The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

BRIGHAM YOUNG

Brigham Young was an American Mormon leader. He was born in 1801 at Vermont and died in 1877. A mechanic in New York, he was converted to Mormonism in 1831, and became an intimate associate of Joseph Smith. Commencing to preach the next year, he soon removed to Kirtland, Ohio, was chosen elder in 1832 and apostle in 1835. Brigham Young was ore of the founders of the Nauvoo settlement in 1840, and in 1844 he succeeded Joseph Smith. Owing to persecution he conducted an emigration in 1846, and passed the following winter among the Indians of Nebraska. Having in 1847 explored the Salt Lake valley, he returned and led his band to the new home in 1848. He became Governor of Deseret in 1849, and was appointed Governor of the Territory of Utah in 1851. The next year he announced the dogma of polygamy, and systematically defied the National Government He submitted, however, to Johnston's expedition of 1857. He remained president of the Mormon Church until his death.
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