biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1801–77)
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| biography:
| Religious leader and colonizer of Utah, born in Whitingham, Vermont, USA. He was an undirected farmer and house painter in upstate New York until he was baptized into the Mormon church in 1832. He led converts to Kirtland, OH, and was recognized as a successful missionary when Joseph Smith chose him as one of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. He directed the Mormons' move to Nauvoo, IL, and led a successful mission to England (1839–41). After the death of Joseph Smith (1844), he became the leader of the Mormons and directed the move to the valley of the Great Salt Lake (1846–8). A tireless and efficient administrator, he instituted irrigation systems, agricultural programmes, and construction projects, all the while encouraging a steady flow of immigrants to the colony the Mormons called Deseret. Appointed by the US Congress as the first territorial governor of Utah (1850), he refused to step down when the Federal government replaced him in 1857, leading to the ‘Mormon War’ (1857–8); he remained the Mormons' effective leader until his death. More the founder of the economic and social structures of the Mormons than a spiritual leader, he was a virtual despot in his administration, but a congenial in his private life, and had numerous wives and 56 children. |
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