Craig J. Ostler: My interest in Brigham Young led me to research more about those Mendon years. I believe that if you want to know what a man is really like, you find out what he is like in his home setting, and Mendon reveals a Brigham Young that is not always available to the public.
Craig K. Manscill: Among the early converts to the restored gospel was John Young, the father of Brigham Young. Born in Massachusetts, John had served in the American Revolutionary War. Years later, he moved west to Mendon, New York. While here, his son, Brigham Young, helped to build the family home. The original structure can now be found in two homes located across the street from one another. The original front half of the home was moved here to the north side of the road and the back half is on the rear on the south. Additions were later attached to each of the separated sections of the home.1
Four years after marrying near Auburn, New York, Brigham and Miriam Young, and their young daughter Elizabeth moved to Mendon, New York, to be near his father, John Young. The events and friendships that they developed in Mendon would forever change their lives and significantly influence the history of the restored church of Christ.
Before moving to Mendon, Brigham had been apprenticed to a man named Parks, who taught him to be a carpenter, jointer, painter and glazier. Many items built by Brigham Young may still be found in this area of New York, where he made chairs tables, desks, windows, fireplace mantels and the like.
Craig J. Ostler: Wanting to know more and understand Brigham better led me to the area of Mendon, New York, and I learned of a museum that had a special exhibit on Brigham Young during his time in Mendon, New York—the Valentown Museum. By the time Brigham Young had moved to Mendon, New York, he was a master carpenter. In fact, J. Sheldon Fisher, who had been a historian for the Victor Mendon area there near Fishers and had provided the material for the Valentown Museum, had actually began an archaeological dig and found that Brigham had used the east part of his father John Young’s property. On Trout Creek, he had built a dam so that he could build a waterwheel that would power his workshop. He built his home right above the waterwheel with the first floor being the workshop and the second floor being his home. He left some of his tools there. Brigham said that when he accepted the gospel he wanted to give full time to that. It is sometimes hard for us to comprehend the zeal that these new converts had to the gospel, but the evidence is there. Brigham Young really did set those tools down as if he were Peter when he was out fishing after the resurrection of the Savior. After he comes to the shore, the Savior asks him, “Peter, lovest thou me more than these?” (He’s referring to the fish.) Brigham looked at it the same way, “Lovest thou me more than your trade?” So you’re able to find some of the very tools that Brigham Young had left behind there.
They have an area in the Valentown Museum where they have a large map of that area of New York showing where Joseph Smith lived in Palmyra just to the east of Mendon right along that same area in the north part of the state. Then where the homes were of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, and underneath it they have a glass case; that’s what drew my attention. They had some of Brigham Young’s tools there. In that case, they had a long wooden stick and a flat stone that was dark in color and had holes in each end. What caught my attention was the little card there that had been typed up. It indicated that, “This is the healing cane and seer stone of Brigham Young.” I approached Gary Lehmann and asked, “Where did the information come from that this stick belonged to Brigham Young?” He said, “I think that Sheldon Fisher just found it on the property.” I said, “Okay, but how does he know it was a healing cane? Or even a cane?” He said, “I wondered that same thing, but I was afraid to ask you. I thought it was some religious thing.” I said, “You know, if I had a cane that was a healing cane, I don’t think that I would leave it behind.” The same with the seer stone. I said, “I wouldn’t leave it behind if it was really a seer stone.” We had a pretty good laugh at that. That taught me again how many rumors are floating around about Brigham Young that just aren’t true.
Craig K. Manscill: Nearly two years before baptism, Brigham’s entire family had been introduced to the Church through the reading of two copies of the Book of Mormon left by Samuel H. Smith with Brigham’s brother, Phineas,2 and his sister, Rhoda.3 4
Craig J. Ostler: Brigham indicated that the moment that had the most impact upon him—the greatest impression—came from a very humble missionary. Many years later, he related from the pulpit, the influence that the testimony of this young missionary had on him and his process of conversion.
Video Clip: “Brother Eleazer, will you share your testimony with these good people?”
Eleazer Miller: “I believe—that is, I know—by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord.”
Brigham Young: “There sits the man who baptized me, Brother Eleazer Miller. His testimony filled my system with light and my soul with joy.”
