Brigham Young’s Transfiguration at the August 8, 1844 Succession Meeting

At the August 8, 1844, meetings of the Saints in Nauvoo, following the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon sought support to lead the Church while the Quorum of the Twelve asserted its leadership. As Brigham Young addressed the assembled Saints, witnesses reported a manifestation in which his appearance, voice, and mannerisms seemed like those of the late Prophet Joseph Smith, convincing many that Joseph’s mantle rested on Young. Young declared, “I will manage this voting for Elder Rigdon. He does not preside here. This child will manage this flock for a season.” Accounts place manifestations during the morning and afternoon sessions. Witnesses including Wilford Woodruff, R. T. Burton, Zina D. H. Smith, Homer Duncan, Mosiah Lyman Hancock, Benjamin F. Johnson, George Q. Cannon, William C. Staines, William Moore Allred, and Jacob Hamblin described aspects of the resemblance. Burton said he and many others rose in astonishment; Johnson recalled Joseph’s characteristic whistle, associated with a missing tooth; Duncan noted Young’s right-hand gestures; Hancock remarked on Young’s apparent height; and Hamblin recalled Young interrupting Rigdon’s effort to call for a vote. The accounts describe the same succession-meeting manifestation, while preserving witnesses’ differing observations.

The breadth of the witness record has been quantified by scholar John W. Welch: currently known records establish that 129 people gave written testimonies that a transformation or other spiritual manifestation occurred on August 8, 1844. Of these, sixty-eight people created firsthand documents (personal journals, personal narratives told to a scribe, or first-person testimonies published in Church magazine articles), while testimonies from sixty-one others are secondhand, gleaned from biographies written by family members or from historical compilations. Whatever the exact number present that day, the written witness record is substantial, making it one of the best attested experiences in Church history.