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. 34 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers

Amy Cecilia Cooper

1804–?

Sealed to Brigham Young 3 Feb 1846 — she was 42, 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

Sealed as Brigham's thirty-fourth wife and then went HOME. By December 1847 she was back in Northbridge, Massachusetts, and Augusta Adams Cobb wrote to her there - a remarkable letter in which Augusta pronounces a blessing on her and then SEALS IT: 'This blessing dear sister I seal upon your head in the name of Jesus C by virtue of the priesthood vested in me amen.' A plural wife claiming priesthood authority in writing, to another plural wife, in 1847. SOURCES DISAGREE on whether she had a living husband: Turner's n. 56 lists her as Amy Cooper (Aldrich); Johnson's table says 'not known.'

What survives in her own words

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

No writings of her own, but she is the RECIPIENT of Augusta Cobb's 1847 blessing letter.

O'Donovan, JMH 38:2, p. 11

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: 1804
Died: ?
Died at: last known in Northbridge, Massachusetts, Dec 1847
Outlived Brigham Young?: Unknown - no death year recorded
Marriage or sealing: 3 Feb 1846
Her age at the marriage: 42
His age at the marriage: 45
Age gap: 3 years
Phase of his life: Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing: Not recorded ?
Already married to another man?: Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands: Aldrich (per Turner); Johnson: 'not known'
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Not documented here
Children by Brigham Young: 0
Lived with him?: No - returned to Massachusetts
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: None recorded
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented) - Augusta Cobb wrote her a blessing in 1847
Remarried after Brigham Young?: Not established here
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 n. 34; Turner n. 56; O'Donovan, JMH 38:2 p. 11

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.