Joseph Smith's Polyandry?

[JLHPROF]

This whole thread seems to have degenerated into theories and speculations and responses to them.

I don't want to get into the swapping and interpreting of random dates and names.
But I do want to say this:

There is no more truth to the notion that Joseph (and Heber and Brigham) married women who had been seduced by Bennett and co. than there was to Pope Gregory's claim that Mary Magadalene, the wife of our Savior, was a former prostitute.

There are plural children who were born in polygamy in Nauvoo during the life of Joseph that he would have known of.  There was never any intention of plural marriage being spiritual only and platonic, any more than any other marriage sealing where the couple is promised the blessings of Abraham and charged with multiplying and replenishing the earth.  The fact that in the only 3 years the few men who had marriages to wives they didn't cohabitate with produced few children is not an argument in any way that polygamy was to be celibate under Joseph.

Both of these claims are offensive, wildly speculative, and just plain false.
They also would call into question the continuing authority of Joseph's successors if they were living polygamy in a sexual manner and that was not the will of God.

I am not going to get in the weeds of which woman was near which man on which date and which child came from which man.  That is not history but gossip.
I prefer to stick to the principles of the practice as established in the revelations and teachings of the prophets.

As you were.
 

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Meg Stout said:

Hi John,

According to the lore, Heber is the one who made a point of explaining that he had never slept with Nancy. See Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, particularly p. 608.

 

Quote, not paraphase please.

[Meg Stout]

59 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

One correction: the departure was April 20, 1841, not the arrival. According to Wilford Woodruff's journal:

Rochester, 21 Apr 1841
Journal of Wilford Woodruff
Seven of the Twelve with 120 Saints & 160 other about 280 in all got our baggage on board of the ship to set sail, but the wind being contrary we staid on shore.
20th April 1841 I went on board of the ship Rochester in the morning in company with Elders B. [Brigham] Young, H. [Heber] C. Kimball, O. [Orson] Pratt, W. [Willard] Richards, W. [Wilford] Woodruff, J. [John] Taylor & G. [George] A. Smith of the Twelve. R. [Reuben] Hedlock High priest 120 Saints, 160 of the world 20 of the crew, 2 mates (porter & steward) Captain Woodhouse, 1 carpenter, 1 cook, 2 stewards asking 307 souls in all. We took the parting had with Elders P. [Parley] P. Pratt & O. [Orson Hyde] Hide & a multitude of Saints who stood upon the dock or quay to see us start. 

ETA: Sarah's descendants say she left her husband behind in England because of his alcoholism and traveled with her two daughters. Just found the daughters, Harriet (born 1830) and Betsy (born 1835). 

Thank you for this. Is the passenger list of the Rochester available online?

[Meg Stout]

9 minutes ago, Calm said:

Quote, not paraphase please.

Hi Calm,

I will go find the exact quote from Compton later today when I have access to the book and the Internet simultaneously. I suspect by then this thread will have continued, and I wanted to clarify that the assertion that Heber didn't consummate the marriage with Nancy wasn't merely my speculation.

[Meg Stout]

18 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

There is no more truth to the notion that Joseph (and Heber and Brigham) married women who had been seduced by Bennett and co. than there was to Pope Gregory's claim that Mary Magadalene, the wife of our Savior, was a former prostitute.

There are plural children who were born in polygamy in Nauvoo during the life of Joseph that he would have known of.  There was never any intention of plural marriage being spiritual only and platonic, any more than any other marriage sealing where the couple is promised the blessings of Abraham and charged with multiplying and replenishing the earth.  The fact that in the only 3 years the few men who had marriages to wives they didn't cohabitate with produced few children is not an argument in any way that polygamy was to be celibate under Joseph.

CFR?

[juliann]

2 hours ago, Meg Stout said:

 

As for Reluctant Polygamist, please send over the historical information you suggest "blows the whole thing down." Up to now, you have dismissed my perspective, but you have not provided facts that make my perspective untenable. The Josephine Lyon DNA results coming out with Joseph Smith as her biological parent would have been a huge problem. But that isn't what happened. There are other matters where other reasonable people disagree with my conjectures, but my conjectures are not proven false.

You do not seem to understand that the burden of proof is yours. From the little we are seeing here, you are unable to do that. You do not even respond to direct requests to provide documentation of specific claims when they have been shown to be inaccurate. You need to do that.

