In this period, militia leaders at Cedar City and at Mountain Meadows changed their minds several times whether the killing should go forward. Critics assume, yes. Once, when returning to his ranch on the Jordan River, he was mistakenly taken as a thief, shot at and wounded in the arm, where the main artery was severed. This had a great impact upon Brigham, who was four years his junior, and confided that I had more confidence in his judgment and discretion, and in the manifestations of God to him, than I had in myself ("Brigham Young: Journal of Discourses," 8:37). ''The party from Arkansas was probably doomed from the moment the Mormons learned of the death of Parley Pratt and the approach of the American army,'' he writes in his book. The most common, and the only one currently practiced by the Mormon church, is a ceremony that seals a man and a woman for time (mortal life) and eternity. His brother Joseph was baptized the next day and Brigham Young was baptized approximately one week later. ''It was locally planned and carried out.''. * He gave the names of forty odd Mormons who took part in the massacre, and said that Brigham Young was instigator of the whole proceeding. Strang penned a letter to two leaders, Orson Hyde and John Taylor, requesting to . Of the 23 who survived him, 17 received a share of his estate while the remaining 6 apparently had non conjugal roles. Surely the Brothers Young, with their gifts and their devotion, added to the music of joy and service that marked life among the early Latter-day Saints. Five bank robbers convicted of, Tensions over Chinese immigrant labor came to a head in Rock Springs, Wyoming on September, The Fall Creek Massacre was all too typicalseven whites murdering nine Indians in Indiana in. Why did he threaten honest men who called for justice in the matter? [6] Young was present in Richmond, Missouri when Cowdery died. By early 1857 the Mormons were stockpiling weapons, and all but one of the federal judges and officers overseeing Indian affairs in the territory had fled, fearing for their safety. He once said to his brother Brigham, "There is not a Bible Christian in the world; what will become of the people?". Promised safe passage from the area in exchange for surrendering their weapons, the besieged group complied only to be systematically slaughtered. His son Phineas was 15 . February 24, 2023 | 4:46pm. Most of you have heard by now that our son Aaron was savagely taken from us. ''Nothing happened in the place that did not happen under his direct orders. A murder suspect accused of shooting his girlfriend, axing his 9-year-old daughter in the head, then stabbing and lighting his son on fire cross-examined the 11-year-old survivor Wednesday in a jaw-dropping courtroom scene. For the desperately poor Mormon settlers in southern Utah, the Fancher party, with its hefty supply of cash, arms and hundreds of valuable horses and cattle, was simply irresistible. Beau's son was 9 years old at the time of his father's death. In this case, he argues, Young saw bloodshed as a righteous act, one that would avenge the Arkansas murder of the apostle, Pratt, and send a sober warning to the United States government about the risks of invading the Mormon state. Brigham Young Did It. In short, Youngs letter must be taken at face value: It was a determined, almost frantic, attempt to stop the massacre. And in the fall of 1842, Brigham Young faced a mysterious and deadly illness. Young was too cleverand too religiously devoutto have destroyed the emigrants and thus irreparably harm the reputation of his people. The mission of Brigham Young University founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. ''The evidence is unambiguous. Anxiously awaited is a book due to be published in 2004 by three Mormon church historians that will exonerate Young. Brigham Young had no tolerance for Mormons who began to doubt the faith. [3] Young's use of inflammatory and violent language[4] in response to a federal expedition to the territory (known as the Utah War) added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. She has two songs in the LDS hymnbook, is mother of six children, 10 grand, 5 great grandchildren. New York CNN . These men later insisted that no orders had come from Salt Lake City, and this testimony included that given by those who in later life left Utah and Mormonism. Fiery yet full of doubt, frequently ill yet strong when it . Ambrose ended his book on the transcontinental railroad by recounting a talk by apostle John Taylor, who would succeed Brigham Young as church president, at the Tabernacle Golden Spike celebration. Others believed the group was an advance guard for the Army. Brigham Young succeeded founder Joseph Smith as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1847; he led the church until his death in 1877. Brigham Young. All rights reserved, If you choose local pickup, please get your gift certificate at our office at 400 W. Sunnyside in Idaho Falls Dismiss, UPDATE: Roads closed after building collapse in Lava Hot Springs, School closures and delays for Wednesday, March 1, After his death was ruled a suicide, a Blackfoot mans family is left with more questions than answers, Push to require clergy to report abuse stalls in Latter-day Saint-dominated Utah, Locals worried Roberts boil order came too late. An anti-Mormon mob killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois. For instance, during his time with Zion's Camp, cholera swept among the men and he watched "other men die like flies, but his own life was spared" ("Brigham Young on Life and Death"). Strang attempted to bring followers to him and to do this he wanted to use logic and rhetoric. (She also established from the most impeccable Mormon sources that Brigham Young had obstructed a murder investigation for 18 years, which made him guilty of felony murder.). Susa, Brighams daughter, wrote of her father: He fostered and encouraged the study and practice of music, not only in his own family, but among the people (see Life Story of Brigham Young," by Susa Young Gates and Leah D. Widtsoe). TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. They are, from left, Lorenzo Dow Young, Brigham Young, Phineas Howe Young, Joseph Young and John Young Jr. The second explanation is that the massacre was a calculated act of vengeance. 