege Given to All the Married Sisters in Utah|url=https://jod.mrm.org/4/51|journal=[[Journal of Discourses]]|volume=4|pages=56}}</ref> Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=96}}

==== Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement ====
{{main|Adam–God doctrine|Blood atonement}}

One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the [[Mormon Reformation]] was the [[Adam–God doctrine]]. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that [[Adam]] is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and [[exaltation (Latter Day Saints)|exalted]]. From another planet, Adam brought [[Eve]], one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus.<ref>{{cite book|last=Widmer|first=Kurt |date=2000|title=Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830–1915|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland|page=131|isbn=978-0-7864-0776-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYHZAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Gary James |last=Bergera|url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,2878|title=The Orson Pratt–Brigham Young Controversies: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614014538/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fdialogue%2C2878 |archive-date=June 14, 2011|journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]]|volume=13|issue=2 |date=1980|page=41}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Boyd |last=Kirkland|url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/044-36-44.pdf|title= Jehovah as the Father: The Development of the Mormon Jehovah Doctrine|magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]]|volume=44|date=1984|page=39|quote=[Adam] later begot Jesus, his firstborn spirit son, in the flesh.}}</ref> The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.<ref>{{cite magazine|author-link=Spencer W. Kimball|first=Spencer|last=Kimball| url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1976/11/our-own-liahona?lang=eng |title=Our Own Liahona|magazine=[[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]]|date=November 1976|page=77 |quote=We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.}}</ref>

Young also taught the doctrine of [[blood atonement]], in which the [[Substitutionary atonement|atonement]] of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus]] cannot redeem an [[eternal sin]], which included [[apostasy]], [[theft]], [[fornication]] (but not [[sodomy]]), or [[adultery]].<ref name="Quinn">{{cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=D. Michael |title=Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example |date=2001 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |isbn=978-0252069581 |page=269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXVj398JvnsC&q=%22blood+atonement%22+%2Cmurder%2C+fornication%2C+and+adultery.&pg=PA269 |access-date=November 3, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Snow |first1=Lowell M. |title=Blood Atonement |url=https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Blood_Atonement |website=Encyclopedia of Mormonism |access-date=August 13, 2021|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood.<ref name="Gardner">{{cite journal |last1=Gardner |first1=Martin R. |title=Mormonism and Capital Punishment: A Doctoral Perspective, Past and Present |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialgoue]] |date=Spring 1979 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.2307/45224743 |jstor=45224743 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/mormonism-and-capital-punishment-a-doctoral-perspective-past-and-present/ |access-date=August 13, 2021|doi-access=free }}</ref> The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889<ref>{{citation |last= Roberts |first= B. H. |author-link= B. H. Roberts |year= 1930 |contribution= Blood Atonement |title= [[Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] |location= Salt Lake City |publisher= [[Deseret News]] |volume= 4 |pages= 126–137 }}</ref> and multiple times since the days of Young.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McConkie |first1=Bruce R |title=Letter from Bruce R. McConkie to Thomas B. McAffee |url=http://www.shields-research.org/General/blood_atonement.htm |access-date=August 13, 2021 |date=October 18, 1978}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Church Statement|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|url=https://www.deseret.com/2010/6/18/20122138/mormon-church-statement-on-blood-atonement}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack|last=Fletcher Stack|first=Peggy|title=Concept of Blood Atonement Survives in Utah Despite Repudiation|newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |date=November 5, 1994|quote=In the past decade, potential jurors in every Utah capital homicide were asked whether they believed in the Mormon concept of 'blood atonement.' In 1994, when the defense in the trial of James Edward Wood alleged that a local church leader had 'talked to Wood about shedding his own blood', the LDS First Presidency submitted a document to the court that denied the church's acceptance and practice of such a doctrine, and included the 1978 repudiation. The article also notes that [[Arthur Gary Bishop]], a convicted serial killer, was told by a top church leader that 'blood atonement ended with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.'}}</ref>

==== Race restrictions on temples, priesthood, and interracial marriage ====
{{see also|Black people and temple and priesthood policies in the LDS Church|Interracial marriage and the LDS Church}}

Young is generally considered to have instituted [[Black people and Mormonism|a church ban]] against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency.<ref name=Bush>{{cite book |editor1-last= Bush |editor1-first= Lester E. Jr. |editor1-link=Lester E. Bush Jr. |editor2-last= Mauss |editor2-first= Armand L. |editor2-link= Armand L. Mauss |title= Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church |publisher= [[Signature Books]] |year= 1984 |location= Salt Lake City|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/neither-white-nor-black/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 1, 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221001163611/http://signaturebookslibrary.org/neither-white-nor-black/ |isbn= 0-941214-22-2|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|pp=54–65,70}} After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced the ban,<ref name=Bush/> which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the [[Endowment (Latter Day Saints)|endowment]] or [[sealing (Latter Day Saints)|sealings]]. On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V08N01_13.pdf |title=Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |date=Spring 1973 |author=Bush, Lester E. |pages=54–97}}</ref> In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so."<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Discourses|volume=10|page=[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/4266 110]|title-link=Journal of Discourses|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}. See also: [[miscegenation]].</ref> Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human [[Polygenism|polygenesis]], being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Non|first=Sic et|date=August 18, 2015|title=Brigham Young against a then-fashionable scientific form of racism|url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/08/brigham-young-against-a-then-fashionable-scientific-form-of-racism.html}}</ref>

Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that the Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Esplin|first=Ronald K.|title=Brigham Young and Priesthood Denial to the Blacks: An Alternate View|date=1979|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43044952|journal=[[BYU Studies]]|volume=19|issue=3|pages=394–402|jstor=43044952|issn=0007-0106|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity."<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Discourses|volume=2|page=[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/9600/rec/2 142]|title-link=Journal of Discourses|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref>

These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president [[Spencer W. Kimball]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Doctrine and Covenants|contribution=Official Declaration 2|chapter-url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng|title-link=Doctrine and Covenants}}</ref> and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban,<ref name="Gospel Topics-Race and the Priesthood">{{cite web|title=Gospel Topics {{ndash}} Race and the Priesthood|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood|publisher=LDS Church}}</ref> essentially attributing the origins of the ban solely to Young.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Mormon Church Disavows Its Racist Past But Still Offers No Apology|work=[[HuffPost]]|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darron-t-smith-phd/the-mormon-church-disavow_b_4440244.html|access-date=December 17, 2013}}</ref>

=== Mormon Reformation ===
{{main|Mormon Reformation}}
During 1856 and 1857, a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the church known as the Mormon Reformation took place under Young's direction.{{sfn|Turner|2012|page=254—257}} The Mormon Reformation called for a spiritual reawakening among members of the church and took place largely in the [[Utah Territory]]. [[Jedediah M. Grant]], one of the key figures of the Reformation and one of Young's counselors, traveled throughout the Territory, preaching to Latter-day Saint communities and settlements with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were [[Rebaptism (Mormonism)|rebaptized]] as a symbol of their commitment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Peterson| first=Paul H.|date=1989|title=The Mormon Reformation of 1856–1857: The Rhetoric and the Reality |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/23286149|journal=[[Mormon History Association#Journal of Mormon History|Journal of Mormon History]]|volume=15|pages=59–87|jstor=23286149 |issn=0094-7342}}</ref> At a church meeting on September 21, 1856, Brigham Young stated: "We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need a thorough reform."<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Orme|first=Michael|title=The causes of the Mormon reformation of 1856–57 |magazine=Tangents |volume=III |pages=15–43|url=https://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/record/cat.2894045.with.31197234465281?holding=1i6urwr4i3d53bwd|access-date=November 22, 2021|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Large gatherings and meetings during this period were conducted by Young and Grant, and Young played a key role in the circulation of the Mormon Reformation with his emphasis on [[Mormonism and polygamy|plural marriage]], [[Baptism in Mormonism|rebaptism]], and passionate preaching and oration.{{sfn|Alexander|2019}} It was during this period that the controversial doctrine of blood atonement was occasionally preached by Young, though it was repudiated in 1889 and never practiced by members of the church.<ref name="Gardner"/> The Reformation appeared to have ended completely by early 1858.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Searle|first=Howard Clair|date=1956|title=The Mormon Reformation of 1856–1857 |type=Masters of science |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |hdl=1877/etdm646 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6098&context=etd}}</ref>

===Conflicts===
Shortly after the arrival of Young's pioneers, the new Latter-day Saint colonies were incorporated into the United States through the [[Mexican Cession]]. Young petitioned the [[U.S. Congress]] to create the [[State of Deseret]]. The [[Compromise of 1850]] instead carved out Utah Territory, and Young was appointed governor. As governor and church president, Young directed both religious and economic matters. He encouraged independence and self-sufficiency. Many cities and towns in Utah, and some in neighboring states, were founded under Young's direction. Young's leadership style has been viewed as autocratic.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555412/Brigham_Young.html |title=Brigham Young |work=[[Encarta]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030200308/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555412/Brigham_Young.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 30, 2009 |access-date=October 31, 2009 }}.</ref>

==== Utah War ====
{{main|Utah War}}

When federal officials received reports of widespread and systematic obstruction of federal officials in Utah (most notably judges), U.S. President [[James Buchanan]] decided in early 1857 to install a non-Mormon governor.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=4}} Buchanan accepted the reports of the Runaway Officials without any further investigation, and the new non-sectarian governor was appointed and sent to the new territory accompanied by 2,500 soldiers.{{rp|200}} When Young received word in July that federal troops were headed to Utah with his replacement, he called out his militia to ambush the federal force using delaying tactics. During the defense of Utah, now called the Utah War, Young held the [[U.S. Army]] at bay for a winter by taking their cattle and burning supply wagons.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|page=284}} Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor. Buchanan later [[pardon]]ed Young.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=297–300}}

==== Mountain Meadows Massacre ====
{{main|Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
[[File:Brigham Young and company 1870.PNG|thumb|left|upright=2|Young (seated near the middle, wearing a tall [[beaver hat]]) and an exploring party camped at the [[Colorado River]] in 1870]]

