. . .
On my return in 1855 from a mission to
the Sandwich Isles, I found that Santaquin Utah, with the homes of my family
and all that I possessed to the amount of thousands was destroyed or stolen, by
Indians in the Walker War, and my family homeless. And yet in 1856, although
conditions appeared forbidding, council suggested that I take other wives; and
feeling sure it was the voice of the Lord to me, with promise of His blessing,
so I married three more young wives, which was followed by cricket and locust
raids to destroy nearly all our crops for five years, and yet we were neither
hungry or naked. These were days that tried the souls of both men and women,
and yet the love and gratitude of any one of my children today more than repays
all, and I know that both men and women in plural marriage were happy in the
assurance that they were obeying the command of God and the council of His
servants.
And without the consent and
approbation of him who held the keys of that priesthood, no one had the right
even to speak upon the subject of plural marriage to the women he would marry,
and even then, he ought first to obtain consent of her parents before having
the right to speak to her upon the subject. And this was ever the law so far as
I understand it. And for all plural marriages or sealings there was the one
only that held this right, which he, if necessary, could delegate to others.
And then with regard to a man's right
to take a second wife without the knowledge and consent of the first, I will
only say, if his first wife be like the Sarah of old, there would be no such
necessity, but if other wives, then see D&C 132:64-65. (Benjamin F.
Johnson, Letter to George F. Gibbs, 1903)
