Sealing Power Present in 1831Seven's claim that that the sealing power was not restored until 1836 is incorrect.
According to the minutes of the October 1831 general conference, "Br. Joseph Smith jr. said that the order of the High-priesthood is that they have power given them to seal up the Saints unto eternal life. And said it was the privilege of every Elder present to be ordained to the Highpriesthood." (Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook, eds.,
Far West Record: Minutes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1841 [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983], 20-21; cf. Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds.,
Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839, vol. 1 of the Journals series of
The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman [Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008], 471, s.v. "seal").
Likewise, Gregory Prince notes in his study of the development of the priesthood:
The relationship of Elijah to sealing necessitates a postscript because of the generally accepted teaching among Latter-day Saints that Elijah restored the sealing power to Joseph Smith in 1836. As has been shown, the power to seal was bestowed upon the elders in 1831, five years before the vision of Elijah, and while the forms embodied by the concept of sealing evolved throughout the rest of Smith's ministry, all later forms were in continuity with the earliest form. . . . Furthermore, no contemporary account of the 1836 vision of Elijah used the term "seal" with reference to his mission. Indeed, Smith himself made no explicit connection between Elijah and sealing until 1843—seven years after the vision—and the connotation of sealing most commonly used today by Latter-day Saints did not develop until 1844.
— Gregory A. Price, Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 171.
According to Prince, "the theology of Elijah began as early as 1830 and showed accelerated development in the mid-1830s and again in the early 1840s. The theology of sealing began in 1831 and developed on a different trajectory, with the two intersecting no earlier than 1843" (Ibid.). For more details, see Prince,
Power From On High, 155-172.
The Case for MarriageEliza R. Snow, who knew Fanny Alger well and lived in the Smith home at the same time with her in Ohio, listed Alger as a plural wife of Joseph Smith.
Benjamin F. Johnson, an intimate acquaintance of Joseph Smith whose sisters Delcena and Almera were married to the Prophet, also averred: "Without a doubt in my mind, Fanny Alger was, at Kirtland, the Prophet's first plural wife" (Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, 1903).
Further corroboration is provided by Ann Eliza Young and her father Chauncey Webb. The Webbs took Fanny Alger into their home after she left the Smiths. According to Ann Eliza, "[Fanny's] mother has always claimed that she was sealed to Joseph" On another occasion,
Ann Eliza wrote: "I do not know that 'sealing' commenced in Kirtland but I am perfectly satisfied that something similar commenced, and my judgement is principally formed from what Fanny Algers [sic] told me herself concerning her reasons for leaving 'sister Emma.' " Her father, Chauncey Webb, was quoted as saying, "He [Joseph Smith] was sealed there [in Kirtland] secretly to Fanny Alger" (see Todd Compton,
In Sacred Loneliness, 34-35).
William E. McLellin also regarded the Smith-Alger relationship as a marriage, calling it "the first well authenticated case of polygamy" (William E. McLellin to Joseph Smith III, July 1872, Community of Christ Library-Archives, Independence, Missouri).
And then of course there is Alger relative Mosiah Hancock's autobiography, which provides a detailed account of the marriage itself ("Father gave her [Fanny] to Joseph repeating the Ceremony as Joseph repeated to him. . ."). See Compton,
In Sacred Loneliness, 29-33.
