Talk:Young, John Willard

Revision as of 11:11, 28 June 2008

General Notes from Searches on John W. Young

These items don't necessarily need to be included in the article, because they don't necessarily have anything to do with Young's activities in New York City and the East.

• Young asked Camilla Cobb to found the first Kindergarten in Salt Lake City, which began operation in 1874 in Brigham Young's schoolhouse.^[1]

• Young married Luella Cobb, a stepdaughter of his father. ^[2]

• Young warned Apostles Brigham Young, Jr. and Moses Thatcher in May 1885 (they were then in Mexico City to negotiate for the establishment of Mormon colonies in northern Mexico) that he had been advised by a member of the Mexican Congress not to raise the question of polygamous marriages since "there was a very plain congressional law [in Mexico] on the subject." ^[3]

• Quorum of the Twelve considered charges against John W. Young on November 6th 1885 for neglect of duty, but postponed the charges awaiting his reformation. ^[4].

• Young wrote Daniel S. Lamont, President Grover Cleveland's private secretary, and Solicitor-General George A. Jenks asking for amnesty for old and sick polygamist Church leaders, in particular President John Taylor and Apostle Wilford Woodruff. Young had developed extensive connections with national leaders of the Democratic Party and was encouraged to use his influence to help the Church and reduce Federal pressure. Young repeated the plea shortly after Taylor's death.^[5]

• Wilford Woodruff and George Q. Cannon wrote to Young on 28 February 1888 that federal marshalls were "more than ordinarily vigilant" in the north and south outlying areas of the Church, but their actions near the center showed "a gradual softening of the feelings of" the non-Mormons.^[6]

• Young led a lobbying team from late 1886 to early 1888 trying to get Utah statehood. The group included Franklin S. Richards, Charles W. Penrose, William W. Riter, Edwin G. Woolley, and Utah Delegate John T. Caine. They first sought, and failed, to amend the proposed Edmunds-Tucker Act allowing a six-month moratorium on enforcement. They managed to enlist the help of Democratic Representative William L. Scott of Pennsylvania and prominent political insider Judge George Ticknor Curtis, in addition to Church attorneys Wilson and McDonald. But Woodruff lost confidence in Young in February 1888 and replaced him with Joseph F. Smith. Young returned to Utah to explain his activities and lavish lifestyle^[7].

• Young acquired ownership of Brigham Young's farm house in Forest Dale (just southwest of present day Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City) from his brother, Brigham Young, Jr. He sold the building to George M. Cannon in 1889^[8].

• James Lovett Bunting reported in his diary "About Thursday evening I visited (by invitation) John W. Young — had quite an agreeable interview with him and on Sunday, 21st 1874." Apparently Bunting was in Salt Lake City during February 1874. He also visited with Brigham Young that same day^[9].

• Elisha, Evan, and Thomas Kane, Jr., sons of the friend of the Mormons Thomas L. Kane, "went to the train to see John W. Young" (then a lobbyist in Washington) in 1887^[10].

Notes

1. ↑ Harris, Kristine Haglund. "Who Shall Sing If Not the Children?" Primary Songbooks, 1880-1989. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought v39n4 Winter 2004, p.100 citing Britsch, Catherine. Camilla Cobb: Founder of the Kindergarten in Utah (Ed.D. diss, BYU, 1997), 81.
2. ↑ Embry, Jesse L., Ultimate Taboos: Incest and Mormon Polygamy. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought v18 n1 Spring 1992 p.105, citing Marshall, Through America, 221.
3. ↑ Quinn, Michael. LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought v18 n1 Spring 1985, p.17 citing John W. Young to Brigham Young Jr. and Moses Thatcher, 21 May 1885, Young Letterbook, LDS Church Archives.
4. ↑ Alexander, Thomas G. The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v17 n? 1991, p.177 citing Woodruff, Wilford. Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898. (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1983-85) v8 p342
5. ↑ Alexander, Thomas G. The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v17 n? 1991, p.182 citing John W. Young to Daniel S. Lamont, 25 June 1887, and to George Jenks, 14 July 1887, John " W. Young Letterbooks, 2:71, John W. Young Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University. The " letter specifically about Woodruff is Young to "My Dear Sir," probably George A. Jenks, 29 July " 1887, Letterbooks, 2:93.
6. ↑ Alexander, Thomas G. The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v17 n? 1991, p.182 citing Wilford Woodruff and George Q. Cannon to John " W. Young, 28 February 1888, First Presidency, Letters Sent
7. ↑ Alexander, Thomas G. The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v17 n? 1991, p.186-188 citing John W. Young telegram to First Presidency, 2 February 1887, in First Presidency Letters " Received, 1887, LDS Archives; Wilford Woodruff to "Whom it May Concern," 10 February 1888; Wilford Woodruff to Franklin S. Richards and Charles W. Penrose, 11 April 1888; Wilford Woodruff to Joseph F. Smith, 25 April 1888, all in First Presidency, Letters Sent; Woodruff and Cannon to Joseph F. Smith, 5 April 1888, Woodruff Letterbooks, LDS Archives; Heber J. Grant Journal, 19 May 1888.
8. ↑ Tanner, J. M., A Biographical Sketch of James Jensen." (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1911) p. 115. Tanner credits the ward historian of the Forest Dale ward, Stephen H. Love, who, he says, obtained information from Hamilton G. Park, an employee of Brigham Young.
9. ↑ Bunting, James Lovett, Diary, 1832-1923, vol 1 p188
10. ↑ Kane, Harriet A., 1887 Journal, March 19, 1887, Kane Papers, BYU; and Allen, James A. and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 412.