Tag: Orson Hyde

  • Knee High

    Knee High

    Excerpt from a discourse by Orson Hyde, recorded in the diary of  Luke W. Gallup, February 11, 1857: 1

    “I find a great spirit in men for getting more wives, & I have heard that in this place, there is not a girl knee high to a toad (using a strong figure) that is not engaged. I “do not know, that you have outstript the mark. If you have gone into this, with the sanction of your bishop, or the First Presidency, all is right; but if not, it is not right. It is true I have labored to show up the principle, and tell the people where they were binding; but I did not give anyone the right to act. I could not give that which I did not possess. I only tried to remove the obstacles. I hear that they have gone in couples, triples, quadruples, & even sextuples, to Salt Lake; & the President may think I am raising the very devil here. 

    References

    References
    1 Luke W. Gallup Reminiscences and diary, pages 193-95, MS 8402, Church History Library, Salt Lake City – https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets?id=4e4d3060-dc87-464e-9861-cb7f20054bda&crate=0&index=193
  • All the Women

    All the Women

    Image: LDS Apostle Orson Hyde – December 27, 1847 – April 10, 1875[footnote]Orson Hyde – Wikipedia[/footnote]

    A Lecture by President Orson Hyde, Delivered at the General Conference, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1854:[footnote]The Marriage Relations – A Lecture by President Orson Hyde, Delivered at the General Conference, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1854 – BYU[/footnote]

    “This is brought up as a great argument against the position the Latter-day Saints have taken. In olden times they might have passed through the same circumstances as some of the Latter-day Saints had to in Illinois. What would it have done for us, if they had known that many of us had more than one wife when we lived in Illinois? They would have broken us up, doubtless, worse than they did. They may break us up, and rout us from place to another, but by and by we shall come to a point where we shall have all the women, and they will have none. You may think I am joking about this, but I can bring you the truth of God to demonstrate it to you. I have not advanced anything I have not got an abundance of backing for. There is more truth than poetry in this as sure as you live.”

     

     

    Crash Course:

    The Marriage Relations – A Lecture by President Orson Hyde, Delivered at the General Conference, in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1854 – BYU

  • Jeffs and Joseph

    Jeffs and Joseph

    Image: Polygamist FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs.

    From the LDS church’s Gospel Topic Essay ‘Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo’ [footnote]Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo – LDS.org [/footnote]

    ‘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

    The Wives of Joseph Smith