The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-10-29
Brigham Young.

The following is an extract from tn
Cincinnati Commercials Salt Lake letter
This noted aiventurer is now seventy
three years old, having been born June l
1901, in Windham county, VT. He ha,
five brothers and five sisters, all of whom
embraced Mormonism soon after he did
The men have generally attained to SOM
position in the church, while the wOmel
and their daughters are nearly all il
pOlygamy. Brigham hoed corn and picket
stone on the rocky farms of Vermont til
his majority; then, came West, to New
York, and learned the trade of painte
and glazier. He married early and wa
early left widOwer with two daughters
Both these are now past middle age, botl
have large families and both are livin,
in polygamy. .,,-1
BY these and similar alliances it is es
timated that Brigham is some relation t.
about one-tenth of the people of Utah
Soon after his first WIFE death he married
Mary Ann Angel, who is now, according
to his answer to Ann Eliza, his only lega
wife. Brigham was converted to MethO
dism early in life, and in 1882 was re
converted to Mormonism by Samuel III
Smith, brother of Joseph, and baptized
soon after by Eleazer Miller, "gather
ing" at once to Kirkland. When the
elders were "sent forth by two and two
to preach" he soon earned the title o.
"hard working Brigham Young" The
ecclesiastical policy of the church wa.
then in the formative state. There was
only the First Presidency, consisting OF
the Prophet and brother Hyrum, with
Sidney Rigdon-all under that were SIM
ply elders. Apostles were created just
as they happened to be needed. But af
ter the flight into Clay county, Missouri,
Joseph Smith reorganized the entire
quorum, making the oldest apostle Presi-
dent of the Twelve, and ranging the
others in the order of their age. The first
four stood thus: OrsOn Hyde, Thomas
B. Marsh, David Patton, Brigham Young.
Then came the war of 1888. Patton,
whose "Danite" name was Captain
Fearnot," was killed at the battle of
Crooked Cook Hyde and Marsh aposta-
tized and revealed the "Danite" Or
ganization, and Brigham Young, who
owns himself a coward, fed to Quincy,
Illinois. When they reorganized at
Nauvoo the next year Brigham became
President of the Twelve by seniority.
Orson Hyde came back in sackcloth and
ashes, and was sent on mission to Pales-
tine as a penancc; was then restored to
the quorum, but had to take rank below
Brigham. The latter then went on a
nilsson to England, and returned in a
year or two, bringing with him seven
hundred and sixty converts Then arose
the British Conference, which contained
in January, 1858, some thirty thousand
adult communicants-more than half as
many as the whole Mormon world now
contains.
The death of the two Smiths in Carthage
Jail again brought Brigham to the front.
But one member of the first presidency
was alive-Sidney Rigdon and he nat
urally expected to succeed. But he
overdid the thing completely; dreams
and visions followed each other so rapidly
that the Saints were bewildered. Not
only, he claimed, had the mantle of the
dead prophet fallen on him, but the lat
ter had appeared coursing the air on a
great white horse, to lead the Saints to
victory under Rigdon's presidency; he
would convert the whole world, and the
Lord would destroy all Americans who re-
sisted the truth; he would lead the
Saints to Palestine and rebuild Jerusalem
in glory that Solomon never knew,
then return and set up the "new Zion
in America, " stopping in England by the
way to pull the nose of little Vic"
meaning the Queen. He would have
done better to omit that threat, as a
third or more of the Saints were Britons,
and Mormonism had not quite eradicated
the sentiments which every decent man
feels toward the Queen. Brigham gave
Rigdon rope, and he hanged himself.
The former cited him before the General
Council, and after few flaming speeches
he was "cut of and delivered to Satan.
All who had voted for him were then cut
of, and it was decided that for the pres
ent the government should remain in the
Twelve Apostles. An interregnum of
three years followed at-the end of that
time, near Council Bluffs, Iowa, Brigham
was formally invested with all the honors
and titles of the dead prophet.
During all that time, and down to
1857 or 1858, there is every evidence
that Brigham Young believed his re-
ligion but before 1860 the proof is ample
to my mind that he changed his views,
and became an infidel. That for the past
ten years he has held all religions in
equal contempt, his own included,
to Mathematical demonstra-
tson; but his ambition to found COM
munity has increased faster than his faith
declined, and since 1860 every other mo-
tive has had to bend to that and his ava
rice. His favorite idea has been that
Utah really contained the elements of
everything needed by civilized man, and
that by the establishment of manufac-
tories, and the protection of silk and cot
ton, both of which have been started,
this Commonwealth might be independ-
ent of the world. For five years past his
great endeavor has been to prevent the
Saints trading with Gentiles. At one
time he proposed putting down wages
the Territory so low that no
outsider could afford to work; later he
every ward and settlement into
q cooperative society, and that failing,
he instituted last winter the "Order Of
Enoch," which is simply Communism,
with the priesthood for managers. This,
too, threatens to be a failure here and in
Northern Utah, but in the South the peo-
pie are signing over everything to the
Church with cheerful alacrity.
CHICAGO has set about the formation
Of a new insurance company, the Anchor,