Rebecca Wright

For my family history class this past week, I had to look up census information for an ancestor and I did some research on my Great Great Grandmother, Rebecca. She was a third wife. Although her husband William's first marriage had ended unhappily in a divorce, by the time Rebecca and William marry in 1869, William and Sarah, his 2nd wife, already have 8 children. In 1870, a year after they marry, Rebecca was not listed on the census at all. I found a record for William and Sarah, and their, by this time, 9 children. I also found a record for Rebecca's parents, whom she was supposedly living with. In this same household, William and an infant daughter, Rebecca's first child, were recorded, yet for some reason she was absent. Thus, in 1870, William was listed as a member of two households.

In 1880, the next year the census was conducted, Rebecca was indeed recorded, but this time, while Sarah was listed as wife, Rebecca was labeled as a 12 year old daughter, 2 years older than her oldest child. Her age at this time was 35. Clearly, the census taker was not introduced to Rebecca, and I assume that this tactic was used to try to deceive government officials that this was a polygamous household. Interestingly, Rebecca's location was listed, correctly, as Scotland. While the location of all the other children's births was listed as Idaho, it seems that Scotland would throw up a red flag for anyone bent on locating polygamists.

Because of a fire, records of the 1890 census were destroyed, and the remnant that remains does not include Idaho. However, in 1882, Rebecca moved to a farm with her 7 children to live separately from Sarah's family. Thus, in 1890, she would have been recorded as living in a separate household from Sarah. The question is where William was recorded.

In the 1900 census, Rebecca was given full legitimacy as a wife. William was included here with Rebecca, as household head, and 5 of their children were recorded as well. Sarah, age 72, was also included in this census, living with her youngest daughter, now age 27. William was not listed as part of Sarah's household. It is unclear whether his primary residence was now with Rebecca, or how he divided his time between the two households.

William died in 1907, and so by the time the next census rolled around in 1910, Rebecca, at age 63, was head of her household, living alone. She died in 1919 at the home of her daughter Ruth in a neighboring town.

I was most impacted by the 1880 census. I felt so much sorrow that Rebecca, as a third wife, she was not given any sort of official status. Perhaps she was happy to hide her wifehood from the census recorder, but to me, it symbolizes all my internal queasiness about polygamy. Later in life, only a few years before William dies, they are married by the state, with a marriage license, "according to the law." Interestingly, their marriage was performed in a furniture store, and in his journal, William lists the names of the two witnesses. (This, despite the fact that at their births, the names of several children are not recorded in his journal.) Unfortunately, because of several missing years of William's journal, we have no account of their 1869 sealing.

After my census research, I looked up Rebecca and William's family information and found that on average, she had a baby every year and a half, over the course of 17 years, totaling 12 children. However, only 7 grew to adulthood: her 5th child in 1876 was a stillborn daughter, in July 1885 her 5 year old Winnie died after an illness, in June 1886, she gave birth to Mina, who died three days later, in May 1887, her 2 1/2 year old son Fabius fell into a scalding hot tub at 2 1/2 and died shortly after, and then her final child was born dead, only two months later, in July 1887. Just the bare bones account of her life are sobering.

I wondered how she felt about being a plural wife, how she got along with Sarah, the other wife, and how she felt about the tragic deaths of so many of her children. I called my mom to ask what we knew about her, and she pointed me to the William book that had been compiled from his journals. I had recently received a copy. I spent some time looking through it, but was quite disappointed. William's journals were very dry. This is a typical entry. "March 1877: Sunday 4 Attended circle meeting this noon. Rebecca was delivered of a son at 8:10 PM. Roads muddy. Busy around home all week." Or this one: "March 1881: Sunday 17 Rebecca visited her mother to day who was quite sick. Deborah, Phoebe, and Ivan came home in the afternoon and told me their grandmother was dying. Weather fine today. Much good instruction given by the brethren. Monday 18: Rainy. Rebecca came home and informed me that her mother died this morning about 1 o clock. Maple Creek was overflowing the bottom." The only thing he says of his 5 year old daughter Winnie's death is "My girl Winniefred died this morning and was buried today."

There is no detail about how he felt save for the paragraph about the beetle in his ear that was driving him crazy and the paragraph discussing his frustration and sorrow that his daughter Phoebe is associating with Gentiles and not attending her meetings. He labels his own children by the name of their mother, such as "Rebecca's girls". This, I guess, to distinguish them from the children of his other wife. But, yet, they are still his children. Granted, I didn't read the entire book--I was skimming to find information about his family life and about Rebecca. But, his accounts of family events are devoid of emotion. I wonder if he was emotionally detached as a husband and father or if this is simply his writing style.

A brief bio of her, written in 1970 by someone not attributed, stated that she liked to visit her sisters and neighbors and always invited anyone who came to the farm to stay and eat. I wonder what she would think of my house: "She was a very particular housekeeper, and meticulous in her ironing, washing, and cooking." I wonder if she was happy. I wonder what her questions and heartaches were. I wish I had some of her own personal writings.