Alger History and Ancestry: Fanny W. Alger 1817-1879 [Mormon

While still a young lady, Fanny had an affair with Joseph Smith...Mormon writings make it seem that Joseph and Fanny were married...The Atwood reference says Fanny and Joseph Smith were probably married in 1835 in a ceremony conducted by her cousin, Mosiah Hancock....According to Mormon literature, Fanny...remained a member of the Mormon Church...

Solomon and Fanny (Alger) Custer are my maternal gr-gr-grandparents and I have been researching them for over twenty years. My Mother was also a researcher for many years...My Mother stated that there was never a Mormon Church in that area and in fact, Solomon and Fanny were members of the Universalist Church of Dublin, Indiana.

Fanny's affair with Joseph Smith took place in 1835. When their relationship became public knowledge, Fanny fled from the home of Joseph and Emma Smith to be with her parents in Indiana...I also believe that she was very ashamed of her affair with Smith because she never mentioned it to her children.

My grandmother...did mention that Brigham Young..., accompanied by Fanny's brother, John Alger, did come to Indiana, before Fanny married Solomon Custer, to ask her to marry him. She answered him by saying, "You are a fine young man but I want to be an only wife."

"...Several...intimate followers asserted that Smith "married" Alger around 1833...That relationship caused quite a scandal in Kirtland, wherein Smith's subordinates Oliver Cowdery and Warren Parrish attempted to bring Smith to a church trial on charges of adultery. Smith had a loyalist, Levi Hancock, spirit Miss Alger out of town to prevent her from testifying to the relationship...In the 1890's, assistant LDS Church Historian Andrew Jenson listed Miss Alger as Joseph Smith's first-ever "plural wife."

So, let's put this sequentially:
1831:
* Feb. 9, 1831: Joseph Smith writes as D&C 42:22: "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else."

If that was a revelation from the Mormon god, apparently the Mormon god changed his mind that very year:

On Aug. 7, 2009, one of the groups some Mormon FREEPERS link to -- FAIR -- a Mormon apologetics organization -- held its annual apologetics conference. One of the presenters (Greg Smith) gave a boldly-titled workshop: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Plural Marriage* (*but were afraid to ask) [Source url: http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2009_Everything_You_Always_Wanted_to_Know_About_Plural_Marriage.html

Greg Smith was wrapping up his workshop when he took one last question: "I am a woman and NOT a fan of polygamy, although I and my husband are both descendants of it. Is the text of D&C 132-58-66 the origin of the practice?" Answer: The best historical evidence suggests that plural marriage was revealed to Joseph by 1831, and that he was teaching it to a limited circle by that year.28" (Footnote #28 went to: See discussion here: http://en.fairmormon.org/Polygamy_book/Initiation_of_the_practice)

I believe by sometime in 1831, Fanny Alger was simply a 14 yo neighbor of Joseph and Emma Smith. Per Lds apologist Greg Smith, Joseph gets this sudden urge to establish polygamy so quickly after writing D&C 42.

* By 1833: 16 yo Fanny Alger has moved from her neighbors' home from parents into the Smith household to help with housekeeping.

* Spiritual intimates allege from other sources that the sexual scandal was starting to become known by 1833 -- but the family history account leaves that door open to either 1833 (when Fanny is 16) or 1835 (when she is 18).

* Probably by 1835:
From the family history account: Smith had a loyalist, Levi Hancock, spirit Miss Alger out of town to prevent her from testifying to the relationship.

(The account also surmises that another Hancock, Mosiah -- a cousin of Fanny's -- performed the ceremony)

Wikipedia also says Emma Smith kicked out Fanny Alger as her housekeeper (probably after finding out about the goings on between Fanny & Joseph).

My guess is that Smith tried to "ceremonialize" the affair to at least give it official credence; but with Emma kicking out Fanny, that ended Smith's hopes of keeping her around the house. The Wikipedia entry on Fanny Alger mentions that Alger lived with relatives in Mayfield, OH until 1837. She was probably spirited out of town by her cousin either in 1835 or 1836.

* What also occurred around that same time -- 1835-1836 when Alger was 18 or 19 -- per this family account?

From the family history account: She did mention that Brigham Young...,accompanied by Fanny's brother, John Alger, did come to Indiana, before Fanny married Solomon Custer, to ask her to marry him. She answered him by saying, "You are a fine young man but I want to be an only wife."

So here, Brigham Young, a secondary leader in the Mormon church at the time, had apparently heard it direct from Joseph that Fanny was willing to be play second fiddle as a mistress-slash-extra wife...and so Brigham Young scoots off to find her in Mayfield, to see if she'll accept the same role with him!!!

(No mention of any "divorce" from Joseph before Brigham might take her hand, either)

Doncha just "love" the bedroom sleeping arrangement assumptions of these Mormon "prophets?" No ongoing relationship does Brigham have with this woman, and here he just rushes into her life and asks her to be a second wife 16-17 years before the "doctrine" of polygamy is officially made public by the Mormon church.

If this was all from God, what were all these "Quick, let's get women in the sack" "prophets" of God trying to hide for so long?

Btw, how do we know it was this time frame roughly that Brigham visited her? ('Cause Fanny Alger married Mr. Custer in November, 1836 at the age of 19)

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