Transcription
Welcome to Saints and Sources, a faithful examination of the restoration because good inspiration comes from good information. Hi, I'm John Brown and we're going to be talking about Fanny Alger today, the first possible polygamous wife to Joseph Smith. We're going to be talking about the sources, the historical sources and how there's been some debate in the historical community about their reliability.
Um, we chose this topic for two reasons. Number one, because Fanny Alger's story, because of her possible age between the ages of 14 and 18 during the alleged events, um, make it a kind of anti-Mormon talking point, um, for, uh, against Joseph Smith. And the second is, uh, the quality of the, the reliability of the witnesses. So to help me out, I've got my wonderful wife Kimberly Brown, who's an avid historical researcher.
Thank you. So I have been studying the history of the church and of polygamy for about the last three and a half years. And for me, it started with a desire to understand polygamy because it had never settled quite right. It just, something felt off with it. And I wanted to understand how it was righteous. And so I prayed earnestly and I had a prompting to read the words of Joseph Smith. And so I followed that prompting. And I have since read every book that has been written on the teachings of Joseph Smith. And I was amazed and surprised to see that Joseph Smith never spoke one word in support of polygamy. And since then, I have been digging into the sources and the evidence, and it has been very faith-promoting. I found my testimony of the gospel and the rest and Joseph Smith greatly enhanced. It can be a little unsettling at first, but we promise this is going to be a faith-promoting experience.
Uh, to help us out, we're going to have a summary of what we currently, what the current historical understanding is from Brian Hales. He's a notable historical researcher, uh, and has written several books on the topic. But Joseph, uh, is caught with Fanny and they're in a ho, they're in a barn. They were discovered by Emma in the act. Now, we could assume that was something sexual. I mean, some people want to say, "Well, it was in the act of getting married by Levi, the ceremony." Bit of a stretch. Maybe it was just in the act of something affectionate. Virtually anything affectionate would have been over the line in Emma's eyes, understandably, but she caught them and, and she's not accepting Joseph's explanation at all. You know, this is a plural marriage. God authorized it. Yeah, right. She's, she's pretty and I'm not, and this isn't working for me. And so Joseph, according to one of the accounts, gets Oliver and says, in the middle of the night, and says, "Oliver, come help me with this." Well, Oliver here hears the story and sides with Emma and thinks Joseph is having an adulterous affair. And that was his opinion probably right up until his death, um, that Joseph was not authorized to, uh, to marry her. It wasn't a marriage. And he, he made hints to the high council and members of the high council that Joseph had been guilty of adultery. He did not accept any, any story of a, of a marriage ceremony as being valid, and neither did Emma.
Years later in 1847, William McLellan had an interview with, uh, Emma. And Emma didn't want to talk about polygamy, but she did say, "Look, if you tell me things you heard, I'll tell you whether they're true or false." And in that conversation, she said Joseph was both an adulterer and a polygamist. Now, we don't know what she meant by that. My theory is that that she never did accept Fanny as a true plural marriage and thought it was adultery and Joseph had to seek repentance and all of that. But in my mind, that, that's the dichotomy. She accepted Nauvoo polygamy.
So, let's get into the sources. And the first one is going to be Oliver Cowdery. Oliver Cowdery was a major church leader in, especially between 1829 and 1838. Um, he was first counselor to Joseph Smith's, uh, presidency. So, kind of second only to Joseph Smith. He was a witness to the golden plates and he was also a scribe for Joseph Smith. If anybody had been present about or in any discussions about revelations about polygamy, Oliver Cowdery definitely would have been, uh, uh, in the room with the conversations happening. Um, now, this all happened until 1838 when, because of personal and financial issues, there was, you started to have a falling out with Joseph Smith. So around this period, um, Oliver Cowdery had been participating in making counterfeit money. He was encouraging people to bring lawsuits against the church. And he also begins insinuating or spreading rumors that Joseph Smith was having an affair with the servant girl in his home. So in April 1838, um, a trial is brought against him on these charges. There were nine of them. And Oliver never states that he had personal knowledge that Joseph Smith had an affair. But Joseph Smith denied that there was an affair and there were 12 high councilmen present at that trial. Some of these high councilmen, um, became, um, inactive. They apostatized. Some, um, stayed in the church and some became polygamous later. But all 12 of these high council minutes left this meeting, um, satisfied with whatever explanation Joseph Smith gave that it was a non-issue. None of them ever wrote anything claiming that Joseph Smith had an affair or that he had begun participating in polygamy with the servant girl.
