27. Polygamy now taught as “not doctrinal.”
September 9, 202425. Brigham Young Claims Emma tried to Poison Joseph
September 11, 2024
Brigham Young had Zina Huntington (one of Joseph Smith's plural wives) stop living with her faithful, legal husband so she could live as one of Brigham's wives.
Table of contents
- Brigham Young had Zina Huntington (one of Joseph Smith's plural wives) stop living with her faithful, legal husband so she could live as one of Brigham's wives.
- A1) Zina was married to Henry Bailey Jacobs, a faithful LDS member, on March 7, 1841.
- A2) While Zina was married to Henry Jacobs, Joseph Smith also married her in Polyandry (woman married to more than one man).
- A3) Zina originally said no to being married to Joseph, but changed her mind when she was told that an angel was threatening Joseph’s “position and life” over not being married polygamously (although at this time Joseph had already married other women).
- A4) Zina had been one of Joseph’s polyandrous marriages. After Joseph’s death, Brigham had Zina sealed to himself as another plural wife.
- A5) Henry always affirmed himself as being faithful and was clear he never wanted to leave Zina.
- Issues these Facts Raise
- Questions these Facts Raise
A1) Zina was married to Henry Bailey Jacobs, a faithful LDS member, on March 7, 1841.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
In 1840, Zina met Henry Jacobs and agreed to wed him. Oa Cannon, Zina’s biographer, wrote:
While Zina and her brothers were living with the Prophet and Emma she met and became engaged to Henry Bailey Jacobs. They asked the Prophet to perform their marriage ceremony which was to be held at the County [sic] Clerk’s office [March 7, 1841]. When the couple arrived the Prophet was not there. After a wait, they decided to ask the clerk, John C. Bennett, if he would perform the marriage, which he did. When the couple later met the Prophet, Zina asked him why he hadn’t come as he had promised. He told her it had been made known to him that she was to be his Celestial Wife and he could not give to another one who had been given to him.
Source: Oa Jacobs Cannon, “History of Henry Bailey Jacobs,” MS 6891 1, CHL.
Found online at: https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/plural-wives-overview/zina-diantha-huntington/#back_ajs-fn-id_1-5674
A2) While Zina was married to Henry Jacobs, Joseph Smith also married her in Polyandry (woman married to more than one man).
Supporting Sources and Quotes
On May 1, 1869, Zina Huntington signed the following affidavit:
Be it remembered that on this first day of May A.D. eighteen sixty nine before me Elias Smith Probate Judge for Said County personally appeared, Zina Diantha Huntington ^Young^ who was by me Sworn in due form of law, and upon her oath Saith, that on the twenty-Seventh day of October A.D. 1841, at the City of Nauvoo, County of Hancock, State of Illinois, She was married or Sealed to Joseph Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, by Dimick B. Huntington, a High Priest in Said Church, according to the laws of the same; regulating marriage; In the presence of Fanny Maria Huntington.
Source: Joseph F. Smith Affidavit Books, 1:5, CHL.
Found online at: https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/plural-wives-overview/zina-diantha-huntington/#link_ajs-fn-id_2-5674
A3) Zina originally said no to being married to Joseph, but changed her mind when she was told that an angel was threatening Joseph’s “position and life” over not being married polygamously (although at this time Joseph had already married other women).
Supporting Sources and Quotes
In October 1841, Joseph married Zina Huntington Jacobs, wife of Henry Jacobs. Zina was a pious young woman of twenty who had spoken in tongues and heard angels singing. Joseph and Emma had cared for Zina and her siblings for three months in 1839–40 after their mother died. When Joseph explained plural marriage to her the following year, her first response was to resist. Accepting Henry, who was courting her at the time, meant saying no to Joseph.
Zina changed her mind after her brother told her about the angel threatening Joseph’s “position and his life.” That image plus her own inquiries convinced her. “I searched the scripture & buy humble prayer to my Heavenly Father I obtained a testimony for my self that God had required that order to be established in this church.” Even after this assurance, she despaired of the consequences. “I mad[e] a greater sacrifise than to give my life for I never anticipated a gain to be looked uppon as an honerable woman by those I dearly loved.” On October 27, 1841, her brother Dimick performed the marriage on the banks of the Mississippi.
Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Chapter 25 (under section titled “Marriage”)
A4) Zina had been one of Joseph’s polyandrous marriages. After Joseph’s death, Brigham had Zina sealed to himself as another plural wife.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
In the case of Zina Huntington Jacobs and Henry Jacobs–often used as an example of Smith marrying a woman whose marriage was unhappy–the Mormon leader married her just seven months after she married Jacobs, and then she stayed with Jacobs for years after Smith’s death. Then the separation was forced when Brigham Young (who had married Zina polyandrously in the Nauvoo temple) sent Jacobs on a mission to England and began living with Zina himself.
Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith.
Zina continued to live with her legal husband, Henry, until 1847. As they were moving west across Iowa during the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Brigham Young sent Henry on a mission to England. While he was away, Zina began living with Brigham.
