Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley - Jul 24, 1847 - HISTORY.com Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley Share this: Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley Author Mormons settle Salt Lake Valley URL Publisher A+E Networks After 17 months and many miles of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Utah’s Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Gazing over the parched earth of the remote location, Young declared, “This is the place,” and the pioneers began preparations for the thousands of Mormon migrants who would follow. Seeking religious and political freedom, the Mormons began planning their great migration from the east after the murder of Joseph Smith, the Christian sect’s founder and first leader. Joseph Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, in 1805. In 1827, he declared that he had been visited by a Christian angel named Moroni, who showed him an ancient Hebrew text that had been lost for 1,500 years. The holy text, supposedly engraved on gold plates by a Native American prophet named Mormon in the fifth century A.D., told the story of Israelite peoples who had lived in America in ancient times.

During the next few years, Smith dictated an English translation of this text to his wife and other scribes, and in 1830 The Book of Mormon was published. In the same year, Smith founded the Church of Christ–later known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–in Fayette, New York. The religion rapidly gained converts, and Smith set up Mormon communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. However, the Christian sect was also heavily criticized for its unorthodox practices, which included polygamy. In 1844, the threat of mob violence prompted Smith to call out a militia in the Mormon town of Nauvoo, Illinois. He was charged with treason by Illinois authorities and imprisoned with his brother Hyrum in the Carthage city jail. On June 27, 1844, an anti-Mormon mob with blackened faces stormed in and murdered the brothers.

Two years later, Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, led an exodus of persecuted Mormons from Nauvoo along the western wagon trails in search of a sanctuary in “a place on this earth that nobody else wants.” The expedition, more than 10,000 pioneers strong, set up camp in present-day western Iowa while Young led a vanguard company across the Rocky Mountains to investigate Utah’s Great Salt Lake Valley, an arid and isolated spot devoid of human presence. On July 22, 1847, most of the party reached the Great Salt Lake, but Young, delayed by illness, did not arrive until July 24. Upon viewing the land, he immediately confirmed the valley to be the new homeland of the Latter-day Saints. Within days, Young and his companions began building the future Salt Lake City at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. Later that year, Young rejoined the main body of pioneers in Iowa, who named him president and prophet of the church. Having formally inherited the authority of Joseph Smith, he led thousands of more Mormons to the Great Salt Lake in 1848. Other large waves of Mormon pioneers followed.

By 1852, 16,000 Mormons had come to the valley, some in wagons and some dragging handcarts. After early difficulties, Salt Lake City began to flourish. By 1869, 80,000 Mormons had made the trek to their promised land. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore named Brigham Young the first governor of the U.S. territory of Utah, and the territory enjoyed relative autonomy for several years. Relations became strained, however, when reports reached Washington that Mormon leaders were disregarding federal law and had publicly sanctioned the practice of polygamy. In 1857, President James Buchanan removed Young, who had 20 wives, from his position as governor and sent U.S. Army troops to Utah to establish federal authority. Young died in Salt Lake City in 1877 and was succeeded by John Taylor as president of the church. Tensions between the territory of Utah and the federal government continued until Wilford Woodruff, the new president of the Mormon church, issued his Manifesto in 1890, renouncing the traditional practice of polygamy and reducing the domination of the church over Utah communities.

Six years later, the territory of Utah entered the Union as the 45th state. Related Videos Brigham Young Brigham Young Brigham Young, ca. 1850 Brigham Young later in life Brigham Young was born June 1, 1801 in Whittingham, Vermont. He was the ninth of eleven children, growing up in an unsettled frontier environment characterized by frequent family moves to various communities throughout upstate New York. Despite the influences of a strict, moralistic family and being exposed to the religious fervor that characterized the "burned-over-district" of upstate New York, he was slow to associate with a particular religious denomination until he formally joined the Methodist Church in 1824. His formal education was minimal and he was apprenticed to be a carpenter, painter, and glazier-trades which he used to support himself. In 1824 he met and married his first wife, Miriam Works, by whom he had two daughters. By 1830 he was living in Mendon, New York where he first came in contact with the teachings of the newly-formed Mormon Church.

