By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

On July 12, 1843, the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith dictated the revelation which sanctioned the practice of plural marriage. This revelation is still printed in the Doctrine and Covenants—one of the four standard works of the Mormon Church. It appears as Section 132. In verse 52, Joseph Smith’s wife is instructed to receive the other women:

And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God. (Doctrine and Covenants 132:52)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

History shows that Emma Smith had a difficult time receiving this commandment. Emily Dow Partridge made this statement:

. . . the Prophet Joseph and his wife Emma offered us a home in their family, . . . I was married to Joseph Smith on the 4th of March 1843, . . . My sister Eliza was also married to Joseph a few days later. This was done without the knowledge of Emma Smith. Two months afterward she consented to give her husband two wives, providing he would give her the privilege of choosing them. She accordingly chose my sister Eliza and myself, and to save family trouble brother Joseph thought it best to have another ceremony performed. Accordingly on the 11th of May, 1843, we were sealed to Joseph Smith a second time, in Emma’s presence, . . . From that very hour, however, Emma was our bitter enemy, . . . we were obligated to leave the house and find another home. (The Historical Record, page 240)

Plural marriage led to some very serious quarrels between Joseph and Emma Smith. For additional information on this subject see our new edition of Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 210-211.

No one knows for sure how many wives Joseph Smith had. The Assistant Church Historian Andrew Jenson listed 27 women who were married to him (see Historical Record, pages 233-234). The Mormon writer John J. Stewart, however, states that Joseph Smith may have married 36 or even 48 wives: “. . . he married many other women, perhaps three or four dozen or more, . . .” (Brigham Young and His Wives, page 31). Stanley S. Ivins stated that the number of Joseph Smith’s wives “can only be guessed at but it might have gone as high as sixty or more” (Western Humanities Review, vol. 10, pages 232-233). (For more information, see our list, “Wives of Joseph Smith,” and The Changing World of Mormonism, p. 231.)

After Joseph Smith’s death the Mormon leaders sealed over 200 women to him to be his wives in eternity.

In an article published in Western Humanities Review, vol. 10, pages 232-233, Stanley S. Ivins stated that “Brigham Young is usually credited with only twenty-seven wives, but he was sealed to more than twice that many living women, and to at least 150 more who had died.” The Mormon writer John J. Stewart lists the names of 52 women who were sealed to Brigham Young, and then he makes this statement: “There were perhaps one or two others, plus the some 150 dead women whom he had sealed to him; also a few women who were sealed to him after his death” (Brigham Young and His Wives, page 96).

The Mormon leaders became obsessed with building up their own kingdoms. According to Stanley S. Ivins, the Endowment House Records reveal that on November 22, 1870, the Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt had himself sealed to 101 dead women. On November 29, 1870, he was sealed to 109 dead women. The same day (November 29, 1870) 91 dead women were sealed to his brother, Parley P. Pratt, who had died in 1857. Mr. Ivins found that the St. George Temple Records show that Wilford Woodruff—who later became the fourth President of the Mormon Church—was sealed to 189 dead women in a period of slightly over two years (January 29, 1879, to March 14, 1881). Moses Franklin Farnsworth was sealed to 345 dead women in a two year period.

The Apostle Abraham H. Cannon recorded this interesting item in his diary in 1894:

Thursday, April 5th, 1894 . . . I met with the Quorum and Presidency in the temple . . . President Woodruff then spoke “. . . In searching out my genealogy I found about four hundred of my femal[e] kindred who were never married. I asked Pres. Young what I should do with them. He said for me to have them sealed to me unless there were more that [than?] 999 of them. The doctrine startled me, but I had it done . . .” (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” April 5, 1894, vol. 18, pages 66-67)

Heber C. Kimball, a member of the First Presidency under Brigham Young, believed that in the resurrection he would be able to have “thousands” of wives (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 212-213).

