There was something compulsory about all phases of life in Utah during
Brigham Young's regime--the form of employment for the men, the domestic
regulations of the women, the church duties each should perform, and
even the location in the territory which they should call their home.
Not only did large numbers of the foreign immigrants find themselves in
debt to the church on their arrival, and become compelled in this way
to labor on the "public works" as they might be ordered, but the skilled
mechanics who brought their tools with them in most cases found on their
arrival that existence in Utah meant a contest with the soil for food.
Even when a mechanic obtained employment at his trade it was in the
ruder branches.
Mormon authorities have always tried to show that Americans have
predominated in their community. Tullidge classes the population in this
order: Americans, English, Scandinavian (these claim one-fifth of the
Mormon population of Utah), Scotch, Welsh, Germans, and a few Irish,
French, Italians, and Swiss. The combination of new-comers and the
emigrants from Nauvoo made a rude society of fanatics,* before whom
there was held out enough prospect of gain in land values (scarcely one
of the immigrants had ever been a landowner) to overcome a good deal
of the discontent natural to their mode of life, and who, in religious
matters, were held in control by a priesthood, against whom they could
not rebel without endangering that hope of heaven which had induced them
to journey across the ocean. There are roughness and lawlessness in all
frontier settlements, but this Mormon community differed from all other
gatherings of new population in the American West. It did not migrate
of its own accord, attracted by a fertile soil or precious ores; it was
induced to migrate, not without misrepresentation concerning material
prospects, it is true, but mainly because of the hope that by doing so
it would share in the blessings and protection of a Zion. The gambling
hell and the dance hall, which form principal features of frontier
mining settlements, were wanting in Salt Lake City, and the absence of
the brothel was pointed to as evidence of the moral effect of polygamy.
* "I have discovered thus early (1852) that little deference is
paid to women. Repeatedly, in my long walk to our boarding house, I was
obliged to retreat back from the [street] crossing places and stand on
one side for men to cross over. There are said to be a great many of
the lower order of English here, and this rudeness, so unusual with
our countrymen, may proceed from them."--Mrs. Ferris. "Life among the
Mormons."
The system of plural marriages left its impress all over the home life
of the territory. Many of the Mormon leaders, as we have seen, had more
wives than one when they made their first trip across the plains, and
the practice of polygamy, while denied on occasion, was not concealed
from the time the settlement was made in the valley to the date of its
public proclamation. In the early days, a man with more than one wife
provided for them according to his means. Young began with quarters
better than the average, but modest in their way, and finally occupied
the big buildings which cost him many thousands of dollars. If a man
with several wives had the means to do so, he would build a long, low
dwelling, with an outside door for each wife, and thus house all under
the same roof in a sort of separate barracks. When Gunnison wrote, in
1852, there were many instances in which more than one wife shared the
same house when it contained only one apartment, but he said: "It is
usual to board out the extra ones, who most frequently pay their own way
by sewing, and other female employments." Mrs. Ferris wrote: "The mass
of the dwellings are small, low, and hutlike. Some of them literally
swarmed with women and children, and had an aspect of extreme want of
neatness.... One family, in which there were two wives, was living in a
small hut--three children very sick [with scarlet fever]--two beds and a
cook-stove in the same room, creating the air of a pest-house."*
* "Life among the Mormons," pp. 111, 145.
Hyde, describing the city in 1857, thus enumerated the home
accommodations of some of the leaders:--"A very pretty house on the east
side was occupied by the late J. M. Grant and his five wives. A large
barrack-like house on the corner is tenanted by Ezra T. Benson and his
four ladies. A large but mean-looking house to the west was inhabited by
the late Parley P. Pratt and his nine wives. In that long, dirty row of
single rooms, half hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden, lived
Dr. Richard and his eleven wives. Wilford Woodruff and five wives reside
in another large house still further west. O. Pratt and some four or
five wives occupy an adjacent building. Looking toward the north, we
espy a whole block covered with houses, barns, gardens, and orchards.
In these dwell H. C. Kimball and his eighteen or twenty wives, their
families and dependents."*
* "Mormonism," p. 34. The number of wives of the church leaders
decreased in later years. Beadle, giving the number of wives "supposed
to appertain to each" in 1882, credits President Taylor with four (three
having died), and the Apostles with an average of three each, Erastus
Snow having five, and four others only two each.
Horace Greeley, prejudiced as he was in favor of the Mormons when he
visited Salt Lake City in 1859, was forced to observe:--"The degradation
(or, if you please, the restriction) of woman to the single office of
childbearing and its accessories is an inevitable consequence of the
system here paramount. I have not observed a sign in the streets, an
advertisement in the journals, of this Mormon metropolis, whereby a
woman proposes to do anything whatever. No Mormon has ever cited to me
his wife's or any woman's opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has
been introduced or spoken to me; and, though I have been asked to
visit Mormons in their houses, no one has spoken of his wife (or
wives) desiring to see me, or his desiring me to make her (or their)
acquaintance, or voluntarily indicated the existence of such a being or
beings."*
* "Overland journey," p. 217.
