Brigham Young was an American religious leader, politician, and colonizer. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877. He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a series of attacks that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train. The massacre occurred in southern Utah at Mountain Meadows, and was perpetrated by Mormon settlers belonging to the Utah Territorial Militia, together with the Southern Paiute Native Americans. The wagon train, made up mostly of families from Arkansas, was bound for California on a route that passed through the Utah Territory.
Sidney Rigdon was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.
The Joseph Smith Translation (JST), also called the Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures (IV), is a revision of the Bible by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who said that the JST/IV was intended to restore what he described as “many important points touching the salvation of men, [that] had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled.” Smith died before he deemed it complete, though most of his work on it was performed about a decade beforehand. The work is the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) with some significant additions and revisions. It is considered a sacred text and is part of the canon of Community of Christ (CoC), formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and other Latter Day Saint churches. Selections from the Joseph Smith Translation are also included in the footnotes and the appendix of the LDS-published King James Version of the Bible, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has only officially canonized certain excerpts that appear in its Pearl of Great Price. These excerpts are the Book of Moses and Smith's revision of part of the Gospel of Matthew.
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of the church.
Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, and was killed with his brother at Carthage Jail where they were being held awaiting trial.
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. He was the church's chief political strategist, and was dubbed "the Mormon premier" and "the Mormon Richelieu" by the press. He was also a five-time Utah territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress.
The succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the death of Joseph Smith, the movement's founder, on June 27, 1844.
John Edward Page was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement.
John Cook Bennett was an American physician and briefly a ranking and influential leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, who acted as mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and Major-General of the Nauvoo Legion in the early 1840s.
Joseph Young was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement and was a missionary and longtime general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was an elder brother of Brigham Young.
Mormons have both used and been subjected to significant violence throughout much of the religion's history. In the early history of the United States, violence was used as a form of control. Mormons were violently persecuted and pushed from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois and from Illinois, they were pushed west to the Utah Territory. There were incidents of massacre, home burning and pillaging, followed by the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. Smith died from multiple gunshot wounds in a gun battle while jailed in Carthage; Smith defended himself with a small pistol smuggled to him by Cyrus Wheelock while trying to protect himself against a mob. There were also notable incidents in which Mormons perpetrated violence. Under the direction of Mormon prophets and apostles, the Mormon burned and looted Davies County, attacked and killed members of the Missouri state militia, and carried out an extermination order on the Timpanogos. Other Mormon leaders led the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Battle Creek massacre, and Circleville Massacre. Mormons have also been a major part in several wars, including the 1838 Mormon War, Walker War and Black Hawk War.
Phineas Howe Young was a prominent early convert in the Latter Day Saint movement and was later a Mormon pioneer and a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Phineas Young was an older brother of Brigham Young, who was the president of the LDS Church and the first governor of the Territory of Utah.
Edward Wheelock Tullidge was a literary critic, newspaper editor, playwright, and historian of the Utah Territory. During his life he was a member and leader in several different denominations of the Latter Day Saint Movement, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the New Movement (Godbeite) movement, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He played a significant role in the creation of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Albert Perry Rockwood was an early Latter Day Saint leader and member of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dean Cornell Jessee is a historian of the early Latter Day Saint movement and leading expert on the writings of Joseph Smith Jr.
Brigham Young University Press is the university press of Brigham Young University (BYU).
Almon Whiting Babbitt was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Mormon pioneer, and the first secretary and treasurer of the Territory of Utah. He was killed in a raid by Cheyenne Native Americans in Nebraska Territory while travelling on government business between Utah and Washington, D.C.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