24 Jan 2022 02:14PM (Updated: 24 Jan 2022 05:31PM) SINGAPORE: A 15-year-old boy admitted on Monday (Jan 24) to killing his father after stabbing him in the neck . Within five minutes, recalled massacre participant Dudley Leavitt, not one stone stood upon another., A few days later Young justified the massacre as a necessary act of righteous vengeance. Instead I tried to tell the story as honestly and accurately as possible and let readers make up their own minds about who ordered the slaughter of more than 80 women and childrenand why. Instead, he accepted track and rolling equipment to build an extra rail line from Ogden to Salt Lake City. And he learned from Joseph Smith how men . March 28, 1884: Or was it March 8? Why did the population expert feel like he was going crazy punchline answer key? Update 6/10/2021 7:22 AM. John presided over the first group he led. "Territorial Dispatches: the Sentence of Lee", the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mountain Meadows massacre and Mormon theology, "Brigham Young, 2nd President of the Church", "Deposition of Brigham Young Regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre July 30, 1875", Tragedy at Mountain Meadows Massacre: Toward a Consensus Account and Time Line, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, "Loose in the stacks, a half-century with the Utah War and its legacy", "The Mountain Meadows Massacre: An Analytical Narrative Based on Participant Confessions", "Visit of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to Southern Utah", "Horrible Massacre of Arkansas and Missouri Emigrants", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brigham_Young_and_the_Mountain_Meadows_Massacre&oldid=1124726578, Books about presidents of the church (LDS Church), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 30 November 2022, at 05:21. Brigham Young: Directed by Henry Hathaway. Brigham Young was born in 1801 born in Whittingham, Vermont. Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Young's belated message to Isaac C. Haight, acting commander of the Iron County Brigade. Haight and Dame were also the senior regional military leaders of the Mormon militia. James Haslam, who rode the 500-mile circuit in six days, recalled, Young told me [when riding back south] . However, church president Joseph Smith insisted that his brother William Smith be selected in place of Young. (Brigham Young was mistaken when he later testified that the meeting took place "some two of three months after the massacre" Young 1875.) Likewise, John D. Lee, the only man convicted of the murders, was repeatedly offered leniency in exchange for incriminating Youngthe last offer was made just moments before his execution. The events at Mountain Meadows do not suggest a conspiracy, and certainly none involving Young. Brigham Young led one of the largest group migrations in American historyover 12,000 peopleto Salt Lake City, Utah. Young believed that Lee's punishment was just but not a sufficient blood atonement, given the enormity of the crime, to allow Lee entrance into the celestial kingdom. THE stabbing death of Drakeo the Ruler came in the midst of an ongoing feud with fellow rapper YG, and Drakeo even threatened to kill him just months . In this company, Young served as a captain of ten.[8]. Writing a polemic trying to blame Brigham Young would be self-defeating, just as writing an apologia to clear his skirts would ultimately have to justify murder. He bravely faced his father today. In 1835, the Three Witnesses selected Young as one of the inaugural members of the Quorum of the Twelve. According to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) historical records, Brigham Young was sealed to as many as 56 women. The family the Lord had put his hand upon did not fail. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify against the others. I commenced and read every word in the book in the same week," he recorded and is recounted in The Faithful Young Family." Why? Wouldnt these events have kindled Youngs anger and led him to seek revenge? ''It was the wealthiest wagon train ever to traverse the country,'' she said. Three of them bore him children. Brigham Young was a man well acquainted with life and death. Both authors quote a 5-year-old survivor who told a reporter two years after the event, ''My father was killed by Indians; when they washed their faces, they were white men.'' After I had answered His inquiries, he stated that he wanted us all, but he especially wanted my brother Brigham.". Though Bridger helped the Mormons find their way to the Salt Lake Valley, Young suspected him of inciting Indian attacks on Mormon settlements and of spying on the Mormons for the U.S. government, which was somewhat threatened by the . Logically, the idea