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Brigham Young:
An American Moses
"Brigham Young was a kingdom builder with dreams as grandiose as
Sam Houston or John C. Fremont," wrote historian Leonard J. Arrington.
"[But] unlike them, he was successful. . . . Brigham Young
was the supreme American paradox . . . the business genius of a
Rockefeller with the spiritual sensitivities of an Emerson. . .
. He was not merely an entrepreneur with a shared vision of America
as the Promised Land; he was a prophet . . . and he built beyond
himself" (Brigham Young: American Moses [1985], xiii).
Vital Statistics
Brigham Young was born 1 June 1801 at Whitingham, Vermont, the
ninth of eleven children, to John Young, a Revolutionary War veteran,
and Abigail Howe, who died when Brigham was 14. Raised in a frontier
settlement, Brigham, who had only 11 days of school, became an accomplished
carpenter, joiner, painter, and glazier. From Nauvoo, Illinois,
he led the pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving 24 July 1847.
Later that year he returned Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa,
where he was sustained as the second President of the Church on
27 December 1847 at age 46. He died on 29 August 1877 in Salt Lake
City, Utah, at age 76.
Accomplishments
In his lifetime, Brigham Young supervised the trek of between 60,000
to 70,000 pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley; founded 400 settlements;
established a system of land distribution later ratified by Congress;
served as the first territorial governor of Utah for two terms,
as first superintendent of Indian Affairs of Utah Territory, and
as Church President for 30 years. His statue is found in the rotunda
of the national capitol in Washington, D.C. Of his accomplishments
he said: "I care nothing about my character in this world. I do
not care what men say about me. I want my character to stand fair
in the eyes of my Heavenly Father" (quoted in Arrington, American
Moses, xvii).
Conversion
Brigham was both a seeker for personal religious contentment and
a pragmatist looking for what he understood to be the primitive
church of the New Testament. After first confronting the Book of
Mormon as a young married man of 28, Brigham's was not a sudden
conversion: "I examined the matter studiously, for two years, before
I made up my mind to receive that book. I knew it was true, as well
as I knew I could see with my eyes, or feel by the touch of my fingers.
. . . Had not this been the case, I never would have embraced it
to this day. . . . I wished time sufficient to prove all things
for myself" ("A Discourse," Deseret News Weekly,
2 Oct. 1852, 96).
Missionary
Before leading the pioneers west, Brigham left home on 10 separate
occasions as a missionary. Laboring in Canada, throughout the eastern
United States, and Great Britain, Brigham sought both converts and
understanding for the newly restored Church. During his 22-month
stay in Great Britain, missionary efforts brought between 7,000
and 8,000 new members into the faith. Notwithstanding the success,
he was happy to return home. He wrote in his dairy,"This evening
I am with my love alone by the fireside for the first time in years"
(quoted in Arrington, America Moses, 97).
Brigham Young and Mark Twain
Visiting Brigham Young in 1861 with his brother Orion, Mark Twain
wrote: "He [Brigham Young] was very simply dressed and was just
taking off a straw hat as we entered. He talked about Utah, and
the Indians, and Nevada, and general American matters and questions,
with our secretary and certain government officials who came with
us. But he never paid any attention to me, notwithstanding I made
several attempts to 'draw him out' on federal politics and his high
handed attitude toward Congress. . . . But he merely looked around
at me, at distant intervals, something as I have seen a benignant
old cat look around to see which kitten was meddling with her tail.
By and by I subsided into an indignant silence, and so sat until
the end, hot and flushed, and execrating him in my heart for an
ignorant savage. But he was calm. . . . When the audience was ended
and we were retiring from the presence, he put his hand on my head,
beamed down on me in an admiring way and said to my brother: 'Ah—your
child, I presume? Boy, or girl?'" (Roughing It [1872], 112–113).
