Diary of Brigham Young 1857

Diary of Brigham Young, page 055

Friday 31 Spent morning in the office, very few callers. Spent after- noon in endowment house. Sealed Several couples on the Altars."4 Evening had a long conversation on the pros- pects of our future. Saturday August I 1857. Spent an hour or two in the office. Rode down to Bro Shirtliffs to See how things were going along in my pasture. This afternoon accompanyed by Bros Wells F Little & Son Jos. A. visited the church pasture to See how U Bro John Clawson was doing, and how Bro Bryant Stringham got along with branding the Cattle.5" Concluded as government had taken the mail A4A good contemporary account of a polygamous marriage ceremony is one by Martha Spencc. She traveled to Utah in an immigrant company directed by Joseph I,. Heywood, and teas taken into Heywood's home where another woman (Sister \`ary) was also living with Heywood and his wife, In due course, Joseph Heywood took both women for his wives, the ceremony for which is described by Martha in her diary. i` the ordinance of sealing was attended to xvhich took place last evening, January 16th, 18.51 by Brigham Young in presence of Brother and Sister Vilate Kimball and Thomas Bullock. The ceremony appeared solemn and interesting and different from anything the lvorld knows of. Brother Haylvood stood on the floor, his wife taking hold of his left arnl with heI right and taking first Sister Vary by the right hand and placing it in that of Bro. Haywood's right hand and in that way she was sealed to him for time and eternity by a form of words most sublime. When done she [Sister Vary] fell back by taking Sister Haywood's arm. I then event for\vard going through the same ceremony." Martha Spence Heywood, Not by Bread Alone, The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850-56, cd. Juanita Brooks (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1978), 46-47. ""It is difficult to differentiate between the Church Farnl, located along the Jordan River south from present-day Twenty- First South Street, and the church pasture on Antelope Island. The whole of the island was used as a church herding ground, and Briant Stringham lived there for a time supervising the