Sarah E. Wallace (Vice President)
The officer of the Benevolent Sewing Society for whom exists the most
extensive documentation for this period is also the one to have the most tragic
life, cut short just a year after (and due to) the chaotic events of the summer
and fall of 1844.
Sarah was born July 12, 1825 in Epsom, Merrimack, New Hampshire, the
twelfth child of John Wallace and Mary True. Her parents had been forced to
marry, as Mary True was some five months pregnant with their first child,
Rachel, when she married John Wallace on May Day, 1806. After Rachel's birth, came John, Emma
Y. (who died at 16, just six months after Sarah was born), Mary True, Lois
Perkins, Jacob True, Ethel (who died at 10, five days before Emma died), George
Benjamin (Sarah's only sibling to join the LDS Church with her), William B.,
Ebenezer True, and Dorothy True Wallace.
After Sarah's birth, Mary True Wallace had one more child, a son named
Samuel, although she apparently died giving birth to him, on August 1, 1828 in Epsom,
leaving little Sarah motherless at the age of three. Samuel also died either at birth, or soon thereafter, as he
does not appear in the 1830 Census with the rest of the family.[1]
Although left alone to raise a large family, John Wallace managed to keep
the family together while managing his farm, undoubtedly with the valuable aid
of his older children. Around
1838, however, John's health began to fail. John then "requested George to remain at home offering him one-half of
his possessions if he would help him manage the farm." However George Benjamin Wallace had
other plans and refused to stay and help his father on the farm.[2] George had learned the carpentry trade,
and planned on moving to Boston, to marry his 2nd cousin once
removed, Mary Critchett McMurphy.[3] In a previous generation, such a
decision would have been unacceptable, but in the burgeoning industrialization of
America, the old social structures were crumbling with the break up of a
familial economy. John Wallace
died on February 14, 1839 in Epsom, when Sarah was only 13.
George, in the meantime,
had moved to Boston as intended where he became a building contractor and on
Valentine's Day 1840, he married Mary C. McMurphy; although seemingly romantic
in the choice of date, their marriage took place exactly one year to the day
after his father's death. The 1840
Federal Census of Boston lists the newly wed couple living with a male aged
15-20.[4] This could have either been George's
younger brother, 19 year-old Ebenezer True Wallace (who died in 1846 at the age
of 25), or, if the census taker erred in recording the gender, it would more
likely have been 15 year-old Sarah E. Wallace. She certainly was living with her brother George and his
wife within a year or two of 1840 in any case. A year after their marriage, George and Mary's first child,
Emma A. Wallace was born in Boston on February 10, 1841.
Although George and Mary Wallace had joined the First Baptist Church in
Boston, by late 1842, Wallace had heard of Mormonism from Elder Freeman A.
Nickerson, a missionary sent to Boston to start a branch of the LDS Church
there. Wallace invited Nickerson "to go home with me and we spent the time from
about 10 a.m. until evening, conversing in the parlor. I was convinced he was a
servant of the living God. I purchased the only Book of Mormon he had." [5] Nickerson
and Erastus Snow (later an Apostle) had formally organized the Boston Branch on
March 9, 1842. The new branch of some 30 members met at a rented hall located
at No. 82 Commercial Street.[6] Around the time that the Wallaces were
being introduced to Mormonism, their second child, James B. Wallace, was born
on September 10, 1842.
After receiving his spiritual confirmation of Mormonism's validity,
George Benjamin Wallace was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in December 1842 in Boston by Elder Nickerson, who was now
the official Branch President. His sister Sarah and his wife Mary probably
converted about the same time. George was soon ordained an Elder in the Church
and then replaced Nickerson as President of the Boston Branch for a month or
two until mid-February 1843, when Elder John Hardy, one of Nickerson's first
converts in Boston, took over the position.[7] While in the Boston Branch, George
Wallace and his new bride became good friends with another young LDS couple,
Howes and Melissa Melvina (or Maldana) King Crowell, who had one infant child
at this point. Melissa Crowell
would later figure prominently in George's life, as will be noted.
Despite owning a thriving lumber business in Boston "employing hundreds
of men" according to Angus M. Cannon's brief biography of Wallace, the Wallace
family suffered hard times from mid-1843 to the early part of 1844.[8] First, George was robbed of $908 within
a few months of ending his presidency of the Boston Branch. Around the same time, and probably in
consequence of the robbery, numerous creditors began demanding payment of
Wallace's debts to them. Unable to
pay off his debts, Wallace was forced to declare himself insolvent, bankrupt,
under the 1838 Massachusetts insolvent law. Then the thief was caught and posted $1,000 bail; the thief
then "decamped" from the state and so his bail money was put into the state
treasury. Wallace hired a lawyer
named Frothingham of Charlestown, to represent him in demanding that the state
treasury now reimburse Wallace his $908.
Frothingham petitioned the Massachusetts House of Representatives on
January 17, 1844, which petition was accepted to be heard. The lawyer then met with eight other
lawyers on January 27, 1844 and the decision of the panel was to grant Wallace
his money.[9]
A more personal tragedy occurred in March when George and Mary's
daughter, three year-old Emma, died on the 13th. Little Emma was
buried in Epsom, New Hampshire, in the Wallace family plot, next to her
grandparents, John and Mary True Wallace.
Perhaps Mary McMurphy Wallace was in Epsom visiting her family when Emma
died; or perhaps Emma died in Boston and the family took her body there for
burial in the family plot at McClary-Epsom Center Cemetery on Center Hill Road.[10]
In the meantime a few of his angry creditors, led by William D. Rice,
continued legal efforts to demand payment of the debts owed to them by
Wallace. According to the 1845
Boston City Directory, William D. Rice was a co-owner of a copper smith, along
with Nathaniel Fisher.[11] When a master in chancery appointed by
the court had met with Wallace's many creditors over a series of meetings and
decided which debts would be paid by Wallace and which ones would be "discharged"
(for whatever reason), Rice's debts were selected to by the master in chancery
to be discharged and therefore remain unpaid. Rice and the other few creditors left unpaid therefore filed
a law suit against Wallace and the master in chancery, which reached the
Massachusetts Supreme Court in June 1844.
The Supreme Court Judge, C. J. Shaw, who heard the case, opined that the
master in chancery had performed his duties properly and the judge ruled in
favor of Wallace. Therefore Rice
and his fellow petitioners would not be repaid. However, they were a small minority of creditors, and
Wallace was still required to pay off the other major debts that the master in
chancery had determined were valid.[12]
A month after this,
George B. Wallace attended the Massachusetts State Convention of the
LDS-sponsored Jeffersonian Democrat party at the Melodeon in Boston on July 1,
1844; no doubt his family attended with him as well. Although Joseph Smith had now been dead four days, this news
had not yet reached Boston, and "Gen. Joseph Smith" was nominated by the LDS
political convention as their candidate for President of the United States on
the Jeffersonian Democrat platform promoting a Mormon-prescribed "theo-democracy".[13] The most senior Apostle, Brigham Young,
was there and was chosen to be President of the Convention, with Joseph's
brother William Smith and Lyman Wight as Vice Presidents, and with Wilford
Woodruff as one of the Secretaries.
After William Smith spoke in the morning, Heber C. Kimball and George B.
