The Surprising Prologue of The Life of Brigham Young

Brigham Young, the 2nd President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is often more associated with his beloved church than its founder, Joseph Smith. He is known as the beloved and candid leader of his persecuted Saints who followed him across the plains to their future home in the Salt Lake Valley. But who is this dedicated leader, and how was he was prepared by the Lord for his future calling in his childhood?

President Young was born on June 1, 1801 in Whitingham, Vermont to the union of John and Abigail “Nabby” Howe Young. A few years later, he moved with his large family to the state of New York, where his only formal schooling consisted of eleven days under a traveling schoolteacher. In 1815, his mother lost a long battle with consumption, which led him and his four younger siblings without a mother. However, his father remarried, and not much is known of the relationship between Brigham and his step-mother. It is known that at age fifteen, Brigham requested from John that he be allowed to emancipate himself in an apprenticeship.

From there, he became married a few years later, and watched a vision in the heavens with his best friend, Heber C. Kimball, on the night of September 23, 1827, the night that Joseph Smith received the plates from the Angel Moroni.

This childhood was full of preparation by the Lord, allowing the hardworking ethic to sink in to Brigham, affecting his view his entire life.