The teenage representation is the largest, though the twenty-year and thirty-year groups are comparable, which contradicts the Mormon folk-wisdom that sees the beginnings of polygamy as an attempt to care for older, unattached women. In the group aged forty-one to fifty, there is a substantial drop off: two wives, or 6 percent, and three (9 percent) in the group fifty-one to sixty.

Eight wives (24 percent) were in Smith’s own peer group, ages thirty-one to forty. Nine wives (27 percent) were twenty-one to thirty years old. When presented with the evidence, however, some ended up changing their minds, though the majority chalked this information up to “that’s just the way it was in those pioneer days.” What obviously had bothered them just a few minutes before was suddenly shelved under a category I describe as “not fitting within my comfort zone but I’ll accept it anyway.”Īlthough the numbers have varied depending on the researcher, Compton counts a total of 33 girls and women whom Smith married.Įleven (33 percent) were 14 to 20 years old when they married him. I can’t tell you how many times faithful Mormons became irritated, claiming that this was nothing more than an “anti-Mormon” set-up. (See the YouTube video links at the end of this article.) For several evenings I stood nearby and watched Latter-day Saints approach the girls and women. A few years ago, local Christians before the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti assembled together in the public street to portray Smith’s almost three dozen wives, each wearing the pioneer dress with a sign around her neck explaining which wife she was. In fact, one occasionally meets Mormons who have no idea that Joseph Smith had plural wives at all twentieth-century Mormons are undoubtedly uncomfortable with the details of nineteenth-century polygamy.

On page xi of his introduction, Compton writes,

This is why I think this volume should be a priority to have within arm’s length on any researcher’s bookshelf. Yet while there are certainly many reputable sources, I believe that nobody has recorded such in depth histories for each of Smith’s wives as does Compton. Van Wagoner ( Mormon Polygamy: A History), Richard Bushman ( Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling), and Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery). Other respected historians with the same evidence include Richard S. Of course, Compton is not the only one who has come to this conclusion. To those who may doubt the veracity of Smith’s polygamous past, this book–recipient of the “Best Book Award” by both the John Whitmer Historical Association and the Mormon History Association– is sure to cause plenty of consternation. who has taught at prestigious universities such as UCLA and USC. When this issue is broached, I have heard it said more than once that such an accusation is nothing more than an anti-Mormon lie.įor those who are interested in verified historical evidence, the best book on the topic that ought to be studied and used as a resource is In Sacred Loneliness by Todd Compton, a Latter-day Saint possessing a Ph.D.

Teachings of the Presidents of the ChurchĪlthough many Mormons know that second LDS President Brigham Young was a practicing polygamist, some may not realize that Joseph Smith had many wives as well.

Mormon Objections to Christian Evangelism.

Doctrine and Covenants / Pearl of Great Price.

Bill compton married to patty compton