The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-05-30
Brigham YOung's Widows-His Favor.
lite Wife, Amelia, and Her
"Palace."
The Prophets Fifty Children, and
How His Enormous Proper
ty Was Divided.
John Taylor, Brigham's Successor The
Present Condition of the Church
Brighsm's Grave.

Brigham" as the M0rmOns call him. There
was little turmoil over the election !of his
successor as the President of the Church, and
at one time it was thought his two sons,
John w. and Brigham, Jr., would make a
row, but the latter was appeased by being
chosen one Of the twelve apostles, and John
was sat down upon with emphasis.
John never was very pious man, or an Or
thodox Mormon. He is carnally-minded, a
spendthrift and reckless generally. He has
q Philadelphia wife who never took kindly
to polygamy, and was the cause of a good
deal of domestic commotion. After being
rejected by the Church as q leader John
shook the dust of Zion from his indignant
feet and went to New Mexico, where he Sc
cured a valuable railroad contract, and has
since lived upon a ranch In Arizona. 1t is q
valuable property, and extensively equipped,
but when we were out there the other day
the ranch We advertised for sale, under a
judgment for debt or something of that sort,
and the opinion of his neighbors was that he
had reached the bottom of his pile. That is
the view his old friends in Salt Lake City
take of the case. They understand that he
has not only gone through with the money
his father left him, but also the profits of his
railroad contracts, and is deeply in debt. At
the recent session of the annual conference
OF members OF the Church of Latter Day
Saints at Salt Lake City John appeared made
penitential confession of waywardness, and
renewed his allegiance to the Church. This
means. the gossips say, that he proposes
TO PLAY THE PRoDIeAL SON ACT,
and having wasted his substance, expects
that the Church will take him again to its
bosom, and give him new garments and a fat
Office.
But Pm inclined to think he will be dis
appointed. The influential leaders in the
Church are glad to have John come back and
remove the odium that followed his disaffee-
ton, but the fat places are all we'll filled,
and do not go a-begging in Zion anv more
than elsewhere. They spoke of him kindly
-charitably, mean-and seemed TO regard
his repentance with pleasure, but they did
not enthuse over him much, nor did they
hesitate to discuss his faults freely.
Two of Brighams sons are in the United
States Army. One of them is said to be
brilliant fellow, and graduted from West
Point at the head of his class He is in the
engineer corps, and is spoken of by Army
officers as thorough gentleman.
Eighteen of Brigham's widows live here
still. Ann Eliza No. 19), the aDostate, who
took the lecture field, is said to be married
and living in Chicago, but / could not learn
her husbands name.
Some of the widows live with their fami-
lies in the Lion House"-so called from
the carved stones that cap the pillars of the
entrances-where they lived during Brig
hams lifetime, but the main building in
which he lived is now the headquarters of
the Church. None of the widows have re-
married, reports to the contrary nOtwith-
standing.
THE AMELIA PALACE.
Amelia, it will be remembered, was the
most attractive of Brigham's plurality, and
was the recipient of his most conspicuous
fou ho vroo fOn m IN fho n.
cts harem, and he built for her, across the
street from the Lion House, an elegant man
sion of stone similar to some of the resi-
dences thatiadorn Prairie avenue in Chicago.
1t was furnished by him with costly luxuri-
ance, and here he abode during the last years
of his life in the bosom of his favorite, while
across the way in the old adobe structure
which was erected soon after the exodus from
Nauvoo the other seventeen remained with
out murmur.
One would suppose that this marked favor
itism would have raised a row around the
prophet, but such was the family discipline
that the other wives appeared only to admire
BrighAms devotion to Amelia, ana were glad
to receive the merest smile from his benefi-
cent face.
One can not but ad nire the matchless au-
dacity and ability of that mantle APOSTLE
Paul of the New Dispensation. He had none
of the disjointed, turbulent and inconsistent
fanaticism Of Joseph Smith, butwas cool and
far-sighted, possessing unbound physical and
moral courage, an unpretentious authority
that was felt in the smallest detail of the
theocracy of which he was the head, with
ability to plan and the energy to execute-a
very Lion of the Lord, the saints used to
call hIm-a combinationof Napoleon, Robes
pierre, and Richelieu.
THE FAvoRITE DEPosED.
As long as Brigham lived his authority was
absolute; his utterances we're received as rev.
Citations from on high, and although he was
guilty in his public addresses of blasphemy
and obscenity that would not have been toll
Grated from any other man, lis people bowed
before his will as the Hindoos bow before
the wheels of Juggernaut
Amelia is said to have exercised powerful
influence with the Prophet, and in quiet
way nodded him to her will-the only being
to whom he ever yielded; the Delilah of the
Mormon Sampson. The Apostles and Elders
were more jealous of her than than the other
wives, and when the Prophet died they got
in their work. Her influence suddenly
ended; her life of luxury suddenly ceased.
She became as powerless and as friendless as
the ex-EmpreSs of France or the crazy Queen
Of Spain. 1t was discovered that "the
Amelia Palace" as the beautiful mansion
was called, had been erected with the funds
of the Church, and she was unceremoniously
bounced.
With her share of the property Brigham
left she purchased a coy little cottage in
retired portion of the town, and is living
there in dignified and aristocratic seclusion.
She retains much of her beauty, and is said
to be woman of strong intellect and COM
manding appearance. / tried to secure her
picture as a souvenir, but the photograph
dealer, who had the faces of the other bright
lights of the Church, said he was not allowed
TO sell it.
Courtiers came to WOO her, and it was
reported at one time that she had been
sealed" to one of the apostles, a business
man who lives at Ogden, but she rejected his
addresses, and still wears a widows weeds
The Gentile's know little about her, but the
Mormons say she is true to Brigham and be-
lieves that she will SIT with him in glory.
She was the wife of his old age, and never
had any children.
PRESIDENT YoUNG's PROPERTY.
When Brigham was living it was supposed
that he was enormously wealthy, and he left
a will bequesthing his property in equal
shares to his eighteen wives and fifty or sixty
children. But when the document went to
probate the Church put in a claim for a large
share of the estate, and it was found that the
charge so frequently rnade was true that
Brigham had his own affairs so mixed up
with his official responsibilities that he
scarcely knew, if he cared, how much OF it
belonged to him and how much TO Zion.
| oIo Of ho CI1rol, fret