Woman's natural jealousy, and the suffering that a loving wife would
endure when called upon to share her husband's affection and her
home with other women, would seem to form a sort of natural check to
polygamous marriages. But in Utah this check was overcome both by the
absolute power of the priesthood over their flock, and by the adroit
device of making polygamy not merely permissive, but essential to
eternal salvation. That the many wives of even so exalted a prophet as
Brigham Young could become rebellious is shown by the language employed
by him in his discourse of September 21, 1856, of which the following
will suffice as a specimen:--"Men will say, 'My wife, though a most
excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife;
no, not a happy day for a year.'... I wish my women to understand that
what I am going to say is for them, as well as all others, and I want
those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women in this
community, and then write it back to the states, and do as you please
with it. I am going to give you from this time till the 6th day of
October next for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to
stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman
at liberty, and say to them, 'Now go your way, my women with the rest;
go your way.' And my wives have got to do one of two things; either
round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and
live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them
about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and
fighting all around me. I will set all at liberty. What, first wife
too?' Yes, I will liberate you all. I know what my women will say; they
will say, 'You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.' But I
want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners... .
Sisters, I am not joking."*
* Journal of Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 55.
Grant, on the same day, in connection with his presentation of the
doctrine of blood atonement, declared that there was "scarcely a mother
in Israel" who would not, if they could, "break asunder the cable of
the Church in Christ; and they talk it to their husbands, to their
daughters, and to their neighbors, and say that they have not seen a
week's happiness since they became acquainted with that law, or since
their husbands took a second wife."* The coarse and plain-spoken H.
C. Kimball, in a discourse in the Tabernacle, November 9, 1856, thus
defined the duty of polygamous wives, "It is the duty of a woman to be
obedient to her husband, and, unless she is, I would not give a damn
for all her queenly right or authority, nor for her either, if she
will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the principles of
plurality."**
* Ibid, P. 52.
** Deseret News, Vol. VI, p. 291.
Gentile observers were amazed, in the earlier days of Utah, to see to
what lengths the fanatical teachings of the church officers would be
accepted by women. Thus Mrs. Ferris found that the explanation of the
willingness of many young women in Utah to be married to venerable
church officers, who already had harems, was their belief that they
could only be "saved" if married or sealed to a faithful Saint, and that
an older man was less likely to apostatize, and so carry his wives to
perdition with him, than a young one; therefore "it became an object
with these silly fools to get into the harems of the priests and
elders."
If this advantage of the church officers in the selection of new wives
did not avail, other means were employed,*as in the notorious San Pete
case. The officers remaining at home did not hesitate to insist on a
fair division of the spoils (that is, the marriageable immigrants),
as is shown by the following remarks of Heber C. Kimball to some
missionaries about starting out: "Let truth and righteousness be your
motto, and don't go into the world for anything but to preach the
Gospel, build up the Kingdom of God, and gather the sheep into the fold.
You are sent out as shepherds to gather the sheep together; and remember
that they are not your sheep; they belong to Him that sends you. Then
don't make a choice of any of those sheep; don't make selections before
they are brought home and put into the fold. You understand that. Amen."
Mr. Ferris thus described the use of his priestly power made by Wilford
Woodruff, who, as head of the church in later years, gave out the advice
about abandoning polygamy: "Woodruff has a regular system of changing
his harem. He takes in one or more young girls, and so manages, after he
tires of them, that they are glad to ask for a divorce, after which he
beats the bush for recruits. He took a fresh one, about fourteen years
old, in March, 1853, and will probably get rid of her in the course of
the ensuing summer." **
* Conan Doyle's story, "A Study in scarlet," is founded on the
use of this power.
** "Utah and the Mormons," p. 255.
Mrs. Waite thus relates a conversation she had with a Mormon wife about
her husband going into polygamy:--"'Oh, it is hard,' she said, 'very
hard; but no matter, we must bear it. It is a correct principle, and
there is no salvation without it. We had one [wife] but it was so hard,
both for my husband and myself, that we could not endure it, and she
left us at the end of seven months. She had been with us as a servant
several months, and was a good girl; but as soon as she was made a wife
she became insolent, and told me she had as good a right to the house
and things as I had, and you know that didn't suit me well. But,'
continued she, 'I wish we had kept her, and I had borne everything, for
we have GOT TO HAVE ONE, and don't you think it would be pleasanter to
have one you had known than a stranger?'"*
* "The Mormon Prophet," p. 260. Many accounts of the feeling
of first wives regarding polygamy may be found in this book and in Mrs.
Stenhouse's "Tell it All."
