Journal of Mormon History Volume 11 Issue 1 Article 1 1984 Journal of Mormon History Vol. 11, 1984 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation (1984) "Journal of Mormon History Vol. 11, 1984," Journal of Mormon History: Vol. 11 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory/vol11/iss1/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Mormon History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Journal of Mormon History Vol. 11, 1984 Table of Contents • --A Time of Marriage: Monogamy and Polygamy in a Utah Town Larry Logue, 3 • --The Incidence of Mormon Polygamy in 1880: "Dixie" versus Davis Stake Lowell "Ben" Bennion, 27 • --Early Mormon Polygamy Defenses David J.Whittaker, 43 • --The Principle Revoked: A Closer Look at the Demise of Plural Marriage Jan Shipps, 65 • --The Nauvoo Neighborhood: A Little Philadelphia or a Unique City Set Upon a Hill Kenneth W. Godfrey, 79 • --Historical Theology and Theological History: Mormon Possibilities Edwin S. Gaustad, 99 NOTES, VIEWS, AND REVIEWS • --Editing the Prophet: The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith Richard L. Anderson, 113 • --An Enigma Resolved: The Emma Smith of Newell and Avery Paul M.Edwards, 119 • --Richard L. Bushman: Scholar and Apologist Marvin S. Hill, 125 • --Jan Shipps and the Mormon Tradition Klaus J. Hansen, 135 This full issue is available in Journal of Mormon History: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory/vol11/iss1/ 1 Journal of Mormon History Editorial Staff DEAN L. MAY, Editor JILL MULVAY DERR, Assistant Editor GORDON IRVING, Assistant Editor ELEANOR KNOWLES, Assistant Editor Board of Editors VALEEN TIPPETTS AVERY (1986), Flagstaff, Arizona DANEL BACHMAN (1985), LDS Institute, Logan, Utah MARIO DE PILLIS (1985), University of Massachusetts, Amherst PAUL M. EDWARDS (1987), The Temple School, Independence, Missouri MARVIN S. HILL (1986), Brigham Young University LEO LYMAN (1987), LDS Institute, Riverside, California RICHARD D. POLL (1985), Provo, Utah GRANT UNDERWOOD (1987), LDS Institute, Los Angeles, California CLARE D. VLAHOS (1986), RLDS Church, Independence, Missouri The Journal of Mormon History is published annually by the Mormon History Association, P.O. Box 7010, University Station, Provo, Utah 84602, and distributed to members upon payment of the annual dues: Student, $5.00; Regular, $7.50; Sustaining, $20.00; Friend of Mormon History, $100.00; Mormon History Association Patron, $500.00 or more. Single copies, $5.00 Articles for publication should be addressed to Dean L. May, Department of History, University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 All manuscripts are deposited in the MHA archives after review unless accompanied by self-addressed, stamped envelope. The Association assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by contributors. ISSN 0094-7342 Journal ofcMormon 'Historjr Volume 11, 1984 A Time of Marriage: Monogamy and Polygamy in a Utah Town Larry Logue 3 The Incidence of Mormon Polygamy in 1880: "Dixie" versus Davis Stake Lowell "Ben" Bennion 27 Early Mormon Polygamy Defenses David J.Whittaker 43 The Principle Revoked: A Closer Look at the Demise of Plural Marriage Jan Shipps 65 The Nauvoo Neighborhood: A Little Philadelphia or a Unique City Set Upon a Hill Kenneth W. Godfrey 79 Historical Theology and Theological History: Mormon Possibilities Edwin S. Gaustad 99 NOTES, VIEWS, AND REVIEWS Editing the Prophet: The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith Richard L. Anderson 113 An Enigma Resolved: The Emma Smith of Newell and Avery Paul M.Edwards 119 Richard L. Bushman: Scholar and Apologist Marvin S. Hill 125 Jan Shipps and the Mormon Tradition Klaus J. Hansen 135 FRONT COVER: The "Exile Wives" in Mexico. Photograph courtesy Latter-Day Saint His- torical Department. BACK COVER: Alvin Heaton and Fifteen Sons, Moccasin Springs, Ari- zona, June 1, 1907. Photograph courtesy of Latter-day Saint Historical Department. Copyright © 1984 by the Mormon History Association MORMON HISTORY ASSOCIATION AWARDS FOR 1983 BEST BOOK : D. Michael Quinn, /. Reuben Clark: The Church Years (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1983) T. EDGAR LYON AWARD FOR BEST ARTICLE David John Buerger, " 'The Fulness of the Priesthood': the Second Anointing in Latter-day Saint Theology and Practice," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 16 (Spring 1983): 10-46. FRANCIS M. CHIPMAN AWARD TO OUTSTANDING YOUNG SCHOLAR : Kenneth L. Cannon II for publication of " 'Mountain Common Law': The Extralegal Punishment of Seducers in Early Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 51 (Fall f983) : 308-27 and "After the Manifesto: Mormon Polygamy, 1890-1906," Sunstone 8 (Jan.