25 years after he murdered their mom, his kids disagree whether he should be released. The massacre stands out not only for its gruesomeness but also for the act of treachery that preceded it. The mission of Brigham Young University founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. Brigham Young was also pinned with a monthly alimony payment of $500, as well as a then-whopping $3,000 in court fees. He founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Lee was arrested on November 7, 1874. [11] After his rest, Haslam picked up the reply from Young and was instructed to return to Cedar City with the letter quickly and not to "spare horseflesh."[11]. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He was always a kid at heart but also so smart and embraced the adulthood that he needed to. Hiding Rockwells role in expressing Eleanor to Utah from my late friend Hal was evidence that had been carefully suppressed. Lorenzos wife, Harriet, bore a baby son two months after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the first pioneer male child to be born in that wilderness (see The Faithful Young Family"). Phineas Howe Young (also found as Phinehas) (February 16, 1799 - October 10, 1879) was a prominent early convert in the Latter Day Saint movement and was later a Mormon pioneer and a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Latter-day Saints imagine Brigham Young as a commanding theocrat, who mobilized a crestfallen and beleaguered people after the ">death of their prophet-founder</a>, who led them on an epic exodus . Not theories. In 1828, after moving to New York, he read The Book of Mormon for the first time and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Brigham Young" Biography). Good history must be based on facts. Black print with blue underprint on cardstock. Rather than provide them with what they wanted, Lee chose to die like a man then [than] to live a villain.. Lorenzo was fearless in dealing with hostile Indians or any form of difficulty or trial. He went on to become a missionary in England. "What I'm hoping for is to close this chapter, is to . How do you put shoes on a cloven-footed ox? It creates a sensation and sells books. For motives, they point to the persecution of the Mormon people and to the earlier killing of Mormon leaders Joseph and Hyrum Smith. This remarkable man served as bishop of the Salt Lake City 18th Ward for 27 years (see Whitney's "History of Utah: Biographical"). While the church leaders temper and strong words at the pulpit earned him a reputation for coercion, in truth, those who knew him best often spoke of his caution and his abhorrence of bloodshed. In this case, he argues, Young saw bloodshed as a righteous act, one that would avenge the Arkansas murder of the apostle, Pratt, and send a sober warning to the United States government about the risks of invading the Mormon state. Brigham Young wasn't the only latter-day prophet to have such close experiences with death. Samuel also sold a copy to Phineas Howe Young, one of Brigham's brothers and Greene's brother-in-law. Witnesses later testified about Haslams dramatic arrival in Salt Lake City, the writing of the letter and its dispatch South. Penelope Jackson, 66, is . The crudely worded entry appears to refer to the Fancher party and suggests that Young encouraged the Indians to steal the group's cattle and engage them in a fight. He asked his father, who had read the book through, what his feelings were. A woman who stabbed her husband to death left a note saying she had "taken so much abuse over the years" and that she accepted "her punishment", a court has heard. One of his wives alleged he ordered the deaths of people who tried to leave the faith. Union Pacific . Simpson murdered his wife. The knowledge of how George A. Smith felt towards the emigrants, and his telling me that he had a long talk with Haight on the subject, made me certain that it was the wish of the Church authorities, that Fancher and his train should be wiped out, and knowing all this, I did not doubt then, and I do not doubt it now, either, that Haight was acting by full authority from the Church leaders, and that the orders he gave to me were just the orders that he had been directed to give, when he ordered me to raise the Indians and have them attack the emigrants.[27]. The two laid hands on me, Lorenzo wrote, and asked the Lord to stop the flow of blood from my wounded arm. Aaron William Davis, 21, of Cumming, Georgia, died from multiple . According to her, they would try to leave Utah then turn up murdered (supposedly by Native Americans) along the way. "In my eyes, this is a gross miscarriage of justice. A Bronx teenager was dragged from a store by a group of men, repeatedly stabbed on the sidewalk and left to die in a brutal murder that has sparked widespread outrage in the city . hold, outlived him, and shared in his estate. Young was not complicit in planning or executing the massacre. The LDS Church was also given a large grant of stock in the Union Pacific, which it held well into the 20 th century. However, church president Joseph Smith insisted that his brother William Smith be selected in place of Young. [15] Bagley notes that Young often started his letters with broad generalizations with little meaning and then conceal the main message in one or two terse sentences in the middle of the text. Brooks has argued the massacre was an overreaction by Mormon militia forces which resulted in the death of settlers and the tarnishing of the Church's reputation. Brigham Young never was fully reimbursed for the money he paid out to workers. And why does the Deseret News continue lying about Mountain Meadows to this day? But though Mr. Bagley and Ms. Denton marshal an astonishing number of archival sources, their case against Brigham Young remains circumstantial. After the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the BakerFancher party. By early 1857 the Mormons were stockpiling weapons, and all but one of the federal judges and officers overseeing Indian affairs in the territory had fled, fearing for their safety. 