[Polygamy] Orson Hyde polygamous marriage to Mary Ann Price (1)
[Polygamy] to 27 Jun 1844 Marriage - Joseph to Flora Ann Woodworth, age 16 ,. Exact date unknown, Spring 1843 SOURCE: Elder William Clayton affidavit, in Historical Record 6:225. (2)
-- During April 1843
Eden Smith: Appointed to travel with Benjamin Leland on mission to Erie County, Pennsylvania, 10-12 April 1843. Two known children: Isaac and Hannah. (3)
-- During Spring 1843
[Emma Smith] Joseph becomes mayor of Nauvoo. (4)
[Polygamy] Flora Ann Woodworth (Age 16): By 1843 Lucien Woodworth had become a close associate of Joseph Smith and was the architect of the Nauvoo House hotel (D&C 124). In spring of that year, Joseph married Luciens, sixteen-year-old, daughter Flora Ann. William Clayton, Josephs personal secretary, noted subsequent visits the Prophet made to Flora. She is mentioned in Claytons diary more often than any of Josephs other plural wives: May 2nd: Joseph rode out today with Flora W. June 1st: Evening Joseph rode in the carriage with Flora. August 26th: Hyrum and I rode up to my house and Joseph met Mrs. Wdth and F[lora] and conversed some time. August 28th: President Joseph met Ms Wdth at my house. August 29th: A.M. at the Temple. President Joseph at my house with Miss Wdth.
In the midst of these encounters, Emma, became aware of the relationship when she recognized a gold watch that Joseph had given to Flora as a gift. On August 22nd Clayton recorded: President Joseph told me that he had difficulty with E[mma] yesterday. She rode up to Woodworths with him and called while he came to the Temple. When he returned she was demanding the gold watch of F[lora]. He reproved her for her evil treatment. On their return home she abused him much and also when he got home. He had to use harsh measures to put a stop to her abuse but finally succeeded.
The secrecy surrounding Joseph and Floras marriage caught nineteen-year-old Orange Wight by surprise. He wrote, [Having just returned from a mission] I concluded to lo[o]k about and try to pick up one or more of the young Ladies before they were all Gone, so I commenced keeping company with Flora Woodworth... [We were walking near Josephs home when he rode up in a carriage and invited us to take a ride]...he drove to the Woodworth house and we got out and went in - After we got in the house sister Woodworth took me in an other room and told me that Flora was one of Josephs wives...Sister Woodworth gave me all the information nessary, so I knew Joseph Believed and practiced Poligamy...Now as a matter of corse I at once...left [Flora] and looked for a companion in other places and where I could be more sure."
When Joseph Smith was killed in 1844, Flora became a widow at age seventeen. Later that year she married Carlos Grove, a non-Mormon. In 1846, they left Nauvoo, headed for Utah, but stopped for a time at Winter Quarters. There they met up with members of the Whitney Family. Helen Mar, another one of Joseph Smiths wives wrote, Flora...had been very sick, but is now slowly gaining her health. [She felt] condemned [for marrying a non-Mormon and] made this confession to me while I was nursing her, and said she desired to cling to Joseph hereafter.
Never making it to Utah, Flora passed away in Kanesville, Iowa around 1850. Helen Mar wrote, I never saw her again as she died at that place, leaving two or three children. Flora would have been in her mid-twenties at the time. (5)
[Polygamy] Flora Ann Woodworth age 16, William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period. wiki(5)
[Polygamy] Flora Ann Woodworth age 16, William Clayton listed her as one of Smith's wives married during the early May 1843 period. (7)
-- During spring of 1843
[George Q. Cannon] Arriving in Nauvoo in the spring of 1843, George lived with John and Leonara Taylor's family. Soon thereafter, George began work as a printer's apprentice for his uncle in the publishing office of the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor. Following the assassinations of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, George watched over the affairs of the printing business while his uncle recovered from wounds he received at the Carthage Jail. (8)
-- May 01, 1843
to 01 May 1843 Helen Mar Kimball writes of how she married Joseph Smith: "Having a great desire to be connected with the Prophet, Joseph, he (my father) offered me to him; this I afterwards learned from the Prophet's own mouth. My father had but one Ewe Lamb, but willingly laid her upon the altar: how cruel this seemed to my mother whose heartstrings were already stretched unil they were ready to snap asunder, for she had already taken Sarah Noon to wife and she thought she had made sufficient sacrifice but the Lord required more." SOURCE: Helen Mar Whitney Journal, Helen Mar Autobiography, Womans Exponent, 1880 and recently reprinted in A Woman's view Joseph Smith gave her only 24 hours to decide on whether or not to marry him. Of this, Helen wrote: "[my father] left me to reflect upon it for the next twenty four hours. ... I was sceptical - one minute believed, then doubted. I thought of the love and tenderness that he felt for his only daughter, and I knew that he would no
t cast me off, and this was the only convincing proof That I had of its being right." Smith promises family salvation to marry 14-year-old . The next morning, Joseph Smith finally appeared himself to explain the "law of Celestial Marriage" and claim his teen bride. In her memoir, Helen wrote, "After which he said to me, 'if you take this step, it will ensure your eternal salvation and exaltation and that of your father's household and all of your kindred.' This promise was so great that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward." Helen also writes about her mother's reaction to all of this: "None but God and his angels could see my mother's bleeding heart - when Joseph asked her if she was willing, she replied 'If Helen is willing I have nothing more to say." "She had witnessed the sufferings of others, who were older and who better understood the step they were taking, and to see her child, who had yet seen her fifteenth summer, following the same thorny path
, in her mind she saw the misery which was as sure to come as the sun was to rise and set; but it was hidden from me." Helen thought her marriage to Joseph Smith was only dynastic. But to her surprise, it was more. Helen confided to a close friend in Nauvoo: "I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me, by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it." SOURCE: Mormon Polygamy: A History by LDS member Richard S. Van Wagoner, p. 53. (9)
Footnotes:
1 - Smith, George D (Spring 1994), "Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-46: A Preliminary Demographic Report", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27
2 - Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm
3 - 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
4 - Emma Smith, Woman of Faith, http://emmasmithmormon.com
5 - Remembering the Wives of Joseph Smith, http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/
6 - Wikipedia, List of the Wives of Joseph Smith, Jr., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_wives_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
7 - Wikipedia, List of the Wives of Joseph Smith, Jr., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_wives_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.
8 - Utah History Encyclopedia: George Q. Cannon, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/c/CANNON%2CGEORGE.html
9 - Joseph Smith Polygamy Timeline, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/JS_Polygamy_Timeline.htm
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