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110-553: The United Order established egalitarian communities designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty, and increase group self-sufficiency. The movement had much in common with other communalist utopian societies formed in the United States and Europe during the Second Great Awakening , which sought to govern aspects of people's lives through precepts of faith and community organization. The Latter Day Saint United Order

220-822: A marble statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol , donated by the State of Utah in 1950; and a statue atop the This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City. Young believed in the racial superiority of white men. His manuscript history from January 5, 1852, which was published in the Deseret News , reads: The negro … should serve the seed of Abraham; he should not be

330-572: A cooperative venture based on statements in the Book of Acts . Members of "The Morley family" were originally followers of Sidney Rigdon , a minister associated with the Restoration Movement who later converted to Mormonism. Many of these communalists also joined the new church and several, including Isaac Morley, served in leadership positions. Levi Hancock records an early event wherein a "family member" stole his pocket watch and sold it, claiming it

440-460: A family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children." Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage. One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was

550-663: A few miles east of Kirtland, on a farm owned by Leman Copley . Saints from Seneca County were assigned to the Morley farm. Partridge attempted to implement the United Order in Thompson; however, disagreements broke out and he was unsuccessful. Shortly after, Smith announced a revelation directing Newel Knight to lead the saints on the Copley farm to settle in Missouri. Originally, the United Order

660-402: A few people making choices that will affect the whole group. If the group shares assets (income, vehicles, etc.), they are distributed equitably throughout the group, and each member has access to more-or-less the same resources as any other member. Egalitarian communities are a type of commune (some communal groups are not egalitarian in nature). An "egalitarian decision" is a decision made by

770-580: A gold mint in 1849 and called for the minting of coins using gold dust that had been accumulated from travelers during the Gold Rush. The mint was closed in 1861 by Alfred Cumming , gubernatorial successor to Young. Young also organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley. It was established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret; its name was eventually changed to

880-512: A group as opposed to a single individual. The decision may be made by committee or elected members but still is an egalitarian decision. The Federation of Egalitarian Communities is a network of communal groups in North America with values including egalitarianism, non-violence , income-sharing and cooperation . Brigham Young Brigham Young ( / ˈ b r ɪ ɡ əm / BRIG -əm ; June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877)

990-665: A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . On May 4, 1835, Young and other apostles went on a mission to the east coast, specifically in Pennsylvania and New York. His call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people. In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of

1100-502: A mission to raise funds for the Nauvoo temple and its guesthouse. Young's six-year-old daughter Mary Ann died while he was on this mission. On November 22, 1843, Young and his wife Mary Ann received the second anointing , a ritual that assured them that their salvation and exaltation would occur. In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty , which later organized

1210-559: A new First Presidency with Young as president of the church. A church conference held in Iowa sustained Young and his First Presidency on December 27, 1847. Not all church members followed Young. Rigdon became the president of a separate church organization based in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, and several other potential successors emerged to lead what became other denominations of the movement. Before departing Nauvoo, Young focused on completing

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1320-511: A non-Mormon governor. Buchanan accepted the reports of the Runaway Officials without any further investigation, and the new non-sectarian governor was appointed and sent to the new territory accompanied by 2,500 soldiers. When Young received word in July that federal troops were headed to Utah with his replacement, he called out his militia to ambush the federal force using delaying tactics. During

1430-403: A ruler, nor vote for men to rule over me nor my brethren. The Constitution of Deseret is silent upon this, we meant it should be so. The seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. … The decree of God that Canaan should be a servant of servants unto his brethren (i.e., Shem and Japhet [sic]) is in full force. The day will come when the seed of Canaan will be redeemed and have all

1540-554: A sense of unity and brotherhood within Latter Day Saint communities. The LDS Church's view is that the doctrine and the various attempts at practicing it should not be seen as part of the 19th-century utopian movement in the United States, and is distinct from both Marxist communism and capitalism. Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 20th century sought to make a clear distinction between Marxist communism and

1650-709: A small house adjacent to a pail factory, which was Young's main place of employment at the time. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on September 26, 1825. According to William Hayden, Young participated in the Bucksville Forensic and Oratorical Society. Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible. Upon joining the Methodists, he insisted on being baptized by immersion rather than by their normal practice of sprinkling . In 1828,

1760-411: A spokesman and that the twelve apostles, not Rigdon, had "the fullness of the priesthood" necessary to succeed Smith's leadership. Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle. The majority of attendants voted that the Quorum of the Twelve was to lead the church. Many of Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts (the earliest in 1850 and

