History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

194 BRIGHAM YOUNG SUCCEEDS JOSEPH.
from the earth. Brother Orson Pratt sat on my
left; we were both leaning back on our chairs. Bringing
my hand down on my knee, I said, 'The keys of
the kingdom are right here with the church.'" But
who held the keys of the kingdom ? This was the allabsorbing
question that was being discussed at Nauvoo
when Brigham and the other members of the quorum
arrived at that city on the 6th of August, 1844.
Brigham Young was born at Whitingham, Windham
county, Vermont, on the 1st of June, 1801. His
father, John, a Massachusetts farmer, served as a private
soldier in the revolutionary war, and his grandfather
as surgeon in the French and Indian war. 1 In
1804 his family, which included nine children, 2 ofwhom
he was then the youngest, removed to Sherburn,
Chenango county, New York, where for a time hardship
and poverty were their lot. Concerning Brigham's
youth there is little worthy of record. Lack
of means compelled him, almost without education,
to earn his own livelihood, as did his brothers, finding
employment as best they could. Thus, at the age of
twenty-three, when he married he had learned how
to work as farmer, carpenter, joiner, painter, and
glazier, in the last of which occupations he was an expert
craftsman.
In 1829 he removed to Mendon, Monroe county,
where his father then resided; and here, for the first
time, he saw the book of Mormon at the house of his
brother Phineas, who had been a pastor in the reformed
methodist church, but was now a convert to
Mormonism. 3
1 Waiters The Mormon Prophet and his Harem. Linforth, Route from
Liverpool, 112, note, states that his grandfather was an officer in the revolutionary
war; this is not confirmed by Mrs Waite, who quotes from Brigham's
autobiography. Again, Nabby Howe was the maiden name of Brigham's
mother, as given in his autobiography; while Linforth reads Nancy Howe; and
Remy, Jour, to G. S. L. City, i. 413, Naleby Howe.
2 Born as follow: Nancy, Aug. 6, 1786, Fanny, Nov. 8, 1787, Rhoda, Sept.
10, 1789, John, May 22, 1791, Nabby, Apr. 23, 1793, Susannah, June 7, 1795,
Joseph, Apr. 7, 1797, Phineas, Feb. 16, 1799, and Brigham, June 1, 1801. Two
others were born later: Louisa, Sept. 25, 1804, and Lorenzo Dow, Oct. 19,
1807.
3 In Ibid., it is mentioned that before th3 organization of the latter-day