Louisa Beaman (Smith) Young - wife #4

Louisa Beaman (February 7, 1815 - May 16, 1850) married Joseph Smith a couple of years before being baptized. Try taking an unbaptized fiance to the temple now and see what happens.

Louisa and Joseph had met once in 1834 when Louisa's father hosted Joseph and Parley P. Pratt, who were on a mission together. The next time she saw Joseph was in Nauvoo around 1839 or '40. She was living with her sister Mary and brother-in-law, Joseph Bates Noble, when Smith spoke to J.B. about plural marriage and asked that he (J.B.) marry him (Joe, Jr.) to Louisa. The wedding, conducted in April 1841, was secret and Louisa even dressed as a man to disguise her identity. The newlyweds spent their wedding night at the Nobles'.

Did Emma know about it? Had she given her permission? Not likely. At least Louisa hadn't been married before and was probably a virgin, right?

She later married Brigham Young despite her previously "belonging" to Joseph. She and Brigham had five children, all of whom died before Louisa's death to breast cancer at age 35.

Here is the Feminist Mormon Housewives Podcast episode about her. 

Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris (Smith) - wife #3

Lucinda Harris and her husband George joined the LDS Church in 1834 and moved to Missouri four years later. Joseph and Emma also moved to Missouri that same year and were taken in by George for a couple of months. Joseph secretly married Lucinda (a few years Joseph's senior) before being pushed from Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinios.

Lucinda continued living with George, who might not have even been aware of Lucinda's marriage to Joseph. Emma probably didn't know about it either.

Or maybe they did. Joseph reserved a lot for the Harrises across the street from him in Nauvoo, George wanted to see the Nauvoo Expositor press destroyed, and when he died Lucinda was crying hard at the head of the casket. Joseph clearly wanted the Harrises close by, George might have wanted to hide his wife's polygamy, and Lucinda's position at the Joseph's casket could indicate that Emma accepted her as a sister wife. Who can say for sure? It might have been an 1830s open but secret marriage.

What is certain is that this marriage was in violation of the rules of taking plural wives. Lucinda was certainly not a virgin and she never had a child with Joseph. So how did they justify it?

Lucinda divorced George around 1853 and eventually became a Catholic nun.

Here is the Feminist Mormon Housewives Podcast episode about her. 

Frances (Fanny) W. Alger (Smith?) Custer - wife #2

In 1833, at the age of sixteen, Fanny Alger found herself living with Joseph and Emma as a sort of adopted daughter. Both Joseph and Emma were extremely fond of her, but Joseph loved her as more than a daughter.

Oliver Cowdery and Emma eventually discovered that Joseph's affection for Fanny had become physical and both made their complaints. Emma kicked Fanny out and Oliver accused Joseph of having an affair. Joseph never denied the sexual nature of his relationship with Fanny and insisted that Oliver acknowledge that he (Joseph) refused to call it an affair.

The first time hurts the worst, Emma. You'll get used to it.

Despite no extant evidence, apologists tend to frame the Fanny-Joseph tryst as marriage - A MARRIAGE WITH NO KNOWN OFFICIATOR AND NO WITNESSES. Sounds legit, right? Maybe Jesus himself officiated, or King David, or maybe Solomon (biblical dudes were always visiting Joseph when he needed them.) And yet Emma wasn't so convinced it was a marriage. I wonder why? The LDS Church didn't feel like including Fanny in Joseph's family tree either.

Isn't it a bit strange that Joseph was (kind of) living polygamy in 1833 when no revelation of restoration had been introduced and wouldn't be for several more years? The sealing power wouldn't even be restored until April 1836. Joseph was way ahead of the curve on this one! A better explanation for this whole mess is that Fanny was a tool of Satan sent to tempt Joseph and destroy God's budding church, but, as will always be the case, Satan's plan failed!

Five years later Fanny married Solomon Custer, with whom she had nine children. Unlike her parents, who eventually ended up in Utah, she eventually left Mormonism and joined her local Universalist congregation.

Members of the LDS Church generally know nothing about Fanny and if they do they tend not to bring her up. We're still waiting for the Church to address Joseph's polygamy in their recent series of essays on difficult historical matters.

Here's the Feminist Mormon Housewives podcast episode about her.

A change of tune

Before Section 132 was included in The Doctrine & Covenants in 1876 there was another section that addressed polygamy specifically. It was Section 101 verse 4 (later Section 109), now edited out. It explicitly called polygamy a crime, denied its practice in the Church, and clarified that a man should have only one wife and a woman should have only one husband.

Apologists rest their defense of Joseph Smith's and early leaders' practice of polygamy despite scripture commanding against it on the fact that polygamy was not generally practiced in the Church, and/or that Oliver Cowdery wrote the now removed Section 101 as a statement of belief that was then approved by the ignorant masses of General Conference and not a revelation to the prophet. So why didn't Joseph repeal it, like, ever? Or at least modify it?

