Zina and Her Men: an Examination of the Changing Marital State of Zina Diantha Huntington

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Zina and Her Men: An Examination of the Changing Marital State of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young

by Allen L. Wyatt

In the society built by the early Saints in the SaltLakeValley, few women attained the status and fame accorded to Zina D.H. Young. A plural wife to Brigham Young and the third president of the Relief Society, "Aunt Zina" was recognized, known, and adored by virtually everyone. She was widely read, widely traveled, and widely respected. In the last century there have been numerous articles and entire books written about her life and times.

My purpose today is not to recount Zina's life or add to the many general biographies focusing on her. Instead, I'll focus on a much more limited period in her life--specifically the period almost wholly contained within the 1840s. It is this period--from the establishment of Nauvoo through the exodus to Salt Lake City--that introduces an amazing amount of change within the Church and, not coincidentally, within the life of Zina.

Zina arrived in Nauvoo with her parents in 1839, at the age of 18, after the Saints were driven out of Missouri. The coming decade formed a crucible in which Zina's mettle was tested and her character forged. During the decade of 1841 to 1850 Zina would be married to three different men, participate in both polyandry and polygamy, establish several households, participate in the inner circles of Mormonism, be driven out of Nauvoo, travel across the continent, help establish a settlement in Iowa, attend the death of both her mother and father, and give birth to three children by two different husbands. To say that this was a formative decade in the life of a remarkable woman seems an exercise in understatement.

This decade of Zina's life is also one that is misunderstood by many. Based solely upon this period, it is not uncommon to hear of Zina as both heroine and victim, as pawn and prevaricator. She is viewed by some as weak but by others as strong beyond measure. That this period of Zina's life can be placed under the microscope and her experiences be used for both good and ill speaks to the remarkable nature of the woman and her times--this time; this one decade of foment and change.

Let me provide just one example of criticism stated by a poster on the FAIR message boards:

That marriage [of Henry and Zina] started their life and family together. Not long after starting, however, Joseph Smith wedged himself in as a third wheel--that bothers me, but at least Henry and Zina were still able to live and have children together. Then Brother Brigham comes along, and "one-ups" Joseph by taking Henry's wife and sons as his "property," and then, to add insult to injury, sends Henry on a far-away mission so he can't cause any problems when Brigham and Zina start to cohabit at Winter Quarters. Hopefully this better explains why I am so disturbed by Joseph's and Brigham's treatment of Zina and Henry.

As shall be seen, nothing is ever as simple or as black and white as critics like to presume. In considering Zina and her relationships with the men in her life, let's start with her marriage to Henry Bailey Jacobs.

Zina Marries Henry

Henry courted Zina in 1840 and early 1841. She was nineteen going on twenty,1 and Henry was four years her senior. Both were active Church members and close to the leadership. Henry was an avid missionary, a friend of Zina's brothers, and a one-time member of the Nauvoo Legion Band.2

While Zina was being courted by Henry she was also approached by Joseph Smith who explained plural marriage to her and indicated that she should be his plural wife. From available accounts, Joseph approached Zina three times and was turned down each time.3 The teaching of plural marriage, at this time, was done in secret, one individual to another. There were only a few men and women who were introduced to and invited to participate in the principle. Zina clearly knew about the principle while being courted by Henry, but there is no extant information indicating he was aware of plural marriage or of Joseph's proposals to Zina.

Zina and Henry were married on March 7, 1841, by John C. Bennett, just a month after Bennett's election as mayor.4 Bennett was also Assistant President of the Church. Tradition among some descendents of Henry and Zina indicates that Bennett was not their first choice to perform the marriage. Oa Cannon, granddaughter of Zina and Henry, relates the following:

My mother, Emma R. Jacobs told me that Zina asked the Prophet to perform the marriage. They went to the Clerk's office and the Prophet did not arrive, so they were married by John C. Bennett. When they saw Joseph they asked him why he didn't come, and he told them the Lord had made it known to him that she was to be his Celestial wife.5

Inherent within the family tradition is the concept that Zina (and possibly Henry) knew, prior to their marriage, about plural marriage and that Joseph felt the Lord had commanded him to marry Zina.

Sealing to Joseph Smith

Sometime after Henry and Zina were married, Joseph told Dimick Huntington, Zina's brother, the story of why he was compelled to introduce plural marriage, and asked that Dimick tell the story to Zina. As Zina is quoted by one author to have said, "Tell Zina I have put it off and put it off until an angel with a drawn sword has stood before me and told me if I did not establish that principle [plurality of wives] and live it, I would lose my position and my life and the Church could progress no further."6

Sometime after Zina heard this story and almost eight months after being married to Henry, Zina was sealed to Joseph Smith. The ordinance was performed by Dimick on October 27, 1841, on the banks of the Mississippi River.7 This event marks a major change in Zina's behavior, as she had previously turned down Joseph's proposals.

