The important distinction with those that Brigham called was whether or not they were considered part of the Quorum of the Twelve. By calling three of his sons to be Apostles, it looked like he might be stacking the deck for future leadership, but since only one of them became part of the Q12, none of them went on to be prophet. But two of the men he did call went on to be prophets.
Called as Apostles:
Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow,
Franklin D. Richards, Jedidiah M. Grant, John Willard Young,
Daniel H. Wells, George Q. Cannon, Joseph Angell Young,
Brigham Young Jr., Joseph F. Smith, Albert Carrington
EZRA T. BENSON
(February 22, 1811 - September 3, 1869)
Apostle - July 16, 1846
Benson and his wife Pamela joined the church in 1840. After Joseph taught him polygamy in 1844, he married Pamela's sister Adeline. He was on a mission when he found out about the murders of Joseph & Hyrum.
He was the first Apostle called after Joseph Smith's death, and the only one called before Brigham Young reorganized the First Presidency. His calling put the Quorum number back to Twelve after John E. Page's excommunication. He helped in the initial migration west to Utah. His great-grandson would eventually become prophet. Benson himself died of a heart attack at age 58.
CHARLES C. RICH
(August 21, 1809 - November 17, 1883)
Apostle - February 12, 1849
Rich was originally taught by Lyman Wight before being baptized by George Hinkle in 1832. Rich fought in the Battle of Crooked River and was among those arrested a few days later when Hinkle betrayed Joseph Smith and others to the Missouri militia (which led to Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight and two others to spend five months in Liberty Jail).
After Joseph's death, Rich easily sided with the Quorum of the Twelve and joined the Saints in their migration to Utah. After Wight was excommunicated and Brigham reorganized the First Presidency, four men were ordained to the Quorum of the Twelve on the same day. Rich was the oldest of the four, the other three being Lorenzo Snow (brother of Brigham's wife Eliza R. Snow), Erastus Snow and Franklin D. Richards (Willard Richards' nephew).
Rich helped Amasa Lyman found San Bernadino, CA, but Brigham ordered the settlers there to move back when it became clear it was primarily being populated by Saints who wanted to get away from the leaders in Utah. He also helped colonize parts of Idaho.
LORENZO SNOW
(April 3, 1814 - Octboer 10, 1901)
Apostle - February 12, 1849
Assistant Counselor - June 8, 1873
President of Q12 - April 7, 1889
Prophet/President - September 13, 1898
Snow was a Baptist and school teacher when he first heard about the Book of Mormon and met Joseph Smith in 1831, but he did not join the church until 1836. He was away on a mission during the rise and fall of the Kirtland Safety Society. He joined Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Parley P. Pratt in 1839 on a mission to England and lived there until 1843.
He married his first wife, Charlotte, in October 1844, after Joseph's death. He eventually married eight other women, inlcuding Wilford Woodruff's 17-year-old daughter Phoebe (when Lorenzo was 44).
After being ordained an Apostle, he went on missions to Italy and Switzerland. Toward the end of Brigham's life, he added more counselors to the First Presidency, and Snow was one of them.
He was arrested in 1885 for "unlawful cohabitation" and spent a year in jail. While serving as prophet in 1900, he changed the succession policy that the senior Apostle of the Quorum of the Twelve would be next in line. Brigham's son John Willard Young was next in line in seniority but he'd never been ordained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.
ERASTUS SNOW
(November 9, 1818 - May 27, 1888)
Apostle - February 12, 1849
He joined the church after his brother Zerubabbel Snow. He served missions all over the United States, and after Joseph's death, he was a strong supporter of the Q12 and the Utah migration. He and Orson Pratt were the first two Mormons to enter Salt Lake Valley.
A few months after he was ordained an Apostle, he went on a mission to Scandinavia, where he taught and baptized in Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. During the Civil War, he served a mission in the Eastern U.S., where many members and converts journeyed with him back to Utah to escape the war.
Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, is named for him. Lorenzo Snow was a distant cousin.
FRANKLIN D. RICHARDS
(April 2, 1821 - December 9, 1899)
Apostle - February 12, 1849
President of Q12 - September 13, 1898
In 1846, Franklin sent his wife and kids to Utah, but he did not join them until 1848, for he served a mission in England. In 1849 he was called to be an Apostle, and soon, he was sent back to be Great Britain's mission president.
He embraced polygamy and wound up with eleven wives.
His son George F. and grandson LeGrand both went on to become Apostles.
