History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MISSIONARIES.
of Joseph Smith's mission. To this end are sent forth
proselyting ministers, elders of the church, selected by
sealed or married to the husband, for and in the name of the deceased wife,
for all eternity; and, secondly, to be married for time and eternity herself,
to the same man. Thus, by this holy ordinance, both the dead and the living
wife will be his in the eternal worlds. But if, previous to marriage for
eternity, a woman lose her husband by death, and marry a second, and if her
first husband was a good man, then it is the duty of the. second husband to
be married to her for eternity, not for herself, but in the name of her deceased
husband, while he himself can only be married to her for time; and he is
obliged to enter into a covenant to deliver her up, and all her children, to her
deceased husband, in the morning of the first resurrection.' Wuites Mormon
Prophet, 173. 'A man can either have a woman sealed to him as his consort
lor this world only, or he can have her sealed to him both for this world
as well as for the world to come—she is A.'s wife while she is on earth, but
she becomes B.'s as soon as she has reached heaven. Or again, a woman—
spinster, for instance—who has taken a particular fancy to any deceased
saint, and who wishes to become his consort in the world to come, can be
sealed to him by proxy by becoming the wife of some living saint. She has
first to be sealed on earth before she can obtain the necessary introduction
into heaven. When a woman is said to be sealed to a man, it does not necessarily
imply that she is married to him. It may mean marriage, or it maj
siinp.y amount to an arrangement to marry, to be consummated in the next
wor.d, made either directly between the two parties, or by proxy by another
party in place of one of the two interested parties who is dead, .. .even if
she prefers being the consort of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Job, etc., for the
Mormon spiritual-wife doctrine even ventures to go the length of this! '
a
355
Mar-
shall, Throuijh America, 186. Mrs Stenhouse says President Heber C. Kimball
upon one occasion introduced her to five of his wires in succession, and
upon being asked, 'Are these all you have got?' replied, 'O dear! no. I
have a few more at home, and about fifty more scattered over the earth somewhere.
I have never seen them since they were sealed to me hi Nauvoo, and
1 hope I never shall again.' Expose of Polytjamy in Utah, 91-2. See also, in
this connection, Green's Mormonism, 180-92; Lee's Mormonism Unveiled,
lGo-72.
Brigham, as head of the church, claimed authority not only to marry, but
also to uivorce at will. No law's delay, no filing of bills, summoning witnesses,
or learned decision granting absolute or partial severance, accompanied by
partial or impartial award of property and the custody of infants, ^yas required.
Given the approbation of the chief, and the rest followed as speedily as a clerk
could write the certificate and receive the fee. In a district removed from
the capital, only the consent of the bishop is necessary, and the bill of divorcement
is a very simple writing. 'March 18, 1871. To whomsoever it may
concern. This is to certify, in the beginning of 1SG9 when I gave a bill of
divorce to Sarah Ann Lowry I gave to her for the good of her four children
the following property, viz.: a parcel of laud of about nine acres enclosed all
around, with a house of two rooms aud one cow and heifer. William (J. Hitter.'
The customary fee is ten dollars, and Mrs Waite relates an instance in
which a woman who had been granted a divorce was told by Brigham that
the act was null until the money was paid. The Mormon Prophet, 239. The
following is copied from note G, app. to Paddock's Madame La Tour: 'An
Englishwoman who abandoned her husband and children for the purpose of
gathering with the saints to Zion has been divorced and remarried live times
since she 3
came to Utah. The present writer has lived within half a block of
a woman who, after being divorced from live husbands, is now living in polygamy
with the sixth; and one of our district judges reports the case of an
elderly saintess, living near the place in which he holds court, who has been
divorced fourteen times.'