However, he did not submit to baptism until 14 April 1832 and only then when other members of his immediate family joined. He found Mormonism appealing in its emphasis on Christian primitivism, its millennialistic orientation, authoritarianism, certain Puritan-like beliefs, and the fact that it offered him an avenue to achieve status and recognition through its lay priesthood. Young's commitment to Mormonism was further strengthened as a result of his initial meeting with Joseph Smith, whom he found to be a dynamic, charismatic leader and believed to be a true prophet of God. From this point on, Young threw his full energies and talent into promoting Mormonism. In the process he fulfilled several Church missions and other assignments including participation in the Zions' Camp expedition of 1834. He rose quickly through Church ranks and by 1835 had been appointed to the Council of the Twelve Apostles. In 1838 he took charge of the Mormon exodus to Illinois in the wake of the Church's expulsion from Missouri. By this time Young was the senior member of the Council of the Twelve.

In 1840 Brigham Young traveled to England, where he took charge of missionary efforts, supervising the dramatic growth of Mormonism in that country. Following his return to Nauvoo in 1841, Young affirmed his complete loyalty to Joseph Smith by embracing the controversial and still-secret practice of polygamy, despite his initial personal reluctance. Young's commitment was underscored by his eventual marriage to a total of 55 wives (accounts differ) and fathering of fifty-seven children by sixteen of these women. Young emerged as Mormonism's principal leader, following the assassination of Joseph Smith in 1844, skillfully and successfully beating back the claims of several challengers. By 1846, in response to extreme anti-Mormon violence, Young determined that his followers could not remain in Illinois and proceeded to organize the mass Mormon migration West. Through careful planning and preparation, he presided over what became the largest and best organized westward trek of pioneers in history.

He personally lead the first pioneer company to the Great Basin, and on 24 July 1847, upon seeing the Great Salt Lake Valley for the first time announced: "It is enough, this is the right place, drive on." Over the next thirty years, he continued to supervise the migration of thousands of emigrants to the Great Basin through the formation of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, which brought them West by various means, including covered wagon, handcart, church teams and finally railroad. He also oversaw Mormon settlement in dozens of far-flung communities throughout Utah and also in Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, and California in the process becoming one of the foremost colonizers in American history. With the formation of the territory of Utah in 1850, Young was appointed its first territorial governor, a post which he held until 1857. But relations between Young and the federal government were less than ideal, particularly in wake of the Mormon Church's public acknowledgment of polygamy in 1852.

By 1857 relations between Young and the federal government had deteriorated to the point that President James Buchanan dispatched United States Army troops to Utah to ensure the seating of a new territorial governor, resulting in a bloodless skirmish known as the Utah War. Tensions between Young and federal officials remained high over the next several years, with a variety of actions directed against Young and his followers; these actions included the federal dispatch to Utah of a second armed force in 1862 (this one composed of California Volunteers) and their establishment in Salt Lake City, the enactment of the Morrell Anti-bigamy Act in 1962, and the passage in 1874 of the more severe Poland Act. Young, himself, was subjected to house arrest for several weeks in 1872 and jailed briefly in March 1875. As a church leader, Brigham Young stood in marked contrast to his predecessor, the charismatic, idealistic, and theologically innovative Joseph Smith. Instead, Young inspired his followers by his down-to-earth demeanor and through his skills as a pragmatic organizer and executive. His emphasis in both his actions and sermons was on the practical means essential for building up the Kingdom of God in a frontier environment.

Only rarely did Young venture into the realm of theological and doctrinal innovation and then with mixed results. His pronouncements emphasizing blood atonement and the Adam-God theory had minimal impact on the long-range course of Mormon theological development. More important was Young's 1847 implementation of denial of the Mormon priesthood to blacks, a practice that remained in effect until its repeal in 1978. Brigham Young's activities as a pioneer businessman were also noteworthy. He engaged in a wide variety of enterprises by himself and in partnership with others. In the realm of transportation, these included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, and a railroad. In the field of manufacturing he processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and even operated a distillery. His greatest success as a businessman came in real estate. By the time of his death, his personal fortune was calculated at $600,000 making him the most successful Utah businessman up to that time. Moreover, Young utilized his business talents in an effort to promote Mormon self-sufficiency.

He supervised the formation of the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (the basis for the later ZCMI Department Stores) and the establishment of several self-sufficient cooperative communities known as the United Order of Enoch. In undertaking these enterprises, he was seeking to protect and insulate his followers and their distinctive practices (particularly polygamy) from both the actions of an increasingly assertive federal government as well as those of the ever larger number of non-Mormons who had moved into the Great Basin. However, his efforts were less than successful, particularly in light of larger forces that were bringing the economy of the Great Basin more and more into the mainstream of the larger American economy, a development beyond the control of any one man. Brigham Young died in the midst of such developments on 29 August 1877 of complications resulting from apparent acute appendicitis. See: Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (1985); Newell G. Bringhurst, Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier (1986); Dean C. Jessee, ed., Letters of Brigham Young to his Sons (1974); Richard F. Palmer and Karl D.

