Motivation for Joseph's flury of marriage?

[helemon]

I checked the churches Family history website and found this info about the children Joseph had with Emma:

Boy 1828 died at birth
Boy 1831 died at birth
Joseph 1832
Fred 1836
Alex 1838
Don 1840 died 1841
Boy 1842 died at birth
David 1844

Another interesting bit of information about Josephs marriages is that all but two (Fanny, and Lucinda) occur between 1841-1843. In 1842 Joseph married 11 women between Jan-Aug. By Aug he would have felt more confident that Emma was going to carry her pregnancy to term, which may have caused him to stop the marriages for a while. However when Emma has her fourth child die in infancy, Joseph once again begins to frantically marry 17 more women! Perhaps I am reading too much into it but it does seem like the death of his fourth child in infancy, combined with the fear of death he experienced during his youth due to the bone disease, combined with the prosperity and power he was enjoying at Nauvoo, may have in part contributed to his numerous marriages during the years of 1842 and 1843.

[free thinker]

Have we ever considered that JS was just plain ole wacked out?

Can you imagine marrynig 17 women in a year? :Crazy:

C,mon guys, this guy just may have been a nut case!!!


Free Thinker

[Born Free]

I checked the churches Family history website and found this info about the children Joseph had with Emma:

Boy 1828 died at birth
Boy 1831 died at birth
Joseph 1832
Fred 1836
Alex 1838
Don 1840 died 1841
Boy 1842 died at birth
David 1844

Another interesting bit of information about Josephs marriages is that all but two (Fanny, and Lucinda) occur between 1841-1843. In 1842 Joseph married 11 women between Jan-Aug. By Aug he would have felt more confident that Emma was going to carry her pregnancy to term, which may have caused him to stop the marriages for a while. However when Emma has her fourth child die in infancy, Joseph once again begins to frantically marry 17 more women! Perhaps I am reading too much into it but it does seem like the death of his fourth child in infancy, combined with the fear of death he experienced during his youth due to the bone disease, combined with the prosperity and power he was enjoying at Nauvoo, may have in part contributed to his numerous marriages during the years of 1842 and 1843.
Helemon,

I'd be keen to graph that to get some visual image of the relationships. Can you get more details on the dates of the poly marriages down to the month?

Boy, those mortality rates are a stark reminder how much better women have childbirth these days. How the hell did that woman (and the many owmen like her) maintain her sanity, with all that loss? 50%

I am not sure I agree with your conclusions about why he was so busy elsewhere. Of two infant mortalities in that 42-43 period, one is in the first year, and the other at birth, so unless that child was premmy, the risk was birth and early life. That is unless Emma got very anxious about sex in a fearful reaction to the losses.

What age was he at the time? (Sorry I have better dates to fill my head with than Joe's birthday)

Daryl

[helemon]

Have we ever considered that JS was just plain ole wacked out?


I think the combination of a fourth child dying in infancy could have pushed him toward the edge of sanity. It is understandable that this would cause him to become fixated on the promise to Abraham of children more numerable than the sands of the sea. I think Fanny was a youthful indiscretion and I wonder if Lucinda, who was formally married to a powerful leader of the Masons, didn't naturally gravitate toward Joseph and perhaps did some seducing of Joseph. The flurry of marriages though seem like a touch of insanity.

Was it Joseph that originally brought up the discussion of the plural marriages of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? I seem to recall that it was someone else who brought it to his attention. Either way, once Joseph pronounced the doctrine true it seems like the men close to him may have decided to use this new doctrine to win favor with the prophet either by helping him find new wives or even offering him their own daughter, like Heber C. Kimball did. Just like arranged marriages of old were used to form alliances with a powerful king.

The practice of the law of adoption in a similar way was used by the leaders of the church to build up a following for themselves among the saints by promising an easy ticket to salvation by sealing themselves to an apostle.

[helemon]

Helemon,

I'd be keen to graph that to get some visual image of the relationships. Can you get more details on the dates of the poly marriages down to the month?

I'll see if I can get around to it. The marriage dates can be found at:
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/
The dates for the birth and death of Emma and Josephs children can be found in their family history file on the churches geneology website.


Boy, those mortality rates are a stark reminder how much better women have childbirth these days. How the hell did that woman (and the many owmen like her) maintain her sanity, with all that loss? 50%

Yes I am sure it put a strain on their marriage. Especially if Emma felt that it was partly because of the privations she had to endure following Joseph all over the country and all the percecutions they endured.

I am not sure I agree with your conclusions about why he was so busy elsewhere. Of two infant mortalities in that 42-43 period, one is in the first year, and the other at birth, so unless that child was premmy, the risk was birth and early life. That is unless Emma got very anxious about sex in a fearful reaction to the losses.

Yes you are correct. I don't know which would be harder the loss of a child at birth or after they were a little over a year old. I think the latter because you would have had more time to bond with the child. I seem to recall the loss of Don Carlos was very painful to Joseph and Emma.

What age was he at the time? (Sorry I have better dates to fill my head with than Joe's birthday)

Daryl

Joseph was born in 1805. So he was 35 in 1840.