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The Wives Of Joseph Smith

The Wives Of Joseph Smith

Here is some great information from a good source concerning the wives of Joseph and the speculation surrounding it.

See: Source 7

What are your thoughts about this information? You will be amazed to see how many Mormons believe that plural marriage started with Brigham Young.

Smith Joseph Wives The

Historians have previously identified eight possible children of Joseph Smith borne by his plural wives. They are listed below, along with the traditionally recognized mother and father:

Josephine Lyon (Birth: February 8, 1844)
Mother: Sylvia Sessions Lyon
Father: Windsor Lyon

George Algernon Lightner (Birth: March 22, 1842)
Mother: Mary Rollins Lightner
Father: Adam Lightner

Oliver Buell (Birth: 1838 - 39)
Mother: Presendia Huntington Buell
Father: Norman Buell

Orson Washington Hyde (Birth: November 9, 1843)
Mother: Marinda Johnson Hyde
Father: Orson Hyde

Frank Henry Hyde (Birth: January 23, 1845, 1846?)
Mother: Marinda Johnson Hyde
Father: Orson Hyde

John Reed Hancock (Birth: April 19, 1841)
Mother: Clarissa Reed Hancock
Father: Levi Hancock

Moroni Pratt (Birth: December 7, 1844)
Mother: Mary Ann Frost
Father: Parley P. Pratt (confirmed via DNA research)

Zebulon Jacobs (Birth: January 2, 1842)
Mother: Zina Huntington Jacobs
Father: Henry Jacobs (confirmed via DNA research)
Ref. https://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/DNA.htm

The Wives Of Joseph Smith Studies Doctrine Mormon

One of the most "famous" wives of Joseph was Zina Huntington for the simple fact that she was the first married woman who was sealed to Joseph Smith, there are several interesting facts about this union:

1. When Zina was courting her first husband, Henry, the Prophet Joseph Smith approached her three times asking her to become his plural wife, she rejected the idea.

2. She finally married Henry and asked the Prophet Joseph to perform the marriage but he did not show up, later on he said that the reason he did not performed it was because the Lord has told him she would become his Celestial wife.

3. After 8 months of marriage to Henry, she decides to be sealed to the Prophet (after the Prophet told her that an Angel appeared to him and told him that if he does not live this Principle of Plural Marriage he will lose his position, the Church would not be able to progress any further and he would lose his life) even though she was pregnant of Henry and continue living with him after the sealing. There was not a divorce either.

4. There are disagreements of whether Henry knew about the sealing or not. Since the ordinance was perform in secret, maybe he wasn't but there is not enough evidence of it.

5. After Joseph Smith's death she was sealed to Brigham Young as his wife in the presence of her father and husband (she was pregnant of 8 months with her second child of Henry)

6. In the actual wording of the ordinances when she was sealed to Joseph and Brigham, in both the last names "Smith" and "Young" have been used even though she was married for 5 years to Henry Jacobs and he was a witness of his wife being sealed to another man.

7. Zina and Young were living together as "husband and wife" while Zina's husband was on a mission in England. He knew that his wife was not longer "his" and came to accept this fate. He wrote to her heartbreaking letters about how much he loved her, yet he did not feel Brigham "stole" his wife or children.

Zina had a good husband, Henry, who was an active member of the Church, who was a very close friend to the Prophet Joseph and he served several missions. But why Zina was not sealed to Henry in the first place? It seems like it was something that both of them wanted but they were stopped by the Prophet when he asked her to be sealed to him.

Thoughts?

Smith Joseph Wives The

I find this topic beyond interesting and have tried to find sources to read on it. I did a search (which I found is the fastest way to find what anti-mormons think about a subject) and found a book titled, In Sacred Loneliness, by Todd Comptom. I read some excerpts I found and it was something that I felt gave a lot of information. I was wondering if anyone else had read that?

After I made it through most of it I found that I liked the documented facts about these women and learning about them but found that the author, as far as I understood it, thought polygamy was a mistake or experiment that failed. I didn't finish the last few women because I had a certain sense of confusion. I did find a shortened review on the book though at
https://www.shields-research.org/Reviews/Rv..._Loneliness.htm

I have listed the paragraph that I found related most to how I felt after reading it. I would really love to hear views from someone else.

Smith Joseph Wives The

We have Discussed his Topic through and through (including that book) in this Thread: In that day seven women shall.... To get the full gist of it, you should read from the starting, yes it s long, but believe me, we all learned a lot there.

The Wives Of Joseph Smith

Thanks for the link. I am really trying to move around in this forum and read the different threads but I find there is so much information that in cases like this where it was discussing Joseph's Wives I just thought this is where I would ask about that.

Rather off topic, but... I do hope you "really nice people" (as stated somewhere on a FAQ or something) are gifted with tons of patience as us newer members try to find our way around. This is an awesome forum and there is so much to learn. I will go and read that thread and again appreciate the shortcut link!

Message Edited... Persephone: Please use the Offtopic Tags so that the Thread maintains the same subject matter and does not develop into another Topic.

The Wives Joseph Smith

No, no you are in the right place, and we are really nice people , but that is all off topic, I am merely answering your question concerning where you will find info with regards to anyone reading that book and the content contained therein. This Thread has become more or less dormant because of the link I gave you which just has about taken over everyone's eagerness for more about Plural Marriage. Do read and I look forward to your input on that and many of the other Threads we have in the Mature section.

Rather off topic, but... If you are ever unsure about something feel free to ask in your Rave Thread (the first post you made when you joined), and one of us will be sure to point the way.

The Wives Joseph Smith Mormon Doctrine Studies

"In the group of Smith's well-documented wives, eleven (33 percent) were 14 to 20 years old when they married him. Nine wives (27 percent) were twenty-one to thirty years old. Eight wives (24 percent) were in Smith's own peer group, ages thirty-one to forty. In the group aged forty-one to fifty, there is a substantial drop off: two wives, or 6 percent, and three (9 percent) in the group aged fifty-one to sixty."

"The teenage representation is the largest, though the twenty-year and thirty-year groups are comparable, which contradicts the Mormon folk-wisdom that sees the beginnings of polygamy was an attempt to care for older, unattached women. These data suggest that s-xual attraction was an important part of the motivation for Smith's polygamy. In fact, the command to multiply and replenish the earth was part of the polygamy theology, so non-s-xual marriage was generally not in the polygamous program, as Smith taught it."
-- Todd Compton, Mormon Historian, In Sacred Loneliness