The two main contenders were James Jesse Strang and Brigham Young. No. Tensions were further inflamed when news reached Utah around this time that early church leader Parley P. Pratt had been killed by the estranged husband of one of Pratts polygamous wives while he was on a mission to the Eastern United States. Young, himself, was subjected to house arrest for several weeks in 1872 and jailed briefly in March 1875. Phineas Young was an older brother of Brigham Young, who was the president of the LDS Church and the first governor of the Territory of Utah. On August 29, 1877, Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City at the age of 76. Matthew Bowman, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (Random House, 2012). In short, Youngs letter must be taken at face value: It was a determined, almost frantic, attempt to stop the massacre. Isaac Haight's stake high council opposed the attack, and sent a messenger to Salt . Haight then turned the gun on himself. Brigham Young neither ordered nor approved of the Mountain Meadows Massacre beforehand, but his unwillingness to cooperate with federal officials precipitated the crisis, and his subsequent actions and rhetoric inflamed tensions rather than calming them. The winners of the Church History Museums 12th International Art Competition have been announced, and the artwork is breathtaking. In 1832, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religion founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 based on the Book of Mormon, a scripture that Smith claimed to have translated from gold plates given to him by an angel named Moroni. President Brigham Young ordained his 11-year-old son John Willard Young as an apostle shortly after John received his temple endowment, though John never joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Those allegations have never been proven, but Young did indicate that he supported the sentiment even if he never ordered a murder. He dedicated his whole life to church service and made a significant contribution in the early days of the Church. by Will Bagley and Ron Walker | Apr 1, 2003 | Features & Gunfights. She has been placed on indefinite suspension for her actions, which include punching another . According to Mormon doctrines, prophets speak to God and communicate God's will to Mormons. Young was not complicit in planning or executing the massacre. An armed mob assassinated Smith in 1844, and Young and the other apostles took charge of leading the Mormon church. Hiding Rockwells role in expressing Eleanor to Utah from my late friend Hal was evidence that had been carefully suppressed. TAMPA, Fla. Acting as his own lawyer, a double-murder defendant opened his death penalty trial by shouting at jurors that he did not attack his girlfriend and disabled daughter. Provo, UT 84602, USA 801 . In theearly church years, the method of judging apostolic seniority was base on the date of ordination. A CONFESSION etched on a newly discovered lead sheet has shaken the Mormon Church by linking its revered leader, Brigham Young, with one of the worst massacres in American history. Why did he shield the murderers and allow the churchs newspaper to blame the crime on the Paiutes for a dozen years after Jacob Hamblin told him Mormons were involved? Young returned east to lead a second company of Mormons to the region in late 1847, and in 1848 was officially selected as the churchs new president. Courtesy: Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. Young replied. The Utah War was resolved in 1858, with Young agreeing to step aside in favor of the new governor (though he remained de facto leader in the territory). This week, as America mourned those lost in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, some Mormons quietly remembered another tragedy that took place on the same day 144 years earlier: the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which a group of Mormons militia members killed about 120 men, women, and children in cold blood. Did Brigham Young Approve the Attack? DJ Ferguson's family say he was first on the list to receive the transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital but he is no longer eligible because of his vaccination status, CBS Boston reported. After the extermination order, the Mormons left for Nauvoo, Illinois, but their bad experiences in Missouri would never be forgotten. The Latter-day Saint community [in Las Vegas is] vibrant across every facetpolitically, public service, charitable. From 1864 through 1871 Young served as the bishop of the Salt Lake City 2nd Ward. Reared in the famous Beehive House, Mrs. Spencer has carried with her through life the patient, loving influence of her parents. Their beliefs on the subject extend so far as to dictate that a prophet can never lead people astray. Sidney Rigdon was, for a time, the second most powerful person in Mormonism. Even the Lord associated him with Moses, and . Anonymous. His grandson and namesake, George Albert Smith, later became an apostle and prophet of the Church. In 1852, Young publicly acknowledged Mormon polygamy. In the video that Harrold recorded, the woman could be seen yelling at the teen and lunging at him during the Dec. 26 incident. (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.). A final investigation ultimately resulted in Lees execution in 1877, and other conspirators successfully going into hiding. Although it would be ten more years before