A Home of Her Own: The Beehive and Lion Houses

Local production of a home of her own the beehive and lion houses was made possible by generous grants from the Georgists and Dolores story Eckles Foundation and the sea Comstock Clayton foundation to outside observers. It was a strange and isolated world of profound secrecy. The subject of editorials and friendly and unfriendly humor no observer was admitted into the inner sanctuary of Brigham Young's intimate family life. It's symbolic importance would surpass its practical functions. The life within the walls of his home was a world within a world. This is the story of America's most dramatic and controversial 19th

century family of two dwellings in one and the lives of those who called it. When Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. It was the least likely location for a mansion but he wanted to build his family something of lasting beauty leaving the market culture and civilization with find meaning in what most people of the time would dismiss as a Forsaken barren land its companion building would harbor the many wives and children of God. Today it is dwarfed by towering offices and apartment complexes but in its day it was the grandest home in the city. In one of his sermons in the tabernacle Brigham Young said that if you're going to build a house

build a good one and I think he followed his own advice when he built these houses. These were good solid well-proportioned handsome houses. I think Brigham Young intended them to be examples of the kind of civilized artistically sensitive life that was possible to build in this wilderness that they had come to. And so part of what he was doing and making his house beautiful and elegant was setting the example for what other people could aspire to. They had brought Mormon pioneers twelve hundred miles from the east. And faith would become the foundation under which they would erect their new homes. At his direction Brigham Young's United Order began to emerge. His first order of business was to plant crops and design the new city young place the temple in the center of the city and arranged the streets on a grid pattern 10 acres square separated by streets. Eighty eight feet wide enough to enable an ox and with wagon to turn around.

Brigham chose for himself a lot adjoining city Creek. There he built a row of log homes collectively called log roll or Harmony Row where his wives and children would lead to the south. He built the White House. It was the first house in the official headquarters for both the church and state commanding a view of the entire valley. There he lived comfortably with his senior wife Mary and Angel and their children. As the Mormon community steadily grew Brigham Young's plans for a larger more beautiful dwelling were drawn out 14 rooms providing a space light and ventilation. Reproducing the mind and beauty of the colonial buildings he had known in his childhood home among the architecture would draw an early Victorian Greek Revival style with its treasures in decorative detail. Brother in law and church

architect Treumann. Oh Angel would shape Brigham's drawings to correct form in measurements and whams for the location of his new home were under way. A city lot was purchased from Young's brother Renzo down yonder in 15 and an office was built in 1852 where his church business would be conducted a year later he would build the beehive house conveniently attached to the new president's office. They are original all their architecture reflects a time period reflects an interest in the architects and the builders of the home and in this case Brigham Young who as a cabinet maker and a carpenter by trade knew something about building and his influence is very evident in the design of these homes. He was a painter and glazier which meant he made Windows which is one of the more complicated things that a carpenter can do but it doesn't look like either Brigham Young or Truman Angel actually built the house with their own hands. There were other people here

crews of men doing that. I guess we have to surmise that both of them were watching it very closely. Of course Brigham Young was right here all the time in the very next room while the house was going up as workers found it difficult to access wood from the canyons. They began to build homes out of sunbaked Adobe block a durable and readily available material dug from the grounds in the west part of the city. The Beehive house was built with adobe brick then plastered and customized in pale yellow Big Cottonwood Canyon supplied the stone which was used as foundation and available local would produce the home as porches doors and furniture. It took two years to build the beehive canvas and plans for its adjoining building were just beginning. The lion house would be designed to house the many wives and children of Brigham Young. Eventually housing 44 children and 19 wives.

The Beehive house name for its symbol of hard work and industry. The Beehive would house only one wife and her children at a time in senior ranking providing spaciousness and elegance. It would serve the purpose of entertaining the many officials and dignitaries who visited Brigham Young. It would also become the new residents of young Mary an angel and five of their children. But as an official wife and hostess and as an older wife Mary an angel found it difficult to keep up with the demands of the Beehive house. After living there for five years she eventually returned to the White House where she lived my life with her family. She just simply was there as a kind of a king and you might say your or the hub of the family life. She was well-respected by the

children of the other wives as well as her own children and certainly by the wives in order of marriage. Lucy Decker young Brigham Young's first plural wife then became resident and official hostess of the Beehive house. My name is Clarissa young Spencer. I was Brigham Young's fifty first child. Throughout my childhood and early girlhood I had the opportunity of being closely associated with my father. This was somewhat unusual because in a family as large as ours it was not possible for each member to spend a great deal of time with him. It was my happy lot to do so because father had his sleeping room and always ate his breakfast in the beehive which was the home of my mother Lucy Decker and her family. Presently Clarissa Spencer left her recollections of

life in this home. She moved into it as a young infant lived here seven or eight years after her marriage. She had one of the few marriages that took place in this home. I think for myself I couldn't describe my own home but I'm living in today with such detail. She did many many years after she moved out of this beehive. She had dimensions of every room located window located the doorbell and this has been truly one of the major sources of our understanding of the meaning of this house to Brigham Young and to his children and his family as well as the activities that took place here. It was somewhat smaller than the house but to me the house was the more beautiful of the two houses. It was a large square house with white pillars reaching to the second story in true colonial fashion. There was a good sized bell over a big door on the sides. When pulled the bell used to send its loud appeal to every nook and cranny in the house when all the house was

still and in utter darkness. It was a most startling fact this as guests entered the beehive house they came into a small central hall to the left was Brigham Young's bedroom designed near the entrance so he could meet with visitors through all hours of the night without disturbing his family. As father and patriarch he also wanted to know the comings and goings of his many children particularly those coming of age. It was a fine line airy room exactly 16 feet square for the greater part of the furnishings were simple but well-built pieces made by William Bell a cabinet maker a washstands secretary and a few comfortable chairs. A lot of people had furniture in their covered wagons when they came West and there are stories attached to some of the pieces that they were actually brought by wagon. But a lot of furniture was also made in Utah in the early days.

