The last person to serve a prison term in Utah for practicing polygamy died April 2 at the age of 92.
Alma Adelbert Timpson was among a group of 15 fundamentalists arrested in a government roundup of polygamists in 1944. Members of the group split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the issue of plural marriage, a practice that was officially discontinued following the 1890 manifesto by church President Wilford Woodruff.Following trial and court appeals, Timpson and others in the group were sentenced to the old Utah State Prison in Sugar House the following May after being convicted of "illegal cohabitation."
Timpson was born into a polygamous family at a time when plural marriages that predated the manifesto continued in the fellowship of the church. He was a missionary for the church from 1925-27 in England.
Timpson resolved to practice polygamy as his father did, which put him at odds with the post-manifesto church. "He had a great love for the church. Turning his back on the church wasn't an easy thing for him to do," his son John Timpson said.
The men imprisoned in 1945 were given indeterminate sentences of up to five years and were considered model prisoners. "The warden told them he deserved to be in jail more than they did - they were really good men," John Timpson said.
After six months, the state "came up with a document they hoped would satisfy the men and satisfy the governor" to end the prison terms and the public attention they drew that came to be known as the "prison manifesto."
Most in the group, including Timpson, signed it - stipulating they would abandon polygamy - and were released. Timpson moved to Colorado City in 1960 and became the leader of a fundamentalist church there called The Work, a postion he held until he died.
Timpson's posterity includes 35 sons, 31 daughters, 13 foster children, approximately 347 grandchildren and 151 great-grandchildren.