Clarissa Ross

1814–1857

Sealed to Brigham Young 10 Sept 1844 — she was 30, he was 43.

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

Nauvoo, after the martyrdom

Who she was, and what happened

Turner calls her Brigham's FIRST marriage after Joseph's murder - a little over ten weeks after Carthage. She was 30, stepdaughter of his friend Isaac Chase. The diary entry recording the wedding is the whole point: 'this day I visited Br. Isac Chace Br H. C. Kimball was with me Br & Sister Chase with their daughter Claricy was at home, we had a good visit.' That is the entire record of the marriage. The manuscript page is reproduced in Turner at p. 133.

Key dates

1844 Sealed to him 10 Sept 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
1857 Died 1857

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 history of her STEPFATHER Isaac Chase.

Welling, 'History of Isaac Chase,' 1964, typescript

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: 1814
Died: 1857
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: No - died before him
Marriage or sealing: 10 Sept 1844
Her age at the marriage: 30
His age at the marriage: 43
Age gap: 13 years
Phase of his life: Post-martyrdom, pre-temple
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: 4
Lived with him?: Yes - household
Divorce or separation: None recorded
Named in his will?: n/a - died 1857, twenty years before him
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?: No ?
Kin tie to him or another wife: Stepdaughter of Isaac Chase, BY's friend
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No - died 1857
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Turner p. 133 (facsimile)

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.