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Brigham Young's Birthplace in Whitingham Vermont

Larry C. Porter

Over a period of years historians have attempted to pinpoint the specific acreage in the township of Whitingham, Vermont where Brigham Young was born. Their research has focused particular attention on two pieces of land: a 51 1/2 acre parcel in Fitches Land Grant, Lot No. 21, and a five-acre lot in Fitches Grant, Lot No. 22 (see Aerial Photograph, p. 66, items No. 1 and 2). I would like to reexamine the evidence for these sites as Brigham Young's birthplace, and make some observations based on their documentation. I feel that it is important also to outline the circumstances associated with the three-year tenure of the John Young family in the Green Mountains.

John Young Soldier of the Revolution

John Young (1763-1839), the father of Brigham Young, was enlisted as a soldier in the Army of the Revolution in June of 1780. He was seventeen years old. His enrollment in the military occurred in his home community of Hopkinton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts (twenty-five miles southwest of Boston). He was initially recruited into the 4th Massachusetts Brigade of Musketry and served two additional terms of enlistment during a period extending to 1783.--> (After the war John returned to Hopkinton. On 31 October 1785, John married nineteen-year-old Abigail Howe (nicknamed Nabby). Although Nabby had been born in Hopkinton, she

was raised in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, eleven miles to the northeast.

The Youngs settled in Hopkinton, where two daughters were born: Nancy in 1786 and Fanny in 1787. John then took his family into the Platauva District of east-central New York. Where the village of Durham, Greene County, now stands, Rhoda was born on 10 September 1789. Her birthplace was then in the township of Coxsackie, Albany County, New York. By 1790 John and Nabby had returned to Hopkinton. Here their first son, John, Jr., was born in 1791.--> Four more children were born between 1793 and 1799: Nabby, Susanna, Joseph and Phinehas Howe.

Phinehas Howe Young recorded an accident that occurred near the conclusion of the family's stay in Hopkinton: "A short time before I was two years old, [Joseph] cut off my right hand, except a small portion of my little finger, with an ax, while we were at play; my mother doctored it and saved it. The same winter, or soon after this accident, my father moved to Whitingham, Windham Co., Vermont, where we lived three years."-->

The John Young Family Moves to Whitingham Vermont

John and Nabby's decision to leave their farming pursuits in Hopkinton and move to the wilderness area of Whitingham, Vermont, was obviously influenced by family ties. John's older sister, Susannah, had married Joseph Mosely, Sr. (also spelled Moseley and Mousley), an enterprising man of apparent substance. His business was dividing (or buying) and selling acreage in the township of Whitingham. Among those he sold land to were Samuel Moseley, Elisha Hale, David Eames, David Lamb, and Hezekiah Murdock. Records show that on June 16, 1795 he purchased 140-1/2 acres of land in Lots No. 21 and 22 of Fitches Land Grant, Whitingham Township, Vermont, gaining in the process one-half ownership in a sawmill and cornmill on Sadawaga Brook. During October of that year he acquired four more parcels of land in the north half of Lot 7, Fitches Grant; followed by 69-3/4 acres in Lot 22 of Fitches Grant. He then procured the south end of Lot No. 21, Fitches Grant, and the whole of Lot 9, Fitches Grant. This last lot totaled 250 acres. Numerous land transactions entered into by Joseph can be traced for over a decade, up until 1806 when he sold his interests in the area. Arthur D. Wheeler, the present day (1987) town clerk of Whitingham, commented, "Joseph Mosely was a realtor and working up something."-->