Footnotes

1. [1]

   Minutes and Discourses, 17 Mar. 1842.  

2. [2]

   See Relief Society Minute Book, [89], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 99; Young, Journal, 6 Jan. 1842; Bennett, History of the Saints, 256; and “Nauvoo Female Society,” Oliver H. Olney, Papers, Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.  

   Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

   Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.

   Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

   Olney, Oliver H. Papers, 1842–1843. Western Americana Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

3. [3]

   Relief Society Minute Book, 24 Mar. 1842, 17, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 38–39. In a 2 April certificate copied into the minute book, Marvel asserted that she had not “at any time or place, seen or heard any thing improper or unvirtuous in the conduct or conversation of either President Smith or Mrs. Agnes Smith.” (Relief Society Minute Book, [89], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 99–100.)  

   Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

4. [4]

   Louisa Beman was reportedly sealed to JS as a plural wife in Nauvoo on 5 April 1841. Previous to his marriage to Beman, JS was likely married to Fanny Alger in Kirtland sometime in the mid-1830s. (“Nauvoo Female Society,” Oliver H. Olney, Papers, Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Young, Journal, 19 Sept. 1844; see also George A. Smith, Louisa, Utah Territory, to Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 28 Jan. 1851, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; Letter from Oliver Cowdery, 21 Jan. 1838; Historical Introduction to Letter from Thomas B. Marsh, 15 Feb. 1838.)  

   Olney, Oliver H. Papers, 1842–1843. Western Americana Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

   Young, Brigham. Journals, 1832–1877. Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1, boxes 71–73.

   Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

5. [5]

   It appears that JS taught Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, and a few other members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about the doctrine of plural marriage shortly after they returned from England in July 1841. Young, Willard Richards, and church member Dimick Huntington married JS to several women in late 1841 and early 1842 and therefore had firsthand knowledge of the practice of plural marriage. However, some of those closest to JS, such as Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, may not have been aware by March 1842 that JS had been sealed to other women. It is unclear when Emma Smith learned of the plural wives JS married in Nauvoo, though she knew of some of them by spring 1843. (John Taylor, Sermon, 27 June 1854, 7–8, Church History Department, Publications Division, Pitman Shorthand Transcriptions, CHL; Joseph F. Smith, Affidavits about Celestial Marriage, 1:5, 7; Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, Affidavit, 23 Mar. 1877, Collected Material concerning JS and Plural Marriage, ca. 1870–1912, CHL; Sessions, Diary, 16 June 1860; Richards, Diary, 14 May 1843; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 28 Jan. 1843; Clayton, Journal, 23 and 26 May 1843; 12 July 1843; JS, Journal, 12 and 13 May 1842; Sidney Rigdon, Nauvoo, IL, to JS, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1842, JS Collection, CHL; Young, “Incidents,” 186; Emily Dow Partridge Young, Testimony, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 19 Mar. 1892, pp. 350–351, question 24, pp. 365–366, questions 338–358, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al. [C.C.W.D. Mo. 1894], typescript, United States Testimony, CHL.)  

   Pitman Shorthand Transcriptions, 1998–2013. CHL.

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

   Collected Material concerning Joseph Smith and Plural Marriage, ca. 1870–1912. CHL.

   Sessions, Patty Bartlett. Diaries, 1846–1867. Patty Bartlett Sessions, Diaries and Account Books, 1846–1866, 1880. CHL. MS 1462.

   Richards, George F. Diaries, 1883–1950. George F. Richards, Papers, 1883–1950. CHL.

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

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

   Young, Emily Dow Partridge. “Incidents in the Life of a Mormon Girl,” ca. 1884. CHL.

   United States Circuit Court (8th Circuit). Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Church of Christ of Independence, Missouri, et al., Testimonies and Depositions, 1892. Typescript. CHL.

