Death Masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith
These brothers died in a shootout when an irate crowd, enraged by their destruction of a printing press that published an article critical of Mormonism, attacked the building in which Joseph and Hyrum were awaiting trial.
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List of Joseph Smith's wives
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Many historians claim that Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805–1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, taught and practiced polygamy during his ministry, and married multiple women during his lifetime. Smith, and the leading quorums of his church, publicly denied he taught or practiced it.[1][2][3]
The first publication of a list of women alleged to be Smith's plural wives was in 1887, by assistant LDS church historian Andrew Jenson. It included 27 women besides Emma Smith.[4]Currently, historians disagree as to the number of plural wives which Smith had and their names. Various scholars and historians, including Fawn Brodie, George D. Smith,[5] and Todd Compton, have tried to identify the women who married Smith.[6] The discrepancy is created by the lack of documents to support some of the alleged marriages. As Compton has stated, for many of these marriages, "absolutely nothing is known of [the] marriage after the ceremony."[7]
Smith's son Joseph Smith III, lawful widow Emma Smith, and most members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS, now called Community of Christ) attempted for years to refute the evidence of plural marriages. They pointed to the historical record that Joseph Smith publicly opposed the practice of polygamy.[3][8][9]
Contents[hide] |
[edit]List of wives
| Plural wife - maiden name (married name) | Marriage Date | Age[10] | Recognized by | Marital status at time of sealing | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TC[11] | GS[12] | FB[13] | |||||
Emma Hale (Smith) | Jan. 17, 1827 | 22 | yes | yes | yes | n/a | The only woman to be legally wed to Joseph Smith, Jr. and whom he claimed publicly was his only spouse.[14] Continued church activity within the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[15] Throughout life and on her deathbed denied Joseph Smith, Jr. had plural wives.[16]Claimed that the very first time she ever became aware of a polygamy revelation being attributed to Joseph Smith was when she read about it inOrson Pratt's booklet The Seer in 1853.[17] |
| Fanny Alger | Early 1833 | 16 | yes | no | no | Single | According to George D. Smith, Alger's marriage to Smith was attested to by several people, including Emma Smith, Warren Parish, Oliver Cowdery, and Heber C. Kimball.[18] Compton cites Mosiah Hancock's handwritten report of his father Levi's account of the marriage ceremony of Smith and Alger, and records his father's account of negotiations between Levi and Smith in procuring their respective wives. Compton also notes that nineteenth-century Mormons in Utah, including Benjamin Johnson, Heber C. Kimball and Andrew Jenson, and former Mormons Chauncey Webb and Ann Eliza Webb Young, regarded the Smith-Alger relationship as a marriage.[19] Historian Lawrence Foster asserts a claim that later Mormons may have falsely assumed there was a marriage where there was only a sexual relationship: he views the marriage of Alger to Joseph Smith as "debatable supposition" rather than "established fact".[20] |
| Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris | Est. 1838 | 37 | yes | yes | yes | Married | Historians Richard Lloyd Anderson and Scott H. Faulring dismiss this claim as being based on "no solid evidence".[21] Compton Lnotes the following evidence: she is the third woman on Andrew Jenson's 1887 list of Joseph Smith's plural wives; Compton writes that "Sarah Pratt reported that while in Nauvoo Lucinda had admitted a long-standing relationship with Smith"; and that there is an "early Nauvoo temple proxy sealing to Smith...." This marriage was polyandrous, as Lucinda lived with her then husband George Washington Harris until about 1853. Compton believes the marriage occurred around 1838, when Smith was living with Lucinda and her husband.[22] |
