Harriet Emeline Barney was born to Royal and Sarah Eastabrook Barney on October 13, 1830 in Amherst City, Lorain, Ohio. She was the second of their eight children.

Harriet and her family embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ in the early days of the church. Together, they endured the persecutions of the time as they fought to live their new religion. Her father was one of the men who marched with the Prophet Joseph Smith in Zions Camp and later was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.

When she was about 16 years old, Harriet married “a man she thought worthy of her love and confidence, but who proved entirely unworthy. After suffering for some years, she separated from her husband.” (1) That man was William Henry Harrison Sagers. Harriet was one of his three wives. While living in Missouri, they had one daughter together, who died as an infant. She then traveled West with him and the rest of the family, finally settling in Tooele, UT in 1850. In Tooele, Harriet and Sagers had three children.

“In 1855, Harriet petitioned Brigham Young for a temple divorce from Sagers.” (2) The divorce was granted and “in 1856, Brigham Young was sealed to Harriet and provided her and her children with a home.” (2) Harriet “recognized in him a faithful servant of God” (1) and together they had one child.

“Sister Harriet is tall and stately in appearance, refined and intelligent, of fair complexion and has finely formed features.” (1) Susa Young Gates remembered Harriet in her memoir (4) as follows:

There was Aunt Harriet Barney Sagers, a widow with three children, who later married father and bore him his youngest son, Phineas Howe. She was a calm, peaceful soul, who never permitted the placid surfaces of her life to be ruffled by any passing tempests or storms, either from within or without. She was happy in her home and family, although she never lived in the Lion House, as she married in later years and father built her a separate home, she was a true friend and sister to her associate wives.

During the last several years of her life, Harriet was an invalid. She died February 14, 1911 of a “debilitated, weakened, bedridden condition.” (3) Her obituary stated she had suffered 40 years with an illness that was:

“borne ever with patience, fortitude and cheerfulness… Before stricken by illness she was a moving spirit and a leader in both religious and charitable work, her deeds of mercy being without consideration of creed… [She was] possessed of the strength of character and soul that faced and endured physical suffering with a smile, and, so long as nature permitted, was active in philanthropic work, ever ready to extend a helping hand to the suffering and needy, and one whose religious convictions were so strong that the means at her disposal were devoted almost exclusively to the furtherance of the cause which she had embraced and to which she dedicated her life. Thousands who came in personal contact… are convinced that the world is richer for the example that she set.” (5)

Notes:

1 - Pictures and Biographies of Brigham Young and His Wives. James H Crockwell - publisher

2 - “Are We Youngs or Sagers?” by Marsha Young Browns. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWJD-491

3 - Utah Death Certificates. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D5P7-39Z?i=188&cc=1747615&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXZG3-54C

4 - Susa Young Dunford Gates in her biography of and with her mother, Lucy Bigelow Young

5 - The Salt Lake Tribune, Feb 15, 1911. https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10449-11156093/the-salt-lake-tribune