Why didn't the Church redact Section 132 in 1995 when it released the very monogamous-sounding Family proclamation? Or why didn't the Church at least include a more obvious polygamous family option in the proclamation so as to be true to its current doctrine? It all seems a little dishonest.

Call it sanctioned by God, call it evil, ignore it, either way it's coming back to hit you.

Them there's the rules!

Unlike in other books of scripture, The Doctrine & Covenants contains a very precise explanation of how to properly engage in divinely sanctioned polygyny.

1. Women who are sealed to other men are disqualified because that would be polyandry. (D&C 132:41)
2. The bride to be must be a virgin and
3. you have to ask your current wife or wives for permission. (D&C 132:61)
4. If the wife says no, she's a sinner and the husband is exempt from practicing polygamy. (D&C 132:65)
5. You have to have babies. (D&C 132:63)

The key concept to understand here is that once a woman has sex with a man, she belongs to that man.

"And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified." (D&C 132:62)

Virginity is not a gift that keeps on giving - it's a one time trade - , but as long as you can pile on the virgins you're good. Thus sayeth the Lord.

Pluralities

The LDS Church currently does not allow its members to have two living spouses. Anyone in the Church with more than one living spouse is most likely keeping it a secret from member friends and local leaders. Consequently most members take the Church's current position to mean that the Church doesn't practice polygamy and others might not believe its part of Mormon doctrine.

However, the fact is that polygamy, when divinely commanded, is a divine principle according to Mormon scripture, and God could at any moment bring it back.

Not that it's actually gone away completely. Currently apostle Dallin Oaks is expecting to live eternally with at least two women. He married Kristen McCain after his first wife, June Dixon, passed away. He is eternally sealed to both women, who get to share his eternal companionship.

 Eternal companion #1

 EC2

Previous wives don't have to be dead though. Today a Mormon man can be sealed to more than one living woman as long as he is only legally married to one and not cohabitating with the one(s) he had divorced. In other words, a man can be sealed in the temple, divorce that wife, and be sealed to another woman even if the first is still alive.

I'm not sure if the Church puts a cap on how many times a man can divorce and be sealed to a new woman, but I do know that there's a cap on how many times a woman can be sealed in the temple while living. Once. Any marriages following a death or divorce are for time only.

Yes, that's sexist. No, I don't think it's right.

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon - wife #1

The relationship between Joseph Smith and his first wife Emma Hale was a complicated one. They went through a lot together and must have shared an extremely tight bond. Their life together started with an elopement that sent Emma's father Isaac into a rage. They faced three infant deaths in their first years together. Emma gave birth to twins who died shortly after birth. She and Joseph then adopted a neighbor's twins, Joseph and Julia, whose mother had died in childbirth (Joseph died a year later). They eventually had four more sons - Joseph, Frederick, Alexander, and Don Carlos - who all survived infancy and childhood. Emma helped transcribe The Book of Mormon, she watched Joseph build and lead the church, she sat helplessly by as Joseph fled mobs and the law, and she deeply mourned his assassination.

I'm very sympathetic toward Emma and I think there is a lot about her to celebrate. She was extremely loyal and was full of conviction. She weathered hard times thanks to her strong frontier attitude of determination, the same determination the Church loves to credit the early pioneers with. I can understand why the Church and its members paint a picture of Emma as being tirelessly rosy and totally admirable. It's easy to see Emma as an unwavering pillar of the early Church. The thing is there's a lot more beneath the surface that make her a tough nut to crack. Here are a few points that come to mind.

Speaking of the day she eloped with Joseph she says that she had no intention of marrying him, but he was more of a catch than any of the other men she knew. It sounds to me like Joseph talked her into it, just as he would talk other women into marrying him later on. I have a hard time seeing their marriage as an equal partnership, instead it looks like Emma might have been just another victim of Joseph's suave tongue.

Another reason I see Emma as a potential victim comes from the fact that she was kept in the dark about his various liaisons with other women. Nowadays we call what Joseph did marital infidelity or cheating. Emma was cheated on again and again and yet she stuck by his side just as you would expect someone who is manipulated and emotionally abused to do.

When Emma refused to accept Joseph's secret polygamy, Joseph came back with a supposed revelation from God warning her that she would be destroyed if she didn't change her mind. That's some fucked up shit right there, friends. I take my hat off to her for calling bullshit on that revelation and throwing it in the fire.

And here's a hell of an issue: Emma defied Brigham Young as the new prophet, stayed in Nauvoo, and got her son Joseph to start the Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (today called the Community of Christ). Why would such a righteous, spiritual woman make such a damning move? Why didn't the Spirit direct her under Brigham's wing and into The One True Church? Should the Church today celebrate her as it does, or should it go back to maligning her character and excluding her from Church history?

Emma married Lewis Bidamon in 1849 and stayed with him until her death. She never again acknowledged that Joseph had practiced polygamy and that she herself had been dragged temporarily into the practice.