Unless a person were to read the Book of Mormon they would never comprehend why anyone would choose to enter into a polygamous relationship.

The Book of Mormon contains some very plain doctrine on polygamy. It also gives the clearest reason for instituting this particular principal among the Latter-day Saint people. It states the following in Jacob 2:26-30: "Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old. 27: Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines ye sall have none; 28: For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts. 29: Wherefore, this people (meaning the people of the Book of Mormon time) shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes. 50: For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things."

There was never more than about three percent of the Mormon people who entered into polygamy.  The prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation that the Lord wanted this particular principal practiced by a select few to raise up a righteous seed unto Him.

This was a very difficult principal to follow. Even Brigham Young stated he would rather be dead than to do such a thing. Heber C. Kimball was in great distress when he was told of the revelation. He refused to tell his wife about it and it was only after his wife had prayed diligently to know what was troubling her husband that the Lord revealed his will to her. She then understood the principal and told her husband that he must obey the commands of the Lord, to which she understood and was in agreement. Even Joseph Smith had his problem when the revelation was shown to his wife, Emma. She promptly threw it into the fireplace. Even though polygamy was practice in Bible times it was a most difficult revelation for many Latter-day Saints to accept.

If anyone thinks this particular principal was all fun and games, they have only to research the early history of the Brown Family to realize that it was anything but that. This principal was particulary difficult on the wives and children, None of Captain James Brown's children who grew up under polygamy ever entered polygamy themselves. Three of his sons did enter into polygamy. The oldest son, John Martin Brown, son of Martha Stephens Brown, did enter polygamy but he was a married man with one wife before his father became a polygamist. Moroni Brown was the Captain's youngest son by his first wife, Martha Stephens, who died giving birth to Moroni and since Captain Brown had eight other young children to care for, he gave the baby Moroni to his two single sisters, Mary "Polly" and Nancy Brown. They raised Moroni during the time they lived in Iowa next to their brother Daniel Brown, then later moved to Ogden, Utah and moved near Captain James Brown.

The other son who became a polygamist was Orson Pratt Brown who was born about six months after his father's death. He was raised by his widowed mother, Phoebe Abigail Abbott Brown, and after age three, her second husband, Colonel William Nicol Fife, a polygamist.

The 1850 census of Ogden, Utah gives this interesting account of the James Brown Family: In the house number 155 there is James Brown living with four wives and 15 children. Part of these children, 11 in all, belonged to widows and divorcees that James had married to help take care of them. Some of those women had lost their husbands during the Mormon expulsion from Missouri and Illinois.

The 1860 census of Ogden, Utah lists the Brown Family with Captain James Brown with five wives and seven children. The next house had another wife and her two children. The house next to her had another wife with six more children. The house next to her has another wife with six more children. The next house is that of his two single sisters who are raising his son Moroni. This census shows some 25 people who are lookimg to Captain Brown for their next meal,, 16 of them are children. Eight of his children by his first wife are not included as they are married and starting families of their own.

Imagine the logistics of trying to furnish food, clothing, schooling and housing under primitive pioneer conditions for this number of people. No wonder Brigham Young was constantly teaching his children: "It's easier to pick up a pin, than it is to make one!"

One of our relatives asked her father who had married into our Brown Family: "What was it like living in a polygamous family?" His answer is a classic: "It was like having no father at all."

James Stephens Brown, a nephew of Captain James Brown, was the only one of Daniel Brown's thirteen children to practice polygamy. Upon returning home from one of his ten missions for the Church, he was in the home of one of his four wives wives. He asked one of this sons to do something for him The lad turned to his mother and asked: "Do we have to mind him?" A quick kick in the pants by his father soon settled that answer. Another daughter stated that if you asked your father for a nickel for some candy, you would get a long lecture on thrift and industry.

Daniel Brown has over five thousand descendants from his thirteen children, but over thirty-two hundred belonged to James Stephens Brown, his one son who had four polygamous wives, Lydia Jane Tanner, Rebecca Ann McBride, Eliza Lester or Leister, and Elizabeth Mary Clegg and a total of thirty-one children. From this family L.D.S. Church leaders, such as Hugh B. Brown, Victor L. Brown, and Nathan Eldon Tanner, all call James Stephens Brown "grandpa".  He certainly did produce a righteous posterity.

