Clarissa Caroline Decker

1828–1889

Sealed to Brigham Young 8 May 1844 — she was 16, he was 43.

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

Nauvoo, during Joseph Smith's life

Who she was, and what happened

SIXTEEN years old; he was 42. Lucy Ann Decker's younger sister - the second Decker daughter in the family. Married seven weeks before Joseph Smith was killed at Carthage. She became one of only THREE women in the 1847 vanguard pioneer company that entered the Salt Lake Valley, travelling with her mother Harriet Page Wheeler Decker.

Key dates

1844 Sealed to him 8 May 1844 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
no date Temple sealing confirmed Confirmed in the Nauvoo temple, Jan-Feb 1846. Documented, but Johnson gives no date
1889 Died c. 7 Jan 1889

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

She left words of her own.

HER OWN ACCOUNT of the 1847 vanguard company, written 1884.

Clara Decker Young, 'A Young Women's Experience with the Pioneer Band,' 1884, Bancroft Library; Whitney, 'The Three Pioneer Women'

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: 1828
Died: c. 7 Jan 1889
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 8 May 1844
Her age at the marriage: 16
His age at the marriage: 43
Age gap: 27 years
Phase of his life: During Joseph Smith's life
Type of sealing: Time & eternity ?
Already married to another man?: No ?
Her other husbands: -
Widow of Joseph Smith?: No
Sexual relationship?: Yes - children
Children by Brigham Young: 5
Lived with him?: Yes - household
Divorce or separation: None recorded
Named in his will?: Yes
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: Sister of Lucy Ann Decker (#3)
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; RSC Journey West glossary

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.