Brigham Young A Huge Impact on Utah Brigham Young, 1801-1877 Brigham Young, in around 1860. In short: In his role as emigration leader, leader of the LDS church, and Utah Territorial governor, Brigham Young had a huge impact on the development of Utah. He chose the Salt Lake valley as the first site of Mormon settlement. He sent people to settle areas that he chose, and in some cases assigned them to certain work, like growing cotton. He also influenced the layout of communities and how people thought and acted. More of the story: A future leader. When Brigham Young was born, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) didn’t exist. But although Young was not born into a Mormon family, he is most famous for being the prophet who led the Mormons west. He joined the LDS church along with some of his close family members in 1832. His faith deepened after he met the church founder, Joseph Smith, and Brigham became a very active member of the young faith, both in America and on a mission in England. Young takes control.

When a mob assassinated Smith in 1844, Brigham rose above several challengers to become the next president of the church. When it became apparent that the Mormons weren’t going to be able to stay in their community of Nauvoo, Illinois, he made the decision to head west in hopes of finding a place to establish the "Kingdom of God"--a place where the Mormons could worship and flourish in peace. He led the first company west, and upon coming down Emigration Canyon on July 24, 1847, made the famous “This is the right place” proclamation (at least, he said those words according to one person remembering it many years later). An early picture of Brigham Young's houses, the Lion House and Beehive House. He had his office here, and many of his wives and children lived here. Notice the dirt road and the irrigation ditch in front! Today that dirt road is busy South Temple Street. Shaping Utah. Young had a huge influence on the establishment of the Mormon settlements in Utah. He created the Perpetual Emigration Fund to help poor people emigrate from Europe to Utah. He "called" Mormon settlers to colonize beyond Salt Lake City.

And he tried to keep Utah an agricultural territory. He did not want his people trying to get rich by mining. When the federal government officially created the Utah Territory in 1850, Young became the first territorial governor. However, his role as a religious leader, and the way most Mormons obeyed him absolutely, made the government nervous. The practice of polygamy among the Mormons didn’t help. So in 1857, the government sent a new territorial governor west, along with a battalion of troops to make sure Young would allow the new governor to take his position. Young continued on as leader of the Mormon church until his death in 1877. In the last decades of life, he tried to make sure that non-Mormons entering the state, or the increasingly present federal government, would not destroy the Mormon way of life. Those wives. Because he believed the principle of polygamy came from God, Young had many wives—maybe as many as 55. He fathered as many as 57 children. Many of those children played a role in Utah after his death, including Brigham Young Jr. and Susa Young Gates. Brigham Young—what were his motives, anyway?

Brigham Young is a controversial figure in many ways, maybe because he had so many roles in his life: Prophet, governor, de facto emigration agent, businessman, father. Many authors have written books and articles about his life, some positive and some negative. Just like with every other history, these authors have chosen the primary sources they want to emphasize and have written from their own points of view. It’s up to you to read carefully and discerningly--and maybe even iinvestigate primary sources--to decide where you think authors are right and where they might have gone wrong. 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 - The Wild West Brigham Young Wild West Western Facts Brigham Young Brigham Young was a Mormon leader, born in 1801, who has a University named after him in Utah, and was the driving force which led the Mormon faithful to the Great Salt Lake basin and founded what is present day Salt Lake City. Young was the ninth of 11 children, and although he lacked much formal education, he mastered skills that would make him independent and able to make his own way. He married in 1824 and in 1830 he first saw the Book of Mormon, written by Joseph Smith, and was deeply impressed. It should be noted at this point that according to the Mormon faith, God called Joseph Smith to merely "translate" The Book of Mormon (a record of God’s dealings with his people in the American Continents from 600 B.C.

to 421 A.D.) Therefore, according to Brigham Young’s belief, Joseph Smith was not the author but rather the translator. Young converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April of 1832, and after his wife died he went to visit Prophet Joseph Smith in Ohio, and later gave up his business and began proselytizing for the Mormon religion. He met Mary Ann Angell and married her in 1834. He joined a long trek to help the Mormon community in Missouri, which had been legally harassed, and violently attacked as well. Young proved himself a leader while on this expedition, and when it was formed, he was appointed to the Council of Twelve Apostles. He spent the summers of 1836 and 1837 doing missionary work in the East. In 1838 he followed Joseph Smith from Ohio to Missouri, but the local people feared the Mormons, and the Governor of Missouri issued orders to exterminate or drive the Mormons out of Missouri. Joseph Smith and other leaders of the church were held by federal troops, and thievery of Mormon property was "legitimized" by saying it was necessary to pay for the military action.

