Brigham Young was born in Whitingham, Vermont on June 1, 1801, the son of John and Abigail Howe Young. In 1832 at the age of 22, Brigham Young was baptized into the LDS Church and joined the Mormon settlement in Kirtland, Ohio in 1833. He was ordained an apostle in 1835, and later became prophet and president of the Church after Joseph Smith was killed by mob violence in Carthage, Illinois in 1844. Hailed as a Modern-day Moses, Young played a critical role in holding the persecuted church together by organizing the exodus along what is now known as the Mormon Trail: first to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, in 1846, and finally on to Utah's Salt Lake Valley where Young and an advance party arrived on July 24, 1847. The date is now commemorated as Pioneer Day in Utah and celebrated as a state holiday.

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