Originally Posted by
alanmolstad
Fanny Alger
A fourth Kirtland incident occurred in about 1835 with nineteen year old Fanny Ward Alger, one of ten children born to church members Samuel and Clarissa Alger. McLellin continued his narrative to Joseph Smith III:
Again, I told her [Emma] I heard that one night she missed Joseph and Fanny Alger. She went to the barn and saw him and Fanny in the barn together alone. She looked through a crack and saw the transaction!!! She told me this story too was true.
***ociate President Oliver Cowdery said that he learned of this incident from Joseph Smith himself and that Joseph had confided to him that "he had confessed to Emma," seeking her forgiveness. Fanny Alger and her family left Kirtland, in September 1836 and moved to Dublin, Indiana, where she married non-Mormon Solomon Custer shortly after on November 16, 1836. Joseph Smith never saw Fanny Alger again.
Benjamin F. Johnson would later say that the Alger incident was "one of the Causes of Apostasy & disruption at Kirtland altho at the time there was little Said publickly upon the subject."
Oliver Cowdery was probably the first to openly talk about the Alger affair. In November 1837, he "insinuate that Joseph Smith Jr. was guilty of adultery" in a conversation with George W. Harris and again with Apostle David W. Patten. In a letter to his brother Warren Cowdery on January 21, 1838, Oliver was more blunt. He referred to Smith's deed as "a dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Algers."
Obviously, Cowdery had lost respect for his close ***ociate. On April 12, 1838, Oliver was excommunicated, with nine charges listed, the second being for "seeking to destroy the character of President Joseph Smith jr by falsly insinuating that he was guilty of adultery."
Several Mormon scholars have claimed that Fanny Alger was Joseph's first polygamist wife.
However, to make the case, they need to persuasively explain the following problems.
(1) There is no marriage/sealing ceremony or record of the ordinance.
(2) A witness was not present.
(3) There is no text of a revelation permitting polygamous marriage. Joseph Smith may have talked about polygamy in Kirtland, but there is no evidence that he practiced it until April 5, 1841, at Nauvoo.
(4) The LDS Church believes Joseph Smith received the keys to "seal" couples for eternity on April 3, 1836, not before.
(5) Alger left the state and quickly rejected counsel by marrying a non-Mormon, something one would not expect from a plural wife.