Ann Eliza Young

[IreneIssh]

I just finished the novel The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff this past weekend, which was a really well researched story of an escapee from a fundamentalist Mormon cult returning to his home to help solve a murder case. The book also includes somewhat fictionalized passages written from the perspective of Ann Eliza Young, the 19th Wife of Brigham Young. 

Reading this book prompted me to look up the real Ann Eliza, who actually left Mormonism and divorced Brigham Young very publicly in the 1870s, and wrote a book called Wife no. 19, the Story of a Life in Bondage. I realized the book was free on the Google play store and so I started reading it. Apparently Ann Eliza is a pretty contentious figure in the LDS church, and many people consider her book to be somewhat unreliable and her story sensationalized, which it likely was to some extent, but not nearly to the level the church claimed. Brigham Young's crew did all they could to drag her though the mud. 

The book itself is a pretty dense read, largely due to the time it was written, but definitely has some interesting tidbits about life as a Mormon wife in polygamy as well as the power of Brigham Young in the community.

I thought it was interesting that even on the digitized format of the book you can see how controversial of a figure she is. Someone wrote at the top "This book can be entirely disproved!" to which someone else replied "by who?" 

Here's the link to the e-book on Google books in case anyone is interested: https://books.google.com/books/about/Wife_No_19.html?id=0ngFAAAAQAAJ

Just wondering if anyone else had read this piece or had any thoughts about Ann-Eliza. 

[NerdyHil]

Brigham Young was pretty much the worst. Here are a few of his more awful statements:http://zelphontheshelf.com/8-crazy-teachings-of-the-journal-of-discourses/

[quincygal]

OK, so I consider myself pretty into LDS & Mormon fundamentalist offshoots, and this was the MOST disturbing account of Mountain Meadows I've ever read.  I've read 2 other books on Ann Eliza, and am a third of the way into this one.  Wow.  According to this book, Brigham Young was quite the man to have people killed.  I knew about Porter Rockwell, but never knew there were so many other willing assassins.  This is quite a bloody tale:/

 

I'm from down the road from Nauvoo (user name cough cough) and wanted to share this online article from the hometown paper.  There is a statue in a park in town- a woman with children clinging to her skirts, in memory of the folks being driven from MO and crossing the river into town.  As a child, my mom had to explain this to me several times, and frankly, as a mother now, the thought of crossing the frozen river with my children terrifies me even more

 

http://www.whig.com/story/15300641/once-upon-a-time-in-quincy-town-provided-refuge-for-persecuted-mormons#

[Grimalkin]

On September 7, 2016 at 6:59 PM, IreneIssh said:

I just finished the novel The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff this past weekend, which was a really well researched story of an escapee from a fundamentalist Mormon cult returning to his home to help solve a murder case. The book also includes somewhat fictionalized passages written from the perspective of Ann Eliza Young, the 19th Wife of Brigham Young. 

Reading this book prompted me to look up the real Ann Eliza, who actually left Mormonism and divorced Brigham Young very publicly in the 1870s, and wrote a book called Wife no. 19, the Story of a Life in Bondage. I realized the book was free on the Google play store and so I started reading it. Apparently Ann Eliza is a pretty contentious figure in the LDS church, and many people consider her book to be somewhat unreliable and her story sensationalized, which it likely was to some extent, but not nearly to the level the church claimed. Brigham Young's crew did all they could to drag her though the mud. 

The book itself is a pretty dense read, largely due to the time it was written, but definitely has some interesting tidbits about life as a Mormon wife in polygamy as well as the power of Brigham Young in the community.

I thought it was interesting that even on the digitized format of the book you can see how controversial of a figure she is. Someone wrote at the top "This book can be entirely disproved!" to which someone else replied "by who?" 

Here's the link to the e-book on Google books in case anyone is interested: https://books.google.com/books/about/Wife_No_19.html?id=0ngFAAAAQAAJ

Just wondering if anyone else had read this piece or had any thoughts about Ann-Eliza. 

Good find! Thanks. I'm going to dog eat this one for later.

[BackseatMom]

I read a very interesting old book in college called "Is one wife enough?" By Brigham Young Jr. (Spoiler, the answer is no). It talks a lot about Young Sr.'s wives.

[SadieJane]

When I started getting really into looking into the craziness that is FLDS one of the first books I read was the 19th Wife. I then promptly had to watch the movie. I had no idea that Ana Young was an actual person with an actual book. Now that I do I am so going to read it. I think that you just made my night. 

[samurai_sarah]

Just to add, there's another expose on early LDS polygamy written by Fanny Stenhouse "Tell it all", freely available online. She tells her own story, and what she observed, making her personal case against polygamy.