From the Mayfield Monitor, Saturday, April 23, 1881: “Mrs. Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of Brigham Young, will lecture in Mayfield about the 12th of May.”
What would the wife of Brigham Young be doing on the lecture circuit and why come to Mayfield? Ann Eliza went on the lecture circuit speaking out against polygamy, Mormonism, and Brigham Young after her divorce from Young and excommunication from the Latter Day Saints Church. The divorce and excommunication make her an instant celebrity.
Born September 12, 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois, Ann Eliza, at 4 years of age, went to Salt Lake City with her Mormon parents. Married at 19 and having two children, she divorced her husband when he apparently wanted to take a second wife. Married to then 67 year old Brigham Young when she was a 24 year old divorcee, Ann Eliza filed for divorce from Young in 1873, was excommunicated from the LDS Church in October 0f 1874, and divorced in January 1875. She testified before Congress in 1875 for which she is credited with contributing to the passage of laws against polygamy. Her lecture circuit appearances centered on three (3) themes, but her appeal increased dramatically when she published, in 1876, her exceedingly successful book, Wife No. 19; or the Story of a Life in Bondage. Moving to Michigan, Ann Eliza married a third time, to Moses R. Denning, whom she divorced in 1893. A revised version of her book was published in 1908 but it was not as successful as the original. For all this notoriety, Ann Eliza died in obscurity.
Why did she come to Mayfield? Again, from the Mayfield Monitor, Saturday, March 31, 1877, an obituary: “Mr. John D. Lee, Mormon priest who was shot in Utah Territory last week was born and raised in southern part of Graves County. He was son of John Lee, one of the first merchants of Feliciana and up to 1845 resided near here. Went to Utah and afterwards returned. Married a Florida lady and farmed near Water Valley. He stayed there some time and moved to Utah.” Is there some connection, church affiliation or otherwise, between Ann Eliza’s scheduled appearance and this Mormon priest’s relatives in Graves County? Cursory research didn’t uncover any. Do you know?
Incidentially, it is not known if Ann Eliza actually made the scheduled appearance in Mayfield as subsequent research didn’t uncover reports of such an event.
(This posting created from the following sources: Graves Co. KY Newspaper Genealogical Abstracts, Volume 1, Mayfield Monitor, 2-19-1886 to 12-1-1885, copyrighted 1977 by Don Simmons; Internet sources at www.novelguide.com (Ann Eliza (Webb) Young), and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Eliza_Young)