Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Nauvoo Polygamy/Chapter 1a

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Response to claims made in "Chapter 1" (pp. 26-51)

Chapter 1 (pp. 1-25)

A FAIR Analysis of: Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage", a work by author: George D. Smith

Chapter 2 (pp. 52-107)

Response to claims made in Nauvoo Polygamy, "Chapter 1" (pp. 26-51)

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 27 - Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge"
• Response to claim: 28 - "Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help"
• Response to claim: 28 - The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging"
• Response to claim: 28 - The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself"
• Response to claim: 28 - For Joseph and Emma, "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start"
• Response to claim: 28 - Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women"
• Response to claim: 28-29 - The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828
• Response to claim: 29 - When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about the purported seduction of Eliza Winters "in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment"
• Response to claim: 29 - The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment'"
• Response to claim: 29 - The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed"
• Response to claim: 29 - "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old"
• Response to claim: 29 - The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older"
• Response to claim: 30 - The author notes that "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met them. About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above"
• Response to claim: 30 - "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time she was only five years old"
• Response to claim: 31 - Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."
• Response to claim: 31 - "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well"
• Response to claim: 31 - "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio"
• Response to claim: 32 - "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife"
• Response to claim: 32–33 - "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"
• Response to claim: 33 - "probably by 1842," Lucinda Harris "became one more of the prophet's plural wives"
• Response to claim: 34 - The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses"
• Response to claim: 35 - Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed
• Response to claim: 37 - "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons"
• Response to claim: 38 - Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society"
• Response to claim: 38n81 - "I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage"
• Response to claim: 39 - "Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper"
• Response to claim: 39 - Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"
• Response to claim: 39 - Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair"
• Response to claim: 39–41 - The William McLellin claims
• Response to claim: 40–41 - William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph
• Response to claim: 41–42 - "'Fanny Alger as a wife' employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph"
• Response to claim: 42 - "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant"
• Response to claim: 42–43 - Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship
• Response to claim: 44 - "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson"
• Response to claim: 44 - Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt
• Response to claim: 45 - "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)"
• Response to claim: 44–45 - ""Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract"
• Response to claim: 48 - "an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."
• Response to claim: 48-49 - D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness"
• Response to claim: 49 - The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"
• Response to claim: 50 - "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling"
• Response to claim: 50 - The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends"
• Response to claim: 51 - The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."
• Response to claim: 51 - Although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings"

Response to claim: 27 - Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author suggests that Isaac Hale not being allowed to look at the plates was a "clumsy subterfuge."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

This, of course, is based upon the assumption that Joseph was performing a deception.

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Joseph's personal charisma was working its effect where he needed to rely on others for help. He elicited sympathy and created a sense of urgency; his enterprises bore a strange significance."

Author's source(s)

1. • No source provided.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author assumes that only charisma could get others to help Joseph. Those involved bore witness that they were convinced by God of the importance of Joseph's work. "Strange significance" is loaded and prejudicial.

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Assumptions and presumptions
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Response to claim: 28 - The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author refers to a talisman that Joseph "is said to have worn while digging."

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 68 ( Index of claims )
3. Van Wagoner and Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift of Seeing," 2.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

The talisman Joseph was "said to have worn"—was only said by someone selling it after his death. The author again ignores all the problems with Quinn's thesis, and acts as if it is proven. He ignores all the difficulties with the so-called "Jupiter talisman."

• Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic/Jupiter talisman
• Joseph Smith and "magick"
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/"Magick"

Response to claim: 28 - The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author notes that Emma "was nevertheless forbidden to see the plates herself."

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. Van Wagoner & Walker, "Joseph Smith Gift," 50.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

She explained this didn't trouble her. Emma insisted that she was not forbidden to see them, but that she was convinced that it was the work of God, and that this sufficed for her. The author also does not report Emma's witness about the tangible reality of the physical plates.

• Emma Smith not forbidden to see plates

Response to claim: 28 - For Joseph and Emma, "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Married life was not easy. In fact, it was riddled with doubts, rumors, and deception from the start."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

• Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

  This claim is the author's supposition. He provides no citations. Emma was faithful to Joseph through much—this is difficult to explain if she did not share his religious convictions, and if their relationship was constantly plagued by doubt and deception from the beginning.
• Emma on Joseph's prophetic role
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Historical errors

Response to claim: 28 - Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "…Joseph was haunted by the suspicion, which followed him from place to place, that he crossed moral boundaries in his friendship with other women."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

How does the author know that Joseph was "haunted by the suspicion"? He is attempting to read Joseph's mind. The only evidence he has provided are late, hostile attacks from the Hurlbut-Howe affidavits. The specific claims do not hold up to scrutiny (see below).

