Brigham Young: The American Moses and Second President of the LDS Church

Early Life and Conversion

Brigham Young was born June 1, 1801, in Whitingham, Vermont, the ninth of eleven children in a farming family. He grew up on the frontier with limited formal education but developed a practical, resourceful character that would define his entire life. In 1824, at age 23, he married Miriam Works, and the couple had two daughters before her death in 1832. That same year, after reading the Book of Mormon, Young experienced a powerful spiritual awakening and was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conversion was complete and profound — he immediately began dedicating himself to the church's work. By 1835, Joseph Smith, the prophet and founder of the church, had recognized Young's leadership abilities and called him as one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. From that moment, Young's life was bound up with the church's destiny.

Leading the Church After Joseph Smith

When Joseph Smith was martyred in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844, the church faced a crisis. Joseph's successor was uncertain; several leaders claimed authority. However, Brigham Young, as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, asserted his authority and was sustained by the membership as the new president. His leadership style was authoritative and decisive. Unlike Joseph Smith, who had been a visionary and theologian, Young was a practical organizer and administrator. He made tough decisions quickly, showed little patience for dissent, and drove the church with iron will toward its objectives. Under his leadership, the Saints would accomplish extraordinary feats of organization, migration, and settlement.

The Pioneer Trek West

In 1846, facing violent persecution in Illinois, Young led the main body of the Latter-day Saint church westward. The trek across the Great Plains to the Salt Lake Valley — a journey of over a thousand miles — became the defining epic of Latter-day Saint identity. Young meticulously organized the migration, breaking the saints into companies, setting rations, managing livestock, and making life-and-death decisions about route and pace. Despite hardships, disease, and death along the way, Young's leadership kept the community intact and moving forward. When the vanguard company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, Young reportedly looked out at the arid landscape and declared, "This is the place" — words that became sacred to the Mormon narrative. He would spend the remaining 30 years of his life building the kingdom in the wilderness.

Building Utah and the Territory

As governor of Utah Territory (from 1850 to 1858, with subsequent political influence), Brigham Young directed the construction of a thriving region from the desert. He oversaw the building of the Salt Lake Temple, the Salt Lake Tabernacle, and dozens of other structures. He established towns throughout the territory, encouraged agriculture and industry, and created a theocratic system where church and government were essentially unified. He founded Brigham Young University (BYU), now one of the largest private universities in the United States. Young was prolific in his prolificacy: he married 55 women and fathered 56 children — an extreme example of the polygamy that he defended as biblical doctrine. By his death in 1877, Brigham Young had transformed a desert region into a functioning society and had cemented his place as one of the great builders of the American West.

Controversial Teachings and Legacy

Brigham Young taught the "Adam-God theory" — the idea that Adam is the God of this world — which the church later explicitly disavowed. He also taught "Blood Atonement," the controversial doctrine that some sins could only be atoned for by the shedding of blood, not the blood of Christ. These teachings, combined with historical accounts of violence during his administration and his authoritarian governing style, created a complex legacy. Young was undoubtedly a visionary leader who accomplished unprecedented feats of organization and migration, yet he was also a man whose teachings and practices reflected the prejudices and brutality of his era. Modern Latter-day Saint scholars and church leaders acknowledge both his remarkable accomplishments and the troubling aspects of his leadership, seeking to honor the former while honestly confronting the latter.