Young then helped to bring the Mormons from Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois. Young went to England to recruit converts, and back in Nauvoo he became president of the Council and part of Smith's inner circle. It was about this time that the doctrine of plural marriage became a divine requirement, which according to some accounts Young accepted reluctantly, but with his wife Mary Ann's permission, in 1842, he married his first plural wife, Lucy Ann Decker Seeley. He next went East to raise money for the Nauvoo Temple. Nonetheless, back in Nauvoo, Smith's Mormon policies did not sit well with non-Mormons who feared and mistrusted the Mormons who they thought of as outsiders trying take over their area. Smith's enemies made trouble, and Smith was arrested, jailed, and then killed by a mob that broke into the jail. Brigham Young returned from the East and claimed the right of church leadership as president of the Council, and was accepted by the congregation. With the constant threat of violence by the non-Mormons, Young knew that the approximately 16,000 Mormons would have to leave and find a place where they could practice their religion in peace.

This led to the migration know as the great trek to the Salt Lake Valley, that Young stated was ordained for his people. The city itself was laid out and much was done in time to develop resources, and encourage immigration. Many Mormons made the trek over a period of many years after the original founding of Salt Lake City, by pulling or pushing hand carts, in fact, rescue teams were sent out to bring people in to avoid them being caught in the winter snows and there were no shortage of young strong men to volunteer because they knew that they would get the first chance to meet the young women immigrants and possibly get themselves a wife. President Millard Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor of the new territory but there were plenty of conflicts between the Mormons and the Federal government which led President Buchanan to send Federal troops to Utah in 1857, so Young declared martial law and sent Mormon troops to meet the Federals. There were some skirmishes but all out war with the United States was avoided. The Utah Territory remained neutral during the Civil War. It is reported that Brigham Young was "arrested" for bigamy in 1872, but he was never tried.

Later those from other religions forced the Mormons to renounce plural marriage as a condition of joining the Union, however, some sects of the Mormon religion have never given the practice up. Young died in 1877 and left many theological writings and sermons. He is supposed by some accounts to have had 55 wives and sired 57 children. Copyright © 1999-2016 thewildwest.org. 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 Mormon Pioneer NHT: Historic Resource Study (Appendix C) Historic Resource Study BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1 ELIZA ROXCY SNOW, 1804-1887: Mormon poetess, prophetess, priestess, "presidentess," and famous pioneer. Eliza was a spinster who became a "spiritual wife" of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, and the most important early Mormon female. She later became a plural wife of Brigham Young and crossed Iowa in 1846 in his company. She kept an important journal of her trail experience.

She was a member of the second pioneer company of 1847 and dominated female society in Utah until her death. Source: Vicky Burgess-Olson, Sister Saints. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 2 PATTY BARTLETT SESSIONS, 1795-1892: Well-known Mormon Pioneer midwife. Patty's legendary 3,977 deliveries earned her the title of "Mother of Mormon Midwifery." She and her husband joined the Mormons in 1834 and moved first to Kirtland, Ohio, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. "Mother Sessions" was a member of the original pioneer group that quit Nauvoo in February 1846. Her journal, recounting the trails of women crossing Iowa and in Winter Quarters, makes sad reading, for her services were constantly in demand. Her husband entered into polygamy and their marriage was severely tested because of the second wife. She was a member of the second company of 1847, arriving in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on September 24th, where she continued midwifing until 1872.