Of Captain James Brown's numerous posterity of 28 children, only three sons, John Martin Brown, Moroni Brown, and Orson Pratt Brown, and one daughter, Josephine Vilate [McRee Black] Brown Newman, lived in a polygamous relationship. Among these four, Moroni seems to have been the most successful in terms of a harmonious family relationship. He had two wives. He built two houses just alike, side by side, one for each family.  Both wives, Eveline Cindrella Conover Brown and Frances Mariah Porter Brown, loved each other as sisters and helped each other with their confinements. The children of both families loved each other's mother equally well. If the children needed a dad and he wasn't home, he would most likely be in the house next door.

Polygamy was not outlawed during the lifetime of Captain James Brown.  He had three wives before living in polygamy. His first two wives had died in childbirth. His fourth wife became his first polygamous wife. Five of his wives had no children from him, but he furnished all of them with homes and met their many and various needs.

Though the anti-polygamy laws didn't come until after the death of Captain James Brown, three of his sons had to face the problems, and of these three sons only Moroni served time in prison for unlawful cohabitation [Moroni was arrested in Ogden on May 15, 1885 and placed under $1,500. bond. On July 11, 1885 Moroni Brown and Francis A Brown were each sentenced six months imprisonment and $300. fine and taken to the Utah Penitentiary. They were liberated on January 13, 1886. On July 30, 1892 in the Fourth District Court at Ogden, all charges against Moroni and several others were dismissed on motion of U.S. Marshall Eli H. Parsons.] Moroni had tried to hide his polygamous second family in the 1880 census at Ogden, Utah by using his deceased [d. 1863] brother's name, Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Brown, as the father of family number two. This ruse did not work long as there were too many neighbors who knew the truth and were only too willing to share their information with the federal marshalls.

Orson Pratt Brown lived in the Mexican colonies therefore he was not affected by the U.S. Edmunds-Tucker law.

The problems of polygamy were different for the wives than they were for the men. Captain James Brown was a leader in the community. He served as Bishop of Brownsville (now Ogden). He was in the first Stake Presidency. He served missions for the L.D.S. Church as well as serving in the State Legislature. Duties of this nature would often take him away from home.

The wives, on the other hand, often had, with the help of her children, all of the farm work to do besides raising the children by herself. It was difficult for them not to mention the lonely days and nights without a husband.

The history of Captain James Brown's daughter, Josephine Vilate Brown Newman, brings out the loneliness and heartache she felt as a result of her husband of eleven years, Henry James Newman, taking a second wife, Mary Christina Dorney or Darning in 1886, even though Josephine had approved of it.

One of Captain James Brown's wives divorced him [a divorcee, Sarah Steadwell], and another [a widow, Cecelia Henrietta Cornue Robellez], returned to Switzerland to care for her ailing parents. Cecelia contracted tuberculosis and was unable to return to America. She had left her two sons with another of the wives [Mary Wollerton] who had no children of her own. Other widow wives were Esther Jones Roper, Abigail Smith Abbott, Mary McRee Black. Another divorcee wife: Harriet Wood Yancey.

Polygamy did have some advantages. At a time when there was no Social Security many widows with small children found a home and protection in the polygamous lifestyle.

During his lifetime, Captain James Brown took a number of these wives to the Endowment House and stood as proxy for the wife's first husband as she was sealed to him for time and eternity. The Captain knew he was caring for these women for time only. In heaven they would belong to their first love.

Captain Brown was a generous, magnanimous person, a real pioneer and a loving father. He was a very industrious man and provided well for his family even though certain of his children left the L.D.S. faith, they received an inheritance in property equal to his other children.

Captain Brown was a hard-working man and not only provided for his own family but sent much food to Salt Lake City to aid the famished people who had lost their food supply due to the cricket infestation. Part of this aid included butter, cheese [his wife Mary McRee Black Brown was the first and foremost cheesemaker in the Ogden area], meat, and flour. When things got particularly bleak for the Saints in Salt Lake City, he sent some of his sons to Idaho to procure flour from a mill there. He kept only 200 pounds for himself, sending all the rest to Salt Lake City.