At any rate, the Mormon leaders found themselves in serious trouble with the U.S. Government because of the practice of polygamy. They did every thing in their power to escape the federal deputies. Wilford Woodruff, who became the fourth President of the Mormon Church, had an armed guard to protect him. In a letter written in 1887, Wilford Woodruff stated:

I have a large stout man who goes with me every —–[where?] night and day carried 2 pistols & a double barrel shot gun and sayes he will shoot the marshals if they come to take me (Don’t tell anybody this) so I am ——well garded . . .
(Letter from Wilford Woodruff to Miss Nellie Atkin, dated September 3, 1887, microfilm copy of the original)

Under the dates of October 17 and 18, 1890, the Apostle Abraham H. Cannon recorded the following in his journal:

Uncle David came in about noon and told me that he had a conversation with Lindsey Sprague, a deputy marshal, who told him that there were papers out for me and he learned that it was indeed a fact that a warrant was issued and in Doyle’s hands for my arrest. . . .

Saturday, Oct. 18th, 1890. . . . Bro. Wilcken came and informed me that he had bought Doyle off, and had got his promise that I should not be molested, nor should any other person without sufficient notice being given for them to escape, and to get witnesses out of the way. He gave Bro. Wilcken the names of some 51 persons whose arrest he intended to try and effect on a trip he and another deputy intended to undertake today, through Utah and Emery counties. A messenger was therefore despatched to give these people warning. Thus with a little money a channel of communication is kept open between the government offices and the suffering and persecuted Church members. (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” October 17 and 18, 1890)

Before the year 1890 the Mormon leaders were declaring that plural marriage was essential for “man’s highest exaltation in the life to come,” and that the Church never could give up this principle (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 228-234).

Before Wilford Woodruff became President of the Mormon Church he stated that the church could not give up polygamy (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, page 166). After he became President he even claimed to receive a revelation that he should not yield to the pressure of the government. Under the date of December 19, 1889, the Apostle Abraham H. Cannon recorded the following in his journal:

During our meeting a revelation was read which Pres. Woodruff received Sunday evening. Nov. 24th. Propositions had been made for the Church to make some concessions to the Courts in regard to its principles. Both of Pres. Woodruff’s counselors refused to advise him as to the course he should pursue, and he therefore laid the matter before the Lord. The answer came quick and strong. The word of the Lord was for us not to yield one particle of that which he had revealed and established. He had done and would continue to care for his work and those of the Saints who were faithful, and we need have no fear of our enemies when we were in the line of our duty. We are promised redemption and deliverance if we will trust in God and not in the arm of flesh . . . The whole revelation was filled with words of the greatest encouragement and comfort, and my heart was filled with joy and peace during the entire reading. It sets all doubts at rest concerning the course to pursue. (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” December 29, 1889)

Before a year had passed Wilford Woodruff had issued the Manifesto which was supposed to end the practice of plural marriage in the Church. Because of the fact that Woodruff had previously taught that polygamy could not be discontinued and had even claimed to receive revelation to that effect, the other leaders of the Mormon Church were confused by his Manifesto. That there was division among the highest leaders of the Mormon Church at the time the Manifesto was issued is evident from the journal of the Apostle Abraham H. Cannon (see quotations in Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 234).

Although the leaders of the Mormon Church promised to obey the laws of the land, many of them broke their promises. Very few people, however, realized to what extend they had deviated from their word until they were called on to testify in the “Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United State Senate in the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of Hon. Reed Smoot, a Senator From the State of Utah, to Hold His Seat.” Joseph F. Smith, the sixth President of the Mormon Church, admitted that he had continued to practice unlawful cohabitation after the Manifesto:

Senator Overman. Is there not a revelation that you shall abide by the laws of the State and of the land?

Mr. Smith. yes, sir.

Senator Overman. If that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws of God?

Mr. Smith. I have admitted that, Mr. Senator, a great many times here. (Reed Smoot Case, vol. 1, page 312)

In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? we present a great deal of information which proves that the Mormon leaders were not only engaging in unlawful cohabitation after the Manifesto, but that they were actually performing new plural marriages. Many of these marriages were performed in Mexico. On pages 237-238 we show that Joseph F. Smith married a plural wife to the Apostle Abraham H. Cannon off the coast of California some six years after the Manifesto was issued. Mrs. Wilhelmina C. Ellis, who had been a plural wife of the Mormon Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, gave this testimony:

Mr. Tayler. How old were you when you married Abraham Cannon?

Mrs. Ellis. Nineteen.

Mr. Tayler. You were a plural wife?

Mrs. Ellis. Yes, sir.

Mr. Tayler. When did he marry Lillian Hamlin?

