We could not find a photograph of her. If you hold one — a descendant's album, a county archive, a gravestone portrait — it would fill this space permanently. Write to mormonstories@gmail.com.

No. 28 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers

Abigail Marks (Works)

1781–1846

Sealed to Brigham Young 28 Jan 1846 — she was 65, he was 45.

This was a sealing, not a marriage in law — plural marriage had no legal standing. What that meant.

Nauvoo temple, January-February 1846

Who she was, and what happened

HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW. The widowed mother of Miriam Works, Brigham's first wife, who had died fourteen years earlier. She was 64 or 65. Turner is explicit that marriages like this one were 'likely not sexual' - they were a way of extending the protection and the eternal standing of his kingdom to an elderly widow with no one else. She died the same year, 1846, probably on the trail.

Key dates

1846 Died 1846
1846 Sealed to him 28 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.

Nothing here is inferred. Johnson's Table 1 has one date column, so where an event is documented but undated it is shown as "no date" rather than given a spurious one — the missing date is itself a fact about how these records were kept. Only two of the fifty-five have a civil marriage date; for the other fifty-three the single date records a sealing, because plural marriage had no standing in law.

What survives in her own words

Nothing from her, and no life of her written by anyone else.

None of her own. Johnson cites a family group sheet.

Family group sheet of Asa Works and Abigail Marks, GS

15 of the fifty-five left words of their own. The rest are known only through other people's papers. What that silence means.

The record

Born: 1781
Died: 1846
Died at: probably on the trail west - not established
Outlived Brigham Young?: No - died before him
Marriage or sealing: 28 Jan 1846
Her age at the marriage: 65
His age at the marriage: 45
Age gap: -20 years
Phase of his life: Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing: Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?: No ?
Her other husbands: (1) Asa Works
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Unlikely - almost certainly not
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: No
Divorce or separation: None recorded
Named in his will?: Not applicable or not recorded
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: MOTHER of his dead first wife Miriam Works (#1)
Left the church?: n/a - died 1846
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No - died 1846
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner p. 134 and n. 52

A blank or “not established here” means the fact was not documented in the sources behind this table. It does not mean zero, and it does not mean no. We leave it empty rather than guessing, because inventing a detail of her life would be another way of not listening to her. The size of that gap is the argument for the book she never got.