Fanny Alger

Fanny Alger was a young convert in Kirtland who became a domestic servant in Joseph Smith’s household and, in 1833, his plural wife. Her relationship with Joseph was kept secret until Emma Smith discovered it; by the fall of 1835, Fanny had been expelled from the household. The episode brings together the intimacy of household life, Joseph’s developing defense of plural marriage, and the strain that secrecy placed on his marriage to Emma.

Background and Household

Fanny’s parents were among the early converts to the church, and she was introduced to Joseph Smith in 1830. By the winter of 1833, she had moved into the Smith household as a domestic servant. The account describes her as close to both Joseph and Emma, with a particularly strong bond to Emma. That household setting is significant: Fanny was not presented as a distant acquaintance, but as a young woman living within the family and sharing in its daily life.

Marriage and Secrecy

In February or March 1833, when Fanny was sixteen, Joseph took her as a plural wife. The account suggests she may have been the second woman, after Emma, whom he formally married. Joseph tried to conceal the relationship, while Emma’s apparent affection for Fanny made the discovery especially consequential within the household. By the fall of 1835, Emma had discovered the relationship and expelled Fanny from their home.

The account places this relationship within Joseph’s wider, still-private practice of plural marriage. It describes him as interpreting his attraction to other women through a religious rationale, finding examples in the Old Testament accounts of Abraham and Jacob. Joseph’s conduct was nevertheless concealed not only from non-Mormons but from most of his own followers. Fanny’s marriage therefore belongs to a formative period in which the practice was defended within a limited circle but not openly acknowledged to the wider community.

Significance in the Narrative

Fanny’s brief appearance in the narrative marks an early collision between Joseph’s private actions and the public authority of his religious role. The relationship began within a household where Fanny and Emma were close, but secrecy turned that domestic arrangement into a source of conflict, ending in Fanny’s removal. The account does not trace Fanny’s later life; its emphasis is on her place in the Smith household and on the early, concealed practice of plural marriage that her relationship with Joseph exemplifies.