Son of John Young and Abigail Nabby Howe

Married Persis Goodall, 26 Jun 1826, Watertown, Jefferson, New York
Married Harriet Page Wheeler, 9 Mar 1843, Ohio
Married Susan Ann Ashby, 26 Jan 1846, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois
Married Electa Jane Lee, 22 Nov 1855, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Married Hannah Ida Hewitt, 29 Apr 1856, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Married Eleanor Jones, 25 Nov 1856, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
Married Johanna Augustsson Larsen, 18 Apr 1863, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

History - Lorenzo was the youngest brother of Brigham and Phineas Young. Lorenzo remembered his mother as afflicted with consumption for many years and when he was about seven years of age she passed away. The family was in adverse financial circumstances and educational advantages were limited. When Lorenzo was ten years old he was apprenticed to James Little and remained with him five years, learning the trade of gardener and nurseryman which experience proved very valuable in later years in the Valley.

In 1832 he first came in contact with the Latter-day Saint religion through reading the Book of Mormon. He became thoroughly convinced of its divinity and the following summer settled his business affairs and started for the gathering place of the Saints in Missouri. Here he bought 160 acres of land and built a log house, and when he had brought the land under cultivation and harvested a good crop, he was driven out by anti-Mormon mobs. His next move was to Nauvoo Illinois and the following winter, 1846, was spent in the camp of the exiled Mormons on the west bank of the Missouri River.

The time had now come for the Saints to cross the plains to the Rocky Mountains in search of a place to build new homes. Lorenzo Dow Young was included in that historic band, also his wife, Harriet Page Wheeler Young, his son, Lorenzo Sobieski, and his stepson, Isaac Perry Decker, the latter two being the only children in the company.

His first act after the arrival of the company in the valley was to plant a few potatoes that he had brought with him across the plains. He succeeded in raising and saving a few small tubers for seed.

Early in 1849 he returned to the East, taking with him his wife Harriet and his stepson, Isaac Perry Decker. They traveled in company with Dr. John M. Bernhisel, who was en route to the nation's capital on business connected with the newly organized government of the State of Deseret. Lorenzo went only as far as Missouri and returned the following year bringing with him five hundred sheep, eighty head of cattle and several horses. Soon after Lorenzo took up a ranch on the west side of the Jordan River and there he located his sheep and cattle.

In 1851 he was ordained Bishop of the Eighteenth Ward, serving in that capacity until 1878, when he resigned on account of ill health. For the following three years he traveled, preached and visited most of the stakes of Zion, administering to the sick and afflicted and encouraging the wealthy to aid and befriend the poor. Shortly before the death of President Young in 1877, he was ordained by him a Patriarch, holding that office until he passed away.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Brigham Young Pioneer Company (1847)