Source: Vicky Burgess-Olson, Sister Saints. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 3 BRIGHAM YOUNG, 1801-1877: Mormon apostle, pioneer, colonizer, second president of the Mormon Church. Young was born in Windham County, Vermont, June 1, 1801. He later moved to Cayuga County, New York, where he married and worked as a carpenter and painter. He joined the Mormon Church April 14, 1832, and became a missionary. He followed Joseph Smith to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1833, became a member of Zion's Camp in 1834 and a member of the first Quorum of 12 Apostles in 1835. Thereafter he went on several missions for the church, including one to England in 1840. He followed Smith to Missouri and to Nauvoo, Illinois, where he eventually became the President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. After the murder of Smith in June 1844, Young became the presiding authority in the church by virtue of being the senior apostle.

In this capacity he prepared the Mormons for their exodus to the west, which commenced in February 1846. After he led the pioneers into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, he was sustained on December 5, 1847, at Winter Quarters (present Nebraska) and Council Bluffs (present Iowa) as second president of the Mormon Church. On May 26, 1848, he left the Missouri River settlements for good, leading the 1848 migration to what is now Utah. Thereafter he lived and worked in Utah until his death in 1877. He is generally considered to have been the greatest colonizer in the old west. Source: Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 4 HEBER CHASE KIMBALL 1801-1868: Apostle, pioneer, first counselor to Brigham Young. Kimball was born June 14, 1801, in Franklin County, Vermont. He later moved to Ontario County, New York, where he married and worked as a potter and blacksmith. He joined the Mormon Church there in 1832.

He did missionary work and eventually followed Joseph Smith to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1832. He was a member of Zion's Camp in 1834 and became a member of the first Quorum of 12 Apostles. He filled several missions, including two to England in 1837 and 1840. He followed Smith to Missouri and to Nauvoo, Illinois. After the murder of Smith in June 1844, Kimball became the de facto first counselor to Young and leader of the Mormon Church, and in this capacity helped prepare the Mormons for their eventual exodus to the west, From February 1846 through September 1848, he was second only to Young as a leader of emigrants west. After he arrived for the last time in Salt Lake City in 1848 he remained first counselor to Young until his death in 1868. Source: Stanley B. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 PARLEY PARKER PRATT, 1807-1857: Missionary, apostle, pioneer.

Pratt was born in Otsego County, New York; later lived in Ohio; joined the Mormons in 1830 and went on several missions including to England once in 1840 and again in 1846. He followed Smith to Missouri and Illinois. In 1835 he became a member of the first Quorum of Twelve Apostles, in which capacity he helped ready the Mormons for their exodus across Iowa in 1846. After his 1846 mission to England he led a large 1847 company of Saints to Utah. Source: Parley Parker Pratt, Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 6 PETER HAWS: Little is known of Peter Haws except that he was a captain of 50 pioneers across Iowa in 1846. In Winter Quarters he considered himself equal to Young in leading the Mormons west. At Winter Quarters he was chastised by Young and the High Council of the church for selling liquor to the Indians, He was not one of the pioneers of Utah,Source: Varia, bits and pieces here and there, for example, Roberts, A Comprehensive History, vol.

