A Mother's Struggle: Author Fanny Stenhouse’s Battle with Polygamy

Fanny Stenhouse spent most of her adult life as a Mormon. At eighteen, she broke her engagement to marry the Scottish Mormon missionary responsible for her conversion. Together, they had six children. The Stenhouses performed missionary work in Switzerland before emigrating to New York in 1855, and eventually settling in Utah in 1859. In Salt Lake City, Fanny founded and edited the Daily Telegraph, the city's first daily newspaper. While visiting non-Mormon friends in New York, Fanny was encouraged to write about her life in the church and her views on polygamy. Her first book, Exposé of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady’s Life Among the Mormons (1872), was written in just a few days. It was a short volume illustrated with woodcuts, outlining her life and making a strong case against polygamy.