A look back at 1944
Iron bars do not a prison make, nor can they curb a communal yen and habit ingrained from long years in the austere and foreboding red cliffs of northern Arizona.
That is from the Salt Lake Telegram, March 9, 1944.
Now, 63 years later, it is fair to say those words are prophetic.
That was the lede of a story describing how ''fundamentalists'' incarcerated on federal and state charges were sharing duties while housed at the Salt Lake County Jail.
I was looking through this and other old newspaper clips as I worked on today's story about what the incarceration of Warren Jeffs might mean for his community. Based on the past, the answer is: Not much.
In 1944, 46 ''cultists'' entered not guilty pleas on charges related to their practice of polygamy. Vergel Y. Jessop, a ''curly-haired and sharp-chinned farmer from Short Creek, Ariz.,'' was quoted as saying: ''It may cost some of us a term (in jail) but our spirits are high.''
J. Marion Hammon, who was director of a cooperative farm at Short Creek –- now the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., said this as he was booked into jail: ''There is little doubt but that this will work our favorably for us.''
Some 40 years later, Hammon would led a defection from that community and set up Centennial Park, Ariz.
One of the most striking passages I read in the old clips had to do with comments made by women in defense of their lifestyle.
A reporter visited Rhea Kunz in her jail cell, which she shared with plural wife Mary Beth Barlow Cleveland. Kunz was described as a descendant of four generations of plural marriage practitioners.
Here is a bit of that interview, by Cristie Wicker:
Her life has been bound by its teachings and it is her belief that she comprehends to its fullest the core of her religion, which is to 'multiply and replenish the earth.'
Noting that in the particular group of which she is a member, the decision rests entirely with the wives as to whether they are desirous of bearing childen, she explained: ''You may think that plural marriage can be stamped out, but it cannot be, because it is right. Our purpose and fundamental belief in its practice is to have a clean and intellectual, as well as spiritual-minded progeny, and also to provide worthy husbands for good women since regardless of wars and pestilence there have always been a surplus of worthy women.''
I heard pretty much the same thing last week in St. George, when FLDS women testified in the Warren Jeffs' trial.
That is from the Salt Lake Telegram, March 9, 1944.
Now, 63 years later, it is fair to say those words are prophetic.
That was the lede of a story describing how ''fundamentalists'' incarcerated on federal and state charges were sharing duties while housed at the Salt Lake County Jail.
I was looking through this and other old newspaper clips as I worked on today's story about what the incarceration of Warren Jeffs might mean for his community. Based on the past, the answer is: Not much.
In 1944, 46 ''cultists'' entered not guilty pleas on charges related to their practice of polygamy. Vergel Y. Jessop, a ''curly-haired and sharp-chinned farmer from Short Creek, Ariz.,'' was quoted as saying: ''It may cost some of us a term (in jail) but our spirits are high.''
J. Marion Hammon, who was director of a cooperative farm at Short Creek –- now the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., said this as he was booked into jail: ''There is little doubt but that this will work our favorably for us.''
Some 40 years later, Hammon would led a defection from that community and set up Centennial Park, Ariz.
One of the most striking passages I read in the old clips had to do with comments made by women in defense of their lifestyle.
A reporter visited Rhea Kunz in her jail cell, which she shared with plural wife Mary Beth Barlow Cleveland. Kunz was described as a descendant of four generations of plural marriage practitioners.
Here is a bit of that interview, by Cristie Wicker:
Her life has been bound by its teachings and it is her belief that she comprehends to its fullest the core of her religion, which is to 'multiply and replenish the earth.'
Noting that in the particular group of which she is a member, the decision rests entirely with the wives as to whether they are desirous of bearing childen, she explained: ''You may think that plural marriage can be stamped out, but it cannot be, because it is right. Our purpose and fundamental belief in its practice is to have a clean and intellectual, as well as spiritual-minded progeny, and also to provide worthy husbands for good women since regardless of wars and pestilence there have always been a surplus of worthy women.''
I heard pretty much the same thing last week in St. George, when FLDS women testified in the Warren Jeffs' trial.
Labels: FLDS, Warren Jeffs trial
3 Comments:
Brook, it may be interesting to look up Rhea's two daughters, Donna and Myra, who both lived polygamy, and see how there feelings compare with there mother's.
uncaduff,
It is interesting to note that Donna is currently in a Pl relationship.
Why that bitch!
Just kidding.
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