Louisa Beaman | Apr. 5, 1841 | 26 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (February 7, 1815 - May 16, 1850). Though Mormon history and press indicate Beaman was not baptized until May 11, 1843,[23][24] she had migrated with Mormons to Nauvoo in 1839 or 1840.[25] She has been called the "first plural wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith." [26] After Smith's death, Beaman remarried, becoming the ninth wife of Brigham Young. They had five children together, all of whom predeceased Beaman, who died young at age 35.[27][28] Listed as a Smith plural wife by Joseph F. Smith,[29] who noted 1869 affidavit of Beaman's brother-in-law Joseph B. Noble, stating he officiated at the wedding,[30][31] William Clayton said Smith told him in February 1843 that Beaman was one of his plural wives.[32] This would have been prior to her baptism. |
Zina Diantha Huntington (Jacobs) | Oct. 27, 1841 | 20 | yes | yes | yes | Married | Husband was Henry Bailey Jacobs, who was aware of Zina's plural marriage to Smith. Jacobs wrote, "[W]hatever the Prophet did was right, without making the wisdom of God's authorities bend to the reasoning of any man." (Compton 1997, pp. 81–82) Sister of Presendia Huntington. After Smith's death, married Brigham Young while husband Jacobs was on mission to England. |
| Presendia Lathrop Huntington (Buell) | Dec. 11, 1841 | 31 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (7 September 1810 in Watertown, New York - 1 February 1892 in Salt Lake City, Utah) Sister of Zina. After Smith's death, married Heber C. Kimball. |
Agnes Moulton Coolbrith | Jan. 6, 1842 | 31 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Widow of Smith's brother Don Carlos. (1808–1876). After Don Carlos died in 1841, Coolbrith married Joseph in 1842.[33] Coolbrith was the mother ofIna Coolbrith, who became the first poet laureate of California. |
Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon | Feb. 8, 1842 | 23 | yes | yes | yes | Married | Daughter of David Sessions and Patty Bartlett Sessions, who married Joseph Smith one month after her daughter's marriage to him. On her deathbed, Sylvia informed her daughter Josephine Lyons that she was Smith's daughter:
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| Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner | Jan. 17, 1842 | 23 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (9 April 1818 in Lima, New York–17 December 1913 in Minersville, Utah) Claimed that Smith had a private conversation with her in 1831 when she was twelve years old,[34][35]After Smith's death, she remarried, becoming the 24th plural wife of Brigham Young. They married in 1845 and she bore him no children. Mary Elizabeth and her sister Caroline were instrumental in salvaging printed pages of the Book of Commandments when the printing press was destroyed by a mob on 20 July 1833.[36] |
Patty Bartlett (Sessions) | Mar. 9, 1842 | 47 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (4 February 1795 in Bethel, Maine - 14 December 1893 in Bountiful, Utah). Her daughter Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon, who had married Smith one month before, was present at Session's wedding to Smith.[37] |
Marinda Nancy Johnson (Hyde) | Apr. 1842 | 27 (16)[38] | yes | yes | yes | Married | (28 June 1815 in Pomfret, Vermont - 24 March 1886 in Salt Lake City, Utah). Jon Krakauer wrote in Under the Banner of Heaven,[38]
|
Elizabeth Davis (Brackenbury Durfee) | Bef. Jun. 1842 | 50 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (11 March 1791 in Riverhead, New York - 16 December 1876 in White Cloud, Kansas) According to Anderson and Faulring, this claim is based on Bennett and "an ambiguous statement attributed to Sarah Pratt by the hostile journalist Wyl."[21] |
| Sally A. Fuller | 1842 | ? | no | yes | no | ? | |
| Sarah Maryetta Kingsley (Howe Cleveland) | Bef. Jun. 29, 1842 | 53 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (1788 - 20 April 1856 in Plymouth, Illinois) Anderson and Faulring state that this is "only a guess" based on a claim "without any supporting data".[21] |
Delcena Johnson (Sherman) | Bef. Jul. 1842 | 37 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (19 November 1806 in Westfield, Vermont - 21 October 1854 in Salt Lake City, Utah; widow of Lyman R. Sherman) |
