Brigham Young

Brigham Young appears in this account through a practical bargain that rescued a refused shipment: in 1860, he agreed to take Solomon Young’s goods at Salt Lake on credit. The episode presents him as a local contact whose shared membership in Freemasonry helped open a path to agreement, while offering little biographical detail beyond this encounter.

The Salt Lake Shipment

Solomon Young brought forty wagons to Utah carrying goods and salt pork for the Army. The wagons were coupled in pairs and drawn by teams of oxen; a contemporary report noted the scale of the freight and that Solomon had not lost an ox on the journey. But when the officer in charge at Salt Lake refused, for reasons the account does not specify, to receive the goods, the shipment’s intended transaction stalled.

The Agreement with Solomon Young

Solomon met with Brigham Young, who was no relation but was a fellow Mason. Brigham agreed to take the entire shipment on the condition that Solomon extend him credit. The bargain satisfied both men, converting a refusal into a completed arrangement without further detail about its terms or duration.

Narrative Significance

The episode gives Brigham Young a sharply bounded role: he enters at the point where official refusal threatens to leave Solomon’s cargo without a recipient, and his willingness to accept it on credit resolves that immediate difficulty. The account emphasizes the practical alliance between two unrelated men and identifies their Masonic connection, but does not describe Brigham’s wider activities or provide a fuller portrait of his character.