1
Plural Marriage (Mormon Polygamy)
complied by H. Michael Marquardt
copyright
1999
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Texts of Revelations on Marriage received by Joseph Smith
Sarah Ann Whitney (27 July 1842, Nauvoo) text
he here]
12 July 1843 text
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Preliminary list of Women sealed to Joseph Smith during his lifetime (in Nauvoo, Illinois)
Name
Date Sealed
By Whom Performed
Louisa Beaman
5 April 1841
Joseph B. Noble
Mrs. Zina D. Huntington Jacobs
27 Oct. 1841
Dimick Huntington
Mrs. Presendia L. Huntington Buell 11 Dec. 1841
Dimick Huntington
Agnes M. Coolbrith Smith
6 Jan. 1842
Brigham Young
Mrs. Sylvia Sessions Lyon
8 Feb. 1842
Mrs. Mary E. Rollins Lightner
Feb. 1842
Brigham Young
Mrs. Patty Bartlett Sessions
9 March 1842
Willard Richards
Eliza Roxy Snow
29 June 1842
Brigham Young
Delcena Johnson Sherman
July 1842
Sarah Ann Whitney
27 July 1842
Newel K. Whitney
Martha McBride Knight
Aug. 1842
Heber C. Kimball
Emily Dow Partridge
4 March 1843
Heber C. Kimball
Emily Dow Partridge
23 May 1843
James Adams (2 nd time)
Eliza Maria Partridge
8 March 1843
Heber C. Kimball
Eliza Maria Partridge
23 May 1843
James Adams (2nd time)
Lucy Walker
1 May 1843
William Clayton
Helen Mar Kimball
May 1843
Almera W. Johnson
May-June 1843
Hyrum Smith
Sarah Lawrence
May-June 1843
Maria Lawrence
May-June 1843
Flora Ann Woodworth
spring 1843
Olive Grey Frost
after April 1843
Mrs. Nancy Marinda J. Hyde
May 1843
Mrs. Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes 1 June 1843
Heber C. Kimball
2
Rhoda Richards
Desdemona Fullmer
Hannah S. Ells
Melissa Lot
Fanny Young Carr Murray
Mrs. Ruth Vose Sayers
12 June 1843
July 1843
mid-1843
20 Sept. 1843
2 Nov. 1843
Feb. 1843 [1844]
Willard Richards
Brigham Young
Hyrum Smith
Brigham Young
Hyrum Smith
Abbreviations:
JCB = John C. Bennett, History of the Saints; or an Expose of Joe Smith and
Mormonism (Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842)
WC = William Clayton Journal (1843-44) or Statement (date
BFJ = Benjamin F. Johnson (autobiography ms 1881 ?, pub. 1947; letter of 1903 ?
WR = Joseph Smith Nauvoo Journal kept by Willard Richards
GAS = George A. Smith to Joseph Smith III, 9 Oct. 1869 ?, RLDS archives
JFS AB = Joseph F. Smith Affidavit Books, dates 1869 HR = Historical Record, edited by Andrew Jenson, vol, date
[hr here]
NOTE: Plural marriages or sealings were performed in Nauvoo in 1841. If a sealing of
an additional wife was for time then it was in violation of Illinois state law and church
policy (article on Marriage) as outlined in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. In August
1852 at Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, it was announced that plural marriage
(celestial marriage) was an accepted practice in the church. The 12 July 1843
revelation of Joseph Smith was included in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and
Covenants and the article on Marriage omitted. In September 1890 a Manifesto was
issued claiming that plural marriages would be stopped. The practiced continued
another twenty years until at least 1910 (see B. Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The
Mormon Polygamous Passage [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992], 328-29). The
Manifesto was included in printings of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1908.
[hr here]
Publications on plural marriage (polygamy) include:
Todd Compton, Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1998.
B. Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1992.
Newell, Linda King and Valeen Tippets Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2nd ed., 1994.