JEDIDIAH M. GRANT
(February 21, 1816 - December 1, 1856)
Apostle - April 7, 1854
Second Counselor - April 7, 1854
Jedidiah joined the church in 1833 at age 17. The next year he was part of the Zion's Camp march with Joseph Smith and others who trekked from Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri who tried and failed to reclaim land that had been taken from expelled Mormons.
He was called to the Presidency of the Seventy by Brigham Young after Smith's death, and he was one of the major early settlers of Utah. He was the first mayor of Salt Lake City. In 1854, after the death of Willard Richards, he was ordained an Apostle and put right into the First Presidency as 2nd Counselor.
Young told him to travel Utah and cry repentence to the Saints, and his fiery sermons earned him the nickname "Brigham's Sledgehammer." Many members were rebaptized as a sign of their renewed commitment. He died of pneumonia at the young age of 40, just a few days after his son Heber J. Grant was born. Heber would eventually become prophet.
JOHN WILLARD YOUNG
(October 1, 1844 - February 12, 1924)
Apostle - November 22, 1855
Counselor - April 8, 1873
First Counselor - October 8, 1876
Counselor to Q12 - October 6, 1877
Resigned - October 8, 1891
Brigham Young ordained his son John to be an Apostle at the unheard-of young age of 11. It wasn't widely known he did this until 1864, when Brigham ordained two more of his sons as Apostles. However, none of them were actually added to the Quorum of the Twelve at the time.
In 1873, Brigham expanded counselors in the First Presidency from three to seven, two of them being his sons. After George A. Smith died, John was moved up to First Counselor. During the 1870's, he spent most of his time in New York and wasn't in Utah much. After Brigham died, instead of being added to the Quorum of the Twelve, John was made a counselor to the Q12. He still lived in New York and was falling increasingly into debt with failed business ventures. Periodically his name was left off the names of general authorities for sustaining in General Conferences. In 1888, Joseph F. Smith accused him of misusing church funds to support himself. Through 1889 and 1890, there were many debates amongst the First Presidency and Q12 if they should remove John from his position.
In 1891, John resigned his church position and was in turn formally released. He kept the office of Apostle, and in 1900, when he was next in line due to his Apostolic seniority, Pres. Lorenzo Snow and the Brethren changed church policy to make ordination in the Q12 part of seniority. A few days after Pres. Snow died in 1901, John showed up in Salt Lake City, but it was Joseph F. Smith who was ordained as the next prophet. John lived out his days in New York.
While out in New York, his son Hooper was convicted of murdering a woman in his apartment while John was in France. John stayed active in the church in his LDS branch in New York, and he eventually died of cancer.
DANIEL H. WELLS
(October 27, 1814 - March 24, 1891)
Apostle - January 4, 1857
Second Counselor - January 4, 1857
Counselor to Q12 - October 6, 1877
Wells lived in Nauvoo and was friendly to the LDS church, to the point that many assumed he was a member, even though he wasn't. He was a member of the Nauvoo Legion and helped defend the city after mobs tried to ransack it after the murders of Joseph & Hyrum Smith.
He was ultimately baptized in 1846 and moved to Utah in 1848. He was elected as the territory's Attorney General the following year. He helped oversee construction of the Salt Lake Temple and the Tabernacle. When Jedidiah M. Grant died, Brigham ordained Wells as an Apostle and put him right into the First Presidency.
He had seven wives. His first wife divorced him after she refused to move to Utah with him. His son Heber eventually became the first governor of Utah.
After Brigham's death, he didn't enter the Q12, but he was called as a counselor to the Q12, and he held that position until his death.
GEORGE Q. CANNON
(January 11, 1827 - April 12, 1901)
Apostle - August 26, 1860
Counselor (BY) - April 8, 1873
First Counselor (JT, WW, LS) - October 10, 1880
Cannon was born in England, and his aunt Leonora married John Taylor. Taylor visited the Cannon family while on a mission back in England and baptized the whole family when George was 13. The family migrated to the United States in 1842, and George's mother died during the voyage.
George wound up living with John and Leonora, and he helped John in his printing offices. When John was shot four times at Carthage Jail, George kept their printing business afloat while he recovered from his wounds.
George served a four-year mission in Hawaii beginning in 1849. He then helped Parley P. Pratt with a mission in California, and he was called to stay behind to preside over the California-Oregon mission. After Pratt was murdered, it took Brigham three years to fill that vacancy, and he did so with George.
George was one of five counselors added to the First Presidency by Brigham in 1873. After Brigham died and John Taylor reorganized the FP, George was made 1st Counselor. When Taylor died and Wilford Woodruff became prophet, he kept George as 1st Counselor, and then when Lorenzo Snow became prophet, he kept George as 1st Counselor. He was next in line in seniority behind Snow when he died at age 74.
