| A new book, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith , describes the 33 plural wives of Mormon Church founder, Joseph Smith. (Some other authors say he had 49 plural wives). Many, after Smith's death in 1844, moved on to Utah. The 788 page book is intended to augment the "faith, hardship and heroism" of the church's sesquicentennial celebration. The Associated Press article states that Polygamy "simply did not work in 19th century America. They faced neglect—the husband could not give a specific wife more than a "fraction of his time and means." The result was "solitude." Of the 33 "well-documented wives" 11 were "polyandrous." That is, they were married and "cohabiting with their husbands, who mostly were faithful Mormons when Smith married them." Ha! Ha! "Yet, not one divorced her first husband" when Smith was alive. Of Smith's first 12 wives, nine were polyandrous. Todd Compton, author of the new book, is a practicing Mormon living in Santa Monica, California. He has a doctorate in classics from UCLA and has spent much of the 1990's checking records, diaries, etc. He suggests Smith "experimented" with polygamy in the 1830's, adding most of his plural wives during his final two years of life. He took no new wives during the eight months prior to his assassination by a mob at age 38, in 1844. Eleven of his wives were between 14 and 20, nine were in their 20's and eight were 31 to 40, two were in their 40's and three were in their 60's, according to the article. The author said he knew all along that Joseph had married younger women—but after reading all the sources "the composite history is very troubling"—especially from the viewpoint of Smith's younger widows. Young's counselor, Heber C. Kimball married eleven more. He mentions that three of the pioneer women featured in the church produced film "Legacy" shown to Temple Square visitors were polygamous wives—though that fact is not mentioned in the film. Compton tells of a 19-year-old girl—approached by the Mormon prophet who told her "the Lord has commanded (them) to enter into plural marriage and had given me to him." So secret was the practice that neither Emily Partridge, nor her 22-year-old sister married by Smith only four days later—were to share a common spouse. Helen Mar Kimball, just 14, the daughter of Brigham's counselor, Heber C. Kimball, wrote that she initially refused when her father proposed marriage to Smith, she later relented. When knowledge of Smith's secret marriages began to leak out, Smith's second counselor and an "ardent polygamy foe," filed suit against Smith for living "in an open state of adultery" with 19-year-old Marin Lawrence. Just a month before Smith's death, he flatly denied polygamy and openly declared it against Federal Law. The book should be interesting. |
This site is design and maintained by
WebTech Design Group
They would like to help you with your site. For information, and to
see their reasonable rates, visit their site today.
To report a problem
on this site, please contact them at:
jlsmith@webtechdg.com
This page last updated: October 25, 2001