One, two, three, go.

Feminist, Mormon.

Housewives.

Feminist.

Mormon.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Feminist Mormon Housewives podcast.

I'm your host, Lindsay, coming back for another episode of A Year of Polygamy, where we explore the issues surrounding Mormon polygamy.

If this is your first time joining us, just go back to episode one with Fannie Alger, and this series is meant to go in chronological order.

We are still in the Navu period, which means we are still chronicling the wives of Joseph Smith.

And from there, we will go on to the trail and follow the Saints West and see how this practice affected them.

Tonight we're talking about Elvira Cowell's Homes.

Elvira was born on November 23rd, 1813 in New York to parents, Austin, Cowles, and Phoebe

Wilbur.

Elvira is no stranger to death. At an early age, four of her

siblings would pass away and her mother died when Elvira was 12. Her father remarried a 19-year-old

wife, Irene Hicks Elliott, who would go on to have six children with Austin. She was said to be a good

and kind stepmother. Her father, Austin Cowles,

was a schoolteacher and a Methodist Episcopal minister, but converted to Mormonism with most of his

family in 1830. Elvira was baptized on October 19, 1835 at 22 years old. By 1839, the Cowles family,

including Elvira, were living in Navu, where Austin was soon

selected to be a counselor in the state presidency and an elected member of the Navu City Council.

So now, Elvira would be 27 years old, and this is in 1840. Elvira began to work in the home of

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