Quote

Thank you for this. Is the passenger list of the Rochester available online?

As a researcher, how can you not know this?  

[ALarson]

On 6/19/2016 at 8:44 AM, Meg Stout said:

I lay out the reason I suspect Elvira Annie Cowles was Dr. Bennett's beloved, which involves Jonathan's role in being assigned to her as a pretend husband.

What?  

I just saw this as I was reading over this thread (I know.... I'm a glutton for punishment....).

I thought your theory was that Elvira was in a pretend, unconsummated marriage with Jonathan because she was Joseph's wife and "lived with him as such"?  What evidence do you have that she was "Bennett's beloved"?

Another CFR.

.

Edited June 24, 2016 by ALarson

[JLHPROF]

3 minutes ago, Meg Stout said:

CFR?

D&C 132

[ALarson]

49 minutes ago, ALarson said:

Also, I'm issuing a CFR for the reference to "Bennett and his Strikers" in The Expositor.  You've used The Expositor as a reference for this and I'd like to see the quote.

Never mind.  Here is what is written in The Expositor.  (As suspected, there is no reference to "Bennett and his Strikers" and the term "Strikers" is only used once).

"It is a notorious fact, that many females in foreign climes, and in countries to us unknown, even in the most distant regions of the Eastern hemisphere, have been induced, by the sound of the gospel, to forsake friends, and embark upon a voyage across waters that lie stretched over the greater portion of the globe, as they supposed, to glorify God, that they might thereby stand acquitted in the great day of God Almighty. But what is taught them on their arrival at this place? -- They are visited by some of the Strikers, for we know not what else to call them, and are requested to hold on and be faithful, for there are great blessings awaiting the righteous; and that God has great mysteries in store for those who love the Lord, and cling to brother Joseph."

 

 

Edited June 24, 2016 by ALarson

[jkwilliams]

14 minutes ago, juliann said:

You do not seem to understand that the burden of proof is yours. From the little we are seeing here, you are unable to do that. You do not even respond to direct requests to provide documentation of specific claims when they have been shown to be inaccurate. You need to do that.

As a researcher, how can you not know this?  

I was thinking the same thing. FYI, the passenger lists have been digitized and are searchable on ancestry.com. I'm not plugging ancestry.com, as anyone who has an account with lds.org has free access to that site, as well.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7488

[juliann]

2 hours ago, jkwilliams said:

The only thing the DNA evidence proves conclusively is that Brian Hales was wrong in asserting that Sylvia and Windsor had been through a "pioneer divorce" and were estranged. 

Oh good catch! That particular post hoc reasoning has bugged me to no end. Like I said, Meg isn't alone in making unjustified assumptions, it is only that most responsible researchers/historians do it much less frequently and much, much more carefully. I think this is an important thread because if MDDB still gets as much traffic as it used to, a lot of readers are going to be educated in what to look for when they are being overwhelmed with names, dates and stories....with little reliable documentation. 

[jkwilliams]

5 minutes ago, juliann said:

Oh good catch! That particular post hoc reasoning has bugged me to no end. Like I said, Meg isn't alone in making unjustified assumptions, it is only that most responsible researchers/historians do it much less frequently and much, much more carefully. I think this is an important thread because if MDDB still gets as much traffic as it used to, a lot of readers are going to be educated in what to look for when they are being overwhelmed with names, dates and stories....with little reliable documentation. 

Agreed. It's impossible to be completely objective, but it is irresponsible to make wild conjectures based on little to no reliable documentation. What bothers me more than anything is the idea that those who don't agree with Meg's take are just unquestioning followers of the majority consensus or, worse, are just trying to make Joseph Smith look bad. It is not too much to ask for solid research and conclusions based on that research. 

I also note with some irony that Meg's material is being used by the anti-Mormon Mormonism Research Ministry to show how debauched Joseph's Nauvoo was. 

[hope_for_things]

18 hours ago, Meg Stout said:

Hi hope_for_things,

The primary source for the 1831 revelation is Erastus Snow, who documented late in life a conversation he'd had with Joseph in 1843, where Joseph said that he'd received the revelation while translating a passage about the blessings of the fathers being given to the sons while translating in Genesis. Since Joseph stopped translating Genesis in 1831 based on the commandment in D&C 45 and the only Genesis chapter Joseph translated that resembles Erastus' description is Genesis 17, it appears the revelation was originally received in 1831. The 1831 revelation is also mentioned in the History of the Church somewhere and in Bancroft's 1800s History of Utah. So it is obscure, but not unknown.

