Harriet Elizabeth Cook

1824–1898

Sealed to Brigham Young 2 Nov 1843 — she was 19, he was 42.

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

Married the SAME DAY as Augusta Adams; each woman's affidavit names the other as a witness, alongside first wife Mary Ann Angell. A 19-year-old convert with no relatives in Nauvoo. Her son was born in early 1846 as the Saints were packing to leave. Decades later Andrew Jenson recorded her as a source on Joseph Smith's plural wives - she was inside the secret by 1843 and remembered who else was. That same evening of 2 Nov 1843, Brigham officiated at Joseph Smith's sealing to Brigham's own older sister, Fanny Young.

Key dates

1843 Sealed to him 2 Nov 1843 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
1898 Died c. 5 Nov 1898

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 sworn plural-marriage affidavit, and nothing else of hers. The biographical sketch Johnson cites is of her SON Oscar, not of her.

'Plural Marriage Affidavits,' Book 2, p. 12; Booth, 'A Biographical Sketch of the Life of Oscar S. Young,' 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: 1824
Died: c. 5 Nov 1898
Died at: Salt Lake City
Outlived Brigham Young?: Yes
Marriage or sealing: 2 Nov 1843
Her age at the marriage: 19
His age at the marriage: 42
Age gap: 23 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: 1
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: None recorded
Left the church?: Remained LDS (documented)
Remarried after Brigham Young?: No
Her later husband(s): None recorded

Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1; Bergera, Dialogue 38:3 pp. 55-56

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.