Butler, Brigham Young: The New York Years (1982); Eugene England, Brother Brigham (1980); M. R. Werner, Brigham Young (1925); and Ray B. West, Kingdom of the Saints: The Story of Brigham Young and the Mormons (1957). Brigham Young Brigham Young An American Moses 30 September 2013 "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. Brigham Young was the Second President of the LDS Church Click Here to View All On The Same Page Prev Next Born 1 June 1801, Brigham Young was raised in a frontier settlement in Vermont and had only 11 days of formal schooling. He was an accomplished carpenter, joiner, painter and glazier. His conversion to the Church was not immediate. For two years, he seriously examined the Book of Mormon , and then joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was convinced of its truth. He later led the Church as its second president for 30 years. Brigham Young supervised the overland trek of 60,000 to 70,000 pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley from Illinois and other staging points, such as Iowa and Missouri , founded 350 to 400 settlements in Utah , Arizona , California , Idaho , Nevada and Wyoming , and established a system of land distribution later ratified by Congress.

Just four days after the first group of Mormon pioneers arrived in the barren Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young drove his cane into the ground on the exact spot where the Salt Lake Temple now stands and declared, "Here will be the temple of our God." In 1849, President Young established the Perpetual Emigration Fund to assist poor Latter-day Saint immigrants. The fund helped some 30,000 immigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands reach America — more than one-third of the total Latter-day Saint immigrants from Europe during that period. Brigham Young also served two terms as the first territorial governor of Utah and as the first superintendent of Indian affairs of Utah Territory. In addition, he contracted for and assisted in building telegraph and railroad lines, established a broad range of industries and businesses — including America's first department store, Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution — and was a proponent of giving women the right to vote. Despite limited formal schooling, Brigham Young was an advocate of education . He founded the institutions that would later become Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young was also known for his practice of plural marriage .

He married at least 20 women, 16 of whom bore him 57 children. The Church later rescinded plural marriage, and has not condoned the practice for more than 100 years. Today, the practicing of polygamy carries with it the penalty of excommunication . Brigham Young died following an illness on 29 August 1877 at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 76 years old. Mormon Immigrants How did the Mormons end up in Utah? Joseph Smith The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon or LDS church) was started by Joseph Smith in 1830 in New York. Later, members of this church gathered in Nauvoo, Illinois. Some people disliked Mormon beliefs and practices and persecuted members of this church. After a mob murdered Joseph Smith in 1844, his followers started to think about moving somewhere where they could live peacefully. Enemies were still attacking Mormons in different ways. Because of this persecution, in the cold of February 1846 the Mormons began to leave Nauvoo. They journeyed to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and set up a temporary community.

The Mormon Battalion James K. Polk Because they had left behind their lands, buildings, and many possessions, the Mormons asked the federal government for financial help. The U.S. had declared war on Mexico in May 1846, so President James K. Polk agreed to enlist a battalion of Mormon men, who would receive pay for their service. The Mormon Battalion at the Gila River in Arizona, a painting by George Ottinger (1833-1917). Around 500 volunteers enlisted and began a grueling march to San Diego (33 women and 51 children started out with them). During 1846-47, these men blazed a wagon route across the Southwest, but they never fought in the war. Their pay and their later explorations helped the Mormons become established in Utah. Where to go next? Meanwhile, the people gathered in Winter Quarters got ready to move again. Where to? It seemed that the Great Basin would be a perfect place to go. Why? The Great Basin lay far away from any government—in fact, this land belonged to Mexico at the time.

(When Mexico lost the war, the United States took possession of the Great Basin.) Here, the Mormons hoped, they could live their faith in peace. Mormon pioneers, sketched by Ortho Fairbanks. In April 1847 the first group of Mormon settlers left and headed west along the California Trail. Brigham Young led a group of two children, three women, and 143 men. They traveled on horseback or in oxen-pulled wagons for three months; then, on July 22, the first men entered the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham Young himself arrived on July 24, 1847. What other religious groups in U.S. or world history have moved all together to start a new colony? How are these different or the same as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? The Mormon migration Between 1847 and 1869, when the Transcontinental Railroad was built, about 70,000 Mormons migrated to Utah along the Mormon Trail. Many of them got help from their church.