3, 53. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 7 JOHN TAYLOR, 1808-1887: Apostle, pioneer and third president of the Mormon Church. Taylor was born November 1, 1808, in Westmorland County, England. He moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1828, where he joined the Mormon Church in 1836. He followed Smith to Kirtland, Ohio, where he became an apostle in 1838. He filled several missions, including two to England in 1838 and 1846. He followed Smith to Nauvoo, Illinois. After Smith's death in 1844 Taylor, as an apostle, assisted Young in the direction of the church; and helped lead the pioneers across Iowa in 1846. After he returned from his 1846 mission to England he had charge of a large 1847 company of pioneers going to Utah. He became president of the Mormon Church in 1880, following the death of Young. Source: B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 8 GEORGE MILLER, 1794-?, after 1848: Second Bishop of the Mormon Church, Pioneer of 1846. Miller was born November 25, 1794, in Orange County, Virginia. Little is known of Miller. He joined the Mormon Church, became the Second Bishop in the Church in Nauvoo in 1844 and became, as captain of a group of 50, one of the leaders of the exodus across Iowa in 1846. In Winter Quarters he argued against settling in the Great Basin and for such "insubordination" was released from his calling as a bishop in 1847. He went to Texas in 1847 and was disfellowshipped in 1848. He did not follow Young west. Source: Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 9 WILLIAM CLAYTON, 1814-1879: Pioneer, hymnist, clerk of the 1846 and 1847 camp of pioneers, author of famous guidebook. Clayton was born July 17, 1814, in Lancashire, England, joined the Mormons there in 1837, immigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1840, and became a clerk to Joseph Smith. He was prominent in the 1846 Camp Of Israel, being the Company Clerk. It was while crossing Iowa that he wrote the words to the now famous Mormon hymn, "Come, Come, Ye Saints." In 1847 he was again the Camp Clerk for the pioneers. In 1848 in St. Louis he published his famous The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide...From Council Bluffs to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Source: William Clayton, William Clayton's Journal. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 10 ORSON PRATT, 1811-1881: Mormon apostle, mathematician, pioneer.

Born in Hartford, New York, joined the Mormon Church in 1830; he went on many missions for his new faith. He became an apostle in 1835 and in Nauvoo, Illinois, he conducted a school for mathematics. He crossed the plains with the pioneers of 1847, acting as the scientific member of that body. He was the first Mormon to enter the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Source: Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopaedia. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 11 WILFORD WOODRUFF, 1807-1898: Apostle, pioneer, fourth president of the Mormon Church. Woodruff was born March 1, 1807, in Hartford County, Connecticut. He later moved to New York where he farmed and joined the Mormons in 1833. He followed Smith to Kirtland, Ohio, where he became a member of Zion's Camp in 1834. He became an apostle in 1839 and went on several missions, including two to England in 1839 and 1844.

He moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841. After the death of Smith in 1844, he assisted Young in church administration until he returned to England that same year. He participated in the 1846 exodus from Illinois and became a member of the pioneer group of 1847. It was in Woodruff's wagon that the sick Young entered The Valley July 14, 1847, and it was Woodruff who, in 1897, recounted the story about Young having seen The Valley of the Great Salt Lake in a vision and saying on July 14, 1847, "This is the place, drive on." Source: Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff Fourth President of the Church. The Mormons | People & Events | PBS People & Events The Great Mormon Migration Brigham Young, circa 1850-1. They were a people who felt called by God, chosen to create a New Jerusalem. It was fitting, then, that in order to realize the dream, the Mormons endured a 1,300-mile journey of Biblical proportions.

Time to Go Mormons had been considering moving west -- beyond the borders of the United States -- since before Joseph Smith's 1844 murder, but his assassination made it clear that the period of relative calm the Mormon faithful had enjoyed in Nauvoo, Illinois, was coming to an end. In 1845 mob violence against the Mormon community increased, and the Illinois legislature revoked the city's charter. Depiction of Mormon winter migration, 1846. Exodus, Part One Brigham Young , who was emerging as the church's new leader, conducted a census that fall, counting more than 3,000 families and some 2,500 wagons. He then divided church members into smaller administrative groups of tens, fifties, and hundreds (following the pattern described in the Old Testament when, after crossing the Red Sea dry-shod, the Jews went through the wilderness searching for the Promised Land). Appropriately, Young named the collective the Camp of Israel. Although Young hoped to begin the migration in spring 1846, local hostility forced the Mormons' hand.

The first wave of about 3,000 people began to leave Nauvoo in early February, and their suffering was intense. They crossed the frozen Mississippi River -- dry-shod. In one evening on the trek nine babies were born, their parents barely able to provide any shelter from the elements. Wagons collapsed, people died from exposure, and it took 131 days for the Mormon convoy to travel 310 miles to relative safety on the banks of the Missouri, where the river divided Nebraska and Iowa. Still, church members kept the faith throughout their tribulations. William Clayton, who had been ordered to travel ahead of his pregnant wife, was so overjoyed to learn of his son's birth that he wrote a hymn, "Come, Come, Ye Saints," that has become a Mormon standard. Its hopeful last line: "All is well! All is well!" Winter Quarters All was well for a time in the area (near what is Omaha, Nebraska today) that the Mormons reached in June 1846. Local Native Americans were friendly, and Young decided they would remain in what became known as "Winter Quarters" until the following spring.