Wallace were
appointed as delegates to the National Jeffersonian Democratic Convention,
scheduled for July 13 at Utica, New York (but canceled upon confirmation of the
murders of the Smith brothers).[14]
During the convention
proceedings, "rowdies" began to break it up with their loud disturbances. In fact, a half an hour into Brigham
Young's address to the convention that evening, the radical woman's rights suffragette
and abolitionist New Light Quaker,
Abigail "Abby" Folsom, stood up and began shouting over his words, preventing
him from speaking further.[15] This was the first time (but not the
last) that an angry feminist powerfully interrupted an LDS meeting. (Ralph
Waldo Emerson called Folsom "The Flea of Conventions" because of her irritating
habit of breaking into men's public addresses.)[16] Soon another young man in the gallery
began making loud "rowdy remarks" and the police were called in; but the police
were mobbed, "assaulted and beaten badly" and the "meeting was soon broken up" by
10 p.m.[17]
Wallace's biographer, Angus M. Cannon, wrote that Brigham Young ordained
Wallace as a High Priest in July 1844, which would likely have been at this
convention. However, Wallace's own
journal documents that he was not ordained a High Priest until October 18,
1844, and not by Brigham Young either.[18]
While her brother George was busy in church and politics, Sarah lived in
Lowell for quite some time (some 30 miles north of Boston, near the border with
New Hampshire) and met Apostle William Smith while he was in Lowell
sporadically during the summer and fall of 1844. She also befriended an Elder
from the Lowell Branch named Willard Messer, although whether this is Willard
Messer the elder or younger is not known.[19] In addition, Sarah was at the center of
a circle of young single Mormon women who were affiliated with the Lowell
cotton mills. Her popularity no
doubt got her elected as Vice President of the Lowell Latter Day Saint
Benevolent Sewing Society on July 17, 1844, just before she turned 19 two weeks
later.
Although there had been earlier rumors, official news of the murders of
Joseph and Hyrum Smith reached Lowell either the day, or the day after, the
Benevolent Sewing Society was organized, as Wilford Woodruff's letters
confirming this arrived at several branches throughout New England. Some four days later, Elder George
Wallace visited New Bedford, Massachusetts under church assignment, having been
called to preside over the new branch there 40 miles south of Boston (and about
70 miles from his sister in Lowell).[20] As part of the new industrialization
occurring in America, railroad systems now connected Boston to Lowell in the
north and various cities to the south, allowing Wallace to travel from New
Bedford to Lowell quickly, safely, and relatively cheaply on public mass
transportation for the first time.
The radical black Mormon abolitionist from the Lowell Branch, Elder Q.
Walker Lewis, and members of his family, had fought to ensure that this new
mass transit system was fully integrated, allowing citizens of African descent
to ride the railroads as well.
This was particularly important to Elder Lewis, as he owned a barbering
business and second home in Boston as well, and frequently traveled between the
two cities on business. [NEED SOURCES]
[MAP]
Within a week of
moving to New Bedford, Elder Wallace was back in Lowell over the weekend,
attending a regional conference there, of some 50-100 people.[21] Sarah Wallace likely attended,
especially since her brother was there; indeed it is likely that most, if not
all, of the young women from the Benevolent Sewing Society were there. It is extremely likely that this is the
same Lowell conference that the famous Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, described
attending around
the end of July, as related in his essay,
"A Mormon Conventicle," from his book, The Stranger in Lowell:
Passing up Merrimack street the other day, my
attention was arrested by a loud, ernest (sic) voice, apparently engaged in
preaching....Seating myself I looked about me. There were fifty to one hundred persons in the audience, in
which nearly all classes of this heterogeneous community seemed pretty fairly
represented, all listening with more or less attention to the speaker.
He was a young man, with dark, enthusiast[ic] complexion,
black eyes and hair; with his collar thrown back, and his coat cuffs turned
over, revealing a somewhat undue quantity of "fine linen," bending
over his coarse board pulpit, and gesticulating with the vehemence of Hamlet's
prayer, "tearing his passion to rags." A band of mourning crape, fluttering with the spasmodic
action of his left arm, and an illusion to "our late beloved brother,
JOSEPH SMITH," sufficiently indicated the sect of the speaker. He was a Mormon - a Saint of the Latter
Days![22]
Note that Whittier found the young,
dark-complexioned man preaching on Merrimack Street, which is where
African-American Mormon Elder Walker Lewis of the Lowell Branch had his
barbershop (adjacent to the Merrimack House on the corner of Merrimack and Dutton
streets). Elder Lewis's son, Enoch
Lovejoy Lewis, was also LDS (and may have also been ordained to Mormon
priesthood by William Smith, as was his father in the summer of 1843).
Circumstantial evidence certainly indicates it was 19 year-old Enoch Walker whom
Whittier heard preaching with the apostle that late summer day in 1844.[23]
No doubt the tragedy in Carthage, Illinois severely saddened the Lowell
Branch, including the newly-elected officers of the Sewing Society. Yet life carried on, and on the very
same day that Sarah celebrated turning 19 on July 31, 1844, her sister-in-law
gave birth to a little girl, and George and Mary Wallace named her Sarah Ellen
Wallace (the only evidence known of what Sarah's middle initial may have stood
for).[24] The elder Sarah certainly received this
news with joy, even doubly given that the baby was named after her.
Throughout the month of August 1844, Elder George Wallace traveled
around Massachusetts, but primarily between Boston and New Bedford, preaching,
baptizing, and organizing and maintaining the church during this difficult and
sad time. Unfortunately,
several of the church leaders that he worked with were creating more problems
than they were solving. Rumors of
adultery, spiritual wifery, and polygamy were spreading among members and
non-members alike, most often fueled by the erratic and unethical behavior of
Apostles William Smith, John E. Page, and George J. Adams. Although Joseph Smith had ordained
Adams an evangelical "apostle" (on October 1, 1843???) he was not a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and had no
administrative rights or responsibilities. However, this office made Adams feel extremely unique, and
he took to being called "the 13th Apostle" and, like Paul, felt he had a
special mission, superior to that even of the Quorum of the Twelve, to convert
the whole world to Mormonism.[25] These three Apostles in turn strongly
influenced several Mormon leaders under their direct command, such as Samuel
Brannan of the New York City Branch, Joseph T. Ball of the Lowell and Boston
Branches, Thomas A. Lyne (Adams' brother-in-law and fellow stage actor) of the
Philadelphia Branch, and Lewis Robbins and Jacob C. Phelps of the Boston
Branch. Compounding this is the
fact that William Smith, George J. Adams, Samuel Brannan, and Thomas A. Lyne
were notorious alcoholics and often embarrassed the church with their drunken
rantings from the pulpit, or were too drunk to even show up to preach. Samuel
Brannan, editor of the Mormon newspaper The Prophet out of New York since May 1844, was sometimes so drunk while he worked
on setting the type, that his articles can be difficult to read due to the
number of errors therein. In other
cases, his intoxication led to editions being published quite late, or items
being inadvertently published when they should not have been, or vice versa. The pages of The
Prophet also contain numerous apologies for these errors.[26]
George Wallace was often left to clean up the aftermath of these
priesthood superiors and colleagues, and he willingly seems to have done
so. For example sometime around
the first week of August, Elder John Hardy, the Boston Branch President,
requested an interview with Wallace in New Bedford. Hardy expressed to Wallace a desire to leave Boston and move
to New Bedford himself. When
probed, Hardy then
conversed with him [Wallace] freely concerning
the iniquity in certain authorities of this church, especially of Adams and
Smith, and I [Hardy] then asked his advice respecting resigning my office on
account of this iniquity. He was
the first man I spoke to of these things, always making him a confidant. He was then of the same mind with me
concerning their existence, but told me to do whatever I thought best about
resigning. Thus things passed on
about a monthŠ.[27]
This conversation with Hardy was just the beginning of what Elder
Wallace would be required to do in defense of William Smith et al. with respect to Hardy's objections to their behavior. Wallace also had
to give very discreet speeches to LDS congregations, assuaging their growing
concerns, prohibiting them from slandering church officials like Smith and
Adams, and obliquely preparing the branches for accepting new Mormon doctrine
at odds with official pronouncements and proscriptions. For example on August 26, Wallace wrote
that:
Adams and Lyne returned
[to Boston] and I remained and held a Church meeting [in New Bedford]. Taught the Church (members) their duty
to each other and to their God, and not to slander each other nor the
servants of God;
and to hold each other up by their faith and prayers; and if they heard
anything taught that they did not understand, not to come out and condemn it, but to
wait and keep their mouth closed and Œtwould be made known to them if it was
true or false. It had a good effect
as I learned afterwards.[28]
The above passage seems to contain an oblique reference to teaching the "Spiritual
Wife System" and other doctrinal peculiarities like temple endowment rituals
that were slowly eking out of Nauvoo, regardless of official denials to the
contrary. While Joseph Smith had
forbidden polygamous practices away from church headquarters, he was now dead
and there was little stopping these unscrupulous men from doing what they
would, including interpreting and practicing Joseph Smith's innovations in
their own ways.