Eliza Roxcy Snow | Jun. 29, 1842 | 38 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Sister of Lorenzo Snow. Organized a petition in Summer 1842, with a thousand female signatures, denying Smith a polygamist.[39] As Secretary of the Ladies' Relief Society published a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy.[40] William Clayton said Smith told him in February 1843 that Snow was one of his plural wives.[41] She was married to Brigham Young from 1844 until his death in 1877. |
| Sarah Ann Whitney | Jul. 27, 1842 | 17 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of Newel and Elizabeth Whitney. Joseph C. Kingsbury said he was "well aware" of this marriage.[42] William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period.[41] She was married to Heber C. Kimball from March 17, 1845 to June 22, 1868. |
Martha McBride (Knight) | Aug. 1842 | 37 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Widow of Vinson Knight; later sealed to Heber C. Kimball. |
| Sarah Bapson | 1842 | yes | ? | ? | |||
| Ruth D. Vose (Sayers) | Feb. 1843 | 34 | yes | yes | yes | Married | |
| Flora Ann Woodworth | Spring 1843 | 16 | yes | yes | yes | Single | William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period.[41] |
Emily Dow Partridge | Mar. 4, 1843 | 19 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of Edward Partridge and sister of Eliza. After Smith's death, she married Brigham Young. William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period.[41] |
Eliza Maria Partridge | Mar.8, 1843 | 22 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of Edward Partridge and sister of Emily. Eliza married after Smith's death, to Amasa M. Lyman, who was already husband to Eliza's older sister, Caroline. William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period.[41] |
Almera Woodward Johnson | Apr. 1843 | 30 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (12 October 1812 in Westfield, Vermont - 4 March 1896 in Parowan, Utah) |
| Lucy Walker | May 1, 1843[43] | 17 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Wrote about her plural marriage to Smith,[35][44]
|
| Sarah Lawrence | May 1843 | 17 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (13 May 1826 in Pickering Township, Ontario, Canada - 1872) Sister of Maria. |
| Maria Lawrence | May 1843 | 19 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (b. December 18, 1823, Pickering Township, Ontario - d.? Nauvoo, Illinois) Sister of Sarah. After Smith's death, Lawrence married Brigham Young, becoming his sixteenth plural wife. They divorced in 1845, but remarried the following year.[28] |
| Helen Mar Kimball | May 1843 | 14 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of Heber C. Kimball. At aged 14, Helen Mar Kimball wrote,[35]William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period.[41] |
| Hannah Ells | 1843 | 29 | yes | yes | ? | Single | (4 March 1813 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England - 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois) |
| Elvira Annie Cowles (Holmes) | Jun. 1, 1843 | 29 | yes | yes | yes | Married | (23 November 1813 in Unadilla, New York - 10 March 1871 in Farmington, Utah) |
Rhoda Richards | Jun. 12, 1843 | 58 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (8 August 1784 in Framingham, Massachusetts - 17 January 1879 in Salt Lake City, Utah) 1st cousin of Brigham Young whom she married after Smith's death. |
Desdemona Fullmer | Jul. 1843 | 32 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (6 October 1809 in Huntington, Pennsylvania - 9 February 1886 in Salt Lake City, Utah). William Clayton said Smith told him in February 1843 that Fullmer was one of his plural wives.[41] |
| Olive Grey Frost | Summer 1843 | 27 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (24 July 1816 in Bethel, Maine - 6 October 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois) After Smith's death, Frost would remarry, becoming the eighteenth plural wife of Brigham Young. They married in 1844, and she bore him no children. |
