Origins of LDS Polygamy: Samuel Smith & Orson Hyde’s Missionary Journals Among the Cochranites




What are the real origins of LDS polygamy? Where did it start? Who was involved? Where did these teachings of spiritual wives and plural wives come from? One of the earliest contemporary first hand records we have are the priceless journals of Samuel Smith and Orson Hyde, two early Mormon missionaries who detailed extensively their findings among the Cochranite people of 1832 New England. Did the Cochranites influence early LDS polygamy? Why does the LDS church own these journals, yet speak nothing of them and their connections to early origins of polygamy.

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2:05 – General overview of Jacob Cochran & the Cochranite people’s beliefs, including the oaths, covenants (including a penalty oath), rituals, spiritual life systems, communal property, maps of their village locations, estimated populations, etc.
7:43 – Polygamy sanctioned & justified by mention of polygamists in the Bible, similar to LDS foundational beliefs
8:58 – What was the established law of marriage in 1832 while Samuel & Orson were out preaching?
10:35 – The only earlier claim prior to 1832 mission to New England was W.W. Phelps’s letter to Brigham Young in 1861 (30 year memory, never written down), stating that “some” missionaries were to marry lamanite women “in the same manner that Abraham took Hagar and Katurah.”
12:48 – Inaccuracies and false ideas exposed from W. W. Phelps’s letter to Brigham Young.
13:48 – Introduction to the mission of Samuel Smith & Orson Hyde
14:25 – Journal sources and citations explained
15:07 – Reading of the journals of Samuel Smith & Orson Pratt (June 29, 1832 – November 9, 1832)
30:50 – Were the LDS missionaries sleeping in Cochranite homes?
33:29 – The gathering efforts to convince Cochranites to relocate into Zion
34:54 – 3 LDS Church conferences held in Saco, ME. When were they? Who attended? How many from these Cochranite areas became members of the church?
36:05 – August Adams Cobb (Brigham Young’s 2nd plural wife) explained
37:26 – Brigham Young’s premarital association with Augusta Adams Cobb explored. Brigham Young traveled often to New England, sometimes traveling alone with no mission companion, contrary to the law set forth regarding missionaries traveling “two by two.”
39:14 – Summary & greater context to the origins of polygamy in the LDS churches, closing remarks

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