of ordering a massacre as 2,500 U.S. troops marched upon Salt Lake City is absurd. Seventeen children, all under 7, were spared. There were five stalwart brothers in the John Young family. The Indians initiated the assault, he wrote, and Mormon settlers joined them only reluctantly, fearing reprisals if they did not. Phineas Young was an older brother of Brigham Young, who was the president of the LDS Church and the first governor of the Territory . Finally, why has so much evidence been destroyed or purged from Mormon archives, and why has so much evidence been suppressed? It makes me shudder. Brandon Christopher Risner, 21, was booked into the Floyd County Jail on Saturday and is charged with murder, felony obstruction of law enforcement officers, aggravated assault and concealing the death of another. The 59-year-old woman was found at 2 p.m. inside a Flushing home laying face down on a bed with multiple stab wounds . Recommend to friends. Lvl 1. Are there books about other independent women of the early West? Even on the day of the slaughter, couriers were reportedly hurrying from Cedar City30 miles to the eastto call it off. As part of Young's vision of a pre-millennial "Kingdom of God," Young established colonies along the California and Old Spanish Trails, where Mormon officials governed as leaders of church, state, and military. We will always love him and miss him, Randy Davis, Davis father, wrote in a Facebook post Monday. One of the . Lee was tried twice for murder (he was convicted the second time) and executed in 1877. On that march Joseph Smith taught Brigham Young how to lead men. In 1840 Brigham Young traveled to England, where he took charge of missionary efforts, supervising the dramatic growth of Mormonism in that country. Mr. Bagley, who says he is a ''Jack Mormon,'' or lapsed believer, contends that the attack had less to do with greed than ideology. How far apart were Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt in their famous 1865 showdown in Springfield, Missouri? He founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Read more quotes from Brigham Young. In such a framework, the message to "not interfere" would be subordinate to the main message: let nothing stand in the way of the Mormon-Paiute alliance. BYU Mission Statement. On his second day, traveling with copies of the Book of Mormon in his satchel and a prayer in his heart, the young man encountered John P. Greene, a Methodist minister, who kindly took some of his books to promote on a preaching tour of his own. Source: Jeffery Ogden Johnson, Determining and Defining `Wife: The Brigham Young Households, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- the Mormon church -- has steadfastly denied responsibility, first blaming Indians and later a rogue church official for the crime. According to trial testimony given later by Haslam, when Haight read Young's words, he sobbed like a child and could manage only the words, "Too late, too late. '', Sally Denton, an investigative reporter based in Santa Fe, N.M., whose book ''American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows'' will be published by Knopf next summer, also holds Young responsible for the crime. Brigham Young and His Wives. We are still trying to make sense of this tragedy and why this happened. Children who survived the massacre later described seeing their parents' clothes and jewelry on the bodies of local settlers. Hosford & Sons, NY. Phineas and John were two of the early pioneers to head West and who volunteered to turn back upon the weary trail and guide other groups who were just beginning the trek, see The Faithful Young Family." Stuart Taylor and his son Jacob join other spectators at the 139th annual Golden Spike Celebration in Promontory Summit, Utah, on Saturday, May 10, 2008, as the wood-fired . Appointed governor by President Millard Fillmore seven years earlier, Young ran the territory as a Mormon theocracy, flouting federal jurisdiction over the courts and the local Indian population and, equally unnerving to East Coast politicians, practicing polygamy. The rest is history. When asked by Horace Greeley in 1859, Brigham Young said that he had 15 wives, but some of those sealed to me are old ladies whom I regard rather as mothers than wives. He was a son by adoption of Brigham Young. Here he was ordained a Seventy and received his endowment before traveling West in the first group of pioneers, led by his brother, Brigham Young. He dearly loved his wife, Mary Ann Angell. Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery; New Accusations That Brigham Young Himself Ordered an 1857 Massacre of Pioneers, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/books/reopening-mormon-murder-mystery-new-accusations-that-brigham-young-himself.html. Brigham Young was also pinned with a monthly alimony payment of $500, as well as a then-whopping $3,000 in court fees. In 1844, after the assassination of Mormon leader Joseph Smith by an angry mob in Illinois, the Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new leader and follow him to a new promised land in Utah. He said the file included the notes of a Mormon historian who, at the request of church leaders, conducted a confidential investigation of the massacre in 1892. After this attack, Smiths successor, Brigham Young, led the Mormons West. But despite two trials, one execution and many official investigations, the event -- known as the Mountain Meadows massacre -- remains shrouded in mystery and rumor. . 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