| Mary Ann Frost (Pratt) | Summer 1843 | 34 | no | yes | Divorced | (14 January 1809 in Groton, Vermont - 24 August 1891 in Pleasant Grove, Utah) Sister of Olive Grey Frost. First married to Nathan Stearns in 1831 but he died about 18 months later. Baptized into LDS Church in 1835 by David W. Patten. Married Parley Parker Pratt on 14 May 1837 in Kirtland, Ohio. Moved to Missouri and Nauvoo with Pratt. Went on mission trip with Pratt to England in 1840. Returned from England without Pratt and was divorced soon after Pratt's return. Emigrated with the Harmon Cutler Company to Utah Territory in 1852. She was accompanied by her daughter Olivia Pratt (b. 1841) and son Moroni Llewellyn Pratt (b. 1844). They settled in Pleasant Grove, Utah.[45] | |
| Melissa Lott | Sep. 20, 1843 | 19 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of early Mormon leader Cornelius P. Lott, who managed Smith's farm in Nauvoo. |
| Nancy Mariah Winchester | 1842 or 1843 | 14 | yes | yes | yes | Single | Daughter of Stephen Winchester Sr. of Vershire, Vermont, who was a member of the Danite militia and the Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife Nancy Case of Argyle, N.Y. Anderson and Faulring write that this claim is based on "unsupported information".[21] |
| Fanny Young (Murray) | Nov. 2, 1843 | 56 | yes | yes | yes | Single | (8 November 1787 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts - 11 June 1859) |
| Mary Houston | Before 1844 | no | yes | ? | ? | ||
| Sarah Scott | Before 1844 | no | yes | ? | ? | ||
| Olive Andrews | Before 1844 | no | yes | ? | ? | ||
| Jane Tippets | Before 1844 | no | yes | ? | ? | ||
| Sophia Sanburn | Before 1844 | no | yes | ? | ? | ||
| Phoebe Watrous (Woodworth) | Before 1844 | ? | no | yes | ? | ? | |
| Vienna Jaques | Before 1844 | ? | no | yes | ? | ? | |
[edit]Allegations of children born to alleged polygamous wives
Research by LDS researcher Ugo A. Perego has shown that a number of children of Smith's alleged polygamous relationships were not his genetic offspring. The following table lists some of the children born to Smith's alleged polygamous wives as well as those ruled out by genetic testing:[46][47][48]
| Child | Date of birth | Mother | Father | DNA testing status | DNA testing result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver Buell | 1838 – 39 | Presendia Huntington Buell | Norman Buell | Complete (November 2007) | Negative[48] | Historian Fawn Brodie speculated that Buell was a polygamous son of Joseph Smith.[49] |
| John Reed Hancock | April 19, 1841 | Clarissa Reed Hancock | Levi Hancock | Complete (July 2011) | Negative [50] | Only anecdotal evidence that Clarissa Reed Hancock was a plural wife of Joseph Smith.[46][51] |
| Mosiah Hancock | April 9, 1834 | Clarissa Reed Hancock | Levi Hancock | Complete (November 2007) | Negative[48] | Only anecdotal evidence that Clarissa Reed Hancock was a plural wife of Joseph Smith.[46][51] |
| Frank Henry Hyde | January 23, 1845, 1846? | Marinda Johnson Hyde | Orson Hyde | Incomplete | ? | |
| Orson Washington Hyde | November 9, 1843 | Marinda Johnson Hyde | Orson Hyde | Not possible (died in infancy) | n/a | |
| Zebulon Jacobs | January 2, 1842 | Zina Huntington Jacobs | Henry Jacobs | Complete (May 2005) | Negative[47] | |
| Algernon Lightner | March 22, 1842 | Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner | Adam Lightner | Not possible (died in infancy) | n/a | |
| Josephine Rosetta Lyon | February 8, 1844 | Sylvia Porter Sessions Lyon | Windsor Lyon | Incomplete | ? | Mother told her on deathbed that Josephine was Smith's daughter.[52] |
| Moroni Pratt | December 7, 1844 | Mary Ann Frost Pratt | Parley P. Pratt | Complete (May 2005) | Negative[47] |
[edit]Temple Lot case
The Temple Lot Case, legally Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ, in 1894 included analysis of testimony about Joseph Smith, Jr. and his plural wives. In his ruling, Judge John F. Philips was recorded as disagreeing with assertions about whether some of the women listed above had been legally married to Smith. Nonetheless, reliable historians since his time have disagreed with his conclusions. There is no historical consensus that gives his ruling more weight than the historians' conclusions about wives as cited above.[53][54]
[edit]See also
- Children of Joseph Smith, Jr.
- List of Brigham Young's wives
- List of Latter Day Saint practitioners of plural marriage