No Man Knows My History (Arkosh History)

by Fawn M. Brodie

The extreme informality attending Joseph’s earliest marriages (at least as it appears in the available records) is even more evident in the story of the prophet’s relationship with Prescindia Huntington Buell. During the Missouri troubles of 1838-9 her husband, Norman Buell, temporarily left the church. About this time Prescindia bore a son. She admitted later that she did not know whether Norman Buell or the prophet was the father. But the physiognomy revealed in a rare photograph of Oliver Buell seems to weight the balance overwhelmingly on the side of Josephs paternity. And there is evidence in the diary of the boy’s uncle, Oliver Huntington, that young Buell was- * For documentation on the details of Joseph’s plural wives see Appendix G. later officially “sealed or adopted” to the prophet in the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City.