Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1879 — A Plucky Mormon Wife. [ARTICLE]

A Plucky Mormon Wife.

Missouri Republican. Some of the Mormon first-wives are plucky and resolutely make no concessions whatever to polyagmy. Libbie Canfield, the daughter of Presbyterian parents in Philadelphia, married John W. Young, the oldest son of Brigham, and went with him to Salt Lake. Before she consented to marry the son of the Prophet she stipulated with him that she was to be his only wife and he agreed to the arrangement. They lived for years happily, he kept his word, and their family was increased by four boys named severally Brigham, Richard, John and “Tot,’’ the baby. She also feathered her nest well by securing in her own right a large and productive farm in the vicinity of Salt Lake City. When Brigham Young was dying he decreed that his son should take another wife. The Morman Apostles subsequently confirmed this decree, and John W. Young obeyed. This was thought to be necessary in order to show that he was a true desciple of the Morman faith. He thus made a sacrifice of his wife on the altar of obedience. She left him immediately and retired to her farm with her boys, who remain in her custody—the free-will gift of their father. Lately Libbie Canfield has been visiting her relatives and friends in Philadelphia and Newark, N. J. She is a bright and beautiful woman, fully resolved upon her course. Her husband has never troubled her since they separated good friends, and the Morman Church has kepts its hands off. Young is now living in Arizona with his second wife, with whom he never appears in public. Under their mutual agreement he still evidently regards Libbie Canfield as his only wife, and she knows it, and pities him rather than condemns. He is not happy, and can’t help himself. She often visits her Eastern friends now, and he sends her money in case she may need it. She personally manages her farm, and has just returned to it to superintend the shipment of wool from her thousands of sheep. She will go East again next fall and after the usual call upon her friends will sail for Europe to winter.

The Louisville Courier-Journal has this story: “Uncle” Abe Renick, living near Winchester, in this State, who owns a herd of the finest short-horn cattle in the world, occasionally kills for beef one of his Rose of Sharon heifers that he might easily sell for $1,000 each. He is able to afford it, and perhaps he is the only man in the world who eats beef that costs him from $1.50 to $2 a pound. It is estimated that 6,000 colored refugees have arrived in Kansas since the exodus began.