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Polygamist Groups in Salt Lake City and Utah
From Deseret News and Associated Press - 4/24/99
Some 25,000 Utah residents are involved in polygamy, says Lt. Mike King of the attorney general's criminal division.
The most prominent groups are based on early Mormon doctrine, and there are two basic types: generational and convert groups.
The generational groups have been around longer. An older patriarch is in charge and they do not actively recruit new members. Such groups sometimes accept new members, but they are generally kept at arm's length.
The convert groups have younger leaders, often a man who has abandoned or been excommunicated from a generational group. Such groups are trying to build Zion on earth and need money, King said.
Most polygamist clans require members to turn over their possessions to holding companies, which enjoy nonprofit status as religious groups.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy in its early years, but renounced it in 1890. It was outlawed by the Utah Constitution as a precondition for statehood in 1896.
The following are brief descriptions of the state's prominent polygamist groups, based on information from King and other sources:
- Corporation of the President of the Fundamentalist Church: Rulon T. Jeffs is the leader of 8,000 to 12,000 members. The headquarters are in Sandy, Utah, but the group has a strong presence in the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Those towns, once known as Short Creek, were the site of the last effort to prosecute polygamists in 1953. Public sentiment turned against authorities after newsreels showed children being taken from their mothers and fathers being thrown in jail.
- Corporation of the Presiding Elder of the Apostolic United Brethren: The group, headed by 85-year-old Owen Allred, is centered in Bluffdale, south of Salt Lake City. It has members in Idaho, Nevada and Montana and has developed an underground following in the United Kingdom. Allred, who claims eight wives, has said the group has 5,000 members. Some estimates place membership as high as 8,000.
- Latter-day Church of Christ: The Kingston cooperative is formally led by Merlin Kingston, an elderly patriarch, but Ortell Paul Kingston is believed to function as the church's spiritual and economic leader. The cooperative owns more than 24 companies, but the holdings are difficult to trace. It is considered the most affluent and most secretive group. Authorities believe the group has between 300 and 500 members, although some members say it has 1,000 to 1,500. The cooperative is headquartered in South Salt Lake City, but has holdings in Nevada, Idaho and possibly Arizona and Mexico.
- The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days: Headquartered in Manti, the group is governed by James Harmston, who claims to be the reincarnation of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith. Harmston, a former Mormon, was excommunicated for advocating polygamy. Today, he and about 300 to 500 members own several buildings in Manti, including an assembly hall.
- Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: This small group of about 100 people west of Cedar City was founded by Gerald Peterson, who claims that the ghost of Rulon Allred, who founded the Short Creek community, returned to restore the priesthood to him.
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Page Modified April 24, 1999
