Tuesday 14 April 2009

Brigham Young - Mormon Leader

The lady to the left (Ann Eliza Webb Young Denning) was Brigham Young's 27th and final wife. It was speculated at his death he had 19 living wives, but Ann Eliza filed for a divorce and part of Brigham Young's assets. He defaulted, was actually put in jail over night and shortly thereafter died. Ann Eliza married Moses Denning, prominent banker in Manistee, MI. Soooo ??

Well, let me continue. Moses Denning built her a beautiful home (1880's), with many bedrooms, several stairs, parlor doors that rolled into the walls, a lovely home over-looking Manistee Lake - an overflow of the Manistee River.

My grandmother became the owner of that great home and I can remember playing in that huge house as a boy. Many wonderful games of "Hide-N-Seek"! Slid down the long banister to the main hall many a time. heh heh!

A few years ago I was going through some of the old legal documents of my parents and found the old Land Contract and actually found Ann Eliza's original signature on the document! It is now part of my historical documents of my family history.

What interesting tidbits of history have you found in your family history?? Maybe next time I will tell you about my grandparents who were killed and scalped by Indians!

I wonder what Ann Eliza and Brigham Young are doing now in eternity ??

10 comments:

Carol said...

Cool!!! I would love to see that house. What a history you have, Papa!! Wouldn't it be fun to sit around the camp fire this summer and tell stories of our past? Why don't we do that? We have such colorful pasts, and such marvelous testimonies, but we don't seem to go there. Maybe we can start that up this year, you think?

Ed said...

You have been blessed with a lasting family heritage. Well maybe your grandparents who were scalped wouldn't call it being blessed. :)

I don't know any of my families background other than both my grandmother's families came from Ireland.

My paternal grandfather's family was probably from Wales, maybe England. My other grandfather is of German descent.

The only thing I can say about my families heritage is that they all seemed to share the trait of being stubborn. That is family trait I have in spades. :)

Indian Lake Papa said...

Carol - I have one of her books, "The 27th Wife" if you would like to read it. There is a new novel out as well called "The 19th wife" as well, available at Amazon.com. both titles are correct. He had 19 living wives at the time, but she was the 27th wife after all. Some records indicate he may have had as many as 74 wives.

Ed - my dad's side of the family has all the skeletons! My mom's is as clean as a whistle! So far ----

nanatrish said...

Wow! That is very interesting. The only thing is my family was my ex-husband (that just passed away last month) well his grandmother worked for Thomas Edison. So my daughter's great grandmother spent time with Edison. I have some things that his wife gave to her. I love history. Yes, we must get together when you and mama and her mama come back to Florida.

CrossView said...

How neat! There's always so much history in old buildings.

Good thing you're not Mormon. I bet you couldn't handle more than one wife and I bet your wife wouldn't share well! LOL!

Indian Lake Papa said...

Trish - it is interesting what our heritage may have in the background!

Crossview - it was quite the house. it is now a large apartment complex.

Daizy said...

Family heritage is so important. Maybe your hairline is trying to keep up with your ancestors of the scalping incident.

Indian Lake Papa said...

Daizy - I don't have much scalp left! I could bore people to death with stories of my family heritage.

Annie said...

Wow, what a story!

I don't know too many claims to fame. My grandfather played golf with Arnie Palmer as a teenager at Arnie's father's club. (My grandfather was rather good at golf, but clearly not to surpass Arnie.) Same grandfather also grew up with Mr Rodgers (of the "Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood" fame.) That's all I know! I'm sure there are many stories to tell, if I knew them.

Indian Lake Papa said...

Annie - my family heritage is full of some crazy stories - and some sad stories.