If they could not pay their way across the ocean, or across the plains, the Church’s Perpetual Emigration Fund might loan them the money they needed. When they arrived, they could pay off the loan so the money could help another immigrant. People traveled in companies of wagons. Some traveled by handcart. Salt Lake Valley in 1847, painted by H. Culmer. Getting started in a new place. Once the settlers arrived in the valley, the real work began. Today, when most people travel to a place, they stay in a hotel or with friends, and they go out to eat at restaurants or buy food from a grocery store. But when the first pioneers arrived in Utah, the only people in the region were American Indians and a few explorers, traders, and mountain men scattered around. Basically, these new immigrants had to make or grow everything they would need in their new lives. What would be the most important things to do first? Right away, that first group of pioneers began get the land ready for farming. The first big challenges were digging irrigation ditches to bring water from City Creek into the fields, and getting crops planted right away. They also built a fort where Pioneer Park now is.

This fort had little cabins with sod roofs built along the wall. Making a city. Brigham Young directed that Salt Lake City (and other towns) be set up on a grid system. The streets were to run north-south and east-west. Young wanted the streets to be wide enough for two wagons to easily pass each other. We should be grateful for this, because of all the cars, bicycles, busses, and TRAX trains that share the streets today! Spreading out. As the “Mormon Village” of Salt Lake City began to thrive and later groups of pioneers arrived, Brigham Young sent settlers to other areas of the state. He sent a variety of skilled people to each community, so that each town would have people who could farm, work with iron, wood or leather, weave cloth, and more. By 1850, Mormons had started the communities of Bountiful, Farmington, Ogden, Tooele, Provo, and Manti. Each had a leader who had authority over both community and church affairs. Sometimes, groups of people decided on their own to move somewhere and set up a community, without direction from the church.

By 1857, the Mormons had started more than 90 settlements. Life in a new place. Most communities also established an irrigation system . Why was irrigation so important? At first, the new settlers built log cabins—or they lived in dugouts or even in their wagons for a while. When the communities got more settled, they could build houses and buildings out of stone, adobe brick, or brick Many of these communities also built forts around their cabins for protection when Native Americans and the settlers were fighting. The Mormon village in Utah was a planned community of farmers and trades people. The village would include a main living area and farms and farm buildings on the land beyond. Life in these villages centered on the day's work and church activities. The early pioneers worked hard, but they also loved to relax with music, dance, and drama. Learn more. Every community and region has its own fascinating story behind its founding. Many communities or regions were settled because church leaders wanted the people to produce everything the territory would need: cotton, sugar, fruits, tobacco, grapes, metals, grains, silk, and other goods. United by their faith, the people worked together to build their communities.

Some of these ventures worked, some didn’t, but all the tales are ones of industry, bravery, and hope. See what you can find out about your community--and learn the stories of the people and the industries that were here before you. Brigham Young | American religious leader | Britannica.com American religious leader Brigham Young, (born June 1, 1801, Whitingham, Vt., U.S.—died Aug. 29, 1877, Salt Lake City , Utah ), American religious leader, second president of the Mormon church , and colonizer who significantly influenced the development of the American West. Brigham Young. Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society A carpenter, joiner, painter, and glazier, Young settled in 1829 at Mendon, N.Y., near where the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. The book soon attracted Young’s interest, and he was baptized into Joseph Smith’s new church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) on April 14, 1832. In the spring of 1834 he joined in the march to Missouri to help dispossessed Mormons regain their lands.

He was named third of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. In 1838, when the Mormons were driven out of Missouri, Young, who had become senior member of the Quorum, directed the move to Nauvoo , Ill. In 1839 he went to England, where he established a mission that contributed many British converts to the Mormon church in America and that opened the way to winning converts on the European continent, especially in Scandinavia. When Joseph Smith was murdered (June 1844), Young was in Boston, pressing his leader’s presidential campaign. He returned to Nauvoo and took command of the church. In the face of mob pressure, he led the Mormons westward out of Illinois in 1846. He got no farther than the Missouri River that summer, but in 1847 he conducted a pioneer company to the Rocky Mountains . After selecting the site of Salt Lake City as a gathering place for the Mormons, Young returned to Winter Quarters (Florence, Neb., now a part of Omaha) and in December 1847 became president of the church.

He returned to Utah with the Mormon emigration of 1848 and remained there for the rest of his life. With Salt Lake City as the base for Mormon colonizing, Young dispatched missions not only in Utah but to areas now in California, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. In 1849 the Mormons established the provisional state of Deseret, with Young as governor. The next year this area became the territory of Utah, again with Young as governor. He was appointed to a second term in 1854, but friction between the Mormons and the federal government—worsened by the Mountain Meadows massacre (1857), in which Mormons in southwestern Utah killed more than 100 members of a passing wagon train—led President James Buchanan to replace him, at which time an army was sent to establish the primacy of federal rule in Utah. Young never again held political office, but, as president of the Mormon church, he effectively ruled the people of Utah until his death. Britannica Stories Brigham Young: Fire in His Bones - Liahona Mar. 1997 - liahona Brigham Young: Fire in His Bones Brigham Young: Fire in His Bones By Ronald K.

