In the Temple Lot suit, Lucy Walker admitted to conjugal relations with Joseph Smith:
Q. Can you state the circumstances under which he [Joseph Smith] first taught you that principle [of plural marriage]?
A. Well, the circumstances were these,—it was a command from God to me to receive it, and I would rather have laid down my life than disobeyed it, but it was a grand and glorious principle that was to be established, and when I was called upon I stepped forward and gave myself up as a sacrifice to establish that principle, and I did that in the face of prejudice, of course. In this day and age [1892] we are considered fanatics of course, more or less. I gave myself up as a sacrifice, for it was not a love matter, so to speak, in our affairs, at least on my part it was not,—but simply the giving up of myself as a sacrifice to establish that grand and glorious principle that God had revealed to the world.
Q. Did you live with Joseph Smith as his wife?
A. He was my husband sir. . . .
Q. How many children did you have by virtue of your marriage with Joseph Smith?
A. I decline to answer that question sir.
Q. Did you have any?
A. I decline to answer the question.
Q. Have you any children by Joseph Smith?
A. I decline to answer the question
Q. Why do you decline to answer it?
A. Well I think that is my business and none of yours. The principle by which we were married is an eternal principle, and will endure forever. . . .
Q. Well did you raise a child by him?
A. I decline to answer the question.
Q. Did you ever occupy the same bed with him?
A. I decline to answer the question.
Q. You say you will not answer any of these questions.
A. I do, not on that subject.
Q. Did you ever see a child that you knew was Joseph Smith’s outside of David, Alexander, Frederick and Joseph?
A. I decline to answer that question . . . .
Q. You know you did not have any children by him [Joseph Smith]?
A. Well now that is something that I did not tell you anything about at all. It is none of your business if we had twenty sons or children, and it is none of your business if we did not have any.1
In 1888, Lucy also reported: “They [Joseph Smith’s sons] seem surprised that there was no issue from asserted plural marriages with their father. Could they but realize the hazardous life he lived, after that revelation was given, they would comprehend the reason. He was harassed and hounded and lived in constant fear of being betrayed by those who ought to have been true to him.”2
Several other sources corroborate that Lucy had conjugal relations with Joseph. Theodocia Frances Walker Davis (niece of Lucy Walker) asserted in 1876: “Mrs. Davis daughter of Wm Walker [Lucy’s brother] at Salt Lake. She says that Lucy Walker told her that she lived with Joseph Smith as a wife.”3 Angus Cannon stated that, concerning the lack of offspring born to the Prophet’s plural wives, “All I knew was that which Lucy Walker herself contends. They were so nervous and lived in such constant fear that they could not conceive.”4 An acquaintance of Lucy, D. H. Morris, quoted her saying: “I . . . married Joseph Smith as a plural wife and lived and cohabited with him as such.”5
- Lucy Walker, Deposition, Temple Lot Transcript, Respondent’s Testimony, Part 3, pp. 450–51, 468, 473, questions 29–30, 463–74, 586. (back)
- Lucy Walker, quoted in Lyman Omer Littlefield, Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints: Giving an Account of Much Individual Suffering Endured for Religious Conscience, 50. See also Rodney W. Walker and Noel W. Stevenson, Ancestry and Descendents of John Walker (1794-1869) of Vermont and Utah, Descendants of Robert Walker, an Emigrant of 1632 from England to Boston, Mass., 35. (back)
- Joseph Smith III, Journal, November 12 [or 18?], 1876. (back)
- Angus Cannon, Statement reporting an interview with Joseph Smith III, 1905. (back)
- D. H. Morris, Untitled typed statement, June 12, 1930. (back)