West Jersey Pioneer

BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DAUGHTER IN-LAW.

Libbie Canfield, the first wife of John W. Young, the eldest son of the deceased Mormon prophet, Brigham Young, was in Newark last week visiting a former schoolmate. On Saturday afternoon she started for Salt Lake City. She has a petite figure, a profusion of black hair, brilliant black eyes, an olive complexion, and is an intelligent and pretty woman. She is a native of New Jersey, but she first met Young in Philadelphia, where her parents now reside. She hesitated long before she consented to become the wife of a Mormon. Her parents are Presbyterians, and she was an adherent of that faith. She at length married him with the understanding that he would not marry a second wife. She lived happily with her husband until the death of his father who made a decree on his deathbed that his son should take another wife. The Mormon apostles subsequently confirmed this decree, and Young obeyed. When his wife heard that he had decided to marry again she separated from him. Since that time she has frequently visited her parents in Philadelphia, although she has a fine home in Salt Lake City. While visiting in Newark Mrs. Young said that her husband always treated her kindly, and that she pitied him. He did not want to marry a second wife, but he was forced by the polygamists to do so, in order to show the Mormons that he was a true disciple of his father. Mrs. Young also said that her life in Salt Lake City had intensified her hatred of polygamy. When she separated from her husband they parted good friends, and he has ever since been anxious for her welfare. She has a large farm in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, and has the custody of her children. Her husband is now living in Arizona with his second wife, whom he never appears with at public receptions. During the years that Mrs. Young lived with him he seldom attended a public assemblage without her, and when Jay Gould, Sidney Dillon, and other conspicuous men visited Utah, he introduced them to her. When she started from Salt Lake City last February to visit her parents he sent an agent to her with money, lest she might need it before her return. She said that he frequently wrote to her, and that she believed he felt the pain of their fated separation as much as she. In the past few weeks she stopped with her friends in Atlantic City, and she returns to Salt Lake City to superintend the collection and shipment of the wool from her many head of sheep. She personally manages her farm. She expects to return East next Fall, and, after a short stay, go to Europe. The names of her boys are Brigham, Richard, John, and "Tot," the baby.