Thanks Meg, 

I had heard of the JST connection, but I wasn't aware that Erastus Snow was the source, very interesting, but a very late recollection and I have a hard time accepting that as strong evidence for 1831.  Personally, I don't see anything in Joseph's theological teachings in the 1830s that connect these dots for an 1831 revelation on polygamy.   

[hope_for_things]

18 hours ago, ALarson said:

Of course I don't know for sure.  

Here is what Andrew F. Ehat writes:

Thanks ALarson, for the Ehat quotes, very interesting.  I'm about to start reading Mormon Enigma, I need to catch up on the chapters since JI blog is doing a summer reading with commentary on this book, and I'm a few chapters behind already.    Hopefully I can get a better idea what Emma was going through after reading that book, and what she may or may not have known about polygamy and when.  

[jkwilliams]

1 minute ago, hope_for_things said:

Thanks ALarson, for the Ehat quotes, very interesting.  I'm about to start reading Mormon Enigma, I need to catch up on the chapters since JI blog is doing a summer reading with commentary on this book, and I'm a few chapters behind already.    Hopefully I can get a better idea what Emma was going through after reading that book, and what she may or may not have known about polygamy and when.  

Mormon Enigma is a wonderful book. 

[jkwilliams]

dupe

Edited June 24, 2016 by jkwilliams

[hope_for_things]

2 hours ago, ALarson said:

Never mind.  Here is what is written in The Expositor.  (As suspected, there is no reference to "Bennett and his Strikers" and the term "Strikers" is only used once).

"It is a notorious fact, that many females in foreign climes, and in countries to us unknown, even in the most distant regions of the Eastern hemisphere, have been induced, by the sound of the gospel, to forsake friends, and embark upon a voyage across waters that lie stretched over the greater portion of the globe, as they supposed, to glorify God, that they might thereby stand acquitted in the great day of God Almighty. But what is taught them on their arrival at this place? -- They are visited by some of the Strikers, for we know not what else to call them, and are requested to hold on and be faithful, for there are great blessings awaiting the righteous; and that God has great mysteries in store for those who love the Lord, and cling to brother Joseph."

 

 

Sounds like the Expositor is using this term Strikers to refer specifically to brother Joseph and his followers, and not to Bennett at all.  Funny how the evidence shows the opposite of what was stated earlier.  

Edited June 24, 2016 by hope_for_things

[jkwilliams]

3 hours ago, Calm said:

Quote, not paraphase please.

Here's the quote from Compton:

Quote

A note on a family group sheet tells us: 'Nancy Mariah Winchester was sealed to the Prophet on 3 Feb 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple and married to Heber C. Kimball for life, but she never lived with Mr. Kimball as his wife and he asked Amos George Arnold to marry her so she could become a mother and promised him that he would later have the opportunity of marrying a younger wife.' Apparently, Nancy's proxy marriage to Heber never 'took,' for whatever reasons.

(I need not mention that an unattributed note on a family group sheet is not exactly solid documentary evidence, but I digress.)

By contrast, look at what Meg does with this information.

Quote

Nancy Winchester: The date when Nancy married Joseph is unknown. However the fact that she never consummated her marriage with Heber C. Kimball and remained in her parents home for the rest of her life, even after bearing a child with a third husband when she was nearly 40, hints that something traumatic happened to her. I hypothesize this could have occurred if Nancy happened upon an illicit liaison between one of Bennet’s cronies and Clarissa Marvel. If Nancy was abused or seduced by the Bennett ring before May 1842, she would have been only 13 years old at the time.

Is there any suggestion of trauma or abuse? Where is the source for asserting that she "remained in her parents [sic] home for the rest of her life"? 

ETA: A friend of mine writes:

Quote

My great great grandfather was Nancy's brother. It has been an accepted family story that Heber C. Kimball "never took her to wife" and would not so that is why she asked him to release her from her marriage vows so she could marry someone else to have children.

So, the rejection was from Heber, not Nancy. I suppose we could argue that Heber had experienced some trauma in his life.