Esplin The key to Brigham Young’s successful leadership was his unshakable faith in God. Brigham Young: 97983_000_007 Brigham Young is justly known as a great practical leader. Observers in his own day and since have commented on his versatility, judgment, and common sense. After visiting him in the 1850s, the French traveler Jules Remy concluded that few men “possess in so high a degree as he does, the qualities which constitute the eminent politician and the able administrator.” 1 However, only a few observers perceived that Brigham Young’s success rested less on practical skills than on faith in God and inner strength. His faith centered on a few core principles: God reveals his will to men, Joseph Smith was God’s spokesman and prophet, and God intervenes in the affairs of man. Brigham Young led boldly because he was certain of his direction and his destination. Brigham Young’s approach to life and leadership was simple: “My religion is to know the will of God and do it.” 2 Daily he sought to learn the Lord’s will for him now—what his duty was today.

Once he saw his responsibility, he marshalled all his resources to do it. “When I think of myself, I think just this—I have the grit in me, and I will do my duty any how.” 3 This determination to do his duty complemented a bedrock faith that if one was on the Lord’s errand and did everything in his or her power, God would do the rest. He had not always had that confidence. His life as a young man, before he encountered the gospel, was gloomy. Born 1 June 1801 in the state of Vermont, Brigham came to believe in God but could not find him, and he often doubted his own purpose. But his conversion and baptism into the Church in 1832 at age 30, after many months of investigation and introspection, transformed him. With “fire in [his] bones,” 4 as he later said, he suddenly faced the world with weighty new goals and with a faith in God that experience only increased. Brigham put his faith to the test in Zion’s Camp in 1834 and gained greater confidence in Joseph Smith, in God, and in himself as God’s servant.

He did so again in 1840–41 by serving with the Twelve in Great Britain under extremely difficult circumstances. The experience transformed Brigham Young and his fellow Apostles into a powerful team. 5 Upon their return, the Prophet assigned the Quorum of the Twelve new responsibilities, and during the next three years, he counseled them at every opportunity. The 1844 murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith thrust Brigham Young into a new leadership role. Still mourning, reluctant to try to fill the Prophet’s shoes, Brigham Young nonetheless knew what was required. He and the Twelve stepped forward without delay because it was “our indespensable duty” to do so. 6 His actions in those first months, and then when leading the Saints to the security of the Rocky Mountains, demonstrate that he saw himself as simply employing God-given talents to accomplish the charge left him by the Lord and the Prophet Joseph. Following Joseph Smith’s death, Brigham Young was absolutely clear about priorities: first, the Saints must finish the Nauvoo Temple and receive the endowment there. Then they must seek a new home, the prophesied place of refuge in the West. For President Young, these goals required resolute attention.

Indeed, so contagious was his enthusiasm that the pace of construction on the Nauvoo Temple increased dramatically under the leadership of the Twelve. Ironically, such rapid progress inflamed enemies who, fearing that it might be impossible to drive the Mormons from Nauvoo after they finished their temple, vowed to drive them out first. 7 Faced with the probability of violence, in January 1845 Brigham Young momentarily hesitated; should they finish the temple even if it meant bloodshed? His diary records the answer: “I inquired of the Lord whether we should stay here and finish the temple. The answer was we should.” 8 Confirmed in his course, President Young pressed forward with iron resolve. In May, the capstone was laid and the Twelve announced that endowments would begin in December, a timetable they kept. Brigham talked tough throughout this period, partly to intimidate enemies and prevent bloodshed. “We would rather suffer wrong than do wrong,” was his motto, 9 and his faith that the Lord had dictated the direction and would oversee the outcome allowed him to act boldly.