• Did Joseph say polygamists_are_to_go_beyond_normal_"bounds"?
• Psychobiographical analysis of Joseph Smith
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Assumptions and presumptions
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading

Response to claim: 28-29 - The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that Joseph had an affair with Eliza Winters in 1828.

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

This hostile report is belied by other primary documents.

• Eliza Winters

Eliza Winters (edit)

Response to claim: 29 - When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about the purported seduction of Eliza Winters "in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "When Emma's mother, Elizabeth Hale, was asked about this [the purported seduction of Eliza Winters] in an interview forty-six years later, she declined to comment. Whatever she might have known went with her to the grave in February 1842…."

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 4:296–97, 346–60; see also Frederick G. Mather, "The Early Mormons: Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna," Binghamton Republican (29 July 188).

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author does not tell us that the same author interviewed Eliza (see above), she likewise said nothing about Joseph's attempted seduction. This is even stranger when we know that Eliza sued Martin Harris for slander because he accused her of loose morals; she lost the suit. She had no reason, then, to favor the Mormons—yet she never complained of Joseph's attempted seduction.

• The author even makes the absence of evidence from Mrs. Hale sound suspicious.
• Eliza Winters

Eliza Winters (edit)

Response to claim: 29 - The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment'"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that in the revelation that became D&C 132, that Emma was promised "annihilation if she failed to 'abide this commandment.'"

Author's sources:

• DC 132 (no verses provided).

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is false

The term "annihilation" is nowhere used in D&C 132 or any LDS scripture.

• Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Emma Smith/Emma to be annihilated

Response to claim: 29 - The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author notes that D&C 132 "did not invoke the Book of Mormon's justification for taking more wives—the call to raise a righteous seed."

Author's sources:

• DC 132 (no verses provided).

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

This calls into question, then, the author's theory that Joseph wrote the Book of Mormon and had been concocting the whole polygamy idea since his teen years. If the Book of Mormon is Joseph's initial rationale for polygamy, why not use its best argument?

Early preoccupation with polygamy (edit)

Response to claim: 29 - "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "The same year he married Emma…Joseph also probably had met Louisa Beaman, then only twelve years old."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Ages of wives (edit)

Response to claim: 29 - The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author speculates that Joseph's relationships in Ohio "with various families and their daughters...allowed him to invite the young women into his further confidence when they were older."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Ages of wives (edit)

Claim

• The author notes that "In most cases, the women were adolescents or in their twenties when he met them. About ten were pre-teens, others already thirty or above."

Author's source(s)

1. • No source provided

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Ages of wives (edit)

Response to claim: 30 - "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time she was only five years old"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Whitney's daughter Sarah Ann would become one of Joseph Smith's wives, although at the time [1831] she was only five years old."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Ages of wives (edit)

Response to claim: 31 - Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Mary Elizabeth Rollings is described as "an excitable and impressionable young woman…at age thirteen…had interpreted words spoken in tongues…."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Ages of wives (edit)

Response to claim: 31 - "It was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author points out that "[i]t was eleven years after the Smiths roomed with the Whitneys that Joseph expressed a romantic interest in their daughter, as well."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The author is again pushing his "romantic" version of the letter to the Whitneys. The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.

• Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Whitney letter
• Use of sources—Letter to Whitneys
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Romance
• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Whitney "love letter" (edit)

Womanizing & romance (edit)

Response to claim: 31 - "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Another future wife, Marinda Johnson, was fifteen when she met Smith in Ohio. She said when he looked into her eyes, she felt ashamed. At the time, the Smiths were living with Marinda's family…."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

What is the author trying to imply? Joseph made her ashamed? This is false—she felt ashamed for doubting Joseph's prophetic call once she'd met him. Note also that the author does not tell story of Marinda's mother being healed of a palsied arm by Joseph (See Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 230).

• "she felt ashamed..."
• Marinda Nancy Johnson
• The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Response to claim: 32 - "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "The seven-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball was still another future wife…When she married Smith a few years later in Nauvoo at the age of fourteen, it was with her father's encouragement."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided

FAIR's Response

• Helen Mar Kimball
• The author commonly exploits the presentist fallacy in the matter of Joseph's wives' ages, or differences in their ages from his.
• Age of wives
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Presentism

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Response to claim: 32–33 - "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author speculates on the nature of Joseph Smith's relationships with these young women "from the time he first met them," and asks: "How relevant is it that in many instances he had lived under the same roof as his future wife prior to marrying her?"

