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According to a consensus of historians, founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and many adherents in the Latter Day Saint movement have practiced plural marriage, a doctrine that states that polygyny is ordained of God. Although the largest denomination in the movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, officially abandoned the practice of plural marriage in 1890, a number of churches in the Mormon fundamentalist movement continue to teach and practice it. Historically, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Community of Christ), the second largest denomination in the movement, had an anti-polygamy position and denied officially that Smith had taught or practiced it, since Smith denied his involvement during his church leadership.[1][2][3][4]
Contents |
Pre-succession crisis
The following notable Latter Day Saints are alleged to have practiced plural marriage prior to the 1844 succession crisis that followed the death of Joseph Smith, Jr..
| Name | Date entered polygamy | Eventual No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Smith, Jr. | April 5, 1841[5] | Todd Compton has reckoned 33[6] | founder of the Latter Day Saint movement; see Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy; though he is alleged to have married more than 30 wives before his death and to have taught the doctrine to his close associates, he denied the practice publicly, as did his wife Emma Smith and son Joseph Smith III. |
| Hyrum Smith | Aug 11, 1843[5] | George D. Smith has reckoned 2 | Brother of Joseph Smith, Assistant President of the Church, and church presiding patriarch; publicly denied practicing polygamy. |
| Brigham Young | June 14, 1842[5] | 55 | Later succeeded Smith as leader of the LDS church, and is probably the most famous and prolific LDS polygamist with 55 wives |
| Heber C. Kimball | 1842[5] | 45 | Later became a high ranking leader in the LDS church, an apostle, and first counselor to president Brigham Young |
| Willard Richards | Jan 18, 1843[5] | 14 | Later became a high ranking leader in the LDS church, an apostle, and second counselor to president Brigham Young |
| William Smith | Aug, 1843[5] | 22 | Youngest brother of Joseph Smith, one of the original Twelve Apostles, and third Presiding Patriarch; excommunicated in October 1845 but continued to practice his own form of polygamy; followed James J. Strang and introduced polygamy to the Strangite Mormons, then started his own LDS Church in Covington, Kentucky, which also disintegrated after he introduced spiritual wifery into it; had five civil wives (due to death or divorce), plus some 17 additional women he had sealed to him as "spiritual wives", the last occurring about 1852; in later years he joined the Reorganized LDS Church (now Community of Christ) and always denied he and his brother Joseph had ever practiced or taught spiritual wifery or any other form of polygamy |
| Thomas Bullock | Jan 23, 1843[5] | 3 | |
| Orson Pratt | Mar 10, 1843[5] | 10 | Younger brother of Parley P. Pratt (another well known polygamist), and an original member of the quorum of the twelve apostles. Under the direction of Brigham Young, he published The Seer, a periodical published to defend the LDS church's practice of polygamy. Despite William Clayton claiming in his journal, first published in 1921, that she had been told of the revelation on polygamy on July 12, 1843,[7] Emma Smith, Joseph Smith's widow, claimed that the very first time she ever became aware of polygamy being attributed to her late husband was 10 years later when she read about it in Pratt's The Seer in 1853.[8] |
| William Clayton | Apr 27, 1843[5] | 10 | Smith dictated the 1843 revelation on polygamy to Clayton. (See Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy) |
| Orson Hyde | Apr 1843[5] | 7 | An original member of the quorum of the twelve apostles, and served as president of the quorum for nearly 30 years under Brigham Young's presidency of the LDS church. His wife Marinda allegedly married Joseph Smith in a polyandrous marriage while Hyde was on a mission to Jerusalem. |
| Parley P. Pratt | Jun 24, 1843[5] | 11 | |
| Amasa M. Lyman | Jul 1843[5] | 9 | |
| John Taylor | Dec 12, 1843[5] | 9 | |
| Edwin D. Woolley | 1843[5] | 6 | |
| Erastus Snow | Apr 2, 1844[5] | 16 | |
| John D. Lee | Apr 19, 1844[5] | 19 | |
| Ezra T. Benson | Apr 27, 1844[5] | 8 |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The following members of the LDS Church practiced plural marriage:
Presidents of the Church
| Name | No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Heber J. Grant | 3 | In 1899, Grant pleaded guilty to unlawful cohabitation and was fined $100[9] |
| Joseph F. Smith | 6 | issued the Second Manifesto in 1904 |
| Lorenzo Snow | 11 | • convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1885; imprisoned in 1885 and 1886 • was one of the few Latter-day Saint leaders that ceased cohabiting with his already existing plural wives after the 1890 Manifesto |
| John Taylor | 9[10] | father of 34 children[11] |
| Wilford Woodruff | 11 | issed the 1890 Manifesto |
| Brigham Young | 55[12] | see list of Brigham Young's wives |
Members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
| Name | No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ezra T. Benson | 8 | |
| Abraham H. Cannon | convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1886 and imprisoned for six months | |
| George Q. Cannon | 5 | pleaded guilty to unlawful cohabitation in 1888; imprisoned for nearly six months |
| Albert Carrington | 2 | |
| Rudger Clawson | • convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1882 and sentence to 3½ years imprisonment and a $1,500 fine • first person convicted under the Edmunds Act[13] |
|
| Matthias F. Cowley | resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve in 1905 as a result of his opposition to the church's abandonment of plural marriage | |
| Jedediah M. Grant | 7 | |
| Orson Hyde | 9 | |
| Heber C. Kimball | 43[14] | |
| Amasa M. Lyman | 8[15] | |
| Francis M. Lyman | ||
