Harriet Amelia Folsom

Harriet Amelia Folsom Young (August 23, 1838 – December 11, 1910) was a pioneer and an early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as a cultural and political figure in Salt Lake City, Utah. An accomplished pianist and vocalist, Folsom was the fifty-first plural wife of Brigham Young, who served as the church's second president.

Early life Folsom was born in Buffalo, New York, on August 23, 1838. She was the daughter of William H. Folsom and Zerviah Eliza Clark, and the oldest of their eight children. Her father worked as a church-employed architect and contractor and designed many of the historic buildings in Utah, including the Salt Lake City Council Hall, the Provo Tabernacle, and the Manti Utah Temple. Her family joined the church in 1841 and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. After being driven out of the state of Illinois with the rest of the Saints, the family lived in both Keokuk and Council Bluffs, Iowa, where William Folsom worked as a contractor.

The Folsom family migrated to the Utah Territory with the Joseph W. Young pioneer company, arriving on October 3, 1860. As president of the church, Brigham Young would often come out to welcome the wagon trains arriving in the Valley, and became acquainted with Harriet Amelia upon the arrival of her company. Their meeting was said to be "love at first sight", and the two engaged in a courtship lasting nearly two years. They became engaged in August 1862.

Marriage and family Folsom married Brigham Young on January 24, 1863, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon her marriage to Young, Folsom began to go by Amelia rather than Harriet, as two of Young's other plural wives were also named Harriet. Prior to his marriage to Amelia, Young had heavily emphasized the spiritual foundations of the doctrine of plural marriage, and asserted the diminished role of sexual attraction in plural unions. However, his sealing and marriage to Folsom demonstrate that attraction still played a role in some of his unions, as many described theirs as being a "love match". Though Amelia never bore Young any children, his attraction to her stayed constant. Despite the rumors and controversy generated by her bond with Young, Folsom quickly became Young's most prominent female companion, and remained so throughout the rest of his life. She often accompanied Young on his tours of other Mormon settlements, as well as to events and gatherings in Salt Lake City.

After Young's death, Folsom maintained good relations with Young's other wives and children, stating:We were all members of the same family and treated each other as such. I would sacrifice anything for the surviving wives of President Young, and their feeling toward me, I think, is the very same... I can't say that [Young] had any favorites. He was equally kind and attentive to all in his lifetime, and left each surviving wife an equal legacy... There is no reason why a polygamous marriage may not be as happy as the ordinary marriage, if it is entered understandingly. Traughber described her as "tall and symmetrical of form, dignified and graceful of manner and a brilliant conversationalist." In the spring of 1902, she accompanied a group of Utah women to the Convention of the National Council of Women and the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C., where she was also presented to United States President Theodore Roosevelt by Utah Senator Thomas Kearns.

Amelia Folsom died on December 11, 1910, in Salt Lake City, Utah.