Author's sources:

1. • No source given.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Ah, now we see why it's brought up! But, the author explores none of these matters in detail—he just leaves it up to the readers' imagination. It does raise some questions, such as:

1. wouldn't it be hard to hide anything inappropriate in the close quarters of 19th century home?
2. doesn't this mean that these women and their families knew both the public and private Joseph very well—they were not merely 'seduced' by his public persona?

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Womanizing & romance (edit)

Claim

• It is noted that Lucinda and George Harris lived across the street from the Smith family, and that "at an unspecified time, but probably by 1842, Lucinda became one more of the prophet's plural wives."

Author's source(s)

1. • No source given.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Compton dates the marriage to 1838 (In Sacred Loneliness, 4). The author addresses none of the issues around the date's uncertainty.

Lucinda Harris (edit)

Response to claim: 34 - The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that in Illinois Joseph "was still hunted by law officials for old offenses."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The language presumes Joseph was guilty, and that such tactics were not simply an excuse to seize him. This point should be argued and supported with data, not asserted.

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Assumptions and presumptions
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Response to claim: 35 - Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author notes that "[d]uring the 1837 recession, Smith's unchartered bank, called the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-banking Company, collapsed. Angry Ohioans could not be repaid for loans they had made to Mormon merchants and some church members lost their savings."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

We are not told that loans were made because the Saints (including Joseph) were considered good credit risks. The economic collapse caught everyone by surprise.

• Kirtland Safety Society

Response to claim: 37 - "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Missourians were alarmed by the influx of Mormons…and met to decide what to do about the intrusion. Sidney Rigdon warned that if they lifted their hand against the church, they would be 'exterminated.' In response to this incendiary speech, violence erupted on both sides, and Governor Lilburn Boggs soon declared in an echo of Rigdon's rhetoric that 'the Mormons…must be exterminated,' 'treated as enemies,' and 'driven from the State if necessary' to protect 'the public peace.'

Author's sources:

1. • History of the Church 3:42, 175.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

Note that the author tells us nothing of the 1833 violent dispossession of the members in Jackson County, Missouri. The next paragraph says only that "Mormons found strife wherever they settled…this was true first in Jackson County….then to a succession of other counties."

Response to claim: 38 - Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author claims that Joseph and the other prisoners "escaped to join their people in Illinois, where they proceeded to found a theocratic society."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

This distorts the facts. Mormons were in the majority, but others lived there. Joseph did not rule by fiat, but government was conducted democratically under a charter granted by the Illinois legislature.

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language
• Nauvoo city charter

Response to claim: 38n81 - "I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage"==

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author notes that Todd Compton "has assembled the most complete documentation regarding Joseph and Fanny's relationship. However, I hesitate to concur with Compton's interpretation of their relationship as a marriage."

Author's sources:

1. 
   

• Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 25–42. ( Index of claims )
• Fanny Alger (edit)
• Ignoring Hancock autobiography (edit)

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Note that the author does not engage or do more than mention Compton's strongest evidence: the Hancock autobiography. (He says only "Compton…draws from a late reminiscence by Mosiah Hancock to suggest that Smith married Alger in early 1833."[41 n. 90] But, we are nowhere told that this witness claimed to have performed the marriage ceremony.

• Initiation of the practice
• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