Despite commanding the largest military force in Illinois, President Young declined to unleash the Nauvoo militia when violence finally broke out in September 1845. Instead, he and his fellow Apostles turned to intensive, special prayer, launching what historian B. H. Roberts called “par excellence the period of prayer in the church.” 10 With work on the temple progressing amid a tense peace, in the spring of 1845 President Young turned his attention to the West. Joseph Smith had spoken privately of “a place of safety preparing … away towards the Rocky Mountains.” 11 Only weeks before his martyrdom, the Prophet had commissioned the Twelve to seek that place of refuge. President Young found it no sacrifice to leave home and temple, for he knew that the destiny of the Saints lay not in Nauvoo but in the West. There, he believed, they would become a mighty people; there they could build new homes and a new temple in safety. Believing this, when mobs attacked settlements around Nauvoo in September 1845, President Young used the occasion to publicly announce the long-planned migration. A major concern for Brigham was finding the right place.

After frequent fasting and daily prayer in his room in the temple, he saw in vision the right spot and felt he could recognize it. His mind at ease, he was now ready. One month later, Brigham Young and the first company of Saints crossed the Mississippi River, though it was still winter. Once on his way, President Young seemed drawn westward as if by an unseen hand. “Do not think … I hate to leave my house and home,” he wrote his brother Joseph from the Iowa prairies. “No, far from that. … It looks pleasant ahead,” he wrote, “but dark to look back” toward Nauvoo. 12 The Iowa experience, nonetheless, proved difficult, and for a time it seemed that the whole Church was mired, both literally and metaphorically, hub-deep in the spring prairie mud. Moving thousands of Saints hundreds of miles took far longer and consumed more resources than even Brigham Young had imagined. The experience drained him and forced him to grapple with his limitations. He lost so much weight that his clothes no longer fit. Exhausted physically and emotionally, Brigham understood more than ever the need for God’s intervention. And he longed for Joseph to counsel him and to reassure the people.

As Brigham Young left his bed on the morning of 17 February 1847, illness seized him so suddenly that he “fainted away, apparently dead.” 13 Only those who die and go through the veil could know how he felt, he said two weeks later, adding that “I know I went to the world of spirits.” However, it was not given him to remember immediately the details of what he saw there: “All that I know, is what my wife told me about it since. She said that I said, I had been where Joseph & Hyrum was” and that “it is hard coming back to life again.” 14 Once revived, Brigham Young fell asleep and dreamed, and when he awoke, he recorded what he had seen. “In my dream I went to see Joseph,” he wrote. Finding Joseph sitting by a large window looking “perfectly natural,” Brigham took him by the hand, kissed his cheeks, and asked him why they could not be together as before.

Joseph arose from his chair, looked at Brigham, and spoke in his usual way: “It is all right.” Brigham protested, but Joseph replied: “You will have to do things without me a while and then we shall be together again.” Brigham then addressed Joseph as his mentor and asked for counsel. The advice was direct and simple: “Be sure to tell the people to keep the spirit of the Lord.” 15 Brigham then turned and saw Joseph in the light, “but where I had to go was as midnight darkness.” Because Joseph insisted, Brigham “went back in the darkness” and awoke. 16 Though Brigham Young spoke frequently of this in the weeks before heading for the Rockies, he did not elaborate on its meaning. Undoubtedly, it buoyed his spirits and provided still more evidence that he was on the Lord’s (and Joseph’s) errand. Though still burdened by the demands of leadership and the magnitude of the challenge, he was at peace. That peace was not always shared by those closest to him.

Two weeks after President Young’s illness and vision, his brother, Joseph Young, called on him in his office and “stated that he thought 100 lbs Provisions”—the announced minimum for the trek west—“very little for each Pioneer.” Some months before, he had told Brigham that getting the Saints safely across Iowa would require as great a miracle as Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. Should they now expect a second miracle? With so little, he insisted, any mishap at all could endanger the whole enterprise. For Brigham Young, that amount—all they could expect to obtain—simply must do. “Brigham replied he wanted all to stay here, who had not faith to go with that amount.” 17 Though not foolhardy, President Young was realistic. After doing the best they could, the Saints had no choice but to depend on the Lord for the rest. President Young faced the challenge with such unwavering confidence because he knew the plan was not his own. As he told the Saints nearly 10 years later, “I did not devise the great scheme of the Lord’s opening the way to send this people to these mountains.” Who did?

“It was the power of God that wrought out salvation for this people,” he insisted. 18 From the moment Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, he had a focused sense of mission about what the Saints must do there and a firm conviction that, through the Lord’s protection, they would be privileged to do so. 19 He foresaw that if they lived worthily, they would never be driven from there. 20 This faith sustained him and informed his decisions throughout his long tenure as civic and Church leader in Utah. In 1857–58, President Young’s faith was put to a severe test as thousands of U.S. troops marched to Utah as an “escort” for Alfred Cumming, who was sent by the U.S. government to replace Brigham Young as governor. Some have argued that Governor Young should have immediately sought a political solution. Logically, compromise and accommodation seemed the only policy that might preserve peace. President Young felt otherwise. The Saints’ experiences in Missouri had taught him what enemies can do when backed by military authority.

