"What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when JOSEPH ASKED him for his money? He would say, 'Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the kingdom of God.' Or if HE CAME AND SAID. I WANT YOUR WIFE?' '0 YES.' he would say. 'HERE SHE IS. THERE ARE PLENTY MORE. '. ..Did the PROPHET JOSEPH WANT EVERY MAN'S WIFE HE ASKED FOR? He did not. ...If such a man of God should come to me and say, 'I want your gold and silver, OR YOUR WIVES.' I should say. 'HERE THEY ARE. I WISH I HAD MORE TO GIVE YOU, TAKE ALL I HAVE GOT.'"(Journal of Discourses.Vol. 2. pp. 13-14)

In his book Mormon Portraits, Dr. Wyl gave the following information:

"Joseph Smith finally demanded the WIVES OF ALL THE TWELVE APOSTLES that were at home then in Nauvoo....Vilate Kimball, the first wife of Heber C. Kimball, ..loved her husband, and he, . . . loved her, hence a reluctance to comply with the Lord's demand that Vilate should be CONSECRATED... They thought the command of the Lord must be obeyed in some way, and a 'proxy' way suggested itself to their minds. They had a young daughter only getting out of girlhood, and the father apologizing to the prophet for his wife's RELUCTANCE to comply with HIS DESIRES, stating, however, that the act must be right or it would not be counseled - the abject slave of a father asked Joe IF HIS DAUGHTER WOULDN'T DO AS WELL AS HIS WIFE. Joe replied that she would do just as well, and The Lord would accept her instead. The half-ripe bud of womanhood was DELIVERED over to the PROPHET. " (Mormon Portraits. 1886, pp. 70-72)

The fact that Joseph Smith asked for Heber C. Kimball's wife but actually married his daughter is verified in the Book The Life of Heber C. Kimball, written by the Mormon Apostle Orson F. Whitney:

"Before he would trust even Heber with the full secret, however, he put him to a test which few men would have been able to bear

"It was no less than A REQUIREMENT FOR HIM TO SURRENDER HIS WIFE, HIS BELOVED VILATE, AND GIVE HER TO JOSEPH IN MARRIAGE! The astounding revelation well-nigh paralyzed him. He could hardly believe he had heard aright. YET JOSEPH WAS SOLEMNLY IN EARNEST. . . . He knew Joseph too well, as a man, a friend, a brother, a servant of God, to doubt his truth or the DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE BEHEST HE HAD MADE. No; Joseph was God's Prophet, His mouth-piece and oracle, and so long as he was so, his words were as the words of the Eternal One. . .HE WOULD TRY AND DO AS HE WAS TOLD. Such, now was his super-human resolve.

"Three days he fasted and wept and prayed. Then, with broken and a bleeding heart, but with soul self-mastered for the SACRIFICE. HE LED HIS DARLING WIFE TO THE PROPHET'S HOUSE AND PRESENTED HER TO JOSEPH.

  "It was enough - the heavens accepted the sacrifice. The will for the deed was taken, and 'accounted unto him for righteousness.' Joseph wept at this proof of devotion, and embracing Heber told him that was all the Lord required....

"The Prophet joined the hands of the heroic and devoted pair, and then and there, by virtue of the sealing power and authority of the Holy Priesthood, Heber and Vilate Kimball were made husband and wife for all eternity. " The Life of Heber C. Kimball, pages 333-335)

"Soon after the revelation was given, a golden link was forged whereby the houses of Heber and Joseph were indissolubly and forever joined. Helen Mar, the ELDEST DAUGHTER OF HEBER CHASE AND VILATE KIMBALL. WAS GIVEN TO THE PROPHET IN THE HOLY BONDS OF CELESTIAL MARRIAGE." (ibid pg. 339)

According to John D. Lee, Brigham Young tried to justify Joseph Smith's actions by saying that the Lord gave him special privileges: "After the death of Joseph, Brigham Young told me that Joseph's time on earth was short, and that THE LORD ALLOWED HIM PRIVILEGES THAT WE COULD NOT HAVE. " (Confessions of John D. Lee, photo reprint of 1880 Ed., page 147)

Joseph Smith was apparently worried concerning adultery. Joseph Lee Robinson recorded the following in his journal and autobiography:

". . .God had revealed unto him [Joseph Smith] that any man that ever committed ADULTERY In EITHER of his probations that that man could never be raised to the highest exaltation in the celestial glory and that HE FELT ANXIOUS WITH REGARD TO HIMSELF that he enquired the Lord that the Lord told him that HE JOSEPH HAD NEVER COMMITTED ADULTERY. "

