Richard W. Young

Richard Whitehead Young was a United States Army brigadier general. During the time that the Philippines was a territory of the U.S., he was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Young, a grandson of Brigham Young, was born on April 19, 1858, in Salt Lake City, to Joseph A. Young and his wife Margaret Whitehead. For the first few years of his life, he was raised in the Beehive House and the Lion House. He studied at the University of Deseret.

Young was a teacher and principal in Manti, Utah, and worked for the office of the architect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He entered West Point in 1878 and was commissioned in the field artillery after his graduation with the Class of 1882. In 1884, he graduated from Columbia Law School and practiced as a military attorney until 1888. He then returned to Salt Lake City where he opened a private law practice and then officially resigned from the army.

From 1895 to 1896, he served as a brigadier general in the national guard. He reentered the Army during the Spanish-American War and led the Utah Light Artillery Battalion in the Philippines. After the war ended in 1898, he was appointed as an associate justice of the U.S. Territory of the Philippines Supreme Court.

In 1901, he returned to his private practice. In 1917, Young was commissioned as colonel and commanded the 145th Field Artillery Regiment. In 1918, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 65th Field Artillery Brigade in France.

He died of appendicitis in 1919. He and his wife, Minerva Richards, were the parents of ten children.

A bronze statue of him is found in the Utah State Capitol.