The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-09-13
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
sketch of the Life of the Mormon Leader

Mormons, was born at Whittingham,
VT, on the first of June, 1901. His
father was farmer, and his grandfather
an army surgeon. He had ten brothers
and sisters, and was the ninth child of
his parents. In early life he worked
ON his fathers farm in Sherburn, Che
mango county, N. Y, received what is
known as the rudiments of an education; /;
then became a painter and glazier, and
worked at these trades until he was
thirty-one years old. So far he displayed
no especial aptitudes, and was not con-
sidered man of unusual promise.
The turning point in his life was
reached in the year 1888, when he was
thirty-two years old. Samuel HI. Smith,
a brother Of the notorious "Joe" Smith,
at that time converted him to Mormon
ism. "Joe was then preaching in the
neighborhood the doctrines of the Book
of Mormon-a treatise two years old.
The first company of Mormons had al
ready assembled at Kirkland, Ohio, and
Brigham Young repaired to that place,
where he received the appointment of
"elder." With great zeal he espoused
the cause of the Church of the Latter
Day Saints of Jesus Christ, as the COM
munity called itself and, with more
than the ordinary earnestness of prose-
lyte to a. feeble sect, he set about con-
verting others to his newly-adopted ways
of thinking. His influence rapidly in
creased, and on the fourteenth of Febru-
ary, 1885, he was ordained one of the
twelve apostles of the church. The next
year he became the president of the
twelve. '.l
The Saints soon moved from Kirkland,
O., to independence, Jackson county,
Missouri, and, soon afterward, to the town
of Nauvoo, in western Illinois. In Ohio
their troubles arose chiefly from their
debts, which they were too poor to pay;
in Missouri, from religious persecution.
Governor Boggs. of the latter State,
called out q force of fifteen thousand
militia, and threatened to cxterminate
the Mormons. But the new settlers in
the town of Nauvoo received them kindly;
and from that town, in the year 1910,
Brigham Young went forth to make con-
verts in Great Britain.
1t was on the sixth of April in that
year that he landed at Liverpool. He
preached Immediately. He reprinted
the Book of Mormon. He established q
newspaper called the Millennial Star,
which is still in existence. Within one
year he returned to America with 769
converts. Three years afterward there
was riot in Nauvoo The Saints had
doctrine of pulygurmy, and had meddled
with the civil government. They were
becoming numerically strong in the re-
gion. "Joe" Smith and his brother
were arrested and put into Jail, and then
were murdered by mob. His first
councillor, Sidney Rigdon, seized the
presidency. Brigham Young, who was
in Boston when the riot occurred, hur-
ried to Nauvoo, gathered about him
what Mormons he could find, cursed Rig
don, proclaimed himself president, fin
ished a Westinghouse, and built home
for himself.
But the saints were altogether too un-
popular in Nauvoo, and Brigham Young
decided to seek a distant settlement
which they could entirely control, and
into which they could bring their con-
verts without objection. He led them
across the Mississippi, not knowing
whittier he went. 1t was winter, and
they were almost starving. Hundreds
of them perished by the way. In the
following spring of 1847 they reached
Council Bluffs; in the autumn they
crossed the Missouri and built log huts
near the present site of the city of Oma-
ha. Five hundred of them were there
enlisted by the national government as
volunteers in the Mexican war. Brig
ham advised them to enlist, received for
their enlistment $40, 900 bounty money,
and, it was said, kept the finds. Certain
ly he was able to make an exploring ex-
pedition, and to send one hundred and
forty-seven men and seventy wagons to
Salt Lake. To that place he soon de-
termined to transport the Mormons in
Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, who had
been left behind, and all the converts
whom he could make. He forthwith
clothed himself with power in the eyes
of his followers by styling himself
prophet. seer and revelator as well as
president of the Mormon people. "The
mantle of Joseph Smith" said the peo-
pie, "has fallen upon Brigham Young. "
Ever afterward his sway over them was
well nigh absolute.
In September, 1850, Congress gave q
territorial government to the region,
which it named Utah, and President Fill
more appointed Brigham Young to be
governor of the territory for four years.
His service in furnishing recruits for the
Mexican war seems to have been remem-
bered in his favor. Soon the official
showed that there were more than eleven
thousand persons in the territory. In
two more years, the practice of polygamy
had doubled the population. Young
caused many memorials to be sent to
Congress, and Congress replied by cut.
ting the territory into pieces and giving
big slices to the leaders of the church
In 1854, when Brigham Young's term OF
of Office as governor of Utah had expired
Colonel Steptoe, of the United States
army, with three hundred men spent
the winter at Salt Lake, and received
from President Pierce an appointment al
Brigham's successor. Brigham fright
ened the colonel into resigning from tn,
Office and recommending him to be hi
successor. The President of the United
States acted upon the recommendation
and reappointed Brigham, who proceed
ed to get rid as quietly butsas rapidly a
possible of all the federal officers il
Utah. That brought to Utah thre,
thousand soldiers of the army to asser
the power of the national government
Brigham declared martial law, raised al
army of his own, entered into negotia
tion with the national authorities, an,
professed to recognize their appointee
Governor Cumming, as governor @
Utah. At the same time he commando
his people to leave Salt Lake City. The