[Polygamy] Mary Rollins Lightner (Age 23, already married to Adam Lightner): Mary Rollins first met Joseph Smith in early 1831. She and her family were new converts and Joseph Smith had just arrived in Kirtland from New York state. Twelve-year-old Mary remembers, when he saw me, he looked at me so earnestly, I felt almost afraid [and I thought, He can read my every thought, and I thought how blue his eyes were.] after a moment, or too he came and put his hands on my head and gave me a great Blessing, (the first I ever received). Joseph also prepared Mary for their eventually marriage: [He] told me about his great vision concerning me. He said I was the first woman God commanded him to take as a plural wife. In the fall of that year, Mary and her family left Kirtland for Zion, which was being established in Missouri.
Three years later, Mary and Joseph would be reunited when Joseph led the Zions Camp expedition from Ohio to Missouri. Mary remembers, In 1834 he was commanded to take me for a Wife, I was a thousand miles from him, he got afraid. At the close of Zions Camp, Joseph returned to Kirtland. Mary stayed in Missouri, living in Liberty and Far West. Perhaps thinking her marriage to Joseph was off, she married Adam Lightner in 1835. By 1840 they had settled in Nauvoo, and were raising two children.
Early in 1842, Joseph approached Mary about becoming his wife. According to Mary, Joseph said, The angel came to me three times between the year of 34 and 42 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me. Furthermore, Joseph told her, I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in hell should never get me from him... and I know that I shall be saved in the Kingdom of God. I have the oath of God upon it and God cannot lie. All that he gives me I shall take with me for I have that authority and that power conferred upon me.
Initially, Mary did not accept Josephs proposal. She wanted a witness from God. Mary recalls, If ever a poor mortal prayed I did. By February 1842 Joseph had convinced her it was a correct principle and she, went forward and was sealed to him. Brigham Young performed the sealing...for time, and all Eternity. Mary said her husband Adam was far away out of town at the time of her marriage to Joseph.
Mary continued to live with her first husband, Adam. Of this arrangement, she later wrote, I could tell you why I stayed with Mr. Lightner. Things the [current] leaders of the Church does not know anything about. I did just as Joseph told me to do...
After Joseph Smith was killed in 1844, Mary and her first husband Adam continued to live in Nauvoo and the Midwest. In 1863 they moved to Utah. In her elderly years, Mary wrote to an acquaintance, ...I Love to talk about the Prophet and the Early days of the Church [I] will always remember how Joseph looked...at that first sealing...he was tall and of a commanding figure, full of Life...Yes; I could tell you many things that I cannot write I remember every word he...ever said to me of importance... (1)
[Polygamy] Sylvia Sessions Lyon (Age 23, already married to Windsor Lyon): Sylvia Sessions left Maine for Zion (Missouri) with her parents, Patty and David, in June of 1837. While in Missouri, Sylvia met and married Windsor Lyon. Sylvias Mother, Patty, wrote about the wedding in her journal, Sylvia was married to Windsor P. Lyon, Joseph Smith performed the ceremony...The next day the Prophet was there and a good time it was.
Sylvia, and husband Windsor, left Missouri for Nauvoo in February of 1839. There, Windsor established a mercantile business, selling Dry Goods, Groceries, Crockery, Glass, and Hardware, Drugs, and Medicines, Paints and Dry Stuffs. By this time, they were the parents of two children.
Sylvia married Joseph Smith on February 8, 1842, when she was 23 years old. It is uncertain if her husband, Windsor, was aware of the marriage, but she did continue to live with him. Brigham Young taught that if the woman preferred a man higher in authority, and he is willing to take her and her husband gives her up-there is no Bill of divorce required...it is right in the sight of God. Brigham also explained that the woman, ...would be in a higher glory. This may help shed light on Sylvias complex marriage arrangement.
10 months later, on December 24th, Josephs journal mentions a visit to his wife, Sylvia, who was giving birth to her third child: Walked with Sec[retary Willard Richards] to see Sister Lyons who was sick. Her baby died 30 minutes before [we] arrived. Sylvia had lost two of her three children in death. On September 18, 1843, another of Josephs visits to Sylvia is recorded by William Clayton, Joseph and I rode out to borrow money, drank wine at Sister Lyons P.M. I got $50 of Sister Lyons and paid it to D.D. Yearsly.
On January 27, 1844 her only surviving child, Philofreen, also died. At this time, Sylvia was eight months pregnant with her fourth child, Josephine Rosetta Lyon. Josephine later wrote, Just prior to my mothers death in 1882 she called me to her bedside and told me that her days were numbered and before she passed away from mortality she desired to tell me something which she had kept as an entire secret from me and from all others but which she now desired to communicate to me. She then told me that I was the daughter of the Prophet Joseph Smith. (1)
-- During Feb. 1842
John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff become the editors of Times and Seasons. (2)
[Joseph Smith] Becomes managing editor of Times and Seasons. (3)
[Lucy Mack Smith] Joseph becomes editor of the Times and Seasons, with John Taylor as assistant editor. (4)
-- Mar 1, 1842
The Articles of Faith were published for the first time in the Times and Seasons in Nauvoo, Ill. Joseph Smith, in response to a request from John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat. (5)
Publication of Book of Abraham commenced in Times and Seasons. (6)
Wentworth Letter published in Times and Seasons. ee Appendix 12.] (6)
For the first time an account of Joseph Smith's first vision is published, appearing in the TIMES AND SEASONS which publishes his official account Apr 1. This account is in a letter to John Wentworth: "I retired to a secret place in a grove and began to call upon the Lord, while fervently engaged in supplication my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded and I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision and saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features, and likeness, surrounded with a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noon-day. They told me that all religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, . . ." Joseph later tells of the Sep 21, 1823 visit of "a personage [who] stood before me surrounded with a glory . . .I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of his purposes in this glorious dispensation. I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of
this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came, a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people was made known unto me . . ." In spite of this some LDS apologists dealing with Native American DNA studies later claim that all of Joseph Smith's statements concerning the origin and ancestry of Native Americans are only his "opinion." (7)
Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smiths letter to Chicago newsman John Wentworth was published in the Church newspaper Times and Seasons, telling of the rise of the Church, giving an account of the First Vision, and including statements of belief that would become the 13 Articles of Faith. (8)
[Joseph Smith] Begins publishing the Book of Abraham. (3)
[Joseph Smith] Publishes the Wentworth Letter in the Times and Seasons; in March and May, also publishes the book of Abraham in the Times and Seasons. (9)
[Lucy Mack Smith] Facsimile No. 1 from the Book of Abraham is published in the Times and Seasons along with the Wentworth letter. (4)
Footnotes:
1 - Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith, http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/
2 - Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984
3 - Highlights in the Prophet's Life, Ensign, June 1994
4 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books
5 - Church News: Historical Chronology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58765/Historical-chronology-of-The-Church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Latter-day-Saints.html
6 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Macmillan Publishing, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4, Appendix 2: A Chronology of Church History
7 - This Day in Mormon History, http://www.advent-adam.com/jakestand.html
8 - BYU Studies Journal, volume 46, no. 4: A Chronology of the Life of Joseph Smith
9 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah
LDS History Timeline
About this site: http://bit.ly/mohist
No comments:
Post a Comment