Brigham Young (V)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing ye a song that has often been sung About an ould Mormon they call Brigham Young; Of wives he had many, who were strong in the lungs. Several verses describe Young's problems with his wives; the last refers to his problems with Uncle Sam
AUTHOR: J. W. Conner? (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Conner's Irish Song Book, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: humorous wife husband | Brigham Young
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 123, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 210-211, "Brigham Young, I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8055
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [151 words]: Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle does not list a tune for this, but it seems clear that it's sung to "Vilikens"/"Sweet Betsy from Pike." This is the tune used by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest.
The Fifes date this to the "Marching Through Georgia, and Wearing of the Green, Songster," but they date the songster to 1847! Since "Marching Through Georgia" is about an event of 1864, that date cannot be right, and I used the source cited by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest. That book also attributes the song to Conner, but I'm not sure that has been proved.
The last verse of the Fife text, and the last two in the Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest version, clearly refer to problems between the Mormons and the United States, but I'm not entirely sure if it's about the Utah War or just the fact that the U. S. discriminated against the Mormons because of polygamy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS123A

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