FAIR Answers—back to home page

V

Articles about Plural marriage

Doctrinal foundation of plural marriage	Purpose of plural marriage Plural marriage as a requirement for exaltation Plural marriage in early Christianity Plural marriage in the Book of Mormon Plural marriage and the Bible
Introduction of plural marriage	Initiation of the practice of plural marriage 1835 Doctrine and Covenants denies polygamy Fanny Alger was Joseph Smith's first plural wife Joseph Smith hid polygamy from the general Church membership Divine manifestations to plural wives and families Plural marriage and the law
Questions about Joseph Smith and plural marriage	Initiation of the practice of plural marriage Fanny Alger was Joseph Smith's first plural wife Joseph Smith hid polygamy from the general Church membership Joseph Smith's marriages to young women Did Joseph Smith coerce women to marry him? Mormon women refusing offers of plural marriage Polyandry Joseph Smith and children through plural marriage Marrying other men's wives? Joseph Smith hiding plural marriages from his first wife, Emma Emma Smith's reaction to Joseph Smith's plural marriages Emma Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 132 Did Joseph have lustful motives for practicing polygamy? Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to steal their wives? Did Joseph Smith practice polygamy for the purpose of monetary gain?
John C. Bennett and Nauvoo polygamy	Bennett before Nauvoo Bennett and Prostitution Brothel at Nauvoo Rise and Fall of Bennett Sarah Pratt Nancy Rigdon Sidney Rigdon
Plural wives of Joseph Smith	Divine manifestations to plural wives and families Emma Smith Fanny Alger Louisa Beaman Prescindia Lathrop Huntington Buell Sarah Kingsley Howe Cleveland Agnes Moulton Coolbrith Elizabeth Davis Goldsmith Brackenbury Durfee Esther Dutcher Hannah S. Ells Olive Grey Frost Desdemona Catlin Wadsworth Fulmmer Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris Clarissa Reed Hancock Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes Sarah Maryetta Kingsley Howe Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde Vienna Jacques Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Almera Johnson Helen Mar Kimball Maria Lawrence Sarah Lawrence Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner Malissa Lott Sylvia Sessions Lyon Martha McBride Eliza Partridge Emily Partridge Rhoda Richards Ruth Vose Sayers Patty Bartlett Sessions Delcena Diadamia Johnson Sherman "Miss Smith" Mary Heron Snider Eliza R. Snow Lucy Walker Sarah Ann Whitney Nancy Maria Winchester Flora Ann Woodworth Fanny Young
Plural marriage in Utah	Difficulties with plural marriage Brigham Young's statements regarding plural marriage John Taylor's statements regarding polygamy Latter-day Saints and divorce in the nineteenth century Prevalence of plural marriage in Utah
End of plural marriage	The First Manifesto Official Declaration Number 1 Plural marriage practiced after the First Manifesto The Church of Jesus Christ and plural marriage today

What do we know about Joseph Smith's first plural wife Fanny Alger?

There are no first-hand accounts of the relationship between Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger

One of the wives about whom we know relatively little is Fanny Alger, Joseph's first plural wife, whom he came to know in early 1833 when she stayed at the Smith home as a house-assistant of sorts to Emma (such work was common for young women at the time). There are no first-hand accounts of their relationship (from Joseph or Fanny), nor are there second-hand accounts (from Emma or Fanny's family). All that we do have is third hand (and mostly hostile) accounts, most of them recorded many years after the events.

Unfortunately, this lack of reliable and extensive historical detail leaves much room for critics to claim that Joseph Smith had an affair with Fanny and then later invented plural marriage as way to justify his actions which, again, rests on dubious historical grounds. The problem is we don't know the details of the relationship or exactly of what it consisted, and so are left to assume that Joseph acted honorably (as believers) or dishonorably (as critics).

There is some historical evidence that Joseph Smith knew as early as 1831 that plural marriage would be restored, so it is perfectly legitimate to argue that Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger was such a case. Mosiah Hancock (a Mormon) reported a wedding ceremony; and apostate Mormons Ann Eliza Webb Young and her father Chauncery both referred to Fanny's relationship as a "sealing." Ann Eliza also reported that Fanny's family was very proud of Fanny's relationship with Joseph, which makes little sense if it was simply a tawdry affair. Those closest to them saw the marriage as exactly that—a marriage.

Did Joseph Smith marry Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in 1833?

Joseph Smith met Fanny Alger in 1833 when she was a house-assistant to Emma

Joseph Smith came to know Fanny Alger in early 1833 when she stayed at the Smith home as a house-assistant to Emma. Neither Joseph nor Fanny ever left any first-hand accounts of their relationship. There are no second-hand accounts from Emma or Fanny's family. All that we do have is third hand accounts from people who did not directly observe the events associated with this first plural marriage, and most of them recorded many years after the events.

Joseph said that the "ancient order of plural marriage" was to again be practiced at the time that Fanny was living with his family

Benjamin F. Johnson stated that in 1835 he had "learned from my sister’s husband, Lyman R. Sherman, who was close to the Prophet, and received it from him, 'that the ancient order of Plural Marriage was again to be practiced by the Church.' This, at the time did not impress my mind deeply, although there lived then with his family (the Prophet’s) a neighbor’s daughter, Fannie Alger, a very nice and comely young woman about my own age, toward whom not only myself, but every one, seemed partial, for the amiability for her character; and it was whispered even then that Joseph loved her."

