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. 30 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Cynthia Porter
1783–?
Sealed to Brigham Young 28 Jan 1846 — she was 63, 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
Sixty-two or sixty-three years old, with a living or former husband named Weston. Sealed in the same 28 January batch as the two mothers-in-law - a day that looks less like marriage than like a welfare and kinship operation conducted at speed. Almost nothing else is recorded about her; Johnson could not establish her death date.
What survives in her own words
Nothing from her, and no life of her written by anyone else.
None known. One line in the sealing register is the whole record.
'Nauvoo Sealings and Adoptions,' p. 577, 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
- 1783
- Died
- ?
- Died at
- Not established here
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- Unknown - no death year recorded
- Marriage or sealing
- 28 Jan 1846
- Her age at the marriage
- 63
- His age at the marriage
- 45
- Age gap
- -18 years
- Phase of his life
- Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- Unknown - prior husband's status not established ?
- Her other husbands
- (1) Mr. Weston
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Unlikely
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- Unknown
- 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?
- Not documented here
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- Not established here
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Brown, Nauvoo Sealings (register cross-ref)
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.