My Dad as Brigham Young
I had a tender mercy today. I woke up to a rainy spring morning and my mind returned to another rainy spring morning 3 years ago. I was a Young Women’s leader and was really excited about our combined Young Men and Young Women activity. We were going to hike to Ensign Peak in SLC and have a guest appearance of Brigham Young himself!
My dad, the ever hiker and historian, would have already made the trek up the mountain. No small feat for a man in his second liver failure, evident by his frail body and yellowed skin, but he wouldn’t have missed it and would probably have beat us to the top. He’d be dressed in his used tuxedo and top hat, in character of Brigham Young, telling first hand the story of how he’d brought saints across the plains and settled this destitute desert. My dad had shared this rendition from memory several times before, once as Bishop of our ward when I was in Young Women’s myself. (I remember being too cool to drive home with him after. What I’d give to have that drive back!)
One snag on May 6, 2015 – rain and lightning. I was flustered because I really wanted this opportunity on top of the mountain I love with my dad and my family. And everyone else, of course. But Brother Brigham was steady and wise as ever and recommended we play it safe and that he’d pay his visit at our church building.
The evening was wonderful and I think we were all captivated by Brigham Young’s story my dad knew and retold so well. He answered some great questions from our youth about how he gained his testimony and how he’d help settle the land we now live on in Davis County. I loved his reminders to have a vision for ourselves, to be hard working, and to rely on the Spirit of the Lord.
I had searched for the video of his speech the year after he gave it and again for his funeral in September 2017, and was so disappointed I couldn’t find it. Later today, after having this day on my mind, I happened to be scrolling through the billion pictures in my archive and there the video was. It was a perfectly delivered miracle for me today.
Here are some highlights I learned from Brigham Young’s life:
- He recognized Ensign Peak from a dream and from there announced and declared the valley as the place to build Zion.
- He advocated taking breaks from work to take time to recreate and even swam in the Great Salt Lake himself.
- William Kay, who settled on Phillips Street after he was converted by Wilford Woodruff and the rest of the United Brethren Congregation in Worcestershire England, was called to be bishop of what they named Kays Ward which stretched from Haight Creek on the South to the Weber River on the North with just 300 members, which later became Kaysville.
- 500 members of Kays Ward were baptized at the Barnes Dairy Farm watering trough.
- Though he only had 11 day as of formal education, he was very committed to learning and forbade books and instruments from being left on the trail as they came west.
- He always honored anyone who could work. He was a carpenter, cabinet maker, glazer and a painter. He used a cannon ball that his father brought home from the Revolutionary War the war to mix his paints.
I don’t agree with everything Brigham Young said or did, but I do appreciate him as a prophet and founder of the state I love. And hearing his story in the voice of my dad that I so adore is one of the best treasures I have.
