Salt Lake Tribune

Published: 12/13/97
Page: C1
BY VERN ANDERSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A year's celebration of the Mormon pioneer experience is ending with
publication of a book on the ``tragic ambiguity'' of polygamy as experienced
by 33 plural wives of church founder Joseph Smith.
The 788-page group biography casts a stark light on the peculiar practice
that made the Mormons pariahs in the Midwest and compelled their epic
migration to the Salt Lake Valley 150 years ago.
In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith vividly documents
the faith, hardship and heroism that were the focus this year of the Mormon
Church's successfully orchestrated sesquicentennial celebration.
But in this first comprehensive examination of the lives of the women
Smith married and widowed, author Todd Compton also tracks the isolation and
heartbreak that were a significant part of the Mormon female experience with
polygamy.
``Most were pioneers, sometimes throughout their lives, moving from New
England to Ohio, then to Missouri, to different parts of Missouri, to
Nauvoo, to Winter Quarters, and on to Utah. Houses were built, then
abandoned, with nearly every move,'' Compton writes in the introduction.
And while most polygamists were sincere, intensely religious people of
good will, ``my central thesis is that Mormon polygamy was characterized by
a tragic ambiguity.''
On one hand it was ``the new and everlasting covenant,'' restored by
prophesy from the patriarchal milieu of the Old Testament and taught by
Smith as an essential ingredient of eternal exaltation.
``On the other hand, day-to-day practical polygamous living, for many
women, was less than monogamous marriage -- it was a social system that
simply did not work in 19th-century America.
``Polygamous wives often experienced what was essentially acute neglect.
Despite the husband's sincere efforts, he could only give a specific wife a
fraction of his time and means,'' Compton adds, and polygamy's ``practical
result, for the woman, was solitude.''
In identifying 33 well-documented wives of Smith -- other researchers
have placed the figure as high as 48 -- Compton found that in the case of 11
women, Smith's polygamy was polyandrous. That is, the women were married and
cohabiting with their husbands, who mostly were faithful Mormons, when Smith
married them.
Yet not one divorced her ``first husband'' when Smith was alive. Indeed,
they continued to live with their civil spouses while married to Smith.
``If one superimposes a chronological perspective, one sees that of
Smith's first 12 wives, nine were polyandrous. So in this early period
polyandry was the norm, not the anomaly,'' he writes.
Compton, a practicing Mormon living in Santa Monica, Calif., has a doctorate
in classics from UCLA but spent much of the 1990s combing pioneer records,
diaries and reminiscences.
He cites strong evidence that Smith experimented with polygamy in the
1830s in Ohio and Missouri, but added wives in large numbers only in the
final two years of his life in Nauvoo, Ill. Curiously, Smith took no new
wives in the eight months before his assassination by a mob, at age 38, in
1844.
Eleven of Smith's wives were between ages 14 and 20, nine were in their
20s, eight were in Smith's own peer group of 31 to 40, two were in their 40s
and three in their 50s.
``I knew that Joseph Smith had married younger women,'' Compton said in
an interview. ``But when I read all of the sources, the composite history is
very troubling, striking, especially from the viewpoint of the young
women.''
In Smith's theology, Compton writes, ``a fullness of salvation depended
on the quantity of family members sealed to a person in this life. . . .
This doctrine also makes it clear that, though Joseph's marriages
undoubtedly had a sexual dimension, theological concepts also drove his
polygamy. . . .''
After Smith's death, his successor as church president, Brigham Young,
married between seven and nine of Smith's widows. Young's counselor, Heber
C. Kimball, married 11 more.
Compton is aware that relatively few of the world's 10 million Mormons know
many particulars of the polygamy practiced by their antecedents. Since
abandoning the practice in 1890, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints has striven for the place in the American mainstream that it was
denied in the 19th century, largely because of polygamy, he said.
But Compton isn't comfortable with Mormon discomfort with the past, or
with attempts to minimize polygamy or ``sweep it under the carpet because it
was an oddity.''
He pointed out that the three pioneer women featured in ``Legacy,'' the
church-produced movie about the Mormon migration shown to Temple Square
visitors, were all polygamous wives -- a fact not mentioned in the film.
``Those who would portray Mormon history as carried on by superhuman men
and women, without flaws, would turn them into inhuman automatons, which in
fact betrays a deep disrespect for the real humanity of our foremothers and
forefathers,'' he writes.
Compton finds humanity aplenty in some of the Smith wives' stories.
Emily Dow Partridge recounted how in 1843 as a frightened 19-year-old she
was approached by the Mormon prophet, who said ``the Lord had commanded
(him) to enter into plural marriage and had given me to him. . . .''
So secret was the practice that neither Emily nor Eliza Partridge, a
22-year-old sister married by Smith four days later, initially knew they
shared a common spouse.
Later, the two sister-wives were ordered out of the Smith home by Emma,
Smith's first wife, with her husband's anguished acquiescence.
Helen Mar Kimball, 14-year-old daughter of Heber C. Kimball, wrote that
after initially refusing when her father proposed marriage on Smith's
behalf, she finally relented.
``I knew that he loved me too well to teach me anything that was not
strictly pure, virtuous and exalting in its tendencies; and no one else
could have . . . brought me to accept of a doctrine so utterly repugnant and
so contrary to all of our former ideas and traditions,'' she wrote.
Toward the end of Smith's life, knowledge of his secret marriages began
to leak out. William Law, Smith's second counselor in the church's First
Presidency and an ardent polygamy foe, filed suit against the church leader
for living ``in an open state of adultery'' with 19-year-old Maria Lawrence.
In a speech a month before his death, Smith responded by flatly denying
polygamy, which was illegal under federal law. ``What a thing it is for a
man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can
only find one,'' he said.
Linda King Newell, who co-authored a 1984 biography of Emma Smith, said
Compton's focus on Smith's wives gives the book ``a ground-breaking impact
because we tend to look at polygamy from a male point of view.
``He didn't sensationalize,'' Newell said, ``which tends to be the case
when people get going on polygamy.''

