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Archive for the ‘Polygamy & Mormon Church Leaders’ Category

Early Mormon PolygamistsJoseph Fielding was the 2nd Mission President of the British Mission between 1838-1840. He was a farmer, missionary, father, polygamist and the brother of two sisters who married two of the most influential men in early Mormonism.

If it hadn’t been for Joseph’s influence in his sister’s lives and those around him in England, I’m certain Fielding, Josephthe Church wouldn’t be where it is today.  While he’s not written about as often as the other early leaders, make no mistake his imprint is far reaching.  You can read a short bio of him and his wives in our investigation of polygamous Mormon Church leaders here.

 

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Early Mormon PolygamistsWe’re adding to our growing collection of Polygamy & Mormon Church Leaders!  We just finished an article on Erastus Snow. While this guy was busy converting a lot of people into the fold of Mormonism, he was also busy marrying more than his fair share of them at the same time.

His story reads much like the others do of taking in under-age girls andErastus Snow marrying their sisters as well as their mothers. It’s a wonder how they kept all their names straight and a bigger wonder how they justified the atrocious behavior while doing so. You can read Mr. Snow’s short bio and get info on all those wives here.

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Early Mormon PolygamistsWe’ve added another resource to our Polygamy & Mormon Church Leaders series!  This time we looked at Abraham Owen Smoot.  If you’re not familiar with this gentleman, think BYU.

If it weren’t for the deep pockets and generosity of this man BYU would’ve died certain death.  When Brigham Young died he left the school in financial ruin with debts climbing over $100,000, but Smoot saved the day by mortgaging every single thing he owned to keep Brigham Young Academy kicking.  As a result of his generosity he died penniless.  That hundred grand in today’s money is over a whopping $2.2.

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William B Smith

March 13, 1811

November 13, 1893

Early Mormon PolygamistsOf all the polygamists that I’ve reported on thus far this man is at the top of my list for leaving a legacy of confusion.

Poor William was either misunderstood by everyone around him or he was born with a pre-disposition to find trouble, or both. His relationship with older brother Joseph wasn’t what the Church portrays as everyone being happy and whether that carried over to how other church leaders viewed him is left to be told. It seems the majority of his problems came after Joseph & Hyrum’s assassinations.

The Church has varying lists offering sparse info on his marriages (not a surprise there), but once I began my research I found upwards of twenty plus wives and an arrest record as long as my arm. He was a colorful individual indeed. You can get more info on his wives hereWilliam Smith

Because William was ex-communicated on a number of occasions and eventually joined the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ), there isn’t a lot of information on him in Church writings. He didn’t join the other Mormons when they left Nauvoo and he never lived in Utah. He died at the age of 82 in Iowa.

 

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders Intro

George A Smith

June 26, 1817 – September 1, 1875

Early Mormon PolygamistsGeorge Albert Smith is better known as George A Smith in Mormonism because his grandson was given the same name. George did well when it came to producing descendants who’d be in the halls of Mormon leadership positions.

His namesake became the 8th prophet of Mormonism and a son, John Henry Smith, became an apostle.

Smith was commissioned with the task of settling southern Utah and he wasted no time doing so. St. George was also named after him.

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders

Ezra Taft Benson

February 22, 1811 – September 3, 1869

Early Mormon PolygamistsEzra Taft Benson was born into a well established, successful family who had set about gaining employment in everything from farming to politics. At the end of the Revolutionary War no less than George Washington himself stayed at the home and inn of one of the Taft’s when he began his run for US President.

The drive to succeed wasn’t lost with Ezra as he began to establish a career and carve a little niche for himself in the new country. His ventures took him from farming to hotel entrepreneur, cotton mill owner to LDS apostle.

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders Orson Hyde

Early Mormon PolygamistsThe longer I collect info on the early polygamous leaders of Mormonism the more I see their actions for what they really were (as if I had any doubts before…).  The last 3-4 wives of Orson Hyde were just babies when Joseph Smith was killed and in their teens they ended up marrying Orson Hyde for eternity.

For the life of me I can’t imagine the God of the Bible condoning such behavior as this. I’m praying the people of Mormonism will open their hearts to see that God doesn’t need something He created to engage in this type of behavior just so He can “save” them. Why would anyone want to worship a god such as that?

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 11

William Clayton

July 17, 1814 – December 4, 1879Early Mormon Polygamists

This time around we’re taking a look at the Church’s historian, William Clayton. In addition to keeping the secrets of Joseph Smith’s multiple marriages, Mr. Clayton wrote everything down in an orderly fashion to keep track of the minutes of meetings as well as all the marriages of Smith. He was given the arduous task of recording the revelations of Joseph Smith.

