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. 13 on Johnson's list — but this page is hers
Rebecca Holman
1824–1849
Sealed to Brigham Young 9 Oct 1844 — she was 20, he was 43.
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
One of three wives Brigham married on three consecutive days (8, 9 and 10 October 1844) - the 'busy stretch' Turner mentions. She died at Cutler's Park, Nebraska, during the exodus, and is recorded in the 1846-49 death and burial register there. Almost nothing else survives about her, which is itself the point: she is one of roughly twenty wives about whom the historical record is close to silent.
Key dates
- 1844 Sealed to him 9 Oct 1844 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
- 1849 Died 1849
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. Johnson cites a biography of Joshua Sawyer HOLMAN, a relative, not of her.
Williams, 'Biography of Joshua Sawyer Holman,' 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
- 1849
- Died at
- Cutler's Park, Nebraska (death and burial register, 1846-49)
- Outlived Brigham Young?
- No - died before him
- Marriage or sealing
- 9 Oct 1844
- Her age at the marriage
- 20
- His age at the marriage
- 43
- Age gap
- 23 years
- Phase of his life
- Post-martyrdom, pre-temple
- Type of sealing
- Not recorded ?
- Already married to another man?
- Unknown ?
- Her other husbands
- -
- Widow of Joseph Smith?
- No
- Sexual relationship?
- Not documented here
- Children by Brigham Young
- 0
- Lived with him?
- No - died before Utah
- 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
- None recorded
- Left the church?
- n/a - died 1849
- Remarried after Brigham Young?
- No - died 1849
- Her later husband(s)
- None recorded
Source and confidence: Johnson Table 1 and n. 13
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.