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. "If we only looked at what Brigham Young said in 1845, we would miss . [8] This letter has yet to be found,[9] but accounts say that it asked Young what, if anything, should be done with the BakerFancher party camped at nearby Mountain Meadows. During Wyatt Earps later years, while he was living in Hollywood, were there any silent films or voice recordings made of him. He said it was the greatest work and the clearest of error he had ever seen, the Bible not excepted (see The Faithful Young Family"). The U.S. posted bounties of $500 each for the capture of Haight, Higbee, and Stewart, and prosecutors chose not to pursue their cases against Dame, Willden, and Adair. True West asked the authors of both books to lay out their claims. While yet a boy, his mother had often counseled him to be a good man that the Lord might bless my life. '', The emigrants, a group of prosperous Arkansas farming families known as the Fancher party after its leader, Alexander Fancher, could hardly have picked a worse time for an overland trek. Aaron William Davis, 21, of Cumming, Georgia, died from multiple stab wounds, according to Floyd County Deputy Coroner Chris Giles. Brigham Young was a man well acquainted with life and death. People make what they want of the facts in my book, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, but for most readers, the evidence about who ordered the massacre is overwhelming. Mormon historian Juanita Brooks believes that the letter demonstrates that Young "did not order the massacre, and would have prevented it if he could. John and Nabbie Young had 11 children, six daughters and five sons, beginning with Nancy in 1786 and ending with Lorenzo Dow in 1807 beginning in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and ending in Chenango County, New York not far from the village of Palmyra, New York. Of the 23 who survived him, 17 received a share of his estate while the remaining 6 apparently had non conjugal roles. Anxiously awaited is a book due to be published in 2004 by three Mormon church historians that will exonerate Young. 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. Richard Turley Jr., managing director of the family and church history department of the Mormon church, said a file he and his co-authors discovered in the church archives confirmed that Lee was acting on his own. As any attorney knows, the problem with a guilty client is he acts guilty, and after the massacre Brigham Young never behaved like an innocent man. 26 likes. Weeks after Young's proclamation, in the high desert of the Utah territory, LDS Mormons murdered more than 100 Arkansas migrants. This list contains the books we've recently received, if you're looking for new books that are available, this is the place to check! It had only been two weeks since the brazen attack on March 18, 2018, when Ronnie's father, Ronnie Oneal III, killed his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron Ronnie's mother and his 9-year-old . Ms. Denton, who is descended from Mormon settlers, said the killings were inspired primarily by greed. * He gave the names of forty odd Mormons who took part in the massacre, and said that Brigham Young was instigator of the whole proceeding. The evidence has been so corruptedsuppressed, destroyed, and fabricatedits hard to determine the date the murders took place, let alone trace all the ins and outs of the conspiracy behind the crime. That question stumped me for years, and like many other Mormon mysteries the clues have been carefully purged from the records of Utahs past. This had a great impact upon Brigham, who was four years his junior, and confided that I had more confidence in his judgment and discretion, and in the manifestations of God to him, than I had in myself ("Brigham Young: Journal of Discourses," 8:37). "The week following I did the same, but to my surprise, I could not find the errors that I anticipated, but felt a conviction that the book was true.. "[13], Historians debate whether the Haight letter absolves Young of any complicity. Brigham Young tried to stop the massacre. I never had seen anything of the kind in my life," Phineas continued, but had always believed the people were living far beneath their privileges (see The Faithful Young Family: The Parents, Brothers and Sisters of Brigham," Leonard J. Arrington and JoAnn Jolley, Ensign, August 1980). 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). This is a photo of Brigham Young and his brothers taken in the 1860s by C.R. When polygamy was a part of Mormon culture, there were different types of marriages or sealings.. He was replaced as governor the following year by Alfred Cumming. ''The legends attributed remarkable powers to the emigrant poison that match no substance known to modern pharmacology,'' Mr. Bagley writes, noting that a federal agent who investigated the tale dismissed it as ''too improbable to be true.''. 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