More Than One Ohio Plural Marriage?

An analysis of the various narratives referring to the Joseph Smith - Fanny Alger relationship shows that none were written before 1838; fifteen were composed at least thirty-seven years after the events occurred; thirteen of the accounts are secondhand.[1] Some historians have observed that dating and other details are not entirely consistent within these accounts, suggesting that more than one relationship is being described.[2] The primary evidence for this interpretation is an 1872 letter from William McLellin to Joseph Smith, III wherein McLellin recalled details of an 1847 conversation with Emma Smith:

You will probably remember that I visited your Mother and family in 1847, and held a lengthy conversation with her, retired in the Mansion House in Nauvoo. I did not ask her to tell, but I told her some stories I had heard. And she told me whether I was properly informed. Dr. F. G. Williams practiced with me in Clay Co. Mo. during the latter part of 1838. And he told me that at your birth your father committed an act with a Miss Hill—a hired girl. Emma saw him, and spoke to him. He desisted, but Mrs. Smith refused to be satisfied. He called in Dr. Williams, O. Cowdery, and S. Rigdon to reconcile Emma. But she told them just as the circumstances took place. He found he was caught. He confessed humbly, and begged forgiveness. Emma and all forgave him. She told me this story was true!! Again I told her I heard that one night she missed Joseph and Fanny Alger. she went to the barn and saw him and Fanny in the barn together alone. She looked through a crack and saw the transaction!!! She told me this story too was verily true.[3]

Several researchers interpret this letter as recounting two separate stories, one about Joseph Smith’s involvement with Fanny Alger and a second regarding a relationship with a “Miss Hill.”[4]

Three observations indicate that McLellin was telling only one story and simply became confused. First, there is no additional evidence that Joseph Smith had a relationship with a woman named “Hill” at Kirtland or at any time in his life. Richard L. Anderson concurs: “I cannot find a possible ‘Miss Hill’ in Kirtland, nor is there any verification of the story.”[5] Likewise, more recent research has failed to find any evidence of a “Miss Hill” in the Smith home at any time or to identify any likely candidate whom McLellin might have been referencing.

Second, the first part of the paragraph specifies that Emma saw an interaction between Joseph and “a hired girl” identified as “Miss Hill.” In the second half of the same paragraph, McLellin states that Emma “saw him and Fanny in the barn together.” If there were two separate encounters, Emma apparently witnessed them both.

Three years after this letter was written, McLellin was interviewed by anti-Mormon newspaperman, J. H. Beadle, who had authored Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism, five years earlier.[6] Visiting Independence, Missouri in 1875, Beadle reported:

My first call was on Dr. William E. McLellin, whose name you will find in every numbered of the old Millennial Star, and in many of Smith’s revelations. I found the old gentleman in pleasant quarters…

He also informed me of the spot where the first well authenticated case of polygamy took place, in which Joseph Smith was “sealed” to the hired girl. The “sealing” took place in a barn on the hay mow, and was witnessed by Mrs. Smith through a crack in the door![7]

McLellin’s 1875 story spoke only of one young lady and one relationship. Specifically, he called her “a hired girl” (like “Miss Hill”) who was involved with the Prophet “in a barn” (like Fanny Alger).[8] And the single interaction was witnessed by Emma. Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery hypothesize regarding the confusion surrounding the identity of “Miss Hill”: “Perhaps, in his old age, William McLellin confused the hired girl, Fanny Alger, with Fanny Hill of John Cleland’s 1749 novel and came up with the hired girl, Miss Hill.”[9]

Third, if McLellin had information on more than one alleged sexual impropriety, it is probable that he would have shared it in other venues than one single confusing reference in his 1872 letter. For example, three years later J. H. Beadle would have been elated to include two allegations of Kirtland “sealings.”

In evaluating all available evidence, it appears that the accounts consistently refer to one affiliation between Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger in Kirtland in the mid-1830s. The variations in the documents are not unexpected in light of the inherent limitations of the historical record. Some researchers have also suggested that Oliver Cowdery may have been involved in a plural marriage in the early 1830s, a position I find unpersuasive.

[1] See the summary in Todd Compton, “Truth, Honesty and Moderation in Mormon History: A Response to Anderson, Faulring and Bachman’s Reviews of In Sacred Loneliness, section “The Date of Fanny Alger’s Marriage,” (accessed February 11, 2007) .http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/7207/rev.html.

[2] See for example, Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997, 664; Michael Marquardt, The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844, Longwood, Florida: Xulon Press, 2005, 450-55. Kathryn Daynes, (“Plural Wives and the Nineteenth-Century Mormon Marriage System: Manti, Utah 1849-1910,” PhD dissertation, Indiana University, May, 1991, 41-42

[3] William E. McLellin in a July, 1872 letter to the Smith's eldest son, Joseph III, Community of Christ Archives; copy CHL. A typescript of the entire letter is found in Stan Larson and Samuel J. Passey, eds., The William E. McLellin Papers, 1854-1880, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2007, 488-89. See also Hutchins, Robert D. "Joseph Smith III: Moderate Mormon." M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1977, 79-81.

[4] See for example, Michael Marquardt, The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844, Longwood, Florida: Xulon Press, 2005, 450-51; Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997, 646.

[5] Richard L. Anderson to Dawn Comfort, May 9-15, 1998, copy of letter in Scott H. Faulring Papers, box 93, fds 1-3, (accn 2316), Marriott Library.

[6] John Hanson Beadle, Life in Utah: Or, the Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism. Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1870.

[7] J. H. Beadle, “Jackson County”, Salt Lake Tribune, vol. IX, no. 147 (October 6, 1875), page 4; emphasis added.

[8] J. H. Beadle, “Jackson County”, Salt Lake Tribune, vol. IX, no. 147 (October 6, 1875), page 4.

[9] Linda King Newell, and Valeen Tippetts Avery. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1984, 66.