Sarah Ann Whitney

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Sarah Ann Whitney (22 March 1825 in Kirtland, Ohio - 4 September 1873 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is recognized as the sixteenth woman to marry Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Sarah Ann Whitney was born in Kirtland, Ohio on March 22, 1825 to Newel and Elizabeth Whitney (Compton 1997, p. 343). Sarah was thirteen years old when her family left Kirtland shortly after the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society with the intention of relocating to Missouri. During this time, Sarah’s mother wrote that her children “accepted this change in their worldly circumstances without a murmur. They were devotedly attached to Joseph" (Compton 1997, p. 345). Upon their arrival in St. Louis, the family learned of the escalating conflicts between the Mormons and the Missourians, and the Governor’s issuance of the Extermination Order. Sarah’s family decided to avoid Missouri, and lived temporarily in several places before eventually arriving in Nauvoo, Illinois in the spring of 1840 (Compton 1997, p. 346).

[edit] Marriage to Joseph Smith Jr.

See also: Joseph Smith, Jr. and polygamy

Joseph Smith Jr. and Newel Whitney had a very close friendship. After her parents were introduced to the principle of plural marriage by Smith, the marriage of Sarah to Smith was arranged with her parent’s consent (Brodie 1971, p. 471).[2] This marriage is believed to have been performed for the purpose of creating a “dynastic” link between the Whitney and Smith families in the afterlife. The arrangement of Sarah’s marriage to Joseph Smith was claimed by author Tood Compton to be “very much a family activity (Compton 1997, p. 347).

During the time that she lived in Nauvoo, Sarah and Helen Mar Kimball, who also eventually became one of Smith’s plural wives, became very close friends. According to Helen, she and Sarah were like “the two halves of one soul.” Sarah’s brother Horace Whitney married Helen Mar Kimball “for time” after the death of Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844 (Compton 1997, p. 342).

Stories have circulated the the marriage of Smith and Sarah was not entirely consensual. Sarah had at first disagreed to marriage until Smith stated that God said Sarah was to be his wife and she should think about the after life of her mother and father. Eventually she agreed because she felt that the burden of her family's eternal life was on her shoulders.

[edit] Marriage to Joseph Kingsbury

Nine months after her marriage to Smith, Sarah married Joseph Kingsbury in a civil ceremony (Compton 1997, p. 351). This marriage was considered a "pretend" marriage according to Kingsbury, who was also later sealed to his deceased wife Caroline for eternity (Compton 1997, p. 351). Kingsbury recorded the following in his diary,

“On the 29th of April 1843 I according to President Couscil & others agreed to Stand by Sarah Ann Whitney as Supposed to be her husband & had a pretended marriage for the purpose of Bringing about the purposes of God in these last days so spoken by the mouth of the Prophits Isiah Jeremiah Ezekial and also Joseph Smith, and Sarah Ann should recd a Great Glory Honner and Eternal Lives and I also should recd a Great Glory Honner and Eternal lives to the full desire of my heart in having my companion Caroline in the first Reserection to lcaim [claim] her & no one to have power to take her away from me & we Both shall be Crowned & Enthroned togeather I the Celestial Kingdom" (Kingsbury, p. 13).

[edit] Marriage to Heber C. Kimball

After the death of Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844, Sarah's marriage to Joseph Kingsbury was dissolved and Sarah married Heber C. Kimball "for time" (Compton 1997, p. 353). Seven children resulted from this marriage, two of which died in infancy. Sarah was described in Kimball's biography as "a woman of wonderful character, respected by the other wives and children. She was deeply devoted to her own children and to Heber C. Kimball."[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Wives of Joseph Smith
  2. ^ “Her own sworn statement, giving the date as July 27, 1842, was published along with a confirming affidavit sworn by her mother, in Joseph F. Smith, Jr.: Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage.” It is said that she was the first woman given in plural marriage ‘by and with the consent of both parents.’”
  3. ^ The Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 419

[edit] References

  1. Brodie, Fawn M (1971), No Man Knows My History, New York: Knopf, ISBN 0679730540 .
  2. Compton, Todd (Dec. 1997), In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, ISBN 156085085X .
  3. Kingsbury, Joseph, Joseph Kingsbury diary, <http://patriot.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/Diaries&CISOPTR=7660&REC=9> .