But when winter came, scurvy claimed as many as 15 percent of the camp members; Young's son would later call their settlement "the Valley Forge of Mormondom." Young, himself sick in February 1847, had been plagued by self-doubt, but a vision of Joseph Smith helped him become the strong leader his followers needed for the second, thousand-mile portion of their journey. Wagon train crossing the Platte River 1840s-1850s. Exodus, Part Two In April 1847, an advance party of 25 wagons led by Young left the Winter Quarters and headed towards the Rocky Mountains. They traveled along the Platte River, creating a new route on its north bank rather than risk encounters with other settlers on the Oregon Trail. The first half of the journey was along the plains and easier going than the mountains that loomed up past Fort Laramie, Wyoming. But the Mormons kept going, marching by day and leavening the evenings with campfire dance and song. There was also much sickness.

Like many others in the pioneer band, Brigham Young came down with "mountain fever." On July 24, after 111 days of travel, a wagon carrying the prostrate Young reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Looking out on the terrain, Young declared, "It is enough. This is the right place." Steel engraving looking south of Salt Lake City, Utah in 1853. A Permanent Home As Young was reaching his destination, another wagon train with more than 1,500 people and nearly 600 cows was leaving Winter Quarters and heading west. Over the next two decades more than 60,000 Mormons would journey to the Utah Territory; thousands came by wagon, and thousands more pulled handcarts across the harsh terrain. Many died along the way, and the survivors found the country they sought to escape would soon expand its borders to encompass them. In 1857 during the " Utah War ," the Mormons abandoned their Salt Lake City homes as the U.S. Army approached, but returned to them unscathed and would never again be forced to flee for their lives and abandon everything they knew; for the first time, they had found a permanent home.

Mormon Roots Grow Deep in Vermont Mark Rondeau - Writer, Editor, Photographer Mormon Roots Grow Deep in Vermont MORMON ROOTS GROW DEEP IN VERMONT MARK E. RONDEAU From The Bennington Banner, June 20, 2008 SOUTH ROYALTON — Founded in America, Mormonism today is a global faith, with about 13 million members in 176 countries and territories, more than half of them outside the United States. Just 4,236 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — as the church is formally known — were living in Vermont as of 2007. But about a dozen of the first Mormon leaders were born in the Green Mountain State, including the two most influential. These were the founding prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and his successor as head of the church, Brigham Young. Smith was born on Dec. 23, 1805, in a small house that straddles the boundary between Sharon and South Royalton, in east central Vermont, about 40 miles south of Montpelier. Sharon is traditionally given as his birthplace.

The hillside site is memorialized today with a visitors center, picnic grounds and a large memorial monument made of granite from the Barre quarry. Working onarticles about Mormons in the Bennington area, I decided on Saturday to visit the birthplace of the man who started this global religious movement, now headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Joseph Smith Memorial is about a 100-mile drive from Bennington. One of the first things I noticed after getting out of my car was music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir being piped into the outdoors at the well-manicured site. As I made my way to the memorial monument, an older man in a suit approached me, offering to lead me on a tour. He was Gary McKinnon, a retired business professor at Brigham Young University, where for a time he headed the MBA program at the Marriott School of Business. He is a missionary currently serving as the volunteer site director with his wife, Linda. Before coming to the Joseph Smith Memorial they served as missionaries for 16 months in New Bedford, Mass. Some 45,000 people visit the memorial per year, 80 percent of them Mormons, McKinnon said.

