So do some authors whove written about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Their beliefs on the subject extend so far as to dictate that a prophet can never lead people astray. Simpson murdered his wife. Brigham Young chosen to lead Mormon Church After Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism, and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered by. However, the revelation that Smith said he received commanding polygamy specifically forbade women marrying more than one man. 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. A teacher walks into the Classroom and says If only Yesterday was Tomorrow Today would have been a Saturday Which Day did the Teacher make this Statement? 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. 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 . Brigham Young's adopted son. What type of electrical charge does a proton have? Buy this book The curious mix of folklore, suspicion and myth that still attaches to the Mormon experience stems largely from the church that. Brigham Young (pictured) is revered by Mormons as the second prophet of modern times. A later biography of Ann Eliza Young termed her The Twenty-Seventh Wife. Its no coincidence, then, that pulp fiction and Hollywood have used these ingredientsmystery, conspiracy and mass murderfor years. 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. He stopped at the cairn the U.S. Armys First Dragoons had raised in 1859 over the grave of the emigrants whose scattered bones they had collected and buried. When it was over, men quarreled over responsibility, and many vowed that no one should ever know of their deadly work, including, presumably, Brigham Young. As the emigrants began to leave, Lee and the militia butchered the men, women, and most of the children. 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. He went on to become a missionary in England. He was removed from his post but, when Rigdon was still Smiths second-in-command, his input helped shape much of Mormon theology and he also gave the majority of important sermons to the earliest Mormon congregations. Young settled in Salt Lake City. He was ordained king and priest by the Council of Fifty, and acted accordingly. The trailer showed clips of the two of them being more involved in "Ted Lasso" Season 3, even if their roles may not be as big as some of the show's main characters. In return for surrendering their weapons, the emigrants would be allowed safe passage to Cedar City. On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were murdered by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. [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. Not historical conspiracies created by authors speculating about the past. Bridger Walker, 6, is being hailed as a hero for protecting his 4-year-old sister from a dog attack. And the suppressing of evidence, Andrew Hamilton said in 1735, ought always be taken for the best evidence.. When Mormons turned up to vote on election day that year, a drunken brawl broke out that resulted in Mormons being blocked from accessing the polls. The second explanation is that the massacre was a calculated act of vengeance. Young replied. The victims bodies were stripped naked and left to rot in the open air. 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.. The Center also supported student training for life-long temple and family history service. Not theories. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. When they turned up at the Smithsonian Institute in the 1920s, they were returned to the Mormon Church. 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. Why? There is a logic to this. He was a brother of the Mormon prophet, Brigham Young (1801-1877). 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. Sept. 11 was a tragic date in American history long before the terrorist attacks of 2001. He married -- was sealed to, in Mormon parlance -- young (Clarissa Decker, 15) and old (Hannah Tapfield King, 65). Polygamy has long been a blight on Mormonisms public relations. He was a model Latter-day Saint; a good man possessed in large measure with friendliness, integrity, optimism, and unswerving loyalty to his leaders., Smith had a strong relationship with both the Prophet Joseph Smith and President Brigham Young during his apostleship. There are two ways to interpret the evidence about who ordered the brutal murder of 120 men, women and children at a remote Utah oasis on the road to California on September 11, 1857. Theres one answer to all these questions: Brigham Young ordered the murders as a righteous act of vengeance. Speaking of lineage, I should like to explain to you that whatever your great-grandparents or forebears did cannot be grafted into your own life. The latter is filed in sequential order in Youngs well-preserved and bound letter books. Read a news summary of this talk. An anti-Mormon mob killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois. One of his wives alleged he ordered the deaths of people who tried to leave the faith. But history is not assumption. 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. In theearly church years, the method of judging apostolic seniority was base on the date of ordination. They were reacting to events as they took place. Early in his life, Phineas was a Methodist preacher.[1]. Fiery yet full of doubt, frequently ill yet strong when it . Finally, why has so much evidence been destroyed or purged from Mormon archives, and why has so much evidence been suppressed? [6] Young was present in Richmond, Missouri when Cowdery died. He dedicated his whole life to church service and made a significant contribution in the early days of the Church. How many 5 letter words can you make from Cat in the Hat? Catholicism has the Inquisition and the Crusades. Even though Bennets claims were never directly supported by others, they were implicitly supported by William Law, the man who was Joseph Smiths right-hand man at the time. 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. 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. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The emigrants passed through Salt Lake City in early August, and headed south. 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. 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. Smith sold Young a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him that it had been translated from ancient records by his brother Joseph Smith. According to her, they would try to leave Utah then turn up murdered (supposedly by Native Americans) along the way. Brigham Young later privately set apart three other sons and Joseph F. Smith as apostles who served as "assistant Counselors to the First Presidency." 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. Five bank robbers convicted of, Tensions over Chinese immigrant labor came to a head in Rock Springs, Wyoming on September, The Fall Creek Massacre was all too typicalseven whites murdering nine Indians in Indiana in. Brigham Young tried to stop the massacre. 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 following are a few facts necessary for an understanding of this terrible event in Western and Mormon history. Brigham Young clearly wasn't free of his ex-wife just yet. Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. Brigham Young had no tolerance for Mormons who began to doubt the faith. Jun 2021 - Present1 year 10 months. On August 29, 1877, Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City at. Young said that the company that was used up at Mountain Meadows were the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and connections of those that murdered the prophets; they merited their fate, and the only thing that ever troubled him was the lives of the women and children, but that under the circumstances this could not be avoided. 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). 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. Rockwell never directly denied the crime, even when he was tried for it, insisting, Ive never shot at anybody. He died of appendicitis in August of 1877. After the extermination order, the Mormons left for Nauvoo, Illinois, but their bad experiences in Missouri would never be forgotten. With Congress repeatedly rejecting proposals for Utah statehood, Young firmly resisted the territorys involvement in the Civil War, especially after passage of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in 1862, which effectively outlawed plural marriage in U.S. territories. However, church president Joseph Smith insisted that his brother William Smith be selected in place of Young. Mormons believe that Joseph Smith had a vision in 1820 in which he saw God and Jesus (first vision depicted in a sculpture above). On the 7th, Lee attacked with militia men and some Paiute Indians he had recruited. 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 several speeches given to large gatherings of Latter-day Saints, he proclaimed that the only way a person could be absolved of the sin of leaving Mormonism would be for that person to have his or her blood spilled on the ground. True West asked the authors of both books to lay out their claims. Richards. 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. Hiding Rockwells role in expressing Eleanor to Utah from my late friend Hal was evidence that had been carefully suppressed. Appointed governor by President Millard Fillmore, Brigham Young was able to continue imposing his will on the territory politically as well as ecclesiastically. Because the historical past will always be opaque, historians must seek the weight of evidence, and in this case, the preponderance suggests Youngs innocence. 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. They are also fascinated by stories of murder and especially murder on a grand scale. The former BYU student (in the 1960s) and president (1980-1989) expressed his deep love for the university, noted the blessings of a school focused on . Brigham Young, ca 1850 Brigham Young was born June 1, 1801 in Whittingham, Vermont. With no additional evidence, some historians have pointed to a Native American council held in Salt Lake City on September 1, 1857. Prosecutors in New York City are investigating an incident in which a jazz musician said his 14-year-old son was attacked by a woman who falsely accused him of taking her iPhone. In short, Youngs letter must be taken at face value: It was a determined, almost frantic, attempt to stop the massacre. In 1835, the Three Witnesses selected Young as one of the inaugural members of the Quorum of the Twelve. 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. Young denounced Justice Perry Brocchus as either profoundly ignorant or corruptly wicked soon after his arrival, and ultimately all three federal officers gave up hopes of effective cooperation and left the territory. 