Losing "the Jewels in Her Crown": Latter-day Saint Women and Pregnancy Loss in the Nineteenth Century

Authors

Karen MacKay Moss, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Miscarriage, LDS Women, Pregnacy

Abstract

In her journal entry for the morning of May 27, 1849, Zina D. H. Young recounted her morning's work in assisting Margaret Alley, a fellow wife of Brigham Young, during a sickness which had begun over a week earlier after Margaret had "over done" herself. Young wrote that while she stayed home from church meetings that day, Margaret "was relieved of a two month sickness-perfect form occasioned by a hurt." Margaret Alley had experienced a miscarriage. Taking to her journal again that evening, Young stated that her day had been quite busy, full of "little events" including Margaret's "misfortune," a hen hatching, and a cat birthing two kittens who she hoped would "prosper as the mice are very troublesome." Besides including the miscarriage in a list of other "little events" and calling it a "misfortune," Young does not dwell on or portray much emotion about Alley's loss. Indeed, she dedicated more space in the journal to the fresh kittens. In contrast, a month later Young spent two paragraphs describing the death of a friend's three-day-old infant, mourning the loss and expressing her sadness at seeing the "early nipped rose" laid to rest.

Recommended Citation

Moss, Karen MacKay (2021) "Losing "the Jewels in Her Crown": Latter-day Saint Women and Pregnancy Loss in the Nineteenth Century," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 50: Iss. 1, Article 10.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol50/iss1/10