And William Bell was one of the early furniture makers the church operated a furniture factory and they used words that were locally available which are softwoods for and pine but they wanted them to look like the elegant woods that they had seen in beautiful houses in the east. And there was a real tradition here of learning how to paint grain patterns onto wood but there were people here who were really good at it. And Brigham Young had some of the wood paneling painted to look like marble and others to look like oak and cherry and walnut and other fine words that they wish they had but I didn't really have to work with here Brigham Young's bedroom includes among other period furniture. His original cherrywood secretary where he wrote letters to his sons in school and on missions around the world. Most of his personal correspondence is private reading and perhaps just his private reflection and think in a room that was his sanctuary. He also had very little formal

education and yet he was well versed in many many fields primarily because he was a self-educated man so I think one of the characteristics not only of his bedroom but of the entire house is the books that one can see wherever wherever you go when you travel through a house brick in his bedroom also contains his not be consumed which leans against the fireplace that he uses to soothe his chronic arthritis. A door on the west side of his room opened into his private offices the east door led to the city. There were two parlors one upstairs and one down both on the southeast side of the house. The lower room which served as our sitting room was charmingly decorated with the walls in a soft green shade lace curtains at the windows and an engraved carpet on the floor. It was here that father always ate his breakfast.

I think it served the purpose much like our family rooms do today. This was where the family gathered. I think it was the hub of their family activities in the kitchen where they had their meals all together but they enjoyed meeting together. Clarissa talks about having heard her mother tell them stories at night particularly after their Saturday night bath. The boys would bring the water from the pump in the backyard and fill the big copper boiler which had been placed on the kitchen stove. Then the big wash tub was brought in and water would be transferred from the boiler to the tub. After we were all through food go into the big room and draw chairs up to the stove. Mother would take me in her arms her blue checked apron over my feet and legs and rocked me. She told us all stories how I loved it. Beyond the sitting room was the kitchen a buzzing area of the home with the

constant aroma of cooking and food preparation. It was here that Lucy desperate young spent most of her time beginning her day for a mother was a wonderful character of medium height with beautiful brown eyes and hair as fine as silk. Without exception she had the loveliest whitest skin I have ever seen and pink cheeks to add it to her charm. Besides taking care of her own family of seven she boarded all the men who worked on the estate and the number of meals alone that mothers served in one day would have been enough to stagger a less valiant soul. Of course there were always two or three girls helping with the work but still mother did a good share of it herself. She adored father but there was never a jealous hair in her head. Some of the other wives undoubtedly were jealous at times but mother never was. She probably had in some ways and enviable position to

be the matron of such a lovely home to be the why that was the official entertainer you might say for her many guests who came here. But at the same time she had tremendous responsibilities. If anybody's ever cooked on one of these stoves Yeah it gives you a very good understanding of how good a cook was that could actually bake a pie without burning the crust or make bread without making the crust so tough because the oven was too cold. You had to know exactly how hot you were going to make the fire. And it was a real art. And quite often you did the ironing near the stove and a room like this would have been the center of activity in a house because this is where it all happened. And also especially in the winter this was the warmest place to be. So it was almost the living room whereas the formal meeting the public that kind of thing would be done in a parlor the parlor was meant for guests.

The kitchen was meant for the family. The family used to eat an early breakfast but I always waited until 10 o'clock when father had his so that I might be served with him. He always ate the things I liked to be sure there was corn meal mush in the milk which was no great treat pot doughnuts and syrup codfish gravy which mother was very adept at making scraps from the pigeon house and some little delicacy from our garden as Brigham Young's family. So did his estate supplying his family with his self-sustaining compound included a large barn for animals carriages and wagons. A carpenter shop a shoe and blacksmith shop. The flour mill house school and the upper and lower income workers on the compound also aid in the beehive house in what was known as the men's dining room originally located north of the house. This room supplied a hearty meal to members of

the community who were employed by the original men's dining room does not say that this table is original to the home and was built from the wagon that carried Brigham Young to Salt Lake to see the household the size of Brigham Young's also required the assistance of hired help to the young family. Hired help were considered members of the extended family and Brigham and his wives use. This work as a way to provide honorable employment for minority though still struggling with the language and the handicap. The line House is pastrycook Sarah and Barker was a woman of age and English descent. His daily tasks also extended to the labors of the laundry. She would take basket after basket of snowy white clothes and hang them on the line. After all the better clothes were washed she would gather up the blankets and the quilts put them into

a big barrel and pound them with the old doll until they were clean. Sister Barker's hands used to fascinate me as she worked. They were so big and strong and the water made them crinkly near the laundry house with the old pump that supplied all the water for the two houses that pump handle was going from morning until night and I daresay there was cause for that groan. Each time the handle was raised from the front hall a long staircase led to the upper floor with a landing at the end of the first flight. There were two stairs landing one of which led to the second floor and the other to an inside view used for closet purposes. The only light in this room came from a tall narrow window with fascinating tiny panes of glass which opened out looking down directly into the front hall.

When ever I went into this room I love to imagine that it was a fairy princess imprisoned in a tower waiting for us to sleep for my rescuer's. But usually it would be fair calling that mother wanted me for something rather huddled and hidden from view Clarissa and other curious children would also use this special viewpoint to peer at the guests and notable visitors of their father in the warm seasons the boys rooms on the second floor remained in most of the day Brigham's boys spent most of their time out-of-doors tending to the chores of stock animals the gardens playing in the foothills shooting rabbits and visiting the bamboo which has a large number of horses cows and chickens and created a stage play for the young neighborhood. The labyrinth of passages tunnels and dark rooms made it a palace of mystery to stage struck.