JOSEPH ANGELL YOUNG
(October 14, 1834 - August 5, 1875)
Apostle - February 4, 1864
Brigham's son Joseph was ordained, but he never joined the Quorum of the Twelve, nor served in a First Presidency. He did a mission in England and he served a few terms in the Utah Territory's House of Representatives. He died at only age 40.
BRIGHAM YOUNG, JR.
(December 18, 1836 - April 11, 1903)
Apostle - February 4, 1864
President of Q12 - December 9, 1899
Young Jr. was only 11 when he crossed the plains via oxcart in the trek to Utah. He also helped rescue the Willie and Martin handcart companies.
Young Jr. was ordained in 1864 but he didn't become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve until 1868, after Joseph F. Smith.
He was one of the four additional counselors added to the First Presidency in 1873. He went back into the Quorum until he became its president in 1899. (Nowadays he would've been called Acting President, as Joseph F. Smith had seniority but was in the First Presidency, but then when Smith became prophet in 1901, Young Jr. was the true President of the Q12.)
He was only 66 when he died. He also had five wives.
JOSEPH F. SMITH
(November 13, 1838 - November 19, 1918)
Apostle - July 1, 1866
Counselor (BY) - July 1, 1866
Second Counselor (JT, WW, LS) - October 10, 1880
Prophet/President - October 17, 1901
Joseph F. was only five years old when his father Hyrum and uncle Joseph were murdered in Carthage Jail. After being forced from their home by a mob in 1846, he and his mother and siblings met up with other Saints to migrate to Utah. His mother remarried to Heber C. Kimball. Smith was 13 when his mother died of penumonia, and he relied on Kimball and Brigham Young for emotional support after that.
When he was 15, he went on a mission to Hawaii. He spent a few years in California before joining the Nauvoo Legion during the Utah War in 1858. He returned to Hawaii in 1864 to clean up the mess created by its mission president William M. Gibson, who was excommunicated for embezzling church funds and preaching false doctrine.
Smith had six wives. His first wife was his first cousin Levira, daughter of Samuel Smith. After Brigham directed Joseph F. to take a plural wife, he married George A. Smith's wife's niece Julina Lambson. Levira divorced Joseph in 1868 and moved to California. Another wife Joseph F. took was his stepsister Alice Ann Kimball, making him by marriage the uncle of Spencer W. Kimball.
Brigham ordained him an Apostle in 1866 and made him part of the First Presidency. He was also ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1867 following the excommunication of Amasa Lyman. After Brigham's death, John Taylor made Joseph F. his 2nd counselor. He was 2nd counselor to Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow. Snow called him to be his 1st counselor when George Q. Cannon died, but then Snow died a few days later. Thanks to Pres. Snow's 1900 directive on seniority, his deatht he following year made Joseph F. the most senior Apostle, and he became the 6th President of the LDS church. he led the church for 17 years, and he also wrote Section 138 of the Doctrine & Covenants, a revelation on the afterlife. It was the last revelation by a prophet to be canonized as a section in the D&C. (Official Declaration 2 in 1978 was never made a section.)
For a brief period of time, Hyrum's son Joseph F. Smith presided over the LDS church while Joseph's son Joseph Smith III presided over the RLDS church.
ALBERT CARRINGTON
(January 8, 1813 - September 19, 1889)
Apostle - July 3, 1870
Assistant Counselor - June 8, 1873
Excommunicated - November 7, 1885
Rebaptism - November 1, 1887
Carrington, a lawyer, joined the LDS church with his wife in 1841. He took a second wife shortly before they migrated to Utah in 1846.
After the death of Ezra T. Benson, Carrington was called to replace him in the Q12, and when Brigham added four more counselors to the First Presidency in 1873, Carrington was one of them.
Carrington served as president of the European Mission in the late 1870's-early 1880's, doing so without either of his wives with him, and he was accused of an affair with a young housekeeper named Sarah Kirkman. His replacement, John Henry Smith, wrote a letter to President John Taylor in 1882 to report such. After coming home and meeting with the Q12, they decided he hadn't done anything wrong, but they learned later he'd lied and had affairs with numerous women, and that he'd slept with Kirkman before and after her marriage to another man. Carrington rationalized it, saying he hadn't actually "spilled seed" in any of the women. The Church was already suffering greatly due to the US crackdown on polygamy, so news of an Apostle sleeping around was not good publicity, but after another hearing in 1885, the decision was made to excommunicate him.
Carrington's health deteriorated quickly and he pleaded repeatedly for rebaptism, which was eventually granted, and he died less than two years afterward at age 76.