Look up this site: http://www.lds-mormon.com

REMEMBER:

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Tit 1:6 ¶ If any be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

1Ti 3:12 Let the deacons be the husbands of ONE WIFE, ruling their children and their own houses well.

Latter Day "Saints" (Mormons)

picture: Joseph Smith

According to the New Testament Scriptures, a prophet must have a holy life and be blameless.

Matthew 7:16-20 shows that prophets must be judged by their fruits as to whether they are true prophets or false prophets.

Let's take a look at these New Testament qualifications for church leadership:

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Tit 1:6 ¶ If any be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

1Ti 3:12 Let the deacons be the husbands of ONE WIFE, ruling their children and their own houses well.

Now let's take a look at the lives of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young: Do they qualify as true prophets?

The 34 Wives of Joseph Smith

Wife	Date	Age	Husband*
Emma Hale Fanny Alger Lucinda Morgan Harris Louisa Beaman Zina Huntington Jacobs Presendia Huntington Buell Agnes Coolbrith Sylvia Sessions Lyon Mary Rollins Lightner Patty Bartlett Sessions Marinda Johnson Hyde Elizabeth Davis Durfee Sarah Kingsley Cleveland Delcena Johnson Eliza R. Snow Sarah Ann Whitney Martha McBride Knight Ruth Vose Sayers Flora Ann Woodworth Emily Dow Partridge Eliza Maria Partridge Almera Johnson Lucy Walker Sarah Lawrence Maria Lawrence Helen Mar Kimball Hanna Ells Elvira Cowles Holmes Rhoda Richards Desdemona Fullmer Olive Frost Melissa Lott Nancy Winchester Fanny Young	Jan 1827 1833 1838 Apr 1841 Oct 1841 Dec 1841 Jan 1842 Feb 1842 Feb 1842 Mar 1842 Apr 1842 Jun 1842 Jun 1842 Jul 1842 Jun 1842 Jul 1842 Aug 1842 Feb 1843 Spring 1843 Mar 1843 Mar 1843 Apr 1843 May 1843 May 1843 May 1843 May 1843 Mid 1843 Jun 1843 Jun 1843 Jul 1843 Mid 1843 Sep 1843 1843 Nov 1843	22 16 37 26 20 31 33 23 23 47 27 50 53 37 38 17 37 33 16 19 22 30 17 17 19 14 29 29 58 32 27 19 14 56	NONE NONE George W. Harris NONE Henry Jacobs Norman Buell NONE Windsor Lyon Adam Lightner David Sessions Orson Hyde Jabez Durfee John Cleveland NONE NONE NONE NONE Edward Sayers NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE Jonathan Holmes NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE
* Living Husband at the time of Marriage to Joseph Smith			References Below

