Brigham Young proved to be one of the nineteenth century’s most efficient organizers. Like Joseph Smith, he had been born in Vermont. What Young lacked in the way of Smith’s charisma he more than compensated for with an iron will and extraordinary administrative ability. He organized the Mormon migration down to the last detail. Under his theocratic rule, centralized planning and collective irrigation from mountain streams enabled Mormons to survive their starving time during the first two winters at Salt Lake and to make the desert literally bloom—not as a rose, but with grain and vegetables.
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