The Case of George Reynolds
In 1874, George Reynolds, the private secretary of President Brigham Young, and a man of honor and integrity, was indicted for violation of the bigamy law of 1862. This was to be a test case. The “Mormon” people felt confident that the law was unconstitutional as it restricted them in the exercise of their religion and plural marriage had been commanded by the Lord. Elder Reynolds hearing of his indictment voluntarily appeared in court, and gave himself up for trial. He was convicted and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. An appeal was taken to the supreme court of the territory, and the case was dismissed on the ground that the grand jury which found the indictment was an illegal jury.
The Second Reynolds Trial
A second trial was held in 1875, before Alexander White, chief justice of Utah. Judge White manifested a determination to be severe, and when a verdict of guilty was rendered, he sentenced Elder Reynolds to pay a fine of five hundred dollars and serve a term of two years in the penitentiary at hard labor. The supreme court of Utah confirmed the decree, and an appeal was taken to Washington.
Death of President George A. Smith
September 1, 1875, President George A. Smith, first counselor to President Brigham Young, died at his residence—the Historian’s Office—in Salt Lake City. He was ordained to the apostleship at the temple lot in Far West, April 26, 1838, when in his twenty-second year. He passed through the trials and vicissitudes of the Church from the days of Kirtland. He was Church historian and recorder from 1854 until the time of his death. In the fall of 1872 he took a mission to Europe and Asia, accompanied by Elder Lorenzo Snow and others, and visited the various missions and Jerusalem, where he rededicated the land for the return of the Jews. While absent he was sustained as trustee-in-trust for the Church.
Dedication of the St. George Temple
The forty-seventh general conference of the Church was held in the St. George Temple in April, 1877. President Young, his counselors, the apostles and many leading brethren were present. The St. George Temple was dedicated on the 6th, President Daniel H. Wells offering the dedicatory prayer. This was the first temple to be erected in the Rocky Mountains, and the first which the Saints had been privileged to build without molestation by enemies. Work for both the living and the dead commenced in the building following the dedication and has continued to be performed ever since.
Death of President Young
August 29, 1877, President Brigham Young, then in his seventy-seventh year, passed away after a brief illness, at his home in Salt Lake City, surrounded by his family. On the 19th, he organized the Box Elder Stake of Zion, at Brigham City, which marked the close of his public ministry. The last words he uttered were “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!” He was thinking of—perhaps conversing with—the Prophet Joseph Smith. September 2, the funeral services were held in the tabernacle, and there were gathered there to pay their respects and to mourn, the many thousands of modern Israel.