REFERENCES

FS:     www.familysearch.org
MP:    Mormon Polygamy: A History
ME:    Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
ISL:    In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
DC:    Doctrine and Covenants

LIST OF WIVES: FS, ancestral file number 9KGL-W2; ISL, pgs 4 – 8.

EMMA HALE: MEETING, ME pgs 1, 18; MARRIAGE, ME pgs 1, 20; PLATES, ME pgs 20 – 21, 25; TWINS, ME pgs 39, 43; NEW YORK, ME pgs 45 – 46, 68; MISSOURI, ME pg 76; MISSISSIPPI RIVER, ME pg 79; REVELATION, DC section 132; SURRENDER, ME pg 158; EXPOSITOR, ME pgs 181, 191; MOURNING, ME pg 197.

FANNY ALGER: MARRIAGE, MP pg 5, ISL pgs 25 – 26, 34, ME pg 66; EMMA, ISL pgs 34 – 35; RUMORS, MP pgs 6, 10, 85, ME pg 66, ISL pgs 28, 36; INDIANA, ISL pgs 37, 39, 41.

LUCINDA MORGAN HARRIS: CONVERSION, ISL pg 48; MISSOURI, ISL pg 49, ME pg 70; MARRIAGE, ISL pg 49; ILLINOIS, ISL pg 50; EXPOSITOR, ISL pg 51, MOURNING, ME pg 197, ISL pg 43; CIVIL WAR, ISL pg 54.

LOUISA BEAMAN: MEETING, ISL pgs 57 – 58; KIRTLAND/NAUVOO, ISL pgs 58 – 59; THE PRINCIPLE, ISL pg 59, ME pg 95; CEREMONY, MP pgs 6, 23, ME pg 95, ISL pgs 59 – 60; DEATH, ISL pg 69; PAROWAN, ISL pg 55, MP pg 27.

ZINA HUNTINGTON JACOBS: FIRST PROPOSAL, ISL pgs 77 – 79, MP pg 44; SECOND PROPOSAL, ISL pgs 80 – 81; MARRIAGE, ISL pgs 81 – 82; HENRY, ISL pgs 81 – 82; BRIGHAM, ISL pgs 84, 88, 90 – 91, MP pgs 44 – 45.

PRESENDIA HUNTINGTON BUELL: CONVERSION, ISL pgs 117 – 118; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 122 – 124, MP pg 44; HEBER, ISL pgs 124 – 126; NORMON, ISL pg 129;; COMMEMORATION, ISL pgs 136 – 137.

AGNES COOLBRITH SMITH: KIRTLAND/NAUVOO, ISL pgs 146 – 153; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 153 – 154; RUMORS, ISL pgs 154 – 155, MP pgs 20 – 21; PICKETT, ISL pgs 157 – 159; JOSEPH F. SMITH, ISL pgs 166 – 167.

SYLVIA SESSIONS LYON: WINDSOR, ISL pg 177; NAUVOO, ISL pg 178; JOSEPH, ISL pg 179, MP pgs 45, 47; VISITS, ISL pgs 181, 183; JOSEPHINE, ISL pg 183, MP pg 44.

MARY ROLLINS LIGHTNER: PREPARED, ISL pg 207, ME pg 65; ZIONS CAMP/ADAM, ISL pgs 210, 211, ME pgs 100 – 101; PROPOSAL, ISL pgs 211 – 212, MP pg 43, ME pgs 100 – 101; MARRIAGE, ISL pgs 212 – 213, ME pgs 100 – 101; ARRANGMENT, ISL pg 213, MP pg 43, REMINISCE, ISL pg 226.