Congress officially made polygamy illegal, this provided further conflict with federal officials. Finally, it is also a matter of historical record that none of the Indian leaders at the Salt Lake council were later at Mountain Meadows, except the Southern Ute leader, Ammon, who tried to prevent the massacre. Even though Mormon scriptures had numerous rules governing polygamy that included requirements that the first wife approve of subsequent marriages and bans on one man marrying mothers, daughters, or sisters, the rules were completely disregarded. Five days later the church president spoke to a congregation filled with many of the participants in the massacre. Even though Young blessed it as a place to begin anew,his fears of continued religious persecution may have caused him to order a massacre. Enter your email to receive updates on our LDS Living content, 2022 LDS Living A Division of Deseret Book Company. Because the historical past will always be opaque, historians must seek the weight of evidence, and in this case, the preponderance suggests Youngs innocence. In return for surrendering their weapons, the emigrants would be allowed safe passage to Cedar City. 1940. Numerous records, including journal entries from those who experienced the attack and affidavits sworn against the Mormon mob, included allegations that the Mormon mob forced pregnant women and children out into the cold, stole livestock, and took prisoners for interrogation. They were clubbed, stabbed or shot at point-blank range, then stripped and left to be scavenged by wolves and buzzards. When they turned up at the Smithsonian Institute in the 1920s, they were returned to the Mormon Church. The Taylor Mill Police Department (TMPD). Sharon Smith & Mike Leach Were Friends at Brigham Young University; Mike Used to Visit Her Apartment to Watch Television Sharon Smith and Mike Leach both attended Brigham Young University. setTimeout(function(){var t=document.createElement("script");t.setAttribute("src","https://sample.dragonforms.com/getEmbeddedClientScript.do?embeddedsite=TW_dispatch_nl"),t.setAttribute("type","text/javascript"),document.body.appendChild(t)},5); Become a subscriber today and youll recieve a new issue every month plus unlimited access to our full archive of backlogged issues. . In August 1857, Young reactivated the Nauvoo Legion, a militia first created in pre-exodus Illinois. In short, the massacre is best explained by cascading local events in a setting of extreme excitement and fear. Despite the fact that the leader of the Mormon Church is supposed to relay Gods will to mankind, though, Brigham Young espoused some terrifyingly racist ideals. How do you put shoes on a cloven-footed ox? DJ Ferguson, who . Fifty-three years ago Juanita Brooks classic study, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, concluded the crime was the result of one unfortunate circumstance after another. Meadows, not big enough to be a settlement, he reports to Bishop Higbee in Cedar City. Despite the clean-cut image of family-oriented conservatives that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) presents to the world, it too has moments of darkness in its past. Further, Joseph H. Jackson, a new arrival to Nauvoo who had a shady past, later claimed in his memoirs that Joseph Smith offered him $3,000 to free Rockwell from prison and shoot Boggs. Everybody (Source Codes) . That question stumped me for years, and like many other Mormon mysteries the clues have been carefully purged from the records of Utahs past. 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"). Most Mormons are aware that Young instituted a ban on black people holding Church leadership positions and entering their temples, but few are aware of how extreme he was. On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were murdered by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. Militia orders to the Mormon army carried Youngs words on the reverse: Shed no blood., When the books are opened in the day of judgment, declared an associate who was at his side in 1857, these things will be proven to heaven and earth.. The victims bodies were stripped naked and left to rot in the open air. Born into poverty in Vermont in 1801, Young later moved with his family to western New York, where he worked as a carpenter and craftsman. When I reflect on how I found the gospel, I realize that my familys experiences informed two important pieces of my testimony. Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its read more. Brigham Young University was named in his honor. Brigham Young tried to stop the massacre. The man's son was allegedly attacked by a fellow student who believed him to be a racist. At Four Corners, in the southeast, Utah meets Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at right angles, the only such meeting of states in the country. There are no other trains going south that I know of. But history is not assumption. The footage showed the massive professional athlete throwing the victim around her home with brutal force in front of their then-5-month-old son. [5], Young was married to Lucy, the half-sister of Oliver Cowdery. The following are a few facts necessary for an understanding of this terrible event in Western and Mormon history. She, her husband Nate and their now 2-month-old son Luke fled their home in East Palestine the night of the train derailment to her mother's house about 14 to 15 miles away. Fears of