There was no divorce from Henry; Zina was still married to him prior to the sealing, was pregnant with Henry's first child at the time of the sealing, and continued to live as Henry's wife after the sealing. Joseph obviously felt that it was permissible to marry an already married woman, else he would not have been sealed to Zina.8 Some may claim that such polyandrous sealings were eternal in nature only, meaning that Joseph never intended them to be recognized as an earthly marriage. There is strong historical evidence to refute such a position, however. Perhaps the best contraindication in Zina's case is that the sealing was repeated after the completion of the Nauvoo temple, Brigham was married to Zina in what appears to be a levirate marriage on behalf of Joseph, and Zina declared herself a wife of the martyred Prophet after polygamy was made public in the 1850s.

Did Henry Know?

There is some disagreement among authors and scholars as to whether Henry knew about Zina being sealed to Joseph. It seems obvious that Henry would have known sometime after the fact, but for many the more tantalizing question is whether he knew beforehand.

Fawn Brodie concludes that Henry "apparently knew nothing of this special ceremony, for when he toured southern Illinois with John D. Lee in the winter of 1842, he talked constantly of his wife's loveliness and fidelity."9 In other words, she takes Lee's late-life reflections of events a year after the sealing as conclusive evidence that Henry must not have known about the sealing.

Brodie's conclusion is not based on first-hand reports. No such reports exist; neither Zina or Joseph left records indicating whether Henry knew, and Henry was not a "journal keeper" as so many other Saints were. Instead, Brodie bases her conclusions on inferences that she views as consistent with what, in her mind, must have been. In other words, Brodie cannot conceive of how Henry could possibly have known of and allowed the sealing, so she infers from the later statements of others that he must not have known.

Such a priori assumptions are shaky, and later authors have come to the opposite conclusion--that Henry must have known given his intimacy with the Prophet. Todd Compton states that his data suggests that the husbands of Joseph's polyandrous wives (including Zina) "knew about the marriages and permitted them."10 Richard and Jeni Holzapfel state that Henry stood as a witness to the sealing..11 I've discovered no evidence that Henry stood by as witness at Zina's initial sealing to Joseph; I've also discovered no evidence that he didn't. There may well be no evidence either way. The fact is that we just don't know. Some authors have insisted that Henry was on a mission during October 1841, but this seems to be mere supposition; there is no historical record indicating that Henry was gone from Nauvoo at this time.12

Oa Cannon's research ultimately convinced her that Henry did know about the sealing, and she even mentions that "Henry signed a paper relinquishing his right to Zina for eternity. The slip he signed is still in the records of the SaltLakeTemple."13 Such a record has not turned up, but Oa mentions in more than one extant account that the slip existed. Assuming this family story is true, then it would seem that Henry knew, within days of his marriage, that Zina was to be sealed to Joseph.

Why Did Zina Get Sealed to Joseph?

Why Zina chose to be sealed to Joseph Smith has been a vexing puzzle to many individuals. The whole matter can initially be confusing: Why would a group of women in Victorian America--including Zina--choose "not to be sealed to [their] husbands,"14 preferring instead to be sealed to Joseph Smith in a polyandrous relationship? There are multiple theories as to why Zina would enter a polyandrous marriage with Joseph. Perhaps it was an Abrahamic test, or Zina was showing obedience to priesthood authority. Some authors (and many critics) have suggested that manipulation and coercion were involved.

I don't have time today to analyze each of these possible reasons, but suffice it to say that there is strong evidence that each is incorrect. I believe that a much stronger case can be made for the concept that Zina was not being obedient or subservient to mortal leaders, but to her God.

This may seem a subtle difference, but it is a critical one.15 One can be convinced that a man is a prophet of God, and then choose to follow that prophet--whatever he says--based on that conviction. Events in Zina's life do not show her to be that type of person, however. She did not apply a single, blanket spiritual confirmation to all her decisions; instead she sought individual confirmation for large decisions, of which the sealing to Joseph was undoubtedly one.

