Author: Meg Stout

I am delighted to announce that my proposed paper for the 2024 MHA conference has been accepted!

It helps that I got together with Brian Hales and Don Bradley for a combined session proposal, as they are acknowledged to be leading authorities on Joseph Smith’s covenants with other women. The fabulous LaJean Carruth, who has translated George D. Watts’s shorthand notes to English, has agreed to be our session chair.

The 2024 MHA Conference will be held in Kirtland, Ohio and the theme is Conversions, Aversions, and Reversions.

In May 2018 I pushed out an update to my book, Reluctant Polygamist. In the months following the May publication, the Church requested that believers cease using the nickname “Mormon” and published the first volume of Saints.

I played around with re-working my book to avoid use of the term Mormon and found that thus edit would make the work more accessible. I found that even I, as a believer, tended to internally discount “Mormons” and their trials.

With the appearance of Saints, I immediately propritized reading the new narrative history. My reconstruction of Nauvoo events is so detailed that it would be very easy to disprove. And with Saints benefitting from people who are paid to delve into the history of the Church, it was definitely possible that there was some important point I had missed.

The only place where my narrative ran afoul of the Saints account was the assertion that Joseph revealed the doctrine of the New and Everlasting Covenant (with the requirement to enter into plural marriages) in July 1841, no more than six days after the apostles returned to Nauvoo from their missions to Britain.

If the July 1841 date were correct, the I was largely wrong.

I clicked on the footnote. It didn’t go anywhere useful. I wrote to someone who was in a position of authority relative to the Church History department to mention the link was broken and that I couldn’t find the cited information when attempting to find it by searching the Church History holdings. Of note, the cited information was from a sermon only recently transcribed by LaJean Carruth.

A couple of days later the link still wasn’t working, but I was able to find Heber Kimball’s account of Joseph commanding Heber and other apostles about plural marriage. Heber was responding to the campaign of the Smith boys in the late 1860s, where the Smiths were attempting to convert the Utah Saints away from plural marriage based on the Smiths’ claim that Joseph never taught or practiced any such doctrine.

I will leave the details of my discovery to the MHA Conference, but suffice it to say that the July 1841 timing is not correct. Not only was my reconstruction undamaged by the new information, the Kimball sermon enables me to be even more specific about how my narrative holds together.

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By the way, I have continued to record chapters of Reluctant Polygamist. Alas, 2024 has turned back into a year where I have many things I am required to do. I also don’t have the benefit of a studio where I can choose to record at any time.

On a typical morning, I wake at 6:15a. I prepare for my recording so that when my son-on-law leaves to teach Seminary, I can get going. I typically record for about half an hour before the people in my household start doing things. The grand-daughter communicates via non-verbal vocalizations that honestly convey much more than you’d imagine. My middle daughter wanders around upstairs and down getting ready for her day. My husband likewise starts padding around, setting floorboards a-creaking.

And then there’s the job and associated travel. There are commitments such as the DC Temple Choir and DC Temple Orchestra (I’m still not sure if they want me to play violin or viola for the Jenny Oaks Baker concert at the Strathmore in March). There is the course I’m taking on writing Binge-worthy TV leveraging artificial intelligence. I’ll be helping run the speech contest for my Toastmasters club, where I am VP of Membership. There are the several novels I care so much about finishing that I plan to step down from Federal employment in March 2025. And there are family trips because I love family and because some of those family members are suffering from life-threatening diseases.

In short, there are all the reasons that existed when I stepped away from blogging at MillennialStar.org a couple of years ago. But I’ve finished recording through chapter 8 of Reluctant Polygamist. Now all I have to do is get back into a rhythm where I’m editing the chapters and pushing them to Youtube… It turns out I don’t have to have a quiet home to edit and publish videos!

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing

I’m glad Jared Diamond’s award-winning book had the title Guns, Germs, and Steel. It gave me the opportunity to talk about things I had learned about “germs” with respect to the belief that cholera was caused by sin (including marital sex that wasn’t specifically for engendering children), 1840s ignorance of bacteria, and the reality of veneral disease.

I twigged to beliefs about cholera in the 1840s because of an article I found while volunteering at my local Family History Center. The article was a photocopy. If there was a citation of where and when it was published, I didn’t note it at that time. Later, when I asserted the information about cholera that I’d learned from the article, I faced derision and worse. So I finally located the article, which was written by Thomas V. DiBacco and published in The Washington Post on 11 September 1990.^[1] Professor DiBacco has impeccable historical credentials, even if his research interests mean religious historians are unlikely to have encountered him in their researches.

