Brigham Young: A Perplexing Character In Mormon History

Brigham Young was an interesting and perplexing character in Mormon history. A devoted follower of Joseph Smith Jr, Brigham managed to succeed him as Prophet President of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his biography Pioneer Prophet, John G Turner proves that due to his upbringing, loyalty to Joseph, respect from the 12, and respect of the people allowed Brigham to claim the spot of Prophet in Joseph’s absence. On April 9th, 1832, Brigham Young was baptized into Joseph Smith Jr.’s Church of Christ by the hand of Ebezer Miller (Turner, 7). This would drastically change the course of Brigham’s life, who up to that point had been a poverty stricken Vermonter. Brigham’s family was incredibly poor during his childhood,

Brigham was called as an apostle, held a prominent spot in the sacred practice of baptism for the dead, and was entrusted to run the mission to the British Isles, (Turner, 40, 41, 69) The two looked out for each other, and so it seems did their God. Brigham was gone in the mission field more than he was at home during the late 1830’s, and Joseph saw how this hurt and punished his family. When Brigham returned in 1838, Joseph revealed a revelation from God that Brigham no longer needed to leave his family, and he should stay and tend to them (Turner,

There were multiple men who claimed the mantle of President of the church, as at the time most Mormons would not have accepted any man other than Joseph as their prophet, but understood they needed a leader. In a speech delivered outside of Boston alongside fellow apostles, Brigham declared that the keys of the kingdom, something Joseph preached of and in direct reference to the Church’s salvation, were still “right here with the Church”, (Turner, 108). Brigham eventually triumphed over all other would-be prophets, and established his place as the leader of the Church. Brigham was able to accomplish this due to the influence he held over the other 11 of the 12