Joseph asked the brother-in-law of Fanny's father to make the request of Fanny's father, after which a marriage ceremony was performed

Mosiah Hancock discusses the manner in which the proposal was extended to Fanny, and states that a marriage ceremony was performed. Joseph asked Levi Hancock, the brother-in-law of Samuel Alger, Fanny’s father, to request Fanny as his plural wife:

Samuel, the Prophet Joseph loves your daughter Fanny and wishes her for a wife. What say you?" Uncle Sam says, "Go and talk to the old woman [Fanny’s mother] about it. Twill be as she says." Father goes to his sister and said, "Clarissy, Brother Joseph the Prophet of the most high God loves Fanny and wishes her for a wife. What say you?" Said she, "Go and talk to Fanny. It will be all right with me." Father goes to Fanny and said, "Fanny, Brother Joseph the Prophet loves you and wishes you for a wife. Will you be his wife?" "I will Levi," said she. Father takes Fanny to Joseph and said, "Brother Joseph I have been successful in my mission." Father gave her to Joseph, repeating the ceremony as Joseph repeated to him.

How could Joseph and Fanny have been married in 1831 if the sealing power had not yet been restored?

There is historical evidence that Joseph Smith knew as early as 1831 that plural marriage would be restored

There is historical evidence that Joseph Smith knew as early as 1831 that plural marriage would be restored. Mosiah Hancock (a Mormon) reported a wedding ceremony in Kirtland, Ohio in 1833.

Apostate Mormons Ann Eliza Webb Young and her father Chauncery both referred to Fanny's relationship as a "sealing." Ann Eliza also reported that Fanny's family was very proud of Fanny's relationship with Joseph, which makes little sense if it was simply a tawdry affair. Those closest to them saw the marriage as exactly that—a marriage.

Joseph and Fanny's marriage was a plural marriage, not an eternal marriage

Some have wondered how the first plural marriages (such as the Alger marriage) could have occurred before the 1836 restoration of the sealing keys in the Kirtland temple (see D&C 110). This confusion occurs because we tend to conflate several ideas. They were not all initially wrapped together in one doctrine:

1. plural marriage - the idea that one could be married (in mortality) to more than one woman: being taught by 1831.
2. eternal marriage - the idea that a man and spouse could be sealed and remain together beyond the grave: being taught by 1835.
3. "celestial" marriage - the combination of the above two ideas, in which all marriages—plural and monogamous—could last beyond the grave via the sealing powers: implemented by 1840-41.

Thus, the marriage to Fanny would have occurred under the understanding #1 above. The concept of sealing beyond the grave came later. Therefore, the marriage of Joseph and Fanny would have been a plural marriage, but it would not have been a marriage for eternity.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that priesthood power already gave the ability to ratify certain ordinances as binding on heaven and earth (D&C 1:8), that the sealing power was given mention in earlier revelations such as Helaman 10:7, and that the coming of Elijah and his turning of the hearts of children and fathers was prophesied in 3 Nephi 25:5-6. This supports the view that it is unlikely that Joseph was just making up the sealing power and priesthood power extemporaneously to justify getting married to Fanny and having sexual relations with her.

Did some of Joseph Smith's associates believe that he had an affair with Fanny Alger?

Oliver Cowdery perceived the relationship between Joseph and Fanny as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair"

Some of Joseph's associates, most notably Oliver Cowdery, perceived Joseph's association with Fanny as an affair rather than a plural marriage. Oliver, in a letter to his brother Warren, asserted that "in every instance I did not fail to affirm that which I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger's was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deserted from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself."

Gary J. Bergera, an advocate of the "affair" theory, wrote:

I do not believe that Fanny Alger, whom [Todd] Compton counts as Smith’s first plural wife, satisfies the criteria to be considered a "wife." Briefly, the sources for such a "marriage" are all retrospective and presented from a point of view favoring plural marriage, rather than, say, an extramarital liaison…Smith’s doctrine of eternal marriage was not formulated until after 1839–40.

There are several problems with this analysis. While it is true that sources on Fanny are all retrospective, the same is true of many early plural marriages. Fanny's marriage has more evidence than some. Bergera says that all the sources about Fanny's marriage come "from a point of view favoring plural marriage," but this claim is clearly false.

Even hostile accounts of the relationship between Joseph and Fanny report a marriage or sealing

For example, Fanny's marriage was mentioned by Ann Eliza Webb Young, a later wife of Brigham Young's who divorced him, published an anti-Mormon book, and spent much of her time giving anti-Mormon, anti-polygamy lectures. Fanny stayed with Ann Eliza's family after leaving Joseph and Emma's house, and both Ann Eliza and her father Chauncey Webb refer to Joseph's relationship to Fanny as a "sealing." Eliza also noted that the Alger family "considered it the highest honor to have their daughter adopted into the prophet's family, and her mother has always claimed that she [Fanny] was sealed to Joseph at that time." This would be a strange attitude to take if their relationship was a mere affair. And, the hostile Webbs had no reason to invent a "sealing" idea if they could have made Fanny into a mere case of adultery.