 

Edited June 24, 2016 by jkwilliams

[ALarson]

On 6/21/2016 at 10:13 PM, Meg Stout said:

Lastly, you might be someone descended from Mary Heron who really wants her to have been frigged by Joseph Smith.

Sorry, I keep finding more tidbits....

 

[juliann]

1 hour ago, hope_for_things said:

Thanks ALarson, for the Ehat quotes, very interesting.  I'm about to start reading Mormon Enigma, I need to catch up on the chapters since JI blog is doing a summer reading with commentary on this book, and I'm a few chapters behind already.    Hopefully I can get a better idea what Emma was going through after reading that book, and what she may or may not have known about polygamy and when.  

Mormon Enigma contains a fair amount of mind reading. But it does a rare thing, it approaches polygamy from the viewpoint of a....woman!

[JLHPROF]

11 minutes ago, ALarson said:

Sorry, I keep finding more tidbits....

 

Good thing that one slipped by the Mod's...

 

[jkwilliams]

Another question for Meg, who says the following on her blog:

Quote

Ironically, Richard and Pamela Price claim [Wilhelm] Wyl fingered John C. Bennett in 1885 as the father of [Eliza Snow's alleged] child, saying Eliza was the woman Joseph alleged Bennett had courted and betrayed (Bennett was married at the time, a fact unknown to most of his Nauvoo associates).

This is another one I can't source, as the only thing I can find from the Prices is this:

Quote

 

Eliza's diary verifies that she was not married to Joseph, for in it she never alludes to any intimacy toward him. Though she showed respect for him as the Prophet and President, she did not use any term which a wife would naturally use in referring to her husband. Her writings in relation to him were always formal. If she had been his wife, there would have been some reference to the fact in her personal record. Also, the diary proves the charges against Emma to be false, because Eliza's journal shows that she respected Emma. There is no hint of any ill will between them, which would have appeared in her journal if Emma had beaten her and pushed her down the stairs. Eliza's journal portrays only a high regard for the beautiful, capable, and kindhearted Emma, who had given the sad, middle-aged, homeless woman a place to live. Eliza's diary is in itself sufficient proof that Joseph and Eliza were not married.

The question must be asked, Why did Eliza allow the rumor to circulate throughout Utah Mormondom and the world, that Emma had beaten her in the Mansion House? The answer is, because Eliza was a devoted and favored wife of Brigham Young while in Utah and a woman of great influence, and therefore she chose to uphold Brigham's doctrine of polygamy. She was called a " 'priestess' and 'prophetess,' " and "queen among Mormon women" (Beecher, Personal Writings, 2, xvii). Her testimony was of tremendous importance in the struggle between polygamy and antipolygamy which raged during the last thirty years of her life. She could have stopped the malicious lies about her being a plural wife of Joseph Smith. Instead, she chose to feed the fires of untruth for over a quarter of a century by not publishing that those stories were false. She supported Brigham Young's false dogma that polygamy was introduced by Joseph the Prophet in order to keep Brigham's Rocky Mountain empire from crumbling.

 

Of course, I do not consider the Prices to be reputable historians, but I don't see any allegation from Wyl in 1885 that Eliza Snow bore Bennett's child. The only time they mention Wyl is here:

Quote

 

There is a persistent tradition that Eliza conceived a child by Joseph in Nauvoo, and that Emma one day discovered her husband embracing Eliza in the hall outside their bedrooms and in a rage flung her downstairs and drove her out into the street. The fall is said to have resulted in a miscarriage. (This tradition was stated to me as fact by Eliza's nephew, LeRoi C. Snow, in the Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.) Solon Foster, coachman for the prophet, was present in the Mansion House when the incident occurred. Years later he met Emma's sons, who were then publicly denouncing polygamy in Utah, and reproached them for their attitude: "Joseph, the night your mother turned Eliza R. Snow into the street in her night clothes you and all the family stood crying. I led you back into the house and took you to bed with me. You said, 'I wish mother wouldn't be so cruel to Aunt Eliza.' You called her aunt, because you knew she was your father's wife. He did not deny it."

C. G. Webb further corroborated the story in an interview with W. Wyl:

There is scarcely a Mormon unacquainted with the fact, that Sister Emma, on the other side, soon found out the little compromise arranged between Joseph and Eliza. Feeling outraged as a wife and betrayed as a friend, Emma is currently reported as having had recourse to a vulgar broomstick as an instrument of revenge; and the harsh treatment received at Emma's hand is said to have destroyed Eliza's hopes of becoming the mother of a prophet's son. (Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 470–471)

Mansion House
The Mansion House—Joseph and Emma's second home in Nauvoo. The Mansion House was operated as a hotel, with Joseph and his family occupying six rooms.

