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Brigham Young (1801-1877) was born in the state of Vermont. He later moved to New York where he first encountered the Mormon movement. In 1835 he was one of the first twelve men to be called apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Due to the death and apostacy of the two apostles that had seniority over him, Brigham Young quickly became a major force in the LDS Church and articulate defender of Joseph Smith, the Mormon leader. When Smith was killed in 1844, Brigham Young stepped forward to lead the LDS Church. Due to unfavorable political conditions against the Mormon population, Young led several thousand Latter-day Saints across the Great Plains and into what is now Utah. Having established Salt Lake City in 1847, he quickly moved to settle the Intermountain West. He was so successful that by the time the Transcontinental Railroad pulled into Utah in 1869, Mormons were the dominant political influence in the region. He wore the hats of a religious leader and a political leader, becoming the second Mormon prophet and the first governor of the Utah Territorry. Many of his stances and statements were loved and hated yet he proved himself as a shrewd political and religious leader. He died in Salt Lake City in 1877.