On Tuesday, September 3, 1844, George Wallace, his wife Mary, and their
three children, Emma, James, and baby Sarah Wallace permanently moved to New
Bedford, so he could better preside over the branch there. Their new residence
was located at 104 South Second St.[29]
Presumably the elder Sarah Wallace remained in Lowell. From the 18th until the 22nd,
William Smith and George J. Adams were in New Bedford preaching at Liberty Hall
to hundreds of people.[30] In the meantime, John Hardy described
how "the
facts and proofs of the iniquity of these men began to develope [sic]
themselves in such a degree, that I finally selected five of the brethren,
(with the advice and consent of the church) as my counsellors to advise and
consult with, on matters I did not wish to lay before the body of the church." Hardy only identified two of the men on
this special counsel of five: Elders Jacob C. Phelps (who would turn out to be
a proponent of William Smith in later developments) and Ezra Bickford. While Bickford strongly recommended
bringing the matter officially before the church, Phelps recommended that Hardy
write to Nauvoo for counsel.
However Hardy sensitively replied, "I did not wish to lay the matter
before the church, because it might injure the minds of some of the younger
members, that were strangers to the matter" and he did not wish to write to
Nauvoo. The council "finally thought we could not control the matter, and
adjourned" although they also came to the conclusion that "the Boston Church
did not wish the services of G. J. Adams, Brannan or Smith, any more!"[31] Unfortunately for Hardy, this
conclusion would not be enforced and the Boston Branch would soon be readily
coerced into submission to Smith and his associates.
Wallace's growing reputation as a defender of the actions of these three
men was duly noted. William Smith
wrote a letter from Boston to Elder William H. Miles of the Brooklyn Branch on
October 7, describing his recent stay in New Bedford, and his positive
impressions of George B. Wallace:
I have just returned to
this place [Boston] from New BedfordŠ.This is a fine branch of the church, the
Brethren's hearts are filled with charity here, the Lord has done a good work,
they have my love and esteem and here I became more acquainted with Brother
Wallace, who is the Presiding Elder of this branch of the church, and the "right
kind of a man- and a man after my own heart," We left them in tears; may God
bless them for ever, with all good saints.
Given William Smith's errant behavior around this time, his statement
that Wallace was a "man after his own heart" is not much of a
recommendation. Smith continued
with a strong affirmation of his own righteousness:
I hope the Saints in Brooklyn will remain
steadfast, and abide by your counsel, and regard not the many lying rumors,
that are raised for effect, to destroy the influence of others....I want the
Saints to judge for themselves, I believe they will, and do right. I am a friend to virtue, righteousness,
and truth; these have ever been my motto, and principles, and I hope all saints
will be governed by them.
William Smith then ended his letter with a stunning denunciation of his
own protégé and associate, Thomas A. Lyne, and called for Lyne's
excommunication:
I know of some men who have become wonderful
holy of late, merely for effectŠ.I allude to the article in the 21st
No. of the Prophet, over the signature of T. A. L. [Thomas A. Lyne] Such men, if they should see a
brother shaking hands with a sister, would turn away with apparent disgust and
jealousy, and talk to injure him; at the same time, this holy hypocrite, "with
church power mantled," could make love [and] offer matrimony to a lady in New
Bedford, one in Boston, one in New York, and one in Nauvoo; while at the same
time, he was solemnly promised in matrimony to a lady in Philadelphia. What a conscience! Yet, this is the man
that can charge the church falsely, and this is the man who can wind his way in
the garb of religion, to "virtue's fair citadel" and prostrate it for ever -
false-hearted treachery! And that
the saints may be aware of the man, his communication will be found over the
signature of T. A. L. This filthy
communication would never have found its way into the Prophet, had the Editor
[Samuel Brannan] been at home [i.e. sober?] - this must be our apology for its
insertion. It is highly false in
doctrine, insulting to young Elders, and it contains false charges on the
church, and rather dictatorial for a "green horn" Elder, that will not do any
thing but watch for iniquity; and I rejoice that the time has come when all
those that watch for iniquity, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the
gate shall be cut off from the Church.[32]
(emphasis mine)
Smith's accusations against his close friend are a fascinating and
classic instance of psychological "projection", where William vehemently
complained of another for practicing the very things he himself was doing,
including being "wonderful holy of late, merely for effect." By this time, William Smith had several
plural wives scattered around the country, including the two Libby sisters who
worked in the Lowell cotton mills, 16 year-old Hannah Maria and 26 year-old
Sarah Ann, who had joined the LDS Church on May 15, 1844. (After William Smith's excommunication
in October 1845, both Libby sisters then married William's first cousin,
Apostle George A. Smith, in Nauvoo; the grandson of Sarah Ann Libby Smith
Smith, George Albert Smith, would also become an Apostle and later President of
the LDS Church.) William's
ever-ailing wife, Caroline Amanda Grant Smith (sister of Jedediah M. Grant),
was certainly unaware of his plural marriages, even though she was staying in
Boston and New York that summer and fall.
Apparently William did not get along with his wife, and when Caroline
died in Nauvoo on May 21, 1845, even though he was in town, he did not attend
her large public funeral on the 24th, according to Mormon historian,
Dale Broadhurst.[33]
The negative influences of William Smith and Samuel Brannan then struck
much closer to home, for on Sunday, September 22nd or 29th,
Sarah E. Wallace stayed home from church services that day. Elder Brannan, the newlywed from New
York who was lodging with her at the time, had stayed home too and seduced her
into sexual intercourse with him.[34] The minutes of Samuel Brannan's
ecclesiastical trial for adultery from a few months later give this brief and
somewhat cryptic account of what transpired:
Bro. Wallace said, his
sister came to his house in New Bedford, [and] told him [that] Bro Brannan had
waited on some, one Sunday [when] she staid at home. Bro Brannan staid at home [too]. On the edge of [a bed?] Brannan accomplished his desire, &
went into the kitchen.[35]
Sarah's friend from Lowell, Elder Willard Messer, happened to come by
her home later that day; she must have been visibly distraught, because Messer
questioned her until she confessed what Brannan had done to her and told Messer
that she was deeply "dissatisfied" with Brannan's behavior. As Willard Messer spread word of what
happened, Brannan then attempted to cover up his adultery by having William
Smith "seal" them together polygamously. Smith later testified before
Brigham Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve that he had "Married
them by all the authority he possessed for time & Eternity, and had a right
&c to do [so] as an apostle of J. Christ."
[36]
Soon thereafter Elder Freeman Nickerson, the missionary "patriarch" of
the Boston Branch, came to preach one Sunday in Lowell, and Sarah heard him
testify that anyone practicing "the spiritual wife system" would be
damned to hell; his address also alienated "the minds of the sisters" regarding
the rumors of its practice in the church.
