The 19th Wife (11 page)

After Joseph’s murder, his enemies across the county and the state believed the Saints would rise up in revenge. They fled or hid their families and livestock, fearful of Mormon wrath. Yet the Saints did not return violence with violence. Instead they withstood their grief in noble peace. Joseph’s body was set out in the dining room of the Mansion House. Elizabeth, along with her two sons, waited hours to pass by his open coffin to see his historic face one last time. When she saw him, and the depth of his sleep, and truly understood she would not see him again until the Last Day, she wept.

Three years later, upon departing Nauvoo for the Utah Territory, my mother wrote a Testimony of Faith. She sealed it in a granite box that was buried at the Temple’s foundation, there to be found by a new generation of Saints. Yet before she did so, she crosshatched a draft of her Testimony into a Book of Mormon, which she has since given me. I will quote from it here to describe, in her words, her reaction to the Prophet’s death.

“I could not summon, neither then nor now, the words to depict the complexities of my grief. My Prophet was gone; but his death had freed me from his loathsome request. Had he spoke the truth throughout his life, erring only in his final days? Was this why he had succumbed to the enemy’s ball? Or were his final words also true and devout? Upon seeing his body laid out, I prayed to God, frightened I had caused Joseph’s fall. Was his murder, I asked, punishment for my doubt? Was I to blame? I feared the truth.”

Thereafter, throughout the summer, the Apostles fought over who would lead the Church of Latter-day Saints. At the time of Joseph’s death, several, including Brigham, were away on mission, and the matter was not settled until the 8th of August of that year. On that day, at ten in the morning, Brother Sidney Rigdon gathered the community of Saints in a hollow east of the Temple. The day was warm and damp, the flies buzzing in the boughs. The grove could not provide enough shade, and many stood in the shadow of their horses. Brother Rigdon hoped to lead the Saints and asked for their support. At length he preached with honest remorse in his voice. Yet his performance had not convinced the Saints he was their leader. Brigham followed Rigdon, and to describe his appearance I must quote my mother’s Testimony again, for it is in this passage she is at her most eloquent on the mysteries of belief.

“When Brigham took the stand to describe his grief and his hope for our Church, he inspired our hearts. He began to speak as Joseph had once spoken, adopting his voice and mannerisms, often clearing his throat with the familiar Ah-hem and creating his peculiar whistle. As time passed, Brigham began to appear even more like Joseph, until it no longer seemed he was adopting the voice and expressions of our beloved Prophet—the familiar gestures of his right hand, the movement of body—but in fact the mantle of Joseph had passed to Brigham, and Brigham was now Joseph! In the limp summer haze, there before me, a miracle occurred. I saw Brigham transform into Joseph himself. Upon the stand, where Brigham had stood, stood now our beloved Joseph! As clear as the page before me now, and the lines of ink, our Prophet appeared.

“Some say it was a trick of the sunlight, or the ghostly way Brigham’s voice traveled through the hollow. Others claim the heat had tampered with our minds; or fresh grief had overcome our reasoning. I understand why they might say such things, yet I write this now to say—I know what I saw. Before me, and the community of Saints, in the dappled light, for one brief moment in Time, Joseph returned, entering Brigham’s powerful body, the two united by the force of God. Chauncey did not see this. My Husband becomes discouraged when I speak of it. Yet I know the fact of it as well as I know anything, for I understand why. Joseph had returned to clear the dark doubt from my heart. And so it came to pass.”
^*1

By the end of the day the succession was settled. Brigham Young was proclaimed the new leader of the Latter-day Saints. He was forty-three years old, and about to become one of the most influential men in the United States. Elizabeth rejoiced, for her experience told her it was meant to be. A month later, on September 13, 1844, she bore a tiny daughter who came into this world with the voice of a howling angel, I am told. That child, of course, was me.

Women’s Research Institute

Brigham Young University

WS 492—Women’s Studies Senior Research Seminar

Professor Mary P. Sprague

April 23, 2005

THE FIRST WIFE

By Kelly Dee

1.