So with this trial in 1838, Oliver Cowdery is excommunicated. Um, we don't hear anything about Fanny Alger for 34 years. But very relevant to this story is eight years after the excommunication, Oliver got a letter from his sister Phoebe, um, in which she informed him that the church was participating in polygamy. So this is 1846. Oliver Cowdery writes her a letter in response which shows that he is astonished that the church could be participating in polygamy. He says, "I can hardly think it possible that you have written us the truth. That though there may be individuals who are guilty of the iniquity spoken of, yet no such practice can be preached or adhered to as a public doctrine. Such may do for the followers of Muhammad. It may have been done some thousands of years ago. But no people professing to be governed by the pure and holy principles of the Lord Jesus can hold up their heads before the world at this distance of time and be guilty of such folly, such wrong, such abomination."
So Oliver saying this in 1846 makes it clear that, um, he was not someone who had been taught polygamy in that first decade of the church. If Joseph Smith had started believing in polygamy in 1831, Oliver is the man who would have known about it and he declares that it is not something that he believes followers of Jesus could adhere to. This, um, this account also makes it clear that Oliver Cowdery's, um, claims against Joseph could have only been an affair. And as the person making the claims, he had no firsthand knowledge. So, Joseph Smith denied it. Oliver Cowdery did not have firsthand knowledge. Emma Smith denied it. And this source should not be used, especially by, um, the church, because it has no good evidence and it is harmful.
The next source that we find in our story, um, is a man named William McLellan. Um, Brian Hales, most of his story, uh, comes from the testimony of William McLellan. So a natural question is, who is he and is this a reliable source? So William McLellan was an early leader, leader in the church. He was one of the first 12 apostles, but he apostatized in and was excommunicated for apostasy in 1838. Shortly after that, he started working tirelessly as an anti-Mormon, and that culminated in him coordinating with the Missouri government, providing testimony, and kind of, uh, amping up mob violence. And so his testimony, uh, against the Mormon church was used as justification for all of the violence from the Haun's Mill Massacre to the extermination order, Liberty Jail, and ultimately the saints being driven out of their homes in the middle of winter. All of this can be pointed to, you know, not just William McLellan, but William McLellan was a huge driver. He was essentially a Judas of the Twelve Apostles at the time. And, uh, this, uh, ultimately results in violence even towards Emma herself.
So William McLellan, when Joseph Smith was in prison in December 1838, he took that opportunity to rob the Smith household. He robbed them of everything. So Emma and the children, they lost everything down to the last blanket. Even their buttons were stolen. Emma had to borrow clothing from her neighbor so that she and her children would not freeze to death. Um, when William McLellan was caught, um, he was asked, "Why do you do it?" And she and William said, "Because I could." So Emma was well aware of William McLellan's character. It is unlikely that she would have forgotten it three years after the martyrdom. So for more details, go to the Fair LDS article about him. He is a monster.
So after learning about William McLellan's kind of initial biography, it is faithful and fair for us to ask ourselves, is this man, this kind of Judas for his time, a reliable source of information about the topic of Fiology, particularly, um, because Joseph and Emma deny it, and he is, uh, saying that Joseph married a 15-year-old girl without talking to Emma beforehand. This is quite the outlandish accusation, um, from a non-trustworthy source. The Fair LDS historians acknowledge that William McLellan had a penchant for believing and acting on secondhand information. The truth meant little to, to McLellan. In the decades after he was excommunicated, he demonstrate a will, demonstrated a willingness to lie publicly to support his personal religious goals.
Um, William McLellan in 1872 talks about a story that he had in 1847. This is right shortly after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. And, uh, in that, in the 30 year, in the 30 years between, he is actively trying to tear down the church. He does many writings and books. He's constantly talking about it, but he doesn't mention Fanny Alger at all until '72 where he says, "In '46, I was at the Mansion House with Emma." 1847. Oh, sorry. 1847. Uh, I was at the Mansion House with Emma. I sat with her and I wanted to talk about polygamy, but she didn't want to. And she said, "If you say something is, I will say if it's true or not true." And so during this, he, he brings up this fanciful tale. Yeah. So, this really does not sound like Emma Smith, who is always very clear and strong about her opinions on polygamy, but she's very coy in the, "If you guess right, I'll tell you." It's ridiculous. And, and if this is right, this is the only admission she makes in her entire life. Not to her sister, not to her best friend, but to kind of a mortal enemy and apostate William McLellan.
