140 years ago today - Aug 29, 1877

Brigham Young dies in Salt Lake City at 4:00 PM of an appendicitis at age 76. He had led teh church for 33 years. This is exactly twenty-five years after he authorized public announcement of polygamy. His last words are "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!" Fifty thousand people attend the viewing. He leaves twenty-three widows of whom seventeen receive a share of his estate. Young's personal secretary L. John Nuttall writes that he "felt that the Master Mind of Utah & in the Whole World had been called away leaving a blank and a sorrowful time for the Latter-day Saints." Young had wanted to appoint his son, Apostle Brigham Young Jr., as his successor but many in the Church's hierarchy oppose the establishment of a dynasty. The office of President of the Church is not filled for over three years. His First Counselor George Q. Cannon wrote "... he was in my eyes as perfect a man as I ever knew. I never desired to see his faults; I closed my eyes to them. To me he was a prophet of God, the head of the dispensation on the earth, holding the keys under the prophet Joseph, and in my mind there clustered about him, holding this position, everything holy and sacred and to be revered."