So I'm not real familiar with this portion of LDS history, but I've heard of stories back in the 1800's where single women were converted in Europe with without being told of the polygamy and when they arrived in Utah they were then married off to horny old polygamists, including the missionaries who taught them.

Is anyone more familiar with this? Was this a rampant, institutionalized practice or were there only a few cases of this?

Their wives as home supported themselves and their entire family while he was gone. Then the married missionary would return with a new Swedish or English wife. Married men were sent on missions regularly, called by the prophet. He also called men to go to distant 'settlements' or outposts to live.

the story goes my grandmother's grandmother had a nervous collapse because rumor had it her husband, on his third mission to Sweden, had taken another wife, after which he came home to never leave again.

It's certainly true. In the Nauvoo period in particular, the membership was mostly unaware of the practice, and so the young ladies got a shock when they arrived and were approached to participate.

In working on another members family history, I came across an example of a British convert who travelled to Utah, went back to the UK on a mission, returned to Utah accompanied by two sisters who he had converted- one of whom he had already married. In due time the second sister became a plural wife.

I came across another British single sister who was sealed to a younger American man in Utah who had travelled across with her after his mission. He had 6 wives- all European. I don't know if they met while he was on his mission.

No idea how widespread the practice was, but probably not uncommon.

A poster named Victoria posted this back in April

I found this article from Sunday, April 4th, 1915

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1915-04-04/ed-1/seq-44.pdf

Here is the continued page: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1915-04-04/ed-1/seq-46.pdf

It's horrifying, and what needs to be clear, whenever polygamy is given an apologist answer is that there were hundreds if not thousands of young women deceived by Mormon missionaries in Europe about polygamy.

Any honest person knows the primary reason these Europeans left was for the American opportunity. Wrd got back to Europe that those young women who went with the Mormons could end up in polygamy. The missionaries would lie to them, especially prior to 1852, but after as well.

Read the story, it breaks the heart. She did not deserve this cult, it lusted after her and consumed her with no thought for her will.

I've wondered about this. My Danish Grandmother's story and did she somehow escape polygamy? She cane to Utah by ship and train, by her self, 18 years old, in the 1870's to marry a mormon missionary from cache co. She was met by the brother who told her the missionary had a change of mind or heart. She was left standing on the dock at Ogden depot. She didn't speak English, but somehow found her way to Ephraim and sometime later found a young Danish guy. A better grandpa that the jerk from cache co. She had bad feelings towards the missionarys. At 19 I approached my Dad and told him I'd like to go on a mission, he discouraged me.

Heber J Grant's mother's story goes this way.

The 1852 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, published in Liverpool lied about polygamy.

"Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy; we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again."
http://archive.org/stream/bookofdoctrineco01unse#page/330/mode/2up

They told the people of England that they did not believe in polygamy while people in Utah were practicing it.

As a young teenager. She had her heart set on marrying the missionary she'd met (also Scottish), but he hadn't told her about the first wife...

She settled for second wife status, and I used to joke with tourists that "The happiest day of her life was when her husband's first wife died."

I've had to amend the story in light of new historical developments... I used to say, "We don't think she was murdered, but the old boy never dared remarry."

Except that it turns out the woman was murdered (we've just learned this one in the last few months). There's probably no tie to my great great grandmother, since a man is identified as the killer (Will Bagley thought he recognized the name), but it is getting interesting.

Stay tuned...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2013 06:46AM by SL Cabbie.

SL Cabbie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As a young teenager. She had her heart set on
> marrying the missionary she'd met (also Scottish),
> but he hadn't told her about the first wife...
>
> She settled for second wife status, and I used to
> joke with tourists that "The happiest day of her
> life was when her husband's first wife died."
>
> I've had to amend the story in light of new
> historical developments... I used to say, "We
> don't think she was murdered, but the old boy
> never dared remarry."
>
> Except that it turns out the woman was murdered
> (we've just learned this one in the last few
> months). There's probably no tie to my great great
> grandmother, since a man is identified as the
> killer (Will Bagley thought he recognized the
> name), but it is getting interesting.
>
> Stay tuned...


Staying tuned.

This is the place.

Drive on.

In her biography "Tell It All", Stenhouse relates several stories about how her fellow English converts were deceived about polygamy by missionaries. Her own husband promised he would never take another wife but was later pressured into it by church leaders. She has nothing good to say about Brigham Young. She tells some very sad stories about the suffering many wives endured while living "the principle" including the suicide of one of Young 's daughter's.