John D. Lee tells that Joseph Smith took H. B. Jacob's wife while Mr. Jacobs was absent: "It was now June, 1842. . .I then took a tour down through Illinois. H. B. Jacobs accompanied me as a fellow companion of the way. Jacobs as bragging about his wife and two children, what a true, virtuous, lovely woman she was. He almost worshiped her. BUT LITTLE DID HE THINK THAT, IN HIS ABSENCE, SHE WAS SEALED TO THE PROPHET JOSEPH, AND WAS HIS WIFE. - (Confessions of John D. Lee. Pg. 132)

Juanita Brooks states that "Zina Diantha Huntington" was the woman who was married to Henry B. Jacobs and later sealed to Joseph Smith. She states that after she was sealed to Joseph Smith she continued to live with Jacobs, and that later she "renounced Jacobs and joined the family of Brigham Young." (See On The Mormon Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout, Vol. I, page 141, footnote 18)

Andrew Jensen, who was assistant Church Historian, confirmed the fact that Zina D. Huntington married -Joseph Smith and later became the wife of Brigham Young:

"Zina D. Huntington, afterwards the wife of Pres. Brigham Young, sealed to the Prophet Oct.27, 1841. Dimick B. Huntington officiated. Her sister Fanny was presented as a witness" (Historical Record, by Andrew Jenson, pg. 233)

Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs is listed as wife number five in Stanley Ivin's list of 84 women who may have been married to Joseph Smith:

"5.ZINA DIANTHA HUNTINGTON JACOBS. Daughter of William and Zina Baker Huntington, and wife of Henry B. Jacobs. Born in Watertown, New York, January 31, 1821 Married Jacobs March 7, 1841. Married Joseph Smith. October 27.1841. On February 2, 1846, she was sealed to Smith for eternity and to Brigham Young for time. She lived with Young as his wife, and died August 29, 1901. (Joseph Smith and Polygamy, page 42)

Fawn M. Brodie stated: "Zina left Jacobs in 1846 to marry Brigham Young. William Hall asserted that he had heard Young say publicly to Jacobs: 'The woman you claim for a wife does not belong to you. She is the spiritual wife of brother Joseph, sealed to him. I am his proxy, and she in this behalf, with her children, are my property. You can go where you please, and get another, but be sure to get one of your own kindred spirits.' Jacobs apparently accepted Young's decision as the word of the Lord, for he stood as witness in the Nauvoo temple in January 1846 where Zina was sealed to Brigham Young 'for time' and to Joseph Smith 'for eternity. '" (No Man Knows My History, p 443)

Juanita Brooks stated: "...Zina had been moved to Winter Quarters. She now RENOUNCED JACOBS and JOINED the family of BRIGHAM YOUNG, traveling west in 1848 in a wagon provided by him and driven by her brother Oliver. " (On The Mormon Frontier, the Diary of Hosea Stout Vol. I, page 141, footnote 18) According to Juanita Brooks, Henry Jacobs was still alive in 1886. (Ibid., p. 142, footnote] Zina Diantha Huntington died on August 29,1901.

Ann Eliza Young, who had been married to Brigham Young, charged that Joseph Smith was guilty of adultery:

"Joseph not only paid his addresses to the young and unmarried women, but he sought 'spiritual alliance' with many married ladies. . .He taught them that all former marriages were null and void, and that they were at perfect liberty to make another choice of a husband. The marriage covenants were not binding, because they were ratified only by Gentile laws. These laws the Lord did not recognize; consequently all the women were free. . . .

"This woman, and others, whose experience has been very similar, are among the very best women in the church; they are as pure-minded and virtuous women as any in the world. They were seduced under the guise of religion,...

"Some of these Women have since said they did not know who was the father of their children: this is not to be wondered at, for after JOSEPH'S declaration. ANNULLING all GENTILE MARRIAGES, THE GREATEST PROMISCUITY WAS PRACTICED; and, indeed, all sense of morality seemed to have been LOST by a portion at least of the church. " (Wife No. 19. by Ann-Eliza Young, 1876, pp. 70- 71)
The Mormon Apostle John A. Widtsoe admitted that Joseph Smith was sealed to married women, but he claimed that they were not to be his wives until after death:

"7. Another kind of celestial marriage seems to have been practiced in the early days of plural marriage, it has NOT been practised since Nauvoo days, for it is under Church PROHIBITION.  Zealous women, MARRIED or unmarried, loving the cause of the restored gospel, considered their condition in the hereafter. Some of them asked that they might be sealed to the Prophet for eternity. They were not to be his wives on earth, in mortality. BUT ONLY AFTER DEATH in the eternities. . . . Such marriages led to misunderstandings by those not of the Church, ...Therefore any ceremony uniting a MARRIED WOMAN for example TO JOSEPH SMITH for eternity seemed ADULTEROUS to such people.