The already distraught Sarah believed what he said. In addition, Parley
P. Pratt told her that the "sealing was not according to the Law of
God" (since it had been done both without proper ecclesiastical
authorization, and far away from church headquarters). To make matters worse
for Sarah, Brannan pretended to make arrangements to take her to New York in
the spring of 1845, told her that he "should be [her] master,"[37]
and promised he would correspond with her, but then she never heard from him
again. (Brannan later told Young
that he had not written to her "for fear some one would get the letter," which
could be used as proof of Brannan's seduction and the subsequent unauthorized
sealing.) This silence from her
seducer turned eternal husband must have further humiliated the already
mortified Sarah, who clearly was preoccupied with doubts about whether she was
going to hell or not for what had happened.[38]
Besides these troubles in New Bedford and Lowell, William Smith and his
colleagues were facing an imminent scandal in Boston that would turn out to be
a major media fiasco for the LDS Church in New England. Elder John Hardy had finally become fed
up with the errant behavior of Smith and company, and privately informed others
of his discontent. Unfortunately
in one case, Hardy stepped over the line and privately called Apostles Adams and
Smith whoremongers,[39]
and this statement would come back to haunt him.[40] On October 7, 1844, Hardy quietly
requested to be released as President of the Boston Branch, which was granted
him by a congregation unanimously appreciative of his time of service.[41] Elder Joseph T. Ball, a cohort of
Smith, Adams, and Brannan, was then appointed to take Hardy's place. The following day, Apostle Wilford
Woodruff recorded that he:
visited John Hardy and a
number of Saints who appeared much affected with the improper conduct of
several Elders who was travelling through their midst. I think I done much good In visiting
them. It is a critical time now
throughout the eastern Churches, And men need wisdom in order to keep things
strait.[42]
Despite Woodruff's visit and expression of optimism, the situation only
worsened. On the 9th,
Woodruff wrote to Brigham Young that he was uneasy about Joseph Ball's
appointment as the new Boston Branch President: "I will confess some feeling
came across me that made me squirm all over, [for] I saw their was wrong
spirits, conflicting spirits." Woodruff was bothered most by the fact that "Elder Ball has taught as
well as Wm Smith the Lowell girls that [it] is not wrong to have
intercourse with the men what they
please & Elder Ball tries to sleep with them when he can". Because of this "the Lowell church is
shaking." In fact, Woodruff
believed that had he not come "all the Eastern churches would quickly go to the
devil. I can say my spirit is not
congenial with Adams, Williams & Brannan." Joseph T. Ball's attempts at seducing "the Lowell girls"
certainly included some, if not all, of the eight young women in the LDS
Benevolent Sewing Society.
Woodruff also informed Young that while recently visiting the tiny
Westfield, Massachusetts branch of the LDS Church, the Branch President there,
Elder Quartus Sparks, informed Woodruff that Elder Brannan had sealed an ailing
Mormon woman to her husband.[43] Woodruff told Young he "was a little
surprised at this" and a few days later, on October 12, upon encountering
William Smith at the church services in Boston, Woodruff to Young that he
sat by the side of Wm Smith....I asked how Br Brannan came to be
marrying people for Eternity. He Says I appointed him to do
it. [Woodruff objected,] His Administrations are not
legal. "Yes they are any Elder can do it that has power to
marry at all," [and Woodruff replied,] "It is a right Exclusively
belonging to the quorum of the Twelve or the president of the Quorum [and is]
not legal with those who are not Endowed." [Smith rebutted,]
"That has reference to exclusive privileges, & not to sealing a man to
his wife for Eternity for any Elder can do that." Here the conversations endedŠ.
In addition to these instances of "improper conduct" enumerated by Woodruff,
during the same services on Saturday, October 12, Hardy was publicly and
formally charged by Samuel Brannan with "slandering and traducing the characters"
of Brannan, William Smith, and George J. Adams. Elder Joseph T. Ball, who had nearly destroyed the Lowell
Branch with his sexual behavior with the Mormon "mill girls" in Lowell, was
appointed Chair of Hardy's first of two ecclesiastical trials. Hardy pled not guilty to the charges of
slander, knowing that it was not slander if, in fact, the men were indeed "whoremongers"
as he had called them. The chief
accuser, Brannan, chose Elder George J. Adams as his counsel and Hardy
represented himself. Brannan read an affidavit from George B. Wallace but Hardy
objected and insisted that Wallace be physically present, so the court
adjourned until the 15th when Wallace could be there, and he was
sent for by mail. That very day,
the latest of issue of The Prophet came out with a cryptic message from either
Samuel Brannan or William Smith, editors of the paper. The editors had apparently received
some sort of accusatory letter from "G.B.W." (George B. Wallace) but they
responded in the pages of their paper stating that
G. B. W. is too
personal, and its insertion would lead to recrimination, as we would be obliged
to allow our columns for the answer of the accused - we think the matter may be
settled by a more pacific course.
G. B. W's or any one's influence, we do not wish at the expense of our
principle.
Wilford Woodruff also returned to Boston from a brief trip to Salem, and
while he acknowledged in his journal that Hardy's trial would be held on the 15th,
inexplicably Apostle Woodruff immediately left for Lowell and avoided
supporting his friend Elder Hardy in the second upcoming trial. Before he departed, Woodruff wrote
another letter to Brigham Young on the 14th, informing Young about
the impending trial:
Elder Brannan prefered a
charge against Elder John Hardy for Slander for saying they had been engaged in
the Spiritual wife business & I immediately advised Br. Adams & Brannan
to let it alone at present & not stir it up as Hardy had withdrawn from the
[branch] presidency & stood as a private member on purpose to let it
alone. But Br Brannan said he was
asked by Br Adams & Smith to go ahead & rip it up & he should do
so. The trial comes on to morrow
night before the whole Church & not a council of Elders. The object on one side is [to] crush
Hardy, & on the other to make all Hell over for certainly a stinking mess
it will be, you may look out for a storm in BostonŠ.[44]
Despite such a clear understanding of the whole business and its
inevitable negative consequences, I am utterly at a loss to explain why the
hyper-moral Woodruff did not stay and help keep order in the local church. The night before the trial and his trip
to Lowell, Woodruff stayed at the home of Jacob Phelps (a supporter of William
Smith et al.). Ominously that
night Woodruff "dreamed of being in the midst of rattle snakes."[45]
Since I plan to publish in the near
future an in-depth study of Elder John Hardy's trials and their effect upon the
LDS Church in New England and the northern mid-Atlantic states, a mere summary
of his lengthy and complex trials here must suffice. The first trial of John Hardy resumed on October 15. Wallace's affidavit was again read, in
which he swore that Hardy had privately accused Brannan, Adams, and Smith of "whoremongery". Sarah's brother, George Wallace, now
physically present to testify in person, affirmed his own affidavit's
veracity. However, Hardy made the
counter-point that he had only accused Adams and Smith of whoremongery, but not
Brannan.
Hardy was then charged by George
J. Adams with slandering his name, by saying he "believed him to be a
whoremonger". During this trial
segment, Adams was counsel for himself, as Hardy was. In response to the charge, Hardy fearlessly admitted that he
had called Adams that but insisted that in fact no slander had been committed
because he had spoken truthfully and accurately. During the trials, Sarah's brother also ended up as a key
witness against Hardy.
George J. Adams called as his
first witness Miss Sophia Patterson (or Perkins) Clark, a 17 year old Lowell
mill girl who had converted to Mormonism six years earlier and had had to
runaway and survive on her own by working in the mills after her parents
rejected her for converting to Mormonism. Elder George J. Adams had her testify
that Hardy referred to Adams as a "whoremonger". However, when carefully
questioned by Elder Hardy, she retracted her signed affidavit and admitted
Hardy had only referred to Apostles William Smith and Adams as "bad men", not "whoremongers"
per se.[46]
George B. Wallace was called upon that
first night by Hardy to testify that he "believed that Elder Adams had
cohabited with sisters W*******, W******[47]
and B******".[48] However now Sarah's brother
back-pedaled and denied that he had ever said such a thing. Hardy rebutted by calling upon "Elders
H. Trim, Chas. Cram, and W. Hobby" (none of whom I have been able to identify
in any other records with certainty), and they "severally testified that
they heard Wallace say in my presence, that he had no doubt but Adams had cohabited
with the three females spoken of above!"
After the testimony of these three Elders, George Wallace again arose
and haltingly tried to explain away his contradictory testimony. Finally, "the usually quiet and honest
soul" Elder David Brown (visiting from Nauvoo) grew so exasperated with Elder
Wallace's explanation, "he arose and exclaimed with much feeling, ŒElder
Wallace you have stood up there and lied tonight, you know you have lied, and
God knows you have lied, and now set down!'"[49]
Although Wallace had been dismissed from
the trial for lying during his court testimony, three days later George J.