1870-510: A thorough reform." Large gatherings and meetings during this period were conducted by Young and Grant, and Young played a key role in the circulation of the Mormon Reformation with his emphasis on plural marriage , rebaptism , and passionate preaching and oration. It was during this period that the controversial doctrine of blood atonement was occasionally preached by Young, though it was repudiated in 1889 and never practiced by members of

1980-464: A way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young. Young is generally considered to have instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency. After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced

2090-564: A widow named Hannah Brown and sent Young off to learn a trade. Young moved to Auburn, New York , where he was an apprentice to John C. Jeffries. He worked as a carpenter , glazier , and painter . One of the homes that Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to Elijah Miller and later to William Seward , and is now a local museum . With the onset of the Panic of 1819 , Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship, and Young moved to Port Byron , which

2200-476: Is a "counterfeit" version of the law of consecration. In 1942, the church issued the following statement: Communism and all other similar isms bear no relationship whatever to the United Order. They are merely the clumsy counterfeits which Satan always devises of the Gospel plan ... The United Order leaves every man free to choose his own religion as his conscience directs. Communism destroys man's God-given free agency;

2310-531: Is believed that he died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix . His last words were "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!", invoking the name of the late Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. On September 2, 1877, Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance. He is buried on the grounds of the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument in

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2420-500: Is disputed. Leonard J. Arrington reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the Fancher party be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested. Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after

2530-522: Is the longest-serving president of the LDS Church to date, having served for 29 years. During time as prophet and governor, Young encouraged bishops to establish grade schools for their congregations, which would be supported by volunteer work and tithing payments . Young viewed education as a process of learning how to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth, and at the core of his "philosophy of education"

2640-509: The Adam–God doctrine . According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted . From another planet, Adam brought Eve , one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing

2750-679: The Apostolic United Brethren and Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), have revived the practice. The United Order was also practiced by the liberal Mormon sect called the United Order Family of Christ and the Cutlerite sect the Church of Jesus Christ . Joseph Smith learned of a group of about 50 people known as "the family" living on Isaac Morley 's farm near Kirtland, Ohio , who had established

2860-490: The Community of Christ , consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy". In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised

2970-584: The Doctrine and Covenants . He oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836. Shortly afterwards, Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England. On this mission, he visited the family of his aunt, Rhoda Howe Richards. They converted to the church, including his cousin Willard Richards . In August 1837, Young went on another mission to

3080-470: The Kirtland Temple and went to a grammar school. His third child and first son, Joseph A. Young , was born shortly after his return. Mary Ann, who was pregnant at the time, had provided for Young's two daughters and the children of her brother Solomon Angell and their friend Lorenzo Booth while Young was away with Zion's Camp. At a conference on February 14, 1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained

3190-641: The Latter Day Saint movement —Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen—came from the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania , to preach in Mendon. A key element of the teachings of this group in Young's eyes was their practicing of spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife, Miriam, and Heber C. Kimball to visit

3300-674: The New York Tribune that he considered slavery a "divine institution   ... not to be abolished". In 1856, Young organized an efficient mail service known as the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which transported mail and passengers between Missouri and California. In 1858, following the events of the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre , he stepped down to his gubernatorial successor, Alfred Cumming . Young

3410-516: The Salt Lake Valley , which was then part of Mexico. Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska , in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the final destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico , although U.S. sovereignty would not be confirmed until 1848 . Young arrived in

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3520-701: The United Order of Enoch . Young was also involved in the organization of the Salt Lake Gas Works, the Salt Lake Water Works, an insurance company, a bank, and the ZCMI store in downtown Salt Lake City. In 1873, he announced that he would step down as president of the Deseret National Bank and of ZCMI, as well as from his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. He cited as his reason for this that he

3630-503: The University of Utah . In 1849, Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the Deseret News periodical. In 1851, Young and several federal officials—including territorial Secretary Broughton Harris —became unable to work cooperatively. Within months, Harris and the others departed their Utah appointments without replacements being named, and their posts remained unfilled for

3740-666: The 30 years between the Mormons' arrival in Utah in 1847 and [his death in] 1877, Young directed the founding of 350 towns in the Southwest. Thereby the Mormons became the most important single agency in colonizing that vast arid West between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada . Memorials to Young include a bronze statue in front of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, Brigham Young University;

