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Brigham Young was born in 1801 into the poor farming family of John Young and Abigail Howe. He was the ninth of eleven children. His family and he lived together in upstate New York. At the age of sixteen, Young left home to start a career as an itinerant carpenter, painter, farmer, and general handyman. He married his first wife in 1824, and in 1829 they moved to Mendon, where Joseph Smith was in the final stages of …

…Mormons would find themselves under relentless attack by a federal government determined to strip away the economic and political powers Young had established for their church, and determined to eradicate the practice of plural marriage, a practice Young had hoped to safeguard by maintaining a sanctuary of isolation between his church and the outside world. Nonetheless, the Mormon Church and the Mormon community remained a living testimony to the vision and spirit of Brigham Young.