-April 1983): 27-35. SPECIAL CITATION : To Obert C. Tanner "for continuing support for the Tanner Lecture Series at the annual meetings of the Mormon History Association." To Lavina Fielding Anderson "for capable, innovative editing of the Mormon History Association Newsletter." To Richard Howard "for distinguished research, outstanding writing and for courageously teaching Mormon history in summer camps, reunions, and other settings to professional historians and laity alike." SPECIAL AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY PUBLISHING : To Scott Kenney "for publication of the Wilford Woodruff Journals." OTHER AWARDS : The Grace Fort Arrington Award for Historical Excellence to Peggy Fletcher and the Sunstone Foundation. The William Grover and Winnifred Foster Reese History Award to Valeen Tippetts Avery for her dissertation on David Hyrum Smith (Ph.D., Northern Arizona University). A Time of Marriage: Monogamy and Polygamy in a Utah Town By Larry Logue Mormon theology has always put an extraordinary value on marriage. Church doctrine holds that a host of spirits waits in heaven to be given bodies by parents on earth, in order to begin the mortal phase of their existence. There is thus a special obligation for Mormons to marry and embody as many spirits as possible. Indeed, "no people hold more sacred the principle of marriage," wrote a church official at the turn of the century.1 The early Mormon theo- logian Parley P. Pratt declared that "to marry and multiply is a positive com- mand of Almighty God, binding on all persons of both sexes." To neglect this duty was "to fail to answer the end of our creation, and is a very great sin." Brigham Young was especially insistent on the need for marriage, saying that there should be assigned to "each of the young men in Israel, who have arrived at an age to marry, a mission to go straightway and get married to a good sister." 3 Larry Logue recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and is cur- rently a research associate at the University of Southern California. This essay was written while Dr. Logue was a Weatherhead Resident Scholar at the School of American Research. The author would like to thank the Weatherhead Foundation and the School for their gen- erous support, as well as Melvyn Hammarberg and Michael Zuckerman for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the article. 1 M. F. Cowley, Cowley's Talks on Doctrine (Chattanooga, Tenn.: Ben E. Rich, 1902), p. 179. 2 Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855), p. 165. 3 John A. Widtsoe, comp., Discourses of Brigham Young (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1925), p. 303. 4 Journal of Mormon History This essay is a study of marriage patterns in early St. George, the principal town of "Utah's Dixie." St. George was founded in 1861 at Brigham Young's direction and was given the assignment of producing cotton and other warm- weather crops for Utah. Young had overestimated the area's farming poten- tial : Dixie was plagued with poor soil, scarce rainfall, and unruly rivers. How- ever, Young was unwilling to give up this southwestern outpost, and he au- thorized public-work projects, including Utah's first Mormon temple, to keep the struggling colony viable. Continual church support, through shipments of supplies from elsewhere in Utah, through the leadership's recruitment of new settlers, and through Young's winter sojourns in St. George, allowed the town to grow steadily, although food shortages recurred well after the first years of extreme hardship. From 748 people at its founding, St. George grew to 1,142 in 1870 and 1,332 in 1880. The data for this essay have been compiled from family group sheets and other records of the families who lived in St. George in its first two decades. A first-settlers list and the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses identified the town's families in this period. The Mormon genealogical archives and a volume of genealogies for St. George's settlers4 were searched for these families' records and nearly 90 percent of the families were found, resulting in a data set which includes the vital events of 2,389 individuals. This essay will focus on the adults in the data set — those who came to St. George as parents, plus those who came of age before 1880. The importance of marriage was frequently affirmed in St. George. Ser- mons explained that "what God required [was] the regeneration of the Human family," and described marriages as "the channels which God had appointed for the bringing forth of the children of Men," allowing "the Spirits in the Celestial world to come on earth and tabernacle in the flesh, thereby to gain an experience which they could only gain by being clad in mortality." 5 A church leader "exhorted the young men and women to get married and fulfill the measure of their creation for there were ten thousands of choice Spirits every year waiting to tabernacle in the flesh." 6 A St. George resident, about to leave for a church conference in Salt Lake City, was told by Erastus Snow, the town's ecclesiastical leader, to "bring back a wife." And he did.7 In addition to this general advocacy of marriage, the church also urged members in good standing to marry more than one wife for time and eternity.