3850-539: The Church was that of the Ezra T. Clark Family, referred to internally as 'The Firm'. With the permission and blessing of Brigham Young , Clark established the order within his own family at Farmington which lasted from the 1870s until it was dissolved on July 24, 1901, months before the patriarch's death. Originally, Clark was chosen as treasurer of the Farmington, Utah Order, but an astute businessman, intimately acquainted with

3960-537: The Eastern seaboard. During his time in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of plural marriage among church leaders. Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842. Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England. Brotherton signed an affidavit saying that she had been pressured by Young and then Smith to accept polygamy. The affidavit

4070-629: The Kimball family later that summer. Here he became acquainted with Mary Ann Angell , a convert to the faith from Rhode Island , and the two were married in February 1834 and obtained a marriage certificate on March 31, 1834. In May 1834, Young became a member of Zion's Camp and traveled to Missouri. He returned to Kirtland with members of the camp in August. After his return to Kirtland, Young did carpentry, painting, and glazing work to earn money. He also worked on

4180-660: The Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country." The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became Brigham Young Academy in 1876 under the leadership of Karl G. Maeser , and was the precursor to Brigham Young University . Within the church, Young reorganized the Relief Society for women in 1867 and created organizations for young women in 1869 and young men in 1875. The Young Women organization

4290-510: The Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed. Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from

4400-462: The Mormon exodus from Nauvoo. In 1844, Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his presidential campaign . In June 1844, while Young was away, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason. Young did not learn of the assassination until early July. Several claimants to fill the leadership vacuum emerged during

4510-415: The Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land. Young was dubbed by his followers the "Lion of the Lord" for his bold personality and commonly was called "Brother Brigham" by Latter-day Saints . A century after Young's death, historian Rodman W. Paul wrote, [Joseph Smith] was succeeded by one of the outstanding organizers of the 19th century, Brigham Young. If

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4620-662: The Native Americans. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, for the construction of the First transcontinental railroad . He also authorized the construction of the Utah Central railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad. Young organized the first Utah Territorial Legislature and established Fillmore as the territory's first capital. Young established

4730-545: The Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first baptisms for the dead in the unfinished Nauvoo temple. He joined the Masons in Nauvoo on April 7, 1842, and participated in an early endowment ritual led by Joseph Smith that May and became part of the Anointed Quorum . Young and the other apostles directed the church's missionary work and the immigration of new converts from this point forward. Young served another mission to

4840-528: The Nauvoo temple. After the exterior was completed on December 10, 1845, members received their temple endowments day and night, and Young officiated many of these sessions. An estimated 5,000 members were endowed between December 10, 1845, and February 1846. With the repealing of Nauvoo's charter in January 1845, church members in Nauvoo lost their courts, police, and militia, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by mobs. Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on

4950-507: The Order would share the cooperative's net income, often divided into shares based on the amount of property originally contributed. Sometimes, the members of the Order would receive wages for their work on the communal property. The cooperative plan was used in at least 200 Mormon communities, most of them in rural areas outlying the central Mormon settlements near the Great Salt Lake . Most of

5060-403: The Reformed Methodist Church and become a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church possessing the true authority of Jesus Christ . Sometime in 1830, Young was introduced to the Book of Mormon by way of a copy that his brother, Phineas Howe, had obtained from Samuel H. Smith . Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon. In 1831, five missionaries of

5170-471: The Salt Lake Temple was under construction. The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the Journal of Discourses . The LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876. Though polygamy was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith, the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as

5280-498: The Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, a date now recognized as Pioneer Day in Utah. Two days after their arrival, Young and the Twelve Apostles climbed the peak just north of the city and raised the American flag, calling it the "Ensign of Liberty". Among Young's first acts upon arriving in the valley were the naming of the city as "The City of the Great Salt Lake" and its organization into blocks of ten acres, each divided into eight equal-sized lots. On August 7, Young suggested that

5390-487: The Salt Lake Valley, Young designated the location for the Salt Lake Temple ; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6, 1853. During his tenure, Young oversaw construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and announced plans to build the St. George (1871), Manti (1875), and Logan (1877) temples. He also provisioned the building of the Endowment House , a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple ordinances to church members while

5500-409: The Territory, preaching to Latter-day Saint communities and settlements with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were rebaptized as a symbol of their commitment. At a church meeting on September 21, 1856, Brigham Young stated: "We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need