The degree of Young's involvement in the [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]], which took place in [[Washington County, Utah|Washington County]] in 1857, is disputed.<ref>{{cite news |first=Emily |last=Eakin |title=Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery; New Accusations That Brigham Young Himself Ordered an 1857 Massacre of Pioneers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/books/reopening-mormon-murder-mystery-new-accusations-that-brigham-young-himself.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 12, 2002 |edition=Late Edition-Final |page=Section B, Page 9, Column 2}}</ref> [[Leonard J. Arrington]] reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the [[Fancher party]] be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested.<ref>[https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/6d91027a-46ca-4e91-b6b4-04895f99e9e5/0/0 Brigham Young to Isaac C. Haight, September 10, 1857], Letterpress Copybook 3:827–828, Brigham Young Office Files, LDS Church Archives</ref> Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after the massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and the murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer [[James Henry Carleton]] had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a [[cairn]] of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years, the monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Spanish Trail]] through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little".<ref>{{Cite book | last=Denton | first=Sally | year=2003 | title= American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows | place=New York | publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] | isbn=978-0-375-41208-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHSPDQAAQBAJ|page=210}}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:BrighamYoungGrave.jpg|right|thumb|Young is buried on the grounds of the [[Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument]] in [[Salt Lake City]].]]

Before his death in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/08/30/archives/death-of-brigham-young-the-mormon-prophets-history-birth-and-early.html |title=Death of Brigham Young|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 30, 1877}}</ref> Young suffered from cholera morbus and inflammation of the bowels.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/08/29/archives/brigham-youngs-health.html |title=Brigham Young's Health|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 29, 1877}}</ref> It is believed that he died of [[peritonitis]] from a ruptured [[Vermiform appendix|appendix]].<ref name=byubio>{{cite web |url= http://yfacts.byu.edu/Article?id=214 |title= Brigham Young Biography: Facts of Faith |work= Y Facts |publisher= [[Brigham Young University]] |access-date= September 19, 2013 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130920194808/http://yfacts.byu.edu/Article?id=214 |archive-date= September 20, 2013 |url-status= dead }}</ref> His last words were "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!", invoking the name of the late Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1977/08/brigham-young-man-of-the-spirit |title=Brigham Young: Man of the Spirit |first=D. Michael |last=Quinn |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |date=August 1977 |magazine=[[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]]}}</ref> On September 2, 1877, Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/09/03/archives/brigham-youngs-funeral-a-great-concourse-present-no-intimation-as.html |title=Brigham Young's Funeral|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 3, 1877}}</ref> He is buried on the grounds of the [[Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument]] in the heart of Salt Lake City. A bronze marker was placed at the grave site June 10, 1938, by members of the Young Men and Young Women organizations, which he founded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.utah.gov/apps/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2182 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717112905/http://history.utah.gov/apps/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2182 |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |title=Grave of Brigham Young |publisher=[[State of Utah]] |access-date=October 17, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Business ventures and wealth==
Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others. These included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, a railroad, and the manufacturing of processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and liquor. Young achieved greatest success in real estate. He also tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivist]] communities, known as the [[United Order|United Order of Enoch]].<ref name="utahencyclopedia">{{cite web |last1=Bringhurst |first1=Newell G. |title=Young, Brigham |url=https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/y/YOUNG_BRIGHAM.shtml |website=www.uen.org |publisher=Utah History Encyclopedia |access-date=March 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209132648/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/y/YOUNG_BRIGHAM.shtml |archive-date=December 9, 2023}}</ref>

Young was also involved in the organization of the Salt Lake Gas Works, the Salt Lake Water Works, an insurance company, a bank, and the ZCMI store in downtown Salt Lake City.{{sfn|Gibbons|1981|page=238}} In 1873, he announced that he would step down as president of the Deseret National Bank and of ZCMI, as well as from his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. He cited as his reason for this that he was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs".{{sfn|Gibbons|1981|pp=256–257}}

At the time of his death, Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $600,000<ref name="utahencyclopedia"/> ({{Inflation|US|600000|1877|fmt=eq|r=-5}}).

==Legacy==

===Impact===
{{multiple image
 | align = right | direction = horizontal | width =
 | header = Memorials to Brigham Young | header_align = center | header_background =
 | footer = | footer_align = left/right/center | footer_background =
 | image1 =| width1 = 145 | caption1 = Statue on campus of [[Brigham Young University]]
 | image2 = Young.jpg | width2 = 121 | caption2 = Statue in [[National Statuary Hall Collection|Statuary Hall]] of the [[United States Capitol]]
 | image3 = This Is The Place Heritage Park.jpg | width3 = 131 | caption3 = ''[[This Is the Place Monument]]'', [[Salt Lake City]]
 | image4 = Brigham Young Monument.jpg | width4 = 144 | caption4 = ''[[Brigham Young Monument]]'', [[Salt Lake City]]
}}Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American [[Moses]]"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Brigham Young|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/brigham-young|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222060906/https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/brigham-young|archive-date=December 22, 2021|access-date=January 2, 2022|website=Newsroom|series=Topics and Background|publisher=[[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]}}</ref> (alternatively, "Modern Moses" or "Mormon Moses"),{{sfn|Gibbons|1981}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Steorts|first=Jason Lee|title=The Mormon Moses|date=October 29, 2012|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/330077/mormon-moses|journal=[[National Review]]|author-link=Jason Lee Steorts}}</ref> because, like the [[Bible|biblical]] figure, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an [[Emigration|exodus]] through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land.{{sfn|Shipps|1985|pp=59–61|ps=. "Historical accounts of the corporate movement of the Saints from Nauvoo to the Great Basin are rarely written without mentioning that the Saints who followed Brigham Young westward resolved themselves into a Camp of Israel ... as had the ancient Israelites during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land".}}{{sfn|Arrington|1985|p=403|ps=. "Traveling to their Promised Land and living there under the direction of this nineteenth-century Moses was, as Jan Shipps has reminded us, a transformative experience."}}

He credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West:<ref name="paul197412">{{cite magazine|author=Paul|first=Rodman W.|title=The Mormons of Yesterday and Today|date=January 1975|url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/357/1/mormons.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/357/1/mormons.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|magazine=Engineering & Science (now Caltech Magazine)|publisher=[[California Institute of Technology]]|volume=38|issue=2|pages=12–27|author-link=Rodman W. Paul}}</ref>

{{blockquote|During the 30 years between the Mormons' arrival in Utah in 1847 and [his death in] 1877, Young directed the founding of 350 towns in the Southwest. Thereby the Mormons became the most important single agency in colonizing that [[Intermountain West|vast arid West between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada]].}}

Memorials to Young include a bronze statue in front of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, Brigham Young University; a [[Brigham Young (Mahonri Young statue)|marble statue]] in the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]] at the [[United States Capitol]], donated by the [[State of Utah]] in 1950;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/national-statuary-hall-collection/brigham-young |title=Art: Sculpture {{ndash}} Statues: Brigham Young |work=Explore Capitol Hill |publisher=[[Architect of the Capitol]] }}</ref> and a statue atop the ''[[This is the Place Monument]]'' in Salt Lake City.

=== Views of race and slavery ===
Young believed in the racial superiority of white men.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Brooks |first1=Joanna |year=2018 |title=The Possessive Investment in Rightness: White Supremacy and the Mormon Movement |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=45–82 |doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.51.3.0045 |jstor=10.5406/dialjmormthou.51.3.0045 |s2cid=246627952 |doi-access=free}}</ref> His manuscript history from January 5, 1852, which was published in the ''[[Deseret News]]'', reads:<blockquote>The negro … should serve the seed of Abraham; he should not be a ruler, nor vote for men to rule over me nor my brethren. The Constitution of Deseret is silent upon this, we meant it should be so. The seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. … The decree of God that Canaan should be a servant of servants unto his brethren (i.e., Shem and Japhet [sic]) is in full force. The day will come when the seed of Canaan will be redeemed and have all the blessings their brethren enjoy. Any person that mingles his seed with the seed of Canaan forfeits the right to rule and all the blessings of the Priesthood of God; and unless his blood were spilled and that of his offspring he nor they could not be saved until the posterity of Canaan are redeemed.''<ref>“History of Brigham Young,” entry dated Jan. 5, 1852, Church Historian’s Office Records Collection, LDS Church Archives (quoted in Ricks, “A Peculiar Place,” 114).</ref>''</blockquote>
Young adopted the idea of the [[Curse of Ham]]—a racist interpretation of Genesis 9 which white proponents of slavery in antebellum America used to justify enslaving black people of African descent{{sfn|Goldenberg|2003|pp=168–177}}—and applied it liberally and literally.<ref name=":4" /> On this topic, Young wrote: "They have not wisdom to act like white men."<ref>History of Brigham Young,” entry dated January 5, 1852, in Church Historian’s Office Records Collection, LDSCA.</ref>

Young also predicted a future in which Chinese and Japanese people would immigrate to America. He averred that Chinese and Japanese immigrants would need to be governed by white men as they would have no understanding of government.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/CR100317B0001F0017 |title=Brigham Young Address to Legislature |date=February 5, 1852 |publisher=LDS [[Church History Library]]|location=Salt Lake City, Utah |pages=1–2|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

Young had a somewhat mixed view of slavery which historian John G. Turner called a "bundle of contradictions".{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=225}} In the 1840s, Young strove to keep aloof from nationwide political debates over slavery, avoiding committing to either antislavery or proslavery positions. In the early 1850s, he expressed some support for the antislavery "free soil" position in American politics,{{sfn|Harris|Bringhurst|2015|pp=|p=32}} and in January 1852, he declared in a speech that "no property can or should be recognized as existing in slaves", suggesting opposition to the existence of slavery.{{sfn|Bringhurst|1981|p=335}}<ref name="Reeve 2015">{{cite book|last1=Reeve|first1=W. Paul |author-link=W. Paul Reeve|title=Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness|date=2015|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=95j4BQAAQBAJ}}|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-19-975407-6|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754076.001.0001}}</ref>{{rp|149}}<ref>{{LDS|Genesis|gen|9|20|27}}</ref> However, two weeks later Young declared himself a "firm believer in slavery".{{sfn|Harris|Bringhurst|2015|p=33}}<ref name="Reeve 2015"/>{{rp|pp=148–159}}{{sfn|Turner|2012}}

