No Man Knows My History (Arkosh History)

by Fawn M. Brodie

But the true measure of the magnetism of plural marriage can be seen best in the attitude of the Mormon women. They required very little more persuasion than the men, though the reasons are not so obvious. Nauvoo was a severe town, puritanical and acutely self-righteous. But it was a town full of “church widows,” whose husbands were out proselyting, spreading the gospel, in the East, in the South, in Canada, and in England. Several were making ready to go to the South Sea Islands. Orson Hyde, on the way to Palestine to dedicate that land to the restoration of the Jews, was exploring the possibilities of missions in Germany and Russia, Whether Nancy Hyde became a polygamous wife of Joseph Smith when Orson Hyde was on this mission, or earlier, is not clear. But her circumstances were typical of those of many women who found polyandry to their liking.