Fanny Alger: first plural wife or affair?
A relationship in Kirtland with a teenage household servant, years before the plural-marriage revelation.
What the Church claims
The Church now teaches that Joseph married Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in the mid-1830s by divine command.
Once the evidence is in, this claim: Contested. The relationship is certain; whether any ceremony occurred cannot be known, and the contemporary evidence points one way while the late evidence points the other.
The record
- Fanny Alger was born in September 1816 and worked in the Smith home in Kirtland; datings of the relationship run from 1833 (Compton) to late 1835 or early 1836 (Hales), i.e. age 16 to 19.
- The only contemporary document is Oliver Cowdery's letter of 1838-01-21 calling it a 'dirty, nasty, filthy scrape' - the letterbook copy has 'affair' written over 'scrape'.
- The sources that call it a marriage are late: Mosiah Hancock (1896), Benjamin F. Johnson (1903), Eliza R. Snow's list.
- Fanny left Kirtland in 1836 and soon married Solomon Custer in Indiana.
The moving target
- 2014-10: States as fact that Joseph 'married a plural wife, Fanny Alger'; 'Little is known about this marriage'.
- 2018-09: Narrates a ceremony by Levi Hancock with her parents' approval, kept private 'as the angel had instructed'; says Oliver 'was deeply critical'. Does not quote Cowdery's words.
- current: 'An early plural marriage'; 'Very little is known'.
The exchange
Hales; Don Bradley; FAIR
Later insiders who were in a position to know called it a marriage, and the Hancock family account describes a ceremony; Cowdery's word was 'scrape', not 'affair'.
The answer: The marriage evidence is 60-70 years late and comes from committed Utah polygamists with every reason to regularize the story. The man closest to events, a Book of Mormon witness and Assistant President of the Church, regarded it as adultery at the time and was excommunicated partly for saying so. 'Scrape' versus 'affair' hardly changes the meaning, given 'dirty, nasty, filthy'.
What they get right: Critics often quote 'affair' without noting the overwriting; precision matters, and it is fair that a ceremony cannot be ruled out.
Gospel Topics, 'Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo'; Church History Topics, 'Fanny Alger'
The Church's own history topic and the Gospel Topics essay now call it a marriage, sealed by revelation and preceding the 1843 revelation on plural marriage. The question was settled by the Church itself, not by apologists.
The answer: The Church calling it a marriage does not supply what a marriage needs. There is no date, no recorded ceremony, no officiator named in any contemporary document, and no sealing authority yet restored on the Church's own timeline — Elijah's visit is dated to April 1836, and most reconstructions place the Alger relationship before or across that line. Emma Smith discovered it and expelled Fanny from the house; Oliver Cowdery, then Assistant President of the Church, wrote of it in terms he never applied to a marriage. The Church has relabeled an event it once denied, without producing the record that would make the label true.
What they get right: Cowdery's word was 'scrape', not 'affair', and skeptics who quote it as though he wrote the latter are misquoting a primary source.
Both cases at full strength
The skeptics' case
A married man in his late twenties began a secret relationship with a teenage servant in his own home; his wife evidently expelled the girl; his closest associate called it filthy. The Church today asserts a 'marriage' on evidence it admits is very thin, and Saints presents that reading without the contrary contemporary witness.
The apologetic case
Joseph said an angel commanded plural marriage as early as 1834; the Alger family stayed loyal; Fanny herself never accused Joseph; and a ceremony performed by her uncle is attested in family tradition. Cowdery was embittered in 1838.
What would change this
A pre-1840 source describing a ceremony.
Closely related
Sources
- Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo (Gospel Topics essay)
- Biographies of Joseph's Plural Wives (35 individual pages)
- Fanny Alger - Evidence of Sexuality (transcribes Cowdery to Warren Cowdery, 1838-01-21)
- Fanny Alger (Church History Topics)
- Saints, vol. 1, chapter 25, 'Move On to the West'
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