Alleged Sexual Impropriety between Joseph Smith and

Mrs. White

Source:

Wyl, W., pseud. [Wilhelm Ritter von Wymetal]. Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 60.

Accusation:

“I have told you that the prophet Joseph used to frequent houses of ill-fame. Mrs. White, a very pretty and attractive woman, once confessed to me that she made a business of it to be hospitable to the captains of the Mississippi steamboats. She told me that Joseph had made her acquaintance very soon after his arrival in Nauvoo, and that he had visited her dozens of times.”[1]

Discussion:

This is a second account from Sarah Pratt, albeit, secondhand, accusing Joseph Smith of frequenting a house of ill repute. The informant, reportedly a Mrs. White, was the proprietor of a house of prostitution. She corresponds to the Emeline White, the madam of a brothel, who Bennett asserted received inappropriate letters from a man signing his name as “Old White Hat.” Reportedly, either Emeline White and/or John C. Bennett claimed Joseph Smith was “Old White Hat.”

Like Sarah Pratt’s other accusations, plausibility problems accompany the allegation that Joseph Smith frequented a house of prostitution “repeatedly” or “dozens of times” without anyone else, anti-Mormon or Latter-day Saint, ever noticing and making the charge. From the 1820s forward, he was being watched by critics eager to discredit him. Church members were likewise scrutinizing his behavior, searching for hypocrisy or transgression. Joseph Smith rarely, if ever, traveled alone. It seems unlikely that he might have engaged in the conduct asserted by Wyl/Pratt/Bennett without a complaint from followers and antagonists alike.

Joseph Smith’s personal teachings and actions demonstrate his intolerance for brothels. The Nauvoo City Council minutes for October 23, 1841 discuss the brothel on the hill behind the temple site. This “house on the hill” was ordered to be “removed.”[2] John Taylor (not the apostle), recalled Joseph Smith’s personal involvement during its razing:

John C. Bennett… built an ill famed house there near the temple, and there was a meeting ground in the oak grove nearby there, and they put up an ill fame house right by there, and after they had put it up, John C. Bennett and the Fosters…wrote on it in large letters what it was for, - an ill fame house, and the sign that they put on it proclaimed what it was, and what it was there for… the city council held a counsel over it, and they considered it was a nuisance to the city, and they so declared it to be a nuisance. They considered that house was a nuisance, and the authorities passed an ordinance against it, and notified them to move the nuisance outside of the city limits, and gave them time sufficient to do so. Well they paid no attention to that order for they did not feel inclined to obey it and they did not move it. They had some furniture in it, - not much, - and the police gathered around and one of the policemen went to go in to move some of the furniture, or some things that were in it out, and John Eagle, - a man by the name of Eagle, - a tall raw boned stout man that weight over two hundred pounds, -they called him “Bully, and he was a bully to look at him, -he hit the policeman and knocked him down, and Joseph Smith took him by here (indicating the seat of his breeches and the nape of his neck), - he took him by the breeches there and here, and he pitched him right out, and [said] “that is the way we do, away down east” said Joseph, and that settled it. Well they went in then and took the building and put it on rollers, and there was a deep gully there and they pitched the house in it, - they just rolled the house off and tipped it over in this gully shingles and all, - down it all went into that gulley, and that was the end of that transaction. That was the end of that bad house..[3]

Apparently other houses of prostitution could be found in the city, houses that were dealt with later. On May 14, 1842, Joseph recorded: “City council. Advocated strongly the necessity of some active measures being taken to suppress houses & acts of infamy in the city; for the protection of the innocent & virtuous - & good of public morals. shewing clearly that there were certain characters in the placer who were disposed to corrupt the morals & chastity of our citizens & that houses of infamy did exist. upon which a city ordinance was passed to prohibit such things & published in this days wasp.”[4]

Summary:

Sarah Pratt’s accusation alleging Joseph Smith visited a house of ill repute run by a “Mrs. White” could represent a verification of one of John C. Bennett’s claims concerning “old white hat.” However, as presented, it is hearsay evidence only. Several significant weaknesses can be identified, particularly the notion that he could have visited a brothel “dozens of times” without any additional witnesses ever mentioning it. White’s occupation does not enhance her credibility, if she was the actual source of this allegation.

[1]Wyl, W., pseud. [Wilhelm Ritter von Wymetal]. Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 60.

[2] Nauvoo City Council minutes for October 23, 1841. CA.

[3] John Taylor, testimony at the Temple Lot Case, full transcript, part 1, page 403-04, question 140.

[4] Dean C. Jessee, ed. The Papers of Joseph Smith: Volume 2, Journal, 1832-1842, alt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992, 382; see also History of the Church, Vol.5, Ch.1, p.8.