PATTY BARTLETT SESSIONS: FATHER, ISL pg 172; DAVID, ISL pg 173; MIDWIFE, ISL pg 171; CONVERSION, ISL pg 175 – 176; JOSEPH, ISL pg 179; LONESOME, ISL pg 180; DUTIES, ISL pg 179.

MARINDA JOHNSON HYDE: JOHNSON HOME, ISL pg 230; ORSON, ISL pg 232; JERUSALEM, ISL pg 235; NEW HOME, ISL pgs 235-236; JOSEPH, MP pg 44, ISL pgs 238, 240 – 241; MID-LIFE, ISL pgs 244, 249; GRANDMOTHER, ISL pg 251.

ELIZABETH DAVIS DURFEE: JABEZ, ISL pg 259; BLESSING, ME pg 110, ISL pg 261; MOTHER IN ISRAEL, ME pgs 109, 137 – 138, MP pg 52, ISL pgs 260 - 262, 406 – 407; CORNELIUS, ISL pgs 264 – 265.

SARAH KINGSLEY CLEVELAND: JOHN, ISL pgs 275 – 276; MISSOURI, ME pg 80, ISL pg 276; NAUVOO, ME pgs 107 – 110, 115, 119, ISL pgs 277, 279; LEAVING/RETURNING, ME pg 237, ISL pgs 282 – 283.

DELCENA JOHNSON SHERMAN: CONVERSION, ISL pgs 292 – 294; MISSOURI, ISL pgs 294 – 295; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 293 – 296; ALMON, ISL pgs 298 – 300; UTAH, ISL pg 300.

ELIZA R. SNOW: YOUTH, ISL pgs 308 – 309; KIRTLAND, ISL pg 309; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 310 – 313, ME pgs 119 – 120, MP pg 31; SMITH HOME, ISL pgs 313 – 314, ME pgs 122, 133; POEM, ME pg 120; REMOVED, ISL pgs 314 – 316, ME pgs 134 – 137, MP pg 52; GRIEF, ISL pgs 306, 316.

SARAH ANN WHITNEY: REVELATION, ISL pgs 347 – 348; CEREMONY, ISL pg 348; HORACE, ISL pg 349; HIDING, ME pg 125, ISL pgs 349 – 350; KINGSBURY, ISL pg 351, MP pg 48; HEBER, ISL pg 352.

MARTHA MCBRIDE KNIGHT: VINSON, ISL pgs 365 – 366; NAUVOO, pgs 369 – 370; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 371, 377; UTAH, ISL pgs 364, 371, 380.

RUTH VOSE SAYERS: BOSTON, ISL pg 381; CONVERSION, ISL pg 382; EDWARD, ISL pgs 382 – 383; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 383 – 384; OBITUARY, ISL pg 386.

FLORA ANN WOODWORTH: MARRIAGE, ISL pgs 389 – 391; EMMA, ME pg 159, ISL pg 388; ORANGE, ISL pg 390; CARLOS, ISL pgs 391 – 392, 394; KANESVILLE, ISL pg 394.

EMILY DOW PARTRIDGE/ELIZA MARIA PARTRIDGE: SMITH HOME, ISL pgs 405 – 406, ME pg 89; INTRODUCTION, ISL pg 406, ME pgs 137 – 138, MP pg 52; DURFEE, ISL pg 407, ME pg 138; INTERVIEW, ISL pgs 407 – 408, ME pgs 138 – 139, MP pg 52; MARRIAGE, ME pgs 138, 144, ISL pg 298; ELIZA, ME pg 139, MP pg 36, ISL pgs 408 – 409, 732; REPEAT CEREMONY, ME pgs 140, 143, ISL pg 409, MP pg 52; ALL ENDED, ISL pgs 409 – 411, ME pgs 143, 169, MP pgs 53 – 54; EMMA, ME pg 145.