===Family and descendants===
{{See also|List of Brigham Young's wives}}
Young was a polygamist, having at least fifty-six wives.<ref name=Father/> The policy and practice of polygamy was difficult for many in the church to accept. Young stated that upon being taught about plural marriage by Joseph Smith: "It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave."<ref>{{cite web|title=People & Events {{ndash}} Polygamy and the Church: A History|date=April 30, 2007|url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/peopleevents/e_polygamy.html|work=[[The Mormons (miniseries)|The Mormons]]|publisher=[[PBS]]|access-date=September 19, 2013}}</ref> By the time of his death, Young had fifty-seven children by sixteen of his wives; forty-six of his children reached adulthood.<ref name=Father/>

Sources have varied on the number of Young's wives, as well as their ages. This is due to differences in what scholars have considered to be a "wife".<ref name="joj2">{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Jeffrey Odgen|title=Determining and Defining 'Wife'&nbsp;– The Brigham Young Households|date=Fall 1987|journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]]|volume=20|issue=3|pages=57–70|doi=10.2307/45225560 |jstor=45225560 |doi-access=free|url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V20N03_59.pdf}}</ref> There were fifty-six women who Young was sealed to during his lifetime. While the majority of the sealings were [[Celestial marriage|"for eternity"]], some were "for time only", meaning that Young was sealed to these women as a proxy for their previous husbands who had died. Researchers state that not all of the fifty-six marriages were [[Marriage#Rights and obligations|conjugal]].<ref name="joj2" /> Young did not live with a number of his wives or publicly hold them out as wives, which has led to confusion on the number and their identities.<ref name="joj2" /> Thirty-one of his wives were not connubial and had exchanged eternity-only vows with him.<ref name=Father>{{Cite journal|last=Jessee|first=Dean C.|date=2001|title='A Man of God and a Good Kind Father': Brigham Young at Home|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43042842|journal=[[BYU Studies]]|volume=40|issue=2|page=23|jstor=43042842|issn=0007-0106|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref>

[[File:In_memoriam_brigham_young_3.jpg|thumb|Caricature of Young's wives, published after his death]]

Of Young's fifty-six wives, twenty-one had never been married before; seventeen were widows; six were divorced; six had living husbands; and the marital status of six others is unknown.<ref name="joj2" /> Young built the [[Lion House (Salt Lake City)|Lion House]], the [[Beehive House]], the [[Gardo House]], and the White House in downtown Salt Lake City to accommodate his sizable family. The Beehive House and the Lion House remain as prominent Salt Lake City landmarks. At the north end of the Beehive House was a family store, at which Young's wives and children had running accounts and could buy what they needed.{{sfn|Alexander|2019|pp=380–381}} In 1865, [[Karl G. Maeser|Karl Maeser]] began to privately tutor Young's fifty-six children and stopped when he was called on a mission to Germany in 1867.<ref name="called to teach">{{cite book|last1=Richards|first1=A. LeGrand|title=Called to Teach|date=2014|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]|location=Provo, Utah|isbn=978-0-8425-2842-9|page=445}}</ref><ref name= "Burton">{{cite thesis|last1=Burton|first1=Alma P.|title=Karl G. Maeser: Mormon Educator |type=MS thesis |location=Salt Lake City |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |date=1950 |url=http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4572/ |hdl=1877/etdm119}}</ref><ref name="first 100 years" >{{cite book|editor1-last=Wilkinson|editor1-first=Ernest L.|editor-link=Ernest L. Wilkinson|title=Brigham Young University: The First 100&nbsp;Years|url=https://archive.org/details/brighamyounguniv01wilk|via=[[Internet Archive]]|location=Provo, Utah|publisher=[[Brigham Young University Press]]|date=1975|volume=1|pages=91–93|isbn=978-0-8425-0708-0 }}</ref>

At the time of Young's death, nineteen of his wives had predeceased him; he was divorced from ten, and twenty-three survived him. The status of four was unknown.<ref name="joj2" /> A few of his wives served in administrative positions in the church, such as [[Zina D. H. Young|Zina Huntington]] and [[Eliza R. Snow]]. In his [[Will (law)|will]], Young shared his estate with the sixteen surviving wives who had lived with him; the six surviving non-conjugal wives were not mentioned in the will.<ref name="joj2" />

====Notable descendants====
{{Main|Descendants of Brigham Young}}
In 1902, 25 years after his death, ''The New York Times'' established that Young's direct descendants numbered more than 1,000.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/06/22/101218688.pdf |title=Descendants of Brigham Young to Hold Annual Mass Meetings|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 22, 1902}}</ref> Some of Young's descendants have become leaders in the LDS Church, as well as prominent political and cultural figures.<ref>{{Cite news|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=November 3, 2006|title=Brigham Young's descendants give rocking chair to Mormon church|url=https://www.deseret.com/2006/11/3/19983324/brigham-young-s-descendants-give-rocking-chair-to-mormon-church|access-date=November 2, 2021|website=[[Deseret News]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Mahonri Young |publisher=[[Smithsonian American Art Museum]]|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/mahonri-young-5524|access-date=November 2, 2021|location=Washington D.C.}}</ref>

==In culture==
{{In popular culture|date=March 2025}}
===In comics===
[[Florence Claxton]]'s  ''The Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights'' (1872), satirizes a would-be emancipated woman whose failure to establish an independent career results in her marriage to Young before she wakes to discover she's been dreaming.