That in the girls bedrooms in sitting rooms in the beehive House also became the stage for imaginative young girls in Clarissa's room sits a little wax doll. One of the first to be purchased from zee Sihamoni. It was given to Clarissa by her father Brigham Young as a reward for a reluctant visit to the local dentist who extracted her first double tooth or whizzed into the upper parler room was the most elegant room in our home. It was called the long haul and it was a length of 50 feet. It truly was long upstairs and long hall which has that wonderfully elliptically arched ceiling with the beautiful medallions that chandelier is hanging from has such a feeling of the 20s and 30s in great houses and public buildings and the plasterwork is

very full for mantels are interesting because we actually have the drawings of mantle designs which are kind of unusual among Treumann angels drawings. This room was the place where Brigham Young and her came important visitors who came to Salt Lake and there were many during his lifetime particularly after the railroad had been completed in 1869 and in this room those visitors were entertained sometimes with entertainment by the children of the family who could sing and dance and perform in a variety of ways sometimes by professionals in the community who would come in and sing or play their instruments all together. The Beehive House held fourteen rooms but in spite of this both immigrants and visitors we were always crowded to capacity during conference time when great numbers of the church membership gathered in Salt Lake. We were practically crowded out in the long haul but our parlors were always spacious and tastefully furnished and mother could always be depended upon to

serve a meal to the most distinguished persons in the land. Among the prominent visitors that were entertained in our home were General Sherman and his daughter James A. Garfield. Horace Greeley. Mark Twain and great sounding of them all. The Emperor of Brazil. Oh how he was I was greatly excited to have a personage of high title in our very own home life for us was one continual joy. There were so many of us to plan picnics in the hills picking wildflowers hunting pretty mossy places to play with her dolls and build sticks and stones that the days never seemed long enough to do all those things. We played mother's great pride with the garden that enhanced the beehive and lent its fragrance to the air throughout the long summer days. One beautiful cherry tree heavily laden with snow white blossoms stands out in my mind.

How I long to pick some of the blossoms to put into a vase. But such action was strictly forbidden into the blooms between grown in the big upper garden. Fruit and vegetables grew in abundance. We had several gardeners but when the time came for picking the fruit the families were called on the job. The principle of work dominated the economic culture. Everyone was expected to work for the good of the community to help sustain one another. You didn't import goods. You raised them or produced them for every possible one of father's greatest hobbies was home manufacture for home consumption for many years. Every item of clothing that the family were or with the exception of has those made at home. Wives became wonderfully adept at handling sewing needles or knitting needles as the case might be. The raising of beads in the manufacture of sugar was

destined to be second only to watch as one of the future great industries of the state which Father sponsored in the early days since Sugar was practically an unknown quantity. But the first pioneers the women resorted to every method their ingenuity could devise in order to provide some manner of sweets for the family. Beats squash and carrots from the garden of boiled down until they produced a dark gummy substance that imparted some sweetness to the food. But little else in the way of flavoring that could be called desirable sugar and other domestic necessities were later available for use in the family store located at the north end of the house. This unique room was built to service Brigham Young's large family including those living in the Lion House. In this store were kept Staples notion's drugs dried peas beans and apples. Calicoes and candy.

Each wife had her own charge account here as well as the Zion's Co-operative mercantile institution for fancier items could be purchased as far as I know. The wives were not limited in either account although I suppose they knew enough to keep their purchases within reasonable bounds. As manager of the family store and under Brigham's direction John Haslam kept a detailed account of the wives expenditures. And although Lucy Decker was matron of the Beehive house Brigham Young still had a hand in all financial matters pertaining to his home and estate. He also hired Heimer B Clawson to manage the larger financial details within the walls of his compound. The entire compound was surrounded by a cobblestone wall nine feet high with Gates placed at convenient intervals. Young's purpose in having the wall constructed protect against City Creek Canyon floods employment for immigrants and protection against the

Indians. Each member of the family had his own key to the gates for they were kept locked after a certain hour. Just in the office was a guard house for someone was always on duty to keep out intruders and maintain a sharp lookout for Indians. As long as the procedure was necessary the main entrance to the estate was the eagle gate named from the large wooden eagle which stood guard on its pinnacle to Brigham Young. The ego represented American freedom in the 1850s access to city Creek Canyon was through Brigham Young's grounds. His permission had to be obtained by the settlers who needed the canyon for firewood. Truman Angel Ralph Ramsey and William Bell are all credited for either designing or carving the stylized Eagle often referred to as old. The foundation

of Brigham Young's family life and indeed for all of the latter day saints time was religion. Certainly those who decided to come with us had to have faith as their motivating influence tremendous sacrifice in leaving homes and families in order to do so. And in this household and in the Lion House and certainly in Brigham Young's family religion was the basis of their life. And one of the ways for keeping the family together was the evening call to prayers in the lion house. Father was a most popular man. There was invariably a stream of people calling to see him about something or other. But whether it was a poor woman with her tale of sorrow or an important man of affairs father received them all with the same consideration and respect and gave them all within his power. In the morning after barbering father would visit abroad or go to his offices to work until supper time at five

o'clock at seven. Father would go to his room like a candle in the tall brass candlestick come into our city across the hall and say quietly. Time for prayers. We dropped everything to follow him through the hall and into the parlor. My father would step out to the door for testing in a very short time the he would be heard all my brothers and sisters come tripping to be followed by their mothers with a more sedate. Father would discuss the topics of the day and we would all join in singing some familiar songs. Finally we would all kneel down. My father offered me one distinct phrase in his prayer. I shall never forget so impressed my child his mind was blessed the church like the sick and the afflicted and

