Polygamists Lorenzo Hill Hatch, Joseph Henry James, William D. Kartchner, James Lake, Philemon C. Merrill, Samuel Merrill, Zemira Palmer and John Henry Standifird handled living arrangements with their plural wives in a variety of ways. Historians Richard S. Van Wagoner and Jessie L. Embry agree this should be expected.
     "As no set patterns of living arrangements evolved in Mormon polygamy, personality conflicts often influenced such matters," writes Van Wagoner in Mormon Polygamy: A History (90). "In some households -- Brigham Young's being the most obvious example -- all wives lived under the same roof. But this could be a source of jealousy and frustration. Consequently, husbands usually tried to provide separate dwellings for each woman. If wives lived in the same community husbands usually alternated days or nights with each family. Some men were fair to the minute; others favored their more agreeable or younger wives and spent more time with them. When wives lived far apart husbands sometimes visited branches of their family only a few times each year."
     In Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle, Embry concurs with Van Wagoner's summary: "As in all aspects of Mormon polygamy, no set patterns developed as to where wives lived and how often husband's visited. As Kimball Young observed, 'After all, plural family was really but an appendage to the basic patriarchal monogamous family. In matters such as the location of the families -- whether under the same roof all together or in separate households in the same community or in different localities -- there were no definite rules." Although there were no set patterns, some common threads occurred in living arrangements and visiting patterns that were similar to other polygamous societies. Often the wives shared a home just after the second marriage, but as soon as it was financially possible, the husband provided a separate one for each wife. Most often the wives lived in the same community, but schooling arrangements, economic considerations, and personal preference sometimes determined where the wives lived. As children were born, grew, and then left home, living arrangements changed. Since most plural wives lived separately, husbands developed visting schedules so they could spend time with each family. Living with one wife for a week or a night at a time was common procedure. There were unique situations when the wives did not live in the same community and the husband visited only on the weekend, at harvest time, or at General Conference time twice yearly. In rare cases, the husband chose to live with only one wife either because of his interpretation of the Manifesto or differences in personalities between himself and a wife. Husbands also developed schedules for attending church and social occasions with their wives. Whatever the arrangements, in some families there was a sense of expectation when the husband and father would live with them, and sometimes a sense of relief when he was gone."
     Following is a case-by-case survey of the living arrangements adopted by James and Hatch families:

Lorenzo Hill Hatch
     In 1846 Lorenzo Hill Hatch married Hannah Fuller, a woman he had met while in New York on his first mission. Hannah died in Nebraska on Aug. 10, 1847. After delaying in Missouri, Lorenzo arrived in Utah on Sept. 15, 1850.
     As a widower, he married Sylvia Eastman in Salt Lake in 1851. Three years later he married Catherine Karren in Lehi, Utah. Finally, he married Alice Hanson on Jan. 2, 1860. Among the four wives, Lorenzo had 24 children. He lived with Sylvia, Catherine and Alice in one house in Lehi until the Church called him in 1863 to serve as Bishop in Franklin, Idaho.
     When this call came, Lorenzo separated his families for the first time. Alice and her two sons went with him to Franklin, while Sylvia and Catherine remained in Lehi. Lorenzo served in Franklin for 13 years and eventually moved his other families to Franklin to be with him. The Hatch home in Franklin, now owned by the state of Idaho, is listed as a historic site by the Idaho State Historical Society. The Web site offers this description and history of the home:
     "In 1872, Lorenzo Hill Hatch built his elegant stone house on one of Franklin's largest lots on Main Street, across from the city square. Hatch was the town's temporal and spiritual leader from 1863 to 1875. He was the second Mormon bishop and the first mayor of Franklin. He was also the first Mormon legislator in Idaho.
     "The stone Greek Revival style of the house was popular in Utah in the 1870s and the structure was occupied by descendants of Bishop Hatch until the 1940s. It was acquired by the Historical Society in 1979.
     "When ownership of the house was assumed by the State of Idaho, the ground floor had been completely gutted by the previous owner. Extensive modifications had been made to the ground floor, which was raised approximately seven inches, and all interior walls were removed. The house is still in that condition.
     "The second story survives with little modification and could be restored to an 1870-80s appearance in the future.
     "A 1910 addition, made of a hard yellow brick, housed a new kitchen and pantry, later altered to a bathroom. This section of the house has been altered by the previous owner."
     In 1876, the Church asked Lorenzo to visit the Saints in Arizona with Daniel H. Wells and others, and when he returned to Utah the Church asked him to go back as a missionary to the Indians and to settle part of his family in New Mexico or Arizona.
     This he did by taking Catherine and her unmarried children as far as Obed, Arizona, where he left them and proceeded to the Indian villages in New Mexico and to San Lorenzo, Mexico. Afterward, he returned to Obed and brought Catherine back to San Lorenzo with him. In 1878, he returned to Utah for Alice and her family and located them in Woodruff, Arizona. He eventually brought Catherine and her family to Woodruff also. Sylvia remained in Franklin, where she cared for her children. She eventually moved to a house in Logan, Utah, and was rejoined by Lorenzo and Catherine after Alice died in 1891 in Woodruff at age 55.
     It is unclear why Sylvia chose to stay apart from Lorenzo's other two families during the latter years of Alice's life. This could have been due to Sylvia's desire to stay close to her married children in northern Utah, to a personality conflict with Alice or Lorenzo, or to some other reason.