So the letter to Joseph Smith III says, again, I told her, Emma, that I heard that one night she missed Joseph and Fanny Alger. She went to the barn and saw him and Fanny in the barn together alone. She looked through a crack and saw the transaction. Then there are three exclamation points. She told me this, to this story, too, was verily true. And not only is this unbelievable person, unbelievable circumstance, and not consistent with what he was saying before, um, the, the idea that Emma would bear her soul to this man is just not believable.
So, if you recall, um, Brian Hales presented the curt, the church's current position that Levi Hancock performed the sealing of Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger. But, um, the problem is, um, Levi Hancock's autobiography was written in 1854. Hales was was referring to an autobiography that was written 14 years after Levi's death, almost at the turn of the century. So Levi Hancock, um, in his autobiography, he covers the Kirtland period, the 1830s, and he, Levi Hancock is the brother-in-law to Fanny Alger. Fanny Alger's name is only mentioned once in the entire autobiography. So this autobiography was written in 1854 at a time when polygamy was out in the open. It would have been a perfect time for Levi to reminisce and brag about being the first man to perform a plural marriage. Instead, he says nothing about any sort of relationship between Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger. The one sentence where he mentions Fanny's name is, "Joseph Smith asked me to take Fanny away." And then nothing else.
But in 1896, Mosiah, who was 2 years old in 1840, or in 1836, and would not have been alive when McLellan claimed that the event occurred, he, um, he adds on to, um, Levi's autobiography, um, with great liberty. I, I would say he completely rewrites. Um, there are some events that are more or less the same, but it is a, when you read them side by side, it is a drastically different book. Mosiah's version of his father's autobiography, um, adds, um, self-aggrandizing details. Another important detail that Mosiah added into Levi's autobiography was that he claimed that Joseph told Levi the words to seal Fanny Alger to Joseph Smith, something that Levi completely forgot about 20 years after the date, um, and would be impossible because it was three years before the sealing powers were were officially revealed.
So in summary, when we look at these three sources, we found them to be not credible at all, especially not credible enough to overcome, uh, the lack of physical evidence, love letters, children, things like that, as well as the personal testimony of Joseph Smith, Emma Smith, and Fanny Alger. In summary, we have Oliver Cowdery, who's going through, um, personal turmoil and had an unfounded allegation of an affair, not of polygamy, who's completely blindsided by commit, by polygamy. The second was William McLellan, a scoundrel who I don't think Emma Smith would ever sit down and talk to, let alone bear her deepest, darkest secrets to. And I definitely don't think that he would have held on to this information from 1847 all the way to 1872 and just not brought it up. And then you have, um, Mosiah Hancock's account of Levi's biography where he has to rewrite the entire Kirtland period and add significant details to support polygamy that did not exist in Levi's own autobiography. On this one specifically, the autobiography Levi makes in 1854 should be the most believable, and it mentions polygamy zero times.
With history, um, you want to rely on primary firsthand sources. The big question at the end is, what do we do with this information? I do want to leave you with my testimony that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a true and restored church, that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and all the modern, uh, prophets and apostles are absolutely needed tools to help build the kingdom of God. It can be a little scary to ask these historical questions and to look at the evidences, and it can be especially scary to feel like you're coming to a different conclusion than the current, uh, historical understanding of the church. However, this has happened throughout our history because we're built on revelation and the search for knowledge. It, and we don't believe that any single book or person has a complete, um, knowledge or information. Uh, in our past, we've been able to learn, uh, from new information and from better history and come to different conclusions. This is not anti-faith and this is completely faith-promoting.
So, our whole goal with this series is to help build people's testimonies into a growth mindset and understanding of, uh, Christ, the atonement, the restoration, uh, and specifically polygamy. Um, we know that building a growth-centered testimony enables us to be open and eager to have new light and knowledge and new information. This is a principle that's found in every aspect of the gospel. And as we do this, God will be able to trust us that when new things are revealed, that we'll be able to to handle it and to accept it and to build our lives around it. Um, and this is, uh, this, this, uh, understanding of, of revelation is the most exciting part about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some people are afraid to look closely at the history because they worry that it will be faith damaging. Um, I have found as I have looked closely at the sources, looked closely at Joseph Smith's words, that this has been a faith-affirming, a faith-enhancing study. Um, I have found my testimony of the goodness of the restoration, that God was really a part of this restoration, that Joseph Smith was who he claimed to be. My testimony of the goodness of God and his willingness to answer even hard questions is greatly enhanced. Um, this will be worth your time if you take time to study, um, Joseph Smith's history. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next time on Saints and Sources.