5610-412: The United Kingdom. There, he showed a talent for organizing the church's work and maintaining good relationships with Joseph Smith and the other apostles. Under his leadership, members in the United Kingdom began publishing Millennial Star , a hymnal, and a new edition of the Book of Mormon. Young also served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo. He joined

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5720-413: The United Order glorifies it. Latter-day Saints cannot be true to their faith and lend aid, encouragement, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies. Nevertheless, communal unity and equality are central tenets of the Latter Day Saint doctrine of Zion as described in Moses 7:18 , "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there

5830-442: The United Order was short-lived. By the time of Young's death in 1877, most of his United Orders had failed. By the end of the 19th century, the Orders were essentially extinct. Historian Andrew Karl Larson pointed out that the failure of these ventures are rooted in the frailties of human nature: Some leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that the United Order will be reestablished some time in

5940-493: The United Order. Members of the church who chose to participate in the United Order voluntarily deeded their properties to the church, which would then give all or a portion of it back to the original property owner as a stewardship. The "residue," or property which was over and above what the owner and his family required for themselves, was used by the church to provide to the less fortunate, who would be required to pay it back either monetarily or by labor. The private property owner

6050-449: The alphabet was used in two Deseret News articles, two elementary readers, and in a translation of the Book of Mormon . By 1870, it had all but disappeared from use. Young was involved in temple building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president. Under Smith's leadership, Young participated in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. Just four days after arriving in

6160-400: The ban, which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the endowment or sealings . On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain". In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain,

6270-471: The branch of the church in Columbia. After meeting Joseph Smith , Young joined the Church of Christ in April 9, 1832. He was baptized by Eleazer Miller. Young's siblings and their spouses were baptized that year or the year afterwards. In April 1832, a branch of the church was organized in Mendon; eight of the fifteen families were Youngs. There, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues, and in response, Young also spoke in tongues. Young and Kimball spent

6380-459: The church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was sustained as the second president of the church on December 27, 1847, at Winter Quarters. Young named Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor and Willard Richards as his second. Young and his counselors were again sustained unanimously by church members at a church conference in Salt Lake City in September 1850. The Utah Territory

6490-891: The church. The Reformation appeared to have ended completely by early 1858. Shortly after the arrival of Young's pioneers, the new Latter-day Saint colonies were incorporated into the United States through the Mexican Cession . Young petitioned the U.S. Congress to create the State of Deseret . The Compromise of 1850 instead carved out Utah Territory, and Young was appointed governor. As governor and church president, Young directed both religious and economic matters. He encouraged independence and self-sufficiency. Many cities and towns in Utah, and some in neighboring states, were founded under Young's direction. Young's leadership style has been viewed as autocratic. When federal officials received reports of widespread and systematic obstruction of federal officials in Utah (most notably judges), U.S. President James Buchanan decided in early 1857 to install

6600-406: The circumstances of his life had worked out differently [he] might have become a captain of industry —an Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller or a railroad builder. Instead, this able, energetic, earthy man became the absolute ruler and the revered, genuinely loved father figure of all Mormons everywhere. He credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West: During

6710-417: The communities held out for only two or three years before returning to a more standard economic system. One of the last United Order corporations established the new community of Bunkerville, Nevada , in 1877. In 1880, the Bunkerville cooperative dissolved under pressure from limited water and a lack of individual dedication and initiative. Like the United Order established by Smith, Young's experiment with

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6820-424: The community disruption caused by the Utah War . It was not until 1874 that Young initiated the United Order of Enoch , beginning in St. George, Utah , on February 9, 1874. There were a number of differences between the United Order of Enoch and United Order communities established years earlier by Joseph Smith. Under Young's leadership, producers would generally deed their property to the Order, and all members of

6930-408: The defense of Utah, now called the Utah War, Young held the U.S. Army at bay for a winter by taking their cattle and burning supply wagons. Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor. Buchanan later pardoned Young. The degree of Young's involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre , which took place in Washington County in 1857,

7040-414: The difficulties of this and other Orders, Clark withdrew, feeling he could establish an Order successfully with his own family comprising 14 boys and four girls from two wives. The Firm' proved successful in imbuing the all the spiritual principals for which they were devised in addition to being a commercial success by all measures. Private property was not abolished and sharing of goods was voluntary under

7150-415: The eastern states. He then returned to Kirtland where he remained until dissenters, unhappy with the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society , forced him to flee the community in December 1837. He then stayed for a short time in Dublin, Indiana , with his brother Lorenzo before moving to Far West, Missouri , in 1838. He was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri. He became