Planner and Builder
For Brigham Young, building the kingdom of God in a semi-arid region
was a matter of cooperation, not competition. Brigham wanted self-sufficient
communities occupied by self-reliant families. With scarce provisions
and resources, Brigham organized cooperative efforts to dig canals,
construct roads, and build telegraph lines, gristmills, and tanneries
under his direction, the Saints established new industries: cotton
and woolen mills, iron foundries, a sugar beet factory, and eventually
a railroad. Historian and biographer Leonard Arrington notes,"All
such enterprises were financed by voluntary tithes, which meant
that each man and his team labored for the Church one day in ten
and contributed one-tenth of his crops, one-tenth of the increase
in livestock, and one-tenth of the produce and other home productions
. . . to support laborers on public works" ("Brigham Young,"
in Leonard J. Arrington, ed., The Presidents of the Church: Biographical
Essays [1986], 63).
In His Own Words
On his stern upbringing. "I had not a chance to dance .
. . and never heard the enchanting tones of the violin, until I
was eleven years of age; and then I thought I was on the high way
to hell, if I suffered myself to linger and listen to it. I shall
not subject my little children to such a course of unnatural training,
but they shall go to the dance, study music, read novels, and do
anything else that will tend to expand their frames, add fire to
their spirits, improve their minds, and make them feel free, and
untrammeled in body and mind" ("Discourse," Deseret
News, 20 July 1854, 65).
Advice to parents. "Never allow yourselves to become out
of temper and get fretful. Why, mother says, 'this is a very mischievous
little boy or girl.' What do you see? That amount of vitality in
those little children that they cannot be still. . . . They are
so full of life . . . that their bones fairly ache with strength.
. . . Do not be out of temper yourselves. Always sympathize with
them and soothe them" ("Discourse," Deseret News,
17 Oct. 1877, 578).
On Women. "We think [the sisters] ought to have the privilege
to study [various] branches of knowledge that they may develop the
powers with which they are endowed. We believe that women are useful,
not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make beds, and raise babies,
but they should stand behind the counter, study law or physic [medicine],
or become good book-keepers . . . and all this to enlarge their
sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large. In following
these things they but answer the design of their creation" ("Discourses,"
Deseret News, 28 July 1864, 294).
Relations with Indians. "I wish to impress [all] with the
necessity of treating the Indians with kindness, and to refrain
from harboring that revengeful, vindictive feeling that many indulge
in" ("Remarks," Deseret News, 16 Aug. 1866,
290).
"We expect you to feed and clothe them so far as it lies
in your power; never turn them away hungry from your door; teach
them the art of husbandry; bear with them in all patience and long
suffering, and never consider their lives as an equivalent for petty
stealing" (quoted in Preston Hibley, Brigham Young: The Man and
His Work, 4th ed. [1960], 183).
On daily toil. "Every human being will find that his happiness
very greatly depends upon the work he does, and the doing of it
well. Whoever wastes his life in idleness, either because he need
not work in order to live, or because he will not live to work,
will be a wretched creature, and at the close of a listless existence,
will regret the loss of precious gifts and the neglect of great
opportunities. Our daily toil, however humble it may be, is our
daily duty, and by doing it well we make it a part of our daily
worship" (Letter from Brigham Young to Willard Young, 11 Nov. 1875,
in Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons, ed. Dean C. Jessee
[1974], 190–191).
Wise use of natural resources. "Keep your valley pure;
keep your towns as pure as you possibly can; keep your hearts pure;
and labor what you can consistently, but not so as to injure yourselves"
("Remarks", Deseret News, 8 Aug. 1860, 178).
"Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards,
and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look
upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may
delight to come and visit your beautiful locations" ("Remarks,"
Deseret News, 8 Aug. 1860, 177).
Brigham's determination. "We have been kicked out of the
frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the
floor, and here we are and here we will stay. God has shown me that
this is the spot to locate His people, and here is where they will
prosper" (quoted in Life of a Pioneer: Being the Autobiography
of James S. Brown [1900], 121).
"I have the grit in me and I will do my duty anyhow" ("Remarks,"
Deseret News, 12 Aug. 1857, 180).
Journal photographs
courtesy of Infobases, Inc.
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