Brigham Young: From Birth to Baptism
The years intervening between the birth of the great Mormon leader and his return to Nauvoo, just after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, may be regarded as the…
From: 1801 C.E. To: 1832 C.E.
Location: Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont, United States of America
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Life of Brigham Young by Edward H. Anderson, 1893.
The years intervening between the birth of the great Mormon leader and his return to Nauvoo, just after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, may be regarded as the time during which an all-wise Creator prepared him by a variety of trying experiences for effectively accomplishing his great after achievements. Let us take a hasty view of the leading incidents of this period.
Brigham Young was born in the daybreak of the nineteenth century, June 1st, 1801, in Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont. His father, John, was born March 7th, 1763, in Hopkinton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and at an early age enlisted in the American Revolutionary Army, serving under General Washington. His grandfather, Joseph Young, served in the French and Indian war.
In a family of five sons and six daughters Brigham was the ninth child. The family removed to Whiting, ham in 1801, where his father continued his occupation of farming, remaining in that region for three years. In 1804 they removed to Sherburn, Shenango County, New York. Their financial circumstances were such that the children could only be given a common school training, and Brigham received only a limited amount of that.
He assisted his father on the farm, engaging in the arduous labors common to establishing settlements in a new and heavily timbered region of country. At the age of sixteen, by permission of his father, he began business for himself, earning his sustenance as best he could. Like every thoughtful youth, he adopted a trade, through which, by the sweat of his brow, he was taught the nobility of labor. He learned how to work as carpenter, joiner, painter and glazier, in the last of which occupations he was an expert craftsman.
Up to this time, though trained by his parents to lead a moral life, he had taken little interest in religion, but the family were Methodists, and he naturally inclined to their belief, joining that sect when he was twenty-two years of age.
On the 8th of October, 1824, he married Miriam Works, in Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York. In this place he labored for a number of years, in his chosen vocation, gaining an experience that was of untold value to him when later he stood with his people amidst the undeveloped resources of the wilderness. In the spring of 1829 he moved to Mendon, Monroe County, New York, where his father then resided. It was here, in the spring of 1830, that he first saw a copy of the Book of Mormon, which had been left at the home of his brother Phineas, by Samuel H. Smith, a brother of the Prophet.
Mormonism was at this time taking root in the western part of New York and in northern Pennsylvania, and Elders occasionally came preaching in his neighborhood. It was not, however, until after a visit to a branch of the Church in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in January, 1832, in company with Heber C. Kimball and his brother Phineas, formerly a reformed Methodist preacher, but now a convert to Mormonism, that he was deeply impressed with the principles of the new religion upon which he now carefully and prayerfully reflected. In this state of mind he hastened to Canada to repeat the tidings to his brother Joseph, who was then preaching the Methodist faith. Singular enough, he also accepted the testimony, when they returned together and promptly united themselves with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brigham was baptized on the 14th day of April, 1832, by Elder Eleazer Miller, being that evening, also by the same person, confirmed and ordained an Elder. His faithful wife followed him into the waters of baptism some three weeks thereafter, but she did not live long to enjoy the blessings of the gospel, for on the 8th of September following she died, leaving him two daughters—one two years of age and the other seven.
About this time many people were baptized in and about Mendon, and Brigham, with his friend Heber C. Kimball, who had also joined the Church, ordained to the ministry, rendered efficient service to the cause thereabout.
Anderson, Edward H. The Life of Brigham Young. Geo. Q. Cannon & Sons Co., 1893.
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