7260-409: The establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts, and irrigation projects; established public welfare; organized a militia; issued a "selective extermination" order against male Timpanogos ; and after a series of wars, eventually made peace with

7370-429: The family moved briefly to Oswego, New York , on the shore of Lake Ontario, and in 1828 to Mendon, New York . Young's father, two brothers, and sister had already moved to Mendon. In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with Heber C. Kimball , an early member of the LDS Church. Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill. By the time Young moved to Mendon in 1828, he had effectively left

7480-426: The first bishop of the church. Five days later, on February 9, 1831, Smith described a second revelation detailing the law of consecration . Smith said he had received a revelation directing the Latter Day Saints to impart of their land and money to the church. Partridge assigned the incoming saints from New York lots according to another revelation. Smith directed Colesville immigrants to settle in Thompson, Ohio ,

7590-411: The four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity." These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president Spencer W. Kimball , and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban, essentially attributing

7700-445: The future. Many leaders have taught that the church's present system of welfare and humanitarian aid is a predecessor or stepping stone to the renewed practice of the United Order in the future. Many United Order communities were set up amongst Mormon towns beginning in 1874. One in particular was the United Order of Kanab , which was a settlement initiated by Brigham Young . Kanab was established in 1870. That year, John R. Young and

7810-572: The heart of Salt Lake City. A bronze marker was placed at the grave site June 10, 1938, by members of the Young Men and Young Women organizations, which he founded. Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others. These included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, a railroad, and the manufacturing of processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and liquor. Young achieved greatest success in real estate. He also tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing collectivist communities, known as

7920-658: The human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine. Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement , in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin , which included apostasy , theft , fornication (but not sodomy ), or adultery . Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in

8030-490: The latest in 1920) that when Young spoke to the congregation, he miraculously looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God. Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency. He also led the Anointed Quorum. Young led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve until December 5, 1847, when the quorum unanimously agreed to organize

8140-662: The law of consecration as practiced by the United Order, teaching that the practices differed as related to the topics of free will, private property, and deity. The law of consecration and the United Order can be compared to the shared economic arrangement presented in the New Testament as practiced by 1st-century Christians in Jerusalem. In the 20th century, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including David O. McKay , Harold B. Lee , Ezra Taft Benson , Marion G. Romney , and J. Reuben Clark , claimed that communism

8250-548: The learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University . A polygamist , Young had at least 56 wives and 57 children. He formalized the prohibition of black men attaining priesthood , and led the church in the Utah War against the United States . Young was born on June 1, 1801, in Whitingham, Vermont . He was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe. Young's father

8360-450: The local bishop, Levi Stewart, began colonizing this area and twelve families followed to begin this endeavor. There was confusion as to who was the leader of this society. LDS Church authorities appointed the bishop and only they could revoke his status. But many wanted to elect John R. Young as president because he was related to LDS Church president Brigham Young. This conflict of power lasted until January 5, 1875, when Levi Stewart became

8470-405: The massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and

8580-531: The members of the camp be re-baptized to signify a re-dedication to their beliefs and covenants. Young spent just over a month in the Valley recovering from mountain fever before returning to Winter Quarters on August 31. Young's expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks, and he made various trips back and forth between the Salt Lake Valley and Winter Quarters to assist other companies in their journeys. After three years of leading

8690-558: The monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the Spanish Trail through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little". Before his death in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, Young suffered from cholera morbus and inflammation of the bowels. It

8800-605: The murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer James Henry Carleton had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a cairn of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years,

8910-670: The next two years. These individuals later became known as the Runaway Officials of 1851 . Young supported slavery and its expansion into Utah and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service , based on his beliefs on slavery . Young said in an 1852 speech, "In as much as we believe in the Bible   ... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses   ... which they have brought upon themselves." Seven years later in 1859, Young stated in an interview with

9020-510: The oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River . When Joseph Smith arrived in Far West, he appointed Young, along with Thomas Marsh and David Patten, as "presidency pro tem" in Missouri. Under Young's direction, the quorum organized the exodus of Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois in 1838. Young also served a year-long mission to

9130-554: The origins of the ban solely to Young. During 1856 and 1857, a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the church known as the Mormon Reformation took place under Young's direction. The Mormon Reformation called for a spiritual reawakening among members of the church and took place largely in the Utah Territory . Jedediah M. Grant , one of the key figures of the Reformation and one of Young's counselors, traveled throughout