The subject of this paper, Elizabeth Churchill Webb (1817–1884), is not familiar to many. She was an early convert to the Church and the first wife of wainwright Chauncey Webb (1812–1903), whose Nauvoo wagonry played a crucial role in the Exodus (1846–1847). Brigham Young personally chose Chauncey to lead the wagon manufacturing for the Pioneers in their trek to Zion.

My interest in Elizabeth Webb, however, has less to do with her role in supporting her husband during this historic period. Instead, I am more curious about her relationship to her daughter, Ann Eliza, who would go on to become Brigham Young’s infamous 19th wife. In the 1870s and 1880s, Ann Eliza (1844–date unknown) became a leading crusader in the fight to end polygamy in the United States. In her battle against plural marriage she became a vocal enemy of both the Church and Brigham, writing a best-selling memoir of her experiences,
The 19th Wife
(1875). Her book, and especially her attacks against Brigham, continue to divide people today. Given that she was born into the Church, and her parents were faithful members, her deep hatred of Mormonism has surprised and confused many. It is therefore worth investigating her early family life, especially her mother’s attitude to plural marriage. This is why I have chosen Elizabeth Churchill Webb as the subject of my seminar paper. Specifically, I will use two key texts to depict this historic period in her life: 1) Elizabeth’s recently discovered Testimony of Faith
²
to narrate the period in her life when she first accepted the doctrine of celestial marriage; and 2) her Exodus diary, written on her journey to Zion in 1848, an insightful document that has sat ignored in the Church archives for more than one hundred years.

2.

One day in the fall of 1845, Brigham Young walked to Elizabeth and Chauncey Webb’s small but prominent brick house on the corner of Parley and Granger streets in the central district of Nauvoo known as the Flats.
³
The spiritual and political leader of the Latter-day Saints, and successor to Joseph Smith’s title of Prophet, came alone. Such a private visit by Brigham Young, unannounced and unattended by aide, was an unusual event. No doubt Chauncey and Elizabeth were surprised to see him at their door.

The mood in Nauvoo at this time was anxious. Since Joseph’s martyrdom in June 1844, the Saints had been fearful of a massacre similar to the one at Haun’s Mill. There were signs that a major raid was about to come. At night haystacks were burned in open fields. Dogs were beheaded and livestock poisoned. Carriages on the road to Quincy were ambushed. Illinois governor Thomas Ford warned Brigham to lead his followers out of the state; if he did not, the governor could not promise their safety. The Saints’ future was altogether uncertain to everyone except Brigham, who was busy making secret plans for the Exodus that would lead his followers to what was still an unknown destination.

Brigham and Chauncey met in the keeping room at the front of the house. Elizabeth remained in the kitchen at the back of the house while her sons, Gilbert, age eleven, and Aaron, age seven, played outside in the orchard. Ann Eliza, now one year old, lay restless in her cradle beside the fire. The Webbs’ house girl, Lydia Taft,
⁴
came and went through the back door, minding the boys in the orchard. They had invented a game of looking for the faces of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Smith in the rotten apples littering the orchard yard this time of year. Lydia and the boys fed the apples to the billy goat, a spotted animal christened (ironically, it must be assumed) Mr. Pope.
⁵

After half an hour Brigham asked Elizabeth to join them in the keeping room. With baby Ann Eliza in her arms, she went to see her husband and her Prophet. Elizabeth thought she knew the topic of the conversation: “I was certain he had come to remind me of the Revelation I feared most,” Elizabeth writes in one fragment, referring to celestial marriage, or polygamy. “I know now I feared it because it was true.”

First, Brigham had other business, however. He told her about the wagon order he had just placed with Chauncey. Soon he would announce an Exodus from Nauvoo, he said, commencing the following spring. “Our destination is Zion,” Brigham explained. “Soon God will reveal its location to me.”

Chauncey would lead the crucial effort to build the necessary wagons for the journey. Elizabeth took understandable pride in her husband’s selection as chief wainwright. “He is a necessary man,” she writes.

