Talk:Young, John Willard

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.

1870-1879

• Young was one of the organizers of the Utah Central Railroad, along with Brigham Young, Joseph A. Young, George Q. Cannon, Daniel H. Wells, Christopher Layton, Briant Stringham, David P. Kimball, Isaac Groo, David O. Calder, George A. Smith, John Sharp, Brigham Young Jr., William Jennings, Feramorz Little and James T. Little.

• Young was a subcontractor for his father, Brigham Young, in grading for the Union Pacific Railroad during 1868-1871.

• Young was part of a group that stayed overnight at Cove Fort on March 1, 1870. The group included Brigham Young, Lorenzo D. Young, Brigham Young Jr., Charles R. Savage, John G. Holman, A. Milton Husser, A. J. Moffit and George A. Smith. Of the stay Musser wrote:

Our ?and host at Fort Cove did the tidy very nicely while staying the night at that "impregnable fortress." His good laides [Ira Hinckley's] had their hands full with so large a company to cater for. Cove Creek is getting quite low and some fears are entertained that a lack of snow deposits in the mountains will cause a lack of water for irrigating purposes in Cove Valley.

• Young, along with Moses Thatcher and William B. Preston organized the Utah Northern Railroad Company on 23 August 1871, likely as part of an LDS Church-organized effort to keep control of commerce in Northern Utah from non-Mormons in Corinne, Utah. The line was completed to Logan, Utah 31 January 1873, with significant help from local members.

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

• Young married Luella Cobb, a stepdaughter of his father.

• 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.

1880-1889

• Mormon settlers in the 1880s in Wayne County, Utah named their town Youngtown after John W. Young. In 1898, after the Spanish-American War, the town's name was changed to Torrey, Utah.

• 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."

• 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. .

• 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.

• Young arranged for Solicitor General George A. Jenks to draft the anti-polygamy clause for the proposed Utah constitution.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• While visiting Salt Lake City in November 1889, Young met with Presidents George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith of the First Presidency and with Church attorneys to discuss what testimony could be entered in court on the subject of the temple ceremony.

"Mr. Young suggested that since the practice and open avowal of plural marriage had greatly subsided, that this would also be

'... a proper time to state in Court that instructions have been given by the Presidency that no more plural marriages shall be solemnized &c. Pres. Cannon was not in favor of such action and said that Pres. Woodruff was the only one to decide that. Bro. Young suggested that to have time to see Pres. Woodruff the attorneys should ask to have the case continued till Monday morning - this was approved & it was proposed that Bro. Young see Pres. Woodruff tomorrow.'

"On the following evening, Nuttall records a visit with the President at the Gardo House:

'... I found Pres. Woodruff there. He with Pres. Geo. Q. Cannon had met this afternoon with Bro. John W. Young, Legrand Young, Jas. H. Moyle and R. W. Young to consider the matters as presented & talked upon yesterday, and the question was left with Pres. Woodruff to decide. The President told me of this & said that he had made the subject a matter of prayer and by the voice of the spirit he was directed to write, after he had concluded writing, which he was doing when I arrived, he asked me to copy a Revelation which he had received - I did so. Having heard Bro. J. W. Young's reasoning, I felt very much worked up in my feelings for I did not feel that as a Church we could assume the position in regard to Celestial Marriage which seemd to desire should be taken, and when Pres. Woodruff commenced talking to me this evening I felt that he had become converted and actually trembled, for I knew such had not been Prest Woodruff's feelings befoe, but as I wrote at his dictation I felt better all the time and when completed I felt as light and joyous as it is possible to feel for I was satisfied that Pres. Woodruff had received the Word of the Lord...'

1890-1899

• "One thing more than anything else she hated was debt, and that came to plague her too, when the 1893 depression came. Father was laid off work and they had to go in debt for groceries. Father had changed jobs previous to this time, thinking to better himself, and worked for quite a while on what was known as the John W. Young project. I think it was building a railroad bed. But the project failed, the company went bankrupt, and Father never did get his pay, which amounted to several hundred dollars. This, of course, put them way behind and I think was one of Mother's greatest trials - debt."