Dr. Wilhelm Wyl had published Webb's account in his Mormon Portraits, page 58. In 1885 C. G. Webb made the above statement (as quoted by Fawn Brodie) to Dr. Wyl, an author and correspondent from Germany, who spent six months in Salt Lake City interviewing Mormons, including Webb, for a book which he was writing. His account demonstrates that by 1885 the story of Emma throwing Eliza down the stairs at the Mansion House was widespread among the Mormons—and they have been spreading that falsehood ever since. Even in March 1996 Mormon missionaries in the Independence, Missouri, area were trying to convert Saints in the Restoration branches by testifying that the Eliza Snow story was true.

 

 

[Calm]

http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp8.htm

"

Who Was the "Young Lady" Whom Bennett "Disgraced"?

One of the best-kept secrets in the Church is the identity of the "innocent female" whom Bennett seduced. Joseph revealed the names of other women who were involved with Bennett, but never hers. The young lady's name was known, of course, to Church officials who tried Bennett's case, such as members of the Presidency and the High Council. Their official investigation of Bennett's immorality was reported in the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Wasp; yet her identity was kept secret. Why? Because as Joseph explained, she was "innocent"—she was looked upon as a victim. This was not the case with President Sidney Rigdon's daughter, Nancy; Apostle Orson Pratt's wife, Sarah; and several other women whose names were published (see Affidavits and Certificates Disproving the Statements and Affidavits Contained in John C. Bennett's Letters, published at Nauvoo, Illinois, August 31, 1842). The reason that their names were made public will be explained in later chapters.

The Snow Family Left Nauvoo Abruptly

Eliza Snow and John Bennett had known each other in Ohio; they were the same age; and both had good educations and were intellectual, as previously noted. Now they were in Nauvoo and were close friends of Joseph and Emma Smith and Sidney and Phebe Rigdon. These facts show a natural relationship between them. During this time an incident occurred which angered Eliza's father, Oliver Snow. Historian and author, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, has written:

Spring 1842 was a time of great turmoil for the Snow family. Apostate John C. Bennett was spreading falsehoods, dissension was breaking out among the Saints, and persecution from nearby settlers was mounting. For Oliver Snow, it was more trial than he had faith to match. Purchasing property at Walnut Grove, a settlement some seventy-five miles east of Nauvoo, he moved his family there, those who would go. He wrote to his brother Franklin that "Eliza cannot leave our Prophet. Mother [Rosetta] did not like to. For my part I am very glad, at present, to be away. Turmoil and confusion, these stalk abroad at noon day." (Ensign 9 [June 1980]: 67)

Oliver Snow had endured all kinds of hardships with the Saints in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Why was the spring of 1842 so much worse that Oliver decided to leave Nauvoo and the Church? The spring of 1842 was the time that Joseph brought Dr. Bennett to trial and exposed those who were involved in his seductive activities by publishing the information. Did those trials reveal to Oliver that Dr. Bennett, one of the heads of the Church, had seduced his daughter, Eliza? Mormon Church authorities insist that Eliza did become pregnant during the Nauvoo period. This may have been between the spring of 1841 when the family moved back to Nauvoo from La Harpe, and the spring of 1842 when Oliver departed so abruptly. This was the same time that Bennett was most involved in his promiscuous activities. If Eliza were that "innocent female," it would explain Oliver Snow's abrupt change of allegiance and departure from Nauvoo.

Dr. Wyl Implied Bennett Seduced Eliza

The German author and newspaper correspondent, Dr. W. Wyl, spent nearly five months in Salt Lake City in 1885 collecting material for a book on Mormonism. When the book was published, it contained information which he had acquired from his interviews with approximately eighty individuals, including a number of old-time Saints from the Nauvoo and Kirtland days.

