Born 6 May 1848 in St. Louis.[1] Daughter of John Needham and Sarah Ann Booth.[2] Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 20 Aug. 1855.[3] Migrated with her family from Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois, through St. Louis to Utah Territory, 1851.[4] Living in the Salt lake City Third Ward, by 1860.[5] Married Septimus Wagstaff Sears, 8 Dec. 1866, in Salt Lake City; seven children.[6] Sister wife of Isabel Wagstaff Whitney, daughter of EBW.[7] EBW called on her at the death of her child Frank, 1889.[8] As a result of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, her marriage was dissolved.[9] Died 20 June 1919 in Salt Lake City.[10]
[1] EBW, Diary, 8 May 1890. “Endowments of the Living 1851–1854,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Apr. 1861–20 Feb. 1864, vol. D, p. 247, line 5019, Mary Ann Needham, 24 Oct. 1863, microfilm 1149525 (restricted access), FHL. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 4 May 2020), Mary Ann Needham (K24B-DDJ).
[2] “Endowments of the Living 1851–1854,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Apr. 1861–20 Feb. 1864, vol. D, p. 247, line 5019, Mary Ann Needham, 24 Oct. 1863, microfilm 1149525 (restricted access), FHL. Lyndon W. Cook, Nauvoo Deaths and Marriages, 1839–1845 (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1994), 106.
[3] “Endowments of the Living 1851–1854,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 27 Apr. 1861–20 Feb. 1864, vol. D, p. 247, line 5019, Mary Ann Needham, 24 Oct. 1863, microfilm 1149525 (restricted access), FHL.
[4] Sheri Eardley Slaughter, “Meet Me in St. Louie: An Index of Early Latter-day Saints Associated with St. Louis, Missouri,” Nauvoo Journal 10, no. 2 (Fall 1998): 87. “John Needham,” Pioneer Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/, accessed 4 May 2020).
[5] 1860 U.S. Census, Great Salt Lake City Third Ward, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, p. 83, Mary Ann Needham.
[6] “Sealings of Couples, Living and by Proxy, 1851–1889,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Endowment House, vol. D, 22 Nov. 1861–29 Dec. 1866, p. 671, line 9092, Septimus Wagstaff Sears and Mary Ann Needham, 8 Dec. 1866, microfilm 1149514 (restricted access), FHL. 1900 U.S. Census, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., UT, ED 38, p. 4A, Mary A. Sears.
[7] Carol Cornwall Madsen, Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2017), 321.
[8] EBW, Diary, 9 Aug. 1889.
[9] EBW, Diary, 5, 8, and 24 Mar. 1892.
[10] “Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849–1949” (1919), Mary Ann Sears, Salt Lake County Management and Archives, Salt Lake City.