It seems clear, then, that Joseph, Fanny's family, Levi Hancock, and even hostile witnesses saw their relationship as a marriage, albeit an unorthodox one. The witness of Chauncey Webb and Ann Eliza Webb Young make it untenable to claim that only a later Mormon whitewash turned an affair into a marriage.

See also Brian Hales' discussion

The Prophet Receives the Sealing Keys in 1836	It appears that shortly after the April 3 vision, Joseph Smith recorded a first-hand account of the vision in his own personal journal or notes. That original record has not been found and is probably lost. Nonetheless, these important visitations were documented in other contemporaneous records. Within a few days, the Prophet’s secretary Warren Cowdery transcribed Joseph’s first-hand account into a third-hand account to be used in the Church history then being composed.
Joseph Smith does not Mention Eternal Marriage until 1841	Despite the importance of Elijah and the Kirtland Temple visitations, Joseph Smith did not publicly teach eternal marriage for perhaps six years after he received the authority to perform those ordinances.
Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger: A Plural Marriage Ceremony	Sometime in late 1835 or early 1836, in a priesthood ceremony performed by Levi Hancock, Joseph secretly married Fanny Alger, a domestic living in the Smith home. When Oliver Cowdery and Emma Smith learned of the relationship, they did not consider it a legitimate marriage. Joseph was unable to convince them the polygamous marriage was approved of God. Fanny left the area and married a non-member a few months later and never returned to the Church. Her family and other who were close to her remained true to Joseph Smith, following him to Nauvoo and later migrating with the Saints to Utah.

⍗

Source(s) of the criticism

Critical sources

Gary James Bergera, "Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841–44," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought no. 3 (Fall 2005), 30n75. MormonThink.com website (as of 28 April 2012). Page: http://mormonthink.com/joseph-smith-polygamy.htm George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008), {{{pages}}}. ( Index of claims , (Detailed book review))

Did Emma Smith discover her husband Joseph with Fanny Alger in a barn?

William McLellin claimed to have heard a story that Fanny and Joseph were in the barn and Emma had observed them

In 1872, William McLellin (then an apostate excommunicated nearly 34 years prior) wrote a letter to Emma and Joseph's son, Joseph Smith III:

Now Joseph I will relate to you some history, and refer you to your own dear Mother for the truth. You will probably remember that I visited your Mother and family in 1847, and held a lengthy conversation with her, retired in the Mansion House in Nauvoo. I did not ask her to tell, but I told her some stories I had heard. And she told me whether I was properly informed. Dr. F. G. Williams practiced with me in Clay Co. Mo. during the latter part of 1838. And he told me that at your birth your father committed an act with a Miss Hill [sic]—a hired girl. Emma saw him, and spoke to him. He desisted, but Mrs. Smith refused to be satisfied. He called in Dr. Williams, O. Cowdery, and S. Rigdon to reconcile Emma. But she told them just as the circumstances took place. He found he was caught. He confessed humbly, and begged forgiveness. Emma and all forgave him. She told me this story was true!! Again I told her I heard that one night she missed Joseph and Fanny Alger. She went to the barn and saw him and Fanny in the barn together alone. She looked through a crack and saw the transaction!!! She told me this story too was verily true.

Some critics interpret "transaction" to mean intercourse in this case and that Emma caught Joseph in the very act. But McLellin reported on the event again three years afterwards in 1875 to J. H. Beadle and makes it clear that he is talking about the wedding or sealing ceremony:

He [McLellin] was in the vicinity during all the Mormon troubles in Northern Missouri, and grieved heavily over the suffering of his former brethren. He also informed me of the spot where the first well authenticated case of polygamy took place in which Joseph Smith was "sealed" to the hired girl. The "sealing" took place in a barn on the hay mow, and was witnessed by Mrs. Smith through a crack in the door! The Doctor was so distressed about this case, (it created some scandal at the time among the Saints,) that long afterwards when he visited Mrs. Emma Smith at Nauvoo, he charged her as she hoped for salvation to tell him the truth about it. And she then and there declared on her honor that it was a fact—"saw it with her own eyes."

Ann Eliza Webb, who was born 11 years after Joseph's marriage to Fanny, claimed that Emma threw Fanny out of the house

Ann Eliza Webb, who was born in 1844, was not even alive at the time of these events, could only only comment based upon what her father told her about Joseph and Fanny. Ann apostatized from the Church and wrote an "expose" called Wife No. 19, or The story of a Life in Bondage. She described Fanny as follows:

Mrs. Smith had an adopted daughter, a very pretty, pleasing young girl, about seventeen years old. She was extremely fond of her; no mother could be more devoted, and their affection for each other was a constant object of remark, so absorbing and genuine did it seem. Consequently is was with a shocked surprise that people heard that sister Emma had turned Fanny out of the house in the night.