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. Why did he threaten honest men who called for justice in the matter? Western Pride Enterprise. After the death of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, the mantle of leader of the church was up for grabs. Did Brigham Young Approve the Attack? Of course, anti-Young historians say otherwise. And why does the Deseret News continue lying about Mountain Meadows to this day? Mormons are a religious group that embrace concepts of Christianity as well as revelations made by their founder, Joseph Smith. The Latter-day Saint community [in Las Vegas is] vibrant across every facetpolitically, public service, charitable. [5], Young was married to Lucy, the half-sister of Oliver Cowdery. Dates 1940-1970 Creator Mackay, Eleanor White (Person) Language of Materials Materials are in English. Of course, there's also the Opening Ceremony, the Cougar Run, a football game, and more. Particularly telling is the testimony of those who did the killing at the Meadows. Seeking a place where they could avoid the persecution that had driven them from Ohio and Missouri, Young and the other apostles planned a westward exodus of thousands of Mormons from the settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois to the Great Salt Lake Valley, then part of Mexico. But that life would rest read more, Mountains, high plateaus and deserts form most of Utahs landscape. Here's the account in his own words: Brigham Young wasn't the only latter-day prophet to have such close experiences with death. 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. Some of his brides were as young as 14, and he even married women who already had living husbands. The Christian faith centers on beliefs regarding the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, Smith told as many as 10 versions of the story and many had serious contradictions. There is room for my brown paper-doll family: 2 gospel truths I learned as a young girl that carry my faith, Bright lights in the desert: How Latter-day Saints have shaped Las Vegas culture, community, and politics, See the stunning winners of the Churchs International Art Competition. 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. In 1853, he became the second counselor to David Fullmer in the presidency of the Salt Lake Stake of the church. For instance, Joseph Smith was once attacked by an apostate from the Church, William Law, who "attempted to kill Joseph and fired a pistol at him six times at close range. That admonition includes charging Brigham Young with crimes that he did not commit. No other group of people [comes] close.. Critics assume, yes. Brigham Young Pioneer Prophet. The little boy and his sister were at a friend's house in Wyoming earlier this month when a 1 . A young boy has died and his mother has been hospitalized after being attacked by a pack of dogs over the weekend, according to tribal authorities. Brigham Young had six sisters and four brothers. No credible evidence exists that Young wanted the massacre. 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. Despite a growing bitterness toward his former mentor, Lee refused. After Cowdery was excommunicated from the church in 1838, Young wrote him several letters pleading with him to come back into the church. In 1870, church leaders quietly excommunicated Isaac Haight, John D. Lee, and militia leader George Wood. Brigham Young (pictured) is revered by Mormons as the second prophet of modern times. A devoted missionary and supporter of Smith, Young was ordained as one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a church governing body, in 1835; he became its president four years later. Over the next few decades, as thousands of Mormons arrived in Salt Lake City, the charismatic Young styled himself after the great prophets and leaders of ancient Israel, earning nicknames like Lion of the Lord and American Moses.. Cold Milk 07. October 11, 1973. Egyptologists (both Mormon and non-Mormon) were invited to view the scrolls and translate them, but they found that the scrolls were ordinary funerary texts that had nothing to do with Abraham. 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. According to the record, Alma the Younger was "a very wicked and an idolatrous man. Women in Utah were treated like a commodity, with Church apostle Heber C. Kimball once observing, I would think nothing more of taking a wife than of buying a cow. Men married additional women to show their status as righteous men who were devoted to their faith and would often marry more women than they could afford to support, keeping the less-liked wives in other towns and forcing them to earn their own living. 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. 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. "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." 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. These clear and difficult-to-misread words were rushed to Cedar City after Young received an express from local setters there telling him of pending trouble. Such a day-by-day approach yields new understanding. George A. Smith died in 1875 at age 58. He promised they wouldnt stop until the last drop of blood was spilled. It creates a sensation and sells books. If I shoot, they get shot. 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). They looted and gutted shops and set fire to numerous homes, stores, and government buildings until nearly all homes in Daviess County not owned by Mormons were destroyed. Most recently, Will Bagley made this case in his 2002 book, Blood of the Prophets. 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.