Sylvia Sessions Lyon

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Sylvia Sessions Lyon

Topics

Sylvia Sessions Lyon

Sylvia Sessions Lyon is likely pseudopolyandrous wife of Joseph Smith

Summary: Sylvia Sessions married Windsor Lyon on 21 April 1838. Joseph Smith performed the ceremony. She was sealed to Joseph Smith on 8 February 1842. Her husband Windsor's reaction is not recorded, but he was a faithful, active member of the Church at the time. Windsor was excommunicated on 7 November 1842 because he sued stake president William Marks for repayment of a loan (Church members frowned on using secular courts to settle disputes between themselves). Despite his excommunication, Windsor remained on close terms with Joseph; tradition holds that he was "a true friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith." Sylvia gave birth to a daughter, Josephine, on 8 February 1844, and there is evidence that Joseph was the father. Regardless, Windsor Lyon remained a close friend and ally of Joseph's—he was called as a witness at the trial of Joseph and Hyrum's assassins. Brian Hales has recently published work demonstrating that Todd Compton likely worked with incomplete data on Session's first marriage. In Hales' view, Sessions considered herself divorced from her husband, and Joseph is the only viable father for her child. If so, Sessions' marriage to Joseph was not polyandrous, and the evidence for Josephine Lyons being Joseph's child is even stronger.

Mother of a possible/probable child by Joseph Smith

Summary: The case of Josephine Fisher relies on a deathbed conversation: "Just prior to my mothers death in 1882 she called me to her bedside and told me that her days were about numbered and before she passed away from mortality she desired to tell me something which she had kept as an entire secret from me and from all others but which she now desired to communicate to me. She then told me that I was the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith…." Perhaps significantly, Josephine's name shares a clear link with Joseph's. Whether this account proves that she was his biological daughter has been debated

Joseph Smith's Polygamy: "Sylvia Sessions", by Brian C. Hales

(Click here for full article)