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Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844

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Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844

Source Note

, Charges against Preferred to the (including JS) and , [, Hancock Co., IL], ca. 10 Apr. 1844; handwriting of ; signature of ; notation in the handwriting of ; two pages; JS Collection (Supplement), CHL.
Single leaf measuring 6⅝ × 6¾ inches (17 × 17 cm). The document is ruled with twenty blue horizontal lines, now faded. It was hand cut from a larger leaf. The recto contains the letter from in blue ink, and the verso features a notation from in black ink. Marks rotated the orientation of the document and made his notation perpendicular to the printed lines on the paper. The document was trifolded vertically and then folded four times horizontally. The document has undergone some conservation, with separation along the folds rejoined with strips of cellophane tape sometime after 1930.
The document was inscribed and presumably used by while helping the handle ’s case. Afterward, the custody of the document is uncertain. The Church Historical Department (now CHL) published a register of the JS Collection in 1973. However, the department’s staff continued to locate documents authored by or directed to JS in uncataloged church financial records and in name and subject files. The department also acquired additional JS documents from donors, collectors, and dealers. These newly located and acquired documents were kept together in a supplement to the JS Collection that was closed to further acquisitions in 1984 and was named the JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Cole et al., Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions, 22; Edelman, “Brief History of Tape,” 45–46.

    Cole, David J., Eve Browning, and Fred E.H. Schroeder. Encyclopedia of Modern Everyday Inventions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.

    Edelman, Jonathan. “A Brief History of Tape.” Ambidextrous 5 (Falling in 2006): 45–46.

  2. [2]

    See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection (Supplement), 1833–1844, in the CHL catalog. A preliminary inventory of the supplement was created in 1992 and its cataloging was finalized in 2017.

Historical Introduction

In April 1844, informed the and the that her husband, , was teaching the “abominable doctrine of spiritual wives” and that he had abandoned their family. After the charges were referred to the at , Illinois, , president of the Nauvoo , initiated disciplinary proceedings against Harrison Sagers. Sagers had faced previous disciplinary measures. In November 1843, JS accused Sagers of attempting to seduce Phebe Madison, a young woman living in the Sagers residence, and of asserting that he had JS’s permission to do so. When the high council reviewed the first charges against Sagers on 25 November 1843, he pleaded his innocence, and the council took “no action.”
In 1844 leaders actively tried to stop missionaries from teaching about polygamy, “spiritual wifery,” or anything other than traditional monogamous marriage. In a notice in the 1 February 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons, JS and announced that Hiram Brown had been cut off from the church for preaching “polygamy, and other false and corrupt doctrines” while on a mission in . At an assembly of elders of the church on 8 April 1844, Hyrum Smith addressed the issue of missionaries teaching the “spir[i]tual wife system.” On that occasion, he told the elders, “It is lawful for a man to marry a wife but it is unlawful to have more. & God has not com.d any one to have more.” Missionaries, he continued, would be disciplined for spreading teachings to the contrary.
Despite these public declarations, JS had taught a select group of men and women about the practice of plural marriage and had been to multiple women. However, he viewed these sealings—which involved formal proposals to the women and religious ceremonies with witnesses—as fundamentally different from “spiritual wifery” or any other type of illicit relationship. Evidence suggests that he did not want church members speaking publicly or privately about plural marriage unless authorized to do so. JS probably taught the concept of plural marriage to , though he may have objected to the way Sagers told others about it or the way in which Sagers sought to practice it, given his earlier charges against Sagers regarding his alleged pursuit of Phebe Madison. It is unclear whether Sagers practiced plural marriage at JS’s authorization. Whatever the case, shortly after ’s strong denunciation of polygamy at the April 1844 , decided to approach church leaders, hoping that they would hold her husband responsible for the behavior that they had publicly condemned.
, who likely lived in at the time, began this letter by referring to announcements made by the First Presidency that it would handle cases of polygamy being taught or of spiritual wives being sought after. She threatened to take legal action against her if church leaders did not responsibly punish him and stated that there were witnesses who could attest to her claims. Lucinda also asserted that Harrison Sagers’s sins included abandoning their family the previous December and failing to provide for the needs of their household. Sometime on or before 10 April, the First Presidency received Lucinda Sagers’s letter. According to , the presidency then transmitted the letter containing Lucinda’s charges to him so that he could facilitate the church’s disciplinary process. On 10 April, Marks wrote a summons on the verso of Lucinda’s letter for Harrison Sagers to appear at a hearing before the Nauvoo high council on 13 April at Marks’s home in Nauvoo. This summons was likely a copy or a draft of the summons that Marks sent to Harrison.
After considering the charges, the high council members decided that they had already ruled on the issue of teaching about “spiritual wives” when JS’s charges were brought before them the previous November and “that the Council had no right to deal with him on that item.” On the issue of Harrison Sagers abandoning his family, as alleged in her statement, the high council determined that the charge “was not sustained and therefore that he should remain in the Church.” Despite this ruling, Lucinda later placed an announcement in the Nauvoo Expositor stating that Harrison “left my bed and board without cause or provocation” and that she would not be held liable for any of his debts.
likely retained the letter after receiving it from the First Presidency, at least until ’s church discipline trial, when it was copied into the minutes of the high council. ’s original letter is featured here along with Marks’s notation.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to William Marks, 21 Nov. 1843; Nauvoo Third Ward Census, [25], Nauvoo Stake, Ward Census, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 175.

