Updated July 19, 2022
Read an expanded look at the Mormon theocracy in the 19th century and the 1858 “Brink of War” between the Mormons and U.S. Army in Utah, and view these photos of (left to right) Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young’s wives in 1852, in the Smithsonian Magazine.
References of note cited in various sources I read for Brigham Young and the Mormon Church are primarily from excerpts of works by Thomas G. Alexander, Franklin M. Gibbons and John G. Turner found in Wikipedia. The specific books by these authors can be found in my bibliography.
References of note cited in various sources I read for Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church are primarily from excerpts of works by Richard L. Bushman, D. Michael Quinn, Robert V. Remini and Dan Vogel found in Wikipedia. The specific books by these authors can be found in my bibliography.
Chapter Five ~ The Mormons
Accuracy, objectivity, and fairness without interpretation in these notes is of supreme importance to me. If something doesn’t look right, please let me know. It’s a challenging subject, to be sure.
A brief usage guide to the names Brigham Young and Joseph Smith — Histories referring to Brigham Young senior generally use Brigham Young, whereas his son Brigham Young is written as Brigham Young, Jr. I have followed that practice in the book’s chapters, but I have specified each with a suffix in parentheses for these notes. On the other hand, the elder Joseph Smith is generally referred to as Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son who would become the first leader of the Mormons, as simply Joseph Smith. I used their names in the chapters accordingly and, again, added parenthetical suffixes to keep them straight in these notes. I hope this will help clarify the different generations.
Brigham Young (Sr.), often referred to as the “Mormon Moses,” led his followers on an exodus across the western plains of America to what would be called The Promised Land. He had stepped in to lead the Mormons when Joseph Smith (Jr.) and his brother were murdered in 1844. Brigham Young, Sr. was a polygamist and autocrat. He instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of African descent and participated in the Utah War against the Federal government. When he died in 1877 his sons and others upon whom he had ordained as priests, continued the leadership of the Mormon faith from Salt Lake City, Utah. To understand Brigham Young’s (Sr.) leadership and accomplishments, one must understand the origins of this new faith.
Joseph Smith (Jr.), the first leader of the Mormon Church, was born to Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith on December 23, 1805. Throughout his early years, his mother was preoccupied with the subject of religion and was desperate to find what she felt was the “true religion” or “true church.” Joseph and Joseph Jr. did not accept any of the conventional religious creeds or churches of the period either, but were at odds with Lucy nonetheless on this subject.
Religious harmony was not the family’s only struggle. Although Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy had started out their marriage comfortably as landowners of a farm in Tunbridge, Vermont, their financial situation had deteriorated six years later in 1802 when Joseph Smith, Sr.’s mercantile venture exporting ginseng root to China failed. They were forced to sell their farm and become tenant farmers, ultimately moving seven times in the following fourteen years due to various failed farming attempts and other ventures. Joseph, Sr. would try employment as a cooper, farmer, teacher, and merchant, but ran into financial difficulties with each vocation.
A paper prepared by C. Jess Grosebeck states, “From then on [1802], it was though [sic] he [Joseph Smith, Sr.] was a dreamer who detached himself from reality, becoming preoccupied and fascinated with money digging, probably in an attempt to recover a loss he could never fully accept. Through money digging [including actual hunting for buried treasure], he expected to become rich and to find the security he had always wanted for his family.” Joseph (Sr.) and his sons started seeking buried treasure and became interested in magic, common practices in the northeast at that time.
As the parents struggled to find a faith that suited them, they shared their religious visions with Joseph Smith (Jr.) It is not surprising that when their son had what he believed to be his first revelation in 1820 at the age of 14 they supported him and encouraged him to follow it.
Joseph (Jr.) claimed to have dug up inscribed golden plates from a hill not far from the farm they were working and explained to his parents that he had been told by an angel named Moroni to translate the message written in “reformed Egyptian” on the plates using “seer stones” called the Urim and Thummim, which had been buried with the plates.
From this discovery, he created the Book of Mormon in 1830 which revealed the 1,000-year history of the Israelites who were, it was written, led from Jerusalem to a promised land in the Western Hemisphere. The resulting 588-page book resembled the Bible in describing the life and times of these people, including a visit from Christ after his resurrection. It went on to explain that around 400 years after the birth of Christ, the last of the Nephites were eliminated by their enemies, the Lamanites, presumably the ancestors of the American Indians.
Joseph Smith (Jr.) organized several dozen believers, including his father, into a new church following the guidance from the golden plates. This body of believers was later organized as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS Church. Male converts were ordained and sent out throughout the world in an extensive missionary program that resulted in tens of thousands of converts by the end of Joseph Smith’s (Jr.) life. For their religious training and protection, these new converts were to gather in settlements called Cities of Zion. All converts were expected to tithe 10 percent of their income to support the aggressive mission program and land acquisition.