6. [6]

   While Bennett likely had some knowledge of JS’s plural marriages, it is unclear how deep his understanding of the doctrine of plural marriage was or what he knew of the intimate details of JS’s life before Bennett’s excommunication in May 1842. (See Bennett, History of the Saints, 256; John C. Bennett, “Letter from General Bennett,” Hawk-Eye [Burlington, IA], 7 Dec. 1843, [1]; Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 1, 239; Bergera, “John C. Bennett, Joseph Smith, and the Beginnings of Mormon Plural Marriage in Nauvoo,” 52, 58; Smith, Nauvoo Polygamy, 65–73; and Hales, “John C. Bennett and Joseph Smith’s Polygamy,” 131–181.  

   Bennett, John C. The History of the Saints; or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1842.

   Burlington Hawk-Eye. Burlington, IA. 1845–1851?.

   Compton, Todd. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001.

   Bergera, Gary James. “John C. Bennett, Joseph Smith, and the Beginnings of Mormon Plural Marriage in Nauvoo.” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 25 (2005): 52–92.

   Smith, George D. Nauvoo Polygamy: “. . . But We Called It Celestial Marriage.” Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2008.

   Hales, Brian C. “John C. Bennett and Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Addressing the Question of Reliability.” Journal of Mormon History 41, no. 2 (April 2015): 131–181.

7. [7]

   JS, “To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to All the Honorable Part of Community,” Times and Seasons, 1 July 1842, 3:839–842; Catherine Fuller Warren, Testimony, 25 May 1842, Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842, CHL.  

   Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842. CHL.

8. [8]

   Aside from John C. Bennett, the accused men included Chauncey L. Higbee, Lyman O. Littlefield, Joel S. Miles, and Gustavus Hills; Catherine Fuller Warren also testified that William Smith, brother of JS, “proposed unlawful connexion but I refused him.” Some of these men may have twisted words from JS’s 7 November 1841 discourse, which reportedly stated that “if we did not accuse one another God would not accuse us & if we had no accuser we should enter heaven.” Some of the women who later testified before the Nauvoo high council indicated that these men told them that there was no sin in what they were doing if the relationship was kept secret, because there could be no accuser. The women who testified against these men were Warren, Sara Miller, Margaret Nyman, Matilda Nyman, and Mary Clift. (Margaret Nyman and Matilda Nyman, Testimonies, 21 May 1842; Sarah Miller, Testimony, 24 May 1842; Catherine Fuller Warren, Testimony, 25 May 1842, Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842, CHL; Mary Clift, Testimony, 4 Sept. 1842, Nauvoo Stake High Council Papers, CHL; Discourse, 7 Nov. 1841; “Chauncy L. Higbee,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 29 May 1844, [3].)  

   Testimonies in Nauvoo High Council Cases, May 1842. CHL.

   Nauvoo Stake High Council Papers, 1839–1844. CHL.

   Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

9. [9]

   JS, Journal, 31 Mar. 1842. The journal also notes that JS met with “Elders [Brigham] Young. [John] Taylor, &c.” before composing the letter. It is possible that JS wrote the letter in collaboration with these men. The letter is variously referred to as an “Epistle” or “the Article” in contemporaneous sources. (Relief Society Minute Book, 31 Mar. 1842, 24, [86]–[88], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 44, 97–99.)  

   Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

10. [10]

    Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.  

11. [11]

    Relief Society Minute Book, 31 Mar. 1842, 24, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 44.  

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

12. [12]

    The text of the letter appears in the Relief Society Minute Book after the minutes of a 28 September 1842 meeting. In that version, scribe Eliza R. Snow included a brief introduction to the text that read, “The following Epistle was read before the Society, early after its organization— but was not forwarded to be recorded; the Secretary not being present at the time of its reading; else it would have appear’d in its proper place.” (Relief Society Minute Book, [86], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 97.)  

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

13. [13]

    JS, Journal, 10 Apr. 1842.  

14. [14]

    Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 25 May 1842, Nauvoo Stake High Council Papers, CHL.  

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