Heber J. Grant

Plural Marriage

Heber J. Grant was the last of the presidents of the LDS Church to practice "plural marriage". He married a first time in 1877 and then again twice in 1884. Some sources suggest the latter two marriages were annulled after the Manifesto ending plural marriages was issued by President Wilford Woodruff in 1890, but no evidence can be found to support this.

Related Topics:
Presidents of the LDS Church - Plural marriage - 1877 - 1884

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• Grant married Lucy Stringham on November 1, 1877. Lucy bore him 6 children before she passed away in 1893, after a long illness, during which he gave constant and tender devotion to her, as he had throughout their marriage. (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant, p. xviii)
• He married Hulda Augusta Winters on May 26 1884. Augusta bore him one daughter. She accompanied Grant to Japan when Grant was sent to open the Japanese Mission in 1901. Remained with Grant until his death in 1945. She died in 1952.
• He married Emily Harris Wells on May 27 1884. Emily bore him 5 children before she died in 1908. She accompanied Grant during his time presiding over the British and European Mission in 1903. Emily's last child was born in 1899, the same year Grant pleaded guilty to cohabitation and paid a $100 fine. Cohabitation was the most common charge for poligamists. This daughter, Frances, knew her father as "a remarkable family man" (ibid, p. xv).