Arizona Republic women's Forum clipping on polygamist family, 8/18/75

women's THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Forum (Section A) Page 14 O Monday, August 18, 1975

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The Josephs believe polygamy is a life-style dictated by Scriptures; ideal for their large family

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By CAROL SOWERS

Just two days after she met him, Judy Witherspoon married Alex Joseph.

"I would be hard pressed to tell you how it happened," she said, carefully reaching for words. "It was just a recognition of the things I'd been looking for in a man. I found them in him."

At least 12 other women — maybe m o r e — agree with Judy. For them, Alex Joseph, 39, the ponytailed polygamist of Glen Canyon City, Utah, offers a life-style they had been searching for but unable to find until, as they chorused over and over again — "until we met Alec" (their pet name for Joseph).

Joan, who married Joseph two and one-half years ago explained their attraction to him simply, as if she had said it many times before:

"He has dignity, goodness, respectability. He is doing what he wants to do — building and expanding God's world. Alec has so much more integrity that other people can't comprehend it."

She said even the parents of some of his young wives are becoming reconciled to their way of life because, as Judy put it, "they know Alec is no mad man." "The publicity has helped," she added.

Three of Joseph's wives, Judy, Joan and Carmen, were with their husband in Peoria Friday following Joseph's preliminary hearing in which Judge John Snure determined he would have to face trial on charges of possessing a stolen helicopter.

In Utah, Joseph is also battling the Bureau of Land Management which claims he is illegally homesteading federal l a n d near G l e n Canyon City, site of his ranch and two of his five homes.

Following Friday's hearing, Joseph and his wives gathered in the city park to talk about polygamy—a lifestyle they beli e ve is dictated in the Scriptures and is glowing with a sense of freedom not found in monogamous marriages.

"It is the nature of a man to love several women," Joan said. "If women were free of their rotten training they wouldn't be jealous of those other women."

The three young women agreed that because there are so many wives to handle responsibility each of them is free to pursue her own interests such as reading, law or art.

Joan, who met Joseph while she was attending a college in Missoula, Mont., and living with Carmen and Judy, said she is Joseph's sixth wife.

She added with a smile, "We never cou[guess: nt], but since people need a number we tell them 13."

Joan said she simply "ran away" to marry Joseph.

Before meeting Joseph she said, "I didn't want to submit to anyone less intelligent than I was. But I could see myself as his chattel property with no problem at all."

"That's the disaster with so many monogamous marriages," Judy interjected, "women often marry men less intelligent than they are and can't stand submitting themselves to them."

She added she had quit dating in college because she was uninterested in the men she met there.

Shortly after Joan married Joseph, Carmen and Judy met him and became two more family members. The women said their marriages were performed in religious ceremonies they claim are modelled after those used in the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These are not legal civil ceremonies. Joseph is an ex-communicated Mormon who says he has founded his own religion.

Deep at the root of that religious polygamy which he claims was practiced by Biblical prophets including Abraham, Solomon and Jesus.

Joseph said he began practicing polygamy five years ago when he decided that in order to follow the prophets' teachings he would have to mold his life after theirs — wives and all.

He has no trouble blending the wills of all his women.

"I have no obligation to get along with anybody," he said. "If I made it an obligation to get along with 13 girls, I'd never get anything else done."

"We're not hard to get along with," Carmen noted with a smile.

The three wives with Joseph Friday insisted their lives are enriched by their close relationship with their sister-wives, who are much more than friends.

"We love our sister-wives and we love our husband's children," Joan said, quickly doing away with any notion of jealousy.

Beyond building a seven-room "castle," as Joan described it, the Joseph wives' ultimate goal is to become mothers, Carmen said.

Unworried about overpopulation or food shortages, the young wives said they rejoice over the fact that Joseph can father 13 children a year, heeding the commandment, "Go forth and multiply."

Joan her face masked with disgust, said, "We think the ZPG (Zero Population Growth) movement is a subtle plot to make intelligent people extinct."

She said there are six children in the Joseph family now.

None of the three women with Joseph have had children by their husband but they said they are enthusiastic when another sister-wife becomes pregnant. Judy said she and Joan recently attended the birth of a Joseph child because their husband was unable to be there.

Eventually, the wives said they hope to deliver their own children at home.

Judy and Joan said responsibility for the children is shared among the sister-wives who also operate their own school with the approval of the county school superintendent.

The wives also share the work in the family restaurant and health food business. They also plant gardens to help feed the fluctuating number of family and friends Joseph invites into their home.

The Joseph family fame has made them a tourist attraction in Glen Canyon City where the population is divided over their newfound notoriety. The family plans to make three movies in the future.

"When people meet us they like us," Carmen said, "but some people won't meet us. But when anything goes wrong, townspeople come running for Alec."

The wives especially seek his counsel, they said, praising him for "providing us plenty of opportunity to improve our shortcomings."

Asked if Joseph had any faults, the three giggled, cast knowing glances at each other and Joan finally said, "We don't focus on those things."

For them, a pleasant evening at home is listening to their husband "talk and teach," Joan said.

"We're a witty bunch, but Alec is wittier," Carmen added.

Joseph, who rejoined the group after discussing legal matters with his attorney Mike Kimerer, defended his lifestyle, insisting it is any man's constitutional right to have more than one wife and a woman's privilege to marry whomever she pleases.

Lightly touching Judy on the shoulder he said, "If a young, intelligent woman like this can't marry anyone she likes, then someday the government might start telling you who you should marry."

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DB Cooper-23043

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