"Become the Best that you can be."

Brigham took time for his children. His daughter Clarissa Young Spencer said of her father, “No child ever loved, revered, and cherished a father more than I did mine.” Another daughter, Susa Young Gates said he was “an ideal father. Kind to a fault, tender, thoughtful, just and firm . . . None of us feared him; all of us adored him.”


Brigham Young wrote to his sons often when they grew up and went away to school. He counseled them to keep the spirit of the Lord with them always. “Cultivate this spirit and you will find that it shall be a wall of fire around you, and your glory in the midst of you.”

Brigham Young Loved Children

One day Brigham saw a group of boys playing marbles with small rocks. He asked his driver to stop the carriage. He reached into his travel bag and pulled out a set of real marbles and gave them to the boys.


Brigham delighted in little children, no matter what they said. Once when he was visiting the Saints, he stopped at the home of Anson Call. Brigham asked Anson’s little girl to sit on his knee. He took her head in his hands and turned her small face toward his so he could tell her how pretty she was. She stared up at him and said, “Your eyes look just like our sows!” Her father was embarrassed, but Brigham took her by the hand and led her outside. “Take me to the pig pen. I want to see this pig that has eyes just like mine.”

A Sick Child

Once when Brigham visited Chief Walker, there was a sick child in his tribe. The medicine man said the child would die. Chief Walker asked Brigham if he could kill a white man to go with the child to the after-life. Brigham was shocked. That was not a good idea. He asked to see the child and administered a blessing. The child recovered and Chief Walker thanked Brigham Young.

Indian Children

As Brigham Young worked with the Indians, he found their ways different from his.

A number of the Indians stole children from other tribes and took them to Mexico where they sold them into slavery. Brigham taught the Indians this practice was wrong.


During a fight between a Ute band and the Little Wolf band, the Utes took two children hostage. The Utes wanted to sell the young Indians, a boy and a girl, to Charles Decker, Brigham’s brother-in-law, but he didn’t want to buy children. The Utes threatened to kill the children if Brother Decker didn’t buy them. Brother Decker still hesitated, so the Utes killed the Indian boy. Brother Decker was afraid the Utes would kill the girl also, so he traded her for a gun.

He took the Indian child to live with his sister, Clara Decker Young, at Brigham’s home. The family named her Sally. Because Sally had been mistreated by the Indians, she stayed to herself at first, not wanting to be with the other children. But Clara loved her and took care of her, and Sally learned to help with the housework. She eventually became the chief cook in the Beehive House (one of Brigham’s homes).

Brigham and the Cow

Did you know that Brigham Young's mother had tuberculosis when he was young so his older sister Fanny took care of him? Brigham loved Fanny. She was his favorite. The cow also loved Fanny. The cow liked Fanny to milk her better than anyone else. So every morning and evening, Fanny cradled Brigham on her hip while she milked the cow.