George D. Smith, “Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-46: A Preliminary
3
Demographic Report,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27 (Spring 1994):1-72.
Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History. Salt Lake City: Signature
Books, 2nd ed., 1989.
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Return to Restoration Priesthood
4
Marquardt, Michael, “Statements of Wives of Joseph Smith” Research notes
[statement of men who performed marriages which united women to Joseph
Smith]
Statements of Women/Wives:
1. their age at time
2. when they died
3. date of marriage
4. place of marriage, location, house etc.
5. whether marriage by civil authority is binding
6. whether marriage was recognized
7. who performed marriage, any marriage ceremony?
8. witnesses to marriage
9. self marriage?
10.
how
introduced
to
principle/teaching
approached)
a. prayer?
b. revelation to marry wives?
c. telling he was inspired to have them as wives?
11. if women perviously married:
a. husband died?
b. separated?
c. divorced?
d. children by husband
12. eternal vs time marriages
13. when first wife sealed to husband (problem)
14. consumation of marriage sexually
a. prior to May 1843
b. after sealing to Emma
15. why marry the following:
a. young women
b. married women
c. mother of a wife
16. concubines vs regular wife (2nd wife?)
17. confrontation with Emma Smith (other men's wives?)
18. any Lamanite women?
19. women who rejected advancement, list
20. Nauvoo Temple Sealing after Joseph Smith's death
(how
they
were
5
Joseph Smith's Wives
Single Women (before May 1842) Married Women (after May 1842)
[before Bennett]
[check dates of marriage, or
divorced, dates]
[husbands members /
non members?]
Louisa Beaman
Eliza R. Snow
Sarah Ann Whitney
Desdomona W. Fuller
Emily D. Partridge
Eliza M. Partridge
Lucy Walker
Helen Mar Kimball
Almera W. Johnson
Maria Lawrence
Sarah Lawrence
Flora Ann Woodworth
Rhoda Richards
Hanah Ells
Melisa Lott
Fanny Young Murray
Olive G. Frost
Miss B*****
Zina D. Huntington Jacobs
Prescendia Huntington Buel
Mary E. Rollins Lightner
Mrs. Durfee
Sally Ann Fuller Gully ?
Martha McBride Knight ?
Ruth D. Vose Sayers
Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris
Sarah M. Kinsley Cleveland
Nancy Marinda Johnson Hyde
Sylvia Sessions Lyon
Elvina Cowles Holmes
Patty Sessions
Sister Wives:
1. Zina and Prescenda Huntington (md)
2. Delcena and Almera Johnson
3. Emily and Eliza Partridge
4. Maria and Sarah Lawrence
Affairs:
Fanny Alger
List of women who rejected Joseph Smith or declined:
Nancy Rigdon [John C. Bennett]
Mrs. Sarah Pratt (?) [John C. Bennett]
Mrs. Sarah Kimball (ref.)
Mrs. Emeline White
Mrs. Fuller (Warren)
6
Mrs. Miller
Jane Law?
Cordelia Morley
Mother/Daughter:
Patty Sessions Sylvia Sessions
Revelations:
1. Nancy M. Hyde, Dec. 2, 1841
2. Mr. Kimball (husband of Sarah Kimball), May 19, 1842 (HC
3. N.K. Whitney, July 27, 1842
4. Emma Smith, July 12, 1843
)
Possible wives sealed to Joseph Smith after LDS D&C 132 (July 12, 1843):
1. Hanah Ells
2. Melisa Lott, Sept. 20, 1843
3. Fanny Young Murray, Nov. 2, 1843
4. Olive Grey Frost?
5. Ruth Sayers
6. Nancy Winchester
7. Desdomona Fuller
"Spiritual wives" (widows or older women?)
Women who said they
men who said that men/women "tested"
were wives indeed:
JS slept with
a. tried
wives:
b. suceeded
c. failed
Orson Hyde
Brigham Young?