Craig K. Manscill: Eleazer Miller baptized Brigham Young on April 15, 1832, in this mill stream. Brigham was not only confirmed in his wet clothing as he sat on a log near this stream, but was also ordained an elder a few minutes later back at his home.
Craig J. Ostler: He said that he felt a spirit come upon him that was humble, almost childlike, testifying to him that his sins had been forgiven.
Craig K. Manscill: About three weeks afterwards, Miriam followed Brigham into the waters of baptism. Brigham soon left to serve missions to spread the message of the restored gospel leaving his home and shop and placing his faith entirely on the Lord.
Craig J. Ostler: Brigham’s wife Miriam was the second daughter of Abigail and Asa Works, she was born in 1806. She is described as “a beautiful blonde with blue eyes and wavy hair,”5 very pleasant disposition. When they become acquainted together while Brigham is there in Port Byron with her, the story is they like to take long walks together and they would sing songs together as they walked along. I think this is a nice romance story we have between Brigham and his beloved Miriam. Their marriage was performed in 1824 on October fifth, and they were united in religious matters and so they both, Brigham and Miriam, joined the Methodist church during their first year of marriage.
John P. Livingstone: When Brigham Young returned home from teaching others of the newly restored gospel, he found his beloved Miriam dying. Miriam’s long-term fight with tuberculosis, known then as consumption, left her semi-invalid, but Brigham willingly helped with many household chores beyond what might normally be the case.
Craig J. Ostler: He would pick her up in his arms from the bed, carry her over in front of the fire for warmth, set her very gently in a rocking chair so she could be there where her little girls were, see that things were in order so he could go out and earn a living, come back home midday often to check on them. When he came home in the evening, he would see that dinner was fixed for them and clean up the house. Then he would pick up his beloved wife and carry her back over to the bed,6 and he tended her.7 Brigham Young is not been understood well, especially if we don’t understand the perspective of his time in Mendon.
John P. Livingstone: Miriam died September 8th, 1832, exactly one month before their 8th anniversary. Brigham buried her in the town cemetery not far from his shop and accepted the Kimball’s’ kind offer to keep his daughters.
Craig K. Manscill: While in Mendon, Brigham met Heber C. Kimball, who had become his lifelong friend and confidant. When Brigham and Miriam welcomed a second child into their family, born on Brigham’s birthday the first of June 1830, they named her Vilate after Heber C. Kimball’s wife.
Craig J. Ostler: When Heber’s wife Vilate’s father is left a widower—her mother dies, Roswell Murray remarries; and he [Roswell Murray] marries Brigham Young’s sister, Fanny Young.8 That creates a bond in many different directions between these two men who just become very fast friends.
Craig K. Manscill: Later that fall Brigham and Heber C. Kimball travel to Kirtland Ohio to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith, and ultimately move there.
Craig J. Ostler: Later one of the residents there in that area wrote of his memories of Brigham Young during that time. He said, “There could scarcely be a more kind and affectionate husband and father than [Brigham] was, and few men in his circumstances would have provided better for their families” (Wrote by a former neighbor to the editor of the Ontario Republican Times in 1957). He later wrote in that article, he had never thought of him, Brigham, as being fanatical. He was looked upon by his neighbors, generally, to be a consistent Christian.
1 Larry C. Porter, Sacred Places: New York and Pennsylvania, LaMar C. Berrett, Ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 223-224.
2 “History of Brigham Young,” Millennial Star 25 (1863):360-361.
3 Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1985), 20-21.
4 Brigham Young, Millennial Star, 25:295. Brigham reported that his father was baptized by Elder Ezra Landon, but Phineas Young, who was there and also baptized that same day, stated that it was Elder Daniel Bowen, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, xxiv.
5 Susa Young Gates, with Leah D. Widstoe, The Life Story of Brigham Young (New York, 1830), 19.
6 Arrington, 17.
7 Undated newspaper clippings from Ontario Republican Times, Canandaigua, New York, letter of unnamed correspondent dated 7 September 1857, LDS Archives, cited in Arrington, 17.
8 Larry C. Porter, Sacred Places: New York and Pennsylvania, 233-234.