Yet, in any day, in our day, there may be women who prefer to spend eternity with another than their husband on earth. SUCH CASES, IF ANY, AND THEY MUST HAVE BEEN FEW IN NUMBER, gave enemies of the Church occasion to fan the flaming hatred against the Latter-day Saints."(Evidences and Reconciliations. 1960, page 343)

John A. Widtsoe's statement that Joseph Smith did not live with the married women to whom he was sealed is certainly false. Patty Bartlett Sessions, the wife of David Sessions, made it very clear in her private journal that she was married to Joseph Smith for both "time" and "eternity": "I was sealed to Joseph Smith by Willard Richards Mar 9,1842, in Newel K. Whitney's chamber, Nauvoo, FOR TIME and all eternity, and if I do not live to attend to it myself when there is a place prepared I want someone to attend to it for me according to order, Sylvia my DAUGHTER was present when I was sealed to Joseph Smith. I was after MR. SESSIONS' death sealed to John Parry for time on the 27th, March, 1852, GSL City. " (Journal of Patty Sessions, as quoted in Intimate Disciple. Portrait of Willard Richards, 1957, Page 611)

The following information concerning Patty Sessions is found in Stanley S. Ivin's list of 84 women who may have been married to Joseph Smith:

"34.- PATTY BARTLETT SESSIONS. Wife of David Sessions...Married Sessions, June 28, 1812. Married Joseph Smith on March 9.1842. Her husband Sessions died about 1850. ..On July 9,1867, she was sealed to Joseph Smith in the Endowment House. . . ."(Joseph Smith and Polygamy, page 44)

Number 4 on the same list is Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris:

"4. LUCINDA PENDLETON MORGAN HARRIS. Daughter of Joseph Pendleton and the WIFE of George W.Harris. . . . She married William Morgan of Masonic notoriety, and after his death, married HARRIS. She married Joseph Smith, date unknown, and then on January 22, 1846, was sealed to him for eternity and to Harris for time. The next day she was again sealed to Harris for time. (Nauvoo Temple Sealing Record). On April 4,1899, she was sealed, by Proxy, to Joseph Smith.

" Andrew Jenson, the Assistant Church Historian, admitted that Lucinda Harris was sealed to Joseph Smith: "Lucinda Harris, also one of the first women sealed to the Prophet Joseph." (Historical Record, page 233)

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, the wife of Adam Lightner, stated: "Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in Hell should never get me from him. I was sealed to him in the Masonic Hall, over the ole brick store by Brigham Young in February 1842 and then again in the Nauvoo Temple by Heber C.Kimball... " (Affidavit of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, as quoted in No Man Knows My History, page 444)

In a speech given at Brigham Young University, Mrs. Lightner stated:

"He [Joseph] preached polygamy and he not only preached it, but he practiced it. I am a living witness to it. It was given to him before he gave it to the Church. An angel came to him and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle he would slay him. Joseph said he talked to him soberly about it, and told him IT WAS AN ABOMINATION and quoted scripture to him. He said in the Book of Mormon it was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and they were to adhere to these things except the Lord speak. . .

"I asked him if Emma knew about me and he said,'Emma thinks the world of you'. I was not sealed to him until I had a witness. I had been DREAMING for a number of years I WAS HIS WIFE. I thought I was a great sinner. I prayed to God to take it from me for I felt it was a sin,but when Joseph sent for me he told me all of these things. 'Well', said I, 'Don't you think it was an angel of the Devil that told you these things?' Said he, 'No, it was an angel of God. God Almighty showed me the difference between an angel of Light and Satan's angels. . . .I talked with him for a long time. He asked me if I was going to be a traitor. . . I have never told a mortal and shall never tell a mortal I had such a talk from a married man. ' said I. . . .

"Joseph came up the next Sabbath....MY HUSBAND WAS FAR AWAY from me at the time. . .. I went forward and was sealed to him. Brigham Young performed the sealing and Heber C.Kimball the blessing.

