Polygamy leadership tree: Religious ideal grows, branches out

R ooted in the early ministry of LDS Church

founder Joseph Smith (shown right), polygamy
was later denounced by the church but embraced by
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The
ranks of the Apostolic United Brethren number
about 7,500. The Kingston family has
fundamentalists, who now number in the thousands. approximately 1,200 members, and about 2,000
About 10,000 claim membership in the Fundamentalist belong to the Centennial Park, Ariz., group.

Benjamin T. Johnson The Church of the

CHART KEY Left for Mexico, was Alma First Born
Joseph Smith Dayer LeBaron's great uncle
1929-1934 Alma Dayer LeBaron
LDS Church founder
Dates indicate 1886-1951 (died in ’51).
length of leadership He established
The Early LDS Church
or practice Galeana settlement near
Galeana, Mexico, that
Although a part of early became Colonia
LDS doctrine and LeBaron
Indicates practiced by leaders Chihuahua
leadership split such as Brigham Young, John Taylor MEXICO Joel LeBaron
and new group's polygamy fell from Proclaimed he had a vision in 1886 1955-1972
formation favor in the mainline
church — though it was Verlan LeBaron
continued by 1972-1981
Indicates fundamentalists such Church of the Lamb
alignment with of God
as John W. Woolley and Now organized as a
the FLDS church
his son, Ervil LeBaron* brotherhood with no
Lorin C. Woolley John W. Woolley 1971-1981
single leader
He said Taylor gave him the authority to
perform pural marriage
Independent
Fundamentalists
Indicates new There are thousands
of descendants of the John Singer
polygamous group Council of Friends.
formed Died in 1979 shootout
Shown at right are
just a few Alex Joseph
Lorin C. Woolley independent
individuals and Established The Confederate
John Woolley's son led the group from
1929-34. He created a “Council of groups who espoused Nations of Israel
Friends” by ordaining John Y. Barlow, J. polygamy.
The Kingston Family Leslie Broadbent, Louis Kelch, Joseph Ogden Kraut
W. Musser, LeGrand Woolley and Charles Fundamentalist author
Charles Elden Kingston Zitting as high priests. who died in 2002
1935-1948
Established Davis County Cooperative Short Creek Community
Society in Bountiful, Utah (now the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Fred Collier
of Latter Day Saints) Fundamentalist author
who in 1981 lamented lack
J. Leslie Broadbent of access to LDS Church
archives
1934-1935
Addam Swapp
Alive, serving prison term
John Ortell Kingston Apostolic United
Brethren
1948-1987
Rulon C. Allred
John Y. Barlow 1954-1977
1935-1949 Established a church
in Bluffdale, Cedar
City, Rocky Ridge Ron & Dan Lafferty
and in Montana
Dan serving a life sentence
Paul Kingston for murder of sister-in-law
1987-present and her daughter; Ron is on
death row in Utah

Joseph White Musser

Centennial Park, 1949-1954**
Arizona
Owen Allred
Charles Zitting
Marion Hammon^ 1977-present
1954** Presiding elder of
1984-1988
Apostolic United Jim Harmston
Brethren Manti, Utah
Alma Timpson Founder, The True & Living
1988-1998 Church of Jesus Christ of
Saints of the Last Days
John Timpson
1998-present Royston Potter
Leroy S. Johnson
Murray police officer fired
1954-1986 in 1982 for having plural
wives
The Naylor Group, Bountiful,
Salt Lake Valley British Columbia

Jim Oler Winston Blackmore

An FLDS bishop Leads another group
Rulon Jeffs
* Ervil LeBaron was excommunicated by his brother Joel LeBaron. Ervil later 1986-2002 Tom Green
ordered church members to kill Joel and Rulon C. Allred. Ervil died in prison in 1981. Serving up to a five-year
** Joseph Musser was presiding elder after John Y. Barlow's death. The council sentence for felony
disagreed with his decision to appoint Rulon C. Allred in 1951; by 1952, Musser had bigamy and child non-
separated from Short Creek. Charles Zitting, with Leroy S. Johnson, oversaw the support convictions
Short Creek group during this period; Zitting died in 1954, four months after
succeeding Musser. Harold & Ray Blackmore
^ Marion Hammon and Alma Timpson were dismissed from the FLDS in Started a colony in
Hildale/Colorado City. They formed their own group at Centennial Park, near Warren Jeffs Creston, British Columbia,
Colorado City on the Arizona side of the state line. Canada
2002-present
Sources: “The Forgotten Kingdom” by David L. Bigler; “The Polygamists: A History of
Colorado City” by Benjamin Bistline; “Mormon Polgyamy: A History” by Richard S. Van Wagoner;“History of Priesthood Succession” by Rulon Jeffs; “Mormon Focus” magazine, 2003

Text by Brooke Adams, graphic by Todd Adams / The Salt Lake Tribune