Brigham Young appears at the end of the [[bande dessinée]] ''[[Le Fil qui chante]]'', the last in the ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' series by [[René Goscinny]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Homer |first1=Michael |title=From Sherlock Holmes to Godzilla: The Mormon Image in Comics |magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]] |date=September 2010 |page=73 |url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/160-68-73.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/160-68-73.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===In literature===
The Scottish poet [[John Lyon (poet)|John Lyon]], who was an intimate friend of Young, wrote ''Brigham the Bold'' in tribute to him after his death.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lyon|first=T. Edgar|date= 1989|title=John Lyon: The Life of a Pioneer Poet|location=Provo, Utah|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]|isbn=0-88494-708-4|url=https://rsc.byu.edu/book/john-lyon-life-pioneer-poet}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/john-lyon-life-pioneer-poet/fair-home-my-choice-1853-1889|title="Fair Home of My Choice" (1853–1889)| publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>

[[Arthur Conan Doyle]] gave Brigham Young a minor but pivotal in-person role in the [[Sherlock Holmes]] [[short novel]] ''[[A Study in Scarlet]]''. Young appears here in a scene set in 1860, some time before the novel's publication in 1887. Doyle had based this work, the first Holmes story, in part on Mormon history and portrays the Mormons and Young unsympathetically. When asked to comment, Doyle responded that he "provoked the animosity of the Mormon faithful"  and that "all I said about the [[Danite Band]] and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history." Doyle's daughter stated that, "You know father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons."<ref>{{cite news |first=Harold |last=Schindler |author-link=Harold Schindler |date=April 10, 1994 |title=The Case of the Repentant Writer: Sherlock Homes' Creator Raises The Wrath Of Mormons |newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |page=D1 |id=Archive Article ID: 101185DCD718AD35 ([[NewsBank]])}}. [http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/041094.html Online reprint] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923063139/http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/041094.html |date=September 23, 2006}}, with permission, at HistoryToGo.utah.gov by the Utah Division of State History, Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, State of Utah.</ref>

[[Mark Twain]] devoted a chapter and much of two appendices to Young in ''[[Roughing It]]''. In the appendix, Twain describes Young as a theocratic "absolute monarch" defying the will of the U.S. government, and alleges using a dubious source that Young had ordered the Mountain Meadows massacre.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=301–302}}

[[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]], talking about his fondness of trees, joked in his ''[[The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table]]'': "I call all trees mine that I have put my wedding-ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as Brigham Young has human ones."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table|last=Holmes |first=Oliver Wendell|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd|year=1952|location=London|page=222}}</ref>

In [[Fitz James O'Brien|Fitz-James O'Brien]]'s 1857 short story, "My Wife's Tempter", Brigham Young is depicted as an "apostle of hell", whose villainous disciple compels the hero's wife to annul her marriage and marry a Mormon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Fitz James |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ALbITKK2PgQC&pg=GBS.PA188&hl=en |title=Collected Stories |date=1925 |publisher=A. & C. Boni |language=en}}</ref>

===In film and television===
Young's character has appeared in a number of films. [[Dean Jagger]] played him in the eponymous 1940 film ''[[Brigham Young (film)|Brigham Young]]''. In ''[[The Avenging Angel]]'' (1995), he is played by [[Charlton Heston]]. [[Terence Stamp]] plays him in the 2007 film ''[[September Dawn]]''. In ''[[Hell on Wheels (TV series)|Hell on Wheels]]'' (2011–2016), he is portrayed by [[Gregg Henry]]. He is played by [[Kim Coates]] in the Netflix miniseries ''[[American Primeval]]'' (2025).

===In theater===
In the 2011 satirical musical ''[[The Book of Mormon (musical)|The Book of Mormon]]'', Young is portrayed as a tyrannical American regional warlord, cursed by God to have a [[clitoris]] for a nose—a parable cautioning against [[female genital mutilation]].<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|title=The Book of Mormon: The Testament of a Broadway Musical|last1=Parker|first1=Trey|last2=Lopez|first2=Robert|last3=Stone|first3=Matt|last4=Harris|first4=Mark|publisher=Newmarket Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-06-223494-0|pages=113}}</ref>

