* Here is the text of one of these acts: "Be it ordained by the
General Assembly of the State of Deseret that Brigham Young has the
sole control of City Creek and canyon; and that he pay into the public
treasury the sum of $500 therefore. Dec. 9, 1850."
Young's holdings of real estate were large, not only in Salt Lake City, but in almost every county in the territory.* Besides city lots and farm lands, he owned grist and saw mills, and he took care that his farms were well cultivated and that his mills made fine flour.**
* "For several years past the agent of the church, A. M. Musser,
has been engaged in securing legal deeds for all the property the
prophet claims, and by this he will be able to secure in his lifetime to
his different families such property as will render them independent at
his death. The building of the Pacific Railroad is said to have yielded
him about a quarter of a million."—"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 666.
** "His position secured him also many valuable presents. From a
barrel of brandy down to an umbrella, Brigham receives courteously and
remembers the donors with increased kindness. I saw one man make him a
present of ten fine milch cows."—Hyde, "Mormonism," p. 165.
As trustee in trust for the church Young had control of all the church property and income, practically without responsibility or oversight. Mrs. Waite (writing in 1866) said that attempts for many years by the General Conference to procure a balance sheet of receipts and expenditures had failed, and that the accounts in the tithing office, such as they were, were kept by clerks who were the leading actors in the Salt Lake Theatre, owned by Young.* It was openly charged that, in 1852, Young "balanced his account" with the church by having the clerk credit him with the amount due by him, "for services rendered," and that, in 1867, he balanced his account again by crediting himself with $967,000. A committee appointed to investigate the accounts of Young after his death reported to the Conference of October, 1878, that "for the sole purpose of preserving it from the spoliation of the enemy," he "had transferred certain property from the possession of the church to his own individual possession," but that it had been transferred back again.
* "The Mormon Prophet," pp. 148-149,
Young's will divided his wives and children into nineteen "classes," and directed his executors to pay to each such a sum as might be necessary for their comfortable support; the word "marriage" in the will to mean "either by ceremony before a lawful magistrate, or according to the order of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or by their cohabitation in conformity to our custom."
On June 14, 1879, Emmeline A. Young, on behalf of herself and the heirs at law, began a suit against the executors of Young's estate, charging that they had improperly appropriated $200,000; had improperly allowed nearly $1,000,000 to John Taylor as trustee in trust to the church, less a credit of $300,000 for Young's services as trustee; and that they claimed the power, as members of the Apostles' Quorum, to dispose of all the testator's property and to disinherit any heir who refused to submit. This suit was compromised in the following September, the seven persons joining in it executing a release on payment of $75,000. A suit which the church had begun against the heirs and executors was also discontinued. The Salt Lake Herald (Mormon) of October 5, 1879, said, "The adjustment is far preferable to a continuance of the suit, which was proving not only expensive, but had become excessively annoying to many people, was a large disturbing element in the community, and was rapidly descending into paths that nobody here cares to see trodden."
Just how many wives Brigham Young had, in the course of his life, would depend on his own and others' definition of that term. He told Horace Greeley, in 1859: "I have fifteen; I know no one who has more. But some of those sealed to me are old ladies, whom I regard rather as mothers than wives, but whom I have taken home to cherish and support."* In 1869, he informed the Boston Board of Trade, when that body visited Salt Lake City, that he had sixteen wives living, and had lost four, and that forty-nine of his children were living then. "He was," says Beadle, "sealed on the spiritual wife system to more women than any one can count; all over Mormondom are pious old widows, or wives of Gentiles and apostates, who hope to rise at the last day and claim a celestial share in Brigham." J. Hyde said that he knew of about twenty-five wives with whom Brigham lived. The following list is made up from "Pictures and Biographies of Brigham Young and his Wives," published by J. H. Crockwell of Salt Lake City, by authority of Young's eldest son and of seven of his wives, but is not complete:—
* "Overland journey," p. 215.