Some facts and figures about 19th-century Mormon polygyny

Although appendix B provides the details of Mormon polygyny, it is useful here to consider a few of the basic facts about plural marriages in the pioneer era: how many men practiced polygyny, how many wives they had, and so on. By and large, it appears that relatively few Mormon men engaged in polygyny, and of those who did, most had only two wives. These data are quite consistent with practices in other polygynous cultures, described in the technical note at the end of this chapter. According to an analysis of 6,000 pioneer families (Ivins, 1956), 15-20% of Utah Mormon families were polygynous at one time or another, although the numbers vary from decade to decade. In 1856-1857, for example, the number of plural marriages skyrocketed; as noted earlier, this was a period of religious fervor known as the Mormon reformation (Ivins, 1956; Van Wagoner, 1989).

Of 1,800 other pioneer cases about 67% of the men practicing polygyny had only two wives, 20% had three wives, and less than 10% had four or more wives (Ivins, 1956; see also Smith and Kunz, 1976). At the same time, some men, especially church leaders, had many wives and children. Brigham Young allegedly had 27 wives, was "sealed" to twice that many living women and to at least 150 other women who had previously died (Ivins, 1956). Heber Kimball, a church leader close to Brigham Young, had 43 wives and 65 children (Van Wagoner, 1989). Three other church leaders had 11, 10, and 19 wives, respectively (Goodson, 1976), and Joseph Smith's early associates who practiced polygyny had an average of 5.1 wives (Faux, 1983).

The partners in some of these marriages were older women and widows seeking security and support. Brigham Young, for example, married several of Joseph Smith's widows following his assassination. This practice originated in part in the biblical teaching that a man should marry his brother's widows in order to care for them. Many of these marriages were "for time only," whereas the woman's marriage to her original husband was "for eternity."

In summary, only a small proportion of Mormon families practiced polygyny in the pioneer era. The average was perhaps 20%, with variations over the years and across geographical regions. Furthermore, most plural families had only two wives, with many fewer having three or more wives. These data are consistent with those of other polygynous cultures, as is the fact that it was primarily church leaders and other select men who were the predominant practitioners of plural marriage and who had larger numbers of plural wives.

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Demographics of Mormon polygyny

This appendix presents some facts and figures about the families who participated in our project, including the number of wives in plural families, age of marriage of husbands and wives, sororal marriages (sisters married to the same husband), number of children in families, divorce rates, and men's and women's occupations. We also present comparative data for 19th-century Mormon plural families. These seemingly straightforward demographic topics are more difficult to study than meets the eye - and for different reasons for the pioneer and contemporary eras of Mormon polygyny. For example, we found no published demographic analyses of present-day groups. Elders of the groups with whom we worked said that detailed demographic records are not maintained. Furthermore, our sample of families is quite small and is not randomly selected or representative of the total population of families in fundamentalist groups. What we present, therefore, is based on a combination of estimates by contemporary scholars and observers, our discussions with fundamentalist leaders, and information from the families with whom we worked. The complete facts are also not available for 19th-century Mormons. Records of marriages, births, and divorces were not always kept or were incomplete during the pioneer era, especially because of attempts to maintain secrecy about plural marriages. Once the Mormons settled in Utah in 1847, and prior to the Manifesto of 1890, good records were maintained. Before and after that period, however, the data are less comprehensive.1 Nevertheless, we are able to draw on several scholarly analyses of aspects of the demography of 19th-century plural families.

Frequency of plural marriage and number of wives

What proportion of pioneer and contemporary Mormon fundamentalist families are plural families? Arrington and Bitton (1979) estimated that a maximum of 5% of men and 12% of women in the pioneer era participated in plural marriages. However, Embry (1987) concluded that there were wide geographical variations in rates of polygynous marriages in the 19th century - from 5% to 67% of marriages in different communities.

The proportion of Mormons in plural marriages appears to have successively declined over the decades following a large number of such marriages from 1856 to 1857, a period of religious fervor known as the Mormon Reformation (Ivins, 1956; Van Wagoner, 1989). Using data on 6,000 families, Ivins (1956) concluded that about 15 to 20% of Mormon families had been polygynous at one time or another. In another analysis, Smith and Kunz (1976) found that 28% of a sample of 19th-century Mormon families were polygynous. Thus available information suggests that a relatively small proportion of 19th-century Mormon families were polygynous - perhaps 15 to 25% - with variations over time and across communities and regions.

What about the number of wives in Mormon pioneer plural families? In general, the data are consistent from study to study and suggest that the great majority of plural families had only two wives, with the number tapering off rapidly thereafter. From her oral history study of the children of original pioneer polygynists Embry (1987, p. 34) concluded that "Mormon men did not collect harems. About 60 percent of the men married only one plural wife. Approximately 20 percent had three wives" and 20 percent had four or more wives.