comfort all the hearts that mourn. Harriet Amelia Folsom was one of the last of Brigham Young's fifty five wives. She was 24 years old when she married him and was always purported to be his favorite. But when reporters cornered her after his death her reply to their questions was firm. I can't say he had any favorites. He was equally kind and attentive to all in his lifetime and left each surviving wife an equal legacy and asked if she still believed in polygamy. She responded if polygamy was once right it is still right. There is no reason why a polygamous marriage may not be as happy as the ordinary marriage if it is. Understanding the children with a line at the center of everything in the house

although they were allowed to roam and play between the homes the beehive House was essentially a home for Lucy Decker and her family and allowed some songs and privacy. The Lime House named by its symbol of strength in her line was a dynamic home with families moving in and out always bustling with activity according to an unofficial tally in January 6 1859 Deseret News. 75 people who live in the house including the hired help and 40 children were under the age of 13 I plead with respect for consideration of the matters I'm about to disclose regarding my father and his intimate home life. My name is Susa young gay. I was the first born in the lion house. My mother is Lucy Bigalow young.

The other noble women who are my father's wives are as sacred means shrines in my heart as is the memory of my dear mother my brothers and sisters are all as dear and precious to me as I am to each one of them. Susie Gates was born in the Lion House and reared here. She had very fine memories of this place and she was an accomplished writer so she could write those memoirs in ways that made life in the line has come alive. In 1856 the wives moved into the house as fast as the rooms were finished. My own mother Lucy Bigelow moved into her sitting room as sweet as the boards were being made on the floors and just in time for my birth. The lighthouse had many windows good chimneys stone flags cellars connected by long outstretching cos there were kitchens. A room had a large dining room from a washroom and a temporary

school room and theater and the basement for all of father's houses. All buildings ended with his construction. He had anything to do gleaned with many windows and had satisfying harmony of mind and form. You know the lion house is one of my favorite buildings in Utah. It's a wonderful design. The Gothic revival and other kinds of medieval English styles had begun to become popular in America in the 1840s and a few Gothic churches had had appeared and villas in a more romantic rural kind of medieval style had been built in England and in the eastern United States. And some of that influence seems to have come into the house where you don't see it in the beehive house. The building is sandstone on the first floor and then the floors above are built of adobe brick and then you know it has quite a steep pitched roof so the top floor really turns into kind of an attic story with those wonderful pointed dormer windows all along the

sides. It was certainly more of a boarding house existence than your typical family life but it reflected one way of dealing with a rather unique family lifestyle. I think this is a house that represents forgive me concern to provide a comfortable place to raise families and for his wife to live. I think he really saw this as the setting in which to raise children in comfort and safety and good health and with all the advantages that he could give them in this new land. So I think that adds a special quality to the house it really is a home that was inhabited by people who cared about each other and of course the life that went on there was indicative I believe of Brigham Young's hopes for the broader Mormon community that people could live in something of a United Order that they could live together cooperatively and in harmony. Brigham Young never concealed his reluctance to enter polygamy as late as

1859. In an interview with Horace Greeley who asked if the plurality of wives was acceptable to women women he bluntly replied they could not be more averse to it than I was when it was first revealed to us as the divine will. I think they generally accepted as I do as the will of God fathers wives were all converts to the new and violently unpopular religion. They all lived together without friction or disagreement so far as any of us children knew. Such condition can only be explained in one of two ways. Either these women were feeble minded or they were consecrated saints who accepted the psychology of their situation as a necessary part of the revealed gospel. Mormons saw polygamy as the ideal marriage system and an essential part of their faith. It was Brigham Young's hope that the lion house would be an example of how families could

create a self-sufficient system polygamous arrangements could work and its success would set an example to the territory. Not all of his wives and children lived in the Lion House. Some had separate houses both in Salt Lake City and other Utah towns. In his lifetime Brigham Young married 55 wives and fathered 56 children. People would ask him how many wives he had. And in one case he said that not all the women that he had married he considered a wife plural marriage served many functions in the nineteenth century alogical economic and social. Brigham Young married some elderly women and widows to provide them with financial security. Nineteen wives eventually resided in the apartments of the Lyon house. Of these 10 were the mothers of his children. Many of these women came from Puritan background England where

romantic notions are supplemented very practical women married to have good support and someone to give them children. Ordinarily women received a very personal spiritual witness that polygamy was a true principle and that they should marry a given man. Most men married in polygamy did not have as many wives as Brigham Young did. But I think we see in his household the seriousness with which he tried to care for his wives economically and that was an enormous responsibility. Accepting the principle of plural marriage was one thing entering into it and actually working out its living arrangements in household terms was quite another for Brigham Young. The main floor of the lion house contained the bedrooms and sitting rooms of the wives with children and a large front parlor that was used as a family prayer room. The second floor held 20

rooms where Brigham's childless wives had a sitting in bedroom combined and some rooms were used for the bedrooms of the older children. There were plenty of windows for lights and ventilation and a big fireplace although in later years some open Franklin's stoves were used to make the larger rooms perfectly comfortable in midwinter. Everywhere there were closets with handy hooks and shelves built in cupboards in the parlor and in all the sitting rooms which father planned to provide his family with every convenience possible. The lower basement floor of the lion house contained a long dining room on the southwest corner which accommodated from 50 to 70 people at a meal. For all the help the orphans visitors and friends sat down together at the long table the lion house was a fluid social organization that managed its resources well enough to provide for the needs of many people other than family.

