What Would Brigham Young Do? W
ith a world-class university named after him, along with a rich and
sometimes controversial history, Brigham Young’s large legacy lives on in Utah. Brigham Young was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has aptly been nicknamed “the Mormon Moses.” Young led the Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois where they were being increasingly persecuted for their beliefs, to the “Promised Land” of the Salt Lake Valley. Young had a clear vision for how the Saints could live a better life than the rest of the nation, which was increasingly being dominated by large banks, tycoons, and industrial powers with harsh working conditions. Young’s vision was similar to the vision Joseph Smith had laid out and successfully built in Nauvoo, Illinois. But
encouraged everyone to spend their
Young’s vision was highly religious and
precious currency with local merchants,
economic in nature.
and to not buy the extravagances from
Young imagined “The Kingdom
wagon trains that arrived from the east
of Deseret” to be a highly self-reliant
proffering items such as coffee, tobacco
economy, whereby everyone filled a very
and liquor.
important and specific role. Missionaries
Young decided that he would make
operating in Europe, seeking converts to
this a mandate, instituting the “Word of
immigrate to the Great Basin, were keenly
Wisdom” as law, prohibiting Saints from
aware of the specific tradesmen that were
imbibing, smoking, or fettering away
required to make Mormon settlements
their money on strong drinks and other
successful. Young had acquired the skills
useless vices.
of carpentry, joinery and mill building.
Young also prohibited the Saints from
He actively sought Europeans who had
engaging in prospecting for silver. As
skills not only in carpentry and millwork,
he strongly believed, the greatest value
but also masonry, architecture, surveying
of land and a person’s time, energy
and blacksmithing.
and labor, was in farming. “Making the
Young was focused on “local industry”.
desert blossom as the rose” wasn’t just a
He spoke in sermons about how much
pipe-dream. They made it happen. The
he appreciated seeing young girls and
Pioneer farms and aqueducts provided
boys wearing homespun clothing. He
water to thousands of small farms. The
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