A trial on the evidence · 1822-2020
On trial: the claim that polygamy originated with Joseph Smith, who secretly practiced and sanctioned it. Evidence that supports the claim sits on the right, evidence that challenges it on the left, with stipulated context down the middle.
The source is an advocacy page. This timeline is built from the Hemlock Knots “Mormon Polygamy Timeline of Events,” which argues that Joseph Smith was a monogamist and that polygamy was a later development. The data faithfully captures what that page asserts and cites; it is not an adjudicated, neutral history. Read the sources and decide for yourself.
How exhibits are placed. Each exhibit is graded by how it was recorded and placed by when it entered the record (use the toggle to switch to alleged-event dating instead). Contested claims can be opened to see the evidence that rebuts them.
Evidence badges are the point. Many polygamy claims rest on testimony given decades after the fact. Each card shows its evidence type (journal, letter, sworn testimony, affidavit, published, revelation, recollection, or plain record), a “recorded N yrs later” flag when the account is late, a “°-hand” flag when it was relayed second- or third-hand, and a “contemporary” mark for accounts made at the time.
Try “Contemporary & first-hand only.” That filter hides every late or second-hand account so you can see what survives on contemporaneous evidence alone.
Evidence fields were extracted programmatically and then verified entry-by-entry. Click any card to read its full text and open its sources.
William Clayton journal additions. Ten entries from William Clayton's journals (marked “added · Clayton journal”) supplement the source. Clayton was a polygamist himself and recorded polygamy first-hand. His post-martyrdom personal diary (vols 1 & 3) is treated as contemporary; his Joseph-lifetime scribe journal (vol 2) carries a “composition disputed” caution, since when those entries were actually written is contested.