Dr. Wyl implied that Dr. John C. Bennett had seduced Eliza Snow. He did this by quoting from an article by Eliza, published in the Times and Seasons of February 1, 1844 (5:430­431), entitled "Missouri," which spoke of polluting "female virtue." Wyl then suggested that it was "Joab," not Missouri, of whom Eliza had written. "Joab" was the pseudonym used by Bennett for some of his articles which were published in the Church paper (see Times and Seasons 2 [November 15, 1840]: 222; 2 [December 1, 1840]: 238; 2 [January 1, 1841): 267).

Wyl, who called Eliza's article a psalm, wrote of Eliza and Bennett:

Sister Snow, in her great psalm ... says of Missouri: "Thou art a stink in the nostrils of the Goddess of Liberty.... Thou art already associated with Herod, Nero and the bloody Inquisition—thy name has become synonymous with oppression, cruelty, treachery and blood." Oh, Sappho-Eliza-Roxanna-Snow-Smith-Young! But I think I sniff General Joab in this transcendent psalm. "Thou didst pollute the holy sanctuary of female virtue, and barbarously trample upon the most sacred gems of domestic felicity," is Pistol-Bennett, sure. (Dr. W. Wyl, Mormon Portraits or the Truth About the Mormon Leaders from 1830 to 1886, 186–187)

Why did Dr. Wyl write, "I sniff" Bennett in Eliza's psalm? Apparently because one or more old-time Saints, who had lived in Nauvoo, had confided to him the closely guarded secret that Eliza had been the "young lady" who was seduced by "Pistol-Bennett, [for] sure."

By applying the name Sappho to Eliza, Dr. Wyl was comparing her to the Greek poetess by that name (see Encyclopedia Americana 24 [1954]: 291–292). Dr. Wyl was acquainted with the play by Austria's most talented dramatist, Franz Grillparzer, which told the story of Sappho, the sixth century B.C. Greek lyric poet. The drama had received wide acclaim throughout Germany.

Eliza and Sappho had two things in common: each was the greatest poetess in her respective society, and each was rejected by her lover. Sappho was rejected by Phaon, a man who chose a younger woman (ibid.; see also Frank N. Magill, Critical Survey of Drama—Foreign Language Series, 2371). Eliza was rejected by Dr. Bennett after he promised to marry her, for he went to other women in Nauvoo and "overcame them also" (Times and Seasons 3 [July 1, 1842]: 840). He rejected her even further when he divorced his wife, Mary (see Springfield, Illinois, Sangamo Journal [July 22, 1842], 2), and did not marry Eliza.

The LDS Church authorities continually claim that the story of Eliza being pregnant at Nauvoo is true, and there is no reason to doubt that she did conceive a child, but if she did, the child was not born at Nauvoo. However, there is absolutely no foundation for their claim that Joseph Smith was the father.

One month before he died, Joseph the Prophet proclaimed to thousands of Saints gathered for worship on Sunday May 26, 1844, that he was not a polygamist. He declared, "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one" (LDS History of the Church 6:411). Also, the fact that Emma did not push Eliza down the Mansion House stairs (see chapter 9) is proof that the LDS Church's "tradition" that Joseph was the father, is false. Who then was the father? Dr. Wyl's book, from which LDS writers have often quoted in their efforts to prove that Joseph was a polygamist, implies that Bennett seduced Eliza—he could have been the father."

[jkwilliams]

3 minutes ago, Calm said:

One month before he died, Joseph the Prophet proclaimed to thousands of Saints gathered for worship on Sunday May 26, 1844, that he was not a polygamist. He declared, "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one" (LDS History of the Church 6:411). Also, the fact that Emma did not push Eliza down the Mansion House stairs (see chapter 9) is proof that the LDS Church's "tradition" that Joseph was the father, is false. Who then was the father? Dr. Wyl's book, from which LDS writers have often quoted in their efforts to prove that Joseph was a polygamist, implies that Bennett seduced Eliza—he could have been the father."

I'm not surprised the Prices would adopt Wyl's smear of Eliza Snow. Thanks for finding this. 

[JLHPROF]

5 minutes ago, Calm said:

http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp8.htm

What drivel.

When you make such leaps of logic as "the fact that Emma did not push Eliza down the Mansion House stairs (see chapter 9) is proof that the LDS Church's "tradition" that Joseph was the father, is false" you lose all credibility as historians.
Talk about a non sequitur.

That's about as silly as "because Sylvia Session's daughter wasn't Joseph's that proves she and Joseph never had relations".
It proves no such thing.

Edited June 24, 2016 by JLHPROF