For instance, Zina reports that when she and Henry were courting, Joseph proposed to her on three separate occasions. On each occasion she turned him down.16 Zina did this even though she had received a testimony of Joseph's prophetic call well before this time. Todd Compton points this testimony out:

Zina accepted Joseph as a prophet whose words were infallible revelations direct from God. Her older brother, Dimick, Smith's close associate, probably also encouraged her to marry the Mormon leader, so it is remarkable that while she was an impressionable nineteen-year-old, she would refuse his suit.17

In what could be an unwitting choice of words, Compton points out the basic quandary--and a distinction apparently lost on many authors, including him. If Zina truly did see Joseph's words as "infallible revelations direct from God," why would she have refused his propositions when she was convinced he was a prophet? If Zina practiced plural marriage simply out of obedience to the prophet, then it makes no sense that she would have thrice turned down Joseph and instead married Henry. Indeed, Zina recounted in one of her autobiographies that

when I heard that God had revealed the law of Celestial marriage that we would have the privilege of associating in family relationships in the worlds to come, I searched the scriptures and by humble prayer to my Heavenly Father I obtained a testimony for myself that God had required that order to be established in his Church.18

In her late-life interview with John W. Wight of the RLDSChurch, Zina was asked if she could provide the date of her marriage to Joseph. Her answer, while not germane to Wight's question, gave a glimpse into why, in retrospect, Zina had been sealed to Joseph:

Q. "Can you give us the date of that marriage with Joseph Smith?"

A. "No, sir, I could not."

Q. "Not even the year?"

A. "No, I do not remember. It was something too sacred to be talked about; it was more to me than life or death. I never breathed it for years. I will tell you the facts. I had dreams--I am no dreamer but I had dreams that I could not account for. I know this is the work of the Lord; it was revealed to me, even when young. Things were presented to my mind that I could not account for. When Joseph Smith revealed this order [Celestial marriage] I knew what it meant; the Lord was preparing my mind to receive it."19

Zina's answer on this occasion is consistent with the view that she received revelation from God--in the form of dreams, separate and distinct from her testimony of the prophet--that convinced her of the truthfulness of polygamy. Once received, Zina fearlessly acted on this revelation, consistent with her commitment to be obedient to her God.

Marriage to Brigham Young

After the 1844 death of Joseph Smith, the Saints in Nauvoo redoubled their efforts to complete the temple. Early on the morning of January 3, 1846, Henry and Zina received their washings, anointings, and endowments, being among the first company through the temple that day.20 A month later they were back in the temple, on February 2, 1846. On this day Zina received her second anointing21 from Parley P. Pratt,22 but there is no record of such being done for Henry. The records, however, do indicate that sealings were performed that day that involved Zina:

Joseph Smith (martyred) Dec 23, 1805 Sharon, Windsor Co. Vermont

Zina Diantha Huntington Jan 31 - 1821 Watertown, Jefferson Co. N.Y. were sealed husband & wife for time & all eternity (Prest. Brigham Young acting proxy for the deceased).

Brigham Young & Zina Diantha Smith were then sealed husband & wife for time by H.C. Kimball in presence of William D. Huntington, & Henry B. Jacobs & J.D.L. Young, Henry B. Jacobs expressed his willingness that it should be so in the presence of these witnesses done at 15 m. to 6.

Franklin D. Richards Clk.23

Shortly before 6:00 PM, Zina was sealed for time to Brigham Young, as "husband & wife." This was done in the presence of Zina's father and husband, as well as John D. Lee. This ceremony occurred only one week before leaving Nauvoo, and Zina was heavy with child at the time--her second child, fathered by Henry Jacobs, would be born on the banks of the CharitonRiver less than seven weeks later.

The wording of these temple records is interesting. Note that in the first proxy sealing Zina is referred to as "Zina Diantha Huntington," and in the second as "Zina Diantha Smith." What makes this interesting, of course, is that Zina had been married to Henry Jacobs for almost five years by this time. Even though Henry Jacobs is in the room, witnessing his wife being sealed to other men, recognition of Zina's marriage to him is not granted in the record and, presumably, not in the verbalization of the ordinances performed that day.

Levirate Marriage

Some authors point out that Brigham's marriage to Zina (and seven other wives previously sealed to Joseph) was a form of levirate marriage. This is an Old Testament custom,24 practiced largely by ancient Israelites,25 in which the widow (Zina, in this case) is offered the opportunity to be married to the brother (Brigham, in this case) of her deceased husband (Joseph). Such an offer was apparently requested by Joseph before his death. The words of Susa Young Gates are reported by Zina's biographers:

"We are told that the Prophet Joseph requested the Quorum to marry and take care of his widows," Zina's granddaughter would write, "and in some cases Joseph Smith's plural wives were given their choice of the Twelve as their husbands for time, to give them the full honor and protection of marriage with an apostle."26

Todd Compton reports that "many of Smith's widows did marry members of the Twelve. Brigham married between seven and nine of them; [Heber C. Kimball] married approximately eleven."27 He then recounts that other members of the Twelve and other prominent Church leaders married seven or more of Joseph's plural widows. Leonard Arrington states that the "reason for Brigham's marriages to Joseph's wives is not difficult to imagine,"28 and then describes the practice of levirate marriage in the Old Testament.