Plural wives of Joseph Smith

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General articles

Divine manifestations to plural wives, their families, and other members

Summary: Did those who entered into plural marriage do so simply because Joseph Smith (or another Church leader) "told them to"? Is this an example of "blind obedience"? No, they bore witness that only powerful revelatory experiences convinced them that the command was from God.

Specific wives

Fanny Alger

• • Discovered in a barn—
    Brief Summary: How did Emma learn about Joseph's marriage to Fanny Alger? I've heard they were discovered together in the barn. Was Fanny pregnant? (Click here for full article)
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  • Fanny Alger: Marriage or affair?—
    Brief Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith's early plural marriage(s) cannot have been "real" marriages, since the doctrine of "eternal marriage" (i.e., marriages which last beyond the grave) was not introduced until 1841. (Click here for full article)
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Prescindia Lathrop Huntington Buell

• Prescindia Lathrop Huntington Buell
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Sarah Kingsley Howe Cleveland

• Sarah Kingsley Howe Cleveland
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Elizabeth Davis Goldsmith Brackenbury Durfee

• Elizabeth Davis Goldsmith Brackenbury Durfee
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Esther Dutcher

• Esther Dutcher
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs

• • Analysis of Zina and Henry Jacobs—Zina and Her Men: An Examination of the Changing Marital State of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young by Allen Wyatt (Link)
  • Divine manifestation to Zina. (Click here for full article)
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  • Zina and polyandry (Click here for full article)
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  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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  • Child by Joseph ruled out by DNA testing—
    Brief Summary: DNA research in 2005 confirmed Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs's son Zebulon was the son of Henry Bailey Jacobs. (Click here for full article)
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  • Emma Smith remark to Zina—
    Brief Summary: Zina Huntington remembered a conversation between Elizabeth [Davis] and Emma [Smith] in which Elizabeth asked the prophet’s wife if she felt that Joseph was a prophet. Yes, Emma answered, but I wish to God I did not know it. (Click here for full article)
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Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes

• Elvira Annie Cowles Holmes
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde

• Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Almera Johnson

• Almera Johnson
  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Helen Mar Kimball

• • Was Helen's marriage consummated?—
    Brief Summary: Helen was the youngest plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr. Critics claim that the marriage was consummated, despite a complete lack of supporting evidence. (Click here for full article)
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  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Malissa Lott

• Malissa Lott
  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Sylvia Sessions Lyon

• Sylvia Sessions Lyon
  • Likely pseudopolyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Martha McBride

• Martha McBride
  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Emily Partridge

• Emily Partridge
  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Ruth Vose Sayers

• Ruth Vose Sayers
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Patty Bartlett Sessions

• Patty Bartlett Sessions
  • Polyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Mary Heron Snider

• Mary Heron Snider
  • Likely pseudopolyandrous wife (Click here for full article)
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Lucy Walker

• Lucy Walker
  • Availability for testimony in 1892 Temple Lot case—
    Brief Summary: Nine plural wives were living in 1892. Whether they were called as witnesses seems to have depended upon whether they could testify to conjugality in the plural marriages. (Click here for full article)
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Eliza R. Snow

• • Emma pushing Eliza down the stairs—
    Brief Summary: Some charge that Eliza R. Snow, one of Joseph's plural wives, was pregnant by Joseph. According to the claim, a furious Emma pushed Eliza down the stairs, resulting in a miscarriage. (Click here for full article)
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Sarah Ann Whitney

• • Joseph Smith's letter to the Whitney family—
    Brief Summary: Critics claim that on 18 August 1842 Joseph Smith wrote a “love letter” to Sarah Ann Whitney requesting a secret rendezvous or "tryst." Joseph had been sealed to Sarah Ann three weeks prior to this time. (Click here for full article)
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