FLORA ANN WOODWORTH
By 1843 Lucien Woodworth
had become a close associate of Joseph Smith and was the architect of the
Nauvoo House hotel (D&C 124). In spring of that year, Joseph
married Lucien’s, sixteen-year-old, daughter Flora Ann. William Clayton,
Joseph’s personal secretary, noted subsequent visits the Prophet made to
Flora. She is mentioned in Clayton’s diary more often than any of
Joseph’s other plural wives: May 2nd: “Joseph rode out today with
Flora W.” June 1st: “Evening Joseph rode in the carriage with
Flora.” August 26th: “Hyrum and I rode up to my house and
Joseph met Mrs. Wdth and F[lora] and conversed some time.” August
28th: “President Joseph met Ms Wdth at my house.” August 29th:
“A.M. at the Temple. President Joseph at my house with Miss Wdth.”
In the midst of these
encounters, Emma, became aware of the relationship when she recognized
a gold watch that Joseph had given to Flora as a gift. On August
22nd Clayton recorded: “President Joseph told me that he had difficulty
with E[mma] yesterday. She rode up to Woodworths with him and called while
he came to the Temple. When he returned she was demanding the gold watch
of F[lora]. He reproved her for her evil treatment. On their return home
she abused him much and also when he got home. He had to use harsh measures
to put a stop to her abuse but finally succeeded.”
The secrecy surrounding
Joseph and Flora’s marriage caught nineteen-year-old Orange Wight by surprise.
He wrote, “[Having just returned from a mission] I concluded to lo[o]k
about and try to pick up one or more of the young Ladies before they were
all Gone, so I commenced keeping company with Flora Woodworth... [We were
walking near Joseph’s home when he rode up in a carriage and invited us
to take a ride]...he drove to the Woodworth house and we got out and went
in - After we got in the house sister Woodworth took me in an other room
and told me that Flora was one of Joseph’s wives...Sister Woodworth gave
me all the information nessary, so I knew Joseph Believed and practiced
Poligamy...Now as a matter of corse I at once...left [Flora] and looked
for a companion in other places and where I could be more sure."
When Joseph Smith was
killed in 1844, Flora became a widow at age seventeen. Later that
year she married Carlos Grove, a non-Mormon. In 1846, they left Nauvoo,
headed for Utah, but stopped for a time at Winter Quarters. There
they met up with members of the Whitney Family. Helen Mar, another
one of Joseph Smith’s wives wrote, “Flora...had been very sick, but
is now slowly gaining her health. [She felt] condemned [for marrying a
non-Mormon and] made this confession to me while I was nursing her, and
said she desired to cling to Joseph hereafter.”
Never making it to
Utah, Flora passed away in Kanesville, Iowa around 1850. Helen Mar
wrote, “I never saw her again as she died at that place, leaving two
or three children.” Flora would have been in her mid-twenties
at the time.
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