[Polygamy] to 27 Jun 1844 Marriage - Joseph to Sarah Ann Whitney, age 17 ,. Father Elder Newel K. Whitney officiating PLACE: Nauvoo, IL SOURCE: FamilySearch.com record for Joseph Smith Jr. (1)
-- Jul 27, 1842 (Wednesday)
[Joseph Smith Sermon] Location: Grove, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, USA
Source: Manuscript History of the Church (Words of Joseph Smith, 127)
Attended meeting at the Grove and listened to the Electioneering Candidates, and spoke at the close of the meeting. (2)
-- Jul 29, 1842
SANGAMO JOURNAL editorializes: "We do not know what course will be pursued by Mr. [Orson] Pratt. If he sinks under the denunciations and schemes of Joe Smith- if he fails to defend the reputation of himself and of the woman he has vowed to protect before high heaven-he will fix a stain upon his character which he can never wash out, and carry to the grave the pangs caused by 'the gnawings of the worm that never dies.'" Pratt had recently refused to sign a statement attesting to the good character of Joseph Smith after finding that Joseph had proposed marriage to Pratt's wife while Pratt was on a mission. (3)
[Lucy Mack Smith] Eliza R. Snow becomes a plural wife of Joseph Smith. (4)
-- July/August 1842
The Millennial Star (England) republishes the available text of the Book of Abraham, facsimiles included. (5)
-- Jul 31, 1842
Vinson Knight: Died in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, 31 July 1842. (6)
-- During Bef. Jul. 1842
[Polygamy] Delcena Johnson (Sherman) age 37, (19 November 1806 in Westfield, Vermont - 21 October 1854 in Salt Lake City, Utah; widow of Lyman R. Sherman) (7)
-- During Jul 1842
[Polygamy] Delcena Johnson (Age 37): In late 1831 Delcena and Lyman Sherman were visited by Mormon missionaries at their home in Pomfret, New York. They were soon baptized and gathered with the other Saints in Kirtland, Ohio. Sherman quickly became a church leader, helping to lay the cornerstone of the Kirtland Temple. Wilford Woodruff remembered Lymans spiritual nature at a particular Kirtland temple meeting: Elder Sherman sung in the gift of tongues & proclaimed great & marvelous things while clothed upon by the power & spirit of God.
In winter 1838, amid church dissention in Kirtland, Delcena and husband Sherman moved to Missouri, declared by revelation as Zion. Several months after arriving in Far West, Sherman died. Delcenas brother, Benjamin remembers, I arrived at Far West and found my sister Delcena a widow, with six small children for whom I must do my best to provide for their... support. Due to unrest in Missouri, Delcenas stay there would be short. The same winter Benjamin helped relocate her family to Illinois Here my sister Delcena with her children concluded to remain until it should be known where the next gathering place would be. The next gathering would soon take place in nearby Nauvoo.
About this time, Delcenas brother Benjamin left for Canada on a mission. He returned in July of 1842. He later wrote, The marriage of my Eldest Sister to the Prophet [Joseph Smith] was before my Return to Nauvoo. and it being...admitted I asked no questions. In Nauvoo, Delcena was living with another one of Josephs wives, Louisa Beaman. Less than a year later, Benjamin, Delcena and Louisa would be influential in introducing Delcenas younger sister, Almera, to plural marriage and persuading her to become one of Joseph wives.
After Joseph Smiths death in 1844, Delcena married Almon Babbitt. Maria Lawrence, another one of Josephs wives, would also marry Babbitt. As most of the Nauvoo citizens left for Utah, Delcena and Almon, stayed behind as Almon was involved in the disposal of church assets in Nauvoo. In 1848, Babbitt left for Utah, without Delcena. Finally in 1850 anxious to settle in the new gathering place, Delcena along with her mother and five children, struck out on her their own for Utah. She wrote a letter to her brother Benjamin, now serving a mission in Hawaii, expressing her desire, My health has been very poor for the last nine months we have been very lonesom ... we expected to have gone to the valley this season but was disapointed...I wish we were to the valley your sister Delcena...
After a delay in Council Bluffs, and enduring failing health on the journey, Delcena arrived in Utah, her final Zion, in late 1854. Her time there would be short, as she died a few months later, on October 21. (8)
Footnotes:
1 - Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm
2 - The Woodland Institute, http://www.woodlandinstitute.com
3 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
4 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books
5 - Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984
6 - Cook, Lyndon W., The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants, Seventy's Mission Bookstore, Provo UT, 1985
7 - Wikipedia, List of the Wives of Joseph Smith, Jr., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_wives_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
8 - Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith, http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/
LDS History Timeline
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