CHAPTER 1

A SULTAN'S SMALL BEGINNINGS

BRIGHAM YOUNG was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vermont, on the first day of June, 1801. He was the ninth child in a family of eleven. His mother's maiden name was Nabbie Howe. His father was John Young, who had been a farmer in Massachusetts, and who moved to Vermont a few months before the birth of his ninth child.

Both parents belonged to old New England stock, and probably were of unmixed English descent.

The Youngs at this time were very poor. Linn quotes a second-hand tradition which makes a town patriarch say: "Brigham Young's father came the poorest man that had ever been in town; he never owned a cow, horse or any land, but was a basket-maker." Passing the probable exaggeration of such tradition, we may remark that John Young raised eleven children to be competent, self-supporting members of society. Children were less expensive in those days than now; but surely even then the father of such a family did not deserve reproach merely for his poverty. Though poor, the Youngs had little in common with the family from which Joseph Smith sprung. John Young had served in the Revolutionary army under Washington. His father, Brigham's grandfather, was a surgeon in the colonial forces in the French and Indian war. The surgical knowledge of the eighteenth century did not make a very bulky package, but at that time it was not easy to get. The elder Young's occupation at least is proof of more than ordinary ambition, and probably of a fairly high order of intelligence and courage.

Such tradition as deals with the family of Brigham's mother tells little but vague rumors of "good connections," which may or may not be truth. Altogether, Brigham seems to have sprung from sound, thrifty stock, which had been faring rather hardly for at least one generation. In him the capacities of the breed rose to their highest level -- indeed, he well-nigh monopolized them. This history will furnish abundant proof that Brigham Young was a man of remarkable intelligence and character, and several of his descendants have shown unusual abilities. But of his brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, few have risen above mediocrity.

When Brigham was a child of three years, his parents moved to Chenango county, New York. They were still poor, though perhaps less destitute than during their stay in Vermont, and John Young could give his numerous offspring little in the way of education. Brigham started in life for himself at the age of sixteen, and without doubt he had contributed to the family treasury before that time. He was by turns a carpenter, painter, and glazier, a Jack-of-all-trades, like any other bright Yankee boy of that unspecialized period. He learned the glazier's trade thoroughly, and his knowledge of practical carpentry was useful to him on more than one important occasion in later life. There is little authentic information about Brigham's movements for the next few years. He located in another county; tradition says he spent a season in wandering, like other restless youngsters before and since. His parents were Methodists, and at the age of twenty-one he united with that church. Three years later, he married a Miss Miriam Works. She bore him two children, -- both daughters, -- followed him into the Mormon church, and died not long after, in 1832.

In a sermon in Salt Lake years afterwards, Brigham Young declared that he studied the Book of Mormon two years before accepting it as the word of God, and ordering his life by its teachings. The period of two years between his first acquaintance with the new religion and his acceptance of the same is undoubted; but the deep study implied must not be taken too literally. Neither then nor later was Brigham Young a great student of books, and the Book of Mormon is no exception. At no time in his career do we find him basing his conduct in a crisis on the texts in Joseph Smith's supplementary scripture. When supporting Smith against the rebels within the fold, when fighting Sidney Rigdon for mastery, and when unquestioned ruler of the church and all within its grasp, Young's pronunciamentos are always practical and immediate, never didactic and argumentative. They deal with men and things, never with fine-drawn interpretations and learned expositions of written guides to duty.

In 1829, Brigham moved to Mendon, Monroe county, New York, where his father and brother Phineas were living, and there first came into contact with the teachings of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith. Phineas was already a devotee of the new prophet, and at his house, in 1830, Brigham made acquaintance with the Book of Mormon. The daring creed attracted him from the beginning, though there is nothing to indicate that the chief centre of attraction was found in the new sacred book. Reading, discussing, arguing, and on rare occasions hearing a Mormon sermon, Brigham gradually dropped his lightly held Methodism, and accepted the divine mission of Joseph Smith. There is a story that after making up his mind to join the church, he went to Canada and brought his brother Joseph into the fold before offering himself for baptism. The tale is at least characteristic of the man.

On April 14, 1832, Brigham Young was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by one Ebanezur Miller, at Mendon, New York. Miller evidently thought he had obtained a prize, for he ordained his new convert an elder at the water's edge. The next day, Heber C. Kimball, already Brigham's devoted friend and adherent, followed his leader into the water to testify his faith that Joseph Smith was the prophet of God -- and his yet chore[sic] certain faith that Brigham Young knew what was best for both of them.

Henceforth, the fate of Brigham is bound up with the fate of Mormonism. His trials are the trials of a new religion; his successes the triumphs of the new theocracy. He spent the summer preaching to his friends and neighbours around Mendon, and early in the fall started for Kirtland, Ohio, to meet the new prophet to whom he had sworn allegiance.

Legend has busied itself for more than seventy years with that meeting, and the exact date and many other circumstances of the occasion are buried from sight. In the presence of the prophet, the gift of tongues descended upon Brigham, and he spoke in strange sounds. Thereupon, the gift of interpretation was vouchsafed to Prophet Smith, who declared that his new disciple was speaking in the "pure Adamic language" -- a dialect even more remote from the ken of scholars than "reformed Egyptian," and having the further merit of variety.

The Prophet of Mormonism had met its Business Manager.