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. 26 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Ellen Rockwood
1829–1866
Sealed to Brigham Young 21 Jan 1846 — she was 17, 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
SIXTEEN YEARS OLD - the youngest of the entire Nauvoo temple wave, and the youngest wife Turner names. On 16 December 1845 Brigham personally brought her through the veil into the celestial room along with Augusta Adams and Eliza R. Snow; all three left Nauvoo as his wives. Four days after her sealing, her father Albert Rockwood was ritually adopted as Brigham's SON - which made the bride's father his brother-in-law's... son. The categories simply stopped resolving.
Key dates
- 1846 Sealed to him 21 Jan 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
- 1866 Died 1866
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 - which is striking, given she was sixteen and lived in the household.
'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
- 1829
- Died
- 1866
- Died at
- Not established here
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 21 Jan 1846
- Her age at the marriage
- 17
- His age at the marriage
- 45
- Age gap
- 28 years
- Phase of his life
- Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- No ?
- Her other husbands
- -
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Not documented here
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- Yes - household (Rhoda Richards visited her there)
- 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
- Daughter of Albert Perry Rockwood, whom BY adopted as a son four days later
- Left the church?
- Remained LDS (documented)
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- No - died 1866
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Turner pp. 132, 134, 139; Johnson Table 1
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.