Mormon aggression, as well as Mormons taking control of the county government, led to anti-Mormon sentiments among the residents of Gallatin, the seat of Daviess County. Not theories. Will Bagley, a history columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, is the author of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Brigham Young was a man well acquainted with life and death. How did the widow Pratt cross 1,500 dusty miles in a mere 21 days? There is a logic to this. His brother Joseph was baptized the next day and Brigham Young was baptized approximately one week later. Apparently I succeeded, since critics in the employ of the LDS Church claim I dont prove Brigham Young ordered the murders. (Right) John D. Lee. . How many nieces and nephew luther vandross have? Pratt had been murdered in Arkansas, where the Baker-Fancher party had its origin. When the rumors expanded to include a claim that the pioneers were going to bring troops back from California to attack the Mormon settlements, a group of Mormons dressed as Native Americans attacked their wagon train and, after a three-day assault, killed all men, women, and children over the age of eight. Brigham Young at Home is a valuable addition to the history of the home life of pioneer days. In 1838, Joseph Smith purchased an Egyptian mummy and a set of papyri. Mormons responded to not being allowed to vote by forming a militia and attacking Gallatin as well as the nearby village of Millport (one militia battle is depicted in the painting above). That progressed into a host of angels, then it evolved to God appearing to Smith in a pillar of fire. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke Monday to staff at Brigham Young University (BYU) during the first day of the institution's 2021 University Conference.. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. [4] By 1841 he had relocated to Nauvoo. Though many suspected Young of ordering or at least covering up the attack, John Lee, an adopted son of Youngs, was the only Mormon brought to trial for the Mountain Meadows massacre; he was executed in 1877. He governed the territory as a theocracy, with church doctrines taking precedence over laws. According to Todd Compton, a Mormon historian and author ofJohn Willard Young, Brigham Young, and the Development of Presidential Succession in the LDS Church, John Willard Young was the youngest person ever ordained an apostle, which happened during a private event in 1855. Good history must be based on facts. Brigham Young later privately set apart three other sons and Joseph F. Smith as apostles who served as "assistant Counselors to the First Presidency.". Brigham Young wasn't the only latter-day prophet to have such close experiences with death. While the church leaders temper and strong words at the pulpit earned him a reputation for coercion, in truth, those who knew him best often spoke of his caution and his abhorrence of bloodshed. Was not referring to his death, just the stabbing. Finally, why has so much evidence been destroyed or purged from Mormon archives, and why has so much evidence been suppressed? She demanded Mormon authorities listen to the cry of his blood and take swift vengeance against the Fancher train, which had left Arkansas long before Pratt was killed. 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. College volleyball's opening weekend ended with a fan banned from Brigham Young University's athletic facilities and statements expressing regret from two universities and the governor of Utah. 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. A disgraced former Geography professor at Mormon-founded Brigham Young University in Utah who was charged with sexually abusing a female students after allegedly telling her she needed to straddle . Every Latter-day Saint knows the importance of the six days in August 1844 when Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles were sustained at Nauvoo as Joseph Smith's successors. Former NFL running back Zac Stacy, 31, will spend half a year behind bars for a pair of vicious attacks on his ex-girlfriend one of which was caught on tape and quickly went viral. In the early days of the Church, it was common for members to be called to serve at young ages. When the United States claimed sovereignty over the area in 1848, Mormons petitioned Congress for recognition, and in 1850 the United States organized Utah Territory. Amid the tensions, however, a band of armed Mormons attacked a wagon train of non-Mormons heading west from Arkansas in a valley known as Mountain Meadows in September 1857. Such a day-by-day approach yields new understanding. not to spare horseflesh. He didnt. After the death of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, the mantle of leader of the church was up for grabs. 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). March 28, 1884: Or was it March 8? Young won the leadership and Strang was considered a heretic and excommunicated from the Mormon Church. The emigrants fell back to a defensive position, and the ambush became a siege. According to a BYU Scholars article, His speaking talent, organizational and leadership ability, and political sagacity were given untiringly to the service of his church. According to her, they would try to leave Utah then turn up murdered (supposedly by Native Americans) along the way. On April 15, 1832, Young and his brother John were baptized into the Latter Day Saint Church of Christ.