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Wives of Joseph Smith

The chart below contains information from the book, Nauvoo Polygamy: … “but we called it celestial marriage” by George D. Smith.^a Although Fanny Alger is not included in the list by George Smith, Todd Compton lists her as Joseph Smith’s first plural wife in his book, In Sacred Loneliness.^b In 1887, Andrew Jenson, assistant church historian, listed Fanny Alger as one of Smith’s first plural wives in The Historical Record.^c Numbers in parentheses ( ) represent Compton’s list of Joseph’s plural wives. Asterisks * represent the twenty-seven plural wives on Jenson’s list.¹

^a George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy, pp. 621-623
^b Todd Compton, In Sacred Lonliness, pp. 4-6
^c Andrew Jenson, The Historical Record, 1887, vol. vi, pp. 233-234

Number	Name of Plural Wife	Marriage Date	Age: Joseph / Wife
	Emma Hale	Jan. 18, 1827	21 / 22
* (1)	Fanny Alger	early 1833	27 / 16
1. * (3)	Louisa Be[a]man	April 5, 1841	35 / 26
2. * (4)	Mrs. Zina Diantha Huntington (Jacobs)	Oct. 27, 1841	35 / 20
3. * (5)	Mrs. Presendia Lathrop Huntington (Buell)	Dec. 11, 1841	35 / 31
4. (6)	Agnes Moulton Coolbirth (Smith)	Jan. 6, 1842	36 / 30
5. * (2)	Mrs. Lucinda Pendleton (Morgan Harris)	after Jan. 17, 1842	36 / 40
6. * (8)	Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Rollins (Lightner)	Feb. 1842	36 / 23
7. * (7)	Mrs. Sylvia Porter Sessions (Lyon)	Feb. 8, 1842	36 / 23
8. (9)	Mrs. Patty Bartlett (Sessions)	Mar. 9, 1842	36 / 47
9. * (12)	Mrs. Sarah M. Kingsley (Howe Cleveland)	after March 1842	36 / 53
10. (11)	Mrs. Elizabeth Davis (G. Brackenbury Durfee)	after March 1842	36 / 50
11. (10)	Mrs. Marinda Nancy Johnson (Hyde)	April 1842	36 / 26
12. (13)	Delcena Diadamia Johnson (Sherman)	approx. Jun 1842	36 / 35
13. * (14)	Eliza Roxcy Snow	June 29, 1842	36 / 38
14.	Mrs. Sarah Rapson (Poulterer)	after July 1842	36 / 49
15. * (15)	Sarah Ann Whitney	July 27, 1842	36 / 17
16. (16)	Martha McBride (Knight)	after Aug. 5, 1842	36 / 37
17. * (17)	Mrs. Ruth Daggett Vose (Sayers)	Feb. 1843	37 / 35
18. * (18)	Flora Ann Woodworth	Mar. 4, 1843	37 / 16
19. * (19)	Emily Dow Partridge	Mar. 4, 1843	37 / 19
20. * (20)	Eliza Maria Partridge	Mar. 8, 1843	37 / 22
21. * (21)	Almera Wood[w]ard Johnson	after April 25, 1843	37 / 29
22. * (22)	Lucy Walker	May 1, 1843	37 / 17
23. * (23)	Sarah Lawrence	May 11, 1843	37 / 16
24. * (24)	Maria Lawrence	approx. May 1843	37 / 19
25. * (25)	Helen Mar Kimball	approx. May 1843	37 / 14
26. * (27)	Mrs. Elvira Anna Cowles (Holmes)	June 1, 1843	37 / 29
27. * (28)	Rhoda Richards	June 12, 1843	37 / 58
28. * (26)	Hannah S. Ells	mid-1843	37 / 30
29.	Mary Ann Frost (Stearns Pratt)	July 24, 1843	37 / 34
30. * (30)	Olive Grey Frost	mid-1843	37 / 27
31. * (32)	Nancy Maria Winchester	after mid-1843	37 / 14
32. * (29)	Desdemona Catlin Wadsworth Fullmer	after July 1843	37 / 33
33. * (31)	Melissa Lott	Sept. 20, 1843	37 / 19
34.	Sarah Scott (Mulholland)	after Oct. 25, 1843	37 / 26
35.	Mrs. Phebe Watrous (Woodworth)	after Oct. 29, 1843	37 / 38
36.	Mary Huston	approx. Oct. 1843	37 / 25
37. * (33)	Fanny Young (Carr Murray)	Nov. 2, 1843	37 / 55

For a visual copy of the above chart, click here.

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Wives of Brigham Young

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Further reference: List of Brigham Young’s Wives (Wikipedia)

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Polygamy Among LDS Leadership and Percentage of Men and Women in Utah

The LDS church’s essay, “Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah,” apparently tries to give the impression that large polygamous families were not common (and, by implication, not desired) among early Latter-day Saints, stating that:

Although some [LDS] leaders had large polygamous families, two-thirds of polygamist men had only two wives at a time.

Even in a society that has approximately equal numbers of men and women, one would hardly expect to see the practice of polygamy wide spread. Given the fact that the leaders had already taken the lion’s share of young women it is a wonder that the average Mormon man could find even one wife.² If there had been sufficient opportunity it is easy to imagine those with fewer wives eagerly seeking more since, according to Brigham Young’s teaching, their future celestial glory depended on a vigorous participation in polygamy,³ and this indeed was what was being modeled to them by the church’s most prominent members (as seen in the list below).

The following list illustrates that most of the top LDS leadership followed Joseph Smith’s lead while still in Nauvoo, entering into polygamy before even going to Utah. Specifically, the list covers those who entered polygamy in Nauvoo and eventually had at least six wives.⁴

Footnotes:

1. George D. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy: “…but we called it celestial marriage,” (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008), pp. 621-23; Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), pp. 4-6; Andrew Jenson, ed., The Historical Record, “Plural Marriage,” vol. vi, (May 1887): pp. 233-34. ↩︎
2. Indeed, evidence shows no surplus of women in the Utah Territory at this time, as John A. Widtsoe has observed:
   
   “The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage sought to provide husbands for its large surplus of female members. The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church. . . .
   “The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, . . .”
   
   John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, arranged by G. Homer Durham, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), pp. 390-92. ↩︎
3. Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. 269. ↩︎
4. Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy, pp. 574-639. ↩︎

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