They included married children adopted children members of the extended family non-current daughters in law and hired help among others some of which had sleeping quarters on the second floor. The working world of man and woman was integrated and all were expected to work hard in an effort to minimize labor for the mother wives so as Brigham Young advised they could give primary attention to the proper rearing of the children. Those wives without children were encouraged to find their area of expertise and to excel. Eliza Arsinoe was a childless wife of a man who lived in one of the rooms on the second floor of the lion house. She was a poetess had written poems for the Mormons since she joined them Brigham Young as the Saints cross the plains often asked her to write special songs for the pioneers

which she did many of them at his request and once they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley she continued to write. She was known as the president of Mormon women because she had it nearly every organization and anything that happened relating to women passed through Eliza our snow before it was actually implemented. No wife was ever jealous of the seat of honor accorded to Aunt Eliza. She always sat at father's right at supper time her superior gifts and tender spiritual sympathy endeared her to the wives and children as well as making her counselor for father. We all loved and honored her while the beehive house was named for its symbol of industry. Brigham Young named the lion house for the encroaching carved line on the front portico over the entrance. Young was fond of symbols that had meaning and represented his ideals and dreams.

It's a wonderful line isn't it. It's a very charming piece of sculpture that William Moore did. Lions of course are used a lot in architectural decoration and are often associated with nobility and royalty and strength and courage in certain ways and strength and courage are virtues that Brigham Young exemplified and admired so I'm sure he found that a flattering and happy symbol of what he hoped for himself to be. Others living in the Territory and throughout the Union did not agree on Brigham Young's virtues on polygamy. Katherine V wait wife of the appointed territorial judge portrayed him as a despot with a harem. A man who outraged decency and riven asunder the most sacred social and domestic ties Mark Twain in his visit to the Territory announced. We walked about the streets of great salt lake city and glanced in at the shops and stores.

There was a fascination in staring at every creature we took to be a Mormon. We felt a curiosity dance. How many mothers it had. And if I could tell them apart I don't think Brigham Young was inclined to show off his family especially during this early period. He tended to keep them more isolated partly because after the public announcement of plural marriage in 1852 I think there were a lot of curiosity seekers who came to Utah and treated Mormons as if they were specimens. And I don't think Brigham Young wanted his family to be exposed to those kinds of curiosity seekers Father's beautiful courtesy was never more in evidence than when he approached any of his wives whom he loved and who loved him especially was that so when in the company of mother young whose help was rather poor and had borne the heat and

burden of the day for him and with him to her he paid exquisite attention quiet composed but sincere. His attitude and consideration were reflected in that and every other wife which he had as most Victorian nineteenth century men. Brigham Young was the guardian and ruler over his family and as the head of the household he had control over many his relationships with his wives were known to be complex private and individual. Clearly some of Brigham's wives did not receive emotional support and attention expressed to Marianne angel as evident in a letter. Emily Dow Partridge wrote to her husband in 1853. I feel more lonely and unreconciled to my lot than ever and as I am not essential to your comfort or your convenience I desire you will give me to some other good man who has less cares. Emily did not divorce or leave Brigham Young although he tried to

establish a good relationship with each of his wives. It was not possible to be close to each if such a large number of women. I think some of the problems were felt in the lives of children later on there were those who distanced themselves from the church and of course there were women who divorce Brigham Young. Of the fifty five wives nine of them were divorced from Brigham Young and remarried including an Eliza Webb wife number 52 famous for her public exposé on Brigham as a violent and reasonable husband. Brigham Young willingly agreed to the requests of all nine wives. Father believed in all respects and in marriage especially women should exercise their complete free agency. He knew the difficult upward path that each wife was treading in the adjustments and readjustments necessary for himself. The wife had drawn from the lessons of family adjustments and the associated

fact that peace and family progress can proceed only along more or less self-denying lines. Even if I would I could tell nothing of my father's marital relations for they were regarded in the family as most sacred and no one even knew aught about these matters which should be preserved in the holiest silence of the human heart. Very little is known regarding the conjugal arrangement of the Lion House whether sexual jealousy was a real part of the emotional climate of the home and to what extent the status of the wives depended on their current standing with Brigham Young. But some wives writings do shed light on the internal struggles as well as the support system that met the emotional needs of the wives. Augusta Adams young in a long and dissatisfied letter to Brigham Young asking for an appointment to talk to him pays unexpected tribute to his sister wife. I am persecuted on every side

and all manner of evil set about me. There is only one poor solitary being that I dare open my heart to and that is Emily Dow Partridge. May the Lord bless her for her patients and labor of love. That fathers wives were equally congenial. Could not be expected. For they were not weaklings and all had minds of their own but their differences were their own affairs and were settled amongst themselves without disturbing in the slightest degree the serene tranquillity of our family life. Now all these good women were sweet tempered or unselfish. Not by all means. They are just mortals. But there were enough of them who radiated love and comradeship in ever widening circles to humanize the group. If all wanted to be happy each must share an unselfish contribution to family harmony. At least they all tried and succeeded so far as my brothers and sisters or I can remember there was no attempt at communal child

rearing in the Lion House. Each mother was responsible for raising her own children as well as the children of deceased wives. Some wives were quiet and set apart in their own families others such as Clara Decker young were compassionate available and nurturing but each mother was clear in her priority to raise the children divinely And according to the principles of their father break them he strived for harmony for cooperation for a sense of family and community even those large by having the family members eat their meals together and in no beehive half having their family meals together keeping the families closely aligned as possible to build that sense of loyalty to one another as well as to him and loyalty not only to their own mothers but respect and regard and loyalty to the mothers of their half brothers and sisters.

One of the advantages for children growing up in a plural household I think was the variety of mothers that they had different women who could minister to to different needs of his children because he lies it was quite a stern woman. The young women in the home were not as likely to go to her room as they would have been to go to the room of Clara Decker for example who seemed to have a special compassion empathy for the young girls and be able to discuss with them their questions about family life and marriage and about the church. There is the old non-Mormon show that Brigham Young met a child in the street and said side are you on this. Brigham Young said that would never happen. He knew his family very well. Father loved his family with a deep and tender concern which expressed itself not only in providing them all with good homes opportunities for education for recreation but he

also surrounded the house with a spirit of courtesy and consideration which became a part of the inheritance of every child. We have a couple of indications that Brigham Young was an emotionally involved father rather than a distant father. His letters to his sons are magnificent. Many of them of course he dictated the clerks but I loved the letters where he scratched in his own note in his own handwriting with his terrible spelling telling his sons how much he loved them how much he missed them when they went away to college or on missions. He was he was full of not only advice but of love and real real human feeling and fatherly feeling. I think his daughters too Clarissa and Susan especially talked at length about life in the beehive and line houses. Give us an indication of his involvement as a father. Father was great in his handling of large affairs.