9240-412: The outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo. Young negotiated with Stephen A. Douglas and agreed to lead church members out of Nauvoo in the spring in exchange for peace. Some Mormons counterfeited American and Mexican money, and a grand jury indicted Young and other church leaders in 1845. When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Young, he sent William Miller out in Young's hat and cloak. Miller

9350-414: The penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human polygenesis , being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation. Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that

9460-495: The president. Eventually, Stewart resigned from his position and L. John Nuttall of Provo took his place. Other families followed that were either unhappy in their own lives or were from other failing colonies. By 1874, there were 81 families and about 17% of the men that lived in this community practiced polygamy . The households were simple in structure and were usually two to three bedrooms. There were about three children per mother in every household and polygamous wives lived in

9570-406: The property, and the life under the United Order was not a communal life. ... The United Order is an individualistic system, not a communal system. Lorenzo Snow , a president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also highlighted the United Order's preservation of individual free will: In things that pertain to celestial glory there can be no forced operations. We must do according as

9680-429: The property; private property was not eradicated but was rather a fundamental principle of this system. At the end of each year, any excess that the family produced from their stewardship was voluntarily given back to the Order. The Order in each community was operated by the local bishop . The United Order is not practiced within mainstream Mormonism today; however, a number of groups of Mormon fundamentalists , such as

9790-465: The same home as well. Large families in all Mormon communities were regarded as a spiritual practice and the child to woman ratio in Kanab reflected that. The main source of income for the community was raising livestock. Most of their wealth was in livestock, vehicles, and shares of stock in corporate enterprises. The land and the improvements made up the remainder of their wealth. This particular United Order

9900-440: The spirit of the Lord operates upon our understandings and feelings. We cannot be crowded into matters, however great might be the blessing attending such procedure. We cannot be forced into living a celestial law; we must do this ourselves, of our own free will. And whatever we do in regard to the principle of the United Order, we must do it because we desire to do it. This United Order was an attempt to eradicate poverty and promote

10010-419: The succession crisis that ensued. Church members gathered at a meeting on August 8, 1844 with the intent to choose between two claimants, Young and Sidney Rigdon , the senior surviving member of the church's First Presidency . At the meeting, Rigdon argued no one could succeed Smith and that he (Rigdon) should become Smith's "spokesman" and guardian of the church. Young argued that the church needed more than

10120-489: The summer following their baptism conducting missionary work in western New York, while Vilate Kimball cared for Young's family. After Miriam died of consumption, Vilate continued to care for Brigham's children while he, Heber, and Joseph Young traveled to visit Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. During the visit, Brigham spoke in a tongue that Smith identified as the " Adamic language ". After visiting Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Brigham set out to preach with his brother Joseph in

10230-544: The wealth people had was movable. The number of families moving three or more times was below 50. Only 23 families moved four times or more and 13 moved five times or more. By 1880, the United Order at Kanab had greatly decreased. Only 32 families remained of the original 81 families that came within the first year of its establishment. Many eventually migrated to Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Mexico. The young men tended to leave home before they were married and started families of their own. The longest known surviving Order in

10340-498: The winter of 1832–1833. Joseph had been a Reformed Methodist preacher and the two made a similar "preaching circuit" in eastern Canada. They described the Book of Mormon as the "stick of Joseph", mentioned in Ezekiel 37. Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833. Young and his two daughters moved to Kirtland along with

10450-474: Was "all in the family." Smith was troubled because of the number of members joining the church in poverty in Kirtland, Ohio . Revenue was needed for the church to publish books and tracts. At this time, Smith and Rigdon were both in economic distress. Smith and his wife Emma lived on the Morley farm for a period of time. On February 4, 1831, Smith said he had received a revelation calling Edward Partridge to be

10560-561: Was a farmer, and when Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in Chenango County . Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write. At age twelve, he moved with his parents to the township of Genoa , close to Cayuga Lake . His mother died of tuberculosis in June 1815. Following her death, he moved with his father to Tyrone, New York . While there, Young's father remarried to

10670-440: Was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as church president, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers , west from Nauvoo, Illinois , to the Salt Lake Valley . He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory . Young also worked to establish

10780-489: Was arrested but released when it was discovered he was not Brigham Young. Young himself condemned the counterfeiting. John Turner's biography states: "it remains unclear whether Young [...] had sanctioned the bogus-making operation". The indictment of Young and other leaders, combined with rumors that troops would prevent the Mormons from leaving, led Young to start their exodus in February 1846. Repeated conflict in Nauvoo led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to

