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. 14 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Diana Severance Chase
1827–1886
Sealed to Brigham Young 10 Oct 1844 — she was 17, 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
HER MARRIAGE IS THE BEST EVIDENCE THAT THESE SEALINGS WERE CONSUMMATED. On 10 October 1844 Brigham and Heber Kimball visited Ezra Chase, sealed Ezra to his wife for eternity, and then each married one of Ezra's daughters - Brigham took Diana, Kimball took Charlotte. FOUR DAYS LATER the two apostles made a clandestine overnight visit back to the Chase house. Kimball's diary: 'No one knew whare we ware gon.' Diana later left Brigham, married William Montgomery Shaw on 1 January 1849, and raised a large family near Ogden.
Key dates
- 1844 Sealed to him 10 Oct 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
- 1849 Divorce or separation 1 Jan 1849 (date she remarried; her leaving is undated)
- 1886 Died 1886
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; a life of her was written by someone else.
A BIOGRAPHICAL TYPESCRIPT about her, written by a descendant.
Olive Virginia Grey Madsen, 'Diana Chase Shaw,' n.d., 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
- 1827
- Died
- 1886
- Died at
- Ogden area, Utah
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- Yes
- Marriage or sealing
- 10 Oct 1844
- Her age at the marriage
- 17
- His age at the marriage
- 43
- Age gap
- 26 years
- Phase of his life
- Post-martyrdom, pre-temple
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- No ?
- Her other husbands
- (2) William Montgomery Shaw
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Probable
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- No - never part of the household
- Divorce or separation
- Left BY; remarried 1 Jan 1849
- 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
- Daughter of Ezra Chase, brother of Isaac Chase (#8's stepfather)
- Left the church?
- Remained in Utah; church status not documented here
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- YES - 1 Jan 1849, while Brigham was alive
- Her later husband(s)
- William Montgomery Shaw
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1, nn. 14, and p. 65; Turner p. 135
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.