HOW DOES ONE UNDERSTAND A PHENOMENON as complex and perplexing as nineteenth-century Mormon polygamy (or polygyny, the proper term)? Non-Mormons have long struggled to come to terms with this unique practice, joined by modern Mormons, asking questions such as that asked by a 1866 hearing on "The Condition of Utah" before the Congresional Committee for the Territories: "what proportion of the Mormon people are practical (practicing] polygamists?" Answers ranged from one-sixth to one-half. Twenty years later (April 4, 1885) an epistle of the First Presidency stated that "the male members of our Church who practice plural marriage are estimated as not exceeding but little, if any, two per cent, of the entire membership." In the U.S. Senate's Smoot Hearings (1904-7), President Joseph F. Smith, after asking stake presidents to count the number of "polygamous families" within their precincts, claimed "only about 3 or 4 percent of the entire male population of the Church have entered into that principle."

Facing intense national prosecution after 1885, Church leaders understandably tried to minimize the importance of "The Principle," as the practice itself waned. Consequently, the impression persists, even among Mormons, that relatively few members, mainly the elite, ever practiced polygamy.

The incidence of plural marriage among Mormons actually varied considerably over time, probably peaking during the "Mormon Reformation" of the late 1850s, when many brethren "requested [and received] the Privilege" of adding another spouse. The estimates above also exclude the wives and children, who accounted for much more of the plural population than married men. In examining the LDS marriage system's evolution in Manti, Utah, Kathryn Daynes calculated the percent of men, women, and children living in plural families from nineteenth century censusesas 25% (1850), 43% (1860), 36% (1870), 25% (1880), and 7% (1900). A study of Brigham City's plural households in 1870, adding a few servants to family members, produced similar figures.

In both towns, polygamists' properties occupied a prominent position. Furthermore, the polygamous population of a settlement changed with births, deaths, divorces, and migration. Most of little Virgin City's polygamists in 1870 hadmoved elsewhere by 1880, causing a sharp decline (40% to 5%) in its plural marriage population.

The geography of plurality also reflected the tendency of dozens of polygamists to keep families in two or more towns; in 1870, for instance, Joseph S. Murdoch had three wives in Heber while living with two others in the Muddy River Mission of Nevada. With numerous wives, even "Brother Brigham" found it desirable to relocate many of them.

Larger towns with high levels of plurality-most notably St. George-had long-term resident Apostles (see p. 128). From its founding in 1861, St. George's Apostle, Erastus Snow, encouraged "Celestial Marriage" as much as his distant cousin Lorenzo did in Brigham City. Salt Lake County's West Jordan Ward was nearly 40% polygamous, thanks perhaps to the example set by Bishop Archibald Gardner's well-known "family village" of 30 souls. Even in wards with monogamous bishoprics, such as Heber City and East Mill Creek, plural rates were sometimes surprisingly high (20-25%).

Those who discount polygamy's importance may think the 25-30 percent average figure proves that a majority of nineteenth-century Mormons never practiced it. But demographers insist a stable population cannot sustain a polygamous population higher than that. Given the balanced male-female ratio of Utah's 1870 population, how many husbands could marry a second wife, especially when competing with the small but significant number who claimed three or more? Only by courting females much younger than they, often teenagers, could men approach the limits of polygamy imposed by demography. Some added wives with seeming case. Other men, like St. George's Charles L. Walker, tried for more than a decade before finally finding a second spouse.

Another important factor was that many monogamous wives privately opposed the practice. Plural marriages ending in divorce must have deterred some from entering polygamy again and discouraged their children from ever practicing it. Extreme poverty or occasional apostasy kept others outside the "plural circle." Notations in the 1880 Utah census margins often labeled inhabitants as "Gentile," "Apostate," or "Josephite [RLDS] Mormon."

Even under optimal circumstances, only a minority could have practiced the Principle. Those who did often occupied central parts of town and exercised disproportionate influence in their communities. By adding polygamists' closest monogamous relatives-parents, siblings, married children, and inlaws--one could argue that by 1880 close to a majority of the Mormon population was directly or indirectly affected by a practice much more prevalent than generally acknowledged. "Polly Gamy" (coined by one plural wife) clearly played a powerful role in expanding Brother Brigham's "Great Basin Kingdom" well beyond Utah's borders and in integrating the diverse people who gathered to Zion (see p. 104).