ALMERA JOHNSON: GATHERING, ISL pg 295; BENNIE, ISL pgs 295 – 296, ME pgs 145 – 146; PARABLE, ISL pg 296; STOOD BEFORE HER, ISL pgs 296 – 297; HYRUM, ISL pg 297; CEREMONY, ISL pgs 297 – 298; MACEDONIA, ISL pg 298, ME pg 146; REUBEN, ISL pgs 300 – 304.

LUCY WALKER: PROPHETS HOME, ME pg 89, ISL pg 461 – 462; PROPOSAL, ISL pg 463; BITTER CUP, ISL pg 464; COMMAND, ISL pg 464; MARRIAGE, ME pg 139, MP pg 59, ISL pg 465; HEBER, ISL 466 – 467; CONSENT, Journal of Discourses vol 7 pg 289, ISL pg 457.

SARAH LAWRENCE/MARIA LAWRENCE: JOSEPH’S HOME, ISL pgs 474 – 475; JOSEPH’S CHARACTER, MP pg 33, 36, ISL pg 476; MARRIAGE, ISL pg 475, 479, ME pg 144; WILLIAM LAW, MP pg 66, ISL pg 476; EXPOSITOR, ISL pg 477, MP pgs 68 – 69.

HELEN MAR KIMBALL: FATHER/DAUGHTER TALK, ISL pgs 497 – 498; LAID UPON THE ALTER, ISL pgs 498 – 499; ME pg 146; JOSEPH, ISL pg 499, ME pg 146, MP pg 53; FETTERED DOWN, ISL pg 502, ME pg 166; BE OBEDIENT, ISL pg 503; PUNISHMENT/VICTORY, ISL pg 510; POEM, ISL pgs 499 – 501.

HANNA ELLS: INTRO, ISL pg 535; MILLINERY, ISL pg 535; MARRIAGE, ISL pgs 537 – 538; TEMPLE, ISL pgs 538 – 539; DEATH, ISL pg 542.

ELVIRA COWLES HOLMES: INTRO, ISL pg 545; JOSEPH’S HOME, ISL pg 546 – 547; POEM, ISL pg 547; JONATHAN, ISL pgs 548, 556; AUSTIN, ISL pgs 549 – 551, MP pgs 64, 68;

RHODA RICHARDS: RARE BEAUTY, ISL pgs 559 – 560; EBENEZER, ISL pgs 561 – 562; MORMONISM ISL pg 566; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 568 – 569; HAPPY NEW YEAR, ISL pg 575.

DESDEMONA FULLMER: STOPT, ISL pg 577; MIRTH, ISL pg 579; PERSECUTIONS, ISL pg 580; JOSEPH HOME, ISL pg 580; DREAM, ME pg 165, ISL pgs 581 – 582; BIOGRAPHY, ISL pgs 584 – 585.

OLIVE FROST: CONVERSION, ISL pg 588; MISSIONARY, ISL pg 589; JOSEPH, ISL pgs 589 – 590; TENDER HEART, ISL pg 591; GRIEF, ISL pg 591; DEATH, ISL pg 592.

MELISSA LOTT: JOSEPH’S HOME, ISL pg 597; PREPARED, ISL pg 597; MARRIAGE, ISL pgs 348, 597 – 598; PARENTS, ISL pg 598; RELATIONSHIP, ISL pg 598.

NANCY WINCHESTER: PENNSYLVANIA, ISL pg 605; KIRTLAND, ISL pg 605; NAUVOO, ISL pg 606; MARRIAGE, ISL pg 606; HEBER, ISL pgs 604, 606; UTAH, ISL pg 607 – 608.

FANNY YOUNG: FAMILY, ISL pgs 609, 611; TRUE SAINT, ISL pg 613; ROSWELL, ISL pgs 613 – 615; JOSEPH, Journal of Discourses vol 16 pgs 166 – 167, ISL pgs 615 – 617.

REMEMBER:

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Tit 1:6 ¶ If any be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

1Ti 3:12 Let the deacons be the husbands of ONE WIFE, ruling their children and their own houses well.