Mrs. Ellis. I do not know the date.

Mr. Tayler. I do not care about the exact date.

Mrs. Ellis. After June 12 and before July 2.

Mr. Tayler. Of what year?

Mrs. Ellis. 1896.

Mr. Tayler. He was at that time an Apostle?

Mrs. Ellis. Yes, sir.

Mr. Tayler. Did he say he was going away that day, or that evening, to California?

Mrs. Ellis. He told me to pack his grip or his satchel and told me he was going to this trip.

Mr. Tayler. What did he say about Miss Hamlin?

Mrs. Ellis. Of course I understood, in fact he said she was going with him and President Smith.

Mr. Tayler. And President Smith?

Mrs. Ellis. Yes, sir.

Mr. Tayler. And that they were going to be married?

Mrs. Ellis. Yes, sir

Mr. Tayler. Did you not know they were married on the high sea?

Mrs. Ellis. Only from reports.

Mr. Tayler. That is not an essential part of the inquiry. [To the witness.] I was an inference from the fact that your husband said he was going to marry her, and went away to California for that purpose, and that Joseph F. Smith went along with them. From that you inferred that Joseph F. Smith had married them?

Mrs. Ellis. Yes, sir.
(Reed Smoot Case, Vol. 2, pages 141-144)

President Smith denied that he performed the marriage ceremony, but he acknowledged that he did go on a trip with Lillian Hamlin and the Apostle Cannon at the very time when the marriage was supposed to have taken place:

Mr. Smith. . . . The first time I ever saw her [Lillian Hamlin], . . . was some time in June—I do not remember the date—1896. I was at that time president of the Sterling Mining and Milling Company . . . I was asked by the board of directors to accompany Abraham H. Cannon to Los Angeles, . . . I accompanied Abraham H. Cannon and his wife on that trip, and had one of my wives with me on that trip.

Mr. Tayler. When did you first learn that Lillian Hamlin was his wife?

Mr. Smith. The first that I suspected anything of the kind was on that trip, because I never knew the lady before.
(The Reed Smoot Case, vol. 1, page 111)

Mr. Tayler. Did you have any talk on that journey . . . as to when they were married?

Mr. Smith. No, sir.

Mr. Tayler. Did you have any talk with either of them?

Mr. Smith. Not in the least.

Mr. Tayler. Not in the least?

Mr. Smith. Not in the least, sir; and no one ever mentioned to me that they were or were not married. I simply judged they were married because they were living together as husband and wife.

Mr. Tayler. Did you say anything by way of criticism to Abraham Cannon?

Mr. Smith. No, sir.

Mr. Tayler. For going about with this wife?

Mr. Smith. No, sir; I did not.
(Ibid., pages 127-128)

Mr. Tayler. Now, the church—I gather from your statement the officials of the church have been ever since 1890, and are now, very sensitive as to the charge that plural marriages have been solemnized.

Mr. Worthington. Since the manifesto?

Mr. Tayler. Since the manifesto.

Mr. Smith. Yes; I think we have been very sensitive about that.

Mr. Tayler. Very sensitive?

Mr. Smith. Yes, sir.

Mr. Tayler. What inquiry did you make to find out whether Abraham H. Cannon, one of the twelve apostles of the church, had made a plural marriage?

Mr. Smith. I made no inquiry at all.

Mr. Tayler. Did you have any interest in finding out whether there had been—

Mr. Smith. Not the least.
(Ibid., pages 476-477)

Frank J. Cannon claimed that his father, George Q. Cannon, told him that Joseph F. Smith performed the ceremony (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 238)

In the Reed Smoot Case, vol. 2, page 265, Abraham H. Cannon’s widow, Mrs. Ellis, was questioned about his diary. She replied: “I have seen it, but not since his death.” Recently many diaries belonging to Abraham H. Cannon have come to light. Unfortunately, however, if Cannon kept a diary at the time of his marriage in 1896, it has not been made public.

Even though we do not have the Apostle Cannon’s diary for 1896, Michael Marquardt has pointed out some references in his diary for 1894 which throw important light on this marriage and on the attitude of the Mormon leaders concerning polygamy after the Manifesto. (The Apostle Cannon’s diaries are now located in the Brigham Young University Library and photocopies are found at the University of Utah Library and the Utah State Historical Society.)