"I knew he had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two of them are living today, they are not known as his children as they go by other names."(Speech by Mary E. Lightner, Brigham Young University, April 14th, 1905, typed copy)

Andrew Jenson admits that Mary Elizabeth Rollins was sealed to Joseph Smith (see Historical Record. Vol. 6. page234). In Stanley Ivin's list of 84 women who may have beenmarried to Joseph Smith we find the following:

"22-MARY ELIZABETH ROLLINS LIGHTNER. Daughter of John Rollins and WIFE of Adam Lightner. . . . Married Lightner on August 11,1835. Married Joseph Smith in February, 1843. (Brodie: NO MAN KNOWS MY HISTORY, page 444).  0n January 17, 1846 she was sealed to Joseph Smith for eternity and to Brigham Young FOR TIME. However she remained with her legal husbandand and came to Utah with him In 1863. Her death was on December 17,1913." (Joseph Smith and Polygamy, page 43)

It would appear, then, that Mary E. Lightner had two different husbands for "time" and a third for "eternity." The Mormon writer John J. Stewart confirms this in his book Brigham Young and His Wives:
 

"17. Mary Elizabeth Rollins. Born April 9, 1818 at Luna. New York; died December 17, 1913. THE WIFE OF A NON-MORMON, Adam Lightner. Sealed to the Prophet Joseph in February, 1842, at the age of 23, and again January 17, 1846, at which time she was sealed to Brigham for TIME." (Brigham Young and His Wives, page 89)

Stanley P. Hirshon gives this interesting information Concerning Augusta Adams Cobb:
". . . Augusta Adams Cobb, . . . married Henry Cobb, a prosperous Boston merchant, about 1822 and bore seven children. "Augusta lived quietly until Young came east to preach in the summer of 1843. She heard him, converted to Mormonism, and with her two smallest children headed forNauvoo. . . .Augusta continued on to Nauvoo and on November 2, 1843, without divorcing her first husband married Young. A few months later she briefly returned to Boston, where she saw her other children and told Henry she was leaving him forever. . .

"Augusta returned to Nauvoo and on February 2, 1846, was sealed to Young for eternity. The following year Henry Cobb, still in Massachusetts, divorced her. " (The Lion of the Lord. pp. 192-194)

The Mormon writer John J. Stewart confirms the fact That Mrs. Cobb was married to Brigham Young in 1843:

"5. AUGUSTA ADAMS. Born December 7, 1802, at Beverly, Massachusetts; died in 1886. Married to Brigham November 2. 1843. at the age of 40, and sealed to him February2, 1846. She had several children by a previous marriage" (Brigham Young and His Wives, page 86)

From these facts it is hard to escape the conclusion that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were living in adultery (for additional evidence see our book Joseph Smith and Polygamy). John D. Lee stated: "Some have mutually agreed to EXCHANGE WIVES AND HAVE BEEN SEALED TO EACH OTHER AS HUSBAND AND WIFE by virtue and authority of the holy priesthood. One of Brigham's brothers, Lorenzo Young, now a bishop, made an EXCHANGE OF WIVES with Mr. Decker, the father of the Mr. Decker, who now has an interest in the cars running to York" (Confessions of JohnD. Lee photo reprint of 1880 ed., p. 165)

The fact that some members of the Mormon Church were worried that someone else would take their wives is shown by a speech delivered by Brigham Young on Feb. 16, 1847. Young stated:

"There is another principle that has caused considerable uneasiness and trouble (E.I.) the idea of some men having more WIVES THAN ONE. Such tremendous fear takes hold of some that they don't know how to live and still they can't die, and begin to whisper and talk around saying, I am actually afraid to go on a mission for fear some man WILL BE SEALED TO MY WIFE, or when they return home some will be babbling about YOU DON'T KNOW BUT WHAT YOU HAVE GOT ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE. For my part some say I AM AFRAID TO SPEAK TO A YOUNG WOMAN FOR FEAR THAT SHE BELONGS TO SOMEONE ELSE or for fear somebody else wants her (others deny the faith as they think, but they never had any), and say that it is all from the devil. . .those that suffer fears and jealousy to arise in their bosoms either back right out or get to be mighty righteous and for fear that they are sleeping WITH SOME OTHER MAN'S WIFE they kick up a broil at home and perhaps abuse their companions through jealousy.."

(Sermon of Brigham Young, as quoted In Journals of John D. Lee. 1846-47 and 1859. edited by Charles Kelly, 1938, pp. 79-80)