    Nauvoo Stake. Ward Census, 1842. CHL.

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

  2. [2]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 Nov. 1843, 21–22; JS, Journal, 25 Nov. 1843. On that occasion, JS condemned adultery and fornication and stated that he had never approved of such behavior. (Remarks, 25 Nov. 1843.)

  3. [3]

    Notice, ca. 1 Feb. 1844.

  4. [4]

    JS, Journal, 8 Apr. 1844; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 6–9 Apr. 1844, 30.

    Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

  5. [5]

    See Revelation, 12 July 1843. In a private conversation, JS told William Clayton that if word got out about Clayton’s participation in plural marriage, JS would give him “an awful scourging” and likely cut him off from the church but then rebaptize him and reinstate him “as good as ever.” (Clayton, Journal, 19 Oct. 1843.)

    Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

  6. [6]

    At Sagers’s hearing before the high council, three witnesses testified that they had heard Sagers teach the “doctrine of spiritual wives” and that Sagers “believed it to be the order of God.” One of the witnesses, Sarah M. Hadlock, stated that Sagers “practiced it” and “wanted to raise children (to raise a righteous Branch).” Hadlock also testified that Sagers was interested in having “an old woman to get young women for him.” Furthermore, Hadlock stated that Sagers believed that “a person must swear false about spiritual wifes if need be after they come into the covenant.” In 1869 Nathan Tanner swore an affidavit stating that JS taught the doctrine of plural marriage to Sagers in spring 1844. (Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL; Hancock Co., IL, Deed Records, 1817–1917, vol. P, pp. 167–168, 11 May 1846, microfilm 954,602, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Nathan Tanner, Affidavit, Salt Lake Co., Utah Territory, 28 Aug. 1869, in Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:76.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

    Smith, Joseph F. Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1869–1915. CHL. MS 3423.

  7. [7]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 29.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

  8. [8]

    “One Cent Reward,” Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844, [3], italics in original. In the early United States, posting an announcement of this kind constituted marital separation and was a method of self-divorcing. (See Lyons, Sex among the Rabble, chap. 1.)

    Nauvoo Expositor. Nauvoo, IL. 1844.

    Lyons, Clare A. Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender and Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730–1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

  9. [9]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 13 Apr. 1844, 28–29.

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844
Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844, as Recorded in Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes

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To the and the
In as much as you have declard officially that you will deal with all persons who teach or have taught the abominable doctrine of spiritual wives
This is to notify you that is guilty of said sin which thing can be proven by credible wittnesses and if he is not chastised for it by the the law of the land will be enforced against him
left his family in December last, since which time he has not provided for them in any way whatever The cause of the innocent demand action immediately and you are the ones to take the matter in hand.
[p. [1]]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Charges against Harrison Sagers Preferred to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, circa 10 April 1844
ID #
1999
Total Pages
2
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • William Marks
  • Lucinda Madison Sagers

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whatever the extent of Harrison Sagers’s knowledge of plural marriage, “spiritual wives” would have been the term that Lucinda Sagers was most familiar with to describe her husband’s actions. (See Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 16 Mar. 1844, [125], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 129–130; and William W. Phelps with Emma Smith Revisions, “The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo,” Feb.–Mar. 1844, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 151–156.)

  2. [2]

    Lucinda Sagers may have had in mind Joseph Hadlock; his wife, Sarah M. Hadlock; and a “P. Wells,” who testified before the Nauvoo high council on 13 April 1844 that Harrison Sagers taught the “spiritual wife doctrine.” (Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

  3. [3]

    According to Illinois law, Lucinda Sagers could obtain a legal divorce from Harrison Sagers after two years had passed since Harrison abandoned her. Lucinda could also have been referring to an Illinois law prohibiting bigamy. (An Act concerning Divorces [31 Jan. 1827], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, p. 250, sec. 1; An Act relative to Criminal Jurisprudence [26 Feb. 1833], Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois, pp. 220–221, sec. 121.)

    The Public and General Statute Laws of the State of Illinois: Containing All the Laws . . . Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at Their First Session, Commencing December 1, 1834, and Ending February 13, 1835; and at Their Second Session, Commencing December 7, 1835, and Ending January 18, 1836; and Those Passed by the Tenth General Assembly, at Their Session Commencing December 5, 1836, and Ending March 6, 1837; and at Their Special Session, Commencing July 10, and Ending July 22, 1837. . . . Compiled by Jonathan Young Scammon. Chicago: Stephen F. Gale, 1839.

  4. [4]

    Sarah M. Hadlock stated in her testimony to the high council that Harrison and Lucinda Sagers “parted by agreement” on 8 December 1843. (Nauvoo Stake High Council, Minutes, ca. 13 Apr. 1844, JS Collection [Supplement], CHL.)

    Smith, Joseph. Collection, 1827–1846. CHL. MS 155.

  5. new scribe logo

    Signature of Lucinda Madison Sagers.

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