Source Links

Why It Matters – Lisa’s Story (excerpt)

Why It Matters: LDS Polygamy Trauma with Heather and Lisa (full episode)

A Face to Face Event with Elder Cook

Joseph Smith Papers Project

Brian C. Hales’ website: Joseph Smith’s Polygamy

May 26, 1844, speech by Joseph Smith

Elders’ Journal, July 1838

“Marriage” – Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 edition, Section 101

Times and Seasons, 1 September 1842

Times and Seasons, 1 October 1842

“Marriage” – Doctrine and Covenants, 1844 edition, Section 109

Brian C. Hales, “Denying the Undeniable”: Examining Early Mormon Polygamy Renunciations

pp. 27-28

Millennial Star, January 1844

Ask Us: Top Five Reference Questions about Doctrine and Covenants Publishing

Doctrine and Covenants Section 132

Genesis 2:24

Mark 10:7-8

Jacob 2:27

D&C 42:22

Brigham Young speech, August 29, 1852

Brigham’s speech as reported in the Deseret News, September 14, 1852

“To the Elders Abroad,” Times and Seasons, April 1844

Hyrum’s April 8, 1844, speech – as recorded by Thomas Bullock

Hyrum’s April 8, 1844, speech – crossed out

Brigham journal revisions

Example of text “not to go in by BY’s orders”

Hyrum’s April 8, 1844, speech – crossed out

Hyrum’s April 8, 1844, speech revised and replaced with mildly worded summary

Source note: revised version of Hyrum’s speech created in 1855/1856

Saints: The Standard of Truth (Vol. 1), p. 491

Brigham’s October 8, 1866, speech

“Biography of Charles Wesley Wandell,” Journal of History, Volume 3, No. 1, January 1910, p. 456

Joseph’s October 5, 1843, journal entry – ORIGINAL

Joseph Smith brings charges against Harrison Sagers

Times and Seasons, February 1, 1844

Joseph’s October 5, 1843, journal entry – draft with numerous revisions

Joseph’s October 5, 1843, journal entry – revised version

Gospel Topics Essays on plural marriage

Saints Unscripted, “Was Joseph Smith Actually a Polygamist??” with Brian Hales

Hyrum to brethren in Hancock county, March 15, 1844, Times and Seasons, Vol. 3

Letter to Emma Smith and the Relief Society, 31 March 1842

“The Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo”

Saints: The Standard of Truth (Vol. 1), p. 490

Brian C. Hales, “Denying the Undeniable,” pp. 42-43; p. 36

Journal of History, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 460-462

Journal of History, vol. 3., no. 2, p. 337

Brigham Young, Oct 1866, 36th Semi-Annual Conference

Gospel Tangents, Ep. 52: Did Emma Deny Joseph Practiced Polygamy?

William McLellin quoted by J. H. Beadle

Doctrine and Covenants 90:35

William McLellin brief bio

History of the Church, by B. H. Roberts, Vol. 3, p. 669

Gospel Tangents, Ep. 52: Did Emma Deny Joseph Practiced Polygamy?

The Saints’ Herald, October 1, 1879

Doctrine and Covenants Central, “Q&R! Tough Polygamy Questions with Dr. Brian Hales!”

Saints Unscripted, “Was Joseph Smith Actually a Polygamist??” with Brian Hales

The Saints’ Herald, October 1, 1879

Affidavit from Hyrum Smith

Testimonies against Chauncey Higbee

Katherine Warren, testimony against John C. Bennett, May 1842

Sangamo Journal, July 8, 1842 – image

Sangamo Journal, July 8, 1842 – transcript

Sangamo Journal, July 15, 1842 – image

Sangamo Journal, July 15, 1842 – transcript

“Happiness Letter” to Nancy Rigdon

Brigham Young speech, Sunday, August 31, 1873

The Wasp, 1842 – images

The Wasp, 1842 – transcripts

Brian C. Hales, “The Prophet Secretly Teaches Polygamy,” p. 5

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1. p. 53

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pp. 281-282

Jason Briggs 1867 interview with Emma Smith Bidamon

The Seer, January 1853

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 18, p. 235

Deseret News, June 30, 1858, p. 77 (see note 16)

Joseph Smith Papers, biographical sketch of Willard Richards

“The Mormons: An Interview with Brigham Young,” quoted in True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, vol. 16, p. 158

Widtsoe, John A., Evidences And Reconciliation, pp. 307-310 (searchable transcript)

Widtsoe excerpt

Kimball, Heber Chase, Utah History Encyclopedia

“Heber C. Kimball and Family: The Nauvoo Years,” p. 20

Stanley Kimball, Heber C. Kimball, Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer, p. 101

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, p. 209

Brigham Young, August 19, 1866, speech, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, p. 268

Journal entry noting July 12, 1843, revelation, per Willard Richards

Discourse, 16 July 1843, as reported by William Clayton

Revised July 12, 1843, journal entry, created in 1855/1856

breaking news publish clayton diaries

JSPP footnoted reference to Clayton’s July 12, 1843, journal entry (see footnote 631)

“William Clayton and the Records of Church History,” by James B. Allen

Revised version of July 12, 1843, revelation “created” in 1855/1856

Testimony of James Whitehead, Temple Lot Case, 1892, p. 96

“William Clayton affidavit,” Feb. 16, 1874

Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844

June 8, 1844, City Council minutes as reported in the Nauvoo Neighbor, June 17, 1844

June 10, 1844, City Council Minutes

Austin Cowles excommunicated

William and Jane Law excommunicated

Affidavits from William Law, Jane Law, and Austin Cowles (center column, near bottom of page)

Brian Hales, “The Prophet Secretly Teaches Polygamy”

Brian Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, “Stories of Faith”

Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, p. 22

Gary Bergera, “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists”

Quincy Whig, December 22, 1847, Vol. 10, No. 37 (paywall)

Transcript of Quincy Whig article

Church History Biographical Database – Augusta Adams Cobb

The World newspaper interview mentioning Augusta Cobb’s marriage to Brigham (see center column)

August Adams, brief bio

July 16, 1843, sermon by Joseph Smith, as recorded by William Clayton

Orson Pratt, August 29, 1852, Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 54

Heber C. Kimball, October 12, 1856, Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 203-204

Brigham Young, August 29, 1852, Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 282

Brigham Young, August 19, 1866, Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. 269.

