By the summer of 1877, Young's health was in decline, but he continued to play an active role in the Mormon church up until the end. Cold Milk 07. But we only make the tragedy worse by saying that it was something other than what it wasby trying to fit events into a pre-conceived theory of conspiracy. 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. As a church leader, Brigham Young stood in marked contrast to his predecessor, the charismatic, idealistic, and theologically innovative Joseph Smith. Young won the leadership and Strang was considered a heretic and excommunicated from the Mormon Church. Through most of the nineteenth century, the American West was considered the land of opportunity. The latter is filed in sequential order in Youngs well-preserved and bound letter books. In short, Youngs letter must be taken at face value: It was a determined, almost frantic, attempt to stop 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. Young extensively promoted his theology of blood atonement, which held that certain crimes and sins were so vile that they could not be forgiven until a debt had been paid in blood. No other group of people [comes] close.. The five sons of John and Nabby Young From left to right: Lorenzo Dow, Brigham, Phineas H., Joseph, and John. Witnesses later testified about Haslams dramatic arrival in Salt Lake City, the writing of the letter and its dispatch South. He trekked with Zions Camp in 1834, was driven with his ailing parents from Missouri in 1838, and in 1840, so ill he could barely walk, he left on a mission to England. During those trying times, he was ordained a Seventy inMarch 1835 at age 17 and as an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve on April 26, 1839. When they turned up at the Smithsonian Institute in the 1920s, they were returned to the Mormon Church. Finally, why has so much evidence been destroyed or purged from Mormon archives, and why has so much evidence been suppressed? Young was too cleverand too religiously devoutto have destroyed the emigrants and thus irreparably harm the reputation of his people. Brigham Young, second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church, ranks among the most influential and important historical figures not just in Mormon, but also in American history. Ronald K. Esplin, a Young biographer and president of the Brigham Young Center Foundation, points to the leader's remarks suggesting he may have had some kind of divine communication on that matter. by Will Bagley and Ron Walker | Apr 1, 2003 | Features & Gunfights. Was not referring to his death, just the stabbing. Brigham Young led one of the largest group migrations in American historyover 12,000 peopleto Salt Lake City, Utah. 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. Isaac Haight's stake high council opposed the attack, and sent a messenger to Salt . These men later insisted that no orders had come from Salt Lake City, and this testimony included that given by those who in later life left Utah and Mormonism. Brigham Young, December 12, 1850, daguerreotype. Conditions Governing Access Open for public research. for construction and . He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. 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. After fleeing hostile forces in Missouri and Illinois, Mormons settled in the Salt Lake Valley under Brigham Young and from there established colonies all over the West as well as in Mexico. He declared that: "I will fight them and I will fight all hell!" The Church had been tense against the federal government ever since the murder of their founder and Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, at the hands of an Illinois lynch mob in 1844. Brigham Young urged every Mormon to resist the American military. The Center also supported student training for life-long temple and family history service. Or did his belief in heavenly justice prove him an unlikely culprit? DJ Ferguson, who . What are the 4 major sources of law in Zimbabwe? "In regard to emigrating trains arriving and passing through our settlements," he wrote in a letter designed to restore calm in Southern Utah, "We must not interfere with them." Death is not the end of our existencejust a change in our being. True West asked the authors of both books to lay out their claims. Because of this and the expulsion from Missouri, the Mormons at the time felt very strong prejudice against people from those two states. In short, the massacre is best explained by cascading local events in a setting of extreme excitement and fear. All Rights Reserved. If Washington continued to appoint office seekers and corrupt demagogues, Utahs citizens would send them away., Faced with this blatant insubordination, Buchanan ordered an army of 2,500 troops to Utah to install Alfred Cumming as the new governor. After a standoff of several days, the Mormons called a truce, only to massacre most of the wagon train party, including some 120 men, women and children. They are also fascinated by stories of murder and especially murder on a grand scale. Though he initially resisted adapting the churchs controversial custom of plural marriage, Young later embraced it as his duty, and would eventually have 55 wives and 56 (or 57) children. It turns out that she was actually wife No. How far apart were Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt in their famous 1865 showdown in Springfield, Missouri? (Right) John D. Lee. In 1857, at the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Brigham Young, was serving as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and as Governor of Utah Territory. The family of a Boston man is speaking out after they say their 31-year-old son was struck from a waitlist for a heart transplant because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. Church historians revealed over the summer that the 144-year-old Brigham Young Family Cemetery, 140 E. First Avenue, has been bedeviled during the past two years by a spate of trespassing . [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. Congress officially made polygamy illegal, killed by the estranged husband of one of Pratts polygamous wives. After the death of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, the mantle of leader of the church was up for grabs. Police are