The voice which the first wife had in the matter was defined in the
Seer (Vol. I, p. 41). If she objected, she could state her objection to
President Young, who, if he found the reason sufficient, could forbid
the marriage; but if he considered that her reason was not good, then
the marriage could take place, and "he [the husband] will be justified,
and she will be condemned, because she did not give them unto him as
Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and as Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and
Zilpah to their husband, Jacob." Young's dictatorship in the choice of
wives was equally absolute. "No man in Utah," said the Seer (Vol. I, p.
31), "who already has a wife, and who may desire to obtain another, has
any right to make any proposition of marriage to a lady until he has
consulted the President of the whole church, and through him obtained a
revelation from God as to whether it would be pleasing in His sight."
The authority of the priesthood was always exerted to compel at least
every prominent member of the church to take more wives than one. "For
a man to be confined to one woman is a small business," said Kimball in
the Tabernacle, on April 4, 1857. This influence coerced Stenhouse to
take as his second wife a fourteen-year-old daughter of Parley P. Pratt,
although he loved his legal wife, and she had told him that she would
not live with him if he married again, and although his intimate friend,
Superintendent Cooke, of the Overland Stage Company, to save him,
threatened to prosecute him under the law against bigamy if he yielded.*
Another illustration, given by Mrs. Waite, may be cited. Kimball,
calling on a Prussian immigrant named Taussig one day, asked him how he
was doing and how many wives he had, and on being told that he had two,
replied, "That is not enough. You must take a couple more. I'll send
them to you." The narrative continues:--
* When Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse left the church at the time of the
"New Movement" their daughter, who was a polygamous wife of Brigham
Young's son, decided with the church and refused even to speak with her
parents.
"On the following evening, when the brother returned home, he found two
women sitting there. His first wife said, 'Brother Taussig' (all the
women call their husbands brother), 'these are the Sisters Pratt.' They
were two widows of Parley P. Pratt. One of the ladies, Sarah, then said,
'Brother Taussig, Brother Kimball told us to call on you, and you know
what for.' 'Yes, ladies,' replied Brother Taussig, 'but it is a very
hard task for me to marry two' The other remarked, 'Brother Kimball told
us you were doing a very good business and could support more women.'
Sarah then took up the conversation, 'Well, Brother Taussig, I want to
get married anyhow.' The good brother replied, 'Well, ladies, I will see
what I can do and let you know."*
* "The Mormon Prophet," p. 258.
Brother Taussig compromised the matter with the Bishop of his ward by
marrying Sarah, but she did not like her new home, and he was allowed to
divorce her on payment of $10 to Brigham Young!
Each polygamous family was, of course, governed in accordance with the
character of its head: a kind man would treat all his wives kindly,
however decided a preference he might show for one; and under a brute
all would be unhappy. Young, in his earlier days at Salt Lake City, used
to assemble all his family for prayers, and have a kind word for each of
the women, and all ate at a common table after his permanent residences
were built. "Brigham's wives," says Hyde, "although poorly clothed and
hard worked, are still very infatuated with their system, very devout in
their religion, very devoted to their children. They content themselves
with his kindness as they cannot obtain his love."* He kept no servants,
the wives performing all the household work, and one of them acting as
teacher to her own and the others' children. As the excuse for marriage
with the Mormons is childbearing, the older wives were practically
discarded, taking the place of examples of piety and of spiritual
advisers.
* "Mormonism," p. 164.
** How far this doctrine was not observed may be noted in the
following remarks of H. C. Kimball in the Tabernacle, on February 1,
1857: "They [his wives] have got to live their religion, serve their
God, and do right as well as myself. Suppose that I lose the whole of
them before I go into the spiritual world, but that I have been a good,
faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had
favor with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute
there? No. The Lord says there are more there than there are here. They
have been increasing there; they increase there a great deal faster than
they do here, because there is no obstruction. They do not call upon the
doctors to kill their offspring. In this world very many of the doctors
are studying to diminish the human race. In the spiritual world... we
will go to Brother Joseph... and he will say to us, 'Come along, my
boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?'
'They are back yonder; they would not follow us.' 'Never mind,'
says Joseph, 'here are thousands; have all you want.'"--Journal of
Discourses, Vol. IV, p. 209.
A summing up of the many-sided evils of polygamy was thus presented by
President Cleveland in his first annual message:--"The strength,
the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation rests upon our homes,
established by the law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by
parental authority, and sanctified by parental love. These are not the
homes of polygamy.
"The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mould the
characters and guide the actions of their sons, live according to God's
holy ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of
the father of her children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood,
unperverted and unpolluted, upon all within her pure and wholesome
family circle. These are not the cheerless, crushed, and unwomanly
mothers of polygamy.
"The fathers of our families are the best citizens of the Republic. Wife
and children are the sources of patriotism, and conjugal and parental
affection beget devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled with
plural marriage, is surrounded in his single home with his wife and
children, has a status in the country which inspires him with respect
for its laws and courage for its defence. These are not the fathers of
polygamous families."