Brigham Young

American religious leader (1801–1877)

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Lived 1801–1877, aged 76United States

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53 languages
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Era
1801–1877
Aged 76

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He marched thousands of persecuted Mormons across the frontier to Utah, founded Salt Lake City, and governed the territory as a theocrat with 56 wives — then ordered massacres that stained the Mormon settlement in blood.

Biography

About

Born in Vermont in 1801, Young worked as a painter and carpenter before becoming a full-time church leader in 1835. When Missouri's governor signed the Mormon Extermination Order in 1838, he organized the Saints' migration to Illinois, where Joseph Smith's 1844 murder by a mob ignited a succession crisis. Elected church president in 1847, Young led the Mormon exodus west via the Mormon Trail to the Salt Lake Valley, where he founded Salt Lake City and was appointed Utah's first territorial governor in 1850. He allowed polygamy, supported slavery's expansion, formalized the ban on black men in…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Brigham Young

Brigham Young

said16 Mar 1856

You say, "That man ought to die for transgressing the law of God." Let me suppose a case.

— Journal of Discourses, 3:247 (March 16, 1856)

Brigham Young

said2 Mar 1856

I would rather that this people should starve to death in the mountains, than to have the Lord Almighty hand us over to a cursed, infernal mob.

— Journal of Discourses 3:224 (March 2, 1856)

Brigham Young

said2 Mar 1856

I will tell you what this people need, with regard to preaching; you need, figuratively, to have it rain pitchforks, tines downwards, from this pulpit, Sunday after Sunday.

— Journal of Discourses 3:222 (March 2, 1856)

Brigham Young

said18 Feb 1855