They discussed in detail the requirements.
⁶
Each wagon would need to haul two thousand pounds of supplies. Every fifth wagon would carry a spare front wheel, every tenth wagon a spare rear wheel. Every twentieth required a slot for a beehive. Brigham’s meticulous orders displayed his considerable skills at planning and organizing. Before he was to lead nearly twenty thousand people across the plains and the Rockies, he was to think through every possible requirement and contingency. Between 1847 and 1869, some seventy thousand Pioneers would owe their lives to Brigham’s painstaking planning, staging, and organization. This is why George Bernard Shaw called him an American Moses. This is why his statue stands in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., today, alongside other national heroes such as George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
⁷

It is important to remember that at this time Brigham was still a relatively young man. Our image of him today is based on the later portraits made long after the establishment of the Utah Territory, when he had entered late middle age. In 1845, however, he was a vigorous man of forty-four. One immigrant described his face as “that of a sea captain”—firm, a bit square, with iron-colored eyes. He had wide cheeks, a small mouth, and an altogether determined look.
⁸

“It was no relief to know that he had come with a request for wagons, and not another,” Elizabeth writes in her Testimony. “For I knew one day he would ask what I dreaded most.” Understandably, she was frightened. Section 132 of the Doctrine & Covenants—the Revelation Joseph Smith had personally revealed to Elizabeth and Chauncey the day before his arrest—says that those who fail to meet the requirements of plural marriage cannot achieve Salvation. It is a point worth emphasizing: The Church—that is, the men Elizabeth believed and trusted most—was telling her that she would be condemned eternally if she did not submit fully to this hated custom.

“And yet, there is another matter,” said Brigham. With those few words, the mood in the room had changed. The baby began to simper. Even as she minded her daughter, Elizabeth knew her fear had been warranted: Brigham had in fact come to discuss plural marriage.

“I know Brother Joseph discussed the covenant of celestial marriage with you shortly before his martyrdom. I know he shared the Revelation of plural marriage.”

“Is it really the will of the Lord?” Elizabeth asked.

“It is.”

As much as she loathed the idea, she then knew that this time she could not deny her Lord or her Prophet. She thought back to the meeting with Joseph. We cannot know how many times she blamed herself for his fate by refusing to comply, but such a sentiment appears forcefully in her Testimony.

“Tell me, Sister,” said Brigham, “what do you say?”

“I will do as He asks.”

It was done. Brigham blessed her. Elizabeth wept softly in her husband’s arms.

A decade later, in a letter to one of his sons, Brigham describes how he had to “console the astonished hearers of this news. I told them that I too heard of it and hated it immediately. Yet if we are to listen to our God, and follow His command, we cannot choose those orders which most please us, and ignore those that cause us pain. For verily, it has been revealed, this is our way to Heaven, and to ignore the path is to ignore Salvation altogether. I remember telling a Brother and a Sister of the Revelation in Nauvoo. Together we fell to our knees and prayed. It was all I could offer, for the truth comes as such.”
⁹

Next Brigham explained to Elizabeth and Chauncey that the approval of the second wife belonged to the first. “Brother Chauncey must come to you for your consent. The choice of wife, who she shall be, lies with you.”

A “small fury” burned within Elizabeth as Brigham explained the process. If she must submit to plural marriage, she wanted nothing to do with the selection of the wife. Although it is doubtful she thought of it in such terms, Elizabeth resented the complicity the institution was forcing upon her.

When Brigham was gone, Chauncey and Elizabeth discussed the matter. Chauncey probably hated the idea even more than his wife did. Unlike Elizabeth, there seemed to be a bottom to his faith. He said he would tell Brigham they could not follow his orders. “He cannot force us.”

Yet for Elizabeth, it was too late. She had searched her soul and reached a truth. “We must obey,” she said. For her, apostasy was not an option. She remembered what had happened the last time she had defied her Prophet. Thus, in the end, it was Elizabeth who decided Chauncey would take a second wife.

3.

Lydia Taft was seventeen when she left her family in Saint Clair County, Michigan, in the summer of 1844. A few months before, a missionary had come to preach from the Book of Mormon in a neighbor’s parlor, electrifying Lydia with his news of the Restoration and his depiction of Nauvoo, the shining city on the hill. She left the meeting with a copy of the Book of Mormon, determined to read it. By the time she turned the last page, her faith was secure. “I knew. Mother, I knew!” she would later write in one of her three surviving letters.