==Literary works==
Since Young's death, a number of works have published collections of his discourses and sayings.
*{{cite book
  | title     = Teachings of President Brigham Young: Salvation for the Dead, the Spirit World, and Kindred Subjects
  | year      = 1922
  | publisher = Seagull Press
 }}
*{{cite book
  | author    = Brigham Young
  | title     = Discourses of Brigham Young
  | year      = 1925
  | publisher = [[Deseret Book]]
  | others    = selected by [[John A. Widtsoe]]
  | url       = https://archive.org/details/discoursesofbrig028407mbp
 }}
*{{cite book
  | author    = Young, Brigham
  | title     = The Best from Brigham Young: Statements from His Sermons on Religion, Education, and Community Building
  | year      = 1952
  | publisher = [[Deseret Book]]
  | others    = selected by Alice K. Chase
 }}
*{{cite book
  | title     = Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801–1844
  | year      = 1969
  | publisher = Eldon J. Watson
 }}
*{{cite book
  | title     = Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846–1847
  | year      = 1971
  | publisher = Eldon J. Watson
 }}
*{{cite book
  | title     = Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons
  | year      = 1974
  | publisher = [[Deseret Book]]
  | editor    = [[Dean C. Jessee]]
 }}
*{{cite book
  | title     = Diary of Brigham Young, 1857
  | year      = 1980
  | publisher = [[University of Utah]]
  | editor    = Everett L. Cooley
  | url       = http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/tanner,2124
 }}
*{{cite book
  | title      = The Essential Brigham Young
  | year      = 1992
  | publisher      = [[Signature Books]]
  | isbn      = 1-56085-010-8
  | url      = http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=11139
  | access-date      = October 29, 2014
| archive-date      = October 30, 2014
| archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20141030040102/http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=11139
  | url-status      = dead
  }}
*{{cite book
  | title     = Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young
  | year      = 1997
  | publisher = The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 | title-link = Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young
 }} LDS Church [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/item/manual/teachings-brigham-young publication number 35554]
*{{Cite book
  | last       = Young
  | first      = Brigham
  | editor     = [[Richard Van Wagoner]]
  | title      = The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young
  | year       = 2009
  | publisher  = Smith-Pettit Foundation
  | isbn       = 978-1-56085-206-3
  | volume     = 5
  }}

