E45: Boston and the Case of the Kissing Wives

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:01)
The easy part of doing early Mormon history is, you just have a few locations. New York, Ohio, Missouri and Navu. That's it. No Mormons were anywhere else in the world during those years.
Now, honestly, you can be forgiven for thinking that based on what traditionally has been published. And frankly, we have been a little guilty of that ourselves. Yeah, we showed you there's a little bit of Mormons outside in the British Mission era stuff, but we are a little light outside of the headquarters sites. It's time for an atonement. No, not the blood kind, just the regular podcasting kind of stuff.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:59)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:00)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:27)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:32)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:41)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Today, we're going to talk about the only place to rival Navu on the crazy scale, Boston. We will take the high road and not go for low-hanging fruit like Boston's a great place to park your car and fruit of that nature. We're not going to do that. We're going to steer clear.
Since Boston played such a key role in the larger American story, it seems only fitting that Mormonism was impacted there too.
Because this is a proper Mormon story, it all begins with a revelation, of course. At a conference in Ohio, January, 1832, Joseph Smith dictated a revelation that called a few dudes on missions. Among them were Orson Hyde and Samuel Smith, who were told to quote, take their journey to the Eastern countries. Interestingly, a newspaper report on this mission includes the first hint that Orson Hyde would go to Jerusalem. He would have to hold that thought for a decade, however. Within a week of that revelation, the Orson and Sam show departed for the East. Slowly making their way through cities, visiting members, baptizing as they went, the pair finally made it to Boston by late June. Just a few days after rolling into town, they were Duncan folks in the baptismal waters. The question of who was the first baptized there is a bit of a trick question, because the first to be baptized in Boston were the Badlums, Alexander and Mary. However, the first resident of Boston to join with the Mormons was actually Vianna Jacquez. Remember a billion years ago when we talked about her? She was baptized on a trip to Kirtland, which is completely cheating the system, Vianna.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:38)
The missionaries only spent a month or so in Boston, but gathered together a group of about 25 to 30 in that time.
Mary Badlum was a fairly quiet person, but her brother Sam Brannon will make some serious noise here soon in this episode and later on.
Now, what's so fascinating about the Boston group is that the women here were very powerful, maybe more so than in any early Mormon site. First, you have Augusta Adams Cobb, who apparently was quite the forceful personality and would eventually really give Brigham Young the business as a plural wife. And we mean the business. You have Agnes Coolbreath, who would marry Joseph Smith. Her daughter, Josephina, real sly, she was usually just called Ina, would later become a famous poet in California. You also have Polly Vos, who was part of a very successful furniture industry. These Chippendale ladies would contribute a whole lot of cash to the very needy dudes in Kirtland. Quite the haul for any missionary duo.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:51)
Like most small Mormon groups outside of the easy reach of headquarters, either in Ohio or Missouri, the Bostonians were just kind of left to play their own Mormon song for a while. Periodically, missionaries or church leaders would wander in and see what was good.
One intriguing hint later in 1832 notes that the missionaries had to settle quote, some difficulty among the sisters. Come on guys, can you give us just a little taste of what was going on? Nothing, no hints.
Over the next few years, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young would pass through a few times. We don't know a lot about these trips, but we do get a sense that Brigham was checking out Augusta Adams Cobb. She was a bit of a society matron, and amazingly thought that he had at least some game. So Lindsay can stick that in her ear.