Mary Van Cott

Mary Van Cott was one of the last plural wife of Brigham Young. “Last of all his wives was Mary Van Cott, in whom no lovelier wife and mother ever entered our crowded family household. She too bore but one child, a daughter, beautiful Fanny J and she had her little home outside the Lion House.”[1]

Mary was born on February 2, 1844, in Elmira, New York, to John Van Cott and Lucy Lavina Sackett. Her family embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ and immigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois. Her family, including her paternal grandmother, traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with the Saints in 1847, arriving in September.

Mary married James Thornton Cobb (also identified as Kirby) in 1859, but they were divorced before the birth of her first child. She married Brigham Young in 1865. Her daughter with him, Fanny, was born on January 14, 1870, and married William Clayton.

Mary died on January 5, 1884.