Did Fanny Alger have a child by Joseph Smith?

A suggestion that Fanny was pregnant by Joseph surfaced in an 1886 anti-Mormon book with a claim that Emma "drove" Fanny out of the house

The first mention of a pregnancy for Fanny is in an 1886 anti-Mormon work, citing Chauncey Webb, with whom Fanny reportedly lived after leaving the Smith home. Webb claimed that Emma "drove" Fanny from the house because she "was unable to conceal the consequences of her celestial relation with the prophet." If Fanny was pregnant, it is curious that no one else remarked upon it at the time, though it is possible that the close quarters of a nineteenth-century household provided Emma with clues. If Fanny was pregnant by Joseph, the child never went to term, died young, or was raised under a different name.

Fawn Brodie claimed that Fanny's son Orrison was the son of Joseph Smith, but this was disproven by DNA research

Fawn Brodie, in her critical work No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, claimed that "there is some evidence that Fannie Alger bore Joseph a child in Kirtland." However, DNA research in 2005 confirmed Fanny Alger’s son Orrison Smith is not the son of Joseph Smith, Jr.

Notes

Response to claim: 39 - "Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "Joseph wrote in his journal on December 4, 1832, 'Oh, Lord, deliver thy servant out of temtations [sic] and fill his heart with wisdom and understanding.' If this was not in reference to Fanny Alger, it coincided with the report of two of Joseph's scribes, Warren Parrish and Oliver Cowdery, that Joseph had been 'found' in the hay with his housekeeper."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Neither Parrish nor Cowdery said anything about them being found in the hay together. That relies entirely on William McLellin's second and third hand reports.

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

• "temptations" and Fanny Alger
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 39 - Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Warren Parrish said that Joseph and Fanny were discovered together "as a wife."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

The Parrish report is from Benjamin F. Johnson, who the author fails to tell us went on to say, "without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife."

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 39 - Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Oliver Cowdery referred to Joseph's relationship with Fanny Alger as a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

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• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 39–41 - The William McLellin claims

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The William McLellin claims are discussed.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Note that the author nowhere mentions some evidence which supports the marriage theory:

• • the hostile Ann-Eliza Young
  • the hostile Chauncey Webb
  • Fanny's parents
  • Hancock autobiography report of a marriage ceremony (see above)
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 40–41 - William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

It is noted that William McLellin sometimes claims there was also a "Miss Hill" involved with Joseph.

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, 66.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

McLellin claims Emma Smith confirmed both tales, yet later claims she confirmed only one. There are other aspects of the supposed "confirmation" which likewise cast doubt on McLellin's tale.

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Response to claim: 41–42 - "'Fanny Alger as a wife' employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

 Author's quote: "It might be important to mention that the testimony here and elsewhere regarding "[having] Fanny Alger as a wife" employs a Victorian euphemism that should not be construed to imply that Fanny was actually married to Joseph."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Yet it is not clear why we should not so construe it. G. D. Smith does not tell us that Johnson (the same person who reported the term 'had…as a wife') then insisted in the same document that “without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet’s first plural wife.” The author provides no evidence or citation to enforce his reading over Johnson’s clear view of the relationship.

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 42 - "There is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author states that "[t]here is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Fanny was pregnant."

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event

There is reason to doubt this claim, not merely to regard it as unconfirmed.

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account

Response to claim: 42–43 - Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

Five "primary accounts" of the Fanny Alger relationship:

1. Oliver Cowdery & Warren Parrish
2. FG Williams via McLellin
3. Emma Smith via McLellin
4. Benjamin F. Johnson
5. Fanny Brewer's affidavit

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

There is no Warren Parrish statement as suggested in #1; only Johnson's citation of him in 1905.

The author fails to mention:

1. Ann Eliza Webb x 2 (hostile, but thought was a marriage)
2. Chauncery Webb

These are "second hand," but so are Parrish, William, Emma, Johnson, and Fanny Brewer!

• Fanny Alger—affair or marriage?
• Fanny Alger—William McLellin account
• See TABLE 2 in Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Fanny Alger (edit)

Response to claim: 44 - "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i> Author's quote: "Rumors may have been circulating already as early as 1832 that Smith had been familiar with fifteen-year-old Marinda Johnson, a member of the family with which Smith lived in Ohio."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • No source provided.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Compton and Van Wagoner both reject this version of events.

