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. 41 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Jane Terry
1819–1847
Sealed to Brigham Young 10 Feb 1847 — she was 28, he was 46.
This was a sealing, not a marriage in law — plural marriage had no legal standing. What that meant.
Crossing the plains
Who she was, and what happened
Married at Winter Quarters in February 1847 and dead within the year. Her second husband had been a George W. Young - not a close relative of Brigham's so far as the record shows, but the name recurs. One of three wives who died before reaching the Salt Lake Valley.
Key dates
- 1847 Died Feb 1847, four days after the sealing
- 1847 Sealed to him 10 Feb 1847 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
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. Her story survives inside a RELATIVE's autobiography.
Elizabeth Terry Heward, Autobiography, in Parshall Terry Family History (1956), pp. 66-78
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
- 1819
- Died
- Feb 1847, four days after the sealing
- Died at
- Winter Quarters, Nebraska
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 10 Feb 1847
- Her age at the marriage
- 28
- His age at the marriage
- 46
- Age gap
- 18 years
- Phase of his life
- Crossing the plains
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- No ?
- Her other husbands
- (1) George Tarbox (2) George W. Young
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Not documented here
- 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
- Previously married to a George W. Young
- Left the church?
- n/a - died 1847
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- No - died 1847
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: 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.