Prototype. Nobody named on this site has agreed to take part in it — what that means.
The Wives of Brigham Young 55 women, named — and given back their own words

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. 35 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers

Mary Ellen de la Montague

1803–?

Sealed to Brigham Young 3 Feb 1846 — she was 43, 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

THE COLD OPEN OF THE WHOLE STORY, AND THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE LIST WHO WAS HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER FIRST. On 17 January 1846 she was the lone passenger in Brigham's new omnibus carriage when the horses went through a Nauvoo bridge; she ran to his house, he got out of bed, hauled the horses out one at a time and washed them with whiskey to stop them stiffening. She had earlier written him that her husband James 'abused' her and begged for 'release from worse than death.' In early February James had them BOTH sealed to Brigham as adopted CHILDREN - Turner suspects to stop her leaving. Two days after becoming his ritual daughter she married her adoptive father. It did not last: on 13 December 1846 Brigham wrote her the FIRST DOCUMENTED DIVORCE of any of his marriages - 'you may consider yourself discharged from me and my counsel' - adding that he would gladly help if she and her children were ever hungry. JOHNSON TELLS IT DIFFERENTLY: she had applied to the Nauvoo High Council in about 1844 for a divorce from James on grounds of physical cruelty to her and their three children; after she was sealed to Brigham, James persuaded her to come BACK to him, and Brigham granted the divorce AT HER REQUEST. Her letter of 25 February 1847 - two months after the discharge - asks Brigham: 'If I do all I can and after this he treats me bad, will you let me leave him and live with my children?'

Key dates

  1. 1846 Adopted as his daughter 1 Feb 1846 - DERIVED, not stated: Turner p. 140 says she married him 'two days after' becoming his adopted daughter, and the marriage is 3 Feb
  2. 1846 Sealed to him 3 Feb 1846 A sealing, not a marriage in law: plural marriage had no legal standing.
  3. 1846 Divorce or separation 13 Dec 1846

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 OWN LETTERS to Brigham - the 'release from worse than death' plea and the Feb 1847 letter.

Turner pp. 132, 140; Johnson p. 64

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
1803
Died
?
Died at
Not established here
Outlived Brigham Young?
Unknown - no death year recorded
Marriage or sealing
3 Feb 1846
Her age at the marriage
43
His age at the marriage
45
Age gap
2 years
Phase of his life
Nauvoo temple (Jan-Feb 1846)
Type of sealing
Not recorded ?
Already married to another man?
Yes (Turner n. 56) ?
Her other husbands
(1) James B. Woodward
Widow of Joseph Smith?
No
Sexual relationship?
Not documented here
Children by Brigham Young
0
Lived with him?
No
Divorce or separation
FIRST DOCUMENTED DIVORCE - 13 Dec 1846
Named in his will?
Not applicable or not recorded
Sealed to him as an adopted daughter first?
YES - adopted as his daughter 2 days before the marriage ?
Kin tie to him or another wife
None recorded
Left the church?
Not documented here
Remarried after Brigham Young?
No - returned to James Woodward
Her later husband(s)
None recorded

Source and confidence: Turner pp. 132, 140 and n. 64; Johnson pp. 63, 64 and Table 1 n. 35. TURNER AND JOHNSON READ THE DIVORCE DIFFERENTLY - both recorded above

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.