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. 19 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Mary Harvey Pierce
1821–1847
Sealed to Brigham Young 16 Jan 1845 — she was 24, he was 44.
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
Married on the SAME DAY as her sister Margaret - Brigham's diary records a visit to Robert Pierce's home on 16 January 1845 and several scholars date both sealings to that day. She died in March 1847 during the Winter Quarters period; Eliza R. Snow's diary records her death on 16 March and the Journal History the next day. Her parents were afterwards adopted as Brigham's ritual children.
Key dates
- 1845 Sealed to him 16 Jan 1845 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
- 1847 Died 16 March 1847
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 death is recorded in ELIZA R. SNOW's diary.
Eliza R. Snow, Diary, 16 March 1847; Journal History, 17 March 1847
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
- 1821
- Died
- 16 March 1847
- Died at
- Winter Quarters, Nebraska
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 16 Jan 1845
- Her age at the marriage
- 24
- His age at the marriage
- 44
- Age gap
- 20 years
- Phase of his life
- Post-martyrdom, pre-temple
- 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?
- 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
- Sister of Margaret Pierce (#18)
- 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 n. 19; Turner n. 57
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.