Remarkable Book About Memorable Polygamy
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REVIEWS instance, Annie Gardner’s feelings about vot- ing in favor of the 1890 Manifesto "that made me no longer a wife and might make me homeless" (p. 12), or Phineas Cook’s lament REMARKABLE BOOK ABOUT that this decision to marry polygamously was the "beginning of all my sorrows" (p. 132). Embry recalls a young plura! wife’s feelings MEMORABLE POLYGAMY toward the first wife: "I loved Sister Woods. She was like a mother to me and she died in my arms" (p. 139), as wel! as the painful real- MORMON POLYGAMOUS FAMILIES: LIFE IN THE PRINCIPLE ism of a plural wife who challenged her usually absent husband’s attempt to punish his young son: "Don’t hit that boy .... He By Jessie L. Embry doesn’t know who you are" (p. 160). There is humor in one polygamist child’s comment University of Utah Press, 1987 about his father’s other families: ’I don’t have 194 pages, $19.95 any half brothers. They all have two eyes and two ears and two arms and two legs" (p. 170), and pathos in another polygamist child’s com- ment: "The first family seemed to get every- thing and we didn’t get anything..." (pp. 184-85). Although she repeatedly discusses the limitations and biases of her data and that of other researchers, Embry provides an impor- Reviewed by D. Michael Quinn tant assortment of charts., percentages, and number distributions for the dynamics of Mormon polygamous and monogamous family life at the turn of the twentieth cen- tury. Charts or textual discussion cover poly- JESSIE EMBRY’S BOOK on Mormon poly- polygamous Mormon norms of emotional dis- gamous/monogamous demographics, living gamous families is a remarkable study. Her tance between husband and wives and close- arrangements and visiting patterns, economic most important single contribution to the ness between wives reflected monogamous roles, church positions, relations between topic is that she presents her analysis of the relationships in Victorian America (pp. 121, wives, parent-child attachments, divorce, and dynamics of Mormon polygamous families 147). An equal percentage of monogamous inhentance. Some of her conclusions reinforce within a comparative context. This context and polygamous Mormon fathers had limited the conventional wisdom about polygamy, begins with monogamous Mormon families, role in disciplining children (p. 168), and yet but most of her findings revise or refute con- extends to Victorian American family life, and feelings of closeness to the father were almost ventional views. reaches out to a cross-cultural comparison three times greater in monogamous children Having emphasized the positive features with African polygyny. than in polygamous (p. 157). Still, to avoid up to now, I also find several problems with The overall effect of this comparative ecological fallacy, Embry also reminds the the book. Relatively minor are some curious approach to Mormon polygamy is stunning, reader that statistical trends and the term format characteristics. More serious are some particularly as an antidote to popular concepts "polygamous families" itself can be mislead- errors of fact, oversights, and overstatements. of Mormon polygamy as an aberration of ing since, "As in all other aspects of polygamy, As to format. The citation on page 24 to monogamous marital relations and as differ- each family was unique" (p. 173). And for that an unpublished article by an unknown author ent from "unauthorized" forms of polygamous matter, every polygamist was an individualist. is unnecessary since its routine observation living. Repeatedly, the reader learns that Mor- Embry’s central source for the study is an about the Mormon colonies in Mexico is simi- mon plural families were both similar and dis- impressive body of interviews spanning fifty lar to published sources by known authors. similar to monogamous Mormon families, to years. In addition to Brigham Young Univer- Table 6 on page 33 should list "Europe/Bri- Victorian American families, and to African sity’s collection of interviews since the tain" (to include Scotland, for example). polygynous families. For example, compati- mid-1970s with 250 polygamous children Throughout the book there is an incon- bility was more than six times greater among and 150 monogamous children, Embry also sistency in sometimes identifying wives by Mormon polygamous wives than among uses sociological interviews of the 1930s with maiden name and sometimes by married Nigerian polygynous wives (p. 142), while the 18 polygamist men, 55 polygamist wives, and name, and periodically the book gives the full 83 polygamist children. She also draws from names of children who comment about D. MICHAEL QUINN is currendy a research the diaries, letters, and autobiographies of unnamed parents (e.g., pp. 84-86), whereas associate at the Huntington Library in Carl- more than forty women and men. the interest of most readers is probably in the [ornia. He is the author of the Dialogue arti- A