[Charles Mostyn Owen letter to William Paden] I have to report the results of my trip through Idaho and a portion of Wyoming during the past month. I find a number of cases of new marriage since the manifesto scattered throughout these states. The most notable of these is the case of the late Apostle A[braham]. O[wen]. Woodruff who, as we suspected, took to himself a plural wife about two years ago. She appears to have been a resident of Star Valley, Wyoming, in the settlement of Afton and her name is Avery Clark. She is a daughter of H. D. Clark of Afton and a nice of the late Ezra Clark of Farmington, Utah. The latter, as you know, was a very extensive polygamist. It appears that up to two years ago she was engaged to be married to another man. She broke off this engagement and the attentions of Apostle Woodruff became notorious. ....
Apostle Marriner W[ood]. Merrill, who was described by his son Cha[rle]s. as being the husband of six wives and a very busy man, appears to have taken a new wife, in addition to the six, in the person of Miss Hulda Olson... The marriage is understood to have taken place in the Logan Temple in the year 1901, her age at that time being 27 years. .... He now has as his second wife one Florence Porter, a sister of his first wife....
Harry Bramwell ... is understood to have a wife at Preston, Idaho, and No. 3 is said to live at LeGrande, Oregon. E. V. Harrison, aged 42, residence Pocatello [Idaho], has for his plural wife by reputation, one Emma Olive
... J. B. Hawkley, also of Pocatello, is said to have a new wife, but I could locate nothing definite in this case.
Hyrum Hanson of Preston [Idaho], is said to have taken a second wife about 1898 or 1899, but the wife has disappeared from sight and nothing seems to be sufficiently well established to say anything about.
John Bagley of Montpelier [Idaho], the present Attorney General of the State of Idaho, whose first wife is Nina V. Bagley and whose second wife Lydia Austin, whom it is understood he married in 1892, is now understood to have married in 1903 one Tillie Peterson, who is now residing in Portland, Oregon, under the name of Mrs. Perkins. She was confined early this year... I also understand that he obtained passes for Miss Maude Austin at the same time...
The case of J. U. Stucki, who is State Tything Clerk at Rexburg [Idaho], and who has three wives, Margaret No. 1, Jane No. 2 and Clara Spori is No. 3. I understand from my informants, who are very intimate with the family, that Mr. stucki was on a mission absent from the State of Idaho in the year 1890 at the time of the issuance of the [Woodruff] Manifesto, although at that time he had his first two wives. Clara at that time was residing at Paris [Idaho], was a single woman and was engaged to be married to a young man at Rexburg, Idaho. This was subsequently broken off and it is understood generally that they were married in the Logan or Salt Lake Temples in September, 1892....
[Source: Charles Mostyn Owen, Letter to William Paden, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]
No comments:
Post a Comment