Orson Pratt Brown - Life, Times, Family

IIANN ELIZA WEBB DEE YOUNG DENNING 1844-1917

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Orson Pratt Brown's Ex-Aunt-in-law

Ann Eliza Webb c. 1865-1875

Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young Denning

September 13, 1844 Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois
December 7, 1917 at Sparks, Washoe, Nevada

James Dee married Ann Eliza Webb on April 4, 1863 at Salt Lake City, Utah, ceremony was performed by President Brigham Young. She is the daugher of Chauncey Griswold Webb b. October 24, 1811 and Eliza Jane Churchill Webb b. May 4, 1877.

Chauncey Griswold Webb
1811-1903

Eliza Jane Churchill Webb
1811-1884

James Dee and Ann Eliza Webb Dee had two children:
James Edward Wesley Dee b. 1861 in Ogden, Utah; md. Mabel Rose; d. 1901
Leonard Louis Dee b. 1863 in Ogden, Weber, Utah; d. 1888 Pima, AZ.
Both boys were afflicted with tuberculosis and died as a result of that disease.

It is said that Ann Eliza Webb Dee had aspirations to move up the social ladder. Her book however, states that James was an abusive husband from which she had no choice but to divorce him. She assured Brigham Young that she was legally separated from her husband James Leech Dee, therefore became Brigham Young's twenty-seventh and final wife.

"I was divorced in 1865, and the decree stands today in the Court Records of Utah. Since the memory of my Mormon friends seems so treacherous, I will copy the records here as they stand. They may also convince some doubters who seem to place Brigham Young's denial before my complaint, and pin their faith to him, while regarding me doubtfully as a possible adventuress.

[Page 5.]

"PROBATE COUNTY DOCKET.

"Great Salt Lake County. - Ann Eliza Dee vs. James L. Dee.

" In Divorce.

"1865. December 9th.- Petition filed; summons and notice issued, returnable on 23d inst., at 10 P. M.

"December 23d. - Case called; returns made and decree made dissolving bonds of matrimony, and giving to plaintiff the custody and control of her children. Costs taxed to defendant.

"1866. March 3d.- Court ordered execution against defendant for costs of suit.

"March 5th. - Execution issued for $20.50, returnable in 20 days.

"March 28th. - Execution returned; no property found; clerk's fees paid by C. G. Webb. in meat.

[Page 516.]

"RECORDS OF PROBATE COURT, GREAT SALT LAKE COUNTY.

"1865. Dec. 23d. - Ten o'clock, A. M. Court opened. Records of 16th and 20th insts. read and signed.

"The case of Ann Eliza Dee vs. James L. Dee, in divorce, was called up. This case came up for hearing upon the petition of Ann Eliza Dee, formerly Ann Eliza Webb, and upon the investigation thereof ex parte, the defendant, James L. Dee, failing to appear, C. G. Webb and Ann Vine being sworn and examined, the allegations in the plaintiff's petition were taken as confessed, and thereupon, after hearing the evidence and being fully advised in the premises, it was ordered and decreed by the court that the bonds of matrimony heretofore existing between the said parties be, and the same are hereby, for ever dissolved. That said Ann Eliza shall have and retain the custody and control of her two infant children, James Edward and Lorenzo Dee, during their minority, and that defendant pay costs of suit.

(Signed,)

"E. SMITH,

"Judge of Probate Court."

If anyone doubts my copy, they can examine the records for themselves. "

Ann Eliza then married Brigham Young on April 7 [6], 1868. After five years of polygamous marriage Ann Eliza sued for divorce from Brigham Young on July 28, 1873 in Judge McKean's court. The filing of that suit struck like a bombshell on the news front. Ann Eliza wrote a book titled, Wife No. 19, (the title implied she was the nineteenth living spouse but she was actually the 27th and final wife). The long and nationally publicized divorce took its toll on the Church and on Brigham Young, he died on August 29, 1877 shortly after ithe divorce settlement.

Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young Denning 1844-1925 - House Brigham Young gave to her.

This divorce created many problems for the Church. Orson Pratt Brown tells of one particular incident whereby he defended the Church against individuals that had heard Ann Eliza speak against the Church in Chicago. [Ann Eliza married Moses R. Denning of Manistee, Michigan]. (See Reminiscences, Page 64)

James Leech Dee then married Esther Ellen Brown b. March 18, 1849, the daughter of Captain James Brown and wife Ester Jones Raper Brown, widow of Robert Raper.

Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young became the second wife of Moses R. Denning of Manistee, Michigan on May 19, 1883 in Lodi, Ohio three months after his divorce from Annie Ralston, Dennings first wife of twenty-five years, from May 6, 1856 to February 7, 1883.

Ann Eliza Webb and Moses R. Denning divorced on August 14, 1893 in Manistee, Michigan.

It is believed that Ann Eliza moved to Arizona, for a while in an attempt to provide her sons with a better climate for their tuberculosis condition. She later apparently moved to Nevada.

_______________________________________________________

Sources:

PAF - Archer files

Wife No. 19, by Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young at http://www.antimormon.8m.com

Wife No. 19 or The Story of A Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy , by Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young Denning, Brigham Young's Apostate Wife, with Introductory Notes by John B. Gough and Mary A. Livermore. Ayer Company Publishers, Inc., Salem, New Hampshire 03079. 1875, Page 410. ISBN: 0-405-04488-7

The Twenty-Seventh Wife by Irving Wallace, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1961, NY, NY. Page 395-396

"The Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan". Published in Chicago..

Contributed by Scott A. Messinger <smessing@pacbell.net> 7/19/2012:
"Ann Eliza did not die in 1925 in Rochester. If she ever traveled to Rochester, she didn't stay for very long. After her divorce from Moses Denning, she did not head east; instead, she returned west. I found her in the 1900 U.S. census in Breckenridge, Summit Co. CO, and then in 1910 in Sparks, Washoe Co. NV. Her Sparks address was 546 - 16th St. She remained there for several more years until her death, living a quiet existence. She did not remarry. She died at her home in Sparks on 7 December 1917, and was buried two days later, on the 9th, at Mountain View Cemetery in Reno, NV.....When I visited her gravesite last August [2012], I was able to confirm that it is unmarked. There's nothing to photograph but grass and dirt."

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... Published December 2007:
"ORSON PRATT BROWN AND HIS FIVE WONDERFUL WIVES VOL. I and II"
By Erold C. Wiscombe

... Published March 2009:
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... Published 2012:
"Finding Refuge in El Paso"
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Includes O.P Brown's activities as Special Church Agent in El Paso
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...Published 2012:
"Colonia Morelos: Un ejemplo de ética mormona
junto al río Bavispe (1900-1912)"
By Irene Ríos Figueroa [ISBN: 978-607-7775-27-0]
Includes O.P. Brown's works as Bishop of Morelos. Written in Spanish.

...Published 2014:
"The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins 1875 - 1932"
By Elizabeth Oberdick Anderson [ISBN: 978-156085-226-1]
Mentions O.P. Brown more than 30 times as Ivins' companion.

... To be Published Soon:
"CAPTAIN JAMES BROWN 1801-1863:
TEMPER BY NATURE, TEMPERED BY FAITH"

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