Then, in 1870, Young excommunicated John D. Lee, a Mormon official and militia leader in southern Utah, because of his participation in the massacre. ''He did it,'' said Will Bagley, a history columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune whose book ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'' (University of Oklahoma Press) has been a best seller in Utah since it appeared in late July. He stopped at the cairn the U.S. Armys First Dragoons had raised in 1859 over the grave of the emigrants whose scattered bones they had collected and buried. Young was too cleverand too religiously devoutto have destroyed the emigrants and thus irreparably harm the reputation of his people. Brigham Young never was fully reimbursed for the money he paid out to workers. After five years researching and writing about this horrific atrocity, I doubted Id ever find a definitive answer to the question, Did Brigham Young order the murders at Mountain Meadows?, To my surprise, I found evidence that convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Brigham Young issued orders (probably verbal) to kill everyone in the Fancher party except those of innocent bloodchildren under eight years of ageto fulfill his sacred vow to avenge the blood of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and more specifically, Apostle Parley P. Pratt. When it was over, men quarreled over responsibility, and many vowed that no one should ever know of their deadly work, including, presumably, Brigham Young. According to the version traditionally told by Mormon scholars -- for example in a well-regarded 1985 biography of Young -- the Fancher party provoked ill-will by taunting Mormon settlers in southern Utah. The great virtue of John G. Turner's new biography of Brigham Youngthe first major study since LDS historian Leonard Arrington's Brigham Young: American Moses (1985)is the author's . There were five stalwart brothers in the John Young family. 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 . You must not meddle with them. While not on missions, Young lived with the Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio and Far West, Missouri. The official website of Brigham Young University | Provo, UT. Instead, he accepted track and rolling equipment to build an extra rail line from Ogden to Salt Lake City. All Rights Reserved, The remarkable brothers of the Prophet Brigham Young, Lorenzo Dow Youngs Preparation for the Gospel, How Orrin Hatch protected people of faith, KSL Newsradio is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary. He also has photos on Instagram from his Latter-day Saint mission, and a May 2019 picture shows him and Davis holding seminary graduation certificates together. Twelve apostles were now chosen from those who had marched in Zion's Camp. Young was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the seventh child of John Young and Abigail Howe. It had only been two weeks since the brazen attack on March 18, 2018, when Ronnie's father, Ronnie Oneal III, killed his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron Ronnie's mother and his 9-year-old . 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. Phineas' wife Clarissa was also baptized about this same time. His brother Brigham ordained him a patriarch in 1877, shortly before Brighams death. He bravely faced his father today. (Right) John D. Lee. It misfired six times, and he then pointed it at a post and all six shots discharged properly" (Remembering Joseph" by Mark L. McConkie, 73-74). (Brigham Young was mistaken when he later testified that the meeting took place "some two of three months after the massacre" Young 1875.) Seventeen children, all under 7, were spared. Smith sold Young a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him that it had been translated from ancient records by his brother Joseph Smith. Or did his belief in heavenly justice prove him an unlikely culprit? New York CNN . With Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger, Brian Donlevy. Worcester also challenges Hotspur's temper, telling him You . After enduring a four-day gun battle with their attackers, the pioneers accepted a truce that turned out to be a deadly ploy. Brigham Young was a man well acquainted with life and death. Adding fuel to Mormon rage, they argue, was the killing, a few months before the massacre, of Apostle Parley P. Pratt. Lorenzos wife, Harriet, bore a baby son two months after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the first pioneer male child to be born in that wilderness (see The Faithful Young Family"). Brigham Young was in New England with Orson Pratt when he learned of Joseph's death. A guard tower at the Utah State Prison on Sept, 14, 2020. There are no other trains going south that I know of[.] Rather than provide them with what they wanted, Lee chose to die like a man then [than] to live a villain.. Critics assume, yes. There is room for my brown paper-doll family: 2 gospel truths I learned as a young girl that carry my faith, 7 Latter-day Saint resources that answer questions about death and the spirit world, See the stunning winners of the Churchs International Art Competition. He felt, he said later, "as tho my head wo [ul]d crack.". 2020-09-13 15:28:09. (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.). In Missouri, he left behind home, animals and fields ready to harvest and began again in Nauvoo, Illinois. What are the disadvantages of shielding a thermometer? For the decade prior the emigrants' arrival, Utah Territory had existed essentially as a theocracy led by Brigham Young. Americans enjoy a good mystery, and they like conspiracies. [25][26] Prior to his execution, Lee claimed that he was a scapegoat for others involved: I have always believed, since that day, that General George A. Smith was then visiting Southern Utah to prepare the people for the work of exterminating Captain Fancher's train of emigrants, and I now believe that he was sent for that purpose by the direct command of Brigham Young. How do you put shoes on a cloven-footed ox? She was the daughter of Isaac Decker, a long-time friend of Brigham Young and his father John Young. Good history must be based on facts. BYU Mission Statement. And why does the Deseret News continue lying about Mountain Meadows to this day? The question isnt as easily answered as asked. Brigham Young chose twenty-year-old Lucy Ann Decker Seeley for his first plural wife, and they were married by Joseph Smith on 17 June 1842. The young boy testified against his father on Wednesday, saying, "You stabbed me." