50 plus wives? That is a definite lie of commission.
WAM BAM NWM CBY Notes Birth Date Marriage Date Death Date Brigham Young 57 June 1, 1801 August 29, 1877 1. Miriam Works ?18 22 1 2 1806 October 8, 1824 September 8, 1832 2. Mary Ann Angell 30 32 1 6 June 8, 1803 February 16, 1834 June 27, 1882 3. Lucy Ann Decker 20 41 2 7 May 17, 1822 June 15, 1842 January 24, 1890 4. Harriet Elizabeth Cook Campbell 18 42 ?3 1 November 7, 1824 November 2, 1843 November 5, 1898 5. Augusta Adams ?41 42 ?4 1802 November 2, 1843 1886 6. Clarissa Decker 15 42 5 5 July 22, 1828 May 8, 1844 January 5, 1889 7. Clarissa Ross 30 43 6 4 June 16, 1814 September 10, 1844 October 17, 1858 8. Emily Dow Partridge 20 43 7 7 *JS February 28, 1824 September, 1844 Dec, 1899 9. Susan Snively 29 43 8 October, 1815 November 2, 1844 November 20, 1892 10. Olive Grey Frost 28 43 9 *JS July 24, 1816 February, 1845 October 6, 1845 11. Emmeline Free ?19 43 10 10 1826 April 30, 1845 July 17, 1875 12. Margaret Pierce ?22 ?44 11 1 April 19, 1823 1845 January 16, 1907 13. Maria Lawrence 44 11 *JS January, 1846 1847 14. Ellen Rockwood ?16 44 12 1829 January, 1846 January 6, 1866 15. Martha Bowker 23 44 13 January 24, 1822 January 21, 1846 September 26, 1890 16. Naamah Kendel Jenkins Carter 24 44 14 March 20, 1821 January 26, 1846 1909 17. Zina Diantha Huntington 25 44 15 1 *JS January 31, 1821 February 2, 1846 August 29, 1901 18. Louisa Beaman ?31 ?45 16 5 *JS February 7, 1815 1846 May 15, 1850 19. Margaret Maria Alley 20 45 17 2 December 19, 1825 October 14, 1846 November 5, 1852 20. Lucy Bigelow 16 45 ?18 3 October 3, 1830 March, 1847 February 3, 1905 21. Mary Jane Bigelow 19 45 ?19 *S-1851 October 15, 1827 March 20, 1847 September 26, 1866 22. Eliza R. Snow 45 48 19 *JS January 21, 1804 June 29, 1849 December 5, 1888 23. Eliza Burgess ?23 49 19 1 1827 October 3, 1850 Aug, 1915 24. Harriet Barney ?25 54 18 1 1830 March 14, 1856 February 14, 1911 25. Harriet Amelia Folsom 24 61 18 August 23, 1838 January 24, 1863 December 11, 1910 26. Mary Van Cott 22 63 19 1 February 2, 1844 January 8, 1865 January 15, 1884 27. Ann Eliza Webb 23 66 18 *D-1876 September 13, 1844 April 6, 1868 (Column Descriptions) WAM: Wife's Age at Marriage. BAM: Brigham Young's Age at Marriage. NWM: Number of Wives after Marriage. CBY: Children of Brigham Young. *D: Divorced Brigham Young. *S: Separated from Brigham Young. *JS: Married Joseph Smith (Martyred in 1844).
[50 plus wives? That is a definite lie of commission.]
Yes, you should stop lying OldMountainMan. Apparently there were actually 55.
Brigham Young’s Wives and
His Divorce From Ann Eliza Webb
In 1868 Brigham Young, at age sixty-seven, married Ann Eliza Webb, an attractive twenty-four year old divorcee with two children. Young had already married dozens of other women. LDS scholar Jeffery Johnson, writing on Brigham Young and his wives, explained:
“Sixteen women gave birth to Brigham Young’s fifty-seven children; Emmeline Free had ten; six wives had only one child. The oldest child, Elizabeth Young Ellsworth, was fifty-two at Brigham’s death and the youngest, Fannie Young Clayton, was seven. Eleven of the sixteen women survived him. None of the women who bore him children canceled their sealings or remarried....
“The first documented divorce was from Mary Woodward on 13 December 1846, his wife of less than a year. In a brief but warm letter that day, he wrote: “In answer to your letter of yesterday, the 12 inst; I will say, you may consider yourself discharged from me and my counsel” and added that he would be glad to help her if she and her children were ever hungry (Brigham Young papers).
“Divorce records are sketchy for the emigration period, but two women who had been sealed to him in the Nauvoo Temple left him then to marry other men. ...
“On 18 June 1851 Mary Ann Clark Powers wrote from Kanesville, Iowa: “I wish you to release me from all engagements with you for time and eternity....” (Brigham Young papers). This request was granted.
“After the Church began recording divorces in 1851, Mary Ann Turley and Mary Jane Bigelow obtained divorces in 1851, Eliza Babcock in 1853, and Elizabeth Fairchild in 1855 (Divorce Certificates, Brigham Young papers). They were under twenty when they married Brigham Young and had never become part of his household. They all remarried; and Mary Jane, Eliza, and Elizabeth remained in Utah. “Almost twenty years later in 1873, Ann Eliza Webb applied for a civil divorce. The case came to trial in 1875, and the court ordered Brigham to pay $500 per month allowance and $3,000 court costs. When he refused, he was fined $25 and sentenced to a day in prison for contempt of court (Arrington 1985, 373). There is no record of application for a Church divorce, but she was excommunicated 10 October 1874 and devoted much of the rest of her life to publishing her somewhat sensational memoirs and giving anti-Mormon lectures.
“Twenty-one of Brigham Young’s fifty-five wives had never been married, six were separated or divorced from their husbands, sixteen were widows, and six had living husbands from whom divorces had apparently not been obtained. Marital information is unavailable for six.
“From a twentieth-century perspective, the polyandrous marriages seem most problematic. Three of these women (Mary Ann Clark Powers, Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, and Hannah Tapfield King) were married to non-Mormons, which meant, according to the theological understanding of the times, that their salvation could not be assured. Mary Ann Clark Powers, married to Brigham Young 15 January 1845, later said she had not “bin a wife to” Powers after the sealing and expressed relief when Powers went to California. She received a divorce from Brigham Young in 1851 (Powers toYoung, 18 June 1851, Brigham Young papers).” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, (”Defining ‘Wife’: The Brigham Young Households,” by Jeffrey Johnson, 1987, Vol. 20, No. 3, p.62-63)