The focus on ignorance of bacteria came from a book my local Book Group read, Candice Millard’s New York Times best-seller Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. President Garfield died in 1881, before Sarah Bates Pratt made her ludicrous assertions regarding abortion to the pseudonymous Wilhelm Wyl. But Sarah and Wyl apparently didn’t realize the bacterial infection that killed President Garfield would also play a role in women’s health. Their ignorance is understandable – it would take decades after Garfield’s death before the impact of bacteria with regards to maternal outcomes would be understood by lay people.

Book Group also informed me regarding the effects of venereal disease decades after the spread of veneral disease: Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, basis of the BBC drama, The Suspicions Of Mr. Whicher: The Murder At Road Hill House. Summerscale was able to trace the deleterious effects of veneral disease to the medical histories of the wives and children of Samuel Kent, owner of Road Hill House. There are various effects of veneral diseases, including infertility, mortality among infants and women, and deformities of children born to diseased mothers. While numerous children conceived by plural wives in Nauvoo died soon after birth, it is difficult to confidently attribute these deaths to veneral disease. We do not see the effects of veneral disease persist to the Utah era, though such veneral disease could have been presumed to persist and spread in an environment where men had many wives. This would be even more true since unhappy wives in Utah were free to divorce and remarry, introducing any veneral disease they might unknowingly carry to a new pool of individuals.

The video goes live at 9p EST.

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing

1. ^[1]DiBacco, Thomas V., “The Ravages of Cholera”, The Washington Post, 11 Sep 1990, online 19 Sep 2016 at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1990/09
   /11/the-ravages-of-cholera/c819a8bf-faba-4989-b7ad-974e4a22b747/.↩

This is one of my favorite portions of the book, because almost any guy would be up for discussion of guns and rifles. This business of weaponry has been the focus of my career, working as I do for the organization formerly known as the Department of War.

John Taylor is my ancestor. He shared my interest in math, geometry, and warfare. Shortly after Joseph Smith was killed, John Taylor calculated the location from which a shooter could have shot Hyrum in the back, the shot that appears to have killed him. Taylor did the trigonometry to determine that the shooter was located 100 yards to the east of the jail in order for the ball to clear the lower sill of the window and hit Hyrum in the back as Hyrum was helping block the door to the upper sitting room, the door throughwhich the mob was attempting to attack. I’ve replicated that trigonometry, taking into account the small amount gravity would have pulled the ball down from a straight trajectory.

The thing is that I also believe the account that the Carthage Greys had no ammunition in their guns. But I hypothesize that there was another shooter about 100 yards from Carthage Jail, positioned so that his rifle was on a rest. The fellow and his friends bragged he was the killer, so I’m just taking them at their word.

The report of a light shining across Joseph’s fallen body suggests that the shooter was using a mirror reflecting the setting sun (approximately 20 degrees above the horizon at that time) to enhance accuracy.

It is also interesting that the shot was not exactly from the east. Had the shooter been positioned exactly to the east, the light from the setting sun would have been blinding. Instead, the angle from the window to the door indicates the shooter must have been positioned slightly to the south of due east.

There is no longer a clear shot possible, since a tree has been planted outside the jail that blocks the line of site out the window from the door where Hyrum was positioned.

I was amused by the way at least one account attempts to reconcile the reported facts. This account suggests Hyrum was shot in the face, then turned around and was shot from the back via the door. But this doesn’t align with the time it would have taken for the men at the door to reload their muskets. And it entirely discounts John Taylor’s account. Even though John was wrong to decide the Carthage Greys were responsible, it strains credulity that he could have remained certain that the ball came from the east if he’d seen Hyrum pivot.

I don’t much care what exactly happened, since all the victims and perpetrators are long dead. But I do care that hypotheses agree with known facts.

As I hope will be true going forward, this video goes live at 6p tonight.

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing

When I talk to people now, I will just say that we need to save all the women and children. Saving all the women and children means we also save all the men, since Adam can be presumed to not be in jeopardy.

I forgot to add an extra section to this video, as this was the first time I was recording near my grandfather clock. And it was first thing in the morning, so I was probably a bit slower.

