160 years ago today - Dec 15, 1858

In reply to man's request for divorce, "Pres. Young said that when a man married a wife he took her for better or worse, and had no right to ill use her, and if she shit in bed and laid in it until noon; he must bare it, until he gets power over her to learn her better." Young readily grants divorce to unhappy plural wives but requires husband to pay him $10 fee. Young issues 1,600 certificates of divorce for unhappy polygamous marriages. Civil divorces for monogamous marriages are even more common in pioneer Utah where courts require only statement of incompatibility.

[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]

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