Brigham Young was a Vermont painter and carpenter before he led settlers to Utah
Before he founded Salt Lake City, Brigham Young was a barely schooled carpenter, glazier and house painter in upstate New York. One house he helped paint later belonged to the statesman William Seward. His later record in Utah, including slavery laws and a violent standoff with Washington, remains deeply contested.
Young was born in Whitingham, Vermont, in 1801, the ninth child of a farming family that soon moved to upstate New York. His mother taught him to read and write, and died of tuberculosis when he was a teenager. Apprenticed in Auburn, he learned carpentry, glazing and painting, until the Panic of 1819 cost him his place. He drank no alcohol but refused to sign a temperance pledge, saying he wanted to do right without being bound to.
Religion drew him gradually. He joined the Reformed Methodists in 1824, insisting on baptism by full immersion, then drifted into being a seeker unconvinced any church held true authority. His brother brought home a Book of Mormon around 1830, but Young took time to accept it. After meeting Joseph Smith, he was baptised in April 1832, and within a few years he was one of the church's Twelve Apostles, preaching in Canada and overseeing work in Britain.
When Smith was killed by a mob in 1844, Young emerged from the succession crisis as leader and, in 1847, the church's second president. He led the exodus west along the Mormon Trail to the Salt Lake Valley, founded Salt Lake City, and was appointed the first governor of Utah Territory in 1850. He pushed for schools that became the University of Utah and Brigham Young University and ordered numerous temples built.
His rule was also harsh. He supported slavery and helped legalise it in the territory in 1852, formalised a ban on black men holding the priesthood, and governed through a theocratic system. When President Buchanan replaced him, Young declared martial law, starting the Utah War, during which territorial militia killed at least 120 emigrants at Mountain Meadows. He surrendered in 1858 and resigned. A polygamist with 56 wives and 57 children, he died in 1877.
Source: Brigham Young