| Richard R. Lyman | 2 | began what he called a polygamous relationship in 1925 without the knowledge of his first wife; excommunicated from the church in 1943 for adultery resulting from this unauthorized relationship |
| Marriner W. Merrill | ||
| Charles W. Nibley | 3 | |
| Orson Pratt | edited the periodical The Seer which attempted to explain the doctrine of plural marriage to non-Mormon readers | |
| Parley P. Pratt | murdered in 1857 by one of his plural wives' ex-husband | |
| Charles C. Rich | ||
| Franklin D. Richards | ||
| Willard Richards | ||
| George A. Smith | 6 | |
| John Smith (1781-1854) | ||
| John Henry Smith | ||
| John W. Taylor | excommunicated from the church in 1911 for his opposition to the church's abandonment of plural marriage | |
| George Teasdale | ||
| Daniel H. Wells | 7 | |
| John R. Winder | ||
| Abraham O. Woodruff | 2 | married his second wife in 1900, ten years after his father had issued the 1890 Manifesto |
| Brigham Young, Jr. | ||
| John Willard Young |
Other church general authorities
| Name | No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Titus Billings | ||
| Robert T. Burton | ||
| Levi W. Hancock | 5 | |
| Leonard W. Hardy | ||
| George Miller | 3 | |
| John Morgan | 3 | |
| Isaac Morley | 7 | |
| George Reynolds | 2 | • was the accused in the U.S. Supreme Court case on polygamy, Reynolds v. United States • first convicted Mormon polygamist to serve a term of imprisonment |
| B. H. Roberts | 3 | convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1899 and imprisoned for six months |
| Zerubbabel Snow | ||
| Edward Stevenson | 7 | |
| William W. Taylor | 2 | |
| John Van Cott | 5 | |
| Newell K. Whitney | ||
| Joseph Young | 4 |
Other notable members of the LDS Church
| Name | No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Milo Andrus | 11 | |
| John Milton Bernhisel | 7 | married 7 women between 1845 and 1850; all but one had deserted him by time he was elected as Utah Territory's first delegate to Congress in 1851 |
| Thomas Bullock | 3 | |
| Hugh Findlay | 2 | |
| William J. Flake | 2 | convicted of unlawful cohabitation in 1883 and imprisoned for a short time |
| David Fullmer | 2 | |
| John S. Fullmer | 3 | |
| Ephraim Hanks | 4 | |
| Abraham Hoagland | 4 | |
| John D. Lee | 19 | |
| Charles Sreeve Peterson | ||
| Orson Spencer | 6 | |
| David King Udall | 3 | married last wife in 1903, 13 years after 1890 Manifesto |
Mormon fundamentalists
The following are notable members of the Mormon fundamentalist movement who have practiced plural marriage:
| Name | No. of wives | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Owen A. Allred | 8 | leader of the Apostolic United Brethren |
| Rulon C. Allred | at least 12 | leader of the Apostolic United Brethren |
| John Y. Barlow | 4 | |
| J. Leslie Broadbent | 4 | |
| James D. Harmston | founder of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days | |
| Rulon Jeffs | possibly as many as 75[16] | leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints |
| Warren Jeffs | leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | |
| Leroy S. Johnson | leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | |
| Alex Joseph | up to 20[17] | founder of the Confederate Nations of Israel |
| Charles Elden Kingston | co-founder of the Latter Day Church of Christ | |
| Ervil LeBaron | founder of the Church of the Lamb of God | |
| Joel LeBaron | founder of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times | |
| Joseph White Musser | 5 | |
| John W. Woolley | 3 | |
| Lorin C. Woolley | at least 4 | |
| Charles Zitting | 5 |
See also
Notes
- ^ Whitmer 1887
- ^ Times and Seasons, Volume 5, page 474
- ^ Times and Seasons, Volume 5, page 423
- ^ The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star 4 [January 1844]: 144
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Smith 1994, p. 16
- ^ Todd Compton, "A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty-three Plural Wives", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 1–38.
- ^ Journal of William Clayton - excerpts online at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3750/Clayton_intro.html[unreliable source?]
- ^ Saints' Herald 65:1044–1045
- ^ Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 1899-09-09, p. 1.
- ^ B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor (Salt Lake City, Utah: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1897).
- ^ Richard L. Jensen, “The John Taylor Family,” Ensign, Feb. 1980, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Jeffrey Odgen Johnson, “Determining and Defining ‘Wife’ — The Brigham Young Households”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 20, no. 3 (Fall 1987) pp. 57-70.
- ^ Richard S. Van Wagoner (1989, 2d ed.). Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 119
- ^ Stanley S. Ivins, "Notes on Mormon Polygamy", Western Humanities Review 10:229 (1956) p. 233.
- ^ Loretta L. Hefner, "From Apostle to Apostate: The Personal Struggle of Amasa Mason Lyman," in John Sillito and Susan Staker (eds.) (2002). Mormon Mavericks (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books).
- ^ Wade Goodwyn, Howard Berkes and Amy Walters, "Warren Jeffs and the FLDS Church", NPR, 2005-05-03.
- ^ "Alex Joseph, first LP mayor, dies at 62", Libertarian Party News, Dec. 1998.
References
- Brian C. Hales (2006). Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalists : The Generations after the Manifesto (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books)
- Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia.
- Smith, George D (Spring 1994), "Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-46: A Preliminary Demographic Report", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27 (1), http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2Fdialogue&CISOPTR=15882&REC=3&CISOBOX=42, retrieved 2007-05-12.
- D. Michael Quinn, "Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalisms," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 31, no. 2, Summer 1998
- Whitmer, David (1887), An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Missouri, http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/address3.htm, retrieved 2006-12-30
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