few examples demonstrate the impact names of the polygamous husbands and cle, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural of the personal images of Mormon polygamy wives. To avoid surname confusion on page Marriages, 1890-] 904." that emerge in Embry’s book. Consider, for 125, the reference should be "Miles A." The NOVEMBER 1988 PAGE 46 change of reference from "families" to "men" in such sources as Andrew Jenson’s L.D.S. but Embry’s discussion of their functional in the comparative percentages on page 141 Biographical Encyclopedia, his Encyclopedic His- independence (p. 97-98) undercuts her leaves the impression that Embry is compar- tory of the Church, and such unrestricted apparent rejection of the entire argument. ing apples and oranges. Finally, with the sources at the LDS Church Library as the Embry’s discussion actually supports the exception of Gordon Irving’s article, the bib- microfilms of stake historical reports and general assessment of plural wife indepen- liography fails to give dates for the many cita- manuscript histories of stakes and wards. dence but refutes the assumption that there tions to unpublished papers (including Embry also presents two views of Mormon was financial autonomy for the wives. I’m Embry’s own). polygamy without acknowledging that they reminded of the statement by Utah State Sena- As to errors of fact. Samuel S. Newton did are at least apparently contradictory, and tor Martha Hughes Cannon (a plum wife who not (as reported on p. 26) marry his plural without noting that the same contrast appears defeated her stake president husband fo:: the wife polygamously in the Logan Temple in in interpretations of female-male relations in office) that a women who is married to a man 1900, but bigamously in a Wyoming civil Victorian America. Disputing Lawrence with four wives has three weeks of freedom ceremony which was followed by the routine Foster’s view of Mormon polygamy’s "under- a month. By necessity, Mormon polygamous temple sealing for couples married civilly (as cutting intense emotional involvement in wives were independent, but they were: not reported on page 54 of the Quinn article she family affairs," Embry argues on page 51 that entrepreneurs. cited in the bibliography). As a correction of "plum husbands and wives did have romantic Although correlating "a relationship page 39, Joseph H. Grant was the post- attachments" and "intense love," and yet on between polygamy, Church leadership, and Manifesto polygamist stake president of Davis page 121 Embry also uses Caroll Smith- wealth" is challenging, Embry overstates the County, Frank Y. Taylor was the post- Rosenberg’s discussion of "emotional segre- problem by saying there are "no recoMs avail- " Manifesto polygamist president of Salt Lake gation of women and men" in Victorian able" to test such a relationship (p. 1091). As County’s Granite Stake, and many of Granite’s America as the introduction for Embry’s dis- previously mentioned, data are readily avail- post-Manifesto polygamists (including its cussion of the relationship of polygamous able for Church position and polygamous; sta- entire stake presidency) kept their plural wives and husbands. tus, and nineteenth century data on Mormon wives in Davis County. Well, was Mormon polygamy character- wealth includes the publicly available county As to oversights. Embry gives too little ized by "emotional segregation" or was it full assessment rolls for each year, the manuscript attention to the "childless wife" argument for of"romantic attachment"? Embry doesn’t iden- federal census reports of the value of property polygamy (pp. 36-37). Although my own tify that as a specific interpretative question, owned by individuals, and the federal income work is incomplete, I found that of 250 poly- nor does she acknowledge that Smith- tax rolls for 1862-1872 (although the last gamists, 8 percent married polygamously Rosenberg’s view of "emotional segregation" identifies only the wealthiest persons). Much when the first wife was childless, 24.8 per- in nineteenth&entury American couples has of this data has already been published and/or cent married polygamously after their wife or been challenged since 1982 by Ellen K. Roth- computerized. wives had stopped childbearing, and 12.8 man, who found as much evidence of "splen- Although understandable, it is a serious percent married polygamously during a "dry dor in the grass" among American couples as overstatement that "no known official records spell" in childbearing for previously married Smith-Rosenberg found of emotional detach- were kept of [LDS] plural marriages" (p. 29). wives. Therefore, 45.6 percent of my 250 men ment. My own view is that the public norms Nauvoo Temple and Salt Lake Endowment married polygamously when it appeared that of American society and Mormon society at House records contain all sealings performed, their existing wives were unable to bear chil- the time were in favor of emotional detach- both polygamous and monogamous.