Nauvoo Polygamy "but We Called it Celestial Marriage"

When Joseph and Emma Smith arrived in Ohio in 1831, several families offered them lodging, as did the Whitneys, whose five year-old daughter, Sarah Ann, and her eleven-year-old neighbor, Mary Elizabeth Rollins, wouldlater play a role in Mormon polygamy. The Smiths soon moved in with the Johnsons, where Joseph met fifteen-year-old Marinda Nancy. In 1836, seven-year-old Helen Mar Kimball attended school near the Smith home. Eachof these girls, whom Joseph met during the 1830s, would later marry him inthe 1840s gathering place of Nauvoo, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi River. In this thoroughly researched and documented work, the author shows how the prophet introduced single and married women to this new form of "celestial marrige"a favor granted to the elect men of Nauvoo. Through their journals, letters, and affidavits, the participants tell their stories in intimate detailbefore polygamy was forcibly abandoned and nearly forgotten.