** New York Times, November 23, 1877.
Young was a successful accumulator of property for his own use. A poor man when he set out from Nauvoo, his estate at his death was valued at between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. This was a great accumulation for a pioneer who had settled in a wilderness, been burdened with a polygamous family of over twenty wives and fifty children, and the cares of a church denomination, without salary as a church officer. "I am the only person in the church," Young said to Greeley in 1859, "who has not a regular calling apart from the church service"; and he added, "We think a man who cannot make his living aside from the ministry of the church unsuited to that office. I am called rich, and consider myself worth $250,000; but no dollar of it ever was paid me by the church, nor for any service as a minister of the Everlasting Gospel." * Two years after his death a writer in the Salt Lake Tribune** asserted that Young had secured in Utah from the tithing $13,000,000, squandered about $9,000 on his family, and left the rest to be fought for by his heirs and assigns.*** Notwithstanding the vast sums taken by him in tithing for the alleged benefit of the poor, there was not in Salt Lake City, at the time of his death, a single hospital or "home" creditable to that settlement.
* "Overland Journey," p. 213.
** June 25, 1879.
*** "Having control of the tithing, and possessing unlimited
credit, he has added 'house to house and field to field,' while every
one knew that he had no personal enterprises sufficient to enable him
to meet anything like the current expenses of his numerous wives and
children. As trustee in trust he renders no account of the funds that
come into his hands, but tells the faithful that they are at perfect
liberty to examine the books at any moment."—"Rocky Mountain Saints,"
p. 665.
The mere acquisition of his wealth no more entitled Young to be held up as a marvellous man of business than did Tweed's accumulations give him this distinction in New York. Beadle declares that "Brigham never made a success of any business he undertook except managing the Mormons," and cites among his business failures the non-success of every distant colony he planted, the Cottonwood Canal (whose mouth was ten feet higher than its source), his beet-sugar manufactory, and his Colorado Transportation Company (to bring goods for southern Utah up the Colorado River).*
* "Polygamy," p. 484.
The reports of Young's discourses in the Temple show that he was as determined in carrying out his own financial schemes as he was in enforcing orders pertaining to the church. Here is an almost humorous illustration of this. In urging the people one day to be more regular in paying their tithing, he said they need not fear that he would make a bad use of their money, as he had plenty of his own, adding:—"I believe I will tell you how I get some of it. A great many of these elders in Israel, soon after courting these young ladies, and old ladies, and middle-aged ladies, and having them sealed to them, want to have a bill of divorce. I have told them from the beginning that sealing men and women for time and all eternity is one of the ordinances of the House of God, and that I never wanted a farthing for sealing them, nor for officiating in any of the ordinances of God's house. But when you ask for a bill of divorce, I intend that you shall pay for it. That keeps me in spending money, besides enabling me to give hundreds of dollars to the poor, and buy butter, eggs, and little notions for women and children, and otherwise use it where it does good. You may think this a singular feature of the Gospel, but I cannot exactly say that this is in the Gospel."*
* Deseret News, March 20, 1861. For such an openly jolly old
hypocrite one can scarcely resist the feeling that he would like to pass
around the hat.
We have seen how Young gave himself control of a valuable canyon. That was only the beginning of such acquisitions. The territorial legislature of Utah was continually making special grants to him. Among them may be mentioned the control of City Creek canyon (said to have been worth $10,000 a year) on payment of $500; of the waters of Mill Creek; exclusive right to Kansas Prairie as a herd-ground; the whole of Cache Valley for a herd-ground; Rush Valley for a herd-ground; rights to establish ferries; an appropriation of $2500 for an academy in Salt Lake City (which was not built), etc.*