Similarly, Ivins (1956) concluded from an analysis of about 1,800 cases that approximately 67% of the men practicing polygamy had only two wives, another 20% had three wives, and the remainder had four or more wives. Comparable figures were obtained by Smith and Kunz (1976) from a sample of 6,000 pioneer families.2

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Age of marriage of husbands and wives

Many critics in the 19th century, and even today, argued that Mormon polygyny involves "old men" marrying "young girls." The fact is that the marriage age in pioneer and present-day Mormon plural families is a complex matter and simplistic conclusions are not appropriate. Fortunately, several analyses of 19th-century Mormon pioneers shed some light on the question.

By and large, it seems that first marriages occurred when men and women were in their teens or early 20s. A first plural marriage usually occurred some years later, although the husband tended to marry a woman close to the age of his first wife when he married her. Thus there was a greater age gap between the husband and wife on a second marriage. This pattern recurred in successive marriages, with a greater and greater age gap between the husband and successive wives. However, some analyses indicate that most pioneer plural marriages were completed by the time a man had reached the age of 40. And since most pioneer plural families had only two wives, as noted earlier, the idea of "old men" marrying "young girls" was rare.

Ivins (1956) concluded from an analysis of 1,200 pioneer polygynous families that "the composite polygamist was first married at the age of twenty three to a girl of twenty. Thirteen years later he took a plural wife, choosing a twenty-two year old girl [when he was thirty six] . . . If, however, he took a third wife, he waited four years, then selected another girl of twenty two [when he was forty]" (Ivins, 1956, p. 234).

In a further breakdown, Ivins (1956) found that 38% of all wives were in their teens, and 29% were between 20 and 25 years of age when they married. Thus two-thirds of women were at or below the age of 25 when they married; 30% were over 30 years of age. Furthermore, 10% of the men married their last wives while in their 20s, and more than half completed their plural marriages before reaching the age of 40. However, the fact that somewhat less than 20% of the men continued to marry additional wives after their 50s suggests that the age gap between husbands and new wives probably continued to widen in larger plural families. Smith and Kunz (1976) reported comparable results in a sample of 6,000 pioneer families. The marriage age of first wives was about 20 years, that of second wives was about 22 years, and third wives married on average when they were 23 years old. Husbands married their later wives when they were in their 30s and 40s.

In an analysis of marriage ages in one region, Logue (1984) reported that Mormon pioneer men were about 24 years old when they married their first wife, 38 when they married a second time, 41 when they married a third wife, and 44 when they married a fourth time. Thus men waited over a decade before entering plural marriage, and then married successive wives fairly soon thereafter. (Logue did not present information about ages of wives at successive marriages.)

In an extensive oral history study of the surviving children of late-19th-century polygynous families, Embry (1987) found that husbands were in their early 20s in first marriages (28% were 15 to 20 years of age, and 59% were between 20 and 25 years of age), and first wives were in their teens (74% were between 15 and 20 years old, 25% were 21 to 25). When the husband married a second wife, he was between 26 and 35 years old (57%) and she was 15 to 19 years of age (57% were between 15 and 20, and 28% were between 21 and 25). For third wives, the variability of men's ages increased. Embry stated that the husband was usually in his late 30s (22% of the men were 31 to 35, 28% were 36 to 40, 16% were 41 to 45, 12% were 46 to 50 years of age). For fourth wives, men's ages gradually increased, with two-thirds being in the range of 36 to 50 years of age. At the same time, successive wives' ages were more or less comparable to the age of the first wife when the husband married her, as is consistent with other data, although there were cases of men marrying older wives as their fourth wife (e.g., 17% of the men married fourth wives who were 31 to 40; some of these may have been widows or divorcees).

Embry's data show an increasing disparity between the ages of husbands and successive wives. Thus 72% of husbands and wives in first marriages were within 0 to 5 years of the same age. This reduced to 20%, 7%, and 0% for second, third, and fourth wives, respectively. Thus 43% of second wives were 11 to 12 years younger than their husband; 46% of third wives were 16 to 25 years younger than their husbands, and 33% of fourth wives were 21 to 30 years younger than their husbands.

Finally, Embry (1987) noted that about 60% of men married a second wife 6 to 15 years after their first marriage, with about 23% marrying somewhat earlier. However, successive marriages occurred more rapidly, with 57% of third marriages and 77% of fourth marriages occurring within 2 to 10 years after prior marriages. Thus, as noted earlier, there usually was a delay of several years before a man married a second wife, but subsequent marriages occurred more quickly.

In general, therefore, ages of first marriages by 19th-century Mormon polygynists involved men and women in their early 20s and late teens. On each successive marriage, the wives continued to be about the same age as the wife in the first marriage, with the husband being older and the age gap between husbands and successive wives widening. Given these data, it is probable that some older men in the pioneer era married very young women, but it was by no means a standard or widespread practice, especially since most plural marriages only involved two wives.