Gospel Doctrine lesson 31, “Sealed…for Time and All Eternity” (see “Additional Teaching Ideas” #6)

“A Proposed Reinterpretation of Jacob 2:30,” by Steve Reed

Emma Lynette Conover autobiographical sketch

Annie B. Day, Reminiscences, 1899-1917, quoted in Brittany Nash, “Let’s Talk About Polygamy,” 2021 FAIR Conference

Emily Partridge reminiscence

Diary of Emmeline B. Wells, 30 September 1874

Observation by Matilda Griffing Bancroft

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, pp. 268-269, Aug. 19, 1866

Brittany Nash, “Let’s Talk About Polygamy,” 2021 FAIR Conference

Gospel Topics Essay: “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo”

Brian C. Hales list of 35 likely wives of Joseph Smith

Saints: No UnHallowed Hand (Vol. 2), p. 352

October 7, 1866, 36th Semi-Annual General Conference

Joseph F. Smith 1875 letter to Orson Pratt, quoted in Brian C. Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, p. 9

Joseph F. Smith Affidavit Book – images

Joseph F. Smith Affidavit Book – typescript

Agnes Coolbrith

Almera Johnson

Delcena Johnson

Desdemona Fullmer

Eliza Partridge

Eliza Partridge autobiography

Emily Partridge Young

Testimony of Emily Partridge Young in “Temple Lot Case”; see lines 297-375, esp. line 373

August 16, 1843, entry in William Clayton journal (transcript only)

Joseph F. Smith affidavit regarding Clayton journal entry

Eliza R. Snow

October 1, 1842, Declaration on Marriage and signatories

Eliza Snow 1869 affidavit

Elizabeth Davis

Mormon Portraits or the Truth about the Mormon Leaders, by Dr. W. Wyl, p. 54 (note that “Mrs. P.” is Sarah Pratt, and Mrs. Durfee is Elizabeth Davis Durfee)

A Narrative of the Adventures and Experience of Joseph H. Jackson in Nauvoo, p. 13

Elvira Ann Cowles

Esther Dutcher

Mosiah Hancock’s 1896 addition to his father’s autobiography

Oliver Cowdery letter to his brother Warren (see p. 2 of the following documents collected by Hales)

High Council Minutes, April 12, 1838 (see p. 370 for the reference to “the girl business”)

Far West Record: Minutes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1830-1844, pp. 167-168

William McLellin, Letter to Joseph Smith III, July 1872

Fanny Young

Flora Ann Woodworth

Hannah Ells

John Benbow 1869 affidavit

Helen Mar Kimball

Helen Mar Kimball, Why We Practice Plural Marriage (see referenced quotations on p. 4, p. 54, p. 53, and p. 51, respectively)

Louisa Beaman

Joseph Bates Noble 1869 affidavit

Don Bradley, “Knowing Brother Joseph: How the Historical Record Demonstrates the Prophet’s Religious Sincerity” (See section titled, “Reasons to Question Noble’s Dating of Events”)

Lucinda Pendleton

Lucy Walker Kimball

Lucy Walker Kimball 1892 court testimony

Malissa Lott

Lott Family Bible

Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III, pp. 245-246

(No online copy is available; excerpts are provided in the article below.)

“Was Melissa Lott Willis a Plural Wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.?”

Maria Lawrence

Sarah Lawrence

Marinda Johnson

Todd Compton, “Remember Me in My Affliction,” Journal of Mormon History, Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 48

Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, p. 229

Martha McBride

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner

“Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner; Extracts from Private Journal,” Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, p. 193-205; 250-260

Part one

Part two

Mary Heron

Nancy Maria Winchester

Eliza R. Snow’s list of supposed wives, given to historian Andrew Jenson

Olive Grey Frost

Patty Bartlett Sessions

Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions, Donna Toland Smart, ed., p. 277.

Presendia Huntington Kimball

Norman Buell traveled West with Heber C. Kimball company

Presendia Huntington Kimball brief bio

Rhoda Richards

Ruth Vose Sayers

Sarah Ann Whitney Kimball

Joseph C. Kingsbury autobiography

Purported revelation to Joseph Smith for Newel K. Whitney

1870s copy A

1870s copy B

Background for Whitney letter

Joseph Smith’s letter to the Whitney family

Sarah Cleveland

Sylvia Sessions Lyon

Blank affidavit for Sylvia Sessions Lyon

DNA testing shows Josephine Lyon was not Joseph Smith’s daughter

Zina Huntington Young

Zina Huntington Young marriages and children

The World newspaper, November 19, 1869

“Among the Mormons,” The World newspaper, November 25, 1869

“Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical View,” by Lester Bush

Brigham Young address to the Utah legislature, February 5, 1852

Brigham Young – teachings regarding African-Americans, 1863

Brigham Young – teachings regarding African-Americans, 1859

Chad L. Nielsen, “Leveraging Doubt”

2023 Article on Lester Bush

Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” April 2018

Keystone, “LDS Historian: Be Ready, the Church Is Changing”

The “Adam-God” theory

Teachings on blood atonement