But if he had failed as he himself once said in his duties as husband and father he would have waked up in the morning at the first resurrection to find that he had failed in everything. He was so eminently successful in his home that any one ever related to him or who benefited by his friendship never failed to return in full measure he gave of love heaped and running over as well as raising children properly. Brigham Young's priorities for his wives were also reflected in the assignments he gave them home duties were expected to be done promptly and completely. All of our mothers or aunts as we called them were good housekeepers and they divided up the home tasks so that there were both system and lack of friction and the labors the care of the parlors the halls attic and each one sitting room with a laundry sewing weaving in their earlier years with baby tending and the society work kept

our mothers and ourselves busy all day. They did a lot of sewing of carpet rags stitching together small pieces of cloth and winding large balls of rags that could then be woven into rugs some of which were used in this home. So they they met in some respects Brigham Young's ideal ever of a self-sustaining household in terms of making their own clothing or carpets. That was work that they didn't do all the time but they did meet that ideal in some respects and in the process they drew very close to one another. They became an integral part of one another's lives. My mother's task was the care the lion house parlor and if there was ever a spot of dust on the chairs or a stain on the curtains or a chair. I cannot recall such a tragedy. The front parlor is the only room today in its

original form. The walls that the its boundaries have not changed except for the addition of a north west door which leads into the 1875 centered on this outer wall is a built in mirror show always a part of the group. The shows were built to display treasured possession. They were angled to permit an optimum view of such favorites his Brigham Young's show the piano below Brigham Young's portrait belonged to Willard Richards and cross the Great Plains in an ox drawn covered wagon. The piano became the center of activity in this parlor built primarily as the family social center. The custom of evening prayer time in the lion house parlor was as fixed as the stars. After the prayers were over. Father would often turn to us and say Come children. Let's have some music for we were all musicians of sorts and father loved to hear us sing and play.

We would gather round the piano and sing his favorite songs. Hard times come again no more or Auld Lang Syne on the later years. Silver threads among the gold after prayer there were family councils health and juvenile troubles to settle. There were occasional childish quarrels for we were a healthy vigorous lot and exceedingly human in summer. We had three months vacation from school. We grew like healthy young animals through those wonderful summer months. We roamed that well the hills and canyons back of our house. The boys played games. The little girls went flour and Sago Lily hunting the big girls learned to color spin. So the big boys helped on the farm but take it by and large. We were extraordinarily happy and help the crowd of boys and girls for I think under conditions remarkably ideal for children all the infant child diseases went the rounds measles whooping cough mumps and chicken pox.

We never suffered from diptheria or typhoid fever. Our rigid sanitary arrangements prevented that. We were the usual bag in times of measles were kept shut up but suffered sheets over the doorways. If a contagious disease was suspected and were carefully nursed with herbs and consecrated oil and blessed frequently according to the faith or otherwise of our particular mothers in all those years the shadow of death hung over the lighthouse only four times and that was free and clear and for through children and thereafter there was always joy and gladness attached to the event of a new baby for we were always taught that children are a heritage of the Lord. Dear great hearted signer was the gentle priestess who presided over most of the beds birth and death sickness and pain and Zeina had her hands full always. For she had been given excellent training as a midwife and nursed by Pioneer physician and by Dr. Willard Richards. Very early after the Mormons arrived at the Salt Lake Valley a council of health

was established by Willard Richards who was a trained doctor trained in herbal medicine which was one form of medicine at that time and many midwives took advantage of what training they could learn particularly in the use of herbs for ameliorating various kinds of illnesses but birthing was a woman's instinctive knowledge almost. And whatever new techniques were learned were usually passed on from woman to woman from mother to daughter and Johnny Young was the beneficiary of the experience of others. Plus she had a naturally compassionate way about her. She was a healer of both spirit and body. You might say people went to her simply because she could comfort them and otherwise known for her great ability was name a Twist's fondly known by the family is and Twiss she was the official Cook of The Lion. And having to prepare three meals a day for 50 people or more.

She became a crawfishing kitchen manager. She had no children and she loved her work system was her second Mayme food and mealtimes in the Lion House were necessarily exact as to time and measured as two servings. There is plenty of milk vegetables and fruit but careful helpings of meat and desserts. Simple as it was the food was of the very best quality and the cooking could not have been expelled by any foreign chef. The meal hours struck regularly in our hungry Interior's father ate no luncheon as we called it. Then he ate his breakfast in the beehive house and would join us at 5:00 in the Lion House for his cooked meal. Supper time was a time to listen to good and jovial conversation. It was a happy carefree release from the days sturdy Burton Brigham Young gave thought to conservation of time and energy in his designs of the home he provided an ice house to ensure the freshness of food and there were special stone flagged

cellars both in the beehive and in homes for the storage of fruit and vegetables for winter use in the later years running water was available. City Creek which was the main source of water for a Salt Lake City in the early days came right down through Brigham Young's property. In some ways the eagle gate was really the gateway to the city water supply and part of the City Creek was diverted into a swimming pool. The children whose father was a great believer in the virtues of water the weekly wooden tub bath was an inherited institution in our home. There were so many of us. Father also built a small waterproof box behind the school house with cannoned cold water running in and out constantly. And there we would take her daily plunge. The girls at one time and the boys at another call that the water was running down from the snow foothills the sun would warm it bribery Sasser knew that it was delightful. In addition we used to go regularly in cold weather to bathe in the Warm Springs.