Heber C. Kimball
Willard Richards
John Taylor
Approach by Joseph Smith:
Approached by Brigham Young:
Approached by Heber C. Kimball:
7
Approach by all others:
John D. Lee - who performed?
William Clayton
sealings only for eternity:
a. married women
b. unmarried women
c. separated married women
2nd sealing time and eternity:
a. married women
b. unmarried women
c. separated married women (any divorce?)
Ehat:
1. Zina D. Huntington
2. Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde
3. Sylvia Sessions
4. Jane Law
Sealings to first wife for time and eternity in Joseph Smith's lifetime: [have dates] [see
list by Ehat and Quinn]
(most not plural marriages)
Marriages - single - time and eternity, by dates:
Heber C. Kimball, Vilate _____ 1841 or 1842?
Newel K. Whitney, Elizabeth Whitney, 21 Aug. 1842 (?) [or 28 Aug.?]
Joseph Smith, Emma Hale Smith, 28 May 1843 by __________
James Adams, Harriet Adams, 28 May 1843 by ____________
Hyrum Smith, Jerusha Barden, 29 May 1843 by ___________
Willard Richards, Jenetta Richards, 29 May 1843 by ____________
Brigham Young, Mary Ann Young, 29 May 1843 by _____________
Parley P. Pratt, Mary Ann Frost, 23 June 1843, sealed by Hyrum
Smith
William Clayton, Ruth Clayton, 22 July 1843
Cornelius Lott, Permilla Lott, 20 Sept. 1843
Hyrum Smith, Mary F. Smith, 8 Oct. 1843
Benjamin F. Johnson, Melissa LaBaron, 20 Oct. 1843 by Hyrum Smith
Wilford Woodruff, Phoebe Woodruff, 11 Nov. 1843 by _________?
8
Peter Fullmer, Susannah Zerfass, 16 Dec. 1843, sealed by Hyrum Smith
George A. Smith, Bathsheba Smith, 20 Jan. 1844
John Taylor, Leonora Taylor, 30 Jan. 1844
William Phelps, Sally W. Phelps, 2 Feb. 1844
Isaac Morley, Lucy G. Morley, 26 Feb. 1844
Plural Marriages:
Joseph Smith, Almera Johnson, 2 April 1843 by William Clayton [?] [William Clayton
Chronology, source _____?] [check - married only one wife to Joseph Smith - reference
______________]
William Clayton, Margaret Moon, 27 April 1843 by Joseph Smith at Heber C. Kimball's
Hyrum Smith, Mercy Thompson, 29 May 1843
Parley P. Pratt, Elizabeth Brotherton, 24 July 1843
Ezra T. Benson, Adeline Brooks Andrus, 27 April 1844
Brigham Young, Harriet Cook, 2 Nov. 1843
Brigham Young, Augusta Adams Cobb, 2 Nov. 1843
other:
Cornelius Lott, Permelia Darrow, 20 Sept. 1843, sealed for eternity by Hyrum Smith
Sealings for eternity to deceased persons [sometimes spouses]:
Hyrum Smith and Jerusha Barden (Mary Fielding proxy), 29 May 1843
Brigham Young and Miriam Works (Mary Ann Angel proxy), 29 May 1843
William Clayton proxy for Edward Lawrence, 1843
John M. Bernhisel
sealed to 11 deceased women, __ Oct. 1843
William Clayton
Margaret Butterfield to first husband Edward Lawrence (William Clayton proxy for
Edward Lawrence), 21 Nov. 1843 by Hyrum Smith [Joseph Smith's diary has by William
Clayton]
Joseph C. Kingsbury
Hyrum Smith
Mercy Rachel Fielding to Robert B. Thompson, 29 May 1843
Sealed in Nauvoo Temple (1846): [check sheets]
9
1. married Joseph Smith during lifetime
2. after death
list Dynastic linking:
Heber C. Kimball
Willard Richards
Newel K. Whitney
Cornelius Lott
Brigham Young
Sources need to be check:
Diary of Rhoda Richards, HDC, Ms d 1999 (Bitton), 1840-44, md
1843.