10890-726: Was created at John C. Bennett 's request, after his excommunication and in conjunction with his distribution of false information combined with true information about the church's practice of polygamy. Brigham Young and William Smith discredited Brotherton's character, and Brotherton herself did not associate with the church afterwards. Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy. He also helped to convince Hyrum to accept polygamy. Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife. Young knew her father, Isaac Decker, in New York. Lucy

11000-505: Was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850, and as colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City , Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of American Indian affairs by President Millard Fillmore on February 3, 1851. He was sworn in by Justice Daniel H. Wells for a salary of $ 1,500 a year and named as superintendent of Indian Affairs for an additional $ 1,000. During his time as governor, Young directed

11110-743: Was first called the Retrenchment Association and was intended to promote the turning of young girls away from the costly and extravagant ways of the world. It later became known as the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and was a charter member of the National Council of Women and International Council of Women. Young also organized a committee to refine the Deseret alphabet —a phonetic alphabet that had been developed sometime between 1847 and 1854. At its prime,

11220-525: Was intended to be "an everlasting order for the benefit of my church, and for the salvation of men until I come". In practice, however, the Order was relatively short-lived during Smith's life. From 1855 to 1858, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) once again considered living under the United Order. During this period, under the leadership of Brigham Young , church members were instructed to prepare deeds of consecration , but these deeds were never acted upon perhaps due to

11330-487: Was more family- and property-oriented than the utopian experiments at Brook Farm and the Oneida Community . Membership in the United Order was voluntary, although during a period in the 1830s, it was a requirement of continued church membership. Participants would deed ( consecrate ) all their property to the United Order, which would in turn deed back an "inheritance" (or "stewardship") which allowed members to control

11440-441: Was no poor among them." Egalitarian communities Egalitarian communities are groups of people who have chosen to live together, with egalitarianism as one of their core values. A broad definition of egalitarianism is "equal access to resources and to decision-making power." For example, decision-making is done by consensus or another system in which each person has a voice; it is not done hierarchically with only one or

11550-583: Was not forced to participate in the Order nor was his property forcefully confiscated. Private property owners were free to join or leave the orders and were in control of their stewardship. J. Reuben Clark , a member of the First Presidency , explained: The fundamental principle of this system was the private ownership of property. Each man owned his portion, or inheritance, or stewardship, with an absolute title, which he could alienate, or hypothecate, or otherwise treat as his own. The church did not own all of

11660-434: Was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs". At the time of his death, Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $ 600,000 (equivalent to $ 17,200,000 in 2023). Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American Moses " (alternatively, "Modern Moses" or "Mormon Moses"), because, like the biblical figure, Young led his followers,

11770-880: Was still married to William Seeley when Young married her. Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo. Lucy and Young had seven children together. Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo. While in Nauvoo, he married Clarissa Decker, Clarissa Ross, Emily Dow Partidge, Louisa Beaman, Margaret Maria Alley, Emmeline Free, Margaret Piece, and Zina Diantha Huntington. These wives bore him children after they moved to Utah. He also married in Nauvoo, but did not have children with Augusta Adams Cobb, Susannah Snively, Eliza Bowker, Ellen A. Rockwood, and Namah K. J. Carter. Eight of Young's plural marriages in Nauvoo were to Joseph Smith's widows. Young traveled east with Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith from July to October 1843 on

11880-507: Was the belief that the church had within itself all that was necessary to save mankind materially, spiritually, and intellectually. On October 16, 1875, Young deeded buildings and land in Provo, Utah , to a board of trustees for establishing an institution of learning, ostensibly as part of the University of Deseret. Young said, "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of

11990-551: Was then called Bucksville. Young reported having a strict Puritan -style Christian upbringing. He used tobacco but did not drink alcohol. He refused to sign a temperance pledge, however, stating that "if I sign the temperance pledge I feel that I am bound, and I wish to do just right, without being bound to do it; I want my liberty." Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824. They first resided in

12100-475: Was wealthy, but within the society, there were major gaps. Everyone owned property, but some pieces of land were better than others. Eventually, Brigham Young ordered the community to diminish the financial gap that set them apart from the other communities. Many suffered hardships while living on the frontier and tended to move frequently, around the same area to escape the harsh conditions and seek greater opportunities. It also made it easy to migrate since most of

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