==See also==
{{Portal|Latter Day Saint movement}}
* [[Brigham Young (1940 film)|''Brigham Young'' (1940 film)]]
* [[Brigham Young Forest Farmhouse]]
* [[Brigham Young Winter Home and Office]]
* [[This Is The Place Heritage Park]]
* [[Ann Eliza Young]]<!-- alphabetized by surname-->
*[[List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Thomas G |title=Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lEqTDwAAQBAJ|publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-8061-6446-5 |series=The Oklahoma Western Biographies |location=Norman, Oklahoma |oclc=1098034245}}
* {{Cite book |last=Arrington |first=Leonard J. |title=[[Brigham Young: American Moses]] |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |year=1985 |isbn=0-394-51022-4 |location=New York |author-link=Leonard J. Arrington}}
* {{cite book|last=Bergera|first=Gary James|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040205091243/http://www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/conflict.html|title= Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith|publisher=[[Signature Books]]|url-status=dead|url=http://www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/conflict.html|via=[[Internet Archive]]|archive-date=February 5, 2004}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bringhurst |first=Newell G. |url=https://archive.org/details/saintsslavesblac0000brin |title=Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |year=1981 |isbn=0-313-22752-7 |location=Westport, Connecticut |author-link=Newell G. Bringhurst}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=Frank J. |author-link=Frank J. Cannon |last2=Knapp |first2=George L. |title=Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire |year=1913 |place=New York |publisher=Fleming H. Revell Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/brighamyoungandh003273mbp}}
* {{Cite book |last=Coleman |first=Jon T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lymqp5cYx7MC |title=Vicious: Wolves and Men in America |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-300-11972-5 |series=Western Americana}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gibbons |first=Francis M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7554845 |title=Brigham Young, modern Moses, prophet of God |date=1981 |publisher=[[Deseret Book]] |isbn=0-87747-858-9 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |oclc=7554845}}
* {{Cite book |last=Goldenberg |first=David M. |url=https://archive.org/details/curseofhamracesl0000gold/ |title=The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=069111465X |location=Princeton |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gutjahr |first=Paul C. |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofmormonbiog0000gutj |title=The Book of Mormon: A Biography |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0691144801 |series=Lives of Great Religious Books |location=Princeton  |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Matthew L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pn20CgAAQBAJ |title=The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History |last2=Bringhurst |first2=Newell G. |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0252097843 |location=Urbana |author-link2=Newell G. Bringhurst}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Mason |first1=David V. |title=Brigham Young: Sovereign in America |year=2014 |place=New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415844840}}
* {{Cite book |last=McCloud |first=Susan Evans |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/35317457 |title=Brigham Young : a personal portrait |date=1996 |publisher=Covenant Communications |isbn=1-55503-986-3 |location=American Fork, UT |oclc=35317457}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nibley |first=Hugh W. |author-link=Hugh Nibley |title=Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, vol. 13) |year=1994 |location=[[Salt Lake City]], Utah |publisher=Shadow Mountain Pub. |isbn=0-87579-818-7}}, republished online at {{Cite book |title=Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints by Hugh W. Nibley |url=http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/book/brother-brigham-challenges-the-saints/ |publisher=[[Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies|FARMS]] |access-date=April 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220021905/http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/book/brother-brigham-challenges-the-saints/ |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |url-status=dead}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Orton |first=Chad M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/215172986 |title=40 ways to look at Brigham Young : a new approach to a remarkable man |date=2008 |publisher=[[Deseret Book]] |others=William W. Slaughter |isbn=978-1-59038-786-3 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |oclc=215172986}}
* {{Cite book |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnfZAAAAMAAJ |title=The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power |publisher=[[Signature Books]] |year=1994 |isbn=978-1560850564 |volume=1 |location=Salt Lake City |author-link=D. Michael Quinn}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shipps |first=Jan |url=https://archive.org/details/mormonismstoryof00ship |title=Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1985 |isbn=0252011597 |location=Urbana |author-link=Jan Shipps |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=George D. |title=Nauvoo Polygamy: "…But We Called It Celestial Marriage" |publisher=[[Signature Books]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1560852018 |location=Salt Lake City}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tullidge |first=Edward W. |author-link=Edward Tullidge |title=Life of Brigham Young: Or, Utah and Her Founders |year=1877 |place=New York |publisher=Tullidge & Crandall |url=https://archive.org/details/lifebrighamyoun00tullgoog}}
* {{Cite book |last=Turner |first=John G. |url=https://archive.org/details/brighamyoungpion0000turn |title=Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0674049673 |location=Cambridge, Massachussets |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]] |oclc=894538617}}
* {{Cite book |last=Waite |first=C.V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) |title=The Mormon prophet and his harem: or, An authentic history of Brigham Young, his numerous wives and children |year=1868 |place=Chicago |publisher=J.S. Goodman & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/mormonprophetand00waitiala}}. See also: ''[[The Mormon Prophet and His Harem]]''.
* {{Cite book |last=Young |first=Brigham |contribution=Self-Government&nbsp;– Mysteries&nbsp;– Recreation and Amusements, not in Themselves Sinful&nbsp;– Tithing&nbsp;– Adam, Our Father and Our God |date=April 9, 1852 |title=Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others |editor-last=Watt |editor-first=G.D. |volume=1 |place=Liverpool |publisher=F.D. & S.W. Richards |publication-date=1854 |url=https://archive.org/stream/JoDV01/JoD_v01#page/n53/mode/2up |pages=46–53}}
* {{Cite book |last=Young |first=Brigham |contribution=The Necessity of the Saints Living up to the Light Which Has Been Given Them |date=March 2, 1856 |title=Journal of Discourses Delivered by President Brigham Young, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles, and Others |editor1-last=Watt |editor1-first=G.D. |editor1-link=George D. Watt |volume=3 |place=Liverpool |publisher=[[Daniel H. Wells]] |publication-date=1856 |pages=221–226 |contribution-url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume3/The_Necessity_of_the_Saints_Living_up_to_the_Light_which_has_been_Given_Them?oldid=400881 |title-link=Journal of Discourses}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
{{commons}}
{{EB1911 poster|Mormons}}
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Young, Brigham |volume= XXIV  | page=756 |short=1 }}
* [http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/3665 Brigham Young Letters, MSS SC 890] at [https://sites.lib.byu.edu/sc/ L. Tom Perry Special Collections], [[Brigham Young University]]
* [https://collections.lib.utah.edu/search?q=uum_ttb/ Tanner Trust Books] at [https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ University of Utah Digital Library], [https://lib.utah.edu/collections/special-collections/ Marriott Library Special Collections]

{{S-start}}
{{s-off|}}
{{S-bef| before = None}}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[List of governors of Utah|Governor of Utah Territory]] | years = 1850–1858}}
{{s-aft| after  = [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]]}}
{{s-rel| mo}}
{{S-bef| before = [[Joseph Smith]]}}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|President of the Church]] | years = December 27, 1847{{snd}}August 29, 1877}}
{{s-aft| after  = [[John Taylor (Latter Day Saint)|John Taylor]]}}

{{S-bef| before = [[Thomas B. Marsh]]}}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]] | years = March 17, 1839{{snd}}December 27, 1847}}
{{s-aft| after  = [[Orson Hyde]]}}

{{S-bef| before = [[David W. Patten]]}}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[Quorum of the Twelve|Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]] | years = February 14, 1835{{snd}}December 27, 1847}}
{{s-aft| after  = [[Heber C. Kimball]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Latter-day Saints|show}}
{{LDSApostles}}
{{LDScouncil50}}
{{LDSfirstpresidency|counselors=no}}
{{LDSpresq12}}
{{Governors of Utah}}
{{American frontier}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Brigham}}
[[Category:Brigham Young| ]]
[[Category:1801 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Whitingham, Vermont]]
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[[Category:American carpenters]]
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[[Category:American proslavery activists]]
[[Category:Converts to Mormonism from Methodism]]
[[Category:Governors of Utah Territory]]
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[[Category:Mountain Meadows Massacre]]
[[Category:Politicians from Salt Lake City]]
[[Category:People pardoned by James Buchanan]]
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[[Category:19th-century Mormon missionaries]]
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