The L.D.S. Church outlawed polygamy after Wilford Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto. This became a difficult time for those men and women who were already livng a polygamous lifestye. Some had already moved to Canada and Mexico to escape the Edmunds-Tucker law, but even those weren't safe when the Manifesto was passed and anyone entering polygamy around now would be excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

John Martin Brown lost his first wife [Ann Foutz md. 1841] while he was away during the gold rush in California. Not having heard from him for a long while, Ann married a man named Ephraim Pearson around 1852. When John Martin returned from California he married two Wilson cousins, Lovina Wilson and Louisa Wilson. He later married his second wife's sister, Almeda Wilson Daley, after her husband Moses Daley, died. Louisa divorced John Martin Brown and she then married George Telford in 1870, After John Martin died Almeda married Alexander Henry Standley in 1905.

After the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act was passed in 1882, John Martin lived with Lovina until his death in 1888. He gave Almeda a home and 60 acres of land. At his death John Martin Brown had two wives, Lovina Wilson Brown and her sister, Almeda Wilson Brown. After his death Lovina moved to Idaho to keep house for her son Alexander, who never married. Almeda followed her sister Lovina to Idaho where she met and married her third husband, Alexander Henry Standley in 1905.  After Alexander Standley's death Almeda returned to Ogden, Utah where she died between 1922 to 1927. Almeda is the only wife buried by husband John Martin Brown.

Moroni Brown lived with his first wife, Eveline Cindrella Conover Brown, after being released from prison. Eveline died in 1911. Moroni died in 1916 and his second wife Frances Mariah Porter Brown died in 1930. The three are buried in his lot in the Ogden City Cemetery, Ogden, Utah.

Orson Pratt Brown, the youngest son, had five wives, Martha Diana Romney Brown, Jane Bodily Galbraith Brown, Elizabeth Graham Macdonald Webb Brown, Eliza Skousen, and Angela Gabaldon. Orson had a total of thirty-five children from all five wives. He was not excommunicated from the Church for polygamy. Three of Orson's wives divorced him in what seemed to be mutual abandonment after the Mormon Exodus from the Colonies in Mexico uprooted the families from their homes mid-1912. Martha Romney moved to Utah. Jane Galbraith moved to California where her mother and other family lived. Eliza Skousen moved to Utah for a time then returned to live in Mesa, Arizona. Elizabeth Macdonald had died in 1904 in Morelos. Orson continued to support his three wives and children by purchasing homes, stores, farms, and businesses for them to maintain for their support. He had lost almost all his assets during the Exodus and while fulfilling his Church assignments to help resettle the homeless Mormon colonists and moderate negotiations to receive reimbursement for the colonists lands and property. A destitute and lonely Orson worked to eke out a living in El Paso and Mexico between 1914 and 1919.

Orson's fifth wife, Angela Gabaldon was not a polygamous wife since they married in 1919 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Orson and Angela had five children and adopted a daughter around 1941. They made their home in Colonia Dublán, Chihuahua, Mexico. Orson served in many capacities in the Church during the sixty years he lived in Mexico. He was a Bishop twice, first in Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico, and then again in Colonia Dublán there for more than fifteen years. Angela was Relief Society president for over 15 years. During the 1930 Church Centennial Celebration Orson's friend, now an Apostle of the Church, Anthony Ivins, reinstated Orson's former blessings and marriage covenants to Mattie and Eliza.

Orson died in Colonia Dublán, March 22, 1946 just before his 83rd birthday. Angela died in El Paso on June 20, 1967.

Captain James Brown's first son, John Martin Brown has over 1,600 descendants [in The Brown Family book to be printed in 2005]. Captain Brown's last son, Orson Pratt Brown has about 1,400 descendants. These two sons have contributed about half of all of Captain James Brown's posterity.

Those three percent of the L.D.S. Church membership who entered into the "sacred celestial order of polygamous marriage" certainly did raise up "seed unto Him" as the Book of Mormon declared. They raised a might posterity.

There are numerous splinter groups who have been excommunicated from the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who continue to live in polygamy at the present time. They are having many problems also. It is not an easy lifestyle to live.

Copyright 2004 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org