Adams ordained Elder Wallace as a High Priest on October 18, 1844, no doubt out
of appreciation and gratitude for supporting Smith, Adams, and Brannan in their
behavior. This ordination occurred
at the very same church meeting in Boston in which Elder William Hutchings of
the Boston Branch was also cut off from the LDS Church for "slandering" Smith
and Adams, as an immediate result of the testimony he gave in support of Hardy
during his trial three days earlier.[50]
In the second day of the trial, held on October 22, Elder Hardy
introduced clear evidence of William Smith's adulterous encounters with the
young (unnamed) daughter of Rollins B. and Eliza Fales Annis[51]
from Lowell, to whom Smith had become engaged and promised to marry as soon as
his dying wife, Caroline Grant Smith, had passed away. The evidence presented included
literally airing William Smith's dirty laundry, as Eliza Fales Annis testified
that she had taken his sex-stained sheets to a fellow Mormon
laundry-woman. The laundry-woman
would not testify at the Hardy trial as she "was about to leave the church on
the account of the matter," yet more collateral damage resulting from William
Smith's unchecked activities.
Freeman Nickerson also was called to tell what he knew about Smith's
affair with Miss Annis, but an obviously flustered Nickerson back-pedaled in
his testimony; only later did Hardy find out from Nickerson that "if he should testify of
what he knew of Smith, that Smith would kill him when he got home, he had such horrible
temper."[52] In addition, Hardy presented a letter from
George Adams "to an Elder in New York" (ostensibly Samuel Brannan) regarding
Adams' polygamous marriage to Susan M. Clark (no known relation to the
above-mentioned Sophia P. Clark) of the New Bedford Branch, and his desire to
use her for her money. The letter
read:
I have just returned
from New Bedford and sister Susan is with me. I was S. U. (sealed up) to her last night, go it! She has a
thousand dollars left to her, expects 400 or 500 dollars next week, go it
again. I have no money, but expect
some soon.[53]
And not only had Adams been sealed to the 23 year-old Susan Clark, he
had also taken her and a "Sister I******" into a private room "and swore them into
the secrets of a lodge, which secrets were not to be revealed under the penalty
of their lives, and then told them they knew more than the whole church in New
Bedford!" There can be no doubt
that this is a reference to Adams performing an unauthorized version of the
Mormon endowment ceremony, even though it seems that Adams himself had never
been endowed. However both William
Smith and John E. Page had been initiated into the "Quorum of the Anointed" so
perhaps one of the two errant apostles had taught Adams part or all of the
endowment ritual without authorization.[54]
In any case, several more
instances were introduced in the trial of errant (mostly sexual) behavior on
the part of Smith, Adams, and Brannan.[55]
In addition to being entered into a "secret lodge" and "sealed up" to
George J. Adams, Susan M. Clark had also had sexual relations with William
Smith. An Elder Hicks was called
by Elder Hardy to testify that on one occasion William Smith "slept all night
with sister S. Clark" in the Hicks home but he refused to do so. Hardy himself then reported the story
he had heard, that Hicks had set up a trap to catch William Smith in his
adultery with the unmarried young woman.
On that particular evening, Hicks asked Smith "why he did not take
sister Clark and go to bed; sister Clark said she was ready; Smith says, come along;
and they then in his presence went into the bed room, and they slept there all
night." The next morning "sister
W------e" (who must have been George's wife, Mary C. McMurphy Wallace, a known
opponent of spiritual wifery) "made a fuss; and called Miss Clark a strumpet." Now on the stand, however, Hicks
retracted this story in a very peculiar way. Although "Hicks acknowledged this conversation with Elder
Hardy to be correct" about setting a trap for William Smith to commit adultery
with Susan M. Clark, Hicks now testified that the account he had given to Elder
Hardy "was all a F DREAM E and thus ended Elder
Hicks's testimony."[56]
Despite the enormous amount of evidence that Hardy presented at these
public church courts, on October 22, Elder John Hardy was found guilty of
slandering Adams and Brannan by a narrow majority.[57] A motion was made therefore to have
Hardy cut off from the LDS Church, but that second motion lost 19 to 34. After an adjournment, the last leg of
the trial began, of now facing the charge of slandering William Smith. This time, Smith had Elder John R.
Teague of the Boston Branch be his "senior counsel" and Smith himself acted as
his own junior counsel. Hardy acted as his own senior counsel with Elder David
Brown from Nauvoo as his "assistant counsel." William Smith immediately took charge and harangued those in
attendance, threatening every Mormon present with excommunication if they were
not obedient in sustaining their priesthood superiors (ultimately being him as
a Smith, an Apostle, and Church Patriarch), whether "right or wrong." Smith took the tact that
while he may have looked guilty of seducing all these women, in fact, it was
just the opposite - the women were to be blamed for "endeavoring all the
while to seduce him!" In fact, Hardy reported that William Smith disingenuously "jumped, frothed, and
roared, and fairly shook the house ; he whined over his manifold persecutions,
and told how females were laying their plans to seduce him from the paths of
virtue."[58]
Apostle Smith even threatened Elder Hardy with extreme violence during
the trial, claiming, "if he had me [Hardy] in his own country he would
rawhide me as long as he could stand over me."[59]
There were twice as many voting Mormons in attendance during this last
session, and at the vote, 93 voted that Hardy had slandered Smith, while 26
voted nay. When the motion to
excommunicate Hardy was made, it also carried with 93 votes. (Hardy reported slightly different
votes: for the charge of slander, he stated the vote was 95 to 25; for his
excommunication, he claimed it was only 75 to 25, although this "75" may have
been a simple typo for "95" in the printed pamphlet. Or, if his figures are more accurate than those in The
Prophet, it would appear a significant number of people
abstained from voting, passively supporting Hardy despite Smith's threats.)[60]
While Smith and his colleagues undoubtedly hoped this would dampen, if
not end, the trouble caused by their own scandals, Hardy was not about to take
this egregious violation of justice lying down. Over the course of some two weeks, with injustice upon
injustice heaped upon him, and with little or no help coming from those who
could have supported him, a devoted and faithful Latter-day Saint leader was
turned into a passionate anti-Mormon.
The now-angered Hardy borrowed the minutes of the trials from Elder
Annanias McAllister of the Boston Branch (who had served as Clerk during the
trials), and he printed them almost verbatim in Boston within just weeks after
his excommunication, including explanatory commentary. His pamphlet, titled History of the Trials
of Elder John Hardy, Before the Church of Latter Day Saints in Boston, for
Slander, in Saying that G.J. Adams, S. Brannan and Wm. Smith Were Licentious
Characters,
created an enormous scandal in Boston and other cities, as news of its
publication spread, and was excerpted in newspapers all over New England.[61] If the officers and committee members
of the Lowell LDS Benevolent Sewing Society had not known of Sarah E. Wallace's
involvement in spiritual wifery with Brannan and Smith, they certainly found
out about the extremely controversial LDS practice either from attendance at
Hardy's trial or his publication of the court's minutes. In either case, the public revelation
of spiritual wifery clearly caused deep rifts in the Sewing Society, with some
officers remaining in the church and others abandoning it, as noted in their
individual biographies.
In the aftermath of the Hardy trial, Sarah's friend and confidante,
Willard Messer, apparently had told others about Brannan's extra-marital
seduction of and subsequent polygamous sealing to Sarah Wallace performed by
Apostle William Smith. Messer also
used some colorful words in describing Brannan's character. Smith and Brannan acted immediately,
and within days of the Hardy trials they charged Willard Messer with slander,
unchristianlike conduct, and profanity.
A church court was held in Lowell on November 3, 1844 with Smith's
protégé Elder Jacob C. Phelps, the new President of the Boston Branch,
presiding over the trial, and with Lowell Branch president Varanus Libbe as
Clerk. Messer was unanimously
found guilty of the three charges and when it was moved and seconded that he be
excommunicated, the motion carried 36 to 1.[62] Thus one of Sarah's primary protectors
was effectively removed from having any further say in the matter. Of the other two men who seemed most
concerned about her situation, Parley P. Pratt and Freeman Nickerson, Pratt
returned to New York to do damage control in the branch where Samuel Brannan
was now president, and take charge of Brannan's editorship of The Prophet.