Joseph Smith in
10
spiritual wives (for eternity):
Louisa Beaman? 26
Zina Huntington Jacobs md 20
Prescenda Huntington Buell md 31
Lucinda Morgan Harris md
Agnes Smith w 33
Sylvia Sessions md 23
Mary Lightner md 23
Patty Sessions md 47
Elizabeth Davis Durfee md ca 51
Sarah Cleveland md
Eliza R. Snow 38
Delcena Johnson Sherman w ca 35
Sarah Ann Whitney? 17
Martha McBride Knight w 37
Lucy Walker? 17
Helen Mar Kimball? 14
Nancy Johnson Hyde md 27
Olive Grey Frost 26
Elvina Cowles Holmes md 29
Rhoda Richards 58
Desdoma Fuller? 33
Fanny Young Murray 55
Nancy Maria Winchester? ca 14
Ruth Sayers md ca 35
physical wives (time and eternity):
Emily Partridge
age: 19
Eliza Partridge
age: 22
Almera Johnson
age: 30
Melissa Lott?
age: 19
Hanah Ells?
age: 30
Maria Lawrence
age: 19
Sarah Lawrence
age: ca 17
Flora Ann Woodworth age: 16
11
Plural Marriage at Nauvoo During
the Lifetime of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith (Prophet and President)
Louisa Beaman
April 5, 1841
Joseph B. Noble
Zina D. Huntington Jacobs Oct. 27, 1841 md Dimick Huntington
Prescenda Huntington Buel Dec. 11, 1841 md Dimick Huntington
Sylvia Sessions
Feb. 8, 1842 d
Mary E. Rollins Lightner Feb. 1842 md
Patty Sessions
March 9, 1842 m
Willard Richards
*Mrs. Durfee
by June 1842 md?
Sally Ann Fuller Gully by June 1842 md
Eliza R. Snow
June 29, 1842
Brigham Young
Sarah Ann Whitney
July 27, 1842
Newel K. Whitney
Martha McBride Knight
Summer 1842 md?
Desdomona W. Fuller
July 1842 or 1843? Brigham Young
Emily D. Partridge
Mar. 4, 1843
Heber C. Kimball
23, 1843
James Adams (2)
Eliza M. Partridge
Mar. 1843
May 23, 1843
James Adams (2)
Lucy Walker
May 1, 1843
William Clayton
Helen Mar Kimball
May 1843
Almera W. Johnson
(April-May) 1843
Maria Lawrence
Spring 1843
Sarah Lawrence
Spring 1843
Flora Ann Woodworth
Spring 1843
Elvina A. Cowles
June 1, 1843
Heber C. Kimball
Rhoda Richards
June 12, 1843 (JS D) Willard Richards
Hanah Ells
Summer 1843
Melisa Lott
Sept. 20, 1843
Hyrum Smith
Fanny Young Murray
Nov. 2, 1843
Brigham Young
Ruth D. Vose Sayers
Feb. 1844 md
Hyrum Smith
Olive G. Frost
after April 1843
Lucinda P. Morgan Harris md
Sarah M. Kinsley Cleveland by June 1842 md
Mrs. Agnes Smith
by June 1842 md? Brigham Young
Miss B*****
by June 1842
Nancy M. Johnson Hyde
April 1842? md
Brigham Young
(or May 1843? eter.)
* = Elizabeth Davis Brackenbury Durfee
Nancy Winchester?
Delcena Johnson Sherman? 1842
May
12
George J. Adams ?
James Adams
Rosena Repshire
July 11, 1843
Joseph Smith
Ezra T. Benson
Adeline B. Andrus
April 27, 1844
Hyrum Smith
William Clayton [check]
Margaret Moon
April 27, 1843
Howard Egan
Catherine Clawson
1844
Hyrum Smith
Thomas Grover (High Council) ?