The Mormons were not welcome in the communities they moved to because of their beliefs, practice of polygamy, and the dramatic effect of their politics in each community. They were instructed from the pulpit to vote in accordance with the direction of their religious leaders and they represented a large voting block that threatened the remainder of the inhabitants of the community. Joseph Smith (Jr.) and his brother Hyrum were eventually arrested for treason in Carthage, Illinois. During their incarceration awaiting trial, they were shot to death by a mob of angry non-Mormons on June 27, 1844. Since it had been expected that Hyrum would be Joseph Smith’s (Jr.) successor, the Mormons were left with a sudden lack of leadership.
Church leadership following Joseph Smith, Jr.’s death
Brigham Young (Sr.) was able to convince followers of Joseph Smith (Jr.) that he should take over the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Brigham Young (Sr.) organized the journey of the Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, a part of Mexico at the time. His hope was to avoid any more conflicts by starting a “City of Zion” far from the established territories of the United States where they could peacefully expand their religious brotherhood in near isolation.
Brigham Young (Sr.) was successful in establishing numerous new settlements throughout what is now known as the state of Utah. During his tenure as leader of the Mormon Church, he established many controversial religious policies including the Adam-God doctrine which explains that Adam returned to earth to become the biological father of Jesus. He also expanded the doctrine of polygamy, having possibly as many as fifty-five wives himself, and he successfully organized numerous caravans of converts from all over the world to move to the Salt Lake City region.
Besides acting as the religious leader of the Mormons, he was an impressive political and financial leader. Although implicated in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre and other confrontations with the U.S. government, he still managed to negotiate an understanding with President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War wherein the Mormons sided with the Union and protected the telegraph service that ran through Salt Lake City in exchange for the government not enforcing the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862. During Brigham Young’s (Sr.) tenure over the Mormons, he directed the founding of 350 towns in the southwest and became the single most successful individual in colonizing the vast arid west between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada.
References of note cited in various sources I read for Brigham Young and the Mormon Church, particularly the notes for chapters 5 and 6, are primarily from excerpts of works by Thomas G. Alexander, Franklin M. Gibbons and John G. Turner found in Wikipedia. The specific books by these authors can be found in the bibliography at the end of this novel.
References of note cited in various sources I read for Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church, particularly the notes for chapters 5 and 6, are primarily from excerpts of works by Richard L. Bushman, D. Michael Quinn, Robert V. Remini and Dan Vogel found in Wikipedia. The specific books by these authors can be found in the bibliography at the end of this novel.
Chapter Six ~ The Mormons, continued
Accuracy, objectivity, and fairness without interpretation in these notes is of supreme importance to me. If something doesn’t look right, please let me know. It’s a challenging subject, to be sure.
I have not found historical evidence that Eagle Rock celebrated the 4th of July or that John W. Young, son of Brigham Young (Sr.) spoke at this event. But, if the mayor of the town was hoping to become part of the Mormon brotherhood of bishops, it seems likely that he would have made efforts to include someone from the Mormon leadership to encourage further Mormon settlement in the area of Eagle Rock.
Upon Brigham Young’s (Sr.) death in 1877, his two oldest surviving sons were John W. Young and Brigham Young, Jr. John W. Young had participated in the early construction of the southern portion of what had become the Union Pacific-owned Utah & Northern, but would have been unable to participate in the fictional 4th of July celebration due to his actual involvement with another railroad project southwest of Salt Lake city at the time. Since Brigham Young, Jr. had become increasingly in conflict with the leadership of the Mormon Church due his residency in New York City and his business practices there, he had more to gain by agreeing to speak for the Mormon leadership so I chose him to speak at Eagle Rock. By 1881, he would lose his position as one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Eventually, he would fall sufficiently out of favor with the church that he was not reinstated as a member of the Apostle of Twelve leadership.
As noted, the speech I have presented in this chapter is actually a collection of excerpts from a speech given by Brigham Young (Sr.) to the Utah State Legislature in 1852. Although Joseph Smith (Jr.) treated black men of African descent equally, Young (Sr.) is generally considered to have instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on African Americans, and, as stated in his speech, it would appear of anyone of foreign or minority descent.
These excerpts are in the order they appeared in the original speech and were not taken out of context and can be found throughout the speech.
It also appears his opinion was the same for all minority races present in the West at this time. Note that this ban was lifted after his death, but Mormon records reveal that there were few African-Americans who achieved priesthood until nearly a century later.
I have included this speech because it reflects the general attitude embraced by many Americans in the late 1800s toward non-White people and minority ethnic races. African-American, Native American, Irish, Italian, German, Jewish, Polish, Asian, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander persons were treated with disdain and as a lower class of citizen in general.
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