The visitors' center offers a 70-minute film about Joseph Smith Jr. and the church. The rest of the center includes paintings and sculptures of Smith, the hearthstone from the house where he was born and a genealogy chart showing that Joseph Smith Jr. shared a common ancestor with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Richard M. Nixon and both presidents Bush. This was Henry Howland, who died in 1635. Pointing out a recent metal sculpture of Smith, larger than life, McKinnon said, "He was a very handsome man with blue eyes, of all things, and stood 6-foot-1." Joseph Smith Jr. lived the first decade of his life in Sharon and environs — his most formative years, McKinnon said. Outside, the base of the granite monument weighs 60 tons. The shaft, 38.5 feet tall — one foot for every year of Joseph's Smith's life — weighs 40 tons and is one of the largest single pieces of flawless granite in the world.

A railroad carried the granite 35 miles from Barre to Royalton, but transporting it the remaining 5.5 miles uphill to the site required 33 days and a colossal effort from men, horses and oxen. Church officials dedicated the monument on Dec. 23, 1905, 100 years after Smith's birth. A few paces away from the monument is the site where the Smith house sat. The actual foundation is now covered over with soil. A bench beneath a shady tree marks the spot, as do the original doorstep and a small model of the house atop a pole. Smith's family moved from Vermont to Palmyra, N.Y., in 1816. This is where God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Smith in the early spring of 1820, when he was 14. This is commonly known as the First Vision. Mormonism teaches that Smith was a prophet who received visions from God about how to restore the true and original Christian Church. Receiving revelations, gathering followers, kmoving westward and suffering persecution, Smith, along with his brother Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Ill., in 1844.

Smith's successor as head of the church was Brigham Young, the man who led the Latter-day Saints from persecution in the East to freedom in Utah. Young was born in 1801 about 100 miles south of Sharon in the town of Whitingham, in Windham County, just east of Readsboro. He was the ninth of eleven children born to John and Abigail Young. John Young was from Hopkinton, Mass., and had served in the army during the Revolutionary War. When Brigham was 3, the family moved to central New York. There are at least four simple public reminders in Whitingham that Young was born here. The most visible are the signs at the entrances of town along Route 100 noting that it is the birthplace of Brigham Young. A state historical marker on Route 100 in the center of town provides more information: "The leader of the Mormon Pioneers, Brigham Young was born up the steep hill to the south on June 1, 1801. He eventually led his people from Illinois to Utah where he founded Salt Lake City in 1847 and 500 communities throughout the West.

Young became the first territorial governor of Utah and the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Set on the green grass of Town Hill Field back against a line of trees is the Brigham Young Monument, made of Vermont granite. The monument was erected by descendants of Young with the cooperation of the Mormon church. The monument identifies Young as a church leader, colonizer and statesman. It notes that a statue of him occupies a place in Statuary Hall in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. George Albert Smith (1870-1951), the seventh president of the church, came to Whitingham in May 1950 for the unveiling of this monument. As a boy, he had met Brigham Young in Salt Lake City. Standing at the Young monument on a quiet Sunday morning in Whitingham, it was tempting to think that this is all ancient history. But memories from Saturday's visit to the Smith birthplace reminded me that this is still a dynamic faith on the move: In fact, not far down the hill from the site of Smith's birth is a reminder of his global legacy: a large satellite dish.

In December 2005, then church president Gordon Hinckley came to the Joseph Smith Memorial and recorded a message on the 200th anniversary of the prophet's birth. It was broadcast by closed-circuit television to Mormons around the world. While many religious groups use technology, Mormon outreach has a human component unmatched by any religious movement of which I am aware. Before I left the Smith memorial, McKinnon introduced me to Michael Jensen, a lean and friendly attorney from Price, Utah. Now serving as mission president for one of the 349 Mormon mission territories around the world, he is based in Bedford, N.H., and is working with his wife, Camille. His territory includes parts of New York and New England, and there are currently 108 young men and 18 young women, ages 17 to 25, serving in his territory. There are also 15 married couples serving, and they had come to the memorial on Sunday afternoon to join the Jensens for a social.

Question: Born 1801, who led the Mormons into Utah and co-founded Salt Lake City?
Answer: Brigham Young