Often the coming of a young bride as a plural wife made no trouble at all. Sometimes she was positively welcome. When he was 55 years of age, Daniel Lawrence took a plural wife of 18years. The first wife had consented and the domestic arrangements worked out satisfactorily, each having her own home and being amply provided for.

The first wife of Isaac Lambert was bedridden for nearly 50 years though she bore him nine healthy children during this time. At 45 years Isaac took a second wife of only 17 years. She had been a domestic in the home. Though she was given a house of her own, she continued to help manage the first wife's household.

By present-day standards a bride of 17 or 18 years is considered rather unusual but under pioneer conditions there was nothing atypical about this. Occasionally, however, there were very striking divergences in age. One of the many wives of Judge A. H. Adamson, a prominent leader and father of Joseph, was only 14 years old at the time of her marriage. Also Apostle C. C. Rich took a bride of 14 years though he did not live with her until she was 18 years old. She played the role of one of his children after the marriage until her husband set her up in her own place when she came of age.

. . .

The fact that polygamy was so divergent from the long Christian tradition is probably one reason why it was difficult to get much intimate data on the topic of love, sexual attitudes, and sexual habits. There was a strong resistance, in common with their monogamous neighbors, to giving any information about these matters. As a result our data are scanty and often of indirect sort.