Fanny Stenhouse

Fanny Warn Stenhouse (12 April 1829 – 19 April 1904) was an early Mormon pioneer who defected from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was most famous for her 1872 publication Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons, a record of personal experience as one of the wives of a Mormon elder during a period of more than twenty years in the mid-1800s.[2]

Fanny Stenhouse
A Portrait of Stenhouse from her book "Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons" 1872
A Portrait of Stenhouse from her book "Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life among the Mormons" 1872
BornFanny Warn
(1829-04-12)April 12, 1829
Saint Helier, Jersey.
DiedApril 19, 1904(1904-04-19) (aged 75)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.[1]
NationalityEnglish/American
Spouse
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(m. 1850⁠–⁠1882)​

Early life

Born in Jersey, at the age of 15 she went to teach English in France for six years; upon return to the island finding her parents and siblings had joined the Mormon sect.[3] With initial prejudices, she then joined the sect herself, and a few months later, she got married in 1850.[3][4]

Mormonism

After proselytising in Europe including Switzerland, she accompanied her husband to New York then onto Utah in 1859 where she remained for sixteen years.[3] With increasing skepticism of polygamy, she also held a poor opinion of sect founder Young, doubting 'his honesty very much, and is of opinion that from the first he never overlooked his own interests'; in response 'for herself she got all her family away from the place with the exception of her eldest daughter'.[3]

Stenhouse visited Australia by September 1875 in Melbourne to lecture about the emerging religion of Mormonism, including the ongoing discussion of polygamy.[5] By October 1875 in Sydney, the lecture title was Mormonism exposed.[6] February 1876 saw Stenhouse back in Melbourne at the Athenxum Hall, delivering 'a lecture exposing the evils of Mormonism'.[7] She returned on the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's SS Australia in May 1876.[8]

Later life

Her husband T. B. H. Stenhouse was born in 1825, a native of Dalkeith, Scotland.[4] He established the French journal La Reflecteur, and in New York a scientific writer for the Herald. After settling in Utah, he established the first daily newspaper for Salt Lake City, the Daily Telegraph.[4] Quite profitable, it collapsed when articles were too liberal for the sect founder, who then informed its subscribers to discontinue their patronage; whence he abandoned the church, and became a postmaster in the city and elsewhere.[4] He died from jaundice on 8 March 1882, at 1509 Geary Street, San Francisco.

They had over two daughters and three sons.[4]

Stenhouse's eldest daughter was married, and the first wife, to Brigham Young's eldest son, Joseph Angell Young.[5][9]

References
  1. "Mrs. Fannie Stenhouse is Dead". The Salt Lake Herald. 1904-04-19. p. 1 – via newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  2. Stenhouse, T. B. H., & DeSimone, L. W. (2008). Expose´ of polygamy: A lady's life among the Mormons. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press
  3. "Mrs. Fanny Stenhouse on Mormonism". The Brisbane Courier. Vol. XXX, no. 2, 713. Queensland, Australia. 31 January 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "An American journalist". The Age. No. 8479. Victoria, Australia. 20 April 1882. p. 1 (Supplement to The Age). Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Mrs. Fanny Stenhouse". Evening News. No. 2552. New South Wales, Australia. 6 September 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Mrs. Fanny Stenhouse". Miners' Advocate and Northumberland Recorder. Vol. III, no. LXXXII. New South Wales, Australia. 16 October 1875. p. 3 (Morning.). Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Mrs.Fanny Stenhouse on Mormonism". The Capricornian. Vol. 2, no. 7. Queensland, Australia. 12 February 1876. p. 109. Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "Evening notes. A trip home after twenty years, and what I see by the way. No. III". The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. New South Wales, Australia. 2 June 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Mrs Fanny STENHOUSE on Mormonism". The Tasmanian. Vol. II, no. 87. Tasmania, Australia. 29 January 1876. p. 13. Retrieved 2 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.

Tell It All: The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism by Fanny Stenhouse (read on Librivox)


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