Thirty-Eight (1843)life). Once Joseph had resolved himself in 1839 to become the prophet of the people and give
them their city, Sidney fought his desires behind the scenes at every turn. There was a good
reason why Rigdon and Bennett weren’t invited to the first endowment presentation—
privately, the two men had become close friends, who often discussed their disagreements
with what Joseph was doing with his influence upon the people. When Bennett was
chastised and excommunicated for desiring women, Rigdon supported Bennett against
Joseph because of an incident involving his own daughter, Nancy Rigdon.
Nancy was Rigdon’s oldest unmarried daughter and was very beautiful, with
physical endowments that were desired by most every man who laid eyes on her.
Bennett became very close to the Rigdon family^9 and desired Nancy. Although rumors,
affidavits, hearsay, and everything in-between developed a cornucopia of innuendo that
Joseph desired Nancy as one of his spiritual wives, most of the allegations came from
Bennett’s anti-Mormon publication, History of the Saints (1842).
It is true that Joseph approached Nancy to become a “spiritual wife,” but not for the
reasons that Bennett presented in his diatribe. Nancy was only nineteen at the time and was
taken in by Bennett’s charisma in such a way that she fell in love with him. Joseph knew
Bennett’s true heart; the young Nancy Rigdon did not. Joseph encouraged Nancy to avoid
Bennett’s advances and attempted to persuade her to be “sealed” to him as one of his wives
according to the same spiritual order that many others had who were trying to avoid the
advances of eager LDS men. But Nancy was already in love with Bennett and would not
listen to Joseph. She did not completely understand the true purpose for being “sealed” to
the prophet; and when Joseph attempted to explain it to her in private, her love for Bennett
clouded her understanding.
Joseph had not revealed the true purpose of spiritual wifery to any other man
except Hyrum. But, because of the Nancy Rigdon/John Bennett incident, he was forced
to reveal his secret to Sidney so that the father-Rigdon could explain Joseph’s actions
towards Nancy. Sidney understood and was sworn to secrecy that he would never
reveal it to any other man. After interviewing his daughter, Sidney was convinced that
Joseph had acted properly according to Joseph’s explanation of the true purpose for
which he had instituted the ordinance in the first place—to protect vulnerable women
from lustful, predatory men. After Bennett was excommunicated and Nancy Rigdon
read Bennett’s spurious account about her in his History of the Saints, Nancy was
convinced he was a liar and had nothing further to do with him.
Critics have reported that Joseph wrote a personal letter to Nancy attempting to
convince her that she should marry him for selfish reasons. They took their
information from Bennett’s book, which is incorrect. The letter referred to in Bennett’s
book had nothing to do with Nancy Rigdon; rather, it was a mistaken interpolation in
the official history of the Church and included only as another sundry bit of
information that LDS editors felt was important.^10
Now that Joseph’s secret was out about spiritual wifery, Rigdon finally
recognized that Joseph was presenting virtually everything to the Saints in a deceptive
way that hid the real truth and his purposes from them. Rigdon’s mind became
convinced more than ever before, that Joseph was falling from grace and from his role as
God’s chosen mouthpiece.^11 Rigdon began influencing other leaders and members and
infecting their minds with his own prejudices against Joseph. Overlooking his
indiscretions for what he thought was a “higher” purpose, Rigdon continued in close