FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to steal their wives?
FAIR Answers—back to home page
Doctrinal foundation of plural marriage |
|
Introduction of plural marriage |
|
Questions about Joseph Smith and plural marriage |
|
Notable plural wives of Joseph Smith |
|
Plural marriage in Utah |
|
End of plural marriage |
Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to steal their wives?
Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send men on missions in order to "steal" their wives while they were gone?
- This claim is contradicted by historical data: ten of the husbands of the twelve "polyandrous" wives were not on missions at the time and there is insufficient or contradictory information about the other two
- The only question regards Orson Hyde, who had been on his mission for one year to two years before the sealing
- Hyde's wife Marinda was sealed to Orson following Joseph's death
Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Joseph Smith send William Law, Robert D. Foster, and Henry Jacobs on missions so that he could steal their wives?
- This claim was made in an anti-Mormon expose entitled Fifteen Years Among the Mormons
- The book claimed that Law, Foster and Jacobs were returned from missions to find their wives "blushing under the prospective honors of spiritual wifeism"
- Law and Foster never served missions, and Jacobs was not on a mission when Joseph proposed a sealing to his wife
Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?
Jump to details:
- Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?
- Orson was involved briefly with apostasy at Far West in the fall of 1838, but had returned to the Church by March 1839
- If the earlier sealing date is correct, Orson had been on his mission for about a year before the sealing
- The Hydes divorced in 1870, but Marinda was sealed to Orson following Joseph's death
- Marinda's children Orson W. Hyde and Frank Henry Hyde