Who has the Heber C Kimball quote about the missionaries marrying the young convert girls prior to arrival in SLC and not letting the old leaders get first shot?

OK, I found it myself: Speaking to a group of departing missionaries... "Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. The brother missionaries have been in the habit of picking out the prettiest women for themselves before they get here, and bringing on the ugly ones for us; hereafter you have to bring them all here before taking any of them, and let us all have a fair shake." - Apostle Heber C. Kimball, The Lion of the Lord, New York, 1969, pp.129-30.

But he was only speaking as a comedian, not a prophet...

Nauseating

and many other awful words not fit to include here. These comments were from folks of my grandfather's generation, those raised around the turn of the last century (around 1911 onwards). Hans Peter Freece had toured Britain exposing the practice and the churches rallied against the mormons and their irreverence and lasciviousness (words I've seen but can't remember where). However, my own grandfather constantly told me of his fear that I'd have a terrible fate should I 'continue' associating with the mormons.

My generation were raised with these warnings (despite my mother's conversion). Therefore I was raised in the shadow of a fervent anti-mormon society here in the North of England, where apparently a lot of the bad stuff was happening, including fraudulent baptisms.

I thought we were special because we had to keep quiet - how wrong I was.

Briggy

In the book Devil's Gate, it talks about the horny polygamist meeting the handcart companies, and not only swooping down on the single and recently widowed women, but in many cases, getting the married women off alone, then proposing to them. In many cases, the polygamist man holding impressive calling titles, and having his wives doing the dirty work, would be able to succeed in getting these gullible women.

It was one, but far from the only reason, that so many handcart survivors were later part of an apostate wagon train that left in the middle of a winter blizzard, just months after arriving, in order to escape Utah. These guys actually credited the snow storm for saving them, because they felt it was the only reason they were not ambushed by Brigham's boys, and they were able to deal with the cold much better preparing for it on their own, rather then by the council the prophet gave immigrants coming into Utah.

That is one twist I have never heard of. Please elaborate or give sources.

A beautifully written account of how this disturbing practice was unfolding was published in the Nauvoo Expositor (available online).

The missionaries were predators: every single woman was a prey, and the married women could be as well.

I'm reading the biography of Orson F. Whitney, who went to England on a mission 1881-83, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a baby. He was not yet a polygamist, but definitely on the look-out for another wife. (He made this clear to his wife before they were married.) The story of his "infatuation" with a teenager in London is disgusting--he was definitely unfaithful to his wife at home, although thanks to the girls vigilant mother, he didn't get too far with it.

The church announced plural marriage in the January 1853 edition of the Millennial Star--nearly half the membership of the church in Great Britain either left Mormonism or was exed for apostasy. "Mormons in Victorian Britain" by Jensen and Thorp, (1989) tells the story. And a lot were motivated to emigrate to Utah as soon as possible.

Same here.

My Svedish/Danish granny Rebecca was sweet 16 and fresh off the boat when 'pappa' bedded her..... down in ole Mejico.

My great-grandmother arrived from Sweden as a young woman and was married off within two months as a second wife. Don't know for sure that she didn't know what she was in for, but I'd say it's a good guess that she did not know about polygamy before she got here.

Forbiddencokedrinker- Please elaborate and give sources for your info if you would. I have never heard of anyone escaping. The only stories I have heard are the nauseating ones about how none of the handcart pioneers ever left the faith, and always had the strongest testimonies etc, etc, etc. I have wondered if some people had tried to leave and the danites chased them down. I have never heard any of THOSE stories in sunday school.

Google the Millennial Star, August 1842. Under the section heading "Apostasy" you will read the character assassination of a female convert who wrote home to England to warn other converts about polygamy.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C5sI8_oDN8Y

A video on the subject. Not great, but sources. It doesn't take long to see that Mormon leadership has been actively using double speak since its creation.

Oh my, that video, while not great, is still powerful; so there was a D&C published a year before D&C 132 that explicitly denied what was already going on that required Joe Smith to get....D&C 132! It does make the brain hurt, and makes me even more angry when apologists bring up that line that JS "understood the principle" before the revelation, and the FAIR article is a joke.

Oh boy.....

" Married men were sent on missions regularly, called by the prophet. He also called men to go to distant 'settlements' or outposts to live." - this really shows how focused the CULT is on FAMILIES ARE EVERYTHING, everything unless the profit has hot pants again that is.

They started the DEAD BEAT dad trend in the US way back then.