John Willard Young

LDSApostleshipinfo
English name = John Willard Young
birth_name=John Willard Young
birth_date=birth date|1844|10|01
birthplace=Nauvoo, Illinois
death_date=death date and age|1924|02|12|1834|10|14
deathplace=New York City, New York
president_who_called=Brigham Young
apostledate=death date and age|1855|11|22|1844|10|01
ordination_reason=Brigham Young's discretion [Brigham Young ordained three of his sons in 1855 and 1864 without adding them to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. John Willard Young was never a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.]
end_date=death date and age|1924|02|12|1834|10|14
end_reason=Death
reorganization=None [Since Young was not a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or the First Presidency at the time of his death, no one was called to the apostleship as a replacement after he died.]

John Willard Young (1844-10-01 – 1924-02-12) was a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He is one of the few individuals to have been an apostle of the LDS Church and a member of the First Presidency without ever being a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Young was born in Nauvoo, Illinois to Latter Day Saint apostle Brigham Young and Mary Ann Angell. As a young boy, John traveled with the Mormon pioneers from Illinois to Utah Territory.

John Willard was ordained an apostle by his father on November 22, 1855, when he was eleven. [Compton, "John Willard Young," pp. 111-12] John's earlier ordination was reconfirmed on February 4, 1864 when his brothers Brigham Young, Jr. and Joseph Angell Young were ordained apostles by their father. However, none of them became members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles upon their ordination because the Quorum already had twelve members. Although Brigham Jr. eventually became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, John and Joseph never did.

In 1869, Young opened the "Salt Lake City Museum and Menagerie" which was the predecessor of the Deseret Museum. [Jenson, Andrew. "Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Press, 1941) p. 185]

On April 8, 1873, Brigham Young added John, Brigham Jr., George Q. Cannon, Lorenzo Snow, and Albert Carrington as additional counselors to him in the First Presidency. After Young's First Counselor George A. Smith died in September 1875, John Young was promoted to First Counselor to his father on 8 October 1876. Young served in this capacity until the First Presidency was dissolved by Brigham Young's death less than a year later on August 29, 1877. Having never been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve but holding the priesthood office of apostle, Young was called as a counselor to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 6, 1877. He was released from this calling on October 6, 1891, because it was being phased out. Although he lived another 30 years, Young never again served as a general authority of the LDS Church, though he remained a church apostle for the rest of his life.

Young was involved with the construction of the railroad in Arizona Territory.

Young died in New York City, New York at the age of 89.

Notes

References

* Compton, Todd. “ [http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,28022 John Willard Young, Brigham Young, and the Development of Presidential Succession in the LDS Church.] ” "" 35.4 (winter 2002): 111-34.
* Watson, Charles W. “John Willard Young and the 1887 Movement for Utah Statehood.” Ph.D. Diss., Brigham Young University, 1984.

External links

* [http://gapages.com/youngjw1.htm Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: John Willard Young]