140 years ago today - Sep 11, 1871

[General] Counselor Daniel H. Wells tells Grantsville School of the Prophets that "a great many of our young men are abusing themselves by the habit of self-pollution: or self abuse, or as the Bible terms it, Onanism," which he regards as "one great cause why so many of our young men were not married, and it was a great sin, and would lead to insanity and a premature grave." Polygamy is likelier cause for prevalence of bachelorhood in nineteenth-century Utah. First, every national census lists more males than females in Mormon population. Second, 20 - 40 percent of Mormon men marry polygamously which demographically requires bachelorhood in Utah's majority population of males.

[Source: Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower]