page_title: Brigham Young
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Brigham Young / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the five sons of John and Nabby Young. From left to right: Lorenzo Dow Young (1807-1895), Brigham Young (1801-1877), Phineas Howe Young (1799-1879), Joseph Young (1797-1881), and John Young (1791-1870).
context_page_description: Brigham Young was an American religious leader, politician, and settler. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877. He founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
  Young had many nicknames, among the most popular being "American Moses", because, like the biblical figure, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land. Young was dubbed by his followers the "Lion of the Lord" for his bold personality and commonly was called "Brother Brigham" by Latter-day Saints. A polygamist, Young had 55 wives. He instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, and also led the church during the Utah War against the United States.
context_section_description: Young was born the eighth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe, a farming family in Whitingham, Vermont. When he was three his family moved to upstate New York settling in Sherburne, New York. At age 12 he moved with his parents to Aurelius, New York close to Cayuga Lake. When he was 14 his mother died of tuberculosis. After that he moved with his father to Tyrone, New York. 
  At age 16, Young's father made him leave home. He first worked odd jobs and then became an apprentice to a John C. Jeffries in Auburn, New York. He worked as a carpenter, joiner, glazer and painter. One home Young helped paint in Auburn was that of Elijah Miller, which later became the residence of William Seward. It is now a local museum (see William Seward House). It is also claimed by locals that the fireplace mantle of this house was created by Young. With the onset of the depression of 1819 Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship and Young moved to Port Byron, New York.
  Young had converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824. This was after a period of deep reading of the Bible. He insisted when joining the Methodists on being baptized by immersion instead of their normal practice of sprinkling.
  Young was first married in 1824 to Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron. They first lived in a small unpainted house adjacent to the pail factory which was at the time Young's main place of employment. Also in Port Byron, Young joined a debating society. Shortly after the birth of their first daughter the family moved to Oswego, New York on the shores of Lake Ontario. Later on in 1828 they moved to Mendon, New York. Most of Young's siblings had already moved to Mendon, or did so shortly after he moved there. It was here he first became friends with Heber C. Kimball. Here he worked as a carpenter and joiner and built a saw mill that he operated. In 1832, Miriam died and Young and his two young daughters moved into the household of Kimball and his wife, Vilate.
  By this point Young had for all intents and purposes left the Reformed Methodist, becoming a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church with the true authority of Jesus Christ. As early as 1830, Young was introduced to the Book of Mormon by way of a copy his brother, Phineas H., had obtained from Samuel H. Smith. In 1831, five missionaries of the Latter Day Saint movement (Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen) came from the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania to preach in Mendon. A key attraction of the teachings of this group to Young was their practicing of spiritual gifts. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife and Kimball to visit the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
  Young was drawn to the new church after reading the Book of Mormon. He officially joined the Church of Christ on April 14, 1832, being baptized by Eleazer Miller. A branch of the church was organized in Mendon, and Young was one of the regular preachers to the branch. He quickly expanded his area of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, traveling southwest to Warsaw, New York and southeast to various towns along Lake Canandaigua. Shortly after this, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues and in response Young also spoke in an unknown language. In November 1832, Young travelled with Kimball to Kirtland, Ohio and visited Joseph Smith. During this trip Young spoke in a tongue that was identified by Smith as the "Adamic language".
  In December 1832, Young left his daughters with the Kimballs and set out on a mission with his brother, Joseph, to Upper Canada, primarily to what is now Kingston, Ontario. Later they extended their preaching to various towns along the north shore of Lake Erie. In February 1833, they returned to Mendon. A few months later Young again set out on a mission with his brother, Joseph, this time traveling into the north of New York and then on into modern Ontario.
  In the summer of 1833, Young moved to Kirtland, Ohio. Here he met Mary Ann Angell and they were married on Febru
caption: The five sons of John and Nabby Young
  From left to right: Lorenzo Dow, Brigham, Phineas H., Joseph, and John.
exif: {}