When news of Joseph Smith’s martyrdom reached her, she decided to travel to Nauvoo to live among the Saints. “The time is now. That’s what Joseph Smith in death has taught me. Now! Oh my dear Mother. Please read this Book! And then come be with me in Nauvoo! It’s a city that gleams upon the river bank, and men can see the white Temple from all directions, and every day the faithful arrive from all over the world.”

After landing in Nauvoo, Lydia found work in the Webb household. At the time, Elizabeth was pregnant with Ann Eliza. It was a difficult pregnancy and she needed the help. When she hired Lydia, Elizabeth could not have imagined that a little more than a year later the girl would become her rival wife.

The only known picture of Lydia was taken many years later in Salt Lake. It shows a thin, tired woman with buried eyes. But in 1845, when she was seventeen, she was “pale and lovely,” according to Elizabeth, “with a slow soft mouth and flecks of gold in her eyes.”

There is conflicting evidence over who first suggested Lydia to become Chauncey’s second wife. In the surviving fragments of her Testimony, Elizabeth writes, “Lydia no doubt loved my children. I had grown accustomed to her presence and the sound of her feet.” In
The 19th Wife
Ann Eliza says she recalls her father looking at Lydia “in a manner a husband reserves for his wife.” Perhaps he did so, but Ann Eliza’s memory of it is doubtful (she was one year old at the time). We may not know whose idea it was, but by late 1845 Chauncey and Elizabeth had decided to enter a plural marriage with Lydia. Now they only needed her to agree.

At some point, Elizabeth writes, Lydia began to eat with the family at the supper table. “She ceased being our servant in many ways.” We don’t know if this was after the idea was broached or before. We have Lydia’s account of the actual conversation preserved in a letter to her mother. It took place late on a blizzardy night, the children already in bed. The snow was blowing hard, and the drifts were mounting past the windowsills. To Lydia, it seemed like the type of storm that would trap them in the house for a week. Chauncey invited Lydia and Elizabeth into the keeping room to pray.

After fifteen minutes on their knees, Chauncey rose and began to throw more wood on the fire. His back was to the women as he poked the coals. Without turning around, he described the Revelation, as told first by Joseph then Brigham.

“I know,” Lydia shrugged. “I’ve heard of it too. Girls can talk.”

Chauncey asked her opinion of the Revelation.

“I see it only one way. I will do what the Lord asks to carry forth His Kingdom.” This is what Lydia says she said. There is no way to confirm whether or not she truly showed such resolve at such a young age. In reading through a number of letters and diaries by the early Saints, I have noted a pattern of speech that sounds more like religious text than actual dialogue. It is difficult to know if the early Saints truly used such language and diction, or if they recorded their conversations in a way that exalted their words. Even so, there is little reason to doubt that Lydia embraced the idea swiftly.

In
The 19th Wife
Ann Eliza says her mother thanked Lydia but privately fumed. I have tried to confirm this particular detail, but there seems to be little record of exactly how Elizabeth felt that night. Given what we know, Elizabeth most likely felt a sense of deliverance, accomplishment, and submission mixed with regret, betrayal, confusion, and jealousy. She writes of comparing her own hands (“worn, raw, scraped on the knuckle”) to Lydia’s (“white as a petal, and just as soft”). There’s a hint that she was surprised—and perhaps appalled—by Lydia’s quick consent. Most painfully, Lydia claims that Chauncey, as he finally turned from the mantel, looked as if he might devour the teenage girl. “I could see he was so overcome with desire for me,” Lydia writes to her mother. “He could not speak. Men, for the most part, reveal their true thoughts in their shallow faces. Concealment will always remain the female art. I thought, if he could he would wed me that night.”

In the surviving scraps of Elizabeth’s testimony there is one line that stands out. I cannot identify the event that caused it, but it very well could be her description of how she felt after this conversation. “I cried through the night,” she writes. “Until the dawn, and beyond.” There is no reason to think these were tears of joy.