170 years ago today - Aug 2, 1846

[Wilford Woodruff marriage]
Mary Carolyn [Caroline] Barton. Thomas Alexander refers to her as a teenager. She and Wilford Woodruff divorced four weeks later and she returned to her parents.

Alexander writes, The two young wives [she and Sarah Brown, see below] began keeping company with three young men nearer their own ages, staying out with them until early in the morning for several days. . . . The thirty-nine-year-old Woodruff forebade his teenage wives from consorting with the men . . . they continued dating their friends, and Woodruff thought some sexual misconduct had taken place . . . As promised, he sent Carolyn Barton back to her parents and Sarah Brown to another famly, and Hosea Stout whipped the boys. Woodruff thought the girls deserved similar punishment, but expulsion sufficed . . . Brigham Young agreed to divorces between Woodruff and the two women."

I have not yet identified the genealogy of Mary Barton. In Mormon history, there is a Mary Caroline Barton who married Erastus Curtis, with whom she had eleven children, but this is probably not the same Mary Caroline Barton.

[Source: Compton, Todd, 'The Wives of Wilford Woodruff', http://toddmcompton.com/WWfamilies.htm]

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