There were two Sulphur Springs about three miles north from the city. One of them was comfortably warm and the other very hot. The painters built what was known as the Warm Springs bath house there. In 1850 there was an outer pool for men and boys and an in a timber line one for women and girls. The girls went on Saturday. The boys went several times a week and father went once a week during the winter. Brigham Young was considered a physical culture pioneer for his time. He believed in fresh air sunshine exercise proper sanitation the cure of diseases and a simple rule for the family eight hours of sleep eight hours work and eight hours recreation to Brigham Young. Physical health was as much a moral duty as spiritual health. In 1862 father added to the west side of the White House a big corner porch where we had a gymnastics daily the wooden porch was fitted with wooden steps are still trapped he used

vaulting and climbing poles wands hoops backwards and jumping ropes and summertime. The girls would often sleep on the upper porch and the boys on the lower. On such occasions one looked up at the stars and listen to the coyotes howling in the hills. Sometimes we told ghost stories and became deliriously terrified by the shadows. My early recollections of my father in his prime are of a powerfully built man whose very presence conveyed an indescribable impression of physical and mental energy. He was deliberate in speech and dignified manner. Yet he always found relaxation and fun easy. He liked to dance and at 70 years of age he was as graceful on the dancing floor as any young man. Brigham Young had been raised as a strict Methodist and his family didn't let him dance and they didn't allow him to listen to a violin which was said he learned from Joseph Smith that that wasn't so. It was OK to have

wholesome recreation so he sponsored the Salt Lake Theater. He chose his plays very well Shakespearean like because there were lessons to be taught there and he encouraged music learn musical instruments. Music is good for the soul. He would say Mormonism brought the permission to dance and sing in the basement hall of the lion house on the northwest side was a gathering room which in the earlier years served as a spoon and on occasion was also a private enterprise where children would perform plays to the amusement of their mothers and for the memories of that old days. My heart had a most delightful. It was also fitted up with a set stove on which to pop corn popcorn and what's this Candy we the candy by throwing the sugary ropes over to a big silver fox that were placed over two marble top tables. The boys would pop the corn and the girls would twist the soft warm candy and fancy patterns. We all had a great deal of fun in this room the taffy

hooks and the tall built in cupboards located in the sitting room parlor are some of the last original relics that remain in the Lion House. After Brigham Young's death in 1877 the surviving wives continued to live there until the Mormon church purchased it for $33000. Walls were knocked out and carpet raised to accommodate classrooms. A cafeteria and a dining hall for its use has a university. During the 1930s to 40s the lion house became a social center for young Mormon girls in the spring of 1966 under the direction of the young women's mutual improvement Association. Renovation began to save the house for posterity. George canning young and Georgette's young kennen both descendants of Brigham Young had the task of restoring the home. Today it serves as a public diner and social center.

I think they were pretty true to maintaining its exterior appearance on the inside. They restored things that they could. They pay special attention to the front parlor and some of the carpets. They had pieces of and they had them reproduced quite a lot of trouble there was one carpet that had 17 colors in it and there weren't any rooms in the United States that could do more than 12. They ended up having to find people with old looms and people sitting in some of the colors by hand so they went to a lot of trouble to do it. They gather together a lot of the furniture that had gone out of the house that belonged to family members. So I think they really tried to give it the character of an early building but they also had to make it useful so that it would support itself and survive financially. When Lucy Decker young sold the beehive house to Brigham Young's son John W. Young in 1888. Significant changes occurred. He demolished the rear wing which contained the kitchen the dining room and the

family store and replaced it with a large elaborate Victorian style addition. John W young lost the home due to bank foreclosure. It was sold to John back a wealthy mining man who also lost it to the bank. In 1899 the LDS church purchased the mansion in the beehive house became the residence of church president Lorenzo Snell. He was fallenness present the church by Joseph Smith who who lived here until his death in 1918 the succeeding president chose not to live in the beehive house. And after a period of vacancy the building was turned over to a young woman's nature Chaison who used it as a home for young women. In 1959 the beehive house was closed and plans began to remodel the home into a museum recognized as an important

historic monument to Brigham Young and his family. George Cannon young and George's young cannon also worked on the architectural restoration of the beehive. The people who were restoring it wanted very much to tell the story of life in the house during Brigham Young's lifetime. They furnished some of the rooms in the new part of the house as though they had been here at Brigham Young's time. So there's a little bit of creative reconstruction involved in the way that's presented today. The Beehive in Lyon House are among the most significant historic buildings in Utah. They represent the beginning of Utah's urban and Frontier bands and designs. They depict a unique political leadership. They represent an unpopular and unique lifestyle rising from a rough wilderness. But these buildings also has the hopes and dreams of a prominent religious leader as well as the hopes and dreams of Brigham Young's wives and children who live there obviously in the 19th century. The lighthouse is of great interest to people how

did wives of a single man live together each other. The people who lived here each of the wives had their own personality they had trials. They had issues they had to deal with they had illness. They had conflicts. And not all of them were different. And we need to look at them as individuals. That's the same with the children. Clarissa young Spencer later married John Daniel Spencer and mothered five children. Her reminiscence of home life in the beehive house were later published in a book she wrote with Mabel Harmer titled Brigham Young at home her revival of childhood scenes became an invaluable resource for the committee called upon to restore the beehive house. It has been said that Susie young Gates inherited her father's initiative. She wrote growth activity development progress.

