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. 48 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Catherine Reese
1804–1860
Sealed to Brigham Young 10 June 1855 — she was 51, he was 54.
This was a sealing, not a marriage in law — plural marriage had no legal standing. What that meant.
Utah
Who she was, and what happened
Fifty-one at the sealing, with a prior husband, Zepheniah Clawson. No children, not in the will. Quinn's asterisk again. Her name also appears in the Nauvoo register, so her connection to the family predated the sealing by a decade.
Key dates
- 1855 Sealed to him 10 June 1855 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
- 1860 Died 1860
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 known. Register and a family group sheet.
'Nauvoo Sealings and Adoptions,' p. 49, GS; family group sheet, 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
- 1804
- Died
- 1860
- Died at
- Not established here
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 10 June 1855
- Her age at the marriage
- 51
- His age at the marriage
- 54
- Age gap
- 3 years
- Phase of his life
- Utah, 1850s
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- Unknown - prior husband's status not established ?
- Her other husbands
- (1) Zepheniah Clawson
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Unlikely
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- No
- Divorce or separation
- None recorded
- Named in his will?
- No
- Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?
- No ?
- Kin tie to him or another wife
- None recorded
- Left the church?
- Not documented here
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- No
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 n. 48; Quinn App. 6 ('*Catherine Reese (Clawson, Egan) 1855 (no ch)')
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.