Personal Witnesses to Mormon Polygamy
The following are statements from people who practiced polygamy during the nineteenth century and their offspring.
From Annie Richardson Johnson:
Like Joseph Smith, polygamists had sealed their testimony, not only with their blood but with the power of acceptance when the principle of Plural Marriage was revealed….This extreme test was possible only because they knew that theirs was the revealed Church of Jesus Christ directed by his priesthood and by revelation, and that blessings came through daily obedience to its principles (Jessie L. Embry, Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle, pp. 7-8).
From Parley P. Pratt:
God commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth. Does it say continue to multiply for a few years, and then the marriage contract must cease? No. When male and female are restored from the fall, they will continue to increase and multiply to all ages of eternity (Embry, MPF, p. 44).
From Ursula Rich Cole:
I guess Mira was surprised when Father asked her [to be his second wife], but she believed in the Principle. And besides, father was a good provider and by that time had accumulated property. Any girl would take a successful bishop in preference to a single man with nothing (Embry, pp. 47-52).
From Lula Roskelley Mortenson:
The deputy marshalls would corner the kids and get them to tell them who their dad and mother were and where they lived…in order to track down the polygamists. [Mother] had to teach them that they didn’t know what their name was; they didn’t know where they lived; they didn’t know who their dad or mother was (Embry, p. 21).
From Emmeline B. Wells:
My husband is too much engrossed with public affairs to devote much time or even sympathy to his family….Therefore the care and responsibility devolves upon the mother. (And one year earlier:) Oh, if my husband could love me even a little and not seem so perfectly indifferent to any sensation of that kind. He cannot know the craving of my nature, he is surrounded with love on every side, and I am cast out. Oh my poor aching heart. Where shall it rest its burden, only on the Lord, only to Him can I look. Every other avenue seems closed against me….I have no one to go to for comfort or shelter, no strong arm to lean upon, no bosom bared for me, no protection or comfort in my husband.
From Rosalia Tenney Payne:
I married with an intense desire to make a go of it. I’d get along if it cost me my skin….I felt that I was living a holy principle and that I must conform my life to it. Polygamy makes people more tolerant, more understanding, and more unselfish. It gives them more contact with reality and a wider circle to love….It’s not an easy way to live. We never fully conquer ourselves. And always it’s the little things that make it hard, the little foxes always upset the vine, you know. It’s not jealosy so much for I had my mind made up to that, but the constant pressure of adjusting yourself to another woman (Embry, pp. 137-41).
From Mary Jane Rigby Roskelley:
I used to hear that when you can’t get along with anybody, you should just leave them alone. That is what we did with Maud. We didn’t treat Maud ugly, but we just let her alone. [It was hard because] Samuel spent more time with her than with us. [She could make him] believe the moon was made of green cheese. She’s caused me more trouble than a little bit (Embry, p. 146).
From Frank Romney:
I had a friend call me one day, and she said, ‘Are Gaskell and George Romney your half brothers?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t have any half brothers. They all have two eyes and two ears and two arms and two legs.’ My childhood life was especially happy because of the many brothers and sisters that I had. I had eight full brothers and sisters and sixteen half brothers and sisters. My half brothers and sisters sometimes treated me better than my immediate family.
From Louis Brandley:
[Eliza gave] a full measure of family care as though we had been her own flesh and blood….As soon as we got there she took us into her own home and into her heart….There was no difference between my mother’s children and “Aunt Marie’s” children in her mind. She was devoted to her own children and she guarded them like a mother hen. That was understandable (Embry, p. 165).
From Edward Christian Eyring:
This record shows that at least part of the families making up this account have lived in Mormon polygamy. This will no doubt be obnoxious to some who may read it. Even some of our descendants may wish it had been otherwise. I wish to impress this fact upon the minds of my children that to discredit the principle of plural marriage is the same as discrediting any principle of the Mormon Doctrine….I testify to you that I know my father entered into the principle in full faith of receiving a generous reward from our Heavenly Father for this honest effort to live it properly. The same can be said of my father-in-law, Miles P. Romney, and I testify to you myself after twenty-eight years of experience in trying to live it that I know the principle is divine.
