Brigham Young
Brigham Young is most known for being the second President of the LDS Church. He was a renowned church leader and is sometimes referred to as the American Moses. He led thousands of religious refugees across the Western frontier of the United States in order to create new religious settlements. He and his followers traversed harsh lands and found areas that were suitable for cultivation in order to create his settlements. His first group of refugees came to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and after traveling 1,300 miles they set to work turning the arid wasteland into a hub for religious refugees.
He personally supervised the trek of more than 60,000 pioneers and founded hundreds of settlements. He was known to travel to his settlements often. Young’s Mormon colonies were then incorporated into the United States as part of the Mexican Cession. Young tried to have Congress create the State of Deseret for him and his followers as their settlements were scattered about. The Compromise of 1850 created the Utah Territory and Young was put in place as governor.
Young’s position as governor and religious leader of Utah was enough to keep him satisfied but it became clear that he was running his territory more like an autocratic leader. President Buchanan received word that there was widespread obstruction of federal officials in Utah. Believing that Young was getting too powerful and was not loyal to the Union he decided it would be best to replace Brigham Young with a more secular governor. President Buchanan sent federal troops to escort the new governor to Utah but Young was not willing to go quietly. He called out his own militia and rallied them to ambush the federal forces.
The militia force managed to hold off the federal troops for an entire winter. The Mormons would burn wagons and kill cattle in order to keep the federal troops from being supplied. Young even planned to burn Salt Lake City and bring his followers to Mexico. In 1857, Mormons killed 100 civilians in a California-bound wagon train. Some of them claimed that they did so under Young’s orders. The confrontation between Young and federal troops continued until he agreed to step down as part of a compromise. As part of the agreement Young and his followers were given full pardons by President Buchanan.