Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston commanded the U.S. Army’s expedition against the Mormon rebellion in Utah in 1857. Johnston was determined to arrest and try Brigham Young for treason, but the “Utah War” resolved in a detente. Johnston later died of wounds incurred while commanding Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh. (Library of Congress)

Brigham Young’s “Beehive House” in 1968. The house that Brigham built in the early 1850’s still stands to the east of the Salt Lake Temple. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS Utah, 18-SALCI, 1-6)

Brigham, the LDS Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and other church leaders. Harper’s Weekly published this illustration in 1866. Three of these apostles—John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow—would eventually be presidents of the church. (Harper’s Weekly, August 18, 1866.)

Illustration in the periodical Wild Oats, February 29, 1872. The artist seems to have had some legitimate information about the individuals he identifies. He puts Amelia Folsom closest to Brigham, characterizes Harriet Cook as the “Devil of the Household”, and asserts that “Amelia” Partridge “Goes to Joe Smith for Eternity”. (Library of Congress)

This 1903 postcard shows Brigham Young with twenty-one of his wives. The women are arranged alphabetically. Mary Ann Angell, noted here as number 14, was the first of the women depicted to marry Brigham, in what was at the time a monogamous marriage. They married in 1834, following the 1832 death of his first wife.

Brigham and the Mormons lobbied Congress to create “The State of Deseret” as the thirty-first state of the Union. Instead, Congress created the much more modest Utah Territory, as part of the Organic Act of 1850, and California became the thirty-first state.

Joseph Ferdinand Keppler produced this newspaper illustration after Brigham Young’s death in 1877. (Library of Congress)

President James Buchanan sent the United States Army to Utah in 1857 to put down a rebellion and to install a new territorial governor. (Library of Congress)

Brigham Young met Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormon religion, after Brigham had become a Mormon in 1831. Smith’s personality captured Brigham’s love and loyalty. (Library of Congress)

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper published this illustration of Brigham Young confronting Ulysses S. Grant in 1871. The caption reads: “Brigham—“I must submit to your laws—but what shall I do with these?” U.S.G.—“Do as I do—give them offices.””(Library of Congress)

From 1830, the Mormons’ interest in having their own city produced a succession of ever-westward settlements, until, in 1846, they left the States altogether. In 1847, Brigham led the Mormons’ last push to build a home of their own by crossing the Great Plains and burrowing deeply into the Rocky Mountains.

Nauvoo, Illinois, below the Mormon temple, some time before 1850. Before abandoning the city to terrorists in 1846, the Mormons had made Nauvoo the biggest city in Illinois. Following Joseph Smith, Brigham put the temple and its esoteric rites at the center of the religion’s culture.

Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper intuited something of the problem of granting Utah women the power to vote, which Utah’s legislature did in 1870. The caption reads: “Wouldn’t it put a little too much power into the hands of Brigham Young, and his tribe?” In 1887, Congress’s Edmunds-Tucker Act disenfranchised Utah women. (Library of Congress)