Freeman Nickerson on the other hand, still in Boston, was sternly
hammered into obedience to William Smith.
In a published letter of January 15, 1845, the anti-polygamist ex-Mormon
Sidney Rigdon gave an overview of his trip through the New England branches, in
which he noted that "many of the principle members had either withdrawn from
the church or had been cut off."
Upon enquiring about the cause for these devastating ruptures in the
church, he found that "in every instance, it was the spiritual wife system
which had caused the separation, and exclusion." Rigdon gave "a notable instance of this" in
old elder Nickerson, a man who was highly esteemed in Boston, and father
of the church there; when this system, of a plurality of wives, first made its
appearance there, [he] rose up against it, as every man of virtue would, and
was so deeply effected with it, that he wept over the corruption that was
creeping into the church, and declared his intention and determination, to lift
his voice against it; this was no sooner known, then he was beseiged [sic] by
two of the, so called, authorities [probably Apostles Smith and Adams], and
threatened with exclusion, if he dare give testimony against those whom he had
declared he knew were guilty of great improprietiesŠand the old gentleman was
so intimidated by their threats, he shrunk from his duty, and instead of
discharging it, with a manly boldness, actually lifted his hand in favor of
those whose conduct he had previously deprecated in the strongest terms. Every effort of this kind was made,
that the most corrupt could invent, to conceal this system from the public
view. Others were cut off in
private meetings, without their having any knowledge of it, till they were
informed by some runner sent for the purpose, that at such a meeting they had
been cut off from the church.[63]
It becomes clear from Rigdon's report just how the secrecy of Joseph
Smith's plural marriage doctrine was maintained, while allowing widespread
ecclesiastical abuse to take place.
This report, verified by the Hardy trial, George B. Wallace's journal,
and numerous examples from the pages of The Prophet, affirm that its practitioners disposed of vocal opponents through
public or private church courts on the hypocritical grounds of "slander"; and
they even resorted to intimidating threats of personal violence,
excommunication and damnation of even the beloved and respected elderly members
like Freeman Nickerson.
I can only speculate as to why Sarah's own brother, George, did not
stand up for her more than he did during her soul-wrenching experience. There does seem to be a selfishness in
him that overrode familial responsibilities, as noted when he refused his dying
father's request to stay in New Hampshire to care for the family farm, even
being promised half of the ailing man's estate (which usually went to the
eldest son, not a middle son, as George was). And beyond selfishness, perhaps there was a desire for
upward ecclesiastical mobility.
When William Smith wrote that George B. Wallace was a man after his own
heart, perhaps this was an indication that George was thoroughly blinded to Smith's
shortcomings and human frailties, and could only see that William was a member
of the "royal Smiths" - a brother of his beloved prophet - and thus hoped to
increase his own stature in the LDS Church by sycophantic interaction with and
servile obedience to his priesthood superiors, regardless of the effects upon
his own family.
Three weeks after Willard Messer's excommunication, he wrote an
extremely obsequious letter to Brigham Young on November 24, as Messer had
apparently loaned Young $30 in the recent past during one of Young's frequent
visits to the Boston area, and Messer now wanted his money back. Not knowing whether or not Young was
aware of his recent excommunication, Messer wrote a carefully worded letter,
begging Young to return the sum interest-free, being "in want of Sum cash at thiss
time as I have ben out of health much of the time". Messer requested that Young send the money to Lowell via
Susan Scranton Dow Nichols (the recently widowed wife of Elder Loyal C. Nichols
and mother of Clara J. Dow of the Benevolent Sewing Society), or to Elder
Darius Lougee from their branch, because Messer supposed that Young "would not
like too trust me" with the "monny".
Messer ended his letter stating, "I do not know when I shall come too
Nauvoo as things have turned up as they have but hope I shall some time and be
save[d] with the people of God." [64] It is not known if Messer was repaid,
but it is unlikely.
During a Tuesday night branch meeting in New Bedford on the night of
December 10, 1844, Wallace presided over yet another trial in which two unnamed
local members were excommunicated for "denying the faith" and "immoral conduct."[65]
The next day, just two weeks before Christmas 1844, George B. Wallace
sailed from Boston down to New York City.[66] While there, he visited Samuel Brannan
at the printing offices of The Prophet. Brannan coincidentally had just
received an angry letter from Sarah E. Wallace, "upbraiding him with the humbug &
charging [William Smith] with assisting Brannan." Even though George was aware of the letter, Elder Brannan "did
not talk with him about it as freely as with other women," saving its contents
as gossip for the sisters of the local branch. Wallace arrived back in New Bedford on Christmas
morning. Sarah must have returned
to Lowell by that time, because George recorded in his journal that day that
only his "Wife and children well," without mentioning his sister.[67]
On New Year's Eve, under the direction of Ezra T. Benson (recently
appointed by fellow apostle Parley P. Pratt to preside over the Massachusetts
region), an excommunication trial was held in New Bedford for Elder Eliakim
Spooner Davis, former President of the Lowell Branch. In fact, Wallace himself brought charges of "slandering the
Church" against him. Wallace wrote
that "collectively and individually [the] charge was clearly proven and he was
cut off and given over to the buffetings of the Devil."[68] Unfortunately, without further
specifics on this trial, I can only speculate that this excommunication was yet
more collateral damage from the "Spiritual Wife System" being proponed and
practiced by Apostle Smith and his followers.
Three months after her stunning revelations in the John Hardy trial,
William Smith's paramour and George J. Adams' 23 year-old plural wife, Susan M.
Clark (Adams) of New Bedford, was polyandrously married by George B. Wallace on
January 19, 1845 to 19 year-old David Cudworth from Fall River, Massachusetts.[69] This is the only known instance of
Mormon plural husbandry outside of church headquarters. After their marriage,
the Cudworths were running a boarding house in Providence, Rhode Island (about
20 miles from New Bedford) by the 1850 Federal Census. After that they disappear from all
public records.[70]
Later that month President Wallace faced yet another challenge in the
unraveling of the church's stability in Massachusetts. A "Sister Hannah Davis" met with him on
Thursday evening, January 23rd and "requested to be dismissed from
the Church, stating that
she was obliged to on account of her husband, as she could not live with him unless
she did." Wallace interviewed the
woman to find out in more depth why she was requesting to have her name removed
from church rolls. Davis then bore
him her witness that "she knew it was the Church of Christ." Wallace then broached a difficult topic,
asking her "if anyone had taught her the spiritual wife doctrine, or any
principles but truth and righteousness."
She answered in the negative and so "Her request was granted." It seems clear to me that Wallace, in
asking Davis such a leading question, was getting her testimony of ignorance of
"spiritual wifery" down on record, in case Hannah and/or her husband later
leveled charges of sexual impropriety against the LDS Church. Still Wallace obviously felt that
Hannah Davis was not being honest in her official answers, because that night
his subconscious spoke loud and clear, and he, like Wilford Woodruff and his
dream of rattle snakes, had a disturbing dream of imminent danger, as noted in
his journal:
A DREAM
I dreamed that some few
of the members of the Church had conspired against me and they laid their snare
so that I was caught, and it was concerning spiritual wife doctrine. I dreamed when I was apprised of it I
scattered it to the four winds of heaven and all that were concerned in it were
lost save one. I dreamed that
after I had scattered them, that a halo of glory encircled me and (those) that
were with me. And many added to
the Church, such as should be saved.[71]
Late that winter, Wallace was ordered to gather with the Saints in
Nauvoo, and he began to make preparations for that. In the meantime, Sarah had fallen gravely ill from
tuberculosis compounded by the scandal with Brannan, but decided to move to
Nauvoo with her brother George that spring. On March 5, 1845, Wallace laid
before the New Bedford Branch "the necessity of gathering to Nauvoo immediately
to help build the House of the Lord and to prepare for their endowments." He also told the Branch that he had
been called to go by his presiding Elder, Apostle Ezra T. Benson, and would leave
his wife and children behind for some reason. Not having funds enough for the
journey, he asked the branch members that "if they thought it was the will
of God that they should help me to obtain money to go with, for them to come
forward and do so; and they immediately raised money to take me to Nauvoo, and
I blessed them in the name of the Lord."