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. During the 1870s Lee,[22] Dame, Philip Klingensmith, Ellott Willden, and George Adair, Jr. were indicted and arrested; warrants were obtained to pursue the arrests of four others (Haight, John Higbee, William C. Stewart, and Samuel Jukes) who had successfully gone into hiding. Share this quote: Like Quote. Brigham Young tags: inspirational, insult, rage. But now, a new book, which has been a bestseller in Utah since it appeared last summer, claims the massacre was ordered by Mormon Prophet Brigham Young. An anti-Mormon mob killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois. 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). It was made manifest to me, he recorded and is published in Lorenzo Dow Youngs Preparation for the Gospel on ourlittlecircle.com, that the Savior was in the carriage, and that it was driven by his servant. [9] In Utah Territory, Young worked as a printer, saddler and contractor.[10]. There were several times when Brigham Young's life was spared or his health inexplicably restored, according to BYU professor of Mormon History Donald Q. Cannon ("Brigham Young on Life and Death"). President Brigham Young's signature on a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad. This railroad operated between 1871 and 1881 and was founded by prominent Mormons such as Joseph A. A second form could seal a woman to one man for time and another for eternity. As one of John D. Lees wives put it, The Mormons were so insulted and indignant over the death or murder of Pratt that they Raked untold Vengeance on the poor Emigrants.. But history is not assumption. The oft asked question about the practice of polygamy in early Mormon history is: How many wives did Brigham Young have? 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. Lee pleaded innocence in court, but while in prison awaiting his execution made a full confession of the whole affair. Despite the influences of a strict, moralistic family and being exposed to the religious fervor that . Young testified that Cowdery's last statements were on the truth of Mormonism as revealed through Joseph Smith. When the project was finished, there was still a great deal of money owed to Brigham Young by the Union Pacific and because of their financial difficulties, they were not able to meet the . Most of you have heard by now that our son Aaron was savagely taken from us. But rumors of a church-sponsored cover-up persisted. Such ceremonies usually occurred when a widow was sealed to her dead husband for eternity and to a living husband for time in the same ceremony. 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.'' The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. Mormon historian Juanita Brooks believes that the letter demonstrates that Young "did not order the massacre, and would have prevented it if he could. The Indians initiated the assault, he wrote, and Mormon settlers joined them only reluctantly, fearing reprisals if they did not. No credible evidence exists that Young wanted the massacre. [2] Shortly after their baptisms, Phineas Young and Joseph Young became ordained elders in the church began preaching as missionaries in New York and Upper Canada. We will always love him and miss him, Randy Davis, Davis father, wrote in a Facebook post Monday. ROME, Georgia A recent Brigham Young University-Idaho graduate was stabbed to death over the weekend in northwestern Georgia. Brigham Young, who was born June 1, 1801, was the fourth son and eighth child, and he would . [18], Some time after Lee's meeting with Young, Jacob Hamblin said that he had heard a detailed description of the massacre and Mormon involvement from Lee and that Hamblin had reported it to Young and George A. Smith soon after the massacre. A fool can earn money; but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage.". 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. "We went west willingly--because we had to.". [5], Young was married to Lucy, the half-sister of Oliver Cowdery. He graduated from college in April, finished his internship this Summer, was so happy in having a girlfriend (and her family) that he truly loved, had just aced an entrance exam for his Masters program the very last day that any of us had contact with him. Others believed the group was an advance guard for the Army. Two new books are reviving old accusations that Mormon leader Brigham Young masterminded massacre of 120 men, women and children who were slain at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah on Sept 11 . 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. [19] According to Lee, he informed Young that the Mormons were responsible. Fifty-three years ago Juanita Brooks' classic study, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, concluded the crime was the result of one unfortunate . Young won the leadership and Strang was considered a heretic and excommunicated from the Mormon Church. But, I can hear Mormon historians object, this is purely circumstantial evidence Young actually ordered the killings. Could be, but its no more circumstantial than the evidence O.J. Stubborn and determined, he kept riding until he reached the home of a friend. March 28, 1884: Or was it March 8? In 1840 Brigham Young traveled to England, where he took charge of missionary efforts, supervising the dramatic growth of Mormonism in that country. Brigham Young, who quickly took command of the church and its followers, tried to stifle any dissent and banish his rivals.The killing of Phineas Wilcox was part of his consolidation of power . Phineas Young was among the first Mormon pioneer company to reach the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. Stubborn facts. 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. Van Vliet's mission was to inform Young that the US troops then approaching Utah did not intend to attack the Mormons, but intended to establish an army base near Salt Lake City and to request Young's cooperation in procuring supplies for the army. Learning how Eleanor McLean Pratt got to Salt Lake City convinced me Brigham Young did it. The 12th Mrs. Pratt had buried her polygamous husband Parley in Arkansas the previous May, and she was obsessed with exacting vengeance from his murderers. Tragically, Youngs letter arrived two days after the massacre, despite one of the epic rides in Western history. That, say the church historians, is because no such order was given. We are still trying to make sense of this tragedy and why this happened. But despite two trials, one execution and many official investigations, the event -- known as the Mountain Meadows massacre -- remains shrouded in mystery and rumor. Some testimony came in private interviews when there was no motive to lie. How this hostile atmosphere led to murder in a mountain valley 300 miles south of Salt Lake City, however, is fiercely contested. Hosford & Sons, NY. 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