Image: Polygamist FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs.
From the LDS church’s Gospel Topic Essay ‘Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo’ 1
‘Careful estimates put the number {of wives} between 30 and 40.’
‘The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday.’
‘Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married.’
‘Several Latter-day Saints who had lived in Kirtland reported decades later that Joseph Smith had married Alger, who lived and worked in the Smith household…’ (Fanny Alger was ~16 at the time)
Joseph Smith’s plural marriages:
| Wife | Date | Age | Husband |
| Emma Hale | Jan 1827 | 22 | – |
| Fanny Alger | 1833 | 16 | – |
| Lucinda Morgan Harris | 1838 | 37 | George W. Harris |
| Louisa Beaman | Apr 1841 | 26 | – |
| Zina Huntington Jacobs | Oct 1841 | 20 | Henry Jacobs |
| Presendia Huntington Buell | Dec 1841 | 31 | Norman Buell |
| Agnes Coolbrith | Jan 1842 | 33 | – |
| Sylvia Sessions Lyon | Feb 1842 | 23 | Windsor Lyon |
| Mary Rollins Lightner | Feb 1842 | 23 | Adam Lightner |
| Patty Bartlett Sessions | Mar 1842 | 47 | David Sessions |
| Marinda Johnson Hyde | Apr 1842 | 27 | Orson Hyde |
| Elizabeth Davis Durfee | Jun 1842 | 50 | Jabez Durfee |
| Sarah Kingsley Cleveland | Jun 1842 | 53 | John Cleveland |
| Delcena Johnson | Jul 1842 | 37 | – |
| Eliza R. Snow | Jun 1842 | 38 | – |
| Sarah Ann Whitney | Jul 1842 | 17 | – |
| Martha McBride Knight | Aug 1842 | 37 | – |
| Ruth Vose Sayers | Feb 1843 | 33 | Edward Sayers |
| Flora Ann Woodworth | Spring 1843 | 16 | – |
| Emily Dow Partridge | Mar 1843 | 19 | – |
| Eliza Maria Partridge | Mar 1843 | 22 | – |
| Almera Johnson | Apr 1843 | 30 | – |
| Lucy Walker | May 1843 | 17 | – |
| Sarah Lawrence | May 1843 | 17 | – |
| Maria Lawrence | May 1843 | 19 | – |
| Helen Mar Kimball | May 1843 | 14 | – |
| Hanna Ells | Mid 1843 | 29 | – |
| Elvira Cowles Holmes | Jun 1843 | 29 | Jonathan Holmes |
| Rhoda Richards | Jun 1843 | 58 | – |
| Desdemona Fullmer | Jul 1843 | 32 | – |
| Olive Frost | Mid 1843 | 27 | – |
| Melissa Lott | Sep 1843 | 19 | – |
| Nancy Winchester | 1843 | 14 | – |
| Fanny Young | Nov 1843 | 56 | – |
Crash Course:
Year of Polygamy Podcast – The series follows the Mormon faith through the lens of “The Principle of Plural Marriage”.
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy – Discusses Joseph Smith’s introduction of polygamy into early Mormon Church.
Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism – D. Michael Quinn
References
| 1 | Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo – LDS.org |
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