An Elder Rogers was then ordained by Wallace as the new Branch
President, and two days later George B. Wallace, his wife, three children, and
sister Sarah left New Bedford.[72] Two days later, in Boston, the Wallace
family broke up. George
B. Wallace parted ways with his wife, Mary Critchett McMurphy Wallace, and
their three children; she refused to move to Nauvoo, as she was deeply opposed
to polygamy and her family had begged her not to get caught up in it. She took her three children and moved
back to Epsom, New Hampshire, where the four lived in her parents' home. George Wallace never saw his wife or
their children again.[73]
In the Mormon company that left Boston for Nauvoo on March 11, was
George and his sister Sarah, and Elder Jesse Wentworth Crosby, who was
finishing his mission after serving in Lowell. Hannah Elida Baldwin, the mill girl who had also served as a
committee member in the Lowell LDS Benevolent Sewing Society, almost certainly
was in their company as well, since it is known that she married Jesse Crosby
in Nauvoo on May 23, 1845.[74]
The ailing Sarah Wallace sadly died four days into their journey, on
March 15, 1845, from "consumption" (tuberculosis), all the while claiming to
her brother that her illness "was occasioned by what had passed" in her scandal
with Samuel Brannan and William Smith; the stress from the whole situation
certainly had compounded any physical illness she had been experiencing.
Somehow George was apparently able to preserve her corpse for some three weeks
and get it to Nauvoo, for she was buried there in the "Old Nauvoo Burial
Ground", after April 8.[75]
Sarah E. Wallace Brannan was only 19 years of age.
Memorial headstone for Sara E. Wallace
and her brother, Jacob True Wallace
McClary-Epsom Center Cemetery, Epsom NH
(photo courtesy of J.T. Rand of genealogy.com)
There is much confusion around where Sarah E. Wallace died and when and
where she was buried. A headstone
for Sarah E. Wallace is located in the McClary-Epsom Center Cemetery, among the
Wallace family plot. Although it
appears that Sarah is buried here, I believe this is just a memorial stone
erected in her honor. Note that
the stone also bears a memorial inscription for her brother, Jacob True
Wallace, who died on October 3, 1841 in New Orleans. If indeed Sarah is buried in Nauvoo, as attested by Nauvoo
burial records, then it seems that the McMurphy and Wallace families in Epsom
simply wanted to erect a memorial headstone for the two siblings who were both
buried elsewhere.
George oddly recorded in his journal, "Died in Concorde, N. H., March 15,
(1845). Miss Sarah E. Wallace,
youngest daughter of John Wallace, a native of Epsom, N. H., aged 19. Disease - consumption." I am at a loss to explain why he
recorded that she died in Concord (just a few miles from his wife's residence
of Epsom), as it clearly is not on the way from Boston to Nauvoo. He also did not acknowledge her
marriage to Brannan, calling her "Miss Wallace." Nor did George explain how he managed to preserve her body
during the long trip, although it appears that he learned undertaking skills in
Boston, which he later used in Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, and Salt Lake.[76]
George did include the following rather agnostic poem in his journal in honor
of his beloved sister, which is based on the poem engraved on Robert Burns'
tomb:
An honest sister has gone to rest,
Do ever God with his image blest,
A friend of man, a friend of truth,
A friend of age, a friend of youth,
Few hearts like hers, with virtue warmed,
Few heads with knowledge so informed,
If there is another world, she lives in bliss,
If there is none, she
made the best of this.
While Elder Wallace
had failed earlier in properly defending his sister, he immediately brought up
charges with the Quorum of the Twelve against Samuel Brannan after his arrival
in Nauvoo on April 8, 1845. He
also wrote a letter to Apostle Parley P. Pratt in New York, who was now
directly supervising Brannan and the editing of The Prophet to bring them both into ecclesiastical compliance. Wallace told Pratt
that "unless
he [Brannan] repented" of what he had done to destroy Sarah's life, "he could
not be crowned in the celestial kingdom."[77]
Back in Nauvoo,
Samuel Brannan was disfellowshipped and excommunicated in absentia for his adultery with and then unauthorized plural marriage to Sarah E.
Wallace. The same day, Apostle
George J. Adams was cut off by the Quorum of the Twelve for "practicing the
most disgraceful and diabolical conduct" while "under the sacred garb of
religion." A public notice of
these two excommunications was circulated by order of the Twelve.[78] William Smith returned to Nauvoo to
defend his recent actions and he met with the Quorum of the Twelve on May 5 to
insist that they reinstate Brannan into full membership immediately. In
answering the charges, Smith downplayed Brannan's extra-marital seduction, and
confirmed that he had "sealed" Sarah to Brannan as his plural wife,
after their sexual encounter, by Smith's own apostolic and patriarchal
authority. Smith also emphasized
Sarah's poor health, as well as testified that she willingly went into the
relationship. According to D. Michael
Quinn, the Quorum of the Twelve reinstated Brannan "provisionally to mollify
William, but postponed official announcement [of the reinstatement] until they
could confer personally with Brannan who was on route to Nauvoo from New York."[79] In fact, Brannan left New York on May 7
and arrived in Nauvoo on May 23, 1845.
William Smith's
ever-frail first wife, Caroline Amanda Grant Smith, died in Nauvoo just after
their arrival, no doubt facilitated by the long, strenuous journey. Her large public funeral was held the
morning after Brannan's arrival, yet William did not attend, ostensibly out of
fear to appear in public, although he soon lost the alleged inhibition, as he
preached publicly in Nauvoo quite often that summer. With Samuel Brannan now
present to answer the charges personally, nine members of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles (including William Smith) met in the afternoon of May 24 at John
Taylor's house, with Brannan, George B. Wallace and Elder Lewis Robbins
(another protégé of Smith and Brannan from the Boston Branch) present.[80]
The Quorum examined Brannan's role in Sarah's death and Brigham Young quite
callously determined that "since Sis Wallace had gone home [i.e. died], we
could throw the mantle over the whole & shutter the subject", as just
so much water under the bridge.
With the complete support of William Smith and Lewis Robbins, Brannan
somehow was "restored, to full fellowship in good standing," according to
Willard Richards, writing in his journal.
The nine Apostles
present then penned two announcements for publication, one brief announcement
to "Whom it may Concern," and a lengthier recommendation to "the Eastern
Churches", also containing a retraction of Parley P. Pratt's recently published
accusation that Brannan had been misled by William Smith:
To the Eastern
Churches. We would inform them, in
the case of Elder Brannan's being cut off from the church, it was by the
testimony that was laid before us.
When Br. Wm. Smith returned from the east, he laid the case of brother
Brannan before us, and upon his testimony elder Brannan was restored to fellowship. About ten [sic - 14] days after this
Br. Brannan came to Nauvoo, and we had a council with Br. Smith, G. B. Wallace,
and Samuel Brannan, Br. Wallace being the person agrieved; on hearing the
testimony on both sides we felt it our duty to restore elder Brannan to full
fellowship, praying for his success in his official capacity. And inasmuch as Br. Pratt has suggested
in the Prophet of May 10th, that some one had counselled Br. Brannan
wrong, that we have reason to suppose that Br. Wm. Smith has not counselled him
wrong in the case.
We give this notice to
the churches for the satisfaction of Brs. Pratt, Smith, Brannan, Wallace, and
all concerned.
B.YOUNG,
Pres.
