To begin, I would like to note that there are several different spellings of Louisa’s maiden name. Among them are:
Beman (1)
Beaman (2)
Beeman (3)
Interestingly, if you search her father’s records, his last name is spelled these three ways in several different sources as well. For this post, I will settle on the spelling found on FamilySearch.org and FindAGrave.com, “Beaman.” Also, for this post, we will call her mother “Sally Burtts” although Source 1 (see below) has her mother’s name as “Betsy Burtt.” All other sources I found state that her mother’s name was Sarah or Sally Burtts.
Louisa Beaman was born to Alva (or Alvah) and Sally (or Sarah) Burtts Beaman in Livonia, Livingston County, New York on February 7, 1815. She was the seventh of eight children.
The family was among the first to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They’d become acquainted with their neighbor, Joseph Smith, in New York around the time of the First Vision. They were among the few who believed his experience to be true. Louisa’s father even assisted Joseph in hiding the gold plates under the hearth. (6)
At the time of their conversion, Alva Beaman was a very successful farmer, who raised sheep and cattle. They were in affluent circumstances, (4) yet as the years progressed, they forsook all to gather and suffer the early persecutions with the Saints.
“Parley P. Pratt wrote of his visit to Beman's, "Among those whose hospitality we shared in that vicinity was old father Beeman and his amiable and interesting family. He was a good singer, and so were his three daughters; we were much edified and comforted in their society, and were deeply interested in hearing the old gentleman and brother Joseph converse on their early acquaintance and history. He had been intimate with Joseph long before the first organization of the Church; had assisted him to preserve the plates of the Book of Mormon from the enemy, and had at one time had them concealed under his own hearth." [Pratt, Autobiography, p. 110]” (5).
Her father died in 1837 in Kirtland, Ohio while serving as the first Elder’s Quorum president. Her mother followed in 1840. After the death of her parents, Louisa moved in with her older sister and her husband, Mary and Bates Noble. In the fall of that year, 1840, Joseph Smith began speaking with Louisa about the principle of plural marriage. Later, he proposed marriage. (7)
“Sister Louisa asked the Lord in fervent prayer for a testimony concerning the principle. The Lord heard her supplication and granted her request, and after bring convinced that the principle had eminated from God, she accepted it, and was married to the Prophet Joseph Smith April 5, 1841. Elder Joseph B Noble, her brother in law, officiating. She was the first woman in this dispensation who was married according to the revelation of God in the order of plural or Celestial marriage.” (1)
Louisa participated in the Relief Society and helped to make clothing for the temple workers. (7) She was “a kind, gentle and affectionate woman, intelligent, and refined in manner and greatly beloved by all who knew her.” (1)
After the death of Joseph Smith, she was sealed for time to Brigham Young September 19, 1844. Together, they had five children. Their first died as an infant. Their second and third were twins, who also died as infants. The last two were twins, Alva and Alma. They were born as Louisa crossed the plains with the rest of the Brigham Young family in 1848 (8). They died soon after her arrival to the Salt Lake Valley after battling with the “hoopingcough” (9)
Louisa “was taken sick with a cancer (breast cancer) and died May 5th, 1850 in Salt Lake City.” (1) She was 35 years old.
Notes:
1 - Pictures and Biographies of Brigham Young and His Wives. James H Cockrell - publisher.
2 - FamilySearch.org. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KWVC-BP5
3 - Susa Young Dunford Gates in her biography of and with her mother, Lucy Bigelow Young
4 - Obituary of Sarah Beaman, 1840, Times and Seasons. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LZJQ-WJW
5 - FindAGrave.com - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17108507/alvah-beaman
6 - FamilySearch.org. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LZGC-YW6
7 - Saints, Volume 1. Chapter 36 and 41.
8 - https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/pioneers/2646/alva-beaman-young
9 - Letter to Marinda, Martha, and Mary Ann April 8, 1849. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1033&context=mormonhistory