Caroline S. Hubbard
Aug. 1843
Orson Hyde (Apostle)
Martha Browitt
1843
Mary Ann Price
1843
Joseph Smith
Hyrum Smith
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
Benjamin F. Johnson ?
Heber C. Kimball (Apostle)
Sarah Perry Peak Noon
1842
Vinson Knight
Philinda Clark Eldredge
Joseph B. Noble
Sarah Alley
1841-42
April 5, 1843
John D. Lee ?
Parley P. Pratt (Apostle)
Elizabeth Brotherton
July 24, 1843
Hyrum Smith
Charles C. Rich ? [check]
Willard Richards (Apostle)
Sarah Longstroth
Jan. 18, 1843
Nancy Longstroth
1843
Susannah Lee Liptrot
June 12, 1843 (JS D)
13
Hyrum Smith (Patriarch)
Marcy B. Thompson (time) Aug. 11, 1843
Joseph Smith
Catherine Phillips
Aug. 1843
Joseph Smith
Lydia Dibble
1843
William Smith (Apostle)
Mary A. Covington
1843
Erastus Snow
Minerva White
April 2, 1844
John Taylor (Apostle)
Elizabeth Kaighin
Dec. 12, 1843
Jane Ballantyne
Feb. 25, 1844
Robert B. Thompson ?
Edwin Woolley ? [check]
Brigham Young (Apostle)
Lucy Ann Decker
June 14, 1842
Joseph Smith
Augusta Adams [Cobb]
Nov. 2, 1843
Joseph Smith
Harriet Elizabeth Cook Nov. 2, 1843
Joseph Smith
Clarissa Decker
May 8, 1844
Willard Richards
Statements:
Temple Lot Case
Lucy W. Kimball
Bathsheba Smith
Mercy Rachel Thompson, 20 Dec. 1880 statement, Church Archives
Melissa Lott Willis
Mary Ann West, she was living with Agnes M. Smith
Emily D. Partridge Young
Sources:
Joseph Smith Journal
William Clayton Journal
Letters of Heber C. Kimball, put together excerpts
Letters of Joseph Smith, letter June 1842 to J. Richards
14
Failures:
Joseph Smith
Nancy Rigdon
Sarah Pratt? (See Van Wagoner, Dialogue article)
others - list
other men's wives - Nancy M, J. Hyde
affairs - Miss Hill
Fanny Alger
list "marriages" which were consummated
list married women at time with and without divorce
list women who stated they were physical wives
list women who stated they were spiritual wives
Brigham Young
Martha Brotherton
William Clayton
Joseph B. Noble
Selected Bibliography:
H. Michael Marquardt, The Strange Marriages of Sarah Ann Whitney to Joseph
Smith the Mormon Prophet, Joseph C. Kingsbury and Heber C. Kimball (Revised
Ed., 1982)
H. Michael Marquardt, "Joseph Smith and Plural Marriage" (1977, unpublished
study)
Danel W. Bachman, "A Study of the Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage before
the Death of Joseph Smith," (M.A. thesis, 1975)
Danel W. Bachman, "The Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants Section 132,"
The Eighth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, Jan. 26, 1980, pp. 27-44
Roberts (year 19--), Introduction to the History of the Church Vol. 5 on D&C 132
Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History (1945)
David Bitton, "Mormon Polygamy: A Review Article," Journal of Mormon History 4
(1977):101-18
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith and Polygamy (1967)
Charles Shook, The True Origin of Mormon Polygamy (Cincinnati, 1914)
Andrew F. Ehat, "Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844
Mormon Succession Question," (M.A. thesis, BYU, Dec. 1982)
David Whittaker - 1852
Richard Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature
Books, 2nd Ed., 1989)
D. Michael Quinn, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,"
Dialogue 18 (Spring 1985):9-105
15
Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippets Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
(1984)
Donna Hill, Joseph Smith the First Mormon
RLDS authors, Alma R. Blair
Larry Foster, Religion and Sexuality: Three American Communal Experiments of
the Nineteenth Century (1981)
Rex Cooper, diss.