Confident that if the Saints did all in their power, the Lord would prevent disaster, Governor Young declared martial law and mobilized the territorial militia to do everything short of bloodshed to slow down the advancing troops. Grasslands and supply wagons were burned, provisions and cattle confiscated, and the advance units harassed day and night. Still the troops came—until the timely arrival of heavy snows forced the army into winter camp near Fort Bridger, roughly a hundred miles from the Mormon settlement in the Salt Lake Valley. 21 That did not end the army’s advance, of course. By spring, soldiers wanted revenge for a miserable winter. Facing a renewed and perhaps even more dangerous threat, Brigham Young ordered his men to prepare to oppose the army but added the promise that “not a gun will be fired, not a man slain.” One of his commanders, a man who viewed President Young as the Lord’s mouthpiece, replied that “he knew it was true but he did not believe a word of it.” Given the circumstances, bloodshed seemed inevitable. 22 Even as troops advanced toward the city, Brigham Young and governor-designate Alfred Cumming, aided by Thomas L.

Kane, the non-Mormon friend of the Saints who had risked his life to reach Utah in the winter, concluded a peaceful accord. Without incident, the army marched peacefully through a deserted Salt Lake City to an isolated encampment 30 miles away. U.S. Army Captain Jesse Gove summarized the toll of the Utah War: “killed, none; wounded, none; fooled, everybody” 23 —everybody except Brigham Young, who, throughout, had an inner assurance that the encounter would not result in calamity. President Young’s leadership was not flawless, of course; in mortality, no one’s is. “There are weaknesses manifested in men that I am bound to forgive,” he said on one occasion. “I am right there myself. I am liable to mistakes,” he continued, but “I am where I can see the light. I try to keep in the light.” 24 The promise he felt was not that he would make no mistakes or always know what was best but that, in the end, God oversees the essentials. He quickly abandoned what did not work well for something that might work better, but his direction and his destination remained unchanging.

Long-term goals based on revelation provided the consistency that informed his day-to-day decisions and gave him the confidence to press forward regardless of the obstacles—or even the errors. Such certainty sometimes made Brigham Young appear stubborn. A few months after the peaceful resolution of the Utah War, President Young visited Governor Cumming. Concerned that they had narrowly averted disaster, the fair-minded governor cautioned Brigham Young to refrain from provocative acts in the future. “With all due respect to your Excellency,” the President interrupted, “I do not calculate to take the advice of any man that lives in relation to my affairs.” Though not spurning friends and counselors, during such crises, in God alone would he trust. “My religion is true,” he told the governor solemnly, “and I am determined to obey its precepts while I live.” He would, he insisted, “follow the councils of my heavenly Father, and I have faith to follow it, and risk the consequences. … “You may think strange of it,” he concluded, “but you will yet see that I am right.” 25 [illustration] Brigham Young, by Gary E.

Smith [illustration] Zion’s Camp, by Judith Mehr [illustration] Brigham Young Party at the Water Hole, by Minerva Teichert Salt Lake City History | Utah.com | Utah.com Salt Lake City History Salt Lake Overview In ancient times Utah was inhabited by various Native American groups. The ancient Pueblo People, also known as the Anasazi, built large communities in southern Utah from roughly the year 1 to 1300 AD. The Ute Tribe, from which the state takes its name, and the Navajo Indians arrived later in this region. Salt Lake City was founded on July 24, 1847, by a group of Mormon pioneers. (Mormons are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) The pioneers, led by Brigham Young, were the first non-Indians to settle permanently in the Salt Lake Valley. The founding group numbered 148, consisting of 143 men, three women, and two children. The Mormons came to the valley in search of a region where they could practice their religion, free from hostile mobs and persecution.

When Brigham Young first saw the valley he said, "This is the right place." On the very day of arrival the pioneers began tilling the soil and planting crops. Within a few days plans were drawn for Great Salt Lake City, named after the salty inland lake which dominated the desert to the west. Out from the center of the city, now Temple Square, blocks were arranged on a grid pattern in 10-acre squares, separated by streets 132 feet wide -- "wide enough for a team of four oxen and a covered wagon to turn around." In 1848, more emigrants came to the valley. But a late frost, drought, and a plague of crickets nearly destroyed the harvest. Flocks of seagulls consumed the crickets and enough of the crop was saved to enable the settlers to survive the winter of 1848-49. In gratitude, the seagull was later designated Utah's state bird. Many of the pioneers were European converts to Mormonism. During the decade that followed they brought their culture, languages, and skills to the valley, building Salt Lake City into a cosmopolitan center. When the Mormons first arrived in the valley the region was part of Mexico.

