115 years ago today - Feb 21, 1906

Joseph W. Summerhays performs ceremony marrying eighteen-year-old Athelia Voila Call to thirty-two-year-old William Galley Sears (whose first wife is unable to conceive) as his second living wife. When questioned by the Quorum of Twelve Summerhays insists that he had permission from President Joseph F. Smith. Smith denies this to Reed Smoot, Apostle and U.S. Senator. Summerhays is released from all church positions but is neither disfellowshipped nor excommunicated. In Washington D.C. Senator Albert J. Hopkins of Illinois tells LDS Apostle John Henry Smith that "we [the church] should do something with our recalcitrant Elders." This refers to Apostles John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley of whom it is known that they have performed post-manifesto plural marriages. Taylor and Cowley are dropped from the Quorum of Twelve two weeks later.