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Womanizing & romance (edit)

• Marinda Nancy Johnson

Response to claim: 44 - Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>Lucinda Harris is said to have claimed that she was Joseph's 'mistress' four years before an 1842 conversation with Sarah Pratt.</i>

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits Volume First: Joseph Smith the Prophet, His Family and Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), 60.
3. D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 618.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Such a claim is inconsistent with the mores of the time. The author does no source criticism on the problems with the Sarah Pratt statement from a virulently anti-Mormon work.

• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Lucinda Harris (edit)

Response to claim: 45 - "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>The author claims that Gary James Bergera argued that "Smith introduced members…to the ordinances of…eternal marriage (1841)…."</i>

Author's sources:

• Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," Dialogue 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Joseph was teaching the doctrine of eternal marriage well before 1841.

• Eternal marriage—introduction of the doctrine

Response to claim: 44–45 - ""Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>"Civil marriage" was claimed to be "an outdated marriage contract which, church members came to understand, was an inefficacious as an improper baptism."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • Bergera, "The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead," Dialogue 35 (Fall 2002): 41–42, 45.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim is false

Not true, since one could be in good Church standing if one was civilly married, but not if one was committing adultery. Beyond the grave, marriages were not binding. But this does not mean that they were "outdated," or that Church members did not continue to marry civilly.

• Richard Lloyd Anderson and Scott H. Faulring, "The Prophet Joseph Smith and His Plural Wives (Review of In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith)," FARMS Review of Books 10/2 (1998): 67–104. off-site

Response to claim: 48 - "an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i> Author's quote: "In Smith's narrative, an otherworldly being Smith called 'the Lord' defends polygamy…."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • DC 132

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

An "otherworldly being" called "the Lord?"

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Response to claim: 48-49 - D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>The author claims that D&C 132 "contravenes the Book of Mormon passage where polygamy is said to be allowed under certain conditions but is likely an indication of wickedness…." "However, Smith's 1843 revelation changes all this. Section 132 establishes polygamy as a virtuous higher law that is forever 'true'—no longer a time-sensitive practice."</i>

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. Jacob 2
3. DC 132

FAIR's Response

• Contradiction between D&C 132 and Jacob 2

Response to claim: 49 - The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>The author speculates that a revelation received by Joseph seemed "to recall Smith's teenage concerns about sinful thoughts and behavior, reiterated this standard: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery….'"</i>

Author's sources:

1. 
   
2. DC 42꞉24

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Again presuming what he has failed to prove—that Joseph was challenged by sexual sin from early adolescence.

• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mind reading

Womanizing & romance (edit)

Response to claim: 50 - "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i> Author's quote: "…in 1841, Joseph Smith and Luisa Beaman participated in the first formal ceremony to legitimize a plural coupling."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • No source given.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources

Again ignores the Hancock autobiography, Ann Eliza Webb, Chauncery Webb, and Benjamin F. Johnson.

Ignoring Hancock autobiography (edit)

Response to claim: 50 - The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>The author suggest that Joseph engaged in "perilous anti-social behavior by indulging in sexual relations with the daughters and wives of close friends, albeit mostly in marital and religious contexts."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • No source given.

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Sexual relations in a marital context is not an "anti-social" act. If all the data are taken into account (i.e., the Hancock autobiography) all were sanctioned in this way (see above).

• There is scant evidence that Joseph had sexual relations with any polyandrous wife.
• Gregory L. Smith, A review of Nauvoo Polygamy:...but we called it celestial marriage by George D. Smith. FARMS Review, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Detailed book review)

Ignoring Hancock autobiography (edit)

Response to claim: 51 - The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

<i>The author states that "…LDS leaders denied violating Illinois law…."</i>

Author's sources:

1. • No source given.

FAIR's Response

• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Hiding the truth?

Hiding polygamy (edit)

FAIR's Response

Response to claim: 51 - Although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings"

The author(s) of Nauvoo Polygamy make(s) the following claim:

The author suggests that today there is "the continued abusive coercion of underage girls in polygamous communities," and that although polygamy has been repeatedly condemned by the modern Church, "the Nauvoo beginnings of the practice remain in LDS scripture as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the church's temple sealings."

Author's sources:

1. • Newspaper articles on "fundamentalist" plural marriage

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

The implication is that the Church sanctions "abusive coercion of underage girls in polygamous communities." Doctrine and Covenants 132 provides no support for such a practice.

• Logical fallacy—Guilt by association
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Loaded and prejudicial language

Notes