All of these are the ruling forces of a busy and conscientious life. She married Jacob Beth gates and became the mother of thirteen children eight of whom died. Her quick mind and self-described passion for music and books gifted her with literary work spanning over 60 years. She spent significant time and effort on behalf of women's rights heading the 1920 Utah delegation to the women's suffrage victory convention in Chicago. I remember going through the lion houses there as a little granddaughter and she would point out the different rooms that this is where her mother was born where the office was and this was the parlor where they were they saying. But as she went through the rooms she would say now granddaughter I want you to remember this. She felt this was a very special significant house.

When you look at this home I think and talk about the things that happened Temperley on a day to day basis. It's important to recognize that the people who lived here felt a real spiritual component in that in that daily life they felt that their their daily lives were holy and what the work they did was was holy. Several of Brigham Young's wives lived most of their lives in the Lion House moving out and then back in after their families were grown and gone. As many of the wives were able to find companionship friendship and support from each other you've met some important social needs and in its harmony and smooth working the living arrangements and roles within the beehive and Lyon homes did set an example to the territory. But there were some failures as well as the years passed Brigham Young's dreams of an isolated sustainable community were tempered by outside influences his economic enterprises such as the silk and sugar industries eventually died

off. And considering the 20th century standard of marital companionship and affection there were many emotional need that went unfulfilled in the Lion House. He felt keenly his own inadequacy as a husband and as a father and expressed that publicly. But I don't think that meant he felt he was entirely a failure just that in looking back there are some things perhaps that he would have done differently. The ideal was for a mother to be the queen within her home. This was where she could reign even though the husband might be the ruler over the family so to speak or be the one to take charge of the family. Still the home was her domain. And I think he felt that it reflected upon him as a provider as a father as a husband the kind of living arrangement his family's had. And of course he needed the beehive house to Lucy Decker it was her home after his death. And the other wives who had their individual homes by the time of his death also

owned but there were still a number of wives who shared the lion house and he could see that while it served its purpose. During those early years it was not not the kind of ideal arrangement he would have liked and had for his father settled his wives and the homes of their own. In his later years to correct what he has deemed to be a mistake of his early judgment and when he gave me the deed to my first home in the city in 1876 he told me he had made a mistake. He told me that a home was a woman's first possession that every mother should have a home of her own with the deed to which she should have her own income. She could thus be independent and entertained a degree of self which was impossible with a wife which completely depended on her husband in a home owned by herself. She can teach children to better advantage she can train them to play alone and to play with the rest of the family each trial to pay his

or her own trial and to be independent in the use of time and means. If I had my life to live over I should give each wife a home of her own a

local production of a home of her own. The beehive and Lyon houses was made possible by generous grants from the Georgists and Dolores story Eccles Foundation and the sea Comstock Platon foundation. Even entertaining as a speaker he was very dynamic very

animated in that way. He was a great speaker. The writer fits you. Ludlow marble that young status in the Mormon community when he was away from the pulpit as well. I talked with the president until a party of young girls who seemed to regard him with idolatry came to him with an invitation to join in some old fashioned dance long forgotten in the east. I was curious to see how he would acquit himself in the Supreme or deal with dignity. And was much impressed by the aristocratic grace with which he went through his figures. Fitzhugh Ludlow. Young's unquestioned leadership along with what the nation perceived as a harem of wives in polygamy made him one of the most talked about figures in the nation. Talk that even captured the interest of legendary circus promoter Phineas T Barnum. When young men. P.T. Barnum young jokingly asked about the money that could be made in the east. Exhibiting himself to the curious.

Mr. President I'll give you half three seats which I will guarantee shall be more than two hundred thousand dollars a year. I consider you the best show in town Phineas T fine. But there were far more serious exchanges when influential New York publisher or Horace Greeley traveled to Utah. He grilled young on the issue of slavery which was propelling the nation toward war. What is the position of the church with respect to slavery. We considered a divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse on ham shall be removed from his descendants. Are there any slaves now held in the territory. There are. Am I to infer that Utah if admitted as a member of the Federal Union will be a slave state. No she will be a free state. I myself hire many laborers and pay them fair wages. Utah is not adapted to slave labor. The few slaves are who were in Utah and on the eve

of the Civil War in 1860 census were matched by about an equal number of free blacks in Utah in 1860 approximately a hundred total fifty slaves 50 free blacks as the civil war erupted in the east. Brigham Young sought to play a deft hand to the nation. He portrayed Utah as fiercely loyal to the union. You say it is a pledge that I as well as the people of Utah are disloyal to the government of the United States. The allegation is utterly and absolutely false. If devotion to it love for my country constitutes loyalty then I as well as this people are disloyal. But within the Utah Territory young often talked of the Civil War as Armageddon with the nation's certain to crumble. And Brigham Young put it best to help both sides when

he expected both the Confederacy and the union to to destroy themselves over this. And for the the kingdom of God to fill the vacuum to come in and be the standard bearer of peace to the inhabitants of the former United States and that's how they were referring to it as the former United States. You'll all be out here before long. Are unions gone forever. Fighting only makes matters worse. When your country has become a desolation. We are the saints whom you cast out will forget all your sins against us and give you a home. With the nation in the grip of total war and consumed with the future of the Union. Abraham Lincoln decided Brigham Young and the Mormons were issues that would simply have to wait. When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farms which we had to clear. Occasionally we come to a log which had

fallen down. It was too hard to split. Too wet to burn and too heavy to move. So we plowed around. That's what I intend to do with the Mormons. Abraham Lincoln. Next time on the conclusion of Brigham Young. The final years of Young's life for study and grand contradictions. His dream of building a sustainable society in the West is realized and the Utah Territory looms as a unique pinnacle of faith. But Brigham Young is forced to confront a rapidly changing world the economy politics and society require new strategies and young faces a unique challenge on the home front. Next time on the conclusion of Brigham Young.

Funding for the production of Brigham Young was provided by a grant from the George S. and Dolores Dora Eckels foundation