New Book!
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Books by Brian C. Hales dealing with "Mormon
fundamentalist" polygamy:
In his biography Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess, Richard S. Van Wagoner writes of a "link" between Joseph Smith and Athalia and Nancy Rigdon.
“Gossip in Ohio’s Western Reserve linked Smith to Athalia and Nancy Rigdon, Sidney’s sixteen-and fifteen-year-old daughters.”[1]
Born in 1821, Athalia would have been sixteen in 1837, and Nancy would have been fifteen. Van Wagoner is not explicit about the “link” but his mention of “gossip” implies a sexual connection. As documentation of the described link, Van Wagoner offers an 1884 affidavit from a man named William S. Smith[2] (no relation to Joseph) recorded March 15th, one week after the last session of the 1884 debate between Clark Braden and E. L. Kelley and included in the appendix of the published text of the debate:
Q. [Clark Braden] Is it your recollection or your impression, Mr. Smith, that you have heard of the sealing of women to men here in Kirtland, and the sealing of Nancy Rigdon to Joseph Smith?
A. My impression is I have. . .
Q. [E. L. Kelley] Did you ever hear it talked of while the Saints lived here?
A. I say I have heard it talked of. My impression is that I have heard it talked of here in Kirtland, and that the story obtained that the difficulty between Joseph Smith and Sydney [sic] Rigdon was in consequence of the wish or the manifestation on the part of Joseph Smith that Rigdon’s daughter Nancy should be sealed to him.
Q. Will you say that was between Joseph Smith and Rigdon, and that it was a difficulty occurred here in Kirtland. Who did you hear talk about their having trouble here in Kirtland?
A. I cannot tell.
Q. Was it any of the Saints?
A. I can not tell you that.
Q. Do you not know, Mr. Smith, that there was not any report of any such thing as that as of Nancy Rigdon being sealed to Joseph Smith while the Saints were here in Kirtland?
A. My impression is that that report was here in Kirtland. I went to school with Athalia Rigdon, and there was talk among the boys about sealing. I think there was difficulty between Joseph Smith and Rigdon with reference to having Rigdon’s daughter sealed to Smith. I would not positively say it was so; that is my impression.
Q. How old was Nancy Rigdon at that time?
A. I do not know; I went to school with Athalia Rigdon.
Q. How old was she?
A. I cannot tell. Nor can I tell how old I was. Nancy Rigdon was the oldest. I do not know how much older than Athalia.
Q. Did you ever hear any of them talk about sealing?
A. Yes, I am positive that I heard that language used among the boys.
Q. Did they not talk about the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Is not that what you heard them talk about?
A. No, the sealing was in some way or other with the women. My impression is that I have heard that story of the quarrel between Rigdon and Smith talked of here in Kirtland.
Q. Is it not probable that they were talking [about] those things after they went to Nauvoo. You got it mixed.
A. It may be, but I give you my best recollection.[3]
It appears from the transcript that Athalia Rigdon’s name came up simply because the witness, William S. Smith, had attended school with her. Accordingly, it seems that utilizing Smith’s comments to imply a “link” (sexual or otherwise) between Joseph and Athalia would be an extreme interpretation of William Smith’s admittedly shaky memory. Connecting Nancy Rigdon with Joseph is somewhat more understandable because in Nauvoo in early 1842, Joseph Smith did propose a plural sealing to her. However, Nancy Rigdon, she recalled in 1884: “I never heard of such a thing in Kirtland as sealing… I heard about this first about the year 1842.”[4] Accordingly, no credible evidence exists to support marriage sealings in Kirtland, so it is more probable that William S. Smith was simply confused, a possibility he freely admits.
It appears that Van Wagoner was the first to imply a “link” between Joseph and Athalia Rigdon in his 1994 biography. I have found no credible evidence establishing a relationship between Nancy Rigdon and the Prophet in Kirtland. Thus, William S. Smith’s little-known 1884 statement was not relevant to Joseph Smith’s reputation in the 1830s.
[1]Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 291; see also Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 634.
[2] Van Wagoner mistakenly lists the name as “William C. Smith” ( ibid.) but cites a deposition from a “William S. Smith.”
[3]Kelley and Braden, Public Discussion, 391.
[4] Smith, Joseph III, and Heman C. Smith. The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1805-1946, 8 vols,. Reprint. Independence, Mo.: Herald Publishing House, 1967-1976, 4:452.
