Nancy Smith Alexander as an Accuser

At some point a woman named Nancy Smith Alexander may have written a statement that has been quoted as potentially genuine by several authors. The statement begins:

My father, William Smith and mother became Mormons in Bolton, N.Y, and moved to Kirtland Ohio in 1836. After Jo Smith, the Mormon Prophet robbed us, I worked out at housework at 25 cents a week. My sister received 50 cents a week; we gave our wages to our parents. Father had broken his arm six weeks before leaving N. Y., and could not work, Mother had to work very hard, she had 14 children.[1]

The details provided in the document help to corroborate Nancy Maria Smith as the author.[2] She was the daughter of William and Lydia Calkins Smith, born December 1, 1822 (no relation to the Prophet’s brother William B. Smith). She and her family gathered to Kirtland only to apostatize, blaming Joseph Smith for robbing them.

Nancy married Justin Alexander on September 4, 1850 at Kirtland, Ohio, making her “Mrs. Justin Alexander” or “Mrs. Nancy Alexander.” They stayed in the area, and were counted in the 1880 census.[3]

A primary problem with Nancy Maria Smith Alexander as an accuser is the inability to identify her relationship to the document quoted by historians. The copy currently cited is typed, but it is unknown when it was made or whether it was from a dictation or transcribed from a handwritten source. One researcher places the year of its origin as 1886.[4]

Without additional documented provenance, the statement must be quoted cautiously, if at all. In additional, the contents contain gross implausibilities and chronological improbabilities.

[1] Mrs. Nancy Alexander, “Statement,” [1886?], Original in Stanley B. Kimball papers, Southern Illinois University. Copy of typescript in Linda King Newell Collection, Marriott Library, University of Utah, MS 447, bx 11 fd 3. Punctuation and spelling standardized. A published version can be found in the A. B. Deming Papers, USHS, PAM 9687, copies of pamphlets from the Chicago Historical Society. Unfortunately it is unclear from what source the published version was taken.

[2] A published as an article entitled: “Mrs. Alexander’s Statement,” is available but is cropped hiding any information about its source or date of publication. At the bottom is a handwritten name “Mrs Nancy Alexander.” A copy of a published version is found in the “A.B. Deming Paper,” USHS, PAM 9687; copies of pamphlets from the Chicago Historical Society. However, the original document from which the copy was made is not identified.

[3] 1880 censes for Newbury, Geauga County, Ohio. Copy of holograph available at Ancestry.com.

[4] Todd Compton, “A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty-Three Plural Wives.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 36 reads: “Mrs. Warner Alexander, 1886 statement, LDS archives.” In fact the LDS Archives does not contain this document. (Conversation with archivist Ron Watt, November 12, 2007.) It appears that the first edition of Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippets Avery’s Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (New York: Doubleday, 1984) listed the document’s location as “CHL.” The second edition corrects this error showing the document located in the Stanley B. Kimball Collection at Southern Illinois University. A copy of poor quality of the transcript is found in the Linda King Newell Collection, Marriott Library, University of Utah, MS 447, bx 11 fd 3.