Clayton became Joseph Smith’s personal secretary in 1842 and Clayton Williamdutifully wrote down everything he either saw or heard. While many members of the Church don’t appreciate all the history being available, they do benefit from his industrious work ethic.

During the busy times of the Church in Nauvoo Clayton somehow found enough time to collect a fair amount of wives – ten to be exact. We’ve listed them here for you.

In addition to his busy family life he also filled the position of auditor for the Utah Territory, wrote a few LDS hymns, and served as the secretary for ZCMI.

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 10

George Q. Cannon

January 11, 1827 – April 12, 1901

Cannon George Q

George Quayle Cannon was the Church’s apostle for several of the prophets. Click here for the latest in our series on Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders.

The over-riding theme in biographies written about him was how sad it was that he was forced into hiding when wanted by the feds for polygamy…it’s odd because no one forced him into anything!

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 9

Heber Chase Kimball   1801-1868

Life of Heber C. Kimball, p 425; “Thus it will be seen that Heber C. Kimball was the father of sixty-five children—truly a patriarchal household. His wives were noble women, devoted to the Gospel, lovers of home and children, good, friendly, hospitable, hard working and fine neighbors. They were true and faithful to their husband and proved themselves worthy of being the wives of the Great Prophet Heber C. Kimball.” – Orson Whitney

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Joseph Smith’s Wives Part 2

Here’s part 2!  I could not figure out a way to post this as one whole document.  Sorry!  If you know how I can do this on WordPress with the whole document showing properly, could you e-mail me @  michelle@lifeafter.org   please?  Thanks!

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Joseph Smith’s Wives

If this was ordained of God then why did Smith and the Church lie about it?

Part 1, listed here, contains the list of wives and dates they married Smith.  Part 2 contains the references and notes for each wife.

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders Overview

Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy 1841-1846; A Preliminary Demographic Report, George D. Smith, pg. 32; “Over the six years when polygamy was practiced in Nauvoo, 1841 to 1846, Smith, Kimball, and Young were the most-married men in Nauvoo; they accounted, in fact, for 117 of the 434 Nauvoo polygamous marriages, over one-fourth of the marriages by the community of 153 polygamous husbands. After Nauvoo, Young married fifteen more wives and Kimball married eight. At the funeral of his wife, Vilate, Kimball, pointing to the coffin, said:  “There lies a woman who has given me forty-four wives.”

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 7

Heber Jeddy Grant 1856 – 1945

Heber Grant was a busy guy during his tenure as the seventh president/prophet of the Mormon Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heber_J._Grant

http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/pres-sm/pres-ch-07-09.htm

Grant is the reason obeying the Word of Wisdom is mandatory to get into the temple.

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 6

Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr.  1838-1918

Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the son of Hyrum Smith and nephew of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Mormon Church.

Journal of Discourses 20:27; “A man that is not honest in his heart, who does not desire to be just and impartial, even as God is just and impartial, has no business in plural marriage; and before he enters into the practice of that principle he needs to repent, to learn wisdom to get the Spirit of God, to get understanding in relation to the purpose God has in view in regard to this principle; that he may go into the practice of it understandingly, that his heart and mind may be set upon practicing it in righteousness.” – Joseph F. Smith, July 7, 1878, Salt Lake City

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders 5

Lorenzo Snow 1814-1901

Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p. 155-160; “Pay a full tithing. The time has now come for every Latter-day Saint, who calculates to be prepared for the future and to hold his feet strong upon a proper foundation…I pray that every man, woman, and child who has means shall pay one-tenth of their income as a tithing…Our enemies are upon our path…

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders

Wilford Woodruff 1807-1898

Journal of Discourses 13:166; “If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and kingdom. Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether and turn sectarians and do as the world does, then all would be right. We just can’t do that, for God has commanded us to build up His kingdom and to bear our testimony to the nations of the earth, and we are going to do it, come life or come death.” – Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City, December 12, 1869

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders

John Taylor

Life of John Taylor, pg. 255; “In this our first issue it may be expected that something would be said in relation to this matter. This we undertake as cheerfully as any other task; for we are not ashamed here in this great metropolis of America * * * to declare that we are polygamists.” – B.H. Roberts

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Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders

Brigham Young

1801-1877

We thought it might be of interest to those studying Mormonism to get a small glimpse of what the home life of Church leaders may have looked like in the infancy stages of  Mormonism.  I’ve written a lot about the polygamy issue throughout the years, but have never compiled a concise list of the early prophets of Mormonism and their godless way of life.

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