Brigham Young (1 June 1801 – 29 August 1877) was President of the LDS Church from 27 December 1847 to 29 August 1877, succeeding Joseph Smith and preceding John Taylor, as well as Governor of the Utah Territory from 3 February 1851 to 12 April 1858, preceding Alfred Cumming. Young was nicknamed "the American Moses" for leading his Mormon followers on an exodus through the desert to Utah, where he founded Salt Lake City, the University of Utah, and Brigham Young University.
Biography[]
Young in 1844
Brigham Young was born in Whitingham, Vermont on 1 June 1801, and he joined the LDS Church in 1832 before becoming a missionary in Canada. That same year, he took part in establishing a Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio (Joseph Smith utilized his building skills to expand the Mormon colony), and he was ordained a member of the original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. In 1838, he organized the exodus of the Mormons from Missouri, and he took over as President of the LDS Church when Joseph Smith died in 1847, persuading the LDS leadership to force competitor Sidney Rigdon to retract his claim. As the leader of the LDS Church, Young oversaw the colonization of Utah, founding Salt Lake City and pressing for the statehood of the proposed Mormon state of "Deseret". In 1851, the United States government made Young the first governor of the Utah Territory, and he served in that post for seven years. Young became a controversial figure for his support of polygamy, his belief that Adam was the biological father of Jesus, and that African-Americans should be barred from the Mormon priesthood, and he was replaced as Governor of the Utah Territory in 1858 as the result of the Utah War with the US government. Young would continue to be an important figure in Utah as the head of the LDS Church until his death in 1877.
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