Nov 21 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2687 -
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Sale 2687 - Lot 178

Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
(MORMONS.) Rhoda Richards. Family record of Brigham Young and his siblings, compiled by a cousin during the Kirtland period. 9 manuscript pages, 4 x 3¼ inches, on 3 folding sheets of hand-lined paper, hand-stitched; minimal wear and foxing. No place, circa 1838
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Additional Details

This slender family register names the 10 children of John Young (1763-1839) and Abigail "Nabby" Howe Young (1765-1816) and their spouses, including Brigham Young and several of his siblings who played roles in the early church. It also gives the death date of Nabby Young, and mentions John Young's second wife: "Married the widow Brown, they had three children. Two died, one survived. His name is Edward." While Brigham Young's younger half-brother Edward Young (1823-1894) is known, the existence of these two other Brigham Young half-siblings who died young has been debated by historians. Richard Palmer's biography "Brigham Young, the New York Years" mentioned that "two died in infancy" (page 6), but Schwendiman in "The Mendon Saints" disputed that point: "Brigham makes no mention of any child being born who died in infancy. He only referred to a living child. Had others survived and died as infants, he undoubtedly would have included this information" (page II:519).

The author was Rhoda Richards (1784-1879), who had many notable connections with the earliest Church members. Her brothers Willard Richards and Levi Richards were important early leaders. She was a second cousin through her mother Rhoda Howe Richards (1765-1838) to Brigham Young, the family connection which led to the conversion of the Richards family. Unmarried, she was baptized into the faith in 1838 in Richmond, Massachusetts. Her sister Hepzibah Richards wrote to Rhoda from Kirtland, Ohio in March 1838, asking her to come join the main body of Mormons there. We don't know exactly when she went west, but she was in Nauvoo, IL by 1843, when she was sealed to Joseph Smith as one of his plural wives at the age of 59; they do not appear to have been close.

This family record includes this contact information: "Direct your letters to Kirtland, Geauga Co., State of Ohio if you want to hear from us. Rhoda Richards, Joseph Young." The record is written in the same hand that wrote "Rhoda Richards."

A few other clues suggest that the family record was written circa 1838. It lists two wives for Brigham Young, who "married for his first wife Mariam Wirks, for his seccond wife Maryann Angel." The first wife Miriam died in 1832, and he remarried to Mary Ann Angell in 1834. His third wife (and first plural wife) Lucy Ann Decker followed in 1842; she is not mentioned here. That places the date between 1834 and 1842. She also adds"From the best information we can get of the number of Nabby How's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, there are sixty four now living." That number would increase dramatically after Brigham Young began taking plural wives in 1842. Rhoda Young Greene, listed here as living, died in 1841.

One other name is added in a different hand on the final page: "Persis L.Y. Richards, 166 C Street, Salt Lake City." Persis Louisa Young Greene (1864-1944) was a granddaughter of Brigham Young's brother Lorenzo; she was a plural wife of Levi Willard Richards, and thus the niece of the family record's author Rhoda Richards. This later cousin's name and contact information may have been added to the original record in the 1920s. She was listed in the 1900 and 1910 census records at 160 C Street with Levi Richards and his other wife (the famed poet Louisa Greene Richards). In the 1920 census, after plural marriages were officially dissolved, she is found three doors down from Levi W. Richards at 166 C Street, suggesting that this later inscription dates from around that time.

Provenance: thought to have been presented by Persis L.Y. Richards (1864-1944) to her half-aunt Zerviah Susie Greene Smith (1874-1970), and thence through the family to the consignor. A copy has been donated to the LDS Church History Library.

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