94 Facts About Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American religious leader and politician.

Brigham Young was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1847 until his death in 1877.

Brigham Young founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory.

Brigham Young instituted a ban prohibiting conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, and led the church in the Utah War against the United States.

Brigham Young was born on June 1,1801, in Whitingham, Vermont.

Brigham Young was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe.

Brigham Young's father was a farmer, and when Brigham Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in Chenango County.

Brigham Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write.

One of the homes that Brigham Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to Elijah Miller and later to William Seward, and is a local museum.

Brigham Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824.

Brigham Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible.

In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with Heber C Kimball, an early member of the LDS Church.

Brigham Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill.

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.

Brigham Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon.

Brigham Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833.

In May 1834, Brigham Young became a member of Zion's Camp and traveled to Missouri.

Brigham Young's third child and first son, Joseph A Young, was born shortly after his return.

At a conference on February 14,1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Brigham Young's call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people.

Brigham Young oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836.

Shortly afterwards, Brigham Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England.

Brigham Young 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.

Brigham Young then stayed for a short time in Dublin, Indiana, with his brother Lorenzo before moving to Far West, Missouri, in 1838.

Brigham Young was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri.

Brigham Young became the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River.

Brigham Young served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo.

Brigham Young joined the Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first baptisms for the dead in the unfinished Nauvoo temple.

Brigham Young joined the 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.

Brigham Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842.

Brigham Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England.

Brigham Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Brigham Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy.

Brigham Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife.

Brigham Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo.

Brigham Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo.

In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty, which later organized the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo.

In 1844, Brigham Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his presidential campaign.

In June 1844, while Brigham Young was away, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason.

Brigham Young argued that the church needed more than a spokesman and that the Twelve Apostles, not Rigdon, had the keys, powers, and "the fulness of the Priesthood", referring to the second anointing.

Brigham Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle.

Many of Brigham Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts that when Brigham Young spoke to the congregation, he looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God.

Brigham Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency.

Brigham 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 Brigham Young as president of the church.

Brigham Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on the outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo.

When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Brigham Young, he sent William Miller out in Brigham Young's hat and cloak.

Brigham Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley.

Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24,1847, a date now recognized as Pioneer Day in Utah.

Brigham 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.

The Utah Territory was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850, and as colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City, Brigham Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of American Indian affairs by President Millard Fillmore on February 3,1851.

Brigham Young 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.

Brigham Young was one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, for the construction of the First transcontinental railroad.

Brigham Young authorized the construction of the Utah Central railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad.

Brigham Young organized the first Utah Territorial Legislature and established Fillmore as the territory's first capital.

Brigham 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.

Brigham Young organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1849, Brigham Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the Deseret News periodical.

Brigham Young supported slavery and its expansion into Utah and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service, based on his beliefs on slavery.

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.

Brigham Young is the longest-serving president of the LDS Church to date, having served for 29 years.

Brigham 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.

On October 16,1875, Brigham 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.

Brigham Young was involved in temple building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president.

Under Smith's leadership, Brigham Young participated in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples.

Just four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the location for the Salt Lake Temple; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6,1853.

Brigham Young provisioned the building of the Endowment House, a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple ordinances to church members while the Salt Lake Temple was under construction.

The majority of Brigham 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 Brigham Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876.

In 1853, Brigham Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah.

Later, as Brigham Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus.

Brigham Young taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin, which included apostasy, theft, fornication, or adultery.

Brigham Young is generally considered to have instituted 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.

On many occasions, Brigham Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain".

Brigham Young petitioned the US Congress to create the State of Deseret.

The Compromise of 1850 instead carved out Utah Territory, and Brigham Young was appointed governor.

Brigham Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor.

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.

On September 2,1877, Brigham Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance.

Brigham Young is buried on the grounds of the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument in the heart of Salt Lake City.

Brigham Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others.

Brigham Young tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing collectivist communities, known as the United Order of Enoch.

Brigham Young was 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.

Brigham Young cited as his reason for this that he was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs".

At the time of his death, Brigham Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $600,000.

Brigham Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American Moses", because, like the biblical figure, Brigham Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land.

Brigham Young credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West:.

However, two weeks later Brigham Young declared himself a "firm believer in slavery".

Brigham Young predicted a future in which Chinese and Japanese people would immigrate to America.

Brigham Young averred that Chinese and Japanese immigrants would need to be governed by white men as they would have no understanding of government.

Brigham 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.

Brigham Young built the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Gardo House, and the White House in downtown Salt Lake City to accommodate his sizable family.

Some of Brigham Young's descendants have become leaders in the LDS Church, as well as prominent political and cultural figures.

Brigham Young appears at the end of the bande dessinee Le Fil qui chante, the last in the Lucky Luke series by Rene Goscinny.

Mark Twain devoted a chapter and much of two appendices to Brigham Young in Roughing It.

Brigham Young was played by Terence Stamp in the 2007 film September Dawn.