Focusing on polygamy on the Arizona-Utah line
 
By Al Herron
Prescott Daily Courier Columnist
Al Herron

Something very disturbing is happening up along the Arizona – Utah border. It is illegal, immoral, traumatic to most of the people involved, and you and I help pay for it. We’re talking about polygamy.

Those who have lived in Arizona for more than a few years have heard about the renegade Mormon settlement up in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hilldale, Utah. (It’s really one community with the state line going through it.) Don’t confuse this group with mainstream Mormons who gave up polygamy more than 100 years ago.

Not much space for history, but we need some: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) began in 1830 as a religion that advocated polygamy. Joseph Smith, the founder, had more than 30 wives. Brigham Young, his successor and the church’s most important leader, had from 21 to 56 wives, depending on how you define marriage. A basic church teaching was that a man needed at least three wives to be able to attain the highest level of heaven.

The LDS eventually settled in Utah, and subsequently applied for statehood, but Congress made it clear that the Utah Territory would not become a state as long as the Mormons practiced polygamy. Congress also enacted legislation making plural marriages illegal in U.S. territories, but Brigham Young and the church refused to give it up. The U.S. military forcibly removed Young as territorial governor in 1858, but he remained the most influential man in the territory until his death in 1877.

The LDS church did renounce polygamy in 1890, and Utah joined the union six years later. But those two events did not mean that all Mormons changed overnight. Many continued with plural marriage in enclaves around Utah, and one of those groups moved to the Arizona Strip in the 1930s.

They are still there, still practicing polygamy, openly and brazenly. I was astonished to learn what goes on up there. This is the first of four columns dealing with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – which we shall shorten to FLDS.

Other polygamous groups still exist in Utah, but the one in Colorado City/Hilldale is the only one legally using this name. The FLDS also has a small group in Canada and one in Mexico – which comes in handy when someone is running from the law, or to exchange girls for "spiritual marriage."

Two people helped greatly with these columns. John Dougherty, a reporter for the Phoenix “New Times,” spent five months investigating the FLDS church, and has written several articles about it. Much of what I’ve written stems from his articles – with consent from Dougherty and the "New Times."

Flora Jessop was born into an FLDS family in Hilldale. She ran away at age 13, but they caught her and brought her back, and kept her locked in one room for the next three years. She escaped again and now lives in Phoenix – married, with two children – but the rest of her family is still FLDS. Mrs. Jessop sent me additional information.

The next column will be about life, marriage, and makin g babies in this polygamous community. It’s certainly different.

Then a column about the school situation, which is outrageous. The FLDS members took all of their children out of the public school system in 2000. But they still elect the public school board, and that board now uses public school money to benefit church schools and officials.

Lastly, a column about how our tax dollars are helping to feed and support the huge FLDS families and pay for their medical care. Our Arizona Constitution forbids polygamy, but the Legislature and governor seem to have closed their eyes to it.

Stay tuned.
 
prescottaz.com
Originally published Wednesday, July 2, 2003
 
Back