# Brigham Young — Roughing It character guide

> Brigham Young in Roughing It by Mark Twain.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Brigham, Brigham Young President

**First appearance:** 0001-roughing-it

## Snapshot

The absolute monarch of Utah, whose Lion House holds some thirty wives and fifty children and whose displeasure travelers are warned not to invite.

## Who they are

In the narrator's two-day pass through Salt Lake City, Brigham Young looms less as a man than as a system: a republican form of government on the surface, an absolute monarchy underneath, with a harem of twenty or thirty wives comfortably housed in the Lion House. Around his name cluster the Gentile den's night stories of Destroying Angels, back-alley corpses, and heedless visitors who speak lightly of polygamy and are found waiting for the hearse by morning. He is the gravity well of the Utah chapters, the reason the narrator's reforming zeal meets its match.

## In the story

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/xiii)

Receives the narrator and others in a state visit; mistakes the narrator for a child.

### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/xiv)

Mormon leader who enforces the contracts, demonstrating his absolute authority over the subcontractors.

### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/xv)

Brigham Young is the central figure in Johnson's stories, depicted as overwhelmed by his many wives and children.

### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/xvii)

Implied as a central figure in the 'Mormon question' discussions, though not directly present.

### [The Birth of Nevada Territory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/xxv)

Mentioned as the leader of the Mormons, to whom the early settlers of Carson County owed allegiance.

### [Appendix A](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/appendix-a)

Central figure in the appendix; described as rising from disciple to absolute monarch, governor of Utah, and self-proclaimed God.

### [Appendix B: The Mountain Meadows Massacre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/chapters/appendix-b)

Allegedly issued a 'revelation' commanding the massacre and later failed to report or condemn it.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/brigham_young
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters