Newel K. Young (1877-1956)
Newel Knight Young was born on 21 August 1877 in Orderville, Kane, Utah, USA, and died on 15 August 1956 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, USA. He is the son of John Ray Young and Lydia Knight. He married Castina Maria Buchanan on 13 Jul 1898 in the Manti Temple, Sanpete County, Utah. She was born on 16 October 1876 in Glenwood, Sevier, Utah and died on 8 August 1944 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA. She is the daughter of Archibald Waller Overton Buchanan and Anne Maria Larsen.
Newel became a third generation polygamist on November 19, 1900 when he married Geneva Cooley in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. They were married by LDS Church official A. F. McDonald. Geneva was 17 and Newel was 23. They had met when both were members of the same ward. Newel was married to first wife, Tina Buchanan and had one child at the time. Written records, documenting Tina's approval of her husband's second marriage, are not known to exist; however it was Mormon custom at that time for first wives to approve any plural marriage by their husband. As expected, the families of the two wives lived in a close civil and loving relationship while in Mexico. Both wives contributed generously as they performed their respective household tasks. Since both Tina and Geneva were children of well respected polygamist parents, it is unlikely that there were issues with their own plural union. Upon returning to the states in 1911 and thereafter, the two families lived apart in separate homes. When Newel's daughter, Vernessa was in her 73rd year she wrote of her father: “He had the love, confidence and respect of many in the teaching profession as well as hundreds of the young people who were his students and friends. He was a wonderful father to his nineteen children, struggling endlessly to support and provide for them on his meager teacher’s salary…. A more loving father never lived. He suffered much but never complained…and he truly believed as the Savior taught ‘In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." |
Grandpa Newel K. Young died in 1956 just as I finished my basic training as a volunteer recruit in the U. S. Army, so I had the good fortune of being able to attend his funeral service. He was recognized by his fellow educators who spoke of his love for Jesus Christ and his professionalism and accomplishments in teaching.
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Newel served as teacher and principal of the Mount Pleasant Seminary in Sanpete
County, Utah during 1916- 1918. He moved Tina and their children into this lovely home
across from the church building. The following year he was also appointed and sustained as North Sanpete Stake Superintendent of Religious Classes for the LDS Church.
Growing up in an age when polygamy was not sanctioned by my church, I wondered why my seminary teacher grandfather had taken a second wife after the 1890 Wilford Woodruff Manifesto. Many years later, when I began researching and writing about our family's history a lot of buried thoughts and questions about polygamy forcefully surfaced. They ended up on paper in a little piece I titled "Grandpa Was a Polygamist." This exercise satisfied all of my curiosities and ever since I have been content to simply accept this part of our family's record with distance, gratitude of being born in 1937 instead of 1837, and a growing appreciation for those grandparents who survived the experience with grace, wisdom and respect. Today, my only regret for my pioneer ancestor's plural lifestyle is the disdain that has been brought upon them by the errant fundamentalists of this day with their decadent moral application of what was once considered inviolable by Mormon elect.
Writings of Newel K. Young
Newel K. Young's father and grandfather were blessed with gifts of oration, writing and unique expression. Both kept valuable journals and both produced memorable and meaningful life histories of historic importance that have grown more valuable through the years. Newel, too, was a gifted speaker and writer. Many of his works appeared in church publications. Click here to see and read the writings that have been transcribed into PDF documents.