Hyrum Smith, in TIMES AND SEASONS, publicly rebukes the Saints in China Creek, Hancock County: "some of your elders say, that a man having a certain priesthood, may have as many wives as he pleases, and that doctrine is taught here: I say unto you that that man teaches false doctrine, for there is no such doctrine taught here; neither is there any such thing practiced here. And any man that is found teaching privately or publicly any such doctrine, is culpable, and will stand a chance to be brought before the High Council, and lose his license and membership also: therefore he had better beware what he is about."
[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]
Times & Seasons 5:474.
ReplyDeleteBoth JS, HS, and the LDS hierarchy were denying the practice of polygamy publicly, but practicing it secretly.
ReplyDeleteBy this time Hyrum was married polygamously to two woman:
ReplyDelete1. On 24 December 1837, in Kirtland, Ohio, he married Mary Fielding Smith (1801 – 1852). They had two children.
2. In August 1843 he married Mercy Fielding Thompson, widow of Robert B. Thompson and sister to Hyrum's wife Mary, and Catherine Phillips.
Hyrum was a real work of art. As was his brother Joseph (33 wives and counting).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrum_Smith#Wives_and_children