“The final episode in in Henry’s marriage to Zina was approaching. Zina now knew that she was going to live as Brigham Young’s earthly wife, not as Henry’s, but Henry apparently did not understand this fully. On June 20 she wrote a letter to [her sister-in-law]…Mary Neal Huntington…she apparently told Mary that she was living with Brigham Young and was no longer married to Henry…Henry was left feeling depressed and resigned…
“Before this Henry may have seen Zina’s marriage to Brigham Young as ritual only; she would continue to live with him. Now he probably realized that she had in effect divorced him completely. However one might understand Zina preferring Brigham to Henry, one has to sympathize with Henry, considering how the divorce was effected – while he was far away, and after the polyandrous ‘second’ husband himself had sent him on a mission.” (Compton, 91-92)
Though Zina “effectively” divorced Henry, no legal divorce was obtained. In a General Conference address on October 8, 1861 Brigham Young explained,
“There was another way – in which a woman could leave a man – if the woman preferred – another man higher in authority & he is willing to take her. & her husband gives her up – there is no Bill of divorce required in the case it is right in the sight of God.” (Quoted in Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, 45)
This method of practicing polyandry contrasted sharply with Joseph Smith’s. Smith had never required any of his polyandrous wives to leave their first husbands and never lived openly with any of his polyandrous wives. Another problematic aspect of Zina’s relationship to Young was that they apparently did not write Henry and tell him of the development.
Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Kindle Edition. loc. 2439-41.
Before this Henry may have seen Zina’s marriage to Brigham as ritual only; she would continue to live with him. Now he probably realized that she had in effect divorced him completely. However one might understand Zina preferring Brigham to Henry, one has to sympathize with Henry, considering how the divorce was effected–while he was far away, and after the polyandrous “second” husband himself had sent him on a mission.
Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Kindle Edition. loc. 2482-84.
A5) Henry always affirmed himself as being faithful and was clear he never wanted to leave Zina.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
Though Henry’s wife and children then belonged to Brigham Young, Henry never stopped loving them and hoped for a future where all would be made right.
Henry would write to Zina of his longing:
O how happy I should be if I only could see you and the little Children bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh I mean all I would like to see the litle babe; I Zina wish you to prospere I wish you new what I have to bar [bear] my feelings ar indiscribeable I am unhappy ther is now [no] peace for poor me my pleasure is you my Comfort has vanished the glory of day has flead like the fog before a plesant morning my youthful days are yet in my mind yes never to be bloted out I have had meny a good Dream about you and the litle ones I have imagin[ed] myself at home with you and the Little Boys uppon my kneese a singing and playing with them wht what a comfort what a Joyajoy to think uppon those days that are gone by O Heaven Bless me even poor me shall I shall I ever see them again
I think of of you often very often Zina ar you happy do you enjoy your life as pleasent as you did with me when I was at home with you and the Children when we could say our prayers together and speak together in toungs and Bless each other in the name of the Lord O I think of those happy days that ar past when I sleep the sleep of death then I will not for get you and my little lambs I love my affections I love my Children. O Zina can I ever will I ever get you again answer the question please If you are at Liberty to answer the question write me soon as you get this my troubles her [here] ar greate greatere then I can bar [bear].
September 2, 1852 letter from Henry to Zina, as quoted in Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith.
Henry certainly still has a deep belief in Mormonism, and he seems to have no idea why he was disfellowshipped. According to family tradition, he was disciplined because “he proceeded to try to win Zina back. Because of his persistence, he was excommunicated from the church by the High Council.” The letter quoted above perhaps gives some support for this; even though both Zina and he had been married to other people for years, and each had had a child with the new spouse, Henry was still in love with her. The letter virtually begs for a reunion .
Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Kindle Edition. loc. 2667-71. Accessed: 10/2/2016
One can read the letter sympathetically or unsympathetically. In the sympathetic reading, Brigham (who already had a number of other wives), using his ecclesiastical position and privilege and specious religious argumentation and pressure, had maneuvered Henry away from his wife–whom Henry loved passionately and who perhaps still loved him–and had Henry marry another woman as a replacement. But Henry, who had lived with Zina for some time and had two children by her, had difficulty separating himself emotionally from her or from his two sons. Brigham sent him to England to effect the separation, leaving Zina husbandless with a newborn baby halfway across Iowa. In Utah, Brigham excommunicated him, despite the fact that he had been, as he said, a faithful defender of the faith since youth, and had given up his wife to the prophet Joseph, surely one of the ultimate tests of loyalty (though he had given her up only partially, and Smith never demanded the complete divorce that Brigham Young did). Then Young intercepted Jacobs’s letters to Zina. In the unsympathetic reading, Zina may have been sincerely incompatible with Henry (who perhaps was verbose and unreliable) and chose Brigham instead. Henry was the divorced husband who kept pressing himself on the ex-wife when his attentions were unwelcome, so she stopped answering his letters. Though obviously in a difficult situation, as is any man who still loves the woman who has rejected him, he was unable to accept his situation and constructively start his life again. His efforts to regain Zina were addressed to a woman who was married to someone else, and Brigham felt it necessary to have him excommunicated. One remembers the statement in the Lee journal in which Jacobs said he would not endure tyranny, even from Brigham Young. By the unsympathetic reading, then, this letter is less a sincere cry of pain than a self-pitying document by a weak man who could not deal with the painful reality of his divorce.
Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Kindle Edition. loc. 2672-86. Accessed: 10/2/2016
https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/plural-wives-overview/zina-diantha-huntington/zina-huntington-evidences/
Issues these Facts Raise
Either God sanctioned Brigham to have Zina leave her faithful husband or Brigham continued to act as a prophet after stealing another man’s wife.
Questions these Facts Raise
According to D&C 132:7, only one at a time on earth could have the power to seal for plural marriage, however it was Zina’s brother who sealed them.
D&C 132:7:
7 And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power (and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred), are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end have an end when men are dead.
What authority did Zina’s brother Dimitri use to perform the sealing, in light of D&C 132:7?
Why was an angel threatening Joseph’s “position and life” over polygamy when he was already married to other women polygamously? Doesn’t this go against the very foundation of free choice from God?
Where is polyandry sanctioned? I find no sources. D&C 132 doesn’t sanction this practice.
Why does Brigham Young practice polyandry with Zina? She was already sealed to Joseph and married to a faithful member?
