The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith's first wife was Emma Hale (1804-79) the daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Lewis) Hale. They were married on January 18, 1827 in South Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York. Smith's marriage to Louis Beaman is considered by some to be his first official plural marriage since it is the first for which there is a witness and a reliable record. However, several Mormon general authorities and LDS historians believe that Smith married his housemaid Fanny Alger as early as 1833.

The secrecy behind the practice of polygamy makes it nearly impossible to know exactly how many wives Smith had. In his essay titled The Coming of the Manifesto, Mormon writer Kenneth Godfrey notes "Andrew Jenson, one of the most revered of the Latter-day Saint historians, officially acknowledged that Joseph Smith had taken twenty-seven wives before his death. Fawn Brodie lists forty-eight women allegedly sealed to the Prophet and at least one other writer believes he can document over sixty plural wives taken by the Mormon leader while he was alive." (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol..5, No.3, p.12). Mormon historian Todd Compton estimates that Smith married at least 33 women and that one-third of them were simultaneously married to other men.

The following list was retrieved from the FamilySearch Center located in the Joseph Smith memorial building on June 10, 1994.