investigating. The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a horrible atrocity, and the conduct of some Mormons involved in it was deplorable: strong words from the Tabernacle pulpit, Saints seeking vengeance because of their past persecution, Youngs risky Native American alliance, senseless acts by some local Mormon leaders, Utahs troubling episodes of extralegal violence and most awful, the terrible killing at Mountain Meadows. . The Latter-day Saint community [in Las Vegas is] vibrant across every facetpolitically, public service, charitable. Phineas' wife Clarissa was also baptized about this same time. Instead I tried to tell the story as honestly and accurately as possible and let readers make up their own minds about who ordered the slaughter of more than 80 women and childrenand why. Seventeen children who were too young to remember the attack were spared. And in the fall of 1842, Brigham Young faced a mysterious and deadly illness. Who is Katy mixon body double eastbound and down season 1 finale? The great historian Harold Schindler spent 40 years learning everything there was to know about Orrin Porter Rockwell, Man of God/Son of Thunder (the title of his definitive biography). Brigham Young University. No evidence exists that the Indians at the council agreed to attack. Many American Protestant religions promoted slavery or the Ku Klux Klan. On August 29, 1877, Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City at the age of 76. Of course, anti-Young historians say otherwise. Despite the fact that the Book of Mormon (which Smith said he translated by the power of God) denounces polygamy, Smith didnt stop with two wives and, before he died, he had married close to 40 women and possibly many more. This will always be so.. The Love and Laws of God By President Russell M. Nelson ,, An address given at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on September 17, 2019. Young considered all of the United States culpable for the death of Joseph Smith, and added an oath of vengeance to the Mormon temple endowment: You and each of you do covenant and promise that you will pray and never cease to pray to Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation, and that you will teach the same to your children and to your childrens children unto the third and fourth generation.. Bad Hands 03. PBS: American Experience. John G. Turner. Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. When I learned that Orrin Porter Rockwell, the notorious Mormon lawman and Danite, had rushed Mrs. Pratt across the plains in record time, I knew what happened at Mountain Meadows. While several reasons for this statement may be suggested, most persuasive is the ebb and flow of the local decision-making during the weeklong event. Jun 2021 - Present1 year 10 months. They are also among a cadre of doctors across the country who are confronting mounting intimidation on social media, and threats of violence. An early convert to Mormonism, 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. He was ordained king and priest by the Council of Fifty, and acted accordingly. While this Indian council is important and requires extended scholarly discussion, this much can be said: No evidence suggests the councils focus was the Baker-Fancher party, much less its destruction. His views on religious freedom read more, In 1950, L. Ron Hubbardthe founder of Scientologypublished his bestselling book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Though he originally conceived of Dianetics as a science of the mind, Hubbard later adapted his theories into a more religious approach, calling read more, The Inquisition was a powerful office set up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. When he isnt exploring the dark secrets of various religions, he is a major sci-fi/fantasy geek and the lead editor and author for The Elders Blog on Elders of Genova. Church descriptions of the massacre typically begin by pointing out that it took place as the United States was sending a small army to impose the Federal will on Utah Territory. Several church leaders, including Young, were later charged under the law; Young was not convicted, but a case involving his secretary, George Reynolds, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1879 unanimously decided that the law was constitutional and the First Amendment did not protect polygamy. He announced that they were scrolls written by Abraham and, a year later, he said he translated the hieroglyphics by the power of God. Brigham Young had six sisters and four brothers. Some Mormons say that some of the scrolls must still be missing, but Smith included facsimiles of the scrolls in his translation and they are clearly misinterpreted, with female figures listed as male, canopic jars indicated to be idolatrous gods, and the Egyptian fertility god, Min (depicted in a painted relief above), labeled God, sitting on his throne. The image of Min in the facsimile included in Mormon scriptures is sporting a comically exaggerated erection. 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. Here's the account in his own words: Brigham Young wasn't the only latter-day prophet to have such close experiences with death. 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. The events at Mountain Meadows do not suggest a conspiracy, and certainly none involving Young. In the early days of the Church, it was common for members to be called to serve at young ages. 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. On September 11, 1857, 120 men, women and childrenpioneers from Arkansas headed for Californiawere massacred after being promised safe passage through a Southern Utah valley known as Mountain Meadows. Good history must be based on facts. However, Smith told as many as 10 versions of the story and many had serious contradictions. DJ Ferguson, 31, is in dire need of a new heart, but Brigham and. Young unambiguously condoned the attack afterwards. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. Two weeks later on Jan. 4, 2023, the home turned into a horrific crime scene after Michael Haight shot and killed his five children 4-year-old Gavin, 7-year-old twins Sienna and Ammon, 12-year-old Brilee, and 17-year-old Macie as well as 40-year-old Tausha and her mother, 78-year-old Gail Earl.