Episode 19A: Part One: More Episodes Than One

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:01)
Hi friends, it's me, Lindsay. And I host a podcast about polygamy.
It's something you never want to say at a party, because that's a weird thing to say, and that's my life. But I do have a podcast on polygamy, and it's something I talk about all the time. So I'd like to tell you a crazy polygamy story right now.

**Randy Barlow** (0:33)
Thank you for.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:37)
This polygamy story happens during the Mormon Reformation. It's the story of Brigham Young Hampton and Bertha King, and it's about their marriage and their experience with polygamy.
This is a wild tale, but I wouldn't say a particularly unique one either.
Bertha King was the daughter of Hannah Tapfield and Thomas King, and we'll talk about all of these people later, because they're my favorite.
They immigrated from England to the United States in the 1850s, and came west with the Mormon migration, and then when Bertha was 19 years old, she becomes the plural wife to 35-year-old David Canlan. So she was the fourth wife when she was 19 to a 35-year-old David Canlan. And we don't know a lot about the whole wedding, except that Canlan comes to Utah and becomes the proprietor of the Globe Hotel.
And that's kind of fun, like that's a kind of fun old west thing. He gets the theater and he's got four plural wives. He's also a really famous actor in the territory. He fathered 36 children, and he also published a lot of pamphlets for the LDS Church.
He wrote in 1846 something that became known as the Fireside Visitor or the Plain Reasoner. And they were published in Liverpool while Canlan was serving in the British Mission.
And they were signed by David C. Kimball because David Canlan had been adopted into the family of Heber C. Kimball through a Mormon ceremony called Law of Adoption also, something we'll be talking about later.
So David Canlan marries Mary Jane Webb in 1852, and she dies three months later. And then he marries Lucy Jones in 1853
And then birth of Mary King, our Bertha that we're talking about on December 25th, 1854 What a fun Christmas present is to become the third wife of David Canlan.
Turns out it's not so fun. He would divorce both women the following spring on April 9th, 1855, stating that, quote, My wife's Lucy and Bertha became so possessed of evil as to demand a bill of divorcement, end quote.
Now, in the history of David Canlan that's on file with the Daughters of Utah pioneers, there's this really dramatic tale of their marital problems. Here's the quote. Unknown to David, mischief was brewing in the hearts of those he believed to be true.
His two young wives, Lucy and Bertha, combined their ideas of dissatisfaction with their lot and demanded a divorce at once. David tried to persuade them to patience and forbearance in all things where wrong existed.
President Young advised him to grant their wishes and they were set free in April of 1855, end quote.
As in most cases, there's likely another side to this story and in a book written by Anna Eliza Webb Young, you know, Brigham Young's apostate wife, as she refers to herself, she says that David Canlan was, quote, a prominent Mormon elder and a confidential friend of the prophet. He was, as he was, pleased to term himself an aristocrat and would not descend to the performance of menial labor.
But as the family must live somehow, the wives have to get along as best they can, but they live in the depths of poverty and degradation while he enjoys prophetic favor, stands high in the church and is a beau brummel in dress.
And George Bryan Brummel was an Englishman who became famous for his fashionable lifestyle in the early 19th century. He set styles for men's clothes and manners for 20 years, known sort of a bit of a dandy. And so that's that's sort of how Anna Eliza Webb Young describes him. And so these two get married or the Canlons are married during this time and then they divorce him in the 1850s in Utah. This is a crazy time in Utah. We're going to talk about it. Favorite time of mine in Mormon history because it's so fascinating.
Love it so much. It's a hard hard time. In fact, this is where the majority of Mormon marriages happen. So we know that Brigham Young Hampton will meet Bertha just two years after her wedding to David Candlin. And let's talk about Brigham Young Hampton for a minute because yes, he is Brigham Young, but he is Brigham Young Hampton. And so he has a really interesting story behind his name.