Joseph Henry James
      Joseph Henry James seems to have lived happily with his three wives, which included Orpha Amelia Rogers and sisters Elizabeth and Mary Eliza Bloomfield. All three families moved together to the Mexican colonies in 1885, most likely to escape prosecution and harassment in the United States under anti-polgamy laws. During the first winter in Mexico they all lived together in one dugout and struggled to obtain sufficient food.
     The families finally settled in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Hop Valley, near Pacheco. By this time Joe had 25 children, and he decided it was time each wife had a home of her own. So, on the three banks of a forked river, he built a home for each wife, where, as he joked, no matter where high water caught him he always had a place to go. With his wives and children, he built a prosperous family community at the site that included orchards, a dairy and a sawmill. This lasted until 1908, when Joe died in a logging accident. His widows separated and returned to the United States.

William D. Kartchner
Information lacking. If you have information, please e-mail it to the webmaster.

James Lake
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Philemon C. Merrill
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Samuel Merrill
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Zemira Palmer
Information lacking, although the records indicate Zemira Palmer and both his wives were buried at the same cemetery in Orderville, Utah. If you have further information, please e-mail it to the webmaster.

John Henry Standifird
      John Henry Standifird married Mary Ann Argyle on Jan. 16, 1864, a month before her 18th birthday. The couple lived in Bountiful, Utah, where John worked as a carpenter on the Bountiful Tabernacle. About four years later, John entered plural marriage with Mary's 16-year-old sister, Francis (called Fanney). The sisters lived together in Bountiful until about 1872, when John moved Fanney to nearby Ogden Valley.
     The next year, after visiting the Saints in northern Arizona at the request of Brigham Young, John returned to Utah and moved his two families even farther apart. He moved with Fanney and her five children in Kanab, Utah, near the Utah-Arizona border, and left Mary in Bountiful. During this period John and Mary exchanged frequent letters, and soon John brought Mary to Kanab -- although it is unclear whether she lived in the same house as Fanney or in a different house in Kanab.
     In 1879 the Church asked John to move to Arizona. Because Mary and Fanney never got along well, and because persecution against polygamists was increasing in the United States, John decided to separate his two families in Arizona. He moved with Fanney and her children to Alpine, Ariz., in 1879, and established Mary and her children in nearby Taylor in 1880. Mary worked in Taylor as a midwife while John and Fanney farmed in Alpine. When John came to see Mary, he would usually spend the night at her house. She had two more sons and two more daughters in Taylor from 1881 to 1891 until her older children told John to stop spending the night with her. They thought it was unfair that John would leave their mother to raise the children alone. After that John would spend the night at his son's home when he visited Taylor.