The reason I know all about the Pope implementing the impediment of affinity in the 1050s is because of my ancestor, Saint Margaret of Scotland. She knew of the papal position and worked to get the Scottish Witangemot to change marriage laws. I am pretty sure her aim was not mere righteousness – it appears there was a plot to kill her husband, King Malcom MacDuncan III. Before I had “proof,” I theorized that her stepson was in love with her. Had King Malcolm been killed, the man who stepped forward to care for Margaret would be granted the kingdom. While I doubt the stepson necessarily wanted his father killed, that timeframe is rife with people killing rulers, even when they were blood relatives.

Then I found a copy of the biography Saint Margaret’s confessor wrote of her life. In that, he speaks of the argument/discussion Margaret had with the Witangemot and wrote that the only change they were willing to grant was that a stepson could not become the levirate husband to his father’s widow. Exactly the practical reason I presumed Margaret would have had for her pleas to change marriage laws.

This video is set to premiere today at 6p EST.

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing

I don’t know that this chapter has changed much since the 2017 version posted on this site. I do recall being informed that William Law’s actual residence was elsewhere in Nauvoo, so this large brick building he owned near the river was apparently intended for commerce rather than living. So imagine a crowd gathering in a warehouse rather than in a living room. A warehouse with a basement.

This video will go live at 6p EST.

A speculation I have is that it was only Dennison who actually refused to swear the oath and that Robert Scott was the one who cried out objecting to Dennison’s murder, knowing that Joseph and Emer would not accept Dennison’s death as an unfortunate accident. Unlike others in the Scott family, Robert Scott ended up remaining in the orbit of William Law after Nauvoo residents departed following Joseph’s death and impending violence from Illinois residents. As I write this now, it occurs to me Robert Scott as a double agent would suggest William Law was able to get intelligence about what Joseph knew about things. Dennison was telling the tale decades after the event, so I don’t know if Dennison and Robert obscured what happened when speaking to Joseph, if I am right about Robert.

Dennison remained true to the elected successor of Joseph Smith, this being before succession was determined by seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The modern mechanisms for succession in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wouldn’t be solidified until late in Brigham’s presidency, when he determined that seniority would not be according to first date of ordination but rather according to most recent date of re-admission to the quorum.

This is ironic, since I feel that Orson Pratt was excommunicated by the apostles in 1842 without consulting Joseph Smith, who was in hiding. If I am right, Joseph went to extreme lengths to demonstrate to key apostles why their action in excommunicating Orson Pratt was heartless.

Had Orson Pratt not be bumped down the order of succession by the 1842 excommunication episode, it would have been Orson, rather than John Taylor, who acceeded to the presidency when Brigham Young died in the 1880s. While I consider the Church to be true to God’s purposes, I don’t think every aspect of past history is necessarily on a straight path to God’s intent. It is therefore fascinating to contemplate what would have occurred had Orson briefly become President of the Church. Taylor would still have become President (assuming their death dates were not affected in the switch).

Enjoy!

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing

Goodness, it’s been a while! Though I set up this website in 2017, I continued blogging at millennialstar.org. But I began to notice that people were becoming less active on blogsites. I now realized that in about 2018 the world shifted to consuming video via YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Then 2020 brought COVID and the death of my mother (Pat Chiu). The intense divisiveness associated with COVID and the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States was disheartening. And I was having a lot of fun developing skills related to screenwriting and media production.

So I stepped away from MillennialStar.org.

In late 2022 I felt prompted to put Reluctant Polygamist on YouTube. That was daunting. I work for the government and we receive regular training about not making ourselves vulnerable to online threats. My brother was nearly killed in 2010 because of online stuff. I have other friends who have been subjected to the nasty and threatening side of the internet.

But ultimately it hasn’t been fear of hostility that deterred me. It was my perfectionism.

I don’t really do “makeup.” And I’m now officially able to qualify for senior discounts at most places.

But it’s become too bothersome to have “put Reluctant Polygamist on YouTube” hanging over me like a sword of Damocles. So in the next couple of months you’ll get me in all my amateur roughness reading the 2018 text of Reluctant Polygamist. On YouTube.

The Preface is live now – I’ll work on getting a new installment up each day until we’re done.

• No More Than Six Days After: Timing Joseph’s Instructions regarding Plural Marriage to his Apostles in 1841
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 2 – Germs)
• 3 – Guns, Germs, and Sex (Part 1 – Guns)
• 2 – Why would God command Polygamy?
• 1: Prelude to a Killing