Brigham Young dies before Salt Lake Valley?

I've always thought that the idea of Brigham Young as American Moses doesn't quite work because Brigham Young actually made it to the Salt Lake Valley and lived there for many years...

So instead, Brigham Young dies somewhere between the Needles (in Wyoming) and the Salt Lake Valley of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which in OTL he was ill with at the Needles. (say on July 18th, 1847)

So this means that Brigham Young is never declared President of the church (and prophet) that occured after he had arrived in the Salt Lake valley in December 1847, he had led the Saints for the previous 3 years simply as President of the Quorum of the 12.

So now the Saints are in the Utah valley, and the next in line is Heber C Kimball, any ideas on how things are different under his leadership?
 

Hnau

Banned
Heber C. Kimball seems to me to be cut from the same cloth as Brigham Young. Maybe he was less of a visionary, less energetic, but he was Young's right-hand man on almost all issues. I don't know if there is one single action on which he disagreed with Young. We would have to dig deep into his sermons and journals to see how exactly the differences in leadership would be manifest. My best guess is that Kimball wouldn't have tried to organize communities following the United Order... that seemed very much like a project Brigham Young implemented on his own. Perhaps there also wouldn't be the attempt to push the Mormon Corridor down to Los Angeles in order to make Los Angeles the port from which Saints could disembark to Zion... that was an idea that President Young pushed mostly by himself. We might see less motivation to create hand-cart companies, instead the Church might pursue a slower, safer, albeit more expensive program of immigration to Utah. It seems that most of the energy for that came from Young as well. But I could be wrong.

The biggest change could be that the position of Prophet-President may be seen as unnecessary. Certainly Heber C. Kimball is passive enough that he won't want to be ordained to the prophetic mantle in 1848... if Young didn't do so for three years, Kimball would believe it shameful to do so sooner. By 1850, the church will have been without a prophet for six years. In the debates that follow, it may be decided that only Joseph Smith should be recognized as the Prophet of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, and that all leaders after, in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, should be recognized as mostly guardians with limited revelatory powers. This would make future revelation more difficult to authorize but would also make the church leadership into a more democratic body. Instead of always looking towards the Prophet-President to make the hard decisions and define church programs, they would have to work on consensus-building within the Quorum. This could mean the more bizarre ideas would be weeded out, but it also means that it'll be harder to reverse religious practices such as polygamy.

The most fun here is that as this POD is in 1847, the priesthood ban for blacks has not happened yet. It may not happen at all without Young at the helm. As I've explained earlier in Malê Rising, this racial policy began because Young was already noticeably racist before 1848 and there was a backlash against the black members when it was discovered Enoch Lewis, a black Mormon, married a white Mormon woman in England. Now, the POD here is after their marriage, so the church leadership may still do something about it, but a priesthood ban and temple ban for all blacks was probably the most extreme reaction to the event. Kimball, as the leader of the church, may simply decide to speak out against miscegenation and make it an excommunicable sin... still terrible from our modern viewpoint, but this would calm conservative elements in the church without forcing blacks out of the church.

One doctrine that I found that Kimball was a supporter of that I've never seen Young espousing was that the Earth was born of parent earths. That idea might gain a little more traction, though it'll be one more of those things the church is ridiculed for in the modern age.
 
Last edited:

Zioneer

Banned
Good points Hnau; I haven't gone into as much research as you have, but that sounds reasonable.

One point about the possibility of phasing out the title of Prophet-President; would this give Sidney Rigdon a more positive view of the "main" LDS church? After all, while he was drifting away from Joseph Smith's inner circle, he seems to have found the most fault with Brigham Young. Maybe a more diplomatic Heber C Kimball without the title of "prophet" would have better relations with Rigdon?

And for that matter, would Kimball even stop at the Salt Lake Valley? Could he encourage the Saints to go further on?
 
Perhaps the main Mormon settlement will be named 'Brigham' after Young? There's a city named as such in OTL but is obviously not Salt Lake City, perhaps *SLC will be given the name instead...
 
Kimball was known for constant prophetic dreams and visions, so I don't know if the role of church leader having less relevatory responsibility ATL makes much sense.
 

Hnau

Banned
One point about the possibility of phasing out the title of Prophet-President; would this give Sidney Rigdon a more positive view of the "main" LDS church? After all, while he was drifting away from Joseph Smith's inner circle, he seems to have found the most fault with Brigham Young. Maybe a more diplomatic Heber C Kimball without the title of "prophet" would have better relations with Rigdon?

Sidney Rigdon would be seen more positively, but it will be acknowledged that Joseph Smith gave the priesthood keys specifically to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and not Rigdon, so he was still acting against the will of God by starting his own sect. Who knows, Rigdon might have an Oliver Cowdery-like experience and come back to the church if Brigham Young wasn't in it. I don't think it would be completely implausible.

And for that matter, would Kimball even stop at the Salt Lake Valley? Could he encourage the Saints to go further on?

I've looked into the Latter-day Saints settle California scenario before and while originally I was optimistic, mrmandias convinced me pretty quickly that the Mormons would probably be expelled from California shortly after arriving there, just like in Missouri and Illinois. This is what makes Utah look so attractive as a destination. But it's up to Kimball and the other apostles to make the decision!

Perhaps the main Mormon settlement will be named 'Brigham' after Young? There's a city named as such in OTL but is obviously not Salt Lake City, perhaps *SLC will be given the name instead...

If they name the main Mormon settlement after anyone that's died, it would be after Joseph Smith, who was even in 1847 more cherished in death than Brigham Young was in life and probably still is.

Kimball was known for constant prophetic dreams and visions, so I don't know if the role of church leader having less relevatory responsibility ATL makes much sense.

Hm. I could be wrong in my judgment of Heber C. Kimball. I haven't exactly looked into his journals or his biography, I've just picked up bits and pieces of information about him during other research. I know he was visionary but I didn't think of him as more visionary than Brigham Young.
 
Top