POLYGAMY IN UTAH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 8

POLYGAMY IN UTAH.

STILL PRACTICED. MAINTAINED AS A CHUB.CH DOCTRINE. Mr Burton J. Hendrick, after visiting the Mormon State of Utah, gives abundant proof in the February number of "McClure's Magazine" that polygamy is) still prevalent in spite of the action of the Mormon president, Woodruff, in denouncing the practice in (the famoufe manifesto of IS9O. The following in-! stances may be quoted:— '"The Thatcher episode is an excellent illustration of modern polygamy in the Mormon Church. Clarice Thatcher was a member of one of the richest and most prominent families in Utah. She "as a polygamous child, the daughter of Thatcher's third wife. In the latter part of 1902 the fact became public property that Clarice Thatcher had entered the celestial order. People obtained the earliest intimations of it when a white hearse, containing the dead' body of the first baby of Miss Thatcher and Henry S. Tanner, her polygamous husband, passed through the streets of Salt Lake City. Like his plural wife, Tanner belonged to the higher social classes. ""Clarice Thatcher now lives quietly in the Cannon Ward o: Salt Lake City, has at least one child—who calls her '"auntie" —and, with her husband, enjoys the privileges ox" the church and is closely identified with its work. Tanner himself has prospered temporally, and has become identified, unquestionably through ecclesiastical influence, with church land schemes. "The interesting couple are representative of the 'younger generation.' They have been familiar with polygamy from their earliest days. As small children in the Sunday-school they have been taught the divinity of plural marriageEven though the church has ostensibly given up the practice it has never, even ostensibly, abandoned its belief in tbe principle. It constantly upholds as models to its growing children men, who, almost without exception, are or have .been p 4 o'yg-.i_ists. "As late as 1905 the Mormons used the public schools of Utah, supported by public taxation; for teaching the principles of Mormon's—. The church still openly teaches polygamy as orthodox Mormon d-x trine.

"Apostle Mcrr.il was probably the most influential Morr-or. in the northern part of Utah. At the time of his death in 1«07 he had seven wives, fortyfiva children, and 127 grandchildren. l-'ror.i the first he did not pay the slightest attention to the 1890 manifesto. In March, 1891, he performed the marriage! which united his son, Charles E. Mer-j rill, in polygamous marriage to Chloe i Hendricks. Afterwards Apostle Merrill further showed his contempt of the manifesto by taking a new plural wife him- i self. "Apostle Taylor and Cowley, inseparable friends from boyhood, were firebrands in the cause of polygamy. At a meeting in the Logan Tabernacle in January, 1901 Cowley voiced' these opinions: "■"None of the revelations of the prophets, either past or present, have been repealed. ... If you have a teacher in the Sunday-schools who would encourage the young to disregard or disrespect a single doctrine of the church — ! plural marriage and all—turn them out; they have no right in the priesthood. Parents, you must teach the whole doctrine to" your children or they will apostatise and be damned. The plural marriage of Lillian Hamlin with Abraham Cannon, son of the great Mormon leader, was, according to Abraham's other wife Wilhelmina, "performed by Joseph F. Smith —the same Joseph V. Smith, who is now president of the Mormon Church. Though President Smith has always denied this, the circumstantial evidence against him is strong. "No penalty, social or ecclesiastical, ha 3 even been visited on Miss Hamlin. A child was subsequently born to her, to whom she gave the name of Marba — ! Abram reversed. A few years ago Miss Hamlin became the plural wife of another Cannon, Lewis M.

"Up to 1896 Apostle Teasdale, so far as is generally known, had had four wives, in that year he employed, as his housekeeper at Nephi, Utah, an English-1 woman whom he had converted several years before in Englai.d. "With this woman came her daughter Marion Scoles. The daughter was only thirty-one years old, and Teasdale at this time was sixty-seven. A year or two after taking up her residence in the house of Apostle Teasdale, Marion Scoles died in childbed. "Six of the apostles of the Mormon Church expressed their sympathy with Teasdale by attending the funeral. If one wishes definite proof that Marion Scoles was Teasdale's wife, he needs only to visit the burial yard at Nephi, Utah There stands a grave with a headstone bearing the following inscription: — 'Sacred to the memory of Marion E. Scoles, wife of Apostle George Teasdale. Born in London, England, April 6, 1865; died December 17, 1898.' If, on the other hand, one wishes the other essential link in the evidence —proving that Teasdale in IS9B bad another wife living—the records of the Utah divorce courts furnish it. "There is a well-grounded belief that another apostle, Brigham Young, jun.,also married plurally since 1890. Other conspicuous members of the Mormon Church have followed the apostolic example. One of the most interesting cases is that of Benjamin Cluff, jun., who for several years was president of the most prominent Mormon educational institution—the Brigham Young University at Provo. "About two years ago the "Salt Lake Tribune" —a newspaper, which, for twenty-five years under the editorship of Judge G. G. Goodwin and William Nelson, has rendered signal service to the cause of Anglo-Saxon civilisation in Utah —began industriously to collect and publish the names of new polyganlists. Up to date it has published detailed records of 224 polygamous marriages. The Mormon Church has made no attempt to deny the substantial accuracy of the "Tribune's" list. It may safely be assumed, therefore, that the facts are definitely known concerning at least 224 cases of polygamous marriages since the manifesto. "The desire for self-protection and secrecy has led to the establishment of several polygamous settlements. There are two within trolley-car distance of Salt Lake City—Forest—ale and Bountiful. The polygamists sometimes maintain their "legal families' in -Salt Lake, and stow away theii 'celestial house- ; holds' in one of these places."