WILLARD
RICHARDS, Clerk.[81]
Richards continued in
his private journal that after penning these lines, the Quorum then ordained
William Smith as "Patriarch to the whole church," a bottle of wine was drank by
the nine Apostles, and there was "a warm interchange of good feelings between
Wm Smith and the Quorum."[82] Out of falsehood, denials, blatant
sexual improprieties, cover-ups, excommunication trials, an unfortunate and
untimely death, and precious little penance, peace finally came to the
embattled churchŠto last but a short while, given such circumstances. William Smith was excommunicated less
than six months later, and he thereafter associated with one eccentric Mormon
schism after another, until settling into quiet respectability within the
Reorganization movement. George J. Adams left Mormonism and ended up a
religious fanatic trying to import a Christian community from Maine to
Palestine, which failed due to his erratic behavior and alcoholism. Samuel Brannan alone remained a Mormon
for awhile longer, famously taking a shipload of New England Mormons to San
Francisco in 1846, where he was a key player in the California gold rush, made
millions, left Mormonism, and had a main thoroughfare in San Francisco named
after him; but ultimately due to alcoholism, a bitter divorce from Lisa Corwin
Brannan (who moved to Europe with their children), and a land deal with the
Mexican government that went bad, he died impoverished in San Diego.
Apparently to keep
George B. Wallace quiet about the scandalous death of his sister, he was
married polygamously a mere eleven days after this meeting, on June 4, 1845, to
Melissa Melvina King Crowell.[83] As noted earlier, she was the 22
year-old widow of Howes Crowell, whom Wallace had known in Boston when he was
Branch President there. While in
Nauvoo, as earlier noted George Wallace "acted as undertaker during some of the
terrifying times in Nauvoo."[84] How he learned undertaking as a
building contractor is unknown.
But perhaps he had learned his undertaking skills in Boston and was
therefore quite knowledgeable in preserving bodies for lengthy periods.
George B. Wallace and
his new bride then prepared to migrate to Utah. Wallace and Abraham O. Smoot were called by the Quorum of
the Twelve to head a company of 223 people, which depart from Winter Quarters,
Nebraska on June 18, 1847, soon after Brigham Young left with the vanguard
company.[85] The Wallace-Smooth pioneer company
arrived in Salt Lake on September 25-29.
Wallace was the first sexton and gravedigger in Salt Lake. Five years later in May of 1852, while
returning from a two-year mission to England, Wallace stopped in Epsom, New
Hampshire to see his first family one last time. However by the time of the 1850 Census, Mary and her
surviving daughter, Sarah Ellen Wallace, had moved to Epping, New Hampshire to
live with her lawyer brother, James McMurphy, and 7 year-old James Barney
Wallace was living with 66 year old Richard Chapman in Deerfield.[86] Not knowing this, Elder Wallace could
not find them.
Mary Critchett
McMurphy Wallace died in Epping just one year after George's attempt to find
her, on September 14, 1853. Her
son James B. Wallace moved to Miami, Clermont County, Ohio by 1870. He was then a druggist and had married
a woman named Mariah (aged 28) and they had daughters Pauline (5) and Emaline
(3). Mariah apparently died before
1880, as James was then living alone with his two daughters. By 1900, the 57 year-old James had
married a Margaret (45), and they had a son, James Bruce Wallace. James Barney Wallace died in Miami,
Ohio, sometime between 1920 and 1930.
After her mother's death,
the orphaned Sarah Ellen Wallace apparently became the domestic servant of the
Andrew H. Woodman family of Deerfield, New Hampshire.[87] She may have married an artist named
Alfred Addis about 1857 (???). Sarah then married the much younger
Alvin Gardner Yeaton (1851-1915) on Independence Day, 1874, and they had five
children, three of whom died at birth.
Alvin had a daughter named Emma, born about 1868, whom Sarah Ellen
raised. Their own first child,
Edith Idella Yeaton (1876-1942) was born in Concord, the town where George
Wallace wrote that his sister had died.
The other four children were all born in Des Moines, Iowa: Eugene
Artelle Yeaton (1878-1878); Minot Berney Yeaton (1879-1879 - a son); Grace Alfarata
Yeaton (1880-1880); and Herbert Gardner Yeaton (1883-1957).[88] Sarah died in 1884 in Des Moines. Two years later, Alvin married Emma
McFarland (1855-1905) and after her death, he married Henrietta Irene Seyon
(1860-?) in 1909. Either Henrietta
died by 1914 or they divorced, for 62 year-old Alvin then married 28 year old
Ethel Francis Otis in 1914, back in Concord, New Hampshire. Alvin died a year later, on April 24,
in Hillsboro, New Hampshire. As
late as 1890, Alvin had in his possession the divorce papers Mary Critchett
McMurphy Wallace had filed against her ex-husband.[89]
It appears as though
Melissa Melvina King Crowell Wallace bore no children by her second husband,
and in October of 1852, 35 year-old Elder Wallace married three young converts
he had made in London, England while on his mission, all daughters of Edward
and Sarah Drabble Davis: Lydia
(who was 24), Hannah (22), and Martha (16). George Benjamin Wallace raised large families by all three
Davis sisters, and died in Granger (Salt Lake County), Utah in January 1900.[90]
The tragic life and
early death of Sarah E. Wallace is a case study in how unacknowledged polygamy
slowly crushed an innocent young woman who had only wanted to use her talents
and meager means to support her church and its missionaries. The repeated public denials of polygamy
created an environment of misinformation and contradictions where unscrupulous "priesthood
superiors" and those very missionaries far from church headquarters could take
advantage of her faith and ruin her life in repeated acts of ecclesiastical
abuse.
______
Because of the
importance of the minutes from the May 24,1845 meeting of the Quorum of the
Twelve in Nauvoo, regarding Sarah's life and death, the full notes are here
quoted:
24 May 1845, Nauvoo meeting of Apostles with
Samuel E. Brannan:
Bro. Wallace said, his sister came to his house
in New Bedford, [Massachusetts, and] told him Bro Brannan had waited [for her?]
on some, one Sunday [when] she staid at home. Bro Brannan staid at home [too]. On the edge of [bed?] Brannan accomplished his desire, &
went into the kitchen. [Willard]
Messeur came in & after reported She was dissatisfied. Wm [Smith] sealed them up. It worried her to think she must be
Brannans. Bro [Parley P.] Pratt
told her the sealing was not according to the Law of God. [She] went into consumption & died.
Wallace wrote Br Pratt, about Brannan, that unless he repented he could not be
crowned in the celestial kingdom.
She said her sickness was occasioned by what had passed.
Wm Smith, acquainted with Sis Wallace at Lowel, [said she was] of poor health. Brannan asked Smith if he had any
objection to mary them. She
manifested [a] strong attachment for Brannan. I married them [-] did not consider he had [or] was under
any obligation to any one else.
Married them by all the authority he possessed for time & Eternity,
and had a right &c to do as an apostle of J. Christ. Father [Freeman] Nickerson preached
that if anyone should get hold of his skirts or any else, on the spiritual wife
system, they would go to hell, & she believed it. Sis Wallace wrote Brannan upbraiding him with the humbug
& charging me with assisting Brannan.
Prest Young, said since Sis Wallace had gone
home, we could throw the mantle over the whole & shutter the subject.
Wm. Smith said he felt interested in the subject
& wished the council if they chose to say whether he had a right to do so -
whether he [had] a right to mary Brannan & do what he had done. Or whether [he] was to be rode on a
rail, & put down, or not.
Quite a time for him.
Prest Young - said he was satisfied with what Wm
Smith did in the case of Brannan in marrying him to Sis Wallace. [Young however] did not couple any
other of Wms acts, in this decision. -
Wm Supposed that P. P. Pratt supposed that
Brannan was married to two, at once, Brannan walked with Sis Wallace in public
&c. She had discovered that
the time would come when men would have more wives than one == made
arrangements to take her to N. York in the spring - Told her I should be
master. - Would correspond with her.
But [he] did not write for fear some one would get the letter. Father Nickerson went to Lowell &
disaffected the minds of the sisters.
Wallace was in N. York when Brannan received his
sisters letter, but did not talk with him about it as freely as with other
women.
_________