Andrew Jensen, "Plural Marriage," The Historical Record 6 (May 1887)
Joseph F. Smith, Jr., Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage (Salt
Lake City, 1905)
16
Plural Marriage at Nauvoo of
Joseph Smith (Prophet and President)
Single Wives:
Louisa Beaman
Eliza Roxey Snow
Sarah Ann Whitney (17 yrs)
Emily D. Partridge (19yrs)
April 5, 1841
Joseph B. Noble
June 29, 1842
Brigham Young
July 27, 1842
Newel K. Whitney
Mar. 4, 1843
Heber C. Kimball
May 23, 1843 James Adams (2)
Eliza M. Partridge
Mar. 8, 1843
Heber C. Kimball
May 23, 1843
James Adams (2)
Lucy Walker (17 yrs)
May 1, 1843
William Clayton
Helen Mar Kimball (14 yrs) May 1843
Almera W. Johnson
Spring 1843
Hyrum Smith
Maria Lawrence (19 yrs)
Spring 1843
Sarah Lawrence (17 yrs)
Spring 1843
Flora Ann Woodworth (16yrs)Spring 1843
Olive Grey Frost
after April 1843
Rhoda Richards (58 yrs)
June 12, 1843 (JS D) Willard Richards
Desdomona W. Fuller
July 1843
Brigham Young
Hanah S. Ells
Summer 1843
Melisa Lott (19 yrs)
Sept. 20, 1843
Hyrum Smith
[16]
Married Wives:
Zina D. Huntington Jacobs Oct. 27, 1841 md Dimick Huntington
Prescenda Huntington Buell Dec. 11, 1841 md Dimick Huntington
Sylvia Porter Sessions
Feb. 8, 1842 d md
Mary E. Rollins Lightner
Feb. 1842 md Brigham Young
Patty Sessions
March 9, 1842 m md Willard Richards
Nancy M. Johnson Hyde
May 1843 md
Brigham Young
Elvina Annie Cowles Holmes June 1, 1843 md Heber C. Kimball
Ruth Daggett Vose Sayers Feb. 1843 [1844] md Hyrum Smith
Note: Zina Jacobs was 20 years old
Sylvia Sessions was 23 years old
[8]
Widowed Wives: [single at time]
Agnes Smith
Jan. 6, 1842 w
Brigham Young
Delcena Johnson Sherman by July 1, 1842 w
Martha McBride Knight
Summer 1842 w
Heber C. Kimball
Fanny Young Murray (56yrs) Nov. 2, 1843 w
Brigham Young
[4]
17
removed:
1. Elizabeth Davis Durfee by June 1842 md may put back on
2. Sarah M. Kinsley Cleveland md
list reason(s)
#1 listed by Bennett; and others
[2]
may add back on:
1. Elizabeth Davis Durfee (see above)
2. Nancy Maria Winchester HR when born ?
list reasons
#2 sealed to Heber C. Kimball in 1844
List those probably referred to in above lists by John C. Bennnett page 256:
1. Mrs. Agnes Smith [was a widow at time]
2. Miss Louisa Beaman
3. Mrs. Prescenda Huntington Buell
4. Mrs. Elizabeth Davis Durfee
5. Mrs. Sylvia or Patty Sessions
6. Mrs. *
7. Mrs. +
Jan. 6, 1842
April 5, 1841
Dec. 11, 1841
by June 1842
Feb./Mar. 1842
others not enough information on:
* Possibly Sally Ann Fuller Gulley (sealed to JS 29 Jan. 1847) husband Samuel Gulley
+ Possibly Sarah Bapson (sealed to JS 4 April 1899)
other:
Lucinda Morgan Harris
HR
Sarah M. Kinsley Cleveland HR
Delcena Johnson Sherman - see comments by B.F. Johnson on Joseph Smith and Delcena; check
also Almera W. Johnson