A treaty signed in 1848 ceded it to the United States, and in 1850, the "State of Deseret" became the Utah Territory. Deseret means honeybee, a symbol of industriousness. Utah's state symbol is the beehive. Construction on the Mormon temple began in 1853, but the capstone of this magnificent structure was not put into place until 1892. The temple was built with granite blocks which, until a branch railroad line was run into Little Cottonwood Canyon, were individually hauled by ox and wagon from the canyon to the building site. The California gold rush brought emigrants through Great Salt Lake City. U.S. soldiers were stationed here in the 1850s and during the Civil War. Trade with these sojourners brought to the Mormons a measure of prosperity, although agriculture continued as the mainstay. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed by the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, some 80 miles northwest of Salt Lake City. Utah was thus connected to the East and West.

Many people traveled by rail to see the "City of the Saints." Some stayed to make and to lose their fortunes in mining. From the 1860s to the 1920s hundreds of copper, silver, gold, and lead mines were opened in the nearby canyons, including Bingham Canyon. Gigantic smelters were later built to refine the ore. Some prosperous mine owners constructed large, gracious homes along South Temple, once known as Brigham Street. The 1890s were a decade of change. The Mormon Church officially ended the practice of polygamy. In 1896, Utah became the 45th state and the third to extend the vote to women. Salt Lake City was its capital. "Great" had been dropped from the name in 1868. Salt Lake began to assume its present character in the early 1900s. The State Capitol and many other historic buildings were constructed. Electric trolleys, garaged at Trolley Square (now a popular shopping mall), were installed to transport people living in the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Park, and Sugarhouse areas to downtown.

The trolleys were gradually replaced in the 1930s by buses. The last streetcar line was discontinued in 1941. Eagle Gate, which had served to mark the entrance to Brigham Young's estate, was reconstructed to allow traffic flow. City parks were built, sewer systems and street lighting were installed, and streets were paved. Between 1900-1930, the city's population nearly tripled. The Great Depression brought construction to a standstill, but the boom sounded again during World War II. War industries and military installations revitalized the economy. Workers and soldiers spent their money in the city's restaurants, shops, ballrooms, and theaters. During the 1960s several commercial and service centers were built in the suburbs, drawing business away from downtown. To help counteract this movement, the Mormon Church invested $40 million in development of a downtown shopping mall. The ZCMI Center Mall, named for Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution, a prominent retail chain which was begun in Salt Lake's pioneer days, is the result of that effort. In the 1970s new businesses and shopping malls were built and classic older buildings were renovated.

City-wide beautification projects generated vitality and activity in the downtown community. Salt Lake continued to grow in the 1980s. Development included the Salt Palace Convention Center expansion, the Salt Lake International Center, University of Utah Research Park, and Triad Center. The downtown skyline changed again in the 1990s when the Salt Palace Convention Center was rebuilt and a major office tower and new courts complex were constructed. Redeveloped city blocks, restored building facades and new urban parks further enhanced the beauty of downtown. The Salt Lake City International Airport added a new runway, an international arrivals building, a multi-level parking structure and an 18-hole golf course. Utah continues to experience strong economic and employment growth. Ranked one of the best environments for business, the Salt Lake area's concentration of biomedical, high technology, and software firms is among the highest in the nation. Thriving convention business and the success of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games sparked robust growth in Salt Lake's hotel industry. Over two thousand rooms were added in anticipation of the Olympics, for a total of 15,800. The Salt Palace Convention Center once again underwent expansion.

It now features 53 meeting rooms, 370,000 square feet of exhibit space, and a 45,000 square foot ballroom. A 243,000 square foot suburban convention center has also been recently constructed. Transportation projects have included the I-15 freeway reconstruction and the launch of TRAX, a $312 million light-rail system which transports passengers north and south through the Salt Lake valley and downtown. Salt Lake was proud to host the Olympic Winter Games in February 2002. The largest city ever to host the winter games, Salt Lake prepared well in advance for the most prestigious event of its history. Many venues are still in place and are available for the public to enjoy and relive Olympic memories. The world continues to be welcome here! Please enjoy Salt Lake's colorful past, exciting present, and promising future.

Question: What city did Brigham Young found in 1847?
Answer: Salt Lake City