Expose' of Polygamy: A Lady's Life Among the Mormons (Life Writings Frontier Women)

208 Pages·2008·1.05 MB·English

by  Fanny Stenhouse

Exposé of Polygamy
A Lady’s Life among the Mormons
Volume 10
Life Writings of Frontier Women
Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
Fanny Stenhouse.
Exposé of Polygamy:
A Lady’s Life among the Mormons
Fanny Stenhouse
Edited by
Linda Wilcox DeSimone
(cid:1)
Utah State University Press
Logan, Utah
2008
Copyright © 2008 Utah State University Press
All rights reserved
Utah State University Press
Logan, Utah 84322–7800
www.usu.edu/usupress
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
ISBN: 978–0–87421–713–1 (cloth)
ISBN: 978–0–87421–714–8 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stenhouse, T. B. H., Mrs., b. 1829.
Exposé of polygamy : a lady’s life among the Mormons / Fanny Stenhouse ;
edited by Linda Wilcox DeSimone.
p. cm. – (Life writings of frontier women ; v. 10)
Originally published: New York : American News Co., 1872.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87421-713-1 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-87421-714-8 (e-book :
alk. paper)
1. Mormon Church--Controversial literature. 2. Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints--Doctrines. 3. Mormon Church--Doctrines. 4. Polygamy--
Religious aspects--Mormon Church. 5. Stenhouse, T. B. H., Mrs., b. 1829. I.
DeSimone, Linda Wilcox. II. Title.
BX8645.S67 2008
289.3’79225--dc22
[B]
2008008575
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: Reckoning with Fanny Stenhouse 1
Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons 23
To the Reader 27
Contents 29
Illustrations 34
Chapter I 35
Chapter II 37
Chapter III 39
Chapter IV 43
Chapter V 47
Chapter VI 54
Chapter VII 60
Chapter VIII 65
Chapter IX 69
Chapter X 75
Chapter XI 81
Chapter XII 86
Chapter XIII 93
Chapter XIV 100
Chapter XV 107
Chapter XVI 118
Chapter XVII 124
Chapter XVIII 129
Chapter XIX 141
Chapter XX 151
Appendix 156
Epilogue: The 1872 Exposé of Polygamy Compared
with the 1874 “Tell It All” 168
Appendix: List of Editions 172
Notes 179
Index 193
vi
Preface
I fi rst want to thank Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, formerly the gen-
eral editor of the Life Writings of Frontier Women series from Utah State
University Press, who is responsible for the birth of this book. One day
when she and I met for a catch-up lunch, she suggested the possibility of a
project in the series that would bring Fanny Stenhouse’s fi rst book about
her experiences in Mormonism and polygamy back into print. Although
I was interested in the project (especially since my daughter had recently
married into the Stenhouse family), it took another several months for me
to contact her again about the project and begin to fl esh out with her the
framework for moving forward. Maureen generously shared with me her
own copies of several versions of Stenhouse’s book and provided ongoing
encouragement as well as the benefi t of her felicitous phrasing. John R.
Alley, executive editor at the Utah State University Press, has also been a
constant source of support. His quick response to questions, his patience
in providing technical information, and his helpful editorial suggestions
and guidance all have alleviated anxieties and smoothed the way.
Many special thanks go to Stenhouse descendants Douglas Simms
Stenhouse and Carolyn Young Hunsaker. Douglas, a grandson of Fanny
Stenhouse’s seventh child, T. B. H. Jr., shared with me at our fi rst meet-
ing the work he had collected on his family’s history, including an
account he had written of the lives of his ancestors T. B. H. and Fanny
Stenhouse. He also put me in touch with Carolyn Young Hunsaker, a
descendant through Fanny Stenhouse’s eldest daughter, Clara. Carolyn
has been extraordinarily generous and helpful in sharing her own
research and family stories—as well as those of her aunt LeJeune Young
Decker—answering innumerable questions, showing me artifacts from
the family’s pioneer heritage, and in general providing an accommodat-
ing sounding board that helped me work through the many pieces of the
Stenhouse family history.
I have also benefi ted from the assistance of the staff at L. Tom
Perry Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young
vii
University—especially David Whittaker and Russell Taylor, who made it
possible for me to locate and compare the various versions of Stenhouse’s
work more easily. The staffs at the Utah State Historical Society/Library
Research Center and the Church History Library of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints were similarly accommodating.
(cid:75)(cid:72)
In reproducing the text of Fanny Stenhouse’s Exposé of Polygamy: A
Lady’s Life among the Mormons, I have retained the spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, and wording of the 1872 fi rst edition so as to provide here
an exact transcription of her fi rst book.
Introduction
Reckoning with Fanny Stenhouse
The name Fanny Stenhouse may bring to the mind of someone vaguely
familiar with it associations such as Fanny Stenhouse = anti-Mormon, anti-
polygamy crusader, lurid exposé author. Her reputation or, in some minds,
notoriety is largely based on her massive exposé, “Tell It All,” in which she
describes in fascinating detail her experience as a Mormon, the unusual
doctrines and practices of Mormonism, and especially the damaging effects
of polygamy as she observed and experienced them. Stenhouse and her
book became national and even international phenomena. The book went
through many editions, and she went on the lecture circuit and testifi ed
before Congress as part of the national debate on Mormons and polygamy.
Yet this was not Stenhouse’s original telling of her story. Two years
before the 1874 publication of the wildly popular “Tell It All” and soon
after her break with Mormonism, she wrote a shorter memoir. This ver-
sion, titled Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons. A
Record of Personal Experience as one of the Wives of a Mormon Elder during a
Period of more than Twenty Years, reveals a different woman and a different
voice from the more highly colored ones of the later, longer book. The
fi rst account of Stenhouse’s experience has been sidelined, largely forgot-
ten and subsumed in the image of the later Fanny Stenhouse. But that
early version lets us see a sensibility more immediate and honest, expe-
rience a forthright and restrained writing style, and make acquaintance
with a more human and sympathetic woman.
A detailed description of the book’s contents is unnecessary, since
Stenhouse is a compelling storyteller and makes it easy for readers to
discover and understand her experiences on their own. Along with
Stenhouse’s own personal history we fi nd illuminating pictures of general
Mormon life and society; extensive descriptions, comments, and analyses
of polygamy in its many forms and ramifi cations; and a fair amount of
Stenhouse’s philosophy regarding life, God, human nature, and love.
1