Long before Abraham H. Cannon’s diaries came to light, his brother Frank J. Cannon quoted his father George Q. Cannon as saying:

“. . . President Smith obtained the acquiescence of President Woodruff, on the plea that it wasn’t an ordinary case of polygamy but merely a fulfilment of the biblical instruction that a man should take his dead brother’s wife. Lillian was betrothed to David, and had been sealed to him in eternity after his death . . .”
(Under the Prophet in Utah, Boston, 1911, page 177)

Now, according to the diary of Abraham H. Cannon, his father, George Q. Cannon, a member of the First Presidency, lamented the fact that his sons could not raise up seed to David through polygamy: “My son David died without seed, and his brothers cannot do a work for him, in rearing children to bear his name because of the Manifesto” (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” April 5, 1894, vol. 18, page 70).

From an entry in the Apostle Cannon’s diary for October 24, 1894, it would appear that the Mormon leaders had decided that a plural marriage could be performed in Mexico to raise up seed to David. Although the diary has been damaged at this point and a few words are missing, the remaining portion shows that the Mormon leaders did not take the Manifesto seriously:

After meeting I went to the President’s Office and _ Father [George Q. Cannon] about taking a wife for David. I told him David had taken Anni[e] cousin, through the vail in life, and suggested she might be a good pe_____ sealed to him for eternity. The suggestion pleased Father very much, and _ Angus was there, He spoke to him about it in the presence of the Presidency. _ not object providing Annie is willing. The Presidents Woodruff and Smith both sa[id] they were willing for such a ceremony to occur, if done in Mexico, and Pres. Woodruf[f] promised the Lord’s blessing to follow such an act. (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” October 24, 1894, vol. 18, page 170)

We may never know if Annie was “willing” to enter into this plural marriage, but we do know that less than two years later Lillian Hamlin was married to the Apostle Cannon. Mrs. Wilhelmina C. Ellis, who had been one of Cannon’s plural wives testified:

Mrs. Ellis. He said he could marry her out of the State—out of the United States.

Mr. Tayler. What conversation did you have with him then about his going away and about his getting married again? What did he say first about going?

Mrs. Ellis. He told me he was going to marry her for time, and that she would be David’s wife for eternity. (The Reed Smooth Case, vol. 2, pages 142-143)

The Apostle Abraham H. Cannon’s journal not only reveals that the Mormon leaders approved of polygamy after the Manifesto, but it shows that they were considering the idea of a secret system of concubinage wherein men and women could live together without being actually married:

Father [George Q. Cannon] now spoke of the unfortunate condition of the people at present in regard to marriage . . . I believe in concubinage, or some plan whereby men and women can live together under sacred ordinances and vows until they can be married . . . such a condition would have to be kept secret, until the laws of our government change to permit the holy order of wedlock which God has revealed, which will undoubtedly occur at not distant day, in order to correct the social evil. . . . —-Pres. Snow. “I have no doubt but concubinage will yet be practiced in this Church, but I had not thought of it in this connection. When the nations are troubled good women will come here for safety and blessing, and men will accept them as concubines.” —- Pres. Woodruff: “If men enter into some practice of this character to raise a righteous posterity, they will be justified in it. . . .” (“Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon,” April 5, 1894, vol. 18, page 70)

It is interesting to note that Joseph Smith’s revelation on polygamy also said that concubinage was justifiable in God’s sight: “Abraham received concubines and they born him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, . . .” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:37)

At any rate, the diaries of the Apostle Abraham H. Cannon reveal devastating evidence against the Mormon Church, and this evidence cannot be easily dismissed. The Mormon writer, Kenneth W. Godfrey feels that the Apostle Abraham Cannon’s diaries present an accurate picture of what was being said by the Mormon leaders in private: “. . . what were the Mormon leaders saying in private? With the recent acquisition of the Abraham H. Cannon diaries it is now possible to accurately report what was taking place in meetings of the Council of the Twelve Apostles” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn 1970, page 22). We understand that there has recently been an attempt to suppress the Cannon diaries, but we know that they are still available at the University of Utah Library and the Utah State Historical Society. These diaries need to be thoroughly searched for they throw a great deal of light on Mormon history.

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