Brigham Young Probate Case File

The first governor of the Utah Territory and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) died August 29, 1877. At the time, the church practiced an arrangement wherein the president held property and real estate as "trustee-in-trust." This allowed Young to direct and finance many major construction and other enterprises during the early years of settlement. Upon his death, it complicated his estate to a great degreee. Much of it was settled within about two years, but the case stretched into